Jackster « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Last day in Fatu Hiva

by KC2RIY, on May 7th, 2010 (Bristol Rose, Inspiration Lady, Jackster, Kamaya, Lilith, Marquesas)

As planned, John and I went exploring / snorkeling in the morning. We took Tim from Kamaya with us and dinghied around the corner searching for interesting places. Practically everywhere, the steep cliffs continued straight down into the water where even our 100ft dinghy chain would not touch bottom. We did find a rocky ledge around 8-10 feet down where we could anchor and go off swimming with the fish. It was quite a cool spot, the highlight being finding a couple of lion fish. We then moved further into the bay we were now in for a second swim hoping to find lobster for lunch. No luck there but we did see a white tipped reef shark.

When we returned to the boat we found that Gary and Jackie aboard Inspiration Lady had just arrived. We gave our welcome and congrats and invited them over for nibbles and drinks after dinner. We learned from them that Jackster and Bristol Rose were also due in that day. They duly arrived late in the day and were also invited aboard for a get together.

In the afternoon we all snorkeled near the boat. We found our old octopus and giant moray eel. When I free dove down to 45ft I found two octopus marching across the sand which was cool although I stayed a little too long and the trip to the surface seemed to take forever.

At 6pm all arrived although we picked up Trish, Rob, Elliot and Owen from Bristol Rose as they’d only just arrived and prepping their dinghy was not top on their list – understandably.

It was great meeting up with old friends. We’d not seen the Jacksters and Inspiration Ladies since Bonaire, six months ago, and the Bristol Roses further back still. I was surprised they all lasted three hours but by nine everyone was pooped. After all, they’d all just crossed an ocean.

We hadn’t drunk too much so we stuck to our original plan and overnight sailed to Hiva Oa. We did not know the anticipated delivery date of our part so we wanted to get our paperwork done in Hiva Oa before the weekend. We also wanted to see more of the festival here so this all worked out. As I type we’ve been here at the anchorage for about an hour. I’ve learned we all need to go in to check in so I’ll be waking Helen and John up fairly soon.

I’ve already met Richard from Lileth who is here for a while waiting for parts. There is internet here in the harbour but it is $5 per hour which is a bit steep. We’ll look for something in town a little less pricey. It’s a bit of a hike but the exercise is good.

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One that got away

by KC2RIY, on November 13th, 2009 (At Sea, Bonaire, Jackster)

Dave and Jacquie arrived aboard Dignity last night to say goodbye just as I was sending yesterday evenings blog. One reason to come aboard was to see how email over SSB works so they know what to look for as they try to make theirs work. They brought wine, beer and nibbles as a thank you for taking them out diving a couple of times. Normally we don’t like to drink the night before a long sail but how could we refuse?

As planned we left Bonaire at 6am this morning. We set off on a port tack with main and jib to assess wind speed and direction away from the island. We soon concluded it was coming from the ESE and around 12 knots, less than the 15-20 knots forecast. So out came the Code Zero and we had it up and the main/jib down just west of Klein Bonaire.

Since then we’ve made reasonably good progress albeit with the winds slightly lower than we’d hoped. We’re currently 12nm north of Curacao. It’s quite misty so we’re not getting a great deal out of the solar panels but the regen is covering everything and some.

We’ve decided on a 3 hour shift system :

8-11: Helen
11-2: Steve
2-5: Helen
5-8: Steve

and then repeated. We’ll see how this goes.

Shortly after our last change Helen decided to go down below to get some sleep. I called her back straight away as we had a fish on the port line. Unfortunately it escaped before we hauled it in. It was not the same as any fish we’d caught before. Strong hints of yellow and blue. Perhaps it was a mahi mahi or a yellow fin tuna. I was already imagining this evenings dinner before it got away. Next time.

The wind has moved a little more to the south pushing our course a little more northerly unless we want to jibe the Code Zero (which we don’t). This is along the lines of our plans anyway to get into the stronger winds between 12N and 13N. It remains to be seen what we’ll do overnight.

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At 11/13/2009 15:53 (utc) our position was 12°20.20’N 068°47.33’W

Night Dive

by steve, on November 12th, 2009 (Bonaire, Jackster)

Wednesday was not the most action packed. I did go to the dive school to pick up the second hand BCD I’ve been after. A few days ago I was originally shown an extra large BCD which looked pretty good for the price of $120 discussed. I was since informed that they had large ones as well which would be a better fit. I picked up the large BCD in the morning and handed over the dosh. In the afternoon I tested out the BCD. Very quickly I realized it was nothing like the first BCD I was shown being significantly inferior. Partly my fault as I should have checked it more thoroughly. Fortunately the dive school refunded my money when I returned it.

In the evening we had our last dive here in Bonaire. Accompanied again by the Jacksters we dived off the back of our boats after dark. Night diving is quite different in that the animal life can be quite different and the overall feeling of diving at night is quite surreal. We immediately saw a swimming spotted eel as we descended but that turned out to be the highlight of the dive. It seems most of the fish had packed it in and gone elsewhere. Nevertheless, it was worth it. When we switch our lights off the photo plankton were quite dense giving a magical effect to all our movements. My torch died almost straight away but fortunately we had one backup and no others failed.

Weather forecasts continue to look ok for our planned Friday morning dawn departure for Cartagena. Today we’ll be focused on boat prep, provisioning and tying up loose ends.

“Hilma Hooker” & “Mi Dushi”

by steve, on November 11th, 2009 (Bonaire, Jackster)

Jacquie and Dave joined us aboard Dignity before 9am for another day out diving. Our first spot was the “Hilma Hooker” a wreck a few miles to the south. There were already two dive boats there when we arrived so we snagged the third and only remaining mooring. The two dive boats departed before we descended but there was a group of shore divers also on the wreck so we weren’t quite alone. The ship was on its side on sand nestled perfectly between two reefs. The bottom was the usual 100ft and the top of the wreck around 50ft. We were able to swim around the wreck, under some of the superstructure and into the cargo holds. We finished the dive exploring the reef at shallower depths.

(The following pics of Helen & I were taken by Jacquie)

We all decided the quality of the reef down south was not as good as around Klein Bonaire so we agreed to head off to the north side of Klein Bonaire to the dive site Helen and I first went to. To get there we stuck out the head sail only and plodded along at 2½ knots deliberately killing time to allow the nitrogen to leave us.

Even though we’d dived “Mi Dushi” before, a different depth profile makes the dive quite different. I wanted to test the depth of the bottom as we’d limited ourselves to 70ft previously. 10ft from the bottom I decided enough was enough as we’d reached 125ft and I didn’t want to use up all our air. So we headed back to the 50-70ft range in search of the (totally) elusive sea-horses. We did sea a young turtle feeding on the reef and a number of eels among the countless other fish.

Back at the moorings we dropped of Dave to collect his dinghy and moored back on the spot that Inspiration Lady had left. We’ve given up on the local open internet connections. Our system seems too sensitive and is overwhelmed with all the coastal wireless networks. Further out we get good signals but up close its very temperamental. We’ve resorted to a pay by use service which is strong enough to counter the numerous other sites we see.

Our parts (wind gen and genset parts for Jackster) didn’t arrive yesterday although I know from the Fedex site they arrive in Puerto Rico on Monday. There is a flight in today so hopefully we’ll see them this afternoon. If we can, I want to devote a day before we leave to getting it going. We’re now looking at Friday for our departure, weather permitting of course.

This evening we’re planning a night dive. As our boats are adjacent we can all hit the water from our own boats and join up in the water. Not sure about the rest of the day.

Leaving Bonaire soon

by steve, on November 10th, 2009 (Alofa, Bonaire, Jackster)

It’s not long now before we’ll be leaving Bonaire. Our next major stop for any appreciable time will be in Cartagena, Colombia. For consideration has always been the possibility of stopping off in Curacao and/or Aruba along the way. Recently our thinking has been to bypass these islands. The trip to Cartagena from Bonaire is approximately 500nm. Getting there may take approximately 4 days. The winds north of 11-12 degrees north of the equator are usually reasonable for sailing but south of these latitudes we may slow down considerably. Stopping off at Curacao and/or Aruba will break the journey down but each one would add a couple of days to the trip. We’re both looking forward to spending time in a capital city so the trade off doesn’t seem worth it. (In fact, many folks make the entire trip as a series of day sails including around 5 stops along the Colombian coast) Our current thinking is to leave Bonaire this coming Thursday and sail direct to Cartagena.

With this in mind I have set up appropriate waypoints for our passage to and entry into the Bay of Cartagena. We don’t have detailed charts on our main chart plotter for this area but as I have them elsewhere now I was able to transfer to coordinates from one system to the other. We are ready in that respect. The only remaining detail is the weather. We’ll be keeping a close eye on forecasts over the next few days to ensure we don’t run into any avoidable nasties.

Yesterday morning we moved the boat hoping to get a better internet connection. For a few minutes we did and in that time I managed to download all my backlogged email. I learned that our wind gen is on the way and due to arrive Tuesday.

I took in our dive tanks to be refilled. While there I inquired about second hand BCDs. There is one available and we may pick it up for when John is with us and for spares. I also discussed some of our recent dives and our inability to find any seahorses. I was told that there was one to be found right where we were anchored, supposedly amongst a pile of old rope on the shallow sands between us and the shore.

Back on the boat I decided to see if I could find this seahorse. True to form it eluded me but I did spot a turtle and was followed everywhere by a pack of tame sergeant majors and angel fish.

Just before noon, Helen and I went ashore to meet Oud from Alofa. She had a couple of things of ours to return plus a bottle of wine to say thanks again for the earlier assistance we gave. We met at the Cappuccino Bar at the end of a pier in town. We stayed together for a couple of drinks before separating.

Helen and I walked around town taking pictures (for posterity) before stopping off for lunch at one of the restaurants. It was more of a Dutch fast food joint and I was dismayed when they delivered my fries with mayonnaise all over them. I should have remembered the Dutch do this.

We popped into the supermarket for some fresh veg and bread bumping into the Jacksters for the second time that day. Back on Dignity we both felt very tired so it was down to a couple of hours reading and resting. Allayne from Audrey Paige swung by in her dinghy letting us know they were off to Curacao soon and hoped to meet us there. Chances are our next meet up will be Cartagena. There plans are to take the day hop route but they should arrive before we leave. They also plan to be in the San Blas for Xmas so we’ll probably meet up then too.

Today we’re off diving again. Jacksters are again going to join us. We’ll move Dignity south where we hope to dive on the Hilmer Hooker, a nearby wreck.

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Last day in Fatu Hiva

One that got away

Night Dive

“Hilma Hooker” & “Mi Dushi”

Leaving Bonaire soon