Sea Mist « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Fakarava South

by KC2RIY, on June 4th, 2010 (A Cappella, Bamboozle, Imagine, Sea Mist, Tuamotus)

Hmmm. While I write the boring bit about the journey over here I’m going to have to drum up the right words to describe this place. You’re not going to like it. Really. It’s just too nice here. I’ve used words like paradise before but now I realize I was wrong.

The wind was largely on our side as we made the passage from Kauehi to the southern entrance to Fakarava. We were on good time to make the low tide predictions. Imagine and Sea Mist pulled ahead of us in their performance boats while we and A Cappella fell a little way back of the little pack of four boats that had coincidentally decided to make this particularly trip at this time. On an open radio channel Sea Mist made inquires into the tidal flows through the cut, in particular to find when the slack tide was in relation to low water. Over in Kauehi slack followed low water by around an hour or so. We expected the same here. It turned out slack preceded low water by an hour. Oops. This meant we weren’t going to make slack water. We’d heard the pass here was trickier than that at Kauehi and our whole trip plan was based around making slack. (If you haven’t figured it out by now, slack water is the half hour or so between when the water flows in and out of a cut and vice versa – related to the tides in some complex fashion)

So we decided to boost our speed a little by turning some of our stored electrons into a little extra speed. After a while the wind dropped so we increased thrust and turned on the genset a little earlier than we planned so that we would be pretty well charged up when we entered the cut.

Along the way we had learned that a pot luck was being planned at a shore side guest house. We really wanted to get some time in the water on arrival so Helen cooked up a pot of chili while on the move so that all we had to do was reheat it shortly before we needed to go ashore.

As we approached the cut we dropped sails and pointed in. At that moment we were clipped by a nearby squall and the light quality dropped significantly so I turned out and waited five minutes. I turned in before the visibility completely improved but I was certain we’d have full light by the time we were in the cut.

As we went through we found we had three knots of current assisting us through the cut. Our charts were good and the information we received from those passing through ahead of us made us confident we have no issues. As we popped through the pass our excitement mounted as the water was crystal clear and we could already see the sea life and coral beneath us. To our right was the ‘town’ which was just a collection of shore side picture postcard thatched huts, some out over the water conforming to the best imaginations of what French Polynesia would be. Without looking like being some extortionately expensive resort for the mega-wealthy.

We made our way around to the anchorage, found a spot and dropped our anchor making fast first time.

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While the boat settled we readied the dinghy and threw our snorkel gear in. The boat wasn’t shifting so we were off to enjoy the snorkeling while we still had reasonably light. We dinghied back towards the pass out into the ocean, this time going inside of the reef which we had earlier gone around. The current remained strong so we donned our gear before reaching our drop off point. Once ready we motored the final distance, cut the engine, pulled it up and jumped into another universe. Swimming was pointless. We were flying along at three knots in around 20 feet of water over acres of living coral, countless fish, sharks and rays. John and I took turns holding onto the dinghy painter while the other dove down close to the coral flying over it feeling like superman. It was out of this world. It’s hard to describe the feeling being unencumbered by scuba gear, inches away from endless coral with such amazing life all around. When we had drifted close to the anchorage we all agreed to do it again. This time we went further into the main pass. It was deeper here and had less coral but soon we were back into the thick of it. Amazing. After two drifts we have had nowhere near enough of this. We want more.

Back on the boat we emailed two boats in the same anchorage as Jackster (they are mad divers) over in Kauehi to let them know that it was stunning here. We knew they would easily trade their time there for here.

Back at the boat we had a little time to rest before the 5pm pot luck. This was being (incredibly) graciously hosted by a Polynesian local who had built the most divine little home/guest house by the water. There we met old friends and new. All of our little party of four boats crossing that day were there. We met Jamie and Lucy from Bamboozle who we’d briefly met (and instantly liked) in Grenada and vowed then to meet somewhere in the Pacific (and what a place we met up !!!!!)

It is said that hell is other people and sometimes, sadly, that can be true. Last night I can only say the opposite is true, heaven is other people.

We’re going to stay here for a while. Time to let the anchor set.

Kauehi Village

by KC2RIY, on June 3rd, 2010 (A Cappella, Bristol Rose, Fine Gold, Imagine, Jackster, Lilith, Sea Mist, Tuamotus)

We waited for the morning net to finish before leaving the southern side of the atoll bound for the village on the north east side. We’d agreed to go along with Fine Gold so we could double up on spotting coral heads. Collectively, the three of us didn’t manage a good job as we struck one that was one inch less deep than our port keel. Shortly after that moment a squall came down on us cutting surface visibility to zero so we pointed into wind and motored along at less than one knot to wait it out.

Once the weather cleared we were back under way this time creeping along at three knots gradually increasing the speed as the visibility improved. Once we reached the track of our way into the southern area we turned and followed it back knowing we had a clear passage but still keeping a close eye on things until we hit the marked channel. On arrival at the anchorage outside the village we took three attempts to anchor as we were not happy with our positioning on the first two tries but once settled in we were fine.

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We took lunch and rested for a bit. John went off snorkeling with the Bristol Roses who were in the anchorage while Helen & I went ashore. We met a few of the locals around the village who were all smiles and Bonjours which made us feel good being there. They had a pretty church with some unique (to us) decorations made of shells. We also spent some time with a chap who was making jewelry out of oyster shells which looked quite pretty although none were finished and ready for sale.

The town was small and we were done fairly quickly. We pleased a few children by the shore by handing them sweets/candy/bon bons we had in our pockets. Soon we were back aboard Dignity preparing for the evening. We’d promised to entertain Lileth sometime and as they had the same Vancouver 27 as Lileth, we invited Fine Gold over to dinner too. We heard from Jackster on the VHF and learned they’d taken a pounding on their passage from the Marquesas experiencing Force 10 winds at times and Force 8 for extended periods. While reporting themselves as chipper, they’d taken some damage and we felt they could do with some care and attention so we invited them too.

So we ended up with dinner for nine. We can just squeeze this number round our table which is nice. We had a great evening all together and we were glad to be able to introduce Fine Gold and Lileth as you don’t see too many 27 footers out here and they had much to share.

Looking at the tide predictions for the next few days we realized that Thursday/Friday this week were the last two days for a while where we had an afternoon slack tide into Fakarava with enough time to find a spot to anchor while it would be light. Beyond Friday we’d have to do an overnight passage to Fakarava and make a morning slack tide which is less attractive. Fakarava has a lot going for it so we decided to head out this morning. Slack tide was just before 9am but we decided to make the cut around 7:30am against the tide to buy us more time to reach the cut at the south end of Fakarava. We shared our thoughts with others and we ended up leading four other boats out of the anchorage and the pass this morning relaying information about our experience. Transiting the cut away from slack tide was again pretty easy. We encountered a 1.5 knot counter current while staying close to the shore. We experienced a minimum depth of 13ft which we reported to the vessels behind us and those approaching from the outside. The vessels that were uncomfortable with the depth went through a little more to the center saw 3 knot counter currents but all were well.

We are now en route to the southern end of Fakarava. The winds are light but progress is good. Four of the vessels (us, Sea Mist, Imagine and A Cappella) are on their way to the southern end while Bristol Rose are on their way to the north cut where they hope to meet up with Whiskers before they head north.

Baie d’Hakahetou, Ua-Pou, day 2

by KC2RIY, on May 17th, 2010 (Catafjord, Marquesas, Sea Mist, Whiskers)

We had agreed to meet Gerald and Dianne ashore at 9 O’Clock. We had arrived a little early and were hanging around a map of the area. There were two waterfalls shown on the map. I asked a local sitting in his car, using my pigeon French, which of the falls was best. I was having trouble understanding his responses until he switched to English which was a whole lot easier to understand. He explained that the map was made by the tourism office in Tahiti and was not accurate and there really was only one waterfall to go and see.

I ended up asking him if he was Etienne who I knew to be someone who offered dinners at his home and knew a lot about the local area. Turned out he was. I asked about eating with them that evening and he was free. When Dianne and Gerald arrived we asked if they were interested too and they were so we had a booking for five. We’d seen Sea Mist arrive in the anchorage and figured if we met them around town we’d invite them too. Etienne said this would be ok too.

So we walked off towards the one waterfall. On the way we passed the beginning of a reconstruction/repair of a traditional village just behind the main village. It was interesting albeit far from finished/complete. The location was stunning so we took a few pictures before moving on. The hike to the waterfall was not too arduous. Our efforts were rewarded with a perfect waterfall and pool set amongst the rocks and jungle. We swam in the pool for a short while – not too long as it was quite cool. We dried off on the rocks before returning the way we came.

On the way we bumped into Dominique and Milou from Catafjord. We invited them along to dinner in the evening and they were glad to join. We gave them directions to the falls and parted company. All the way back we were scanning for fruit trees away from private property. We found some lemons but not a lot else.

Back in the town there was a great big tree in what looked like common land. We were looking up at the huge but unreachable mangoes and examining the squished ones that had fallen when a local women said we could use their stick with a net on the end to help ourselves to mangoes. We managed to collect quite a few mangoes which were delicious. To get at some of the bigger ones I climbed the tree in my bare feet and had the mango net passed up.

We didn’t get to see Sea Mist as it turned out they had decided to move on. I later learned they wanted somewhere less rolly for the night and following day as it was Cheryll’s birthday the following day. Understandable. So far, our contact with Sea Mist has always been by radio – first time in The Saintes off Guadaloupe. Soon we must meet.

Back on the boat I learned our water maker part had in fact arrived in Tahiti and was already with the local freight company to arrive in Nuku Hiva today (Monday) at 11:30am. Quick work. We are not going to get there until tomorrow as we have other plans for today. Helen and I have been discussing getting a Marquesan tattoo for some time. Ordinarily I am dead against tattoos but a Marquesan tattoo performed by a native Marquesan in the Marquesas would be somewhat special. A lot of sailors do it so it’s not uncommon. It’s kind of a mark of ones crossing the Pacific. We have that lined up here on this island today. Helen is still in two minds about it but we’ll see. We don’t want to leave it to Nuku Hiva as it is the largest island, has a little more tourism and hence will be more expensive.

We were back ashore by 5pm and met up with the others. Etienne soon showed up. He only had room for 4 in his vehicle and couldn’t use the back of his truck as if spotted by the gendarmes could be subject to a fine. I opted to walk with the Catafjords for a while while the rest were dropped off. Etienne returned and picked us up. We ate out in his garden which was in an idyllic location looking out over the bay. They had around 32 cats which seemed to get on ok with the chickens also living there. The meal itself was not as good as the one we had in Fatu Hiva but it’s more about the setting and the company. Etienne was a great host. We learned he was once major of the town. He also gave us a one man rendition of the Marquesan pig dance complete with sound effects. It’s a dance about a male pig coming home and making love to his sow. You can fill the rest in with your imagination.

As it was dark we were all able to ride in his pickup down to the dock where we headed back to our boats for an early nights sleep.

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Baie d’Hakahetou, Ua-Pou, day 2