Tuesday, 9 April 2019
Monday, 8 April 2019
Slight change of plan
The more observant of you may have noticed that we have taken a slight
right turn yesterday afternoon. We had intended to make for Kauehi, a
lovely atoll with a big entrance. However, it became clear that we
would be arriving as the sun would be setting. We would be faced by
the choice of entering and moving across the atoll in failing light or
heaving-to outside for the night. Instead, we have taken a slight
right turn and are heading for Takaroa.
Takaroa is closer than Kauehi and we hope to arrive at midday - slack
tide and the sun high. We'll spend a day here here before moving on.
Tonight is clear and calm, but there are almost constant flashes of
lightning from the east. Beautiful but a bit worrisome!
right turn yesterday afternoon. We had intended to make for Kauehi, a
lovely atoll with a big entrance. However, it became clear that we
would be arriving as the sun would be setting. We would be faced by
the choice of entering and moving across the atoll in failing light or
heaving-to outside for the night. Instead, we have taken a slight
right turn and are heading for Takaroa.
Takaroa is closer than Kauehi and we hope to arrive at midday - slack
tide and the sun high. We'll spend a day here here before moving on.
Tonight is clear and calm, but there are almost constant flashes of
lightning from the east. Beautiful but a bit worrisome!
Sunday, 7 April 2019
Off we go again
We are delighted that plans made nearly year ago have worked and Paddy,
Lizzie, James and Bridget have made it to this side of the world to
join us for a few weeks. Tintin is full and ready to go! The lure
of exploring coral atolls has led us to wave the incredible
Marquesas goodbye.
Two days ago we set off from Nuku Hiva, to cross 500 miles of
South Pacific Ocean to reach the Tuamotu archipelago. These islands are
also part of French Polynesia. They are low lying coral atolls: each
island looks like a slightly squidged circle on the chart. The inside is
lagoon, the edge is coral reef, some of it a few metres above the high
water line with beaches, coconut palms and maybe a village. Some are
just a couple of miles across, others up to 50.
We are heading for Kauehi, an atoll with one entrance (or pass) - a
gap in the reef which will allow boats to go in and out. The current in
some of the Tuamotu island passes can reach 9 knots so we need to
time our arrival carefully. If the wind is strong and against the
current, large standing waves can build up in the pass, best avoided!
Once inside the lagoon we will need to keep a sharp lookout for coral
heads as we navigate to our chosen anchorage.
Friday and Saturday gave us good sailing conditions with a wind across
the beam and a reasonable sea state. Yesterday evening lightening lit
up squall clouds far away on our horizon, while we had the starriest
sky above our heads. But at 1:30 am I was woken by the boat heeling
sharply and Rob suggesting we reef, now. No lightening close by
but we were under a dark storm cloud and the wind speed doubled quickly
to 35 knots. Lifejacket on, headtorch on, up into the cockpit where it
was noisy, windy, occasionally quite wet and very dark, white horses
just visible all around. James appeared close on my heels and between us
we quickly reefed the main and genoa down to 3rd reef. All at once it
felt calmer and much more manageable, Tintin doing what she (gender
fluid!) does best: floating and carrying on regardless in the direction
we want her to go, easy on the helm, riding the waves.
This morning the wind has dropped and we are now motor sailing to avoid
being tossed around uncomfortably in the swell.
The crew has all emerged, Bridget reporting quite a lot of airtime in
the forward cabin last night (when lifted from the bunk due to the bow
in the waves) and Lizzie complaining of having been woken twice in the
night by seawater coming through slightly open hatches and landing on
her face! It's already 33 degrees by 7am so sometimes the desire to have
airflow in the cabins below wins out against the risk of getting a
dunking.
James is our fisherman. On Friday we lost a hook and
lure to something that must have been very big. Yesterday the line got
tangled with the towed generator again. (We must learn from past
mistakes but optimism sometimes overrides experience).
I have been briefed by James (in case he is asleep) what to do if the
reel buzzes and spins: stop the boat, increase the friction in the
reel , and wake him up.
It sounds so easy.
At about 8am, the line went whizzing out. Shouting "Fish, James, FISH!" very
loudly by his bunk didn't work. Toe pulling and more shouting
eventually did.
Rob was on the line, and saw a really big blue marlin jump clear of the
water at the end of it, then swim off. Line broken, again. We will keep
trying!
Lizzie, James and Bridget have made it to this side of the world to
join us for a few weeks. Tintin is full and ready to go! The lure
of exploring coral atolls has led us to wave the incredible
Marquesas goodbye.
Two days ago we set off from Nuku Hiva, to cross 500 miles of
South Pacific Ocean to reach the Tuamotu archipelago. These islands are
also part of French Polynesia. They are low lying coral atolls: each
island looks like a slightly squidged circle on the chart. The inside is
lagoon, the edge is coral reef, some of it a few metres above the high
water line with beaches, coconut palms and maybe a village. Some are
just a couple of miles across, others up to 50.
We are heading for Kauehi, an atoll with one entrance (or pass) - a
gap in the reef which will allow boats to go in and out. The current in
some of the Tuamotu island passes can reach 9 knots so we need to
time our arrival carefully. If the wind is strong and against the
current, large standing waves can build up in the pass, best avoided!
Once inside the lagoon we will need to keep a sharp lookout for coral
heads as we navigate to our chosen anchorage.
Friday and Saturday gave us good sailing conditions with a wind across
the beam and a reasonable sea state. Yesterday evening lightening lit
up squall clouds far away on our horizon, while we had the starriest
sky above our heads. But at 1:30 am I was woken by the boat heeling
sharply and Rob suggesting we reef, now. No lightening close by
but we were under a dark storm cloud and the wind speed doubled quickly
to 35 knots. Lifejacket on, headtorch on, up into the cockpit where it
was noisy, windy, occasionally quite wet and very dark, white horses
just visible all around. James appeared close on my heels and between us
we quickly reefed the main and genoa down to 3rd reef. All at once it
felt calmer and much more manageable, Tintin doing what she (gender
fluid!) does best: floating and carrying on regardless in the direction
we want her to go, easy on the helm, riding the waves.
This morning the wind has dropped and we are now motor sailing to avoid
being tossed around uncomfortably in the swell.
The crew has all emerged, Bridget reporting quite a lot of airtime in
the forward cabin last night (when lifted from the bunk due to the bow
in the waves) and Lizzie complaining of having been woken twice in the
night by seawater coming through slightly open hatches and landing on
her face! It's already 33 degrees by 7am so sometimes the desire to have
airflow in the cabins below wins out against the risk of getting a
dunking.
James is our fisherman. On Friday we lost a hook and
lure to something that must have been very big. Yesterday the line got
tangled with the towed generator again. (We must learn from past
mistakes but optimism sometimes overrides experience).
I have been briefed by James (in case he is asleep) what to do if the
reel buzzes and spins: stop the boat, increase the friction in the
reel , and wake him up.
It sounds so easy.
At about 8am, the line went whizzing out. Shouting "Fish, James, FISH!" very
loudly by his bunk didn't work. Toe pulling and more shouting
eventually did.
Rob was on the line, and saw a really big blue marlin jump clear of the
water at the end of it, then swim off. Line broken, again. We will keep
trying!
Friday, 5 April 2019
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Landfall
All the fleet gathered yesterday at Taihoe Bay, Nuka Hiva (the largest island of the Marquesas) for a celebration and an official welcome from the community here. We were greeted again with fragrant frangipani garlands and treated to a display of local dancing by the team from the secondary school (recently returned from Tahiti having won the French Polynesia-wide competition there). Amidst a lot of mirth we were invited us to join in - men to do the Haka and women to learn their bird dance. The cultural traditions run deep here in the Marquesas. One dance depicted a battle between warriors of Hiva Oa and Nuka Hiva. Nuka Hiva killed the Hiva Oa warriors. We were told that then they used to eat their victims, but today they aren't cannibals any more, they like steak frites and carbonara....
We were given a feast in the village hall of goat cooked in coconut, pumpkin in coconut, raw fish in coconut, and little crabs harvested from the rocks that morning. It felt just like a WI event in an English village hall, with a few little differences to the menu. A tattooed fire eater entertained us all just before we ate, ending a 3 hour long dance ceremony combined with ARC rally prizegiving*
Today we have hired a pick up to tour the island. The scenery is magestic and stunning. as Lizzie says, England will seem a bit tame after this. Like Hiva Oa, not all the road is metalled. We have just come around the north coast on the bumpiest of dirt/ boulder tracks (the only road) and have reached the airport where we are awaiting the arrival of Paddy, joining us for the next 2 weeks.
We will be exploring the coasts here for another couple of days before heading off 500 miles southwest to the atolls of the Tuamotos, also part of French Polynesia but very different to the Marquesas. So this afternoon's job is to reprovision Tintin with what we can, including a good supply of pamplemousse which are well received at the atolls. They are grapefruit the size of your head, sweet and juicy, which will keep well strung in a net hammock under the gantry on our stern.
*Tintin won a prize: not for speed, but for the closest guess of the total number of fish landed by the fleet on the Pacific crossing. Awarded new hooks and lures, we know Richard will be very proud of us.
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Mangoes and Manta rays
After 30 hours of travelling in 20 hours, we met lizzie in tahiti for the final flight on a small turboprop plane. The flight took us over the Toamotus, which looked amazing from the air, increasing our excitement for visiting them in a few days time. We arrived on a jurassic park looking island, landing on a small airstrip perched halfway up one of the hill/mountains. The small (as in a shelf for baggage reclaim and a small whiteboard for the departures board small) airport was full of people greeting friends and family, including mum and dad who lead us to their hired toyota hilux (almost exclusively the only type of car on the island). The drive down to the boat was incredible. We made a quick stop to pick up ripe mangoes that were littering the side of the road. The rest of the day was spent moving in, eating mangoes and commenting on the temperature difference between here and the UK.
The next day was spend exploring the island, finding tikis (photo attached) and nearly getting stung by Portuguese-man-o-war jellyfish when we made the mistake of wading on the beach with an on-shore breeze. That night the heavens opened in a way that it never does in England, leading on to a very humid and hot morning. Steve was safely delivered to the airport for the long journey home and around midday we departed for Ta hua ta, a small island just off Hiva Oa. That night we were introduced to more people that i could possibly remember the name of at a bbq drinks party on board a large catamaran that is also part of the arc.
The bay was what you would imagine as pacific paradise beach (although the beach was kept clear of due to crazy coconut man), with clear bright blue water and a palm tree lined beach.
A very-hard-to-organise mothers day present was well received on sunday when, just after breakfast a couple of manta rays appeared in the bay and allowed us to swim with them for about 20 mins and get some good video, before gliding away.
The rest of the day was spent attempting to revise and then finding another excuse to go swimming again.
It was decided we would leave thats night at midnight for Nuka Hiva, along with two other boats we had got to know.
A lovely night sail and slightly slower sail through the morning led us to arrive around midday at the capital of the marquesas (you can tell because there is more than just one road). The afternoon was spent attempting a second repair on the rubber dinghy (punctured in Hiva Oa by a stray rebar) and walking around the bay to find a small stony beach.
This morning the job list included attempting a third repair of the dinghy, getting some fresh fruit from the local market and reconnecting to the rest of the world.
The plan is to stay here for the next couple of days for an ARC dinner and Paddy's arrival.
James
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