Tahiti

Our passage from the Tuamotus to Tahiti was a quick one. We went through the Fakarava pass at 3.15pm on Monday, a bit after slack water. There was a little turbulence and we used the engine as well as sail just to ensure we stayed clear of the reef. The south easterly breeze was 20-30 knots and we were all (Good2Go, Slick & Gypsea Heart were also out there with us) reefing sail to both stay under control and slow down so we didn’t reach Tahiti in darkness. We tried to have a game of Scrabble during the day, but gave up as the sea was just too lumpy. We motored into Papeete Harbour at about 7.30am Thursday.

We are tied up at the Town Quay on a floating dock with quite a few other cruisers. It’s a very convenient place to be as we are less than 5 minutes walk along the waterfront from the centre of town. I, Louise, have been in ice-cream and shopping heaven since we arrived. The clothing stores are having sales in the lead up to Bastille Day (July 14) so it has also been a great opportunity to replace some of my fetid banana stained tops and shorts. It takes a cruise like this to discover just how badly banana sap stains clothes!

Just near the Town Quay is the area where the ‘roulottes’ set up each evening. These are vans from which you can buy your dinner and sit at the plastic tables they also provide. The food is reasonably cheap, good and plentiful and we have eaten there a few times, enjoying the Chinese food and crepes with ice-cream. It’s nice to dine out in the mild evening and take in the sights and sounds. Speaking of which, each night we hear drumming or singing or music. We think it is the local people practising for the Heiva which is a major cultural event for French Polynesia and goes from about now to Bastille Day.

It’s really nice to see how the traditional culture is also everyday eg. Men and women wearing flowers behind their ears, vibrantly coloured pareus (sarongs) and amazing shell and bone jewellery.

Moorea

We spent last weekend at the neighbouring island of Moorea. There is a mob here who put on events for the Puddlejumpers (us mob who are crossing the Pacific by sailboat). They organised a great weekend which started on the Friday night with cocktails, dancing and fire sticks. On the Saturday morning about 30 yachts sailed over to Moorea – they kept calling it a rally, not a race, but everyone looked like they were racing to me! We left Brio on the Quay and went over with and spent the weekend aboard ‘Watermusick’. The Musick family, Bill, Becky and kids Joseph, Raymond and Melody were very kind to let us ‘invade’ their space for the couple of days. But honestly it feels like such a big boat compared to ours, we never felt like we were in anybody’s way.

Team Water Musick

We did pretty well in the ‘not-race’, coming in at 7^th place. The anchorage at Moorea is beautifully clear and has a stunning mountain backdrop. On the Sunday, we had a day of cultural sports and other activities, including outrigger races, tie-dying a pareo, banana carrying races, tug-of-war and dancing lessons. I just can’t seem to manage bending my knees one way while swivelling my hips the other way. The Polynesian women look so much more graceful and gorgeous when they do it.

Love that colour and movement!

Ivan's team won the outrigger races - Happy chappies!

Louise makes a pareo

Today is a public holiday in Tahiti for Independence or something like that. They call it the day of internal autonomy - sounds more like a surgical procedure to me. There are outrigger races going on just next to where we are on the Quay. People seem to have come from all over French Polynesia to participate and it is wonderful to see all the ‘colour and movement’ (as Dame Edna would say). The bodies, the costumes and the spectacular backdrop of Moorea island are all gorgeous.

Boys lining up for their race

Gorgeous girls - tres jolie



Tres jolie aussie

Tuomotus

We moved on from the verdant mountains and towering granite monoliths of the Marquesas to the Tuomotus group further south east. The geographic contrast couldn’t be greater: The Tuomotus comprise low lying, palm tree fringed coral atolls. The lagoons within the atolls are turquoise and aqua and lap upon brilliant white beaches. It is classic Pacific postcard and travel magazine cover imagery.

classic coral atoll scene

Our passage to the Tuomotus was 4 days and 4 nights to reach our chosen destination of Kauehi atoll. The sail across was fine, starting off in little or no wind and by the end of it dealing with squally, 30-40 knot winds. I mozzed us when I said as we were just about to enter the atoll through the pass in the reef that at least we hadn't had much rain with the squalls. As we motorsailed into the anchorage the skies thickened, the rain came in and it was grey all around. Not great conditions for seeing and avoiding the notorious coral heads that are in the atolls. But we knew it was a pretty easy pass to enter and could see most of what we needed to see on the chartplotter.

Speccy snorkelling

We celebrated my birthday here  -the big 50. I didn’t have the gourmet experience I was hoping for as there really is nothing but coconuts on these atolls, but I managed a chocolate brownie 'birthday cake' and we had a couple over from another boat to share a couple of bottles of red wine. The next evening a bunch of us got together on a catamaran (aka a palace) and feasted on fish and salads. Another chocolate cake was produced and I was sung 'happy birthday'.

a new 'do' for my 50th

After 4 or so relaxing days at Kauehi we moved on to Fakarava atoll. To ensure we got out the Kauehi pass as near to slack water as possible, we sailed up to the pass in the late afternoon to anchor just inside the pass for the night. There were 2 other yachts there doing the same thing. We had been undecided as to whether it was better to stay at our anchorage off the Kauehi village for the night and leave at 4.30am in the morning to get to the pass, or to spend the night anchored inside the pass, therefore only requiring a 6am start. To our regret we chose the latter. It was a very rolly anchorage and we got hardly any sleep, mostly because of the worry about whether the anchor would hold or the anchor rope would chafe, potentially letting us loose on the reef less than 20 metres behind us. As it turned out we survived the night, raised the anchor, still in the bucking seas, early the next morning and motored easily through the pass. We sailed in a south-easterly breeze of 12-16 knots, with quite rolly seas, the 30nm to Fakarava. As we were aiming to reach the northern pass of Fakara by about 1pm to get the end of the incoming tide, we turned the engine a couple of times to maintain an average speed of 5 knots. We came in through the pass at the expected time and sailed down to the anchorage off the town of Rotoava, dropping the anchor amongst about 10 other yachts at around 2.30pm.

As with the previous village we stayed at and in the Marquesas, the people who live here are very welcoming and generous. The villages are very clean and neat and while it is hard for people to grow a garden on the coral base in the Tuomotus, many houses have some bouganvillea, frangipani and assorted other plants around them.

the local boys gave Ivan a fishing lesson

We hired bikes for a day and rode the length of the bitumen and beyond. In one direction from the town the sealed road stretches for 16km and then continues for about another 5km. There wasn’t much to see along the way other than some houses and pensions and of course the ubiquitous coconut palms! We enjoyed the exercise though. Because the nature of coral atolls is that they are circular and narrow, we could usually see either the lagoon side or the ocean side of the atoll at any one time. The width of the atoll is probably only about 500m on average. In the other direction from town, the sealed road only goes for about 3km – to the airport. Most people come to the Tuomotus for the diving and snorkeling. I came for the chance to ride a bike on an airport runway – not many places in the world you can do that!

another baguette about to be devoured

After a really interesting tour of a pearl farm, including the purchase of a belated birthday present for me, we set sail for Tahiti.

Miss allie pic

The Marquesas

We spent 11 days in the Marquesas, exploring 3 different locations. We could have spent weeks there of course, but we really are trying to get this little boat home to Australia. Anyway, if I was to be a ‘live-aboard’ it would definitely have to be on a 45ft catamaran, complete with shower, a decent sized bed and communication systems that don’t involve standing on one leg, at a 45 degree angle holding the satellite phone out the hatch while the rain comes in! Ok, maybe that last one was a bit of an exaggeration.

Back to the Marquesas…..we arrived in Taiohae Bay, Nuku Hiva in the early afternoon on Thursday 24 May. We had a big sleep that night and the next morning rowed the dinghy (our crappy second hand outboard has spat the dummy and Ivan likes the exercise) to the dock and walked up the pretty little street, passports and boat papers in hand to check in with the Gendarmes. The Gendarme who checked us in had only arrived on the island from Paris a few days prior. Apparently they have to do a 3 month stint in a French outpost every couple of years. We said he must have felt very lucky to have been posted to such a beautiful place. He looked at us like we were crazy. I guess the Marquesas are a bit quiet for a boy who’s grown up in Paris!

Approaching Nuku Hiva

My brain and belly have both switched gears since leaving the Galapagos. I have caught myself on more than one occasion saying “gracias” instead of “merci” or “hola” instead of “bonjour”. It’s hard to shake off months of Spanglish, replacing it overnight with rusty schoolgirl French. Still, it keeps the brain plastic they say! As for my belly –baguettes, brie, pate and chocolate mousse – I was in heaven! A big topic of conversation amongst cruisers is food – what is available and where and when to get it. It is extreme in the Marquesas (and the Tuomotus) where fresh food is hard to come by. We love visiting markets wherever we are, but having to get to the Taiohae Bay market at 4am just to get some veggies is ridiculous! By 5am it’s all sold out. We did it though and came away with avocadoes, lettuce, tomatoes, bok choy and some fruit while others who arrived later came away with “nada” oops “rien”.

We did a tour of Nuku Hiva with another couple. It was really interesting to learn the history of the island from Richard, our guide, as well as hear about current social issues they face. The island only schools children up until abut year 9. After that they have to go to Tahiti to continue their education. Richard’s daughter is only 6 years old now, but he is already worrying about sending her off on her own to Tahiti as a 14 year old.

A pretty top view

We celebrated Ivan’s birthday in Hakaui (or Daniel’s) Bay. It is a relatively calm anchorage, surrounded by towering mountains and the feeble bleats of wild goats. A handful of families live in the bay. They grow fruit and some vegetables that are shipped to Tahiti every couple of weeks via the cargo/passenger ship Aranui. We asked a local couple to prepare a Marquesan feast for us and 8 others for Ivan’s birthday. It was a great afternoon featuring shrimps in coconut sauce, taro, green bananas, manioc, a salad of watercress and cucumber and banana turnovers for dessert. There was also a coconut husking session - it's not as easy as it looks!

Let the party begin!

From Hakaui Bay we day sailed across to the island of Ua Poa and spent a couple of nights in quite a rolly anchorage there. The dinghy landing there was a challenge as there was a huge swell at the dinghy dock. We just had to leap out very quickly and then drag the dinghy up onto the dock before the surge dragged it away from us. The village here was a little larger than the one at Hakaui Bay and even boasted a primary school and a shop. We were met at the dock by a guy who led us up the road to his family's fruit farm where we spent a couple of hours, talking, watching him make coconut milk and finally purchasing some fruit. It was nice to be able to have a freshwater shower at this village, even if it was just a stream of water coming out of a pipe in full view of everyone next to the dinghy dock!

Ivan chats to the neighbours while the granite looks on

Passage to Maquesas

Well we made it! 23 days and  3,000 nautical miles later we arrived at Taiohae Bay on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas group. It was very refreshing for our eyes to see lush green vegetation after more than 3 weeks of ocean, ocean and more ocean all around. During our passage we averaged 5.8 knots and 130 nautical miles for each 24 hour period. Not bad at all we think for a small, heavy boat.

Not always blue skies

We both agreed that while the passage was never boring, there was always something to do or fix, it became somewhat monotonous and we quickly slotted into a daily routine. A typical day went something like this: Ivan came off watch at 9am and would make us breakfast. He consistently had muesli while I decided on the day – muesli or fruit and yoghurt and/or toast. If I didn’t need to be on deck all the time while on watch, and heel of the boat permitting, I would then make some bread if we needed it and also start to organise lunch. I figured it was best to do as much foodwise in the galley as possible while conditions were good, because you never knew when it would all change and the galley turn into a gunnel to gunnel rolling nightmare.

We decided early on in the passage to make lunch our main mean of the day. I prepared 90% of the meals and I was finding that the preparation and clean up of a big meal in the evening, before those long night watches, was cutting into the rest time I needed to get ready for the night ahead.

Our night watches weren’t actually any longer than our day watches –3 hours each – they just seemed longer. By the end of 3 hours, in the dark of night, I was well and truly ready to hand over to Ivan. I fairly quickly exhausted my supply of Radio National podcasts I had downloaded in Panama and so I would listen to music or read to keep awake and help pass the time when on watch. My meagre supply of music started to get a bit repetitive though. I was also amazed at how many songs I have that have “ocean”, “sea” and other nautical words as lyrics. One songster even mentions “man overboard” a few times. Hmmm, I’m not too keen to listen to that one anymore!

Our other major activities most days were an afternoon game of Scrabble, reading, watching the fishing line for tell-tale jerks that there was something edible on the end of it, and checking in with a couple of different SSB radio nets. Actually that was Ivan’s pastime more than mine. He calls it his networking time. I call it his social addiction. Flippancy aside, the radio nets have been extremely useful (as well as re-assuring to know there are at least 20-30 other yachts out there like us, making their way across the Pacific Puddle).

Nuku Hiva at last!

We had pretty good weather during the passage – typical south easterly trade winds of 10-15 knots, some squalls and the seas ranged from a ½ metre swell to a 3 metre swell. We had about 5 days in the middle of the passage where the seas were large and confused which made for very uncomfortable sailing and put a lot of strain on the rigging as the boom would bang around even though we had tied a restraining rope to it and the reacher sail would flog. For much of the passage we sailed using the reacher only as that seemed to balance the boat best for using the wind monitor (which meant we didn’t have to hand steer all the time).

Brio coped with it all pretty well. Our major problem was when our outer forestay gave way. Fortunately Brio has two forestays – one of the things Ivan liked about her when he first saw her – which also fortunately meant that when the forestay broke the mast didn’t come crashing down! The forestay gave way during pretty calm weather, but it was probably all of the flogging and banging that caused the breakage. To cut a long story short, we were able to drop the forestay, the aluminium track it is housed within and the sail alongside the deck and lash it all onto the side rail. With some grunting and sweating we removed the sail from the track and threw it down into the cabin and then got back on course with a 10 foot extension now hanging off the rear of our 33 ft. For the rest of the passage we had to use the inner forestay with the smaller genoa sail and we hoisted the main for balance. It meant we were probably travelling a bit slower, but at least we were moving! Now we have arrived at a port where we can use email and telephone, we will set about ordering a replacement furler mechanism that dropped overboard when the forestay came down and a new forestay. Papeete in Tahiti will be our best chance to get the parts and get the work done, so until then we will manage.

Brio on the high (flat) seas

Maintaining a good charge on our batteries has been a challenge. I suspect our fridge thermostat is on the blink and it is draining the batteries, although it could also be a problem with the batteries themselves. The electrics on Brio are a mystery to us. To keep the batteries charged during the passage we were running the engine for 2-3 hours each day and that would only give us enough power to keep the chartplotter and fridge going. We didn’t use our cabin lights or watch dvds so it really felt like a camping experience!

Our fresh food lasted more than 2 weeks and when we arrived here at Taiohae Bay we still had oranges, limes, potatoes, yucca, onions, cabbage, garlic and eggs. Just as well as our fishing skills need improving, having caught only one fish (a mahi mahi) during the entire passage. That’s not counting the little flying fish that would sacrifice themselves on our deck most nights. Ivan collected them to cook up (as I refused to deal with the desiccated little bodies), but never did, so we gave them to someone’s cat the other day.

We didn’t see much else in the way of wildlife while we were out there: a pod of about 100 dolphins one afternoon and the occasional bird looking for a place to land on Brio. The only other boats we saw were the lights of two fishing boats in the distance one night and early in the passage we were passed (within 20 metres!) by a 58ft catamaran called Unama. We talked with them on the VHF radio and each took photos of the other boat under sail exchanging email addresses to send them on. As luck would have it, Unama came into this anchorage yesterday and we handed over our photos. They of course only took a very respectable 15 days to make the passage from Galapagos.

Unama passing us at a great rate of knots

Now we must get on with the business of exploring Nuku Hiva!

Isla Isabela Part 2

We are still on Isabela after 8 days and enjoying it so much.

The lava tunnels snorkelling trip was a highlight. We spent a good part of a day with some the crew from Lisa Kay, Jack from Cat Weazle as well as a couple of fly in tourists on a small boat exploring the marine life and the geology of the lava tunnels in the water nearby. Our dead-ringer-for-John-Travolta-skipper, Leonardo, expertly gunned the boat over the reef into the calmer waters beyond. We spotted very cute penguins and blue footed boobies immediately.  In the water with our snorkelling gear on, we swam amongst a school of yellow tailed surgeon fish and saw numerous other fish. The day just got better and better as Leonardo manoeuvred the boat through the narrowest of channels in the lava rock, passing bridges of black rock and cactus growing out of fissures and cracks. We looked down on aqua coloured pools and saw green turtles and spotted eagle rays rays swimming to and fro. I spotted a shark from above and others saw them while snorkelling. We snorkelled all around; swimming into gloomy caves to find an opening at the end to take us back out into the sunlight and another stunning pool. (Oh Dan, you would have loved it so much) Back on the boat we shot back out through the reef and over to another area to swim with turtles. They are so very gentle and really don’t seem fazed when humans get close to them. Finally, back out in the ocean and heading for home, Leonardo slowed the boat when he spotted a huge manta ray. Those who wanted to quickly donned snorkelling gear and swam over to it. I stayed in the boat and it was funny to hear the hooting and honking noises coming from people’s snorkels as they got so excited about being so close to the huge creature.

The next day we went on a trip to Sierra Negra, the volcano on the island that is second only in size to the largest in the world which is in Tanzania. Its caldera is 12 miles by 10 miles, and I can tell you it looks huge! Steam rises in places and the surface that you look down on from above looks somewhat like cracked and crusted bitumen after an earthquake. To get to the volcano we walked about 10km from where the bus dropped us off. We also saw Volcan Chico, and were able to walk on its surface, in some places feeling warm air venting through cracks from way down below. As we walked the 10km back to the bus, it bucketed rain on us and turned some of the track to mud, but Lisa Kay’s Tootsie Roll Pops kept morale high!

We do of course also have days where we don’t play tourist. There are always jobs to do on Brio, whether it’s putting a coat of paint on rust spots, getting the bar under the boom repaired, sweeping up the hair that just seems to fall everywhere or cleaning the algae off the hull. Ivan has spent some time making a centreboard and rudder for our Walker Bay dinghy so he can use it as a sailing boat (aaagh! Another one!). It’s still not quite right yet, but soon….

We were up early this morning and walked to where the pink flamingos are known to hang out and there they were. They were lovely to watch going through their morning routine of feeding and grooming. They are amazing to see in flight as they are so big.

We expect we will leave this lovely island on Wednesday. PS. Sorry, no pics – way too slow to upload.

Galapagos, Isla Isabela

We ended up staying 3 days in Santa Cruz and while the swell was never as bad as the first night we were there, it never got much better. Again, we used water taxis to get to and from the dock, which was rather exciting with all the pitching and rolling, when one had to leap from boat to boat. When bringing aboard 10 gallon containers of fuel it was all the more exciting!

Having replenished our fuel, water and food supply and gone through the formal checkout procedures, we left just after sunrise on a Saturday morning for our final Galapagos destination: Isla Isabela about 45 nm away. It was a sunny day with a breeze of about 10-12 kts for most of the way, allowing us to average 6-7 kts. Coming in to Puerto Villamil on the island wasn’t too tricky once we spotted the 2 channel markers to guide us away from the reefs. There were about 13 other yachts and a couple of big cruisers at anchor in the snug, narrow anchorage. We were delighted to see a couple of penguins swimming around Brio as we set the anchor – already we liked this place. The town of Puerto Villamil is very small and the place has the feel of somewhere like Mallacoota 40 years ago – there are a few sandy roads, a bakery, some small hotels and restaurants. The giant tortoise breeding facility is a short walk out of town via a boardwalk built through international funds and as is the case with a lot of externally funded projects, it doesn't look like any funds are being put towards ongoing maintenance. The boardwalk passes a number of lagoons, in one of which we spotted a pink flamingo and in another marine iguanas. As we were to discover, there are thousands of marine iguanas sunning themselves on the jet black volcanic rock that has flowed in times past down to the beach. With their spiky, reptilian, slightly grotesque features, they make excellent photographic models.

We expect to spend a week here, perhaps more as the wind is forecast to drop out later in the week and we will need to wait for good wind to set off for the Marquesas as 3,000 nm is way too far to motor.

Galapagos Islands

Daniel, Ivan’s son, arrived from Canada to do the Panama to Galapagos Islands  passage with us. After a few days at La Playita anchorage in Panama, making final preparations to get away, we set sail for Las Perlas, the Pearl Islands 31 nautical miles south of Panama. We were all keen to leave the hustle and bustle of Panama and get to somewhere where the water was clean enough to swim in. Many people have this idea that cruising is all sunsets and gin and tonics, but I’ve found that especially when in a port, it’s all paperwork and hardware shops. Or, as someone said to me recently cruising is just boat maintenance in nice places J.

Dinner!

We sailed and motor sailed 4.5 – 5 knots to our first anchorage in Las Perlas, dropping the anchor at 9.25pm. The next morning started with scrambled eggs and tomatoes with freshly squeezed orange juice, courtesy of Carlos’ father. Carlos was the taxi driver we used while in Panama. He was a bit of a dude and eagerly interpreted for us in (hardware!) shops, took us to a huge fruit and veggie market and negotiated with the stall holders and carried our bags for us and then he invited us to his home to meet his family and share some food. Coming back to the orange juice – I was going to buy some oranges, but he said “momento” and rang his father and asked him to drop off a bag of oranges to his house which he then gave us. He was very generous and helpful.

Las Perlas was nice and relaxing and we were able to get some swimming in and Daniel caught three fish while we were sailing. After a few days in the sun, salt and sand we set off for the Galapagos Islands. To cut a long story short, it took us 11 days to make the passage. During that time we used the motor a lot because the winds were mainly light and against us. It was good to see that Brio is very  economical on fuel. Our days were spent watching flying fish (sadly no more fish were to be caught), dolphins, birds trying to catch a ride on our spreaders, eating, reading and playing scrabble. We saw more life in this ocean in the first couple of days than we did the whole time we were in the Caribbean. We didn't experience much rain at all, although others ahead of us were reporting on the radio continual downpours. On day 10 we had enough rain to justify stripping 'nekked' and having a wash. We certainly needed it by then!

We motored into Wreck Bay, Isla San Christobal early on Thursday morning. What a lovely anchorage and a lovely little town. We spent 5 days on the anchorage there catching water taxis into town. Very few people put there dinghys in the water there because the sea lions treat them as their personal bathing platforms. The shore and waters edge is teeming with sea lions - they seem to be a mixture of a puppy, a sloth and a slug :)

A slugfest of sealions

We spent a day with others from yachts on a snorkelling tour. We snorkelled around Kicker Rock which is an amazing rock towering out of the water. It was wonderful to be swimming amongst a huge variety of fish, turtles, hammerhead sharks (!), marine iguanas and of course sea lions. We also saw a bit of birdlife incluing the gorgeous blue footed boobys, brown noddies and the very pre-historic looking frigate birds.

Marine Iguana

The next day we joined a couple off another yacht a did a tour of the island. It included visiting the giant tortoise sanctuary where we got to see these giant creatures from young to very old.

The San Jose BBQ restaurant was our favourite place to eat as the meals were enourmous, tasty and huge. We had a very social time with other cruisers on San Christobal and went to restaurant twice with various people.

Bearded Dan at San Jose BBQ

Daniel left us here to fly home to Canada. It was sad to see him go as we had had a great time together and he was really great on the boat during our passage.

I was hoping to be able to swim withthe sea lions at Playa Lobaria, however they weren't in the water the afternoon we went there. Ivan got to swim with a turtle though.

We have now moved on to Isla Santa Cruz, the most populated island of the group. We are anchored in Academy Bay which is just off the township. The swell here is very uncomfortable and we are worried our anchor rope will chafe so we may not stay here very long.

When we leave I susect Gordon Gecko, our resdient gecko I discovered the other day, will come with us. He tends to hide amongst the fruit in the fruit hammock!