Visions of Johanna

Hello from 47 south

2012-02-16T01:29:00.000-05:00

Thursday 1900 hours
Easy Harbour
Stewart Island
47 09S
167 34 E

We had an easy and uneventful motor sail today, passing south across the entry to Foveau Straight and the Solander Islands down to the west coast of Stewart Island. Easy Harbour indeed is a well protected spot - perhaps the only protected anchorage (except I would think in a SW gale) on the west coast of Stewart.

We celebrated with appetizers of fresh baked bread in the sunny and warm cockpit as we enjoyed the spectacular scenery including green hills, smoothened rocky peaks, and many islands.

Tomorrow we will head with a moderate NW breeze and a following the tide around the SW Cape - to Port Pegasus on the SE coast.

All is well.

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2012-02-15T02:22:00.001-05:00

Wednesday 8PM
Preservation Inlet
Kisbee Bay

We have had 2 great days in "Prezzie" as they say locally, and hoped for one more before moving on to Stewart Island. We have been watching our weather window and days ago, Johanna said "I don't know about Friday...it doesn't feel right" as we discussed Thursday vs. Friday options. As usual, her instincts were right on and it is best to depart tomorrow.

Clearly, one secret to a happy life is to have a Johanna watching over you...and lucky me... I've got two!

Winds should be light and weather should be fine for crossing the entrance to the Foveaux Straight. We tentatively plan to head to "Easy Harbour" on the west coast, unless tides and timing allow passage around the Southwest Cape to Port Pegasus. This will be our first foray into the Southern Ocean.

Everyone is well, and all is fine. Next update will be from Stewart Island late tomorrow.

Bill

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Dusky Sound

2012-02-08T20:26:00.000-05:00

We sailed yesterday from Beach Harbour in Breaksea Sound to Dusky Sound, and are tucked into historic Luncheon Cove. Dusky is the largest of all the Sounds, and is reported by Billy Williams from Deep Cove Hostel to have as many islands as there are days in the year – but we have heard more than a few Kiwi tales, and are not yet convinced. Captain Cook sailed by here in 1770 and returned to explore in 1773, when he made 5 weeks of astronomical observations across the sound at Astronomer Point. Cook dined on Crayfish in this cove, and went on to explore and name many parts of the sound He named many features and discovered a "New Passage", later named Acheron Passage, that connects Dusky to Breaksea.

Yesterday we met Toby and Kath on the Kiwi sailing yacht "Solstice" visiting Fiordland from Keri Keri, returning for the second year in a row. They bypassed Milford/Doubtful areas this year and sailed directly to Dusky, explaining that this, Chalky, and Preservation were their favorites last trip, and they wanted to maximize their time here. They were kind enough to share local knowledge and led us through the narrow passage into the cove. This part of Dusky reminds me of many areas in Penobscot Bay or the Boothbay region and the gut – many islands with slim passes between and enough intervening rocks and obstructions to keep you honest.

Toby and Kath showed us a spot to dive for Crays, and gave us three large ones, stating that they were "sick of them" at this point. They also showed us where to hunt for Paua (Bruce found two that we enjoyed for appetizers last night), and there was a tiny cove nearby with a seal colony and loads of frolicking pups. This part of Dusky is a popular area for commercial fishing boats to work from. The vessel "Loyal" arrived from Bluff yesterday to tie alongside its permanently moored barge, complete with a supply hut, secondary storage barge, and satellite TV. I am not kidding. That was the second satellite TV antenna we spotted. The first was even more peculiar as it sat shore-side next to a simple large vertical granite face which the boat side ties to.

Today is the first rainy day in several, and we are well "spider tied" in this small cove; wind is due to shift from North to South today as this weak front passes. Hopefully rain will end by afternoon. Everyone has enjoyed the cove so far as it seems to be a "sand fly free zone", and there is much to see and do. We will likely "share a beer" with the crew of Loyal late this afternoon.
All is well.

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A Four Sound Day

2012-02-03T14:58:00.000-05:00

We left Alice Falls Anchorage in Thompson Sound Wednesday with plans to move to Anchorage Cove, and stage ourselves for departure the next day to George Sound. We found Anchorage Cove to be small and poorly protected from southerlies. There is a strong river current and visible rip with wind against current. We left after dropping anchor twice, unable to lie in a safe position allowing a stern line to the island.

Cruisers info: There is a bouyed line from shore to island, but it is not big enough to accommodate a boat our size, and it is relatively shallow - about 8 feet at low. The fair weather anchorage depicted in the guide is now too deep, and there is not enough room to drop a hook with a line ashore by the all weather site in anything but benign conditions.

We turned and went back into the sound to Southwest Arm, where we found satisfactory anchorage and spent a nice night. Forecast was for diminishing winds. They did.

Cruisers info: The bar at Southwest Arm provides only fair holding, and is made of softball to volleyball size stones. There is a good line strung shore to shore at the base of the cove, and we used it for two abreast quarter lines, which minimized swing as well as ability to drift inshore. I would not consider this all weather compared to Alice Falls.

We had a mostly motor sail to George Sound on Thursday, anchoring in Deas Cove. George Sound was different, still tall cliffed but less steep, and had sharply sloping but green covered walls, instead of the sheer cliffs in Milton Sound. We had a nice tramp over to Neck Cove on the other side where we crossed a relatively recent slide. The area looked like the aftermath of a New England ice storm - there was a small forest of leafless and broken trees as we walked over a scrabble of rocks. We found trail blazes less then knee high, and we estimated about 4' of slide below us. Definitely not a good area to buy real estate.

We saw our first boats in over a week, and heard chatter on the radio. Thompson Sound is one of the Sounds that connects to others inside - and we were seeing tour boats go up the sound from their base in famous Doubtful Sound, our next planned stop. By this time, we were also in nightly contact with Mare` of Bluff Fisherman's Radio. She is on 4417 USB 2030 NZT, and is happy to connect with cruisers along with the network of fisherman that check in regularly.

Cruisers info: The orange bouy at the head of Deas Cove brings a large hawser line from shore. We moored bow to this with a dock line and brought a stern line to the west shore. Trees are diminutive, but there is one 4' round waters edge boulder that happily accepted a surrounding chain, which we then led to our stern line.

Friday was a 4 sound day - as planned we left Deas Cove in light winds in Thompson Sound, and cruised by the entry to Bradshaw Sound as we entered Doubtfull. As it is reachable by cruise ship or adventure touring, Doubtful is known as the get-away sound. There is a small number of inhabitants - fisherman have set up a "hotel" to raft their boats to, and there is a hostel at Deep Cove, a base for a few intrepid tourists. We chose to spend our first night in Crooked Arm which we found to be a stunning, long, sinuous sound. There were hugely tall mounded peaks layered upon one another - breathtaking. If we ever get internet again, we will send pictures! There is also a true swing anchorage at the head of the sound - our first easy anchoring in weeks. The walk across to Dagg Sound (our fourth sound of the day) was rugged - very rugged. 4 Km in 2 hours R/T. Beautiful and enchanting bush ensconced in some tough terrain.

Today is a bit wet, but nothing terrible. We will likely head over to check out Deep Cove.

All is well.

Bill

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Milford and George Sound

2012-01-29T16:37:00.000-05:00

Hello from George Sound in Fiordland. We departed Milford yesterday after a short but memorable visit.

Our entry to Milford was an auspicious one as we ducked into the sound just before a front crossed from south to north. Fronts in the higher latitudes of the South Pacific typically come from the NW with rain, and turn to the SW, with clearing. It blows from the west for a time as it backs to the SW, and this is where our entry became interesting.

For sailors who come behind us, it should be noted that there is a constriction in the fiord 1/4 of the way into the sound, at Dale Point, where the fiord takes a dog-leg left from north to east. The glacial cliffs also rise abruptly at this point - and we were just through this westerly constriction as the front passed. While we expected some protection from the strong north-westerlies we experienced outside, Turgen, a local tourboat skipper, told us that the narrow middle portion will accelerate strong westerlies as a front passes, and we were both in the zone as that occurred; he was captaining a large 200 passenger sightseeing vessel. I will refrain from "fish tales", but suffice it to say that there were powerful gusts and rain that obscured the cliffs to port and starboard. Turgen was forced to make an unscheduled stop at a mid sound mooring in Harrison Cove as windshield wipers blew off his windows, and passengers were panicking. His maximum gust recorded was 93 knots.

We were fortunate to have a strong crew and an even stronger boat - we fared well. We have truly enjoyed Bruce and Alene's presence aboard, but never more as the five of us kept our course, navigated, and communicated with fisherman and port control to gain some local knowledge. We were told that the Deepwater Basin remained still and calm, and Kim, a skipper of one of the small passenger ferries, offered to lead us through the pass into the basin. By the time we entered, it too was rather frothy. Kim led us to a mooring in the very south east corner of the basin - by the Pilot boat, but the strong gusts made pick up difficult. We then tried the "anchorage" in the south west corner. This was tricky as it was hard to nail the right spot to drop, allowing proper depth and location. We tried once and let 390' of chain down. We finally went back, waited for the right moment, and picked up the large and safe mooring. Bliss. We were swinging only a boat length from shore, and confirmed 60' depth with our hand held sounder.

As for communication, tour boats and port control monitor VHF ch 14, and fisherman typically use ch 66 and (primarily) 67. Our third contact was Ash (and partner Katy) at the Fiordland Lobster Company. Ash facilitated communication with Kim and monitors ch 62. Wharfage (rough) is available, as is diesel.

Once comfortably moored, we marveled at the scenery. We were literally surrounded by waterfalls, and counted over 200 sightings on the way in. Rimmed by 1600 meter sheer granite cliffs, magical and misty are the sounds in the rain. Fortuitously, the following day was dry and sunny, and after making the boat shipshape, we explored "downtown" Milford Sound, and walked to the massive Bowens Falls. Rain returned the next day. We accomplished many indoor projects, and went ashore to thank Ash and Katy. They reciprocated in kind with tasty gifts, a Fiordland book, and a dozen frozen barracuda heads to use as crayfish bait. We were later joined by Bruce and Alene's friend Kirsty who works at Mitre Peak Lodge. Kirsty comes from a family of cruisers, and arrived with gifts of fresh fruit and breads. Clearly experienced!

Although another day or two in Milford would have been ideal ((to do more exploring and tramp the end of the famed Milford Track) , weather windows dictated yesterdays departure. We had a 25 nautical mile upwind motor (mainsail up for roll control) and had a calm entry into George Sound. The fiords are all different. Milford was remarkable for it's sheer granite cliffs and incredible falls. George is not quite as steep, but is more forested (bush in Kiwi speak). Equally beautiful, although perhaps not quite as dramatic.

Today should be pleasant, but another front is coming tonight and we have chosen to lie in the Alice Falls Anchorage at the end of the south east arm. We are situated in a 1/4 mile basin with 300 degrees protection. There are shore tie-ups available, and we have a 6 point tie including bow anchor, 2 bow breast lines, two stern quarter lines, and a stern line. This anchorage has bouys astern to bring ships lines to, and polypro shore lines hung on trees for bow lines. We dropped the dinghy and B&A first checked out the situation and then ran lines ashore. Stern line goes aft to a set of triple of bouys, and quarter lines tie to rings midway down the lines as they go ashore. We chose to tie our port stern line directly to a tree on the bank, and brought our own port bowline to shore as well, as the shore line looked worn.

We are well set up in our hurricane hole for potential 40 knot winds tomorrow. Mean while, Alice Falls descends directly into our basin, there is not a ship for 25 miles, and we have our crayfish pot out while B&A scavenge for mussels and fish for blue cod. We will hike (tramp) the falls later.

All is well.

Bill

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Likely last cell reception

2012-01-25T03:44:00.001-05:00

Off fox glacier

Our last evening falls and we are also seeing the likely end of cell reception for a month. We will stll be posting my say phone but unlikely to add any pictures till we get back to civilization. Seas are staring to build from the southern ocean low which has slowed us a bit. Hopefully the wind will clock to the west soon and we can make some miles under sail as opposed to the upwind motoring we have been dooming for 2 days.

Heading south along the west side of South Island day 2

2012-01-24T21:32:00.000-05:00

42 22 54S/170 47 70 E
South Pacific Ocean
Off Greymouth, NZ
Winds 10 - 13 knots SW
Course 189 Mag
Speed 7.7 knots

There is no shelter along this rugged coast, and once you pass Farewell Cape, the passage is 320 miles to Milford Sound. We left Tasman Bay with a reasonable weather window, but also with the knowledge that we wanted to be in the sound by Thursday evening, 60 hours after departure (late Wednesday nite for you east coasters) , as a low would pass from the south. After a pleasant motor up Tasman Bay, our encounter with Farewell Spit and Cape was again quite memorable for winds and waves in excess of the forecast. Lumpy 4-6 foot and close spaced square waves provided over 24 hours of rock and roll until we got far away enough from the South Island's north face to leave land effects behind. Crew remained happy and quite comfortable though, as Bruce, Aline and rest of the crew enjoyed the wonders of the pilot house. Johanna was prepared, and had made dinner earlier in the day - so we were able to feast on a baked pasta dinner with white cheese sauce and smoked chicken - devoured in deep offshore bowls of course.

Today has seen the wind and seas settle. Wind is still by the bow, so do we continue to motor sail in order to make good time and keep on schedule. Winds will clock around to the west and NW late tonite, and we should have speedy sailing and a timely arrival in 24 - 26 hours or so. We will send next update tomorrow morning.

Bill

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A bit Grey

2012-01-24T21:31:00.001-05:00

18 miles off. Greymouth

A bit grey but getting a nice lift off Greymouth as we hug the coast on our way south. More from Bill soon.

Wind finally as forecast

2012-01-24T11:02:00.001-05:00

41 15.0 s 171 25.3 e

We have finally gotten away from the significantly higher than forecast wind we saw around farewell spit. Effectively back on schedule and motoring into 8 to 10 knots as planned. Not ideal conditions but not too bad by any means.

Fish on

2012-01-23T18:07:00.001-05:00

Farewell spit

Just caught a beautiful albacore tuna. Grilled tuna for lunch. Yum!

Our supercrew

2012-01-23T16:03:00.001-05:00

Joining us and spoiling us completely are Bruce and Alene from Migration (http:\\Brucebalan.com/migrations).

Bound for Fjordland

2012-01-23T15:42:00.001-05:00

We have just left Abel Tasman bound for Milford Sound. Weather this morning is beautiful once again. A few more clouds in the sky today but still crisp a bit cool and very sunny. Weather looks reasonably good for the trip though we will have to motor most of the way there. Hopefully the winds will stay as light as forecast and it will be an easy trip. Should be in Thursday evening. We do now have satellite Internet so we will be posting updates as we go.

A crazy last few hours

2012-01-19T05:40:00.001-05:00

Abel Tasman. South island. New Zealand

Bill and I were having a fabulous afternoon hand steering the boat in 20 to 25 doing 10 to 12 knots and loving it. All was well and good till we got to to farewell spit and suddenly had 40 knots. The boat rounded up and the rudder stalled and there wasn't anything I could do about it so we started the engine and quickly reduced sail from full main, jib, and staysail to quad reefer main and just the staysail. It want pretty but all was ok. We then sailed across golden bay under these handkerchiefs still doing 10 knots in 35 knots of wind.

Got into the anchorage just as the last of the light was fading at about 9:30 and had 25 knots till we really tucked in behind a big cliff. Good news is we are safe and comfortable with just 5 knots of breeze in the anchorage. Staying up to help out friends Paikea Mist come into the anchorage in the dark as they were a few hours behind us.

Tomorrow we pick up Bruce and Ailene from migrations who will be joining us for a few weeks as we head to Milford and doubtful sounds.

Coming into Abel Tasman

2012-01-19T00:46:00.003-05:00

15 miles north of Farewell Spit

Great passage. Mostly quite calm though this afternoon it has been a spirited ride downwind in 25-30 knots with some higher gusts. Hit 12.4 knots at one point. Hand steering as the autopilots are having trouble with how much sail area we have up but we are trying to get anchored before it gets dark.

First night out

2012-01-19T00:46:00.001-05:00

35 38.9s 172 19.4e
03:00 18 January 2012

First night offshore in quite a while and all is well. We got around cape Rienga with favorable current though that did mean wind against tide and some fairly steep seas. Current is now a bit on the nose though not too strong and of course our destination is dead upwind. We are motor sailing in the light head breezes hoping the wind backs as forecast and we can start sailing for real soon. Pikea mist has been about 7 miles off our stbd bow for hours now so it is nice to have some company out here.

En route to Abel Tasman

2012-01-16T17:07:00.001-05:00

Cape Rienga, New Zealand

Just departed north end of the north island bound for golden bay in the Abel Tasman area which is in the north east corner of the south island. We will be without Internet till we arrive but will post when safe and sound. We do have 2 other boats within short range we are talking to by radio heading the same way. Weather window looks quite good and the boat is fully stocked and ready for the trip. Once there we will get our sat phone working before we head into the civilization abyss of Fjordland. Should arrive late Thursday local time.

Happy New Year from Visions of Johanna

2011-12-31T16:30:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year from the Coromandel!

Johanna and I had an uneventful trip back to Visions of Johanna, Gram, and Zak. It has been a busy five days of unpacking and storing the gear we brought with us, but we were still away from the marina in 24 hours..

Today is January 1, New Years Day in New Zealand, and we are anchored outside Coromandel Town, on the Coromandel Peninsula. The Coromandel is a resort area and is replete with charming towns, walking trails, and trendy shops. We spent time in this area last year and thus returned with critical knowledge such as where to bring in the dinghy, how far was town, and where to find a great smoked fish market.

We enjoyed New Years eve with Gram's friend Carmel, and her family - who just happened to be vacationing here. Now, isn't that a coincidence! We had a wonderful time with them and ushered in the new year with Kiwi sparkling wines and a four hour fest of foods. True to Visions of Johanna style of always being prepared, we made sure we would be ready for the new year by "forcing" ourselves to bunk down early - which really was not that hard.

While the sun was shining with cockpit hor's douvres last evening, it is once again cloudy and wet this morning. In fact, and unfortunately, weather has been rather rainy and windy since we arrived. Last year we had an abundance of sunshine, but this year weather is simply raunchy. We have had a couple rough and short sails, and squeezed in a nice dry day on Waihiki Island. We went out for a fine lunch at Mud Brick Vineyard, and wine tasting at Cable Bay. There was a good amount of walking and scenery to enjoy each way.

The only good news about the weather is that 25 knots gusting to 35 upwind and in your face makes for some great shake-down cruising, and we need to test all systems hard before considering departure to Fiordland. So far, three items have caught our attention. There was an amalgamation of halyards as a spinnaker halyard passed through through the staysail furler aloft. This created a bit of excitement as the staysail was raised in a "bit of a breeze" as they say here in NZ, but a problem that is easy to fix. The mainsail provided excitement to accompany the staysail. Previously, as Forespar perfected materials and construction, we had a few episodes of the sail "escaping" from the luff track in the mast. While we crossed the pacific without difficulties, this happened once again as we tightened the halyard at the third reef point. Inspection discovered chafed fabric at the top of the headboard luff tape, which likely folded back on itself and jammed - I do not really know when the chafe occurred - but fortunately we had a spare headboard made to proper specs, and switched it out. The headboard is a leading piece that steers the luff tape up the mast via a stiff covered rod inserting into a mast receptacle. Well, you can imagine the slang term that the sailmakers call it, and you can also imagine Johanna's face when I told her the situation, and that I was not sailing to Fiordland with out a spare one! It got sort of a chuckle. Sort of.

Finally,we needed to charge batteries and turned the genset on, just prior to last night's gathering. True to boatdom, the genset shut down moments later and we spent a feverish and precious 45 pre-party minutes localizing the problem. There was water visible, and it turns out the rubber" boot elbow" that brings cooling sea water into the heat exchanger split and sprayed water all about. Fortunately our stocking clerk procured a spare from the supply room. Another weak point was uncovered. I am not sure however, why this was not replaced in the rebuild. This will be discussed.

Overall, however, we seem to be in great shape. New engine room came together beautifully, and new systems - water-maker, refrigeration, electrical and charging - all flawless, All in all, I foresee great improvements in systems and engineering; we have created.an even leaner and meaner cruising machine(a). Really nice!

And, on that cheery and positive note, the crew of Visions of Johanna, and Carmel, wish all a healthy and happy 2012.

We will stay in touch.

Christmas in NZ

2011-12-25T02:53:00.001-05:00

It has been a long and arduous project but as of Friday all the major tick marks are completed and the boat is hopefully ready to sail. Bill and Jo arrive on the 27th and after a short shakedown we plan to head around the top of the North Island and down the west coat to Fjordland for some fabulous NZ cruising. Meanwhile Zak arrives last weekend and we spent Christmas with Carmel and her family. A fabulous day of enjoying the sunny weather and eating too much.

Rugby World Cup 2011 - Opening Ceremony

2011-09-12T04:28:00.003-04:00

Auckland, New Zealand

So I met Sean, and about 200,000 other people in downtown Auckland Friday night for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. They had originally expected about 50,000 people to show up downtown, updated it friday mid-day to 100,000 and best estimates are over 200,000 showed up so it got pretty crazy. I waited about 45 mins for a bus in Albany and arrived in the city at about 4:45. It took me the next hour and 15 minutes to travel the 1.5 blocks to find Sean. I think he was in the hardest spot possible to get to and I nearly crushed this little old asian lady against a wall when the crowd started pushing pretty heavily. Took all my strength to give her enough space to hide between me and the wall.

Finally caught up with Sean and had a great time watching the haka's and Maori parade till about 6. We then headed up into town to grab a few drinks, and a little food. Met a nice group of kiwi's who thought Sean looked like actor Kevin James, even taking photos with him...quite funny.

We returned to Quay street for the opening ceremony and fireworks....quite spectacular with 4 sets of the same show over the harbour, plus another shot from the sky tower. Then it was back to the same bar for the game as Quay street was just TOO crazy, so after another 30-40 mins of severe pushing and some near tramplings we were out of the pack and on our way. All Blacks killed Tonga so I headed home at halftime. A great time though I was VERY glad to be a big strong guy as the crowds were HUGE and there was basically no crowd control in place.

July Update Part 2

2011-08-09T02:34:00.003-04:00

Gulf Harbour, NZ

Since returning work on Visions has progressed, but a bit slower than I had hoped. Insulation has been installed and looks great and tomorrow most of the electrical equipment and furnace should get mounted on the walls and then the electricians can get in there late this week or early next and do the bulk of the re-wiring.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to make new friends and have started curling. The ice is pretty marginal as it is normally a hockey rink, but still lots of fun on a Sunday night.

I also headed to the beach in Piha, though the clouds rolled in on my drive there so it wasn't great weather wise. Still a beautiful point and I am sure amazing on a nice summer day.

July Update Part 1

2011-08-09T01:59:00.005-04:00

Gulf Harbour, NZ

God, I suck at actually posting when I am home. I have lots to talk about so this is going to go in increments.

Trip to Vanuatu was good. We caught a few fish along the way including some of the smallest tunas I have ever seen which we threw back. Here is Ayla reeling in one (I finished for her as it was fighting pretty good). We got in at about 11:00 am on Thursday, about the same time the owner landed and spent the afternoon cleaning the boat in the nice bright sun.

Friday I took the day off to "see the island" while the others finished turning over the boat for the owners to move onto Friday afternoon. Unfortunately it poured pretty much all day so my plans sort of got screwed. I ended up going to the market and walking around town. The market was the best I had seen since South America. Tons of great veggies and fruit, fairly cheap, and all looked really good. I had a little kitchen in the room I was staying in, so I decided to buy some fruit (coconut, bananas, oranges, raspberries, & POMPOLMOUSE!) and make a great big fruit salad for lunch...it was fabulous.

I flew home early Saturday morning and was back in Auckland by late morning. My car battery was dead to the point of not being able to unlock the door so I had to wait around in the freezing cold for almost 2 hours for AA...not a great way to be welcomed back.

Work on the boat had progressed well in my absence and I returned home to an engine room fully painted and ready for insulation to be installed.

Miller High Life Sailing -- The Champagne of Beers

2011-07-14T04:52:00.005-04:00

30 s 174 30 E
Conditions have been surprisingly reasonable and as we get north of 30 south it should get better. We are averaging about 10 knots and today the sun is out between the scattered squalls that keep us on our feet with sail changes. Hoping for bikinis and board shorts by this time tomorrow.

Rolly Polly

2011-07-14T04:52:00.003-04:00

21 37 s 171 57 e
300 nm SE of Port Villa Vanuatu

It id 2:45 am and we are rolling gunnel to gunnel. Yesterday was probably the nicest day of sailing on the Pacific one could imagine..beam reach in 12 to 14 knots of breeze, flat seas, a mahi mahi in the morning and tuna in the afternoon. This evening the wind has come around right on our stern and we are rolling like crazy in the swell coming up from south of NZ. Still, it is warm, clear sky, and we only have about 36 hours to go, hopefully a little less as we really want to be in by midday on thurday to allow time to get the boat clean and ready for the owner who is coming thursday (they will probably stay in a hotel thur night to allow Toby and Ayla time to prep. My left shoulder (separated in car accident) feels like it is ready to fall off after 4 days of holding on to things so the lack of heel is nice but it is hard to sleep when rolling back qand forth. We have modified the watch (was 3 hours on 4:30 off with 2 people on at a time on 1:30 hour blocks but in the calmness your 2nd 1:30 can be taken sleeping in the pilothouse. Makes for a short but boring watch without anyone to talk to. All for now as my first half is cominng to a close. Time for a log entry and then try to catch some Zed's.

F'ing Boats

2011-07-14T04:52:00.001-04:00

Pacific ocean. 600 miles south east of Vanuatu

A fairly booring day with winds easing though of course coming from the exact direction we need to go. Excitement was added then the engine start battery was dead just 10 minutes after the engine had been running (shut down to drain fuel/water separator). Parallelled the genset batt to start it and seems as though the 12v alternator has died as it isnt ouputting any juice. Toby and I looked through the manuals to discover that there is an emergency 24 to 12 volt Newmar converter (same as on visions), but we then dicovered it has been left on preumably for years and is deas so we are stuck running the genset and main engine in order to charge the start batteries. Wind has in the meanti me built and we are pounding pretty baddly as we try to make miles north to get across this frontal boundary and into light southerlies.

Leaving shelter

2011-07-08T11:24:00.001-04:00

35 23.4 s 174 14.6 w
OFF CAPE BRETT

Last chance for cellular data for a while so not sure how much I will update from here out. But I will try. Passage so far has been easy as we are in the lee of the island hugging the coast. In the next few hours we will bear away to the north and get out into some real seas...hopefully not too bad though. Eta is currently late wed night but I wouldnt be surprised if we have to slow the boat down in the larger seas expected.

The Lady K is off

2011-07-08T01:50:00.001-04:00

36 41s 175 50e. HARAIKI GULF NZ

We got off the dock at 4 and will have a fast night hugging the coast in 20 to 25 knots of wind with gusts to 40 from the port quarter in flat water as we will be in the lee of the north island till some time in the wee hours of the morning. Forecast is then for about 2 days of pretty big seas before we get far enogh north to get away from the big low in the Souther Ocean. Wish us luck--Gram

Last minute trip

2011-07-07T03:47:00.001-04:00

Toby and Ayla had a last minute crew cancelation and I actually seem to have everything under control on the boat so I am leaving tomorrow for Vanuatu. Should be a 6 day passage and I should be flying back on Sat the 16th. I will post as much as I can. It should be nice to get away from the cold for a few days.

A nice day for a round

2011-07-01T07:13:00.001-04:00

Weather and schedule cooperated to duck out of the yard for 9 nice holes. Actually got a bit sunburned but had a great time

Winter in Gulf Harbour

2011-06-20T18:56:00.003-04:00

Hello All,

Again I need to apologize for my lack of entries. Truth is I don't have a lot to say these days. We have decided not to post information on the repair process as the insurance company is making life hell and we don't want to publish anything that could possibly haunt us down the road.

I will say that this is just about the most frustrating process I have ever been through mostly because I can't actually talk to anyone to make it better. We are literally insulated by 4 layers of Brokers from the insurance company and are forbidden to jump over any one of those layers. This is classic Chinese telephone and it is making for a slow and painful process.

Small rant over I can offer an update on what I have been up to.

I finally met up with Sean Ryan, who used to work at the Camden Grasshopper and moved down here a few years ago after working at the South Pole. I don't mean the big base in antarctica, but the small base literally at the pole, where there are no flights, supplies, etc. for I think he said 9+ months each year. Mom has kept in touch over the years and I think I will have plenty of fun going skiing with him this winter.

I have also been working quite a bit for Toby and Ayla on Lady K. They had new Hall Spars Carbon rigging put on the boat and are trying to get the boat ready to head up to Vanuatu next week. They have appreciated the help, and it has been quite nice to get some cash and company. I have still not gotten paid yet for the insurance work I have been doing for the last 6+ months so a bit of cash flow is pretty nice. Ayla even set me up on a blind date last weekend (quite fun).

There is one other crewed yacht in Gulf Harbour this winter (2 young couples) and we went skiing with them 2 weeks ago at an indoor ski hill just down the road. Surprising good hill, though short, and quite good snow as they can keep a very consistent -5C temp in the building. Couldn't ski there every week, but certainly will go again at some point.

The weather down here is pretty dismal much of the time. Not really at all cold, but today is one of the few sunny days and it rains a TON. Still, the nice days are quite nice so it isn't all bad.

In other news, Corey and Jeanelle had a baby boy (Carter Bruno) so this means the annual ski trip will now certainly enjoy a Senior Year Spring Break-esq "Romper Room" as Carter makes the 3rd baby in about 18 months (if memory serves on birth dates).

More soon (I hope).

Gram

Tuamotus Tidal Guestimator Updated

2011-05-24T21:21:00.002-04:00

New Zealand

The 2011 Pacific season has started and Sherry on Soggy Paws has given me some feedback and help for a minor update of the Tidal Guestimator for the Tuamotus or as she calls it, the "tide thingy". Updates are minor, but should solve a potential lookup error and add some helpful internal links. It also include some minor updates to the lookup values of Atols we had limited info on before.

Version 1.2 can be found here or as always by clicking the "Visions Shared Docs" Link on the right side of the blog.

If you are a user, please send feedback on how the "default" values worked so we can continue to make the estimates better for future sailors. I am not in the Tuamotus this season so I have to rely on the users to provide the raw data.

Also, I understand there was some confusion over the multiple tabs of the file, with users only getting the instruction page to load. I know this will be a problem if you use Microsoft Works instead of Excel. I am not sure of a solution to this other than downloading and using Open Office a free open source alternative that supports multiple tabs.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions and if you find this program particularly helpful, please make a donation via paypal at the bottom of the blog.

A Schweikert Tour of NZ Part 2

2011-03-22T23:46:00.007-04:00

New Zealand

For Part 1 Click Here

Monday marked Day 5 and didn't start out that well. About an hour south of Ralph's (beautiful drive as you can see on the left) as we approached Warkworth, my car overheated. I pulled over right away...let it cool a bit, checked the coolant level (fine), and tried to drive again to see if we could get into town. About a mile further (1 km to town) it overheated again and I pulled into a parking lot and called AA (no, not the alcoholics, the Automobile Association) for a tow.

In order to avoid a long delay Dad and Wendy headed into town to find a rental car and I waited for the Tow Truck. About 2.5 hours later we were back on the road and headed south. We lost our chance at a day's activity, but arrived in Rotarua in time to have an early dinner and head to the Polynesian Spa for a hot mineral bath soak.

In the morning we headed to Wai-O Tapu Geothermal Wonderland, and a wonderland it is! This shot is of the near boiling pool and is an intense emerald green with very bright orange rim. Depending on the wind visibility can drop to nothing or become brilliant as the steam from the 70-80 (C) water fills the air. We started with the short walk of about 45 minutes before heading off for the scheduled geyser show. The geyser would go off on its own every 24-48 hours, but to allow visitors to see the spectacle they seed the geyser with soap powder every morning at 10:15. About the most touristy thing we did the whole trip but pretty cool non the less. We loved the geothermal hike so much that we went back so we could see the other two trails through the park. The other two loops are not quite as spectacular, but quite interesting and very beautiful. This is a stop well worth making.

From there we headed off to Lake Taupo for a picknick lakeside and some serious duck feeding. By the end of lunch we had about 25 ducks quacking after our scraps and one kiwi teenager asking for a cracker (we guessed it was on a dare). After another nice lunch we headed to Hukai Falls where an amazing amount of water flows down a waterfall. I don't remember the flow rate, but it was something like 80 Olympic swimming pools every second. From there we drove down to Napier, where we found a great hotel room and even better restaurant. Pacifica is run by a Mauri Chef and "European" (i.e. white) kiwi wife who acts as sommelier and hostess. Dishes are appetizer sized and look like something straight out of Top Chef with great presentation, flavor combinations, and unique preparations of primarily local seafood. It was a long (almost 3 hour) dining experience and not one we will soon forget. Before we left we asked the hostess to suggest some vineyards for us to visit the following day...one of our better ideas.

In the morning of day 7 Dad and I took the Art Deco Architecture Tour while Wendy had a "lay-in". Napier was hit by a devestating earthquake in 1931 followed by fires that leveled the city. When rebuilt, Art Deco was in its hayday and most of the city was rebuilt in this style. Luckily in the 1970's and 80's when people started looking to tear the old buildings down and rebuild, only two buildings were lost before a local trust saved the rest. We had a great tour and by noon were having a cheese tasting at Te Mata Cheese Company. We followed that with a wine tasting at Te Mata Vineyards before heading to Craggy Range for a tasting and then lunch. This large and very impressive vinyard is the recent investment of the children of the founder of Waste Management, one of the largest trash services in the US. Apparently the trash business is quite profitable as this is a very nice vineyard with an outstanding restaurant where we had a too long but very tasty meal after our 7-flight wine tasting in the "cellar door". After that we were a bit whipped which probably didn't help our disapointing tasting at Esk Valley. Overall we were very impressed with Hawke's Bay vineyards, especially their ability to make some truly great reds. Dad brought home 3 bottles from Craggy Range (and a polo shirt), two of which will wait at least 5 years before opening when we plan to come together and remember our trip over one of bottles.

In part 3 we will head to Wellington and the South Island.... Stay Tuned.

A Schweikert Tour of NZ - Part 1

2011-03-21T19:25:00.010-04:00

New Zealand

I wasn't able to blog about my travels with Dad & Wendy while on the road so this is going to take a few parts to catch up, but we mite as well start at the beginning.

I picked up Dad & Wendy Thursday morning (3 March). I had hoped to offer them a shower aboard Curious, but she got hauled the day before so I just brought towels & toiletries and we utilized the free showers at the airport (small, but not too bad -- just leave a deposit at the flower shop).
We then headed to One Tree Hill for a beautiful view of Auckland. This is quite a lovely park that deserves more time than we had, but it was off to the Viaduct for free parking and a walk around downtown. We had a fabulous lunch at EuroBar including a dozen of the best oysters I have ever had. Approaching 0-nap-thirty we got in the car and drove up to Gulf Harbour, stopping at the Auckland Fish Market along the way for dinner fixings. and settled onto Tanaya for a few naps while I checked in on some boat details with the yard.

For dinner we started with Green Lip Mussels in white wine, garlic, and green onion. This was followed by salmon with lemon and dill, a fabulous dinner.

Friday morning we got going fairly early and headed north. First stop was Whangarei Falls for a nice walk and great picknick of cheese we had bought north of Wellsford at the Kiawaka Cheese Shop. From there we took the coastal route via Tutukaka where I had to stop at Sail Cove Vineyards, probably the most beautiful vineyard I have ever been to. This was a surprise visit as I hadn't realized we would drive this way but luckily the owners had just returned from vacation and quickly put away the closed sign that was up and welcomed us in. We had a tasting, bought a bottle of Rose and Port and were on our way to the lovely beach in Matapouri for a few hours of swimming and a game of beach cricket. I am not sure if this bay has enough draft for a monohull, but there was a nice cat in there an it was a fabulous bay and beach, among the best I have seen in NZ. We then drove up to Paihia.

Saturday I had planned for us to go for a sail, but between the high wind and driving rain we decided to hold off and had a nice relaxing morning in our hotel room. I got caught up on the insurance estimates that Chris had sent on Friday and by 11:00 things had cleared and we decided to heat out. We settled on a visit to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and I showed them around having taken the tour when we arrived in the spring. By the time we were ready to leave the rain had returned so we decided to skip Russel and headed up to Kirikiri. Unfortunately on a saturday afternoon the entire town shuts down, so it was a bit of a wild goose chase, but we tasted some chocolate and then some wine at Cottle Hill Vineyards, a nice little vineyard started by California sailors who never left. The Syrah is particularly good as is their white port.

Sunday wasn't perfect, but the forecast was nice enough for a sail, so we packed a picknick, headed to the docks and borrowed a 28' sailboat from a friend of a friend. Quite the trusting guy to let me take his boat out having met me 5 minutes before he said goodbye. The wind started light, but built quickly. We headed out to Roberton island, but the anchorages were on the windward side and I wasn't comfortable anchoring a boat I hardly know on a lee shore so we dropped sail on the leeward side, left the engine in neutral and hung out for our lunch before turning back upwind towards the bay in 15-18 knots. By the time we entered the mouth of the inner bay, the wind was a steady 25 gusting to 30 and we were getting a little wet, but Wendy did a very good job on the mainsheet, dumping just enough in the puffs to keep the boat on her feet without loosing too much way. I headed us towards the shore to try to get into some protected waters which worked long enough for the strong wind to calm down to 15-20 with a few higher gusts. Three long legs and we were close enough to start the engine, and lower sails, just as the sun finally came out. We go to see Opua Harbour in all her sunny splendor before putting the boat away on the dock before our drive to Matakana. Sharon was away in Australia researching birds, but Ralph Kast was kind enough to invite us for dinner and an overnight at their beautiful home.

More soon as time allows.

Office & February Update

2011-02-24T15:01:00.003-05:00

Gulf Harbour Marina, Whangaparaoa New Zealand

First of all, many thanks to all those who wrote to see if we had any effect from the Christchurch earthquake up here....the answer is no, other than 24 hour news about it. In the meantime, I have been a busy beaver. Yesterday I built myself a desk in the container. I spent the week working on a cooler after my mobile office/caravan had to go to it's proper home. This new desk is much better and gives me plenty of space.

Last weekend I headed down to Waitomo Caves with Toby & Ayla from S/V Lady K. We were joined by Ayla's sister and boyfriend Ross who are traveling around Asia and Oceana this year. We drove down Saturday morning with a nice picknick stop at a 25m waterfall near Piha where I swam almost all the way into the falls. The evening was enjoyed at the only bar in town and then Sunday morning we went Black Water Rafting, where you meander through underground caves on an innertube. The water was COLD, such that even the 3/8" thick wetsuits didn't really keep you warm. The caves are famous for their GloWorms, which are really bioluminescent maggots, but GloWorm sounds much better for marketing. The town is tiny, but sees over 2 million visitors a year through the caves and it is quite spectacular.

Meanwhile in Miami, I was awarded 2nd place for electronics writing by Boating Writers International (behind Ben Ellison of course) for my Cruising World Article on Small Dome Broadband Satcom systems. Thanks to Jeppesen Marine for sponsoring the electronics category. You can see all the winners here.

In other news, my Dad comes to visit on Thursday so I am preparing to head off with him and have been trying to figure out activities to do and places to go. I have the first weekend pretty well booked, then a rough itinerary all laid out, so now we just have to decide what we want to do where.

Amongst all this, I am finishing up the estimates for the repairs to Visions of Johanna so the full report can go to the insurance before I leave. The timing of my departure is probably perfect as I assume it will take the insurance company a week or so to respond to the report. There are only a last few items we need to nail down, but it is becoming increasingly frustrating trying to get these particular subs and suppliers to get back to us. I have also been helping out on Lady K which provides a bit of spending money.

Classic Yachting - New Zealand Style

2011-02-15T01:10:00.005-05:00

Auckland New Zealand

I headed down to Auckland on Friday night for a bit of a fun weekend in the city. Steve and Trish were kind enough to offer me Curious so I headed down after work and got myself settled in. Toby & Ayla were coming down as well to have dinner with Clive and his wife (can't remember her name) who are about to leave their job aboard Beagle V and move back to Camden Maine for a while. We met Clive in the Tuamotu's and again in Tahiti and they were kind enough to have me over for the BBQ as well.

Saturday morning I met up with Tony Blake, Sir Peter Blake's brother who Sharon had gotten me in touch with. Tony runs Thelma, a 59' 1893 Gaff Rigged Sloop which was restored by a trust a few years ago and is an amazing bit of maritime history. We had a crew of 13 for Saturday and would need every hand as it was quite windy....too windy in fact for the topsail. I got placed on the foredeck crew and effectively became bowman. Steven ran the foredeck crew and was very pleased to have some young strong blood who also knew what he was doing. This is quite the boat to muscle around a course. There are NO Winches so everything is pulled in by hand. Halyards are bad enough, but you only do them once, so no big deal really. The absolute killer is the foresails which have to be pulled in with just 2:1 purchase by hand. It took all 4-5 available men to pull the jib in, then we would move to the staysail, and then to the jib fines to get the jib in all the way after each and every tack. Meanwhile, you are half in the water and soaked to the bone. My hands were on fire and my arms were jello by the end of the day, not to mention my knees, abbs, back, etc. Luckily it was a simple course and we had just one spinnaker set and the douse was after the finish.

Sunday was much calmer but we had just 10 aboard and the course was such that we had 3 sets and 2 douses on the course. We went into the downwind legs in 3rd and 25 minutes/3 sets & 2 douses plus one spinnaker repair later when I finally had 30 seconds free time to look around we were in front. All my time on Rumours really paid off as I was able to show them faster ways to douse the kite and got the lines set up each time for an outside jibe without issue. I was completely knackered at this point, picked up some fresh tuna and salmon for sushi, showered and cleaned up Curious, before driving back to Gulf Harbour to make a quick dinner and crash for the night.

A fabulous, though painful weekend aboard a beautiful classic yacht.

January Update

2011-02-07T19:55:00.009-05:00

Gulf Harbour Marina, New Zealand

I will try to update more often, but they days are long and it is hard to sit down at the end and write anything. I have been a busy bee here in New Zealand. Lots of meetings, TONS of e-mails, and a bit of fun too.

On the weekend of the 30th with former cyclone Wilma bearing down on the north island over a 3 day weekend (Monday was a holiday) I headed up to see Ralph & Sharon in Matakana. Original plans were for camping, but I decided I would put off camping until the rains and wind passed. Good thing too. It was quite the storm and after about 24 hours of solid rain, there was much flooding and over 20 slips (landslides) on the road to the Kast house. We got down and back before they closed the road completely saturday afternoon. In Matakana the farmers market was closed due to flooding but Ralph and I walked around, looked at the new river rapids, and of course checked out the toilets! Beautiful aren't they.

It will be several weeks before they road is reopened and Ralph & Sharon don't have an extra 40km to get to town. I left the back way on Sunday morning and headed to Waipu (because everybody poops!) end enjoyed some camping and beachgoing. It was a very nice DOC campground and a great beach (see photo below). Pretty much just relaxed on the beach and in my tent, then headed back to Gulf Harbour Monday afternoon, making sure to stop at the Cheese Shop on the way to stock up.

Last weekend I hung around here, went to Orewa beach, went shopping, got a TV card and antenna set up with my laptop so I could watch some local entertainment, watched the Rugby NZI 7's tournament (good fun) and did some other errands. I saw the best license plate ever. Driven by a dirty old man which would never get by the DMV in the states. The photo came out crappy, as I was driving, but it said "LV3TOF" which I read as "Love To F..." which I can't believe the old man put on his car.

Anyway, this weekend I am heading to Auckland, heading down with Toby and Ayla from Lady K, hanging out with other yachties on Friday night, staying aboard Curious, and sailing classics Saturday & Sunday. Should be a real nice time before getting back to the grind.

Settling in and getting to workd

2011-01-24T03:16:00.006-05:00

Gulf Harbour, NZ

I arrived on Sunday the 16th, two days late due to a Northeaster that dropped 1 foot of snow in Newport and 2+ at the airport in Providence. I had a whirlwind two days with Bill before he left to head home. I spent two nights in a little caravan, parked next to the boat and storage container before moving onto my temporary home, a Halberg Rassy 40 Tanaya that owners Jim and Katie have been kind enough to let me stay on in their absence. It is tough to move onto a boat that is already fairly full with other people's things, but they cleared some space for me and I am using the V-berth as a storage closet for now. The hardest part is getting used to a small galley after being spoiled on Visions. Here is a pic of the boat.In the meantime, I have gotten right into the thick of things at the yard. Lots of meetings, e-mails, phone calls, and a few other projects have filled my time. The fire did quite a bit of damage, but luckily it is generally confined to the Engine Room and Laz and I am hopeful that there will me little structural damage to repair. We won't really know till we take everything out of the engine room and pull away the insulation. Hopefully a new coat of paint and a few minor repairs will be all that are needed, then new insulation, and all the gear gets reinstalled (mostly new items other than gen-set, transmition and engine that will be repaired once removed). No real idea of timing yet, but it will take quite some time. The good news is that I am acting as Project Manager with 16hrs a week agreed by the insurance as acceptable, plus I have a job offer from the electrician and the yard to work with them on removing, and reinstalling the equipment, so once I get my paperwork done, I will have a working visa too (still figuring out those details). I also got a new car. A 1991 BMW 525i that was very well cared fore and in great shape.
It was quite the deal at auction from Turners and drives great, plus a comfy rear seat and big trunk if I have company. You can see the boat with tent over the cockpit, 20' storage container, and the caravan which they are going to keep there for a few more weeks as it makes a nice office for me and saves a parking space at Bruce's house.

This last weekend the weather was terrible so I didn't do much other than drive around, do a little shopping, and get my lay of the immediate land. Unfortunately the forecast for next weekend isn't much better, but it is a long weekend (anniversary day I believe) so I will try to figure out something to do that won't be completely ruined by rain. I managed to run into the crew of Lady K who I had met in Tahitti today. They are in the yard for 3 months, have rented a house just over the hill, and will hopefully be good friends while I am here.

Fire On-Board

2011-01-02T13:44:00.002-05:00

I don't have much in the way of details and will post more when I get back to NZ and learn more, but on New Years Eve Morning, Bill discovered a fire in the engine room. Initial inspection leads us to believe the battery charger was the source of the fire (probably an internal short). Damage is significant, but note too severe. Biggest problem is that while initially using a halatron extinguisher, it ended up taking dry chemical extinguishers from the dock to put out the fire and the chemical used is quite corrosive and causes lots of problems.

Luckily the boat was at the dock, they were awake, and at least initially it doesn't appear there is any structural damage to the fiberglass. It will still be a TON of work to tear down the engine room, repair damage, and put everything back, making sure everything is in working order.

Thankfully we have the hospitality of Ralph and Sharon Kast as the boat isn't livable right now.

This is NOT the South Pacific

2010-12-27T18:56:00.005-05:00

Blue Hill Maine

Home for the holiday's and today we got hit with a pretty major snow storm. I am exceedingly out of my element in these temperatures, but it is nice to see snow again for the first time in 2 years. I am a bit sore from Curling with my dad yesterday. I have him a good game, but blew it in the final end and gave up 3 points to lose. I suppose not bad for not having been on the ice in two years, but still disappointing as I had to miss two shots to lose the game.

Updated Tuamotu Tidal Guestimator

2010-12-27T11:56:00.002-05:00

My Tuamotu Tidal Guestimator has been updated for 2011 tidal information and is available for download on our Google Docs Page.

Special thanks to Sherry McCampbell from Soggy Paws for all her help reformatting the program and refining the user interface.

We both found the program very helpful for predicting the currents through the passes of the Tuamotus and with a little experience were able to predict slack tide quite reliably before ever even going to a particular atoll. Very helpful for passage planning so you time your arrival correctly and avoid the scary and dangerous situation of approaching a pass with 7+ knots of current rushing out.

If you do find the program helpful to your cruising, please click the donate button below and buy me a beer. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at ibsailn@gmail.com and I will try to help you out.

Leaving NZ For Christmas

2010-12-15T05:34:00.002-05:00

Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand

This photo was from a "Santa Parade" and is quintessential Kiwi Christmas... a sheep dressed as a reindeer on a warm summer day.

I leave tomorrow evening for home. A day and a half in Newport before I head to Maine for 3 weeks before returning to Rhode Island for a few more days before flying back. Can't wait to see the family and friends, though I am not looking forward to the cold.

news from New Zealand

2010-12-14T22:17:00.000-05:00

Hi to all...hard to believe that I have been in New Zealand for a whole month. It is very green and very beautiful here. People are exceptionally friendly and greet you with a G'Day each time you pass. There are only 4.2 million people living here so things seem very sane and low key. We spent the first week after the boat and the boys got in just putting the boat back together after the passage and also doing some sightseeing in the 'Northland". There were a bunch of activities at the Opua Marina for all the cruisers as most of the boats were also just arriving. Bill was very involved in helping our friend Steve Brown (Curious is his boat and we cruised extensively with Steve and wife Trish from Tahiti to Nuie) deal with a very badly infected foot. He took him to the hospital the minute he had cleared customs and when the antibiotic IV's were not doing the trick saw to it that he was transferred to a larger facility and watched over 2 surgeries to clean the wound out and get him back on his feet and infection free. Steve was really lucky that they got in when they did as another day or two out to sea could have caused irreparable damage or even more far reaching infection throughout his body. We saw too many skin (mostly staph) infections during the last couple of months...something about the waters in Tonga and Figi is my guess. The water is a few degrees warmer than usual this year (causing La Nina conditions) and maybe that plays into this..

After leaving Opua we have gone North to the Cavelli islands and then headed Southeast to make our way down the coast towards the Auckland area. We were able to spend one night at Motorua just outside of Opua and catch up with Curious as Steve brings his boat to Auckland and heads back to So. Wales for the holidays. Nice to have a dinner aboard and to see that he is A-OK. As we headed south we stopped at places like Mimiwhatanga Bay and Tutukaka just to give you a taste of the place names here. I think much of the names are Maori and very hard to keep straight. Had the luck of some very mild, settled weather to be able to anchor at the Mokohinau Islands. That anchorage was one of the top 5 of the whole trip and we had a magical stay there. We anchored in the middle literally of cliffs on all sides. There were all these arches and caves and a great hike to a lighthouse on the nearby island. We even donned our wetsuits and went for a quick snorkel (our first time in the water since leaving tonga). but even with wetsuits it was pretty cold so it was a quick dip but did spot some fish that were big and different than the ones of the tropics. There are tons of Marine Reserves here so much of the land is protected and you can only land in certain spots. Everywhere we have gone have been amazing sets of trails (they call them tracks) and lots and lots of hiking. Everything is well maintained and marked and it has been so nice to not worry about getting lost! After the Mokohinaus we went to Great Barrier Island which is pretty much a wild place. Somewhat reminiscent of Isle Au Haut or parts of Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Did some hard and wonderful hiking including an all day excursion to the summit of Mt. Hobson (about 2000 ft). We went to a few different bays and found the spots to be settled even in pretty windy conditions. Before we left there we had a rainy day hike to a Hot Springs and a good soak in the pools.

From Great Barrier we had a really nice day sail (actually got some of that downwind sailing with following seas that was promised for the South Pacific) to the Coromandel Peninsula. Came to the Eastern coast and about 1/2 way down into an area known as Mercury Bay. Apparently (previously unbeknownest to me) Gram has wanted to come here since 1995 when he started reading about America's Cup history. In 1988 Michael Fay challenged San Diego for the America's Cup from this area. Needless to say the region is steeped in nautical history and everyone sails or fishes or dives for mussels and scallops. Speaking of which we have been fortunate enough to find the most delicious green lipped mussels a couple of times and had them as appetizers when we did. Mostly I am amazed by the amount of green pastureland and the lack of built up areas here. The landscape is rugged but soft at the same time because of the green hills. Lots of sheep and cattle and you can tell that farming is a prosperous entity here. There do not seem to be billboards on the highways and everything is clean and green. So far except for right in Auckland I have seen nothing but 2 lane highways that snake and wind their way through the countryside. We had thought we would ride our bikes alot more but with the narrow roads and hilly terain we are not so sure that is a good idea. Have read of nothing but cycle deaths since arriving so it appears to be a dangerous sport.

Yesterday we spent the morning in a small town called Whitianga and happened upon a Christmas parade. Pretty funny to be watching Christmas parades in shorts (and sweatshirts because it is not that warm to our tropical blood) but then again it is the beginning of summer here. We have enjoyed being somewhat back in civilization and going to supermarkets again....the lamb and sausages are to die for and the fresh vegies very plentiful and affordable. The absolute best however is the wine. You can find really good bottles for $10-12 NZ which is $8-10 US. We have also gone to a couple of vineyards and enjoyed the small boutique wines that are being produced in the regions that are not the famous ones (Hawkes Bay and Marlborough Sound much further south). Today we are headed to Cathedral Cove which is said to be drop dead gorgeous and will spend the night if conditons allow. Otherwise will have to find a more protected spot nearby before heading to Waiheke island tomorrow to meet our friends Ralph and Sharon who will cruise with us for awhile. Gram will take a ferry from Waiheke to Auckland on Thurs. and then shuttle to the airport that evening for his flight back to USA. He will spend a month at home visiting family and friends in Maine and Rhode Island. Zak has just one more final next Friday and then will also head to Sierra's for the holidays and his Christmas break. Bill and I plan to stay sailing till just before New Year's and then bring the boat in to settle down to it's new home at Gulf Harbor Marina. We hope to spend a few days in Auckland and may even do some other inland tour before I leave on Jan 8. Our very best Holiday wishes to all and we are really looking forward to seeing many of you in the not too distant future. Cheers....and love Jo

Internet in New Zealand is Crap!

2010-12-10T16:19:00.001-05:00

Whitianga - Mercury Bay - New Zealand

Sorry for not writing anything in a while. We have been having a wonderful time exploring northern New Zealand with Great Barrier Island being a highlight that included several long (all day) hikes on the well maintained (or being improved in some cases) DOC tracks that cross the island. My feet are a little worse for wear, but it was a wonderful time. We are now back to mainland, exploring the Coramandel Peninsula and Mercury Bay, a place I have wanted to visit since I started reading about America's Cup history and learned of the cute little Yacht club that Michael Fay used to challenge San Diego and send the cup into its first foray into the New York Courts in earnest.

Quite a pretty place, this New Zealand, but the internet is crap and more expensive than just about anywhere we have been on the trip so far. Word is it will get better in the next few years as new cables are run and fiber optic gets run through the country, but right now it is quite frustrating as you can blow through $5 in about 15 minutes or normal surfing.

Getting ready to head home soon. Hopefully the rents will keep up the blog in my absence.

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

2010-11-27T20:45:00.001-05:00

Bay of Islands NZ

A nice Sunday morning learning about the birth of a nation.

news from New Zealand

2010-11-26T17:09:00.000-05:00

Long time and many miles but at last we have landed (in New Zealand that is). It really is quite lovely here and I especially am happy to be a bit more on terra firma. Still doing some cruising but it is now in coastal water and much more like cruising in Maine. It is very beautiful here...very rural and pastoral. The hills are green and full of sheep grazing, the roads in all but Auckland just 2 lanes winding thru the hills and valleys. People exceedingly friendly and pretty laid back. They definitely only work 8 hr (or less) days and use every weekend to recreate either sailing or trekking. Seems like a really healthy lifestyle. It is very nice being back in a first world country with supermarkets and phones and clean facilities (not that I wish we hadn't had the explorations of all the places we have visited along the way that were not what we are used to).

We are currently in Opua but have spent a bunch of nites out in the Bay of Islands. The islands out here are magnificent..pretty much uninhabited with great hiking paths and some nice beaches. Water is too cold for swimming but we did go in ankle deep and harvest some yummy green lipped mussels for one nite's worth of appetizers. Thanksgiving was shared with our friends Bruce and Alene that we met in Tonga. We had a roasted chicken rather that turkey as boat ovens are way too small for turkeys but managed all the other "normal" Thanksgiving accompaniments. Some New Zealand champagne for starts with shrimp sushi was novel for this holiday but may have to be entered into the Tday menu in the future. A feast for sure with lots and lots to be thankful for not the least of which is having made it these close to 20,000. miles aboard Visions of Johanna!!!

One of our most exciting days was being treated to a dolphin performance right off the beqam of the boat. We were anchored in a bay here and right after lunch this pod of bottle nosed dolphins (they are a really large variety of dolphins) came over and started doing flips and jumps that were unbelievable. A few hours later at the next bay over where we had just moved to about 6 Orca whales did a swim thru and again seemed to be playing with us. They even swam under the boat! See Gram's blog post(vofj.blogspot.com) for photos of these 2 marvelous sea events. We have been doing lots of hiking and gone to a few towns to look around...they are small and quaint and it feels like in some ways we are in the good ole 50's. I like it here alot!!! Will continue our way down the coast needing to get Gram to Auckland by mid Dec for his return to the US for Xmas with his other family(Schweikerts). Bill and I will spend another few weeks before bringing the boat into Gulf Harbor the marina where she will stay for the next year. I meet Sierra in NYC Jan 8 for a trade show. The weather will probably kill me (we are freezing here and it's in the 60's) but the prospect of Sierra shortly followed by Emma and Rob and Zak a few weeks thereafter will keep me going at least.

Kruising with Kindle Part 1

2010-11-22T20:33:00.002-05:00

Bay of Islands NZ
I have now had my Amazon Kindle for 18 months and have grown to like it more each day. The latest great feature I have discovered is that when traveling it makes a very workable email and internet device. In an odd twist of pricing foolishness you can browse the internet for free on the experimental browser. Now in an area where I had other options I would never bother with the klunky interface and laggy screen, but here in NZ where wifi and cell data are crazy expensive it is a godsend. I am in fact writing this entire post on my Kindle and uploading for free.

That isnt to say it doesnt have its issues.

I have actually had 4 kindle e-readers. The first one met its demise last August while reading by my fathers pool during a visit home. It just stopped working after sitting out in the sun. I called amazon, explained what happened, said yes of course it was out in the sun, it is summer and I was reading outside. They were fine with that and had a new one to me in 48 hours.. Number 2 was left in a bus in Ecuador, a much more painful mistake then with a paper book. Number 3 got a broken screen while in the protective pocket in my backpack during a bike trip.

Clearly the screens are pretty fragile and I now have a rigid waterproof case for protection when off the boat. Again Amazon was very responsive and provided a free replacement and luckily we had family coming to visit who could bring the new one and return the broken one without paying for international shipping.

Tomorrow in Part 2 I will discuss actually reading on the device.

Sent from my Kindle -- Update: Sorry, too busy so part 2 will have to wait till after thanksgiving.

It's Like The Splash Zone At Seaworld

2010-11-21T20:38:00.002-05:00

Bay of Islands NZ

This morning we had VERY large dolphins literally doing acrobatics
just feet from the boat and this afternoon we had a pod of Orcas
(Killer Whales) swim by. We are really enjoying the Bay of Islands.
Great hiking, tasty muscles within easy reach at low tide, and even
entertainment by the local wildlife. It was like the dolphins were
putting a show for us.

Whangerei Falls

2010-11-20T00:14:00.001-05:00

Toilets of New Zealand - Post #1

2010-11-17T23:21:00.002-05:00

Kawakawa, Bay of Islands - New Zealand

A new subject for the blog which hopefully will have some more entries in the future. Apparently the big thing for small towns in NZ to do is build really fancy public facilities. This one in Kawakawa was designed by Freidrich Hundertwasser.

Besides toilet-seeing, we went to see Steve from Curious in the Hospital (doing much better than yesterday with a bad foot infection), then headed to Paihia and took a ferry to Russel, an old whaling outpost.

It was great to finally see some of the beautiful countryside we have heard so much about.

Arrived NZ

2010-11-17T15:35:00.002-05:00

Opua, New Zealand

Sorry this took so long to get up, but we have been crazy busy getting the boat put back together and making some repairs. We have had a few days here in New Zealand, but haven't yet seen anything other than the engine room, electrical panel, and bilges of the boat.

Today we are heading off for a little sight seeing. I will be sure to post a pic this evening.

Almost There

2010-11-15T08:38:00.000-05:00

Pacific Ocean
34 18.9S 174 41.5W
58 miles North of Opua New Zealand

Our final passage is just about to come to a close. Winds have eased and come behind us. Right now we are motoring with the reacher up giving an extra 1/2 knot of speed, but the wind keeps coming further behind us, causing our apparent wind to drop so I don't know how much longer that will help any. We just passed our first fishing boat....showed up nicely on AIS and Radar. I have two other targets on Radar right now, so we are clearly approaching land. Yesterday we diverted a hundred yards to check out a floating object that turned out to be a fridge. Mental note, if you ever need an emergency floatation device, this fridge was floating VERY high in the water.

The DC Refer has stopped running, so I think I know what I will be working on when we get into harbor. Pressures seem fine, water pump is running, but the compressor doesn't turn on. Will have to check electrical connections, but unfortunately the starting relays are located in an inaccessable location behind the AC fridge (thank you Morris). In the mean time, I started the genset so I can run the AC fridge for an hour to keep things cool. We have half a freezer of fish stored up (caught another Tuna yesterday) so don't want that to get too warm. I planned on putting the AC Fridge onto the inverter circuit so I can run it at the dock (only works on 60hz and NZ uses 50hz power) so I may just do that sooner if I can't get the DC fridge working quickly. Probably not the most efficient thing in the world, but at least it will keep things cold.

Can't wait to put my eyes on "the land of the long white cloud"

Crisp Clean Air

2010-11-14T08:46:00.000-05:00

Pacific Ocean
31 47.5S 175 55.2E
220 miles North of Opua, New Zealand

Right on Ken's schedule the wind died out and we have been motoring with light wind for about 4 hours now, about 30 hours to go. The seas have died off as we came south, so it is quite comfortable, motorsailing in light North-Westerly winds under main and jib with the iron Genny providing the real push.

My outdoor thermometer has stopped working, but water temp is down to 66 degrees and air temp feels like mid 50's with very low humidity. After all this time in the tropics, it actually makes my nose hurt a little to breath this crisp dry air. Luckily it is probably mid to hight 60's in the pilothouse so I am still wearng just shorts and a long sleeve T though my feet are a little chilled.

Last night I made eggplant and shrimp stir fry to finish off our last frozen meat and work on our veggies. We may have 1 or 2 too many cucumbers to eat before we arrive (they confiscate fresh veg) and I am still searching for what to do with the last cabbage (made asian cole slaw last night to go with the stir fry and still have leftovers).

We still haven't seen any other traffic out here...amazing how big and empty the surface of the Ocean is.

Sub-Tropical

2010-11-13T08:26:00.000-05:00

Pacific Ocean
28 54.6S 177 41.5E

Our current latitude is about the same as Orlando Florida, but without the warming effects of the warm Gulf of Mexico it is quite a bit cooler here. Water temp is down to 71 degrees and my thermometer stopped working so I am not sure of air temp, but I am rather tempted to close the pilothouse doors to keep the chilly night air at bay. Still wearing shorts, and no sox, but have resorted to long sleeve T-shirts for some added warmth and am considering putting on a fleece.

As usual Ken McKinley has been right on with his weather forecast. We saw high 20''s with gusts to 33 knots yesterday and around sundown it started subsiding. We are currently making 9 knots towards NZ in 20 knots of wind on the beam. Seas are still a bit stirred up so there is still lots of spray on deck, but luckily we can stay in the nice dry pilothouse and not worry about it too much. We should see the winds continue to drop as we aproach a high pressure ridge south of 30 degrees South and will then have to motor for a while, possibly all the way into Opua. A little calmer weather would be nice as my legs are getting tired from bracing all the time and we have some fresh food I need to cook before it gets taken away in New Zealand (we had been expecting another day or two in Minerva when we shopped in Tonga). In the meantime, we have been using our pre-cooked meals which saves a lot of hassle in these sort of jerky, rolly conditions.

We still haven't seen any trafic out here...a good thing really, but it does get lonely and boring. I have been enjoying Chuck Paine's new book "My Yacht Designs - and the lessons they taught me" available direct from the author at ChuckPaine.com. Besides being thanked in the foreward and praised in the writup of Visions of Johanna, it is neat to see some of the other projects I worked on as well as get his take and hear his stories from a fabulous career.

ETA is currently under 2 days, but we will slow down when we hit the high, making it more like 50-55 hours to go.

Eastern Hemisphere

2010-11-12T08:32:00.000-05:00

Pacific Ocean
25 49.4S 179 33.7E

108 Miles in last 12 hrs = 9.0 kts Average

As usual Visions has quickly taken us along our route, this time crossing the 180th maridian into the Eastern Hemisphere (a first for the girl). Wind is nicely aft of the beam at about 110 degrees True Wind Angle making for good speed and a moderated ride. We are still fairly heeled over (10+ degrees) and the motion is jerky, especially when we are running faster than 9 knots, but all and all, it is not too bad to be flying along at 9 knots with a double-reefed Main, Staysail, and partially reefed Jib in 21 knots of breeze. So far we are holding position to get into New Zealand late morning of the 16th, but we suspect we will be slowed down at some point along the way.

Departure from Minerva was faster than we had hopped, but luckily we did get to do an amazing dive and walk the reef, my two goals. It is a place I would love to get back to some time as it is a magical place.

The Windlass wouldn't work (control box problems) when we went to leave, but luckily we have two windlasses and were able to pull the chain up using the port windlass without too much trouble (just had to shuttle the chain across to the correct hawsepipe as it came up...thank goodness for backups! I will try to figure out what is wrong in Opua and worse case replace the control box with a spare we have aboard.

Otherwise things are uneventful (good for being offshore). It is cooling off dramatically outside, but it is still shorts and T-shirt weather in the pilot-house.

Minerva here we come

2010-11-09T12:56:00.000-05:00

23 07S/178 11.5W
South Pacific Ocean
0700 local Tonga time/1800Z
Wind varies - 13 - 20 kn , slowly backing and easing averging 135 deg. T, then clocking to 172 deg T, at 16 -23 knots

Pasage continued to be a speedy one overnight, averaging better than 8.5kn SOG. Seas are up so it is a bit bumpy, but there is only one significant wave pattern and there are not too many lumps with the bumps. Everyone is well, and well sated, on board. We enjoyed Gazpacho with grilled cheese sandwhiches for lunch yesterday, and chicken marbella with cous cous for dinner (thanks, Jo). We also look forward to dinner tonight with our friends Bruce and Aline on Migration, as we will celebrate their first wedding annivesary with them. They were married one year ago at Minerva Reef! How cool is that!

47 nm to go. Hope to be anchored mid afternoon.

Truckin'

2010-11-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

22 44.2S 177 45.4W
83 Miles from Minerva Reef

Chuck says about Visions of Johanna in his new book that she is fast and the only way to keep her below 9 knots is to put the engine in reverse. Mom usually convices us to do it by greatly reducing sail, so we had forgotten just how fast this boat is when you let her run. We have covered 160 miles in just 18 hours, averaging 8.9 knots at a true wind angle of about 60 degrees (just 5-8 degrees cracked off of close hauled). The ride is by no means smooth, and we are heeled over nicely, but the motion is completely livable and we only occasionally pound off a wave...she is a truliy amazing boat. Makes you realize how much we have dumbed her down the last 17 months to make things more comfortable for the whole family

With our newfound speed, we should make Minerva Reef around noontime or early afternoon. A bit of rest will be quite nice before we continue on towards New Zealand later in the week weather permitting.

Tonga to Minerva Evening Report

2010-11-09T01:58:00.001-05:00

22 02.9S/176 57.4W
South Pacific Ocean
2000 local time
Wind 16 - 24 kn from 148 mag
Seas 6 -9 feet

Flying under the water while Scuba diving through a pass is awesome, and so is flying over the water at 9 to 10 knots on passage. We have a 1/2 knot favorable current and have had 3 hours of 10+ nm's. Wind has been a steady 18 -24 knots from SSE and we are sailing with double reefed main and reefed jib, letting Visions of Johanna run. Seas are 6 - 9 feet, and we are quite steady with only rare pounding. Johanna left us at 6AM this morning as I was concerned about making Minerva by dark. At this point, if conditions remain the same, we should be there by early afternoon Ralph calls us a racing boat, but I remond him that we are simply a very fast cruising boat.

All is well on board. 141 nm to go.

Underway again

2010-11-08T14:58:00.000-05:00

21 06S/17523W
West of Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga
South Pacific Ocean
Tuesday, November 4th Tonga, 2200 GMT - or 9 AM Tonga time,

Winds 141 T at 15-18 knots
COG 223 mag
Barometer 1014 mb

We departed Pangaimotu early this morning, bound for Minerva reef. While we anticipate a close reach in 15 -20 knots of wind, this strategy should set us up for a good passage to Opua, NZ in 4 days or so. We are, of course, receiving routing assistance from our favorite forecaster, Ken McKinley of Locus Weather in Camden, Maine, and will check in with him daily. A Low south and east of us will deepen slightly as it reforms today and tomorrow, and then recede around November 11th or 12th. A high will then fill across the North Island of NZ and we will passage to NZ under a moderate easterly and then through light winds below 30S. A light air passage may not be ideal for all, but it sure beats storms, a sharp stick in the eye, or gales, hands down. We carry 460 gallons of diesel for a reason - and are not afraid to use it at times like this.

Since the last post, we visitd the island of Eua (Aiwah), about 24 miles SSE of Nuku'alofa. It is a beautiful island with vistas thaat reminded me of Easter Island, and one that is rarely visited by cruisers as it has an open roadstead for an anchorage, and only a small protected boat basin. We carefully entered the basin when we arrived and anchored insided, but we blocked the small channel and did not have sufficient time to set a stern anchor before the ferry came...so we quickly moved back outside as weather was settled. We spent a great day hiking and cave exploring on this sunken and emerged atoll (40 million years old, it is similar in geography to Niue) but in the end, decided that the travails of med mooring inside were not worth it, as focus was on passage planning...so we headed back to Pagaimotu. It was a good experience and great visit, and provided some sailing time for new crew member Ralph, who says he is here on vacation but keeps fixing things on the boat. A GREAT addition and wonderful crew.

Johanna left the boat this morning at 6 AM, and will spend 2 nights in Tonga before flying to NZ. She remains convinced we will have an easy passage because she is not on board. We'll see what develops, but we could be in Opua, NZ as early as 1 week from now.

240 nm to go to Minerva.

Departure

2010-11-08T11:47:00.001-05:00

We are leaving Tonga this morning bound for Minerva Reef. Mom is
flying to NZ and we have friend Ralph Kast aboard to help us get
plenty of sleep. Should be about 36 hours to Minerva then we wait for
a weather window to New Zealand. More updates while offshore.

Ha'apai Endings

2010-10-30T22:27:00.007-04:00

Big Mama's Yacht Club - Kingdom of Tonga

Today is Halloween, exactly 7 years ago that we took delivery of Visions of Johanna and sailed her down to Newport on her first passage. It was snowing when we left Camden and 7 years later, while no where near actually freezing, we are quite cold. Today actually isn't so bad as the wind is down to 15-18 kts (from 20-25 the last week) and the sun is finally out, but I am still tempted to wear socks and put on a jacket when I went up the rig for a pre-departure inspection and to take the shot above. Temps have been between high 60's at night and mid 70's during the day, which isn't really that cold until you add the 25 knots of wind and thinned blood from 16 months in the tropics....we all realize we are going to FREEZE when we get back to Maine.

We had a really great time through the Ha'apai group including some amazing dives we will have to detail later for our followers. We are now in the capital of Tonga, enjoying the great parties hosted by Big Mama. There are tons of boats leaving today for New Zealand. We have crew (Ralph, friend of Johanna Tutone of Cappy's Fame) coming to join us on the 4th and mom flies out on the 11th though we may leave her here a few days early. Final boat prep has begun, though so far it is pretty relaxed as we have plenty of time.

Now it is time for candy....

Wreck Diving in the Haapai

2010-10-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

Nuku'alofa, Tongotapu group, Kingdom of Tonga
21 07S/175 10W

Wreck diving or snorkeling is always interesting, but somewhat sobering when it is also current events. We were just in the remote southern anchorage of Kelefesia and spent three cloudy and rainy nights.One day we snorkeled a short distance from the anchorage to the entry pass and the location of S/V La Tortue - a 32 foot ferro cement ketch that went down only 2 to 3 weeks ago. We were in Va'vau at the time, and it was a topic of discussion amongst cruisers, but details remain obscure. All on board were rescued, the ship was eventually scuttled, and friends of the crew salvaged as much as they could. The mast was removed and the vessel was laid down in a ridge beween bombies on the edge of the channel. It is not a navigational hazard.

It was erie to be over the boat, peering down into 30 feet of water or so. The port quarter was holed and the boat was mostly upright. Sea fuzz was already covering the decks, fish were already taking up residence, and there was a coffee cup snuggled in the cockpit. Open hatches almost seemed to beckon but we did not put on tanks and dive inside. We were not friends with La Tortue, but we knew of the boat as contemporary passagemakers... and visual memories of the sunken ship will linger and will always be a cautionary influence for this skipper.

Kelafesia is a stunningly beautiful island, even in clouds and rain. We had fine and adequate protection with winds east of 110 deg. T, and SE swells under 8 feet. Wind from 120 deg. T or more, or swells larger than 9 feet would probably bring some roll and swells over the surrounding reefs. Coral is not colorful, but shapely. The beach is beautiful as well. A small family group of 6 - 8 individuals live on the island in a very basic fashion - certainly no frills such as lights or electricity. The rain we had provoded much running water though.

Now in Nuku'alofa, we left Kelefesia yesterday as several more cloudy days were predicted and there was concern that the wind would shift further south, making the anchorage less comfortable. We have finally arrived at the last port before NZ, and we are here with 25 other boats or so. Talk has shifted from sites to snorkel and dive towards conversations (and rumours) centered around weather windows, departure times, who you have for routing assistance, and little else - save for the occasional mention of provisions and clearance procedures.

Crew will join us next week and departure is not immenent; we have the luxury of watchful waiting with ample time to prepare. There is a big resort hosted going away party tonight, and then boats will begin to leave in droves. We will plan departure in about10 - 12 days or so...assuming there is a good weather window, of course.

Happy in Ha'Apai

2010-10-17T18:16:00.000-04:00

19 42.8 South 174 17.0 West anchored in 30 ft of crystal clear turquoise water

Hi there...Currently anchored off a small island called Foa in the Ha'Apai(middle group) of Tongan islands. There is a nice resort here run by a German fellow and his Kiwi wife. They have been very kind to us...first day let us borrow 6 bikes (great to not have to get our folding ones out of the foc'sle and dinghy them in) and we rode 15k to Lifuka, the biggest town in this island group. Pretty funny to ride right across and through the airstrip on our way (obviously FAA regulations are a bit laxer here than the US) Saw a few villages, lots of pigs, including a new species we have named belted galloway pigs...yes they look just like the belted galloway cows in Rockport, a graveyard that was decorated with the most amazingly gorgeous quilts...apparently a tradition here in Tonga, then over a bumpy causeway that must be underwater when there are storms at sea. The town was not much but we had pizza out and checked out the small stores. Next day went back to the fresh market (thanks to Boris's offer to give us a lift to and from town) and bought a few other items as well. Slim pickings but finally our food is diminished to the point that we are actually looking for things to supplement the canned goods and bits of dried goods we still have. Yesterday was a rainy day and Gram and I decided it was time to try to redo our food storage and get everything out of the shower as we will soon be in cold enough weather that an indoor shower will be the preferred method of bathing. So we have gone from 5 big storage boxes (2 ft x 1 1/2 ft x 1 ft) full of food in the shower to it all fitting in the cupboards and deep storage that is more generally known as boat stores. For us this is an event to be noted!!! We are so grateful to our friend Connie on Better Days who turned us on to this method of storage in Panama as I know we saved a small fortune and ate alot better for having devoted all that space and at the time expense to oodles of food!

To backtrack a bit...just before we left the Va'vau group we realized we had been there a month and needed to renew our Visas so headed back to the big town of Neifu one last time...because we were so close to town we decided to try to get together with our Tongan family (Coletti, Tupai and kids) one last time so had them all over for dinner. We invited 2 other boats as well so we had dinner for 13(a new record). Had decided on spagetti and meat balls as when we had been invited to their home they kept apologizing that they were serving us Tongan food and not spagetti..of course Tongan food was quite what we wanted from them! So it was an easy dinner however when it started to rain at 5:30 we realized that dining al fresco using the whole front deck as our space was out and had to eat inside in shifts...still lots and lots of fun and since it was still pouring well after we had eaten we invited the Tongans for a sleepover. The two teeenage girls slept in Zak's cabin, Gram gave up his berth to Colletti and Tupai and slept in the pilot house and we put the 2 little kids in the main salon on the bench and settee. Full house(or rather boat) but it was probably an experience of a lifetime for them. Hard to say our goodbyes the next morning as we had become quite fond of their family. The most remarkable memories of these travels will surely be the relationships we have been able to develop with the locals. That being said the beauty and splendor of the places runs a tie for first place!!

Left Va'vau after a few more good dives and some more snorkeling on Sun the 10th. We had to motorsail the 60+ miles but seas were down so we made excellent time. We caught 3 fish along the way...1st a bonito, then a yellow fin tuna, and last a Mahi Mahi. Apparently my begging forgiveness of the gods of neptune worked as I had cursed our tuna catching abilities a bunch of weeks ago when I declared I was sick of tuna and just wanted to catch some Mahi or Wahoo...For weeks all we caught was whitefish and Bill and Gram were very upset with me for jinxing us so I did a forgiveness ceremony and lo and behold tuna again the next day!! YUM SUSHI!!! 1st anchored off Ha'Ano and did some reeef exploration, including one OK but not extraordinary dive. That is the last I have dove as apparently the congestion remaining from my sore throat episode caused a block in my ear and I am still trying to get over that. Really angry as Bill and Gram have gone on a few more dives including one with a dive shop today and I just can't risk it. REALLY really hope that I can clear this up before we leave Tonga (3 wks) as I think this will be it for diving. It will be too cold in New Zealand for much in the way of watersports I'm afraid. This time of year is like May or June for us in the northern hemisphere. We have visited a few other islands (remote ones)...Lofunga,Ofalanga and been out on the water sailing about a bit. In between Lofunga and Ofalanga we had our best ever whale experience where 3 of them were playing about 200 ft from the boat. One of them was jumping completely out of the water and we could see his entire (HUGE) body...what a sight!!! Even more awesome than the usual tail flukes and breaching we have previously experienced.

Have had a bunch of group dinners with Jules and Louis on Simpatica and will have one last eve. with them tonight as they will begin heading to Figi. We will probably move further south with a few more stops along the way before setting ourselves up in Tongatupu (the last island group) where Ralph will fly in to take the boat to NZ with the boys. Hope fall has treated you all well and that life is settled and slowing down in Maine(tourists being just a memory at this point)

Content in the Kingdom of Tonga

2010-10-05T17:15:00.000-04:00

I kind of like the way that sounds...the Kingdom of Tonga. We have not yet seen the King tho' I do believe he still exists and resides in Nukolofa which is in the most southern group of islands..the Tongutupu group. We will stop there briefly just before the boys head out to Minerva Reef and onwards to New Zealand and I fly out of there also headed to NZ but taking the easy route!!! I am grateful to not be making this last passage as it is the one that usually contains weather patterns slightly less than optimal and many boats encounter storms along the way. We are fast enough that most likely can beat anything as there will be lots of planning and working with our friend in Camden, meteorologist Ken McKinley who provides weather routing.

We have been really enjoying the Vava'u group of islands. We have gone to lots of the different islands and found so much good snorkeling and diving. This really is a cruiser's paradise made very easy by all the amenities and ease of moving about. Some of our best memories will include the time we have spent with the local family who befriended us. We had a wonderful lunch and visit to their church our first Sunday her and then on the following Sunday we took all of them out for a day sail on our boat. Tupai had the most wonderful smile on his face as he was at the helm and sailing the boat and the kids were just beaming as the wind blew about them. We stopped at a small island and all went swimming and on the return trip they sung to us in the most wonderful harmonies imaginable. We captured some of it on our little video camera along with the sound that it can record. They were singing hymns but since it was all in Tongan it did not necessarily sound religious...just perfectly in tune and well practiced. What a talented family! On Thurs eve. Gram accompanied the oldest daughter Jasmine to her high school ball and had a very interesting time. He reports that they were all dressed to kill (some of the boys in tuxes and the girls in ball gowns) and that the dancing was most remarkable. All very proficient and somewhat practiced with line dancing and waltzing and the like. Between dances however the boys and girls would be on separate sides of the gym with not that much interaction taking place. He had a great time and will savor the night as one of the more memorable experiences of his trip.

We did go out on one of the whale watching boats and had an experience of a lifetime. They put us in the water in close proximity to the whales and we snorkeled and swam out to watch them underneath us. They are so amazing!!! Mostly got to view mother's and their calves hanging around under us. There were too many of us in the waters at the same time because we were on a boat with an Australian filming crew so the whales headed away fairly quickly. We had numerous beautiful views of them breaching and really enjoyed the whole experience of seeing them up so close. Plan to do another trip in the HaiPai group (our next set of islands) as we have heard the experience there is even better! Yesterday on our way between anchor spots we found a group of 3 whales playing very close to us and did a bit of chasing them around, Gram and I jumping off the boat and trying unsuccessfully to catch up to them. Again tho' some amazing views of their tail flukes just 200 yards away from the boat!

I am finally feelling better after having had a touch of some flu thing for the last 5 days. Very hard for someone who never gets sick to be feverish and achey in the tropics. I have not been in the best of moods but am glad to be feeling a bit better today. We are just about to go on a dive with our friend Louis on Simpatica. They have just caught up with us after a year. We last saw them in the San Blas last Sept. We are hoping that they will head out with us at the end of the week as we make our way to the Hai Pai group. Last week we were able to dive 4 days in a row which was really incredible. This one island (Tsungisika) offered the best coral we have seen yet and so w e dove there on two days. The fish are very plentiful and the clarity was quite good but the coral, especially the soft coral in every imaginable color was just to die for.

Can't think of a whole lot more to relate 'cept that I miss the family and friends that are in the US and who I wonder about in my daydreams. I am excited to get to New Zealand but also getting ready to be thinking about home and our return. It will be a bit of a shock to both body and mind to come back in the middle of winter but good to be able to settle in during that quiet time too.

In Memoriam

2010-09-29T17:02:00.001-04:00

Vava'u Kingdom of Tonga

We got the bad news yesterday that my grandmother, Mary-Ann Bird, has passed away. My father, Aunt, and Uncle were bedside in North Carolina after she was admitted to the hospital with a bad blood Bourne infection.

It is interesting the things that come to mind when you think back and remember your time with a grandparent. My most vivid memories are of our yearly winter visits to New Jersey while the parents worked in NYC. I can clearly remember the house, particularly the recliner (the first I had ever seen I imagine) and the crust-less PB&J sandwiches our grandmother would make for my sister and I. Can't imagine anyone other than a grandmother going to such trouble.

I also vividly remember our visits to Bay Head, and the old family house we would all visit. Days were filled on the beach and playing whiffleball or ping pong in the basement. Evenings were passed doing puzzles or playing cards. My grandmother was quite the card shark and she taught us all well. I can still perfectly picture sitting with her, Bob, and Sierra and trying to learn bridge one of the last times we visited them on the shore.

I unfortunately saw a lot less of my grandmother once she moved to North Carolina. Sierra and I spent a week down there one of the first summers they lived there. The lake was still a hundred yards from where it would end up along their back yard. She took us horseback riding and spoiled us rotten for a week or so...the kind of stuff grandmothers are perfect for. Since then I have only seen her during her occasional visits to Maine and family weddings, not nearly enough I am afraid to say.

A few years ago we were told after 25+ years that she never liked her original grandmotherly nickname and would prefer to go by Mary-Ann, but old habits die hard and I am sorry if she didn't like it so much, but to me, she will always simply be my Mimi.

Von-Tupe Family Singers

2010-09-27T20:44:00.004-04:00

Vava'u Tonga

We are having a wonderful time here in Vava'u, but a highlight has been our interaction with a family here. We don't actually know their last name, but Coletti and Tupe have 3 daughters (Jasmine (16), Lola (14), & Megan (8)) and two sons (Michael (6) and Douglas(1)) and lead a dance troop that performs with some cousins as well in order to pay for their schooling.

We went to their church last week, and this weekend we had them (and 18yo cousin Falou (sp?)) aboard Visions for a pick-nick. The highlight for them was sailing, swimming, and visiting their cousin (Falou's sister) who just started working on one of the out islands. Our highlight was them singing for us while Tupe steered the boat.

They are quite the talented family. I will also be accompanying Jasmine to her school Ball on Thursday (no idea what to expect there).

We have also had some excellent dives and went whale watching, getting to swim with the whales a bit. A few more days here and then we will head down to the Hapai Group.

Long time no speak

2010-09-23T16:18:00.000-04:00

Vava'u Tonga

Gosh, it has been too long since I wrote anything...sorry for the silence. Luckily mom wrote a few days ago so at least you have heard something from us. Things are well. We are enjoying Tonga and the excellent cruising grounds it provides. We went whale watching the other day and got to swim with a mother and calf a few times. They didn't stick around for too long, before moving on, but we did get some nice views. Quite a wonderful day. Also have had some nice dives. Now it is time to try to find this refrigeration leak that seems to be getting worse. I also managed to book my flights to get home for christmas yesterday. I will be stateside from Dec 16th to Jan 12 and hope to see as many friends and family members as possible before returning to NZ.

I will try to write more soon

Va Va Va Vava'u

2010-09-19T17:27:00.000-04:00

Vava'u, Tonga

Greetings from the Kingdom of Tonga...We are currently in Vava'u the middle group of the Tongan chain of islands. It is an interesting spot here..great cruising grounds and because of that, home to Moorings and SunSail charter operations so full, full of boats and stuff to do.There are too many anchorages to count and they actually are numbered rather than making us trip up over the Tongan names with more vowels than we know what to do with. Feels rather civilized and American (a mixed blessing in many ways) compared to the other places we have been. Lots of restaurants and we are now running into some of the boats that we saw way back in the San Blas as everyone heads West to spend cyclone season in New Zealand or Australia. It is very protected here with lots of little islands to go explore within this one large bay. Kind of reminds us of Maine(except for the palm trees and warm water!)

Basically Tonga is made up of four main island groups. The first one, the Nuias is the most northern one and we stopped at Nuiatoputapu on our way from American Samoa. The island was isolated and relatively poor even before it was hit hard by the Sept. 30, 2009 Tsunami. (9 people died, most homes and gov't offices destroyed). 800 people live on the island, and there might be two dozen paying gov't or commercial (bank) jobs here. The rest send weavings to relatives on the big islands, and some money flows back. There is also subsistence farming, fishing, etc.

We volunteered to do some of the building of the small prefab homes that the Red Cross from Australia has FINALLY gotten here. The village men were thrilled that we had a battery powered drill - as there are no drills on the island - and making holes and tightening bolts was our role. They had been driving successively larger nails before to pass carriage bolts between 2x4's.They have been living in tents and tin shacks for the last year!! Very difficult to fathom what a tent would be like in rainy season (I think they get 100's of inches a year rainfall) and they would be sharing said tent with 10-15 other people as families are large! We complain of recessions and hardships caused thereof...what a joke in comparison.

We had one bad night in Nuiatopatu. After a really nice Mexican dinner aboard our boat with a couple from Mendocino as they went out to leave we found that their dinghy had come untied and disappeared into the dark of the night. Unfortunately Gram had been the one to tie it up so of course we felt quite responsible. Bill, Gram, Steve and Marjula took our dinghy out in search of it with flashlites and the next disaster hit...the lights apparently stirred up these fish called needlefish and one jumped right thru the front of our dingy putting a big hole in it before lodging itself inside said chamber. They limped back and we declared it a 2 dinghy night. Luckily Steve and Marjula were incredibly Zen and gracious about the whole thing and will just use their kayak until they finish up in Australia in a few weeks. We have somewhat patched our dinghy and can also limp along till we reach New Zealand. Bad luck continued to haunt us with 3 more breakdowns after having had a wonderful maintenance free few months. When we tried to leave the next day we found that the windlass was broken so had to juryrig a way to get the anchor up. That has since been fixed without a whole lot of problems...just a day of labor. Just before we got into Vava'u we landed a HUGE fish. Had a very hard time reeling it in and just before boarding it (when we found it was about a 120 lb tuna) it broke the reel-hopefully not ending our marvelous fishing career- and broke free. Last(or so we hope) in the series of karmic paybacks was upon leaving the main harbor of Niefu to head to one of the outer anchorages we had an exhaust flow alarm followed by engine overheating. Had to shut down immediately and kind of float back to a mooring to work thru that one. So lots of maintenance but we believe all is now well and our bad luck played itself out.

The passage from Niuatopatu to Vava'u was relatively short...about 180 miles so just a short overnight. It was pretty raunchy as they have all been lately. I think that it has been recently declared a La Nina year which brings increased trade winds and we are definitely feeling strong highs and strong winds...winds alone not so much a problem...it's the seas that they kick up that make passagemaking a rolly and uncomfortable event. I am pretty psyched tho' as that was my last overnight. I am going to fly from Tonga to New Zealand and a friend of my friend, the other Johanna, who lives in NZ is going to meet us in Tonga and be part of the delivery crew with Bill and Gram. I will be able to stay with Sharon the female part of the couple while Ralph does this sail. After making 12000 + miles I am not feeling like a wimp to bail out of this last long and generally tough leg.

We have been having alot of fun easily moving from anchorage to anchorage here and meeting up with other boats for water activities, happy hours, group dinners and few meals out. We saw a wonderful dance performance by a bunch of kids from the village of Pangiamotu. They perform to collect money to pay for schooling as it costs quite a bit for even a public education here. I think they said they hoped to raise 5000. to pay the tuitions, books, etc for these 10 kids. While there we were invited to join that family yesterday for their church and Sunday lunch. Beautiful rich voices filled the space and it was especially interesting as they place the people in the choir thruout the church making the good sounds fill the place instead of coming from the front. The family we went with and ate with were wonderful and we got to speak at length to Coletti the mother who also is the teacher/leader of the dance troup. She and her husband Tupai seem really ambitious and work at a resort as well as doing crafts and farming to well provide for their 5 kids. The kids are so well mannered and helpful and were a joy to watch. Jasmine is 16 and a track star as well as an ace student. Lola is 14, Megan 8, Brian 6 and Douglas 17 months.Very cute kids and we hope to be able to catch another of their performances this week.

One of the anchorages we spent 2 nights at had some of the best snorkeling we have done. It is called the Coral Garden and was just that. Many many varieties of coral, all different colors and shapes and really just beautiful. We are so happy to be back into the water after a couple of weeks of little to no swimming. Have had one good dive here with lots more on the radar...there is just so much to do that it is hard to fit it all in. We hope to get on a whale watch boat later this week...we saw one great tail fluke as we went between anchorages but would love to get out to the open water for more and possibly even a swim with the whales. Did hear them singing when we snorkeled the Coral Gardens and that in itself is quite magical.

Did you miss me?

2010-09-06T17:49:00.000-04:00

Niuatoputapa, Tonga

Been a bit of time since I wrote last and alot of miles covered. Left American Samoa on 8/15 for a 12 day trip home to help get Zak off to McGill. It was way too short a time at home and I am so sorry to have not seen everyone I would have liked to connect with. I did however have a few choice visits with those near and dear and had some wonderful time with my beloved grandaughter (she changes so rapidly that visiting with her was very key) Zak and I had a great time in Montreal and I feel like he is in a perfect spot for him to explore this new phase of independence. He was pretty independent the past 9 months but had sister and then grandma very close by...this is the real deal but I feel like he is ready to fly!! I LOVE Montreal and it's energy and am totally psyched that we will now have the excuse to go there a few times a year. Also means we will see more of our brother and sister in law and kids in Vermont as it is a perfect stopping point or they would be able to meet us in Montreal at times perhaps. They treated me to a wonderful birthday meal and mini-celebration when I stayed there on my way back.

I had 2 days in Palo Alto with brother Eric and Katie and Lily and Alyson as I flew East to West. Arrived for Aly's 21st birthday which was fun to help celebrate. What a lovely young lady she has grown into!! Did not see that much of Lil as her social schedule is rather full but she looks great and is the same smiling girl she has been her whole life. Got in a nice visit with my childhood best friend Evvie and also a short but sweet visit with longtime surrogate father Sid (Sierra was born in his 2nd home in Inverness some 35+ years ago). All in all it was a perfect way to break up the trip back to Samoa and really made the travels so so much easier than the trip from hell of 2 redeyes to go home. My friend Janet Spurr was on vaca in Hawaii so she was able to meet me there and travel back to Samoa with me for a short but sweet 4 day visit with us.

What we arrived to in American Samoa was pretty awesome. Every minute of every day was filled with activities planned by various members of the village of Fagasa (Forbidden Bay) where the boat was anchored. Bill and Gram had made great inroads into the REAL Samoa and we were hosted by this village in a most remarkable way. There hasn't been a boat here in years and years and their curiosity was only rivaled by their generosity. The nature of the Samoan culture is family is all important and family extends to many generations, cousins,and even strangers like us. We were fed and taken all over the island to see their favorite places. They gave us gifts and extended so many courtesies that it was almost embarrassing. So many parts of the island are still trying to recover from the tsunami that devasted the place last Sept. Many people lost everything and it is only because of the extended family thing that they have been able to recover. We had one really fun lunch out at a place called Tisa's Barefoot Bar and were able to learn alot of the history of the island and it's people from Tisa's son Jason who was there for a month or so. He generally fishes out of Alaska but comes home each year to spell someone else from the responsibilities of the restaurant. Sili,one of the chiefs of the village of Fangasa made us an UMU which is the traditional barbeque that is cooked in the earth. It was an amazing feast and quite a feat to watch. His "boys" (sons and nephews most likely) did the whole thing. They do not eat with us, the guests but stood over us fanning us to keep flies away and heat at bay...a bit uncomfortable for the likes of me but again part of their culture. The respect and reverence that the young people show their elders is pretty amazing and really a shocking counterpart to our American ways. Very well behaved and very curious about us as palangies (foreigners). Before the umu we had gone to the school that our friend Evelyn was principal of and repeated the slide show that Bill and Gram had also presented to the school in Fagasa. We were amazed by the interest and knowledge of the world we have just travelled by these 5th, 6th and 7th graders. Also had the honor of taking Sili to the next bay (Massacre Bay) in our dinghy to allow him to pay respects to his departed auntie who is buried there. It was a lovely beach and we had a picnic lunch and did a bit of swimming and snorkeling.

Evelyn is this amazing American who had lived in Samoa since she was a teenager and is married to the high chief of Fangasa-Lilio. He is one of the kindest men we have met and has such a quiet yet strong and powerful presence that being with him was really cool. We went out our last night there to a dance performance and really enjoyed our time with the two of them. Love the way the men dress up in nice shirts or even ties and jackets and then a lava lava which is like a wraparound skirt! And then there was David ( a fellow who also has been here from Mass. for many years) and his Samoan wife Fui. They had us to dinner, had us to breakfast and gave us many gifts which we will cherish forever. They also drove Janet to the airport after dinner on Thurs. and stayed with her in the line which i am sure was very helpful for her as the chaos at the airport was rather extraordinary in my experience. Fui and David still have two sweet kids still at home who giggled and smiled whenever we spoke to them. We were gifted an AVA bowl (which is a bowl for Kava, a traditional drink of these parts) From what I have read it is drug like in its effects and I wonder when we will get to try out our bowl! It is a beautiful wood piece with 10 legs and will grace our vanity once we put some pads on the feet...

We had hoped to stay for church on Sunday so that I could experience the singing and togetherness of the service but weather dictated a rather abrupt departure on Sat. early afternoon. So off we were, headed 200 miles to our next port and a new country. It was a horrible sail...the worst of the trip according to Gram who actually got seasick but with 30 knot winds at least it was very fast. Arrived in Nuiatoputapu (most Americans call it new potatoes when pronunciation gets their tongue) the northernmost island in the Tongan chain yesterday at 11am...only 22 hrs after leaving Fangasa. We lost Sunday in the process as we have now crossed the international dateline.
Looking forward to going ashorethis morning and getting our first taste at Tongan culture which we have heard is very similar to that of Samoa. Guess for me I will just keep being Queen for a Day...that is how they make me feel!!! Hope to hear some news from abroad as any of you find the time. We were happy to hear that Earl missed the US of course and wonder what else besides fall and apples Sept will bring.

Fanned in Fagasa

2010-09-03T22:01:00.003-04:00

Fagasa, Amerika Samoa

He have had an amazing time here in the village of Fagasa (Pronounced Fang-a-sa'). The week before mom returned we did lots of work, but found the time to give a presentation to the local 6th, 7th, & 8th graders. They loved it and now we are famous, being called by name all around the village and even in Pago Pago on occasion. We were also invited to a BBQ on Saturday and went to church again on Sunday. We were all ready to leave the Wednesday before mom got back and meet them in Apia, but Sili made us an offer we couldn't refused as he wanted to show us around and have an Umu in our honor while Janet was here so we stayed. Sunday night Sili took Bill to pick up mom and Janet Spur (a sales-rep friend of Mom's). Monday we were taken on a tour of the western side of the island and had Evalyn and Lilio over for cocktails. Tuesday we gave the a presentation to Evalyn's private school children (amazing kids really) and then came back for an Umu. This is the traditional hot rock cooking method. We had BBQ'd meat, and veggies from the umu including breadfruit, bananas, and the most amazing food I have ever had, taro leaves with coconut milk which I can't remember the name of, but is truly amazing, like the best creamed spinach you could ever imagine but without any of the strong spinach aroma. Of course the most mind-blowing part is that as you eat, you are fanned (to keep cool and to keep the flies away) by "the boys" (untitled men in the family). Once we were done eating, Sili, his wife, and cousin ate, and then the boys eat what is left with plates of food taken to other elders in the village. It is slightly uncomfortable being served this way, but it is their custom and they are happy to have visitors and therefore the opportunity to practice their culture.

Janet left after a dinner with David (from Mass) and his wife Fusi (Fagasaian). Today we went shopping and now are at the school enjoying the internet. We got permission to leave quietly on Sunday after church so will be prepping tomorrow for our departure to Nuatapatupu (New Pototoes).

Wednesday we went to Tisa's barefoot bar to snorkel and have lunch and then on Thursday we took Sili to his Aunt's gravesite at Masacre Bay, about 2 miles by dingy. He hadn't been there in 10 years or so and we were so happy to give back to him as he has been an amazing host to us.

King for a Day

2010-08-23T04:16:00.000-04:00

Fagasa, American Samoa

Today will go down in our memories as one our most special days. We started off with a visit to church. Sili (our talking chief host) met us at the beach and explained to the Marine Patrol who were waiting on the beach for us that we were here under his invitation. We then headed to church where we were seated in the front rows. While weary of the potential for lightening bolts to come thru the windows, we enjoyed the singing, and were treated to some English readings for our benefit. The singing was amazing by this choir that had just celebrated their 90th anniversary the week before. Dressed all in white, they made up about half the people visiting the church that day and boy could they sing.

After that we were walked to an open sided house to meet the chiefs. We were seated at tables around the perimeter with the 5 chiefs and served a meal with the chiefs. First dish was the Mahi Mahi we had caught and gave to the village and we were thanked for our gift. We were given WAY too much food, but after eating our soup we wrapped up the food in the tin foil it was served on for later. We were then excused while the chiefs had their meeting.

We walked around a bit then visited with a "palangie" Polynesian for "come from away" originally from Virginia, but moved here when she was in 8th grade. She is is married to a lower chief here, but is moving to a different village in a few weeks where he is being installed as the high chief. She was incredibly friendly, is the principal of the private school, and quite the historian. She told us lots of details of the tsunami last year and then took us on a tour of the east side of the island. We learned just how special it was that we were invited to eat with the chiefs and had a truly amazing day.

We will certainly remember this day forever.

To Boldly Go Where No Boat Has Gone Before (in 15 years anyway)

2010-08-20T01:43:00.005-04:00

American Samoa

Bill has been a busy bee. Lots of Politicking, including 3 days to visit congress, a lunch, and many meetings with Senators, Representatives, Port Directors, and many others, but we are cleared and welcome to visit Fagassa, where we hear no yacht has visited in 15 years, and we are waiting to hear back from Aoa, where an old chief said that he doesn't remember any yachts EVER visiting. I will let Bill give details on his whole process and what the dedicated might have to go through to follow our footsteps.

A very nice side benefit of the visits to congress was that we got to see and hear their opening hymn each day. If you are in American Samoa while congress is in session, it is definitely worth a visit. The session starts at 10:00 am and last about an hour. Proceedings are in Samoan, with occasional English words thrown in as each representative gives a statement, but the opening hymn is beautiful with all the men led by the female clerk and the secretaries joining in from the gallery.

Samoan Congressional Opening Hymn

Here is the audio I recorded. It doesn't quite do it or the acoustics justice, but you get the idea. I imagine this is what a church service here might be like. I imagine we will see next weekend.

We fuel up tomorrow morning, then head on to Fagassa.

So Good you'll want Samoa

2010-08-15T17:14:00.002-04:00

Pago Pago, American Samoa, South Pacific

For reasons that aren't clear, Western Polynesians have an invisible N, so the harbor we are in is pronounced Pango Pango. The harbor is a pleasant surprise....built up and fairly dirty, but with great natural beauty that almost overcomes the container terminal and tuna canneries. Mom flies out tonight so then it will be just Bill and I to get some work done and explore American Samoa and then head west to Samoa (formerly Western Samoa, but they dropped the Western a few years ago). The Samoans are very friendly and we are rather enjoying the place.

The reason I thought of this title is that apparently New Zealand doesn't have Graham Crackers...this would be bad enough for little Kiwi children to suffer, but the real collateral damage is that they therefore don't have So-mores. They love to camp and have camp fires, but they never seemed to have thought of putting marshmellows between cookies with chocolate....almost as amazing as the Chinese never figuring out the fork!

I have started educating Kiwi's, one family at a time...some day I hope they will know me as Johny graham cracker seed, or something.

Vaikona Cave - Extreme Exploration

2010-08-09T23:57:00.014-04:00

Vaikona Cave - Niue - South Pacific

The other day we rented a car with Rod and Elizabeth on Proximity and explored the island. It was an awesome day including Togo Chasms, Limu Pools and most of the other attractions on Niue we hadn't gotten to yet. We also went on a REALLY cool hike towards Vaikona Cave. We ignored the "Dangerous - Guided Only" sign as we had heard the hike was very doable, but stopped at the cave entrance with the "Dangerous - Falling Rocks" sign. The cave was steep, somewhat slippery, and we hadn't heard one way or the other how doable it was, plus we had heard conflicting reports on what to expect inside. We continued on the path down to the ocean (VERY COOL) and really enjoyed the hike overall, only getting off trail once, and quickly found our way again. We started asking around and got the skinny from Willie who owns the Washaway Cafe and Crazy Uga Cafe as well as a fishing business (very go get-em guy). He drew us a map and said we "couldn't get lost" - never as reassuring as it sounds. The couple on Quartermoon had been partway in and suggested a rope and climbing harness if we had one.

Today Bill, Rod, Elizabeth, and myself (Gram) headed back - mom smartly decided this wasn't for her. The hike in was enjoyable again and a bit faster this time. The trail is marked with red arrows in trees, but it isn't too hard to loose the path, so keep a keen eye out for the markers (Elizabeth is excellent at this). Also, there are many spiderwebs so a "swizzle stick", i.e a stick held in front of you at head height is rather helpful to clear the way. I have been told there are no dangerous spiders on Niue, but they are rather large. We got to the cave in about 30-40 mins, but it probably took us an hour or more the first time as we stopped to admire the scenery more. The entrance to the cave is just to the left of the danger sign, slightly after you can look down into the open hole.

First a bit of a warning for those following in our footsteps. I would not suggest this cave to just anybody. You have to be fit, and a bit of rock climbing/bouldering experience will really help. Elizabeth decided it wasn't for her and Rod stayed to keep her company. Bill struggled greatly, but I was able to coach him through the climb. I am by no means a climber, but I have gone to a rock gym a few times and am comfortable trusting my life on a rope. We brought a 25m line (30m would have been better) and a climbing harness. I do not have a descender so used 3 wraps on a caribeaner and ascenders would have made getting back up much easier and safer. It is certainly possible to do the climb with the ropes in the cave, but a secondary longer rope made it much easier. I didn't use the harness or caribeaners, but did use the 25m line to lower myself down the face and pull myself back up.

Here is my map of the cave system:

I will also host this file in our documents section (link on the right) for download.

When you enter the cave you have to almost crab walk under the overhang (especially if you have a pack on as I did). After that you come to the first slope which does get a little slick if wet, but isn't too bad. You can climb to the left and it is much better. About 15 feet from the entrance I found a nice rock to tie my line onto. This helped to get down the next steeper slope. There is a yellow line to help with the steepest portion of this face, but I tied on about 5 feet higher on the slope and it was helpful, but not necessary. From there you can get yourself down to plateau and prepare for the real climb. Just about anyone can get to this point and you get a nice view of the large cavern with lots of plants and moss and fairly good light.

From the plateau you will see a knotted pink line that runs down a face and then spans a gap and is tied around a large rock. There is also a vertical line way over to the left but getting there is hard and then you have to lower or raise yourself without any rock wall put your feet on for help (think high school gym class). This rock face is quite slippery so you pretty much have to trust the rope (and/or your rope)and belay yourself down. Once down the face, you must turn and bridge the narrow gap to the rock the pink line is tied around. This rock is not slippery at all and has lots of good handholds so traversing across it is not too difficult especially with the pink line tied around it to use for purchase.

Once around the large rock with the rope you must scurry across several moss covered, wet, slippery rocks to get to the first pool. It seemed the best route was to stay left along the wall and stay as low as possible. At least here there was not very far to fall. Careful crab-walking gets this done fine and you will then find yourself at the edge of the first pool. There are some nice photographic vantage points from here and it is quite pretty. We left our bags, camera and t-shirts and donned our masks and flashlights (torches) as well as our dive camera for the journey to the center of the earth.

The first pool is a nice swim. Slightly brackish water temp was about 72ish degrees, not too cold, but chillier than the ocean. The first swim through is easy, just 1 foot down, and 2 feet to get through...no problem at all. This puts you into a large, dark (one minor source of light in an upper corner) cave. There is a large rock in the middle of the cave. Directions from Willy were to look to the left to find the swim through. We explored this area left of the rock greatly and found nothing, so went to the right of the rock and found a way through. It does appear that you could climb up and over to the 3rd pool by going to the left of the rock and climbing up through a narrow gap. This looked fairly difficult and would likely result in some scrapes. The swim through to the right is fairly difficult.

As you approach the end of the channel on the right it terminates in a underwater crack just large enough to swim up or down through, but not with a lot of clearance. The swim through is under that and then down further under a fairly deep and large rock. I took 3 tries of going down, and back up, going further each time before I was sure this was a valid swim-through with air on the other side. I would not suggest even thinking about this swim through unless you can hold your breath for over 1 minute. It is probably 1.5 meters deep and 2 meters long. Getting down isn't so hard as the water is almost fresh and you can pull yourself along with your hands pretty well, but it is a long swim and the passageway is narrow at the beginning (just to get down, then it is wide open. This swim through will land you in the 3rd cave, much smaller than the first two with a decent amount of natural light, but not tons (photos still need a flash, but you can see without a flashlight. 4 people would fill this and the 4th cave up pretty well.

From there it is a very shallow and easy swim through to cave number 4 which is quite dark and also fairly small. Here we probably saw the best stalactites and stalagmites and other cool formations. I took some photos here (see smiling fools to the left) but we were starting to get a bit cold so we started back. In the 3rd cave we had a bit of hard time finding the swim through back to cave number 2. I dove down to find it, swam along and then surfaced. It didn't look quite right, but I cam up and yelled to Bill, "I'm Through!" as we had been doing to keep the other appraised, only to have him say "No Your Not!" right behind me...Oops. Second try solved the problem and I cam up through the narrow crack about 3 feet below the surface no problem. My light then guided Bill in the right direction for his dive.

The last swim through back is quite spectacular due to the lighting in cave number 1 and the crystal clear, bluish water. We yelled to Rod and Elizabeth that we were back so they could stop worrying. We climbed out, dried off, scampered back across the mossy rocks and I gave Bill the climbing harness back to put on. I climbed back around the rock with the pink rope tied around it then had to make the faith move using the pink line to hold my weight and turn putting my left foot across the gap onto the slippery wall. I could then grab the line we placed and using both lines for stability was able to swing my right foot across so I was now on the face of the cave entrance. Using our line I was able to climb up the slippery face. This is difficult as it is hard to get a good foot hold, but not horrible. When in doubt stay left as the rock is sticker there and there seem to be more edges to get a foot hold on. I was then able to use the pink line to finish the face and got myself onto the plateau to the left along the wall of the cave.

Now it was Bill's turn. He climbed around the first rock fine but struggled with approaching the face backwards and making the step across the gap. He tried frontwards a bit, but that didn't work well. He finally made the mental leap to trust his weight on the pink rope and made the step across. At this point he grabbed our line and clipped into the caribeaner with two wraps to act as a belay device. Now he was at least safe and was able to make the step across with his second foot using both lines as well to steady his rotation. He then pretty much pulled himself up with his arms as he didn't have the technique down to get as good a grip on the face. He joined me on the plateau and we were home free. The climb up from there is easy enough with the permanent ropes and with our extra line was quite easy. I coiled our line up as I went, untied it from the rock and we were ready for a quick snack before heading back out the trail to the car, skipping the ocean part this time.

All told it took us over 5 hours, probably 1.5 hours of that was coaching Bill down the rock face into the first cave, but it is still a lengthy trip so leave plenty of time to enjoy it. Time in the water was about 20 mins and hiking was probably 1.25 hours total. We took our time to be careful and safe as you are far from any help with no good way to get there if you get hurt. It was probably the most extreme adventure I have ever had and was a real rush as well as gorgeous and relaxing at the same time. It was also cool to think about how few people on the island, let along the world had ever been in that 4th cave.

news from Nuie

2010-08-04T16:44:00.000-04:00

The island of Nuie at 19 03.3S 169 55.5W

Since I wrote last we made it to Beveridge Reef and spent two days there. It was a unique experience as we really were anchored in the middle of the ocean. The reef there is literally out in the middle of the Pacific and there is NO land in sight. Made us laugh as the most common question we get asked is what do we do at night???Do we just put down an anchor....not quite as most passages have us in 1000 + ft of water but in this case we really did anchor in the middle of nowhere. We had hoped for some really good diving there but either the wicked Crown of Thorns ( a growth that feeds on and destroys the coral) or the cyclones had pretty much wiped out the coral and there was not significant fish life either. So being disappointed and having to contend with a rolly anchorage we cut our stay there short and headed to Nuie on Mon July 26 along with 6 other boats. It was fun sailing in such a caravan/very different from the passages when you see noone for days on end but had to pay alot of attention at night especially. We were the first to make Nuie and pick up one of the moorings there. There is an entity that calls itself the Nuie Yacht Club and they offer alot to the cruisers including moorings in Alofi Bay. Nuie is independent but pretty well linked to New Zealand...much money and infrastructure comes from NZ and many of the officials here take posts for a year or two and are kiwis. When we got here there were about 15 other boats in the harbor and within a few days all the moorings were filled and a few boats even had to anchor (not a good bottom for holding hence the 20 moorings that have been provided). I think on Sun or Mon there were 26 boats here which apparently is a record. One of the main attractions here are the whales which migrate past here in Aug and Sept. Nuie is pretty different topographically. It was a volcano which sunk like the others but has now risen above the sea again so is made up of limestone and coral.There are lots of caves and caverns to explore both in and out of the water.

We have gone on a few dives here and they are pretty different since one of the options is cave diving. I didn't think I would like it all but it has been quite interesting and not scary. The coolest one was a tunnel we went thru and came up in the interior of the island in a cave that had breathable air (regulators were held out of the water while we looked at all the stalagmites and stalagtites that had formed in this moist interior). Felt like Indiana Jones revisited. The rays of light coming thru the crevases and into the pools of turquoise water have been gorgeous and there are some different fish and animal life to be viewed. Snakes...lots of them and electric blue eels and lobsters in the caves have been some of the new finds. We have been able to swim with dolphins twice and yesterday saw whales pretty close by. Tried to be in the water with them but they kept alluding us. Got some great visuals on flukes and tail slapping tho and while under the water on our dive could clearly hear them singing...very magical!

Much of the weekend was devoted to birthday celebrations...our friend Trish on Curious had an Aug 1st bday so Bill and Steve and Gram organized a big pot luck party at the yacht club on Sat. Our two boats provided a bbque feast of fish, pork and turkey kabobs that were grilled to perfection and all attendees brought a dish to share...lots of chatting, drinking and feasting. Ended up with 5 or 6 other early Aug birthdays being added into the celebration so we had a great time. That night just as we got back to the boats we saw lightning and a pretty significant squall blew in. Pretty uncomfortable anchorage that night with swells wrappping around the island and into the harbor. A 57 ft catamaran between here and Tonga actually capsized that night but was rescued the next morning by the freighter that was headed here. The two fellows on board were bruised up an bit but were so lucky that that was all. Unfortunately the boat is still afloat and will have to be watched out for by all the people in these waters for the next few weeks at least. We will be going in a different direction when we do leave so will not have much to think about. Kind of a wake up scary experience tho'. Glad to be on a monohull with a much more stable tipping point and alot more lead and weight under our keel. Think that this was the largest cat to ever go over tho' so ....

On Sunday we went on an around island tour in the hopital administrator's( Anne) car. She took us to a number of caves which we climbed in and around and to a few gorgeous pools. It was kind of a rainy day so we did not snorkle but will hope to go back there this week and check out the snorkelable spots. It is a gorgeous island and very different with these cliffs and caves...no beaches per say but still quite lovely. Had lunch at a local place called the Washaway run by a real character named Willy. Huge delicious burgers which have an egg and beets as accoutrements...a tasty treat and a fun place to hang out. Will hope for another Sunday(only day he is open there) when we can go back and snorkel at his cove as well. That night we had another bday celebration on Curious with the 5 of us and another boat(Bubas) a great couple from Australia who have been hanging with us as well. We have become so close to Curious these past 6-7 weeks of cruising together...hope they will remain lifelong friends as they are such wonderful people and we all got on so finely.

Last night we had a farewell dinner for Steve and Trish (and included Anne and another local...Shelley the police chief's wife). Curious left for Tonga very early this morning and we will not see them again til New Zealand as they are on a different route from us at this point. Today I am feeling quite sad at my loss of a wonderful woman friend. She was probably the most compatible with me of anyone we have met on this trip and such a great lady. They will head for Tonga and then Figi where they will leave the boat for a month to fly home to So. Wales to be there for their first grandchild to be born in Sept. We will stay here till mid week next week probably, will watch the weather and pick a window to head up to American Samoa so that I can fly home on the 15th. Bill and Gram will most likely head to Western Samoa to hang out the 2 weeks I am away as Pago Pago (the main anchorage in Amer. Samoa) is good only for provisioning and flying in and out of...not particularly pretty or cultural from what we have heard. So that brings us up to date on the goings on in our little boat world.

Dive to Snake Gully

2010-08-04T03:43:00.002-04:00

Niue - Snake Gully

It was an early morning to get to shore, drive to the dive shop, then gear up and get out on the water. The fisherman who was pulling his boat and 30lb wahoo out of the water told us there were Whales in the bay, so first before our dive we headed off in search of a whale interaction. We saw two whales right away, and headed to where they had surfaced. I jumped in to spot the dive boat and see if they were in the area still. I didn't see the whales, but I did see a LARGE Blue Marlin (8'body plus 3'sword at least) about 40 feet below me....VERY COOL majestic fish. The whales surfaced further north, so out of the water and we kept chasing. We got some great views as they surfaced from the dive boat, and one swim by but the single whale was fairly deep so we saw more of the hint of a whale than anything else. Still, very cool and hopefully we will get a better look in the next week. After that we jumped in to swim with some dolphins for a few minutes, then headed to Snake Gully for our dive.

Snake Gully gets its name from the plethora of snakes that call this region home. The snakes vary from 2' to 4' and though VERY poisonous, have very small mouths, so aren't very dangerous to humans. They surface about every 30 minutes to breath and are quite inquisitive when they aren't sleeping. Other than the snakes and some nice early growth coral (Niue was hit pretty hard by a cyclone in 2004ish and the coral is just coming back now) there is a very cool, but small cave with TONS of Lobster and another Chavern with very cool light filtering through the gaps. A lovely dive, but by then we were getting pretty cool in the 80 degree (27 C) water.

Tonight we had Ann (Hospital administrator - read head of state health and human services) and Shelly (Chief of Police's wife) over for dinner along with Steve and Trish. Very nice conversation and a great dinner. Unfortunately, Steve and Trish are leaving us tomorrow and we won't see them again until New Zealand in November for Steve, and January for Trish. We will miss them greatly. About half the harbor had emptied out in the last two days, but we have another week or so to explore Niue and plan to make the most of it.

Pics have been updated through the Cook islands and Niue should be up soon, so go check out the web albums (link on the right). The other big news is that a 57' catamaran flipped on their way here the other day and were rescued by the ship that came in on Monday. The Crew is fine, but it is a wake up call to a lot of sailors here and makes us very glad we have a big heavy keel under our boat unlike a catamaran which is more stable upside down then right-side up. My quick write-up of the incident made the front page of SailingAnarchy.com

Happy Birthday Johanna

2010-08-02T19:41:00.005-04:00

Niue

Johanna’s birthday weekend included caves and caverns, stalagtites and stalagmites, a big birthday barbeque party at the Nuie Yacht Club, and a birthday dinner aboard Curious – along with August 1 birthday girl Trish. A special birthday indeed, and one that nearly sets a new standard.

Hugs and love to and from all…

The Crew of Visions of Johanna

Lionfish, & Dolphins, & Caves, Oh My!

2010-07-30T23:44:00.003-04:00

Nuie - South Pacific
19N 169 W

We had an excellent two tank dive this morning. First we headed north to Limu Point for what is called "The Twin Caves". The dive started in 30ft, then we went down a large hole to about 70-80, and explored a series the nooks and crannies before heading out a tunnel at the bottom. From there we went to the second cave which was darker before we connected through a smallish tunnel back to the first one. Neat lighting effects as well as some nice fish, including a very cool lionfish, one real big grouper-like fish, and a large puffer fish were the highlights. We finished the dive hanging out in 30ish feet checking out the reef fish.

During our surface interval we headed back south and were going to do a dive at the north end of the bay we are moored in, but the surge was a bit more than the dive master was happy with, so we started heading down to the south end of the mooring field. On our way we found a large pod of Dolphin and Ian had us get in the water... VERY COOL. The dolphin are amazing swimmers, sooooo carefree.

The second dive took us fully into an above waterlevel cave. After a quick visit to an anenomie and a leaf fish we headed in towards the island, and surfaced in a breathable chamber. The surge causes the pressure to fluctuate in the cave, so you had to constantly clear your ears, but the air is breathable, though very damp. The stalactites and stalagmites were amazing as were some other rock formations in there. Felt very Indiana Jones. After 10 mins or so we swam back out, through several "swim throughs" and finished along a wall for a final hang out with reef fish. Mom and I had plenty of air, so we headed down the wall to 60 feet to check some things out, saw a ray, and some other very pretty small fish.

The coral in this northern area is fairly dead after the cyclone several years ago, but rock formations are VERY cool, and the fish life seems to be coming back. Plus there are a TON of sea snakes (not as scarry as they sound, but I don't really like them that much). Fish life is decent, but generally small, and visibility is AWESOME, about as good as Easter Island with 150'+ visibility.

Tomorrow we are having a birthday party for mom and Trish (both turning 42 we hear). Should be fun.

On to Nuie

2010-07-28T15:44:00.002-04:00

20S 170W - Nuie

In hindsight, we were probably a little hasty in leaving Beverage Reef. We dove just outside the pass and were very disappointed to find that all the coral is DEAD and there aren't many fish either. The pass didn't look much better and it was fairly choppy inside the reef, especially at high tide so we decided to cut our losses and enjoy more time in Nuie. Scott & Cindy decided to tough it out another night and headed to the eastern edge of the lagoon where they tell us they found 3-4 wrecks and excellent live coral and fish and sharks. Sounds like it is all inside the reef (haven't found a shortcut out and the dingy ride around would be QUITE long, so depths are shallow.

In any event, we had a decent passage to Nuie...a bit rolly and not quite enough wind to keep the sails from slatting, but good enough. There were 6 boats traveling that night so it kept us on our toes, slaloming through traffic. The moorings here are very nice and the anchorage isn't too rolly (yet at least). People are super friendly and there is supposed to be excellent diving, plus the whales are just starting to arrive. If the weather holds out we should be here about 2 weeks. Plus there is free internet from the Mormons so life is pretty good.

More soon.

Beverage Reef Arrival

2010-07-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

20 00.65S 167 46.64W - Middle of Nowhere -- Beverage Reef

We just pulled into Beverage Reef, which is pretty much as close as you can get to anchoring in the middle of the ocean. The closest dry land is 100+ miles away in Nuie. Pretty cool place, and water looks very clear.

I had a miserable passage as I had a flu like illness that kept me in bed with a 103 degree fever for much of the trip. Luckily it was an easy, calm passage and I am doing better now (just a scratchy throat left over). Should be here a few days, then on to Nuie.

Check out our position on the Yotreps position report (link to the right) to see where we are.

en route to Beveridge Reef

2010-07-25T09:03:00.000-04:00

19 46.6 S 167 09.0W between Palmerston atoll and Beveridge Reef

Helllo out there...Currently en route from Palmerston atoll to Beveridge Reef in light winds and calmish seas. We left Palmerston Fri afternoon and were able to sail nicely for about 28 hrs with 20-25 k winds but behind us so pretty comfortable. Seas were reasonable which made for a much more enjoyable passage than the last few. By dinner toniight the winds had died so we are now motorsailing for the last 12 -14 hrs. Should reach Beveridge at light Sun morn. We are travelling with 4 other boats on this leg which has been different...neat to see sails in the day and lights at night only a couple of miles away...also reason to pay more attention!!! This convoy heading to Beveridge should prove interesting as there is nowhere to go besides on the boats. There is no land there...just the reef so we will be on board or in the water the whole time Trying to figure out the logistics of socializing with 14 people with this scenario but at least hoping for some good diving for a couple of days. Can only stay there in very settled weather so will most likely be a 3-4 day stop before heading to Niue.

Palmerston proved to be an interesting stop. It is a small atoll in the Southern Cook Islands which is English speaking tho' the dialect gave us a few problems. Kind of under the auspices of New Zealand. They use the NZ dollar tho' it did not matter as there is nothing to spend your money on anyway. These folks live off the fish they catch and what stores they can lay in when the supply ship comes which is only every 6-8 months...talk about basic. However they were very friendly and hospitable. Actually the cruisers have become their lifeblood with civilization and bring goods to trade and share so we are really welcomed.

There are currently 67 people living there...probably in about 8-10 households (lots of kids per family). I think we heard that 30 kids attend the 1 room schoolhouse. They seem to place education as a priority and use an American program called ACE...accelerated Christian education...definitely no division of church and school exists as we saw many references to Jesus Christ and God within the teaching program and curiculum. The kids seemed bright and well spoken so at least that is a positive. They do have internet which I am sure has changed their reality alot. Story is that one man, William Marsters settled here with a Polynesian wife and two cousins who he also had as "wives" tho they were not ever married. The familiies there now are all descendants of these three famililes and trace their lineage to the three women so there are 3 distinct clans.They all have the last name of Marsters! You must marry outside your own clan...to either one of the other families or an outsider. You then belong to the family you have married into. There is a bit of a territorial aspect to all of this and we were each hosted by a family who then had "rights" to us. They took us under their wings while we were there...transporting us in and out of the anchorage thru the pass in their skiffs and feeding us on the island. We had one lunch with all the boats (there were 8 there at the same time) tho' our hosts would not eat with us...oinly after we had finished so some odd customs. They gave us all tours and talked about the history of Palmerston with great pride. Very interesting...Gram said he kept hearing banjos!!

Friday morning Bill and I went on a dive before we left Palmerston. Gram did not feel well so stayed on board. It was a great dive...right off the boat and down the wall of the reef to about 65 or 70 ft. Drop dead gorgeous coral...there were lilac and turquoise patches and even a lime green one that we had never seen before. Good fish and the highlight was a huge turtle that swam with us for awhile. His shell was about 6 ft long and then there were his legs,arms,head and tail so he was a big guy!! Very regal and very cool. Gram had a high fever over the night so we got to experience crusing with only 2 to cover the watch schedule...definitley alot more tiring. Finally by dinner tonight he seems to be on the mend so hopefully will be ready and rearing to go once we reach Beveridge...Well time for me to turn over my watch and get a little more sleep.

Best of the Society Islands Leeward Group (aka The Huahine Chronicals)

2010-07-18T14:53:00.000-04:00

Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Anchored outside pass
18 51.35S/159 48.8W

We arrived Aitutaki early yesterday morning and anchored just south of the pass in mixed coral heads and sand ravines - not ideal conditions. We timed our arrival with diminished seas, and are only rolling moderately; all is well on board. We will report more about our re-entry into english speaking islands once our baguette withdrawl recedes (one can sufficate here in a sea of white bread). In the meantime, the following information will be of interest to those who follow us:

Our...Best of the Society Islands Leeward Group (aka The Huahine Chronicals)

1. Huahine

Huahine is the most laid back/quiet large island in FP. An absolute favorite spot (and a great cruising experience) was at the Motu Murimahora anchorage on the east side of the island. We entered Pass Farerea, immediately turning south towards Bai Apoomati and Motu Murimahora. Following a line of island side marks as we proceeded south, we snuck into a narrow channeled harbor on this quiet side of the island. As you approach the middle point of the motu, the line of marks on your right side ends but continues with marks a bit farther down on the (left) motu side. Between the sets of marks you will find a gorgeous anchorage in a 17 foot deep, broad, plateau of sand at 16 45.86S/150 57.56W.

We made a shore excursion as we heard there were fruits/veggies for sale. Immediately south of a prominent and fancy "plantation" belonging to the family that owns the large grocery in Fare, we met 2 families and were given cantaloupes, papayas, string beans, bok choy, and fresh herbs; neither family would take money. Pascal is the husband residing in the second house, along with spouse and many children. They hardly accepted the gifts we returned with later that day. The children took chocolates however, and we also gave some veggie seeds to help their burgeoning vegetable growing business, starting soil, a pair of extra reef flip-flops, and 2 nat'l geo mags for the children learning english. Our friends Steve and Trish brought some pens and pencils, sunglasses, and a frisbee for the kids. As a final thank you, we took the children "tubing" the next morning before we left. What a hoot!

Fare was a friendly village. There is one anchorage on your left as you enter off the beach by town. We continued around to the right and anchored at the edge if the channel on either side of the green buoy opposite Bank Taiuriu. There is good provisioning at the grocery although it was a bit more expensive than Papeete, and fresh produce was hit and miss. There is an enjoyable waterfront bar/restaurant by the dinghy landing, and a few crafts shops in town. Roads were flat and newly paved which made for some excellent cycling. We dove Pass Avapehi but coral was not healthy and the dive was just ok.

There is not enough swing room to anchor in the small cove inside Bank Taiuriu. Baie Fiti is a wind tunnel with SE winds. Anchoring inside Port Bourayne was difficult. And we anchored just outside. We did not make it as far as Baie D'Avea, as winds were fresh and the anchorage too exposed.

2. Tahaa/Raitea

The lagoon encompassing these two islands is a large area, and we only explored some of it. We spent several nights on the southern extent of Tahaa at the Taravana YC, located just inside Baie Apu, immediately on your right as you approach. The YC is now owned/operated by Richard, and he can be contacted at 689 656101 (office) or 689 280808 (cell) There is no charge for the moorings if you use the bar and restaurant. Richard hosts a buffet dinner and Polynesian dance presentation Tuesday evenings for 6000f/pp. Dinner includes water and wine, and the performers are young locals with infectious enthusiasm. Note: Tuesday moorings usually require a reservation as they fill quickly.

We took the dingy into the bay and hiked to a vanilla distributor where we saw preparation of the plant and product. There was also good cycling around Tahaa.

Fuel and provisioning are available at the main village of Utaroa. The Shell station has a guest dock nearly in the middle of town, but does not offer duty free fuel. The Total station is located just north at the head of the small inlet adjacent to the municipal marina, and Total does offer duty free diesel. We fueled at Total late morning on Saturday, and then were able to lie there for the afternoon (they operate 7-11AM on Saturdays & Sundays) for the 10 minute walk into town and provisions. Have large and plenty fenders on the ready for either dock.

In town one can provision at a Champion market, or 2 oriental markets. Jean Luc at Liaut market speaks English. A sail down the east side of Raitea was a great day activity as we headed towards Isla Naonao, by Naonao Pass on the south side of the lagoon. We anchored in 20 feet of sand at 16 55.00S/151 25.80W by the NW corner of the island. The snorkeling around Isla Naonao, both by the reef just west of it and in the waters along its southern shore, was fantastic - and some of the best in the Societies.

Unfortunately, we were not welcomed on the island. An American has purchased it and placed caretakers there to chase you off should you choose to land. Although all beaches in FP are open and public, they tried to chase us off the beach as well. We finally said we would leave, but we took our time about it and enjoyed ourselves. They also tried to do the same thing to a group of locals that came out for the day, eliciting a similar response. I do not suppose that actions such as these ingratiate native French Polynesians to the USA.

3. Bora Bora

We did not spend much time in Bora Bora. The village and island were not as tidy as others, and the people simply did not appear to be as friendly and welcoming. The lagoon and the high island are striking and beautiful, however. The BB Yacht Club suffered significant damage in last years typhoon and is still being rebuilt - moorings are still available however. We biked around the island, did some light provisioning, and dove the Teavanui Pass with a dive service. The fish are fed here, and there were numerous large lemon sharks close at hand. Quite arresting, but the experience was tarnished due to the fact that they interfered and fed the reef fish.

4. Mopelia (or Maupihaa)

Mopelia is located approximately 135 nm WSW of Bora Bora. A true atoll, Mopelia has an extremely NARROW entry, but one that is protected as it lies on the NW corner. There is almost always an outflowing current of 3 or more knots; the water is roiled in the pass and just outside, but standing waves over 1 foot rarely will form.

Charts show a village in the NE corner as well as several bouys and marks around the pass, but the village is no longer there and reportedly it was destroyed by a typhoon sometime in the 1990's. You will now find the ruins of several homes and remnants of a pier. The 3 families that inhabit the island in 2010 all live in the SE corner. A large family headed by Calami and Sophie inhabit the "middle" homestead, including Calami's son, daughter-in-law, and several grandchildren . There are two other small families living there as well but we did not meet them.

Mopelia highlights include a very beautiful lagoon, nice beaches, and solitude. The diving just outside the pass is exceptional, the best we had done in the Societies. The snorkeling is good too, although you have to consider snorkeling outside the pass with surge and swells, or just inside the pass with considerable current.

Pass entry information was provided to us by Scott on S/Y Beachhouse, and I present it here with minimal changes, as we could not say it better ourselves.

THE ENTRANCE PASS HAS TWO BLACK AND WHITE POLES THAT ARE ABOUT 90 FEET APART AND SET AT AN ANGLE. THE FIRST POLE IS THE NORTHERLY ONE AND YOU KEEP IT ON YOUR LEFT HAND AS YOU ENTER. THE SECOND (SOUTHERLY) POLE EDGES THE REEF ON THE RIGHT AS YOU ENTER.

THE ONLY TIME YOU DON'T WANT TO COME HERE IS IN A WESTERLY. PASS CURRENT, 2-6 KNOTS DEPENDING ON TIME OF DAY. YOU'D LIKE SOME 10:30 AM TO 2 PM SUN. NO STANDING WAVES BIGGER THAN 1-2 FEET AT THE STRONGEST CURRENT. YOUR CHART WILL BE (LIKE MAUPITI), SLIGHTLY OFF. THE ISLAND IS FURTHER NORTH BY ABOUT 220 YARDS THAN ON OUR CHARTS (NAVIONICS). MAXSEA AND C-MAP ARE THE SAME.

IT LOOKS VERY NARROW FROM THE OUTSIDE....AND...IT IS! HOWEVER, WE DID NOT THINK IT A PROBLEM AT ALL AND WE ARE VERY FAT. THE KEY IS....YOU WANT TO FAVOR THE RIGHT ONCE INSIDE. THE CHART MAKES IT LOOK LIKE A LONG NARROW DRY REEF ON BOTH SIDES. IT'S NOT!...THE RIGHT IS DRY, THE LEFT SIDES OBSTRUCTIONS ARE ALL VERY SHALLOW AND NOT EASILY SEEN, PUT SOMEONE AT THE LOWER SPREADERS. YOU HAVE 14-16 FEET (FROM THE SURFACE) AT ALL TIMES. ONCE INSIDE, THE REEF OPENING SORT OF FANS OUT. WATCH THE SHALLOWS ON THE RIGHT AND USE THEM AS YOUR GUIDE. THE FURTHER IN YOU GET, THE MORE YOU WILL START TO GET AWAY FROM THE RIGHT SIDE, THAT'S OKAY. DISCONCERTING AS ONCE INSIDE ABOUT 100 YARDS, IT LOOKS LIKE BOMMIES IN FRONT OF YOU. THERE ARE!...BUT, THAT'S WHERE YOU GET 14-16 FEET MINIMUMS. MOST OF THE CHANNEL INCLUDING THE ENTRANCE IS 25-60 FEET DEEP.
JUST THE SIDES ARE ONE FOOT DEEP, BUT VERY EASY TO SEE. ONCE PAST THE BOMMIES, YOU CAN BASICALLY GO ANYWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAGOON. THERE ARE ABANDONED PEARL FARM BUOYS ON THE WEST/SOUTH SIDES. SOME IN THE MIDDLE, SOME 2 FEET DEEP...THOSE YOU WANT TO WATCH FOR. 10 PEOPLE ON THE SOUTH WEST SIDE OF THE EASTERN MOTU. KALAMI AND SOPHIE AND FAMILY. RUSTIC DOESN'T COME CLOSE TO DESCRIBING THEIR LIFE STYLE!.... COPRA HARVESTING. THEY WOULD LOVE SOME FRESH FRUIT, IT WOULD BOND YOU IMMEDIATELY.

Of note, there is a chart offset of approximately 220 yards, with the chart shifted to the north. In other words, the pass as seen on the chart will be north of your entry point by this amount – your boat will lie 220 yards south of the charted pass as you enter. Our waypoints were as follows:

Approach – 16 46.868S/153 58.735W
Approach - 16 46.913S/153 58.678W
Pass Outer Entry Point - 16 46.953S/153 58.627W
Inner Pass Exit - 16 47.155S/153 58.381W
Inner Pass Approach - 16 47.317S/153 58.242W

Once inside, navigation is not difficult in good light. There are few reefs to avoid, but numerous abandoned pearl buoys abound, and many are just submerged. Be aware.

One can head down to the SE anchorage area, waypoint 16 49.683S/155 65.63W, or head more or less east to a second anchorage near 16 47.05S/153 56.66W. The SE anchorage is near the inhabited area of the atoll, and provides slightly more protection in winds from the south to east. The eastern anchorage provides better protection from the east to north, and access to the pass for diving. Neither anchorage area would be enjoyable in westerlies.

In light easterlies it is reported that one can anchor just inside the pass by the western motus south of the entry, but winds did not cooperate during our stay. We moved to the eastern anchorage and took the dinghy 1.65 nm across the lagoon to dive. There is quite a bit of current in the pass and a 15 HP or greater engine is best for this as you traverse the pass, and then return to the anchorage against the east wind. There is a buoy just outside the pass on the south side which marks the anchor chain of "The Seadler" shipwreck, and one can tie the dinghy to it for a dive along the wall to the south of the pass. You can begin your dive by dropping 30 feet to the bottom in nice coral, and then proceed a short distance west to the wall. We dove to 70-90 feet and (turned left) swam south against a very light counter current along a beautiful 70 degree wall. Coral was great, fish were large and abundant. We turned around at a ravine about 20 – 25 minutes into the dive (~1800 psi), ascended to 30-40 feet, and drifted back with the current. The dive then continues past the buoy to the edge of the pass, where you hang out and watch the fish and their antics. It was stupendous.

Another time we brought a heavier anchor (mother ship stern anchor) and did a similar dive along the north wall. Also excellent, but perhaps the coral was not quite as healthy and the North wall of the pass has more current and less visability.

Enjoy.

Goodbye FP

2010-07-17T09:19:00.000-04:00

18 31.2S 159 14.2W
40 miles NE of Aitutaki, Cook Islands

We said goodbye to French Polynesia on Thursday morning (15th) with a 3 boat caravan departure from Mopelia. Besides Curious, a Cat we met the day before (Bubas) was leaving as well, so we started a small "net" to talk a few times a day. The passage has been uneventful, and reasonably pleasant. Sea state is a little rough, but wind has been steady and we are making very good time. For most of the trip we have been able to see Curious, which is very weird, but quite comforting really.

In Aitutaki we willl not be able to enter inside the lagoon (too shallow through the pass) so we are bit weather dependant there. Hopefully our weather window holds and we can spend 3-4 days there.

We really liked Mopelia and would hightly suggest it for any divers in our wake. The wall dives on either side of the pass are excellent, especially the southern wall. There is a bouy to pick up, tied to a long length of chain on the botom just south of the pass in about 25 feet of water. From there you decend down the wall anywhere from 60 to 100+ feet depending on how long you want to stay and travel south. We maxed out at about 90 feet, staying mostly around 70 feet till we got to about 1800 psi. In this area we saw lots of larger palagic fish, including tuna, jacks, & pompano, as well as nice reef fish in the healthy coral. Also, at this depth there is almost no current along the wall. From there you can turn up the wall onto the coral shelf in 40-25' where there is a nice gentle counter current to bring you back to the pass along the top. Here, lots of colorful coral, some sharks, and still lots of fish (palagic and reef). In just a few minutes you will be back at the mooring. From there we traveled all the way to the wall of the pass. Here the southern side is much better with pretty decent visability and a very cool overhanging wall. We held on here till be were down to 750psi and saw lots of large parrot fish, jacks, and many others swimming in the current or hanging out along the wall. The North side had way more current on the wall and not much to see, but the south was relavitely calm (at times could let go for a few minutes without going anywhere) and very cool coral formations to explore. Probably our best dive yet. Not quite as dramatic a wall as Toau, but better fish, and with the coral flat and pass, it has more interest overall. Viz was excellent everywhere other than in the pass itself. We dicided not to bother diving the pass as it is VERY fast and viz was quite limited. In more settled conditions, the pass might be great.

We were giving the compressor quite the workout, with two dives the first day and another on the second day for a total of 11 tank fills (mom skipped the first dive), so I had to change out the filter. Usually not a big deal, but the top fo the filter stack was being quite stuborn and my wrench slipped off it, causing my face to implant itself on the corner of the fan cage (OWWW!). Now I look like my dad at my college graduation (he closed the rear gate of his Explorer on his forehead).

All is well. We are on a bit of a schedule now to get to NUI for Mom & Trish's Birthdays (1st & 2nd of August) and then on the American Samoa for Mom's flight on the 15th. It means we only get about 3 days in each of the next 3 stops (Aitutaki, Palmerston Atol, and Beverage Reef). Thats all for now.

midnight watch-version 10

2010-07-17T08:37:00.000-04:00

18 30.4 S 159 12.8W between Mopelia and Aitutaki

Good morning from the nav(navigation) staion here at 1 am. It's a beautiful clear starry night and I am on watch on a 2 day, 2 night passage from Mopelia to Aitutaki in the southern Cook Islands. This has been one of our kindest passages with fair weather and long wave trains that are only 7-8 ft seas. A small roll but none of the herky jerky stuff that throws us around and otherwise makes us a bit miserable. We have been making 7-10k speeds for the bulk of the trip and have flown a combo of full to double reefed main with either the jib or the larger reacher out on the pole (our version of a spinnaker). True downwind sailing and much more what the Pacific is supposed to be like. Not bad!!!

We have officially left French Polynesia . So sad to be sailing away from the land of baguettes and ripe cheeses. The good news is we think we will be in English speaking territories for the remainder of our trip. As fun as the stumbling and bumbling of Spanish and French has been for the last year it will be nice to be able to just talk to peiople without all the thought and frustrations. If I could do it all over the one thing I would change or encourage other cruisers would be to be better prepared language wise. Really wish I had of had the time to take a few classes at the Penobscot school and been more fluent in both Spanish and French.We got by but I can only imagine what we missed and how much more we might have experienced with a better command of the native tongues in these foreign places.

We have had the good fortune of buddy boating with a lovely English (they actually live in So. Wales) couple on their Oyster 56. The boats are amazingly well matched and these past 2 days we have pretty much been within a few miles of each other. Definitely changes the whole feeling of being (or not in this case) out here all alone with nothing but ocean ocean everywhere. Rather comforting and their company is fabulous to boot. Lots of shared dinners and laughs ( when at anchor that is) and some fun excursions during the day as well. Trish does not dive so for Steve it was really great to have us to go out with as it was all on our own diving in Mopelia. We did 3 (2 for me) dives in 2 days and found it to be the best diving since the Tuomotus. The coral was alive and well/very beautiful and the water clarity exceptional. Saw some very larg pelagic fish which was different as well as lots of the beautiful colorful butterflies, angels,wrasses, and surgeonfish that these waters are famous for. Amazing just amazing colors and a bunch of new species to add to our list of fish sighted. Only a few sharks which actually is fine with me. We dove outside the pass which I had described on our entry in as narrow and hairy. It was that, though not as intimidating in a dinghy as in the big boat . A wet and wild dinghy ride back however as the fetch did have a chance to kick up the seas in the lagoon. We had taken two dinghies and Gram and I were airborne and so soaked that he had to wear his snorkle mask to be able to see...very funny! Spent both afternnoons on the beach ( a lovely white sand palm lined stretch) playing some boules and going for walks with Steve and Trish. There are only a handful of people on Mopelia (one man , his wife and a grown son with child and another woman who lives by herself supposedly). We only met the one man and actually moved down the beach to the deserted anchorage in the north to be closer to the pass and the diving. There we did find the remains of a couple of homes that were destroyed in a cyclone in the past year or two. Strangely enough there were still a bunch of chickens and a mama pig with two piglets roaming the beach. Guess there is a male pig somewhere nearby too.

We are praying for a bunch of calm days as the next few places we are headed will not have much protection and we will be uncomfortable if the seas are rough or rolly. Will see how lucky we get and move on if not. Time to wake Gram up and get a few more hours of sleep myself.

Le Toura de Bora (Bora that is)

2010-07-10T18:13:00.000-04:00

Mopelia - 16 49.7 S 153 55.7 W

Hello from the entry into the pass at Mopelia..this looks like one of our nerviest passes yet so I have come down below to occupy myself with something other than watching and getting all anxious. We left Bora Bora mid afternoon yesterday to go the 120 miles to Mopelia a small atoll at the end of French Polynesia. It was windy so we got here too early and had to anchor outside the pass and wait for better light. Once again it was a rolly nite out to sea but we were spared anything too exciting and just had a bit of uncomfortableness. We are starting to feel pinched for time as we want to get thru the Cook Islands and on to Nuie for my birthday at the beginning of Aug. We were not crazy about Bora Bora so stayed there for just a couple of days. It is built up and kind of dirty and the natives not nearly as nice as on the smaller islands...me thinks they see too many tourists and rudeness has rubbed off on them. I tell you my perspective for the difference we in a tourist driven economy can make if we take the time to be courteous and kind to the people visiting has gotten ever more enforced. They weren't so welcoming to us so we just left and didn't spend time or money on their island....

The one draw Bora Bora has is that it has all its fancy hotels are out on motus so the people that are out there are incognito and only will see other people at that resort...hence the movie stars and famous and wealthy that don't want anything but their privacy. Obviously we did not get to do any stargazing as we would not be able to get onto those properties. There was a 200 ft yacht anchored a mile or so from us tho' that had fireworks one of the evenings. It was quite a spectacular show and so in a way we got a belated 4th of July fireworks celebration. Very nice over the water and it must have gone on for over a half an hour. The one fun thing we did on our full day in Bora was get out our bikes and do an around the island tour with Steve and Trish from Curious. It was a great ride(about 20 miles-our rendition of the Tour) and I was pleased that the only thing that hurt was my bumbum(an Emma term) and my neck. Guess my quads have kept in shape from all the snorkeling! Had a relaxed lunch overlooking the water before heading back to the boats.

That is the latest but going back to where I left off on my previous email...On the 4th of July we had gone back to Taravana Yacht Club as the owner has said he would organize a potluck bbque for all the boats. It was loads of fun..there were only us and one other American boat so our British and Australian friends helped us celebrate our independence from them...rather funny. He had also invited all his neighbors so we met many fun and boisterous locals and a good time was had by all. Next day Curious and we left to go to the southern motus in Raiitea. We had a lovely sail across and down the bay with lots of tacking but no engine and just a good time. Got to a very pretty anchorage that we had been told of from Richard who owned the yacht club on Tahaa. It's name is NaoNao and looked like we would be in snorkel heaven. The reefs there were the first live and healthy ones we have seen since the Tuomotus so we were all happy campers. Gram and I borrowed a kayak from Curious and did a circumnavigation of the island while Bill did a swim to check out the various reefs. Next morning decided to make a picnic lunch and go to the beach so we could snorkel both reefs. They were great..one deep with larger fish and the other a drift all the way down the edge of the island with coral bombies thruout. Tons of fish and beautifully colored coral made for an hour and a half in the water. Next morning Trish and Gram and I had to go back and do it over again while the captains did some planning to get us to our next stop-Bora Bora a 5 hr. sail.

Lots of talk in these parts about the upcoming eclipse tomorrow morning. In fact some boats are going miles and miles out of their way to get to the zone of totality where it will be a full eclipse. From where we are it will probably be 90% and we decided to settle for that. Should be cool tho'. Plan is to stay here a few days and then head to Aitutaki, Palmerston atoll, and then Beveridge Reef...we will need to stay outside all of these places so are hoping that the winds calm down and we have some moderate weather so we can do this. The diving is all three of these places should be good and we actually hope to find one or two places to dive here in Mopelia. We just anchored and I hear a cry from Gram saying that there is a magnificent beach calling to us so will say bye bye for now and try to get a nap in the sand...l

Le Tour de Bora Bora

2010-07-09T00:04:00.000-04:00

Bora Bora

Yesterday mom, Trish, and I redid the snorkel at Nao Nao, this time with a working camera (see pics added to last entry) and decided this is the best snorkel of the trip so far. We tried to find a spot to anchor near the southwestern pass, but it didn't look good so we left Raiatea and sailed to Bora Bora in time to grap a mooring at the BBYC (Bora Bora Yacht Club) before dark.

Today we pulled out the bikes and took a ride around the island with Steve and Trish. It was a lovely 32k ride, almost all flat (one hill with a crazy switchback decent) and decent scenery with mostly nice smooth pavement. We got to see lots of this island of south-pacific fame, including Bloody Mary's Bar (dun-dun-dun-dun-Bloody Mary's is the place to be-dun-dun-dun-dun) but have to say it is way overdeveloped and the people are not nearly as friendly as most of FP. Still a wonderful ride. Bill won the green sprinters jersey, zipping around us in circles to get a better workout. Trish won the polkadot-climbers jersey, but was stripped of it after testing positive for doping (the bike she rented had electric assist), so that award was given to Steve who followed her closely up the climb. Mom won the gray jersey-for riders over 60 thanks to the help of her domestic Gram who paced her along the ride (though she didn't like the idea of drafting too much as she was afraid she would run into my rear tire).

Tomorrow we dive in the morning then leave around 2 for Mopelia, about 130 miles which should take us between 17 and 20 hours.

Nao for Some Real Fun

2010-07-06T22:42:00.002-04:00

Motu Naonao, Southern Tip Raiatea, Society Islands, French Polynesia

We just finished one of our best snorkels of the trip. Certainly the best since "The Aquarium" in Tahanea, and possibly better than that. We are anchored along the north shore of Motu Naonao along a gentle slope in 25-30 feet of water with enough room to swing 360 degrees. Along the south-western edge of the island is a nice sandy beach with a deep trench and decent coral wall down to about 50 feet. It would make a decent dive, or a nice snorkel for a decent free diver. We did that this morning, had lunch on the beach before being asked to vacate the island. Apparently an American recently bought the Motu and is trying to kick everyone off the beach. Fortunately, we know that all beaches in FP are public and told the caretaker this. She was in a quandary and since we were finishing lunch anyway, we said we would go for a swim and stay on the beach only. The family visiting from Raitea just down the beach moved their coolers onto their boats and their table just into the water and this also appeased the caretaker. We then walked east along the south shore of the island to drift west along the coral heads. The coral started good and just got better, becoming more dense, healthier, and bigger as we went. I had to finish the snorkel because I was somewhat cold, quite pruny, and rather tired from 2+ hours of time in the water, but I want to go back tomorrow with charged batteries in the camera. I saw some of the deepest red anenomies yet, with some sizable clownfish (think Nemo), lots of colorful damsels, some cool rockfish, and lots more. Mostly smaller reef fish, but some larger reef fish as well, and the most varied coral species we have seen in the Pacific. It made for a great day, and this after several other good ones.

Yesterday we sailed along the eastern shore from the Taravana Yacht Club (Taravana means Crazy) where Richard had hosted a very cool pot-luck 4th of July party. There were only 2 american boats there, but the Brits and Ausies helped us celebrate our independence from their ancestors. No-one had any fireworks but it was still a wonderful night. Our sail was largely upwind till we rounded the corner, short tacking up the shore between the bold coast and the barrier reef. Some tacks were just 2 mins long as we threaded our way along, but the sun was out (mostly), we only got one small rain shower, and we had a very pleasant 12 knots of wind.

Last Saturday we headed to town to get fuel, where you literally tie up to a 40' pier on the back side of a gas station, right on the main road. The image was quite funny with two boats rafted next to the highway gas station. The station closed just as we finished fueling so we left the boats there and walked to town for lunch and some grocery shopping, after first finding some battery cable lugs so I could finish the inverter install. After lunch we got groceries and then headed back to Tahaa for the afternoon where I got the inverter working which is quite nice as besides allowing us to use the microwave again, it adds 70 amps of battery charging so we are back down to 3 hours of gen-set time a day. Unfortunately our Newmar chargers continue to degrade and now only put out 70 amps combined (two chargers rated at 95 amps each) so doubling our charging is a real boon. Plus now we are loading the genset much more evenly and the resultant voltages are much happier. One of my next projects will be to figure out what to replace the Newmars with (Victron has multiple choices of charger lines), but hopefully we can make this work till New Zealand.

I think that brings us up to date. Next we head to Bora Bora for a few days before going to Mopelia (sp?) and then saying goodbye to French Polynesia. We have gone back and forth, but are finally committed to a route west via Aitutaki, Palmerston Atol, Beverage Reef, then Nui before heading up to American Samoa to send mom home in August to help Zak head off to school. Then we will go down to Tonga for September and October before the final passage to New Zealand.

Rain rain go away

2010-07-03T16:55:00.000-04:00

Raiatea, French Polynesia

Now into our 4th day of rain and today it is torrential rain at that. We are in the midst of trying to dock the boat and get fuel and it is so wet and miserable that I have had to come down below to do some of the cleaning and emailing that I have been neglecting. Spent the better part of 2 days using a frustratingly slow internet to put together a complex itinerary to get me home in Aug. As it turns out it will take me 2 red eyes to get from American Samoa to Portland, Maine and I can only imagine the shape I will be in when I land. The return is not quite as bad as I will stop in San Fran for a day and a half and 2 nites and visit my brother and family. Also it is alot easier going West in regards to time changes and it will be split up. So I depart here on Aug 15(arrive PWM 8/17) and return from Aug 27-29. In the midst of that short time I will help pack my Zakkie up and deliver him to McGill in Montreal...should be a whirlwind tour for sure!

The So. Pacific convergence zone has put a weird spin into the weather here and we are looking to change our itinerary to go further north and try to get out of this rain and wind that has been going on almost since the kids left mid June. We are lucky that we have been travelling with a wonderful couple from England (boat is Curious/Steve and Trish). They are alot of fun and have kept us from going either stir crazy or killing each other/great distraction from funky moods due to funky weather! We have shared many happy hours and dinners and done some excursions together and get along quite well. We are currently in Raiatea which is an island that shares a lagoon with Tahaa. Spent 4 nites at the "Taravana Yacht Club" and will probably go back ther tomorrow to have a 4th of July celebration. Richard the owner is origiinally from the Bay Are (Cal) but has been in the So. Pacific for 40 years. He had a charter business out of Bora Bora until a year or so ago when he bought the Yacht club. He has a doz. moorings and caters to the yachties/ a wonderful wevice as the anchorage there is 112 ft and would make for an impossible place to anchor. Nice bay and very protected which was great when the winds were blowing 30-35. Hey, have you ever tried to hang sheets and towels out in those conditions...thought I might just be taking up kite surfing without even a board!

The night we got there they had a buffet and dance performance. It was both tasty food and a wonderful night of local entertainment. This group was very young/local teenagers from a few neighboring towns on Tahaa. They were awesome! Girls were beautiful and move those hips and fannies in the most unusual way. Their arms flow like willows and the rest of their upper bodies stay perfectly immobile. The young men (if you can call an 11 year old boy that) did not dance quite so nicely but when they did the fire dance it took our breaths away. From what we hear this traditonal Polynesian dancing was all but done in for until a few years back when heritage overtook the desire to be western and modern and has made a resurgence. Very good view of pride in one's culture that we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy. At the end of the performance they called up some of the audience including Gram and me to try our hand at their dance. If we got any decent pics will post them in the near future...I am sure they would be worth a chuckle or two...next day we were a bit sore...both our legs and our cheeks from laughing so hard!

Yesterday we walked (in the rain) up to a vanilla plantation to see how they process the vanilla. 2/3 of the So Pacific's vanilla comes from Tahaa and probably 90% of the world's vanilla comes from the So. Pacific. It is quite a labor intensive process. Once the beans are picked they are washed and dried over a period of 4 months. Then by hand they are straightened and sorted by size. The aroma was magnificent and we made tapioca pudding with vanilla bean flavoring for dessert last night. YUM!!! Have not done much swimming besides cleaning the bottom of the boat as all the rain has made the water pretty murky. We did have some great water days before we came over here while in Huahine last week. Huahine was a very beautiful island/lush and unspoiled. We first anchored in a little pass between the island a couple of motus(little islands). The water was the most incrdible color of turquoise as it was a white sand bottom only 11 ft. under us. The people on the motu were very kind and even more generous. We were given melons, herbs, green onions, green beans, and a whole kitchen garbage bag of Bok Choy(even tho' it cooks down by alot we had 2 huge meals from it). When we tried to give them chocolate, blueberry jam and some trinkets for their kids they kept refusing us. After much insistence we finally got them to agree to accept our gifts. The better gift that we came up with to give them was to arrange the next morning to come get the kids (about 5 of them in one family) ages 8-12 or 13 and take them tubing on this water toy we can tow behind the dinghy. Steve and Bill proved to be the biggest kids of all and had alot of fun with the gang. They came on our boats and were very courteous and interested...great kids and left us with huge hugs and smiles and great memories for us to savor.

We spent 4 days there , did some really nice drift snorkeling and partied with Curious and another boat (Rhianne Marie from Scotland that we had met in Fakarava) The highlite of the partying was a 5 1/2 hour Happy hour on Curious with all three boats complete with some pole dancing on the backstay by Bill...do they call that 3 sheets to the wind? . We left there to head to Fare the main town of Huahine and check out the big market we had read about. It was a really good supermarket and we bought enough fresh stuff and a few Chinese specialty products they had to complete our larder. Got the bikes out and went for a nice ride to visit the Maerae( ancient temple platforms) As we pedalled back to town we were able to see the finish of a 3 hour canoe race that was going on. These guys are awesome and have the most beautiful strokes in synchonized form imaginable. There was alot of colorful activity and music going on that afternoon which was cool to be able to witness. Next day we headed down towards the southern bay in search of what is said to be the best beach in French Polynesia but that is when the bad weather started. We were hit with 35 k winds coming from a direction that made that southern area untennable. Waited another day to see if it was going to clear but bad luck prevailed and we decided to cut our losses and move to Tahaa.

Well the suckers are done filling our fuel tanks so I will sign off so we can head to town and see what Raiatea has to offer on a rainy Sat. morning. Happy 4th of July...

Huahine

2010-06-29T14:38:00.005-04:00

Huahine, French Polynesia

We had a wonderful first few days here in Huahine over on the almost magical eastern anchorage. We met some very nice, generous families on the fringing Motu who gave us way too much cantaloupe and bok choy, and invited the kids out to the boats for some tubing and swimming. Fun was had by all. Since then we came over to Fare on the western side, had a nice day biking to the Ahu's (fairly boring pile of rocks but a nice ride) and seeing the beginning and end of a 2.5 hour canoe race (wow is all we can say). After that we went on a wild goose chase for better anchorages as we were trying to get to the southern most beach, but the 20-30 knot winds from the south made that seem unwise and there wasn't much else worth stopping at along the western shore so we ended up back in Fare yesterday around noon.

Today we leave for Raiatea and Tahaa, which share the same barrier reef for some more exploring and also to pick up our new inverter.

Welcome to Vagina

2010-06-25T05:24:00.000-04:00

Huahine, French Polynesia
16 45.9S 150 57.6W

We arrived yesterday in Huahine which is the polynesian slang word for Vagina...thing Hu-Ha, popularized recently by Grey's Anatomy and Opra acording to some article I read last year. Local legend has it that some god (don't remember the name) split the island in half with his "canoe"....if you know what I mean and now it has a small cleft between the two mounds...I think you get the point.

Anyway, we found a beautiful anchorage on the east side, about 1 mile south of the pass where we are sitting 17 feet above clear white sand with crystal clear water and about 1 knot of current. We had a nice drift snorkle, driving the dink about a mile south then drifing back to the boats over some decent coral with TONS of reef fish. Mom and Bill also went ashore while I worked on boat projects and met some nice people who gave us more fruit, green onions, and kale then we know what to do with....I guess stir fry is in our near future.

Tonight was a 5.5 hour happy hour on Curious topped off with Bill "pole dancing" on the mainsheet to "Boys are Back in Town"....quite the sight....not pretty though. Trish is hoping next time I will give it a try.

I think we are going to move around to the south west corner of the island tomorrow where there is supposed to be another great anchorage, maybe with a good dive nearby and suposidly the best beach in Polynesia.

Hopefully I will start posting more often again now that things are settling in again.

Informational "pearls" of Papeete

2010-06-24T15:09:00.000-04:00

French Polynesia
Huahine Island, Society Islands
16 45.86S/150 57.56W

We have left Tahiti and Moorea, the Windward Islands in the Society Group. After an 0500 morning departure, we made a light air 82 nm motor/daysail to the east coast of Huahine - the first of the Leeward Islands . We are anchored between the island and Motu Murimahura in the midst of a long plateau of 17 foot of sand - a lovely spot. We put fishing lines out and brought in a 25 lb. Bonita Tuna early in the passage, and shared ceviche with friends on Curious and Rhiann Marie yesterday evening. Weather has changed and today is another beautiful day.

For cruisers - here are some informational "pearls" about Papeete:

Generalities and Approach: Call Port Captain on CH 12 10-15 minutes from Pass de Papeete. There is a large amount of ferry traffic in and out. If you wish to proceed south to Marina Taina, you will need permission to pass by the airport, and radio back when you are clear. Otherwise, you will turn left towards the town quay.

Marina Taina is the more upscale marina, excellent and helpful staff. Med moor bow or stern to the dock and divers will tie your outside lines to moorings. Very clean, good (cold) showers, nice nautical ambience. Best provisioning around is walkable at Carrefours grocery - take a cart back with goods. Many boats anchor or moor off Taina. There are 21 balls just south of marina labeled with letter "C", first come first served. Anchoring nearby can be tight if crowded.

Papeete town quay now has floating piers for med moor tie up - no longer tie to the wharf. Locked gates provide security and overall seems to be a good improvement. Blvd quiets down at night. Much less costly then Taina, but no shower or facilities,electric is limited to 15 Amps. Most downtown shopping is easier from here, but decks will get a coat of city grime.

WIFI:Iorananet and Manaspot as well as Hotspot-WDG. Most locations have at least one of these available.

Customs and Arrival: Agent will do all, or you need to visit Port Captain 1/2 mile north of town quay. Busses travel reqularly during the day from Taina to town of Papeete, R/T about 200 fr.

Fuel: Agent can arrange for duty free fuel. I am not certain if it ca be done on your own. Duty Free cost was $3.40 US June 2010.

Boat Supplies: We used Sin Tung Hing marine for general supplies. Phone is 54 94 53. They have a downtown store, and a satellite at Marina Taina. A great enthusiastic and english speaking contact is Sebastion, who is at Taina Mondays and Tuesdays, otherwise he is downtown. Sebastion cell is 73 72 96. Items can be brought to Satellite from downtown. Location is in Vaininiore, just across the canal (Riviere Papeava) from Fare Ute on the waterfront.

Yune Tung is on Voie O around the corner from Kim Fah (see below) and has an excellent supply of batteries, and some electrical parts. We bought a battery duty free. A great contact is Isabel who speaks english and was very helpful.

Nautisport is another well know downtown marine supplier.

Tahiti Yacht Accessories, located at Marina Taina, is another option for marine supplies. Michelle is the owner, cell 74 10 02. They have a good supply of Victron battery chargers, inverters, etc.

Provisioning: Carrefours is awesome. Exit Taina and go left. Excellent cheese, meats, produce at USA prices or better for most! Otherwise, Champion is a decent market located downtown, and around. ATm's are all over downtown. You can find an ATM machine by gas station south of Taina - exit and go right.

There is a mini Costco type shop named "Cost and Company" that has bulk packaging of some special items such as fruits and nuts, cereals, coffees, paper towels, olives artichoke hearts, pastas and sauces...things you do not find everyday. Their stock is hit and miss, and are located on Avenue Pomare on block east of the large Intersport shop (Corner of Pomare & Rue des Remparts) at the corner of R. Ph. Bernadi No. Phone is 45 54 40.

We also found Kim Fa, a downtown duty free wine/Heinekin/alc bev supplier 1/2 way to SIn Tung Hing (located on Rue des Remparts, 1.5 blocks north of Avenue Pomare). Least expensive wine bottle would cost 1400 francs retail, but 460 fr duty free. Phone number is 54 56 00 and contact person is Joanne. They wish you to buy 2-3 days before your departure, and will deliver to town quay. You must then leave FP, or "lock" the beverages.

Overall, provisioning was much better than expected. Enjoy!

it's about time

2010-06-22T16:35:00.000-04:00

Island of Moorea about 10 miles from Tahiti 17 30.8S 149 51.1 W

Been a long time since I wrote all of you but we have been so busy with prep for and then a wonderful visit from Zak, Sierra, Rob and Emma that there was just not enough hours in a day. Now we are playing catch up and repairing all the broken things with the parts that they brought and feeling bit blue to not have my little Emma here calling Grammy J, Grammy J come jump with me(she loved to jump on our bed and let me tickle her). What a trooper and wonderfully adaptive person that little girl is. She is so smart it blows me away. Her disposition is fabulous and it makes my heart swell to realize what wonderful parents Rob and Sierra are and what a delightfully happy child that helps produce. Zak has a very special relationship with her and it's way cool to see a 19 year old boy be so tender and loving. A neat role for him as he was always the baby in our family. He found out while he was here that he got his first choice for living accomodations at McGill so that is a welcome relief. He will be at an alternative residence...it's suites so more like an apartment- with kitchen. He got a single room but will have suitemates(good for him as he has never shared a room with anyone). He sure did grow up alot with the experience of living on his own this winterso will be happy to be cooking and shopping for himself and have that independence. Also he seems to appreciate us more than ever!

While the kids were here we mostly cooked and ate and did dishes and went to the beach and just enjoyed the time together. We came across the Sea of Moons as they call the water between Tahiti and Moorea and spent our time at 3 anchorages on Moorea. Did a fair bit of snorkeling but the reef here is dead. dead. dead so was pretty disappointing. Still some good fish but without the beauty of the reef alot of the experience is lost. Zak and Gram dove once and Bill, Zak and I another time but we felt that the quality of the dive was barely worth the effort of filling the tanks! The boys tried a day of kiteboarding and we did lots of swimming with Emma who is quite a good little waterbaby. One of the last nights we went out to eat and saw one of the Polynesian dance performances. The girls here are such beauties and so graceful. The arm movements are slow and willowy and their hips and fannies do things that I know mine could never learn. Quite amazing and they learn at such a young age. Some of the dancers were probably only 12-14, yet they moved like sexy ladies...Hmmm no wonder Captain Bligh and his men did not want to leave the "South Pacific".

Zak was supposed to leave after a week (while the Dietz's were staying for 2) because he needed to start his summer job. However a day before his flight home a national strike shut the airport down(no we did not organize it to keep him with us longer). Apparently the lack of fire fighters made it so that no flights could come in or leave and it stayed that way for 5-6 days ...what a mess because then we had to deal with rescheduling once it reopened and there were so many disruptions that it took another few days for things to be back on track. Luckily we were able to get Zak rebooked to go home with Sierra and Rob and by Fri things were back on schedule and relatively smoothe again. We still are trying to locate an inverter that we had ordered from Europe and can't be tracked as it got stuck in Paris during the strike. What a mess and very bad for an already hurting tourist economy!

We sadly put the 4 of them on a plane last Fri eve. and then were able to join up with the Puddle Jump Rendevous. Have met lots more cruisers and many will be on our same track towards New Zealand so that has been nice. The weather has been raunchy tho' finally seems to have broken today and the sun is out after 3 days of wind and rain and huge seas. We have delayed our departure for Huahine another day or two till the seas die down but are anxious to move on. Hope everyone has a happy solistice and you friends in Maine enjoy the long long days!!! Miss being there a bit now that it is" summertime and the living is easy".

There's No Place Like Home?

2010-06-16T01:38:00.007-04:00

Moorea - French Polynesia

We all had quite a laugh when shopping at a very small grocery in Moorea when Sierra saw this sign. Hard to believe when a quarter of the way around the world that you see such a thing.

The last week with Sierra, Rob, Emma, & Zak (SREZ) has been outstanding. We have been enjoying each others company, swimming and beaching lots, and have seen some pretty cool things (petting rays, hikes, beaches, snorkling, diving, and much more). We even managed to arrange a general strike, shutting down the airport, and allowing Zak to spend an extra week here. In all seriousness, the strike ended today so our parts should finally be able to clear customs and get to the sailmaker and hopefully the inverter will be able to fly in now.

We have a few more days of fun here in Moorea, then back to Tahiti to meet up with the Puddlejump and send the family to the airport, pick up sails, and inverter before heading off to the rest of the Society Islands.

In other news, my first published sole author article is currently on news-stands. My review of small dome broadband satellite systems was adapted for the July issue of Cruising World and features a pic of me in the rigging. I will also have an similar article in the August issue of Yachting with some nice shots of Visions in exotic adventurous locations so keep your eyes peeled.

Small fish in a big boat pond

2010-06-05T19:13:00.002-04:00

Papeete Tahiti, French Polynesia

It has been 4 days of hard work, cleaning the boat inside and out, working on the Gen-set, troubleshooting our inverter that sh!t the bed the other day out of the blue, and buying lots of food.

Good news is work is just about done, new inverter is on the way, and the family arrives this evening. We have met quite a few nice crews on the superyachts surrounding us, culminating in a nice dock party last night, a real treat for me as it was the first time hanging out with people my own age in quite a while.

We had drinks the other night with the crew of Juliet, winner of 1994ish superyacht of the year award, whose captain Johnathan is from NH, went to Colby, and interned at Chuck Paine's office just before I did.

We are about to head over and tour Bliss, a brand new 120 footer just launched in Auckland....quite the neighborhood.

Culture Shock

2010-06-02T18:02:00.000-04:00

Papeete, Tahiti...land of the fragrant Tiare flower
17 35.1 South 149 37.0 West

OMG...having a major culture shock having arrived in Papeete(Tahiti) and what is known as civilization. Lots of cars, stores, people, internet and tons of activity...no beautiful turquoise water/at least not at the Marina where we are, fish,sharks, and the quiet villages that have been our life for the past 4+ months. Going to the supermarket was like being kids in a candy shop and we have already spent $700. on treats, cheese , vegies, and things we have not seen since Panama in September..still have a few more trips to go. We are limited to what we can carry at once so this is a multi trip spree! Also, once we get back begins the long and tedious process of repacking all the food in our handy dandy food saver(vacuums and seals) and then trying to stash it all away in all our hiding places all over the boat(and I do mean all over).

We are sandwiched in between all the big yachts at this marina as we were luckily able to fit in a spot too small for anyone else...The number of really large (crewed) boats is mind boggling...at least 20 or more over 100 ft/both sailboats and motoryachts. This really is a crossroads for all boats traveling the Pacific and I guess everyone stops here at some point. There are no more spaces here and there are not even any moorings...it seems really busy! Nice to be on the dock for getting stuff on and off the boat...we are taking down all our sails except one for repairs and replacement plus needing some more boat supplies and all that food so walking the gangplank (they have us stern to with a narrow board from boat to dock) sure beats dinghying back and forth. Will also make it lots easier for Dietz'z and Zak who will arrive late Sat nite after a long, long, very long day of travel. Emma will most likely be in the best shape of all of them(tho' Zak is a really good traveller as well) Obviously we can't wait to see them. It has been 6 months(4 for Zak) and I know Emma will be a different kid. Definitely the downside of this adventure is time away from friends and family.

We had a wonderful last couple of weeks filled with water activities and social gatherings in the Tuamotus. Last I wrote we were at the South Pass of Fakarava where we spent about 5 days and dove and redove that pass as it was so cool. Went out with a dive shop to figure it out the first time but then just went on our own, towing the dinghy the other 4 times. Saw hundreds of sharks and really nice coral and fish and were able to get really comfortable with the concept of drift diving from our own dinghy(which is very nice to have right with you by the way as you have no way of getting lost from your exit out). From there we went to the town of Rotovai by the north pass of Fakarava and spent the next 4 days there. Also famous for its diving we arranged to go out with the dive shop there a couple of times...too far from the pass to dinghy and also more complicated diving as the pass is very fast. We did our first dive at a place known as the coral garden which was really awesome. Incredible visibility, and an aquarium full of colorful fish and live, varied coral. We are being really spoiled by these amazing conditions and loving the 84-86 degree water. Next day we went out early in the morning to the north pass and did that wild and crazy dive. They dropped us at the wall and we went down to about 100 ft. and hung out watching the sharks. As we came up a bit got into the current and were flying (literally felt like that with arms out and just ripping along) thru the water. I was glad that we had a dive master with us as I needed a bit of help manuevering with the strength of that current. Even our friends Dave and Sherry who are seasoned divers (Dave was a navy diver for his career) thought it was a tough dive...but cool! Went to the fancy hotel about 3 miles away to meet up with a couple from DC we had met (they were on their honeymoon and diving their way thru French Polynesia) the day before when we went to the hotel looking to buy gas. Once again our afternoon on the beach got rained out...we do so little beach hanging out that it is frustrating that it seems to usuallly rain just then. Had a number of happy hours on board with Soggy Paws and our friends from the boat Puerto Seguro, a nice young couple Maria and Estefan who are from Columbia and Argentina whom we had met in the San Blas and remet here.

From Fakarava we did a nice daysail (good wind, no swells) to Anse Amyot, an area that is a false pass/kind of a cul-de-sac-between the reef outside and inside on the atoll of Toau. This was an amazing place complete with moorings and the truly amazing hospitality of a couple named Gaston and Valentine who live there. They provide these moorings for free as long as you eat at their restaurant at least once in your stay. It was a lovely spot with good protection for 350 degrees/totally unusual for the Tuamotus. Lucky for us as the whole time we were there the winds were clocking 25-30 knots. Soggy Paws and Puerto Seguro joined us at this anchorage as well as 2 catamarans with nice French couples aboard. The diving here was quite easy to do on our own...Gaston has placed a couple of dive buoys outside the reef so we could tie the dinghys up and go down with no encumbrances. Beautiful coral, visibility to 100 ft and again lots of fish...but no sharks(kind of a welcome relief). Next day we were lucky enough to be taken across the inner reef in Gaston's boat and shown where the Manta rays feed. We snorkeled and frolicked with the rays (who measured at least 8-10 ft wingspan) and were blown away by that experience. They are weird but beautiful in the way they move...Gram posted a video on the blog for anyone who wants to share this exciting experience. We had lunch and then went out to the other buoy with Dave and Sherry to do the other dive here. Once in the water you find hole that must go down 200-300 ft. It kind of spooked me at first...thinking I would disappear or be sucked into the big blue (as in black) hole. Again visibility was amazing and there were tons of fish including a few new species to watch. We did this dive a second time with Dave, Sherry, Maria and Estefan and that time I was totally relaxed and really got into the depth of the wall/hole. Did see a few Napoleon fish that must have been 100 lbs...very BIG. Somewhere in here we had a lovely dinner with Gaston and Valentine (12 people in total with the French boats included)...lots of wine, parrot fish cooked in foil on the grill, LOBSTER which we had not had since the San Blas, and Poisson Cru plus garlic bread and a delicious coconut cake with choc. frosting for desert. What a treat and a very late, fun night. Our last night there I had suggested we do a pot luck dinner with all the boats and we asked G and V if we could use their place...of course they agreed and we had another eve. of good food, good wine and good company. Anse Amyot proved to be a simply wonderful stop and will long be remembered.

It was really hard to say goodbye to Dave and Sherry...after all we had been off and on travelling with them since Nov and pretty much completely with them since Jan. They are the ultimate in cruising couples...so kind and taught us so much...always willing to help and really fun to be with. They like to be as active as we do (which is probably not the norm) so we made the most of our time together and were very well suited to stay in tandem in that respect. They will stay another 6-8 weeks in the Tuamotus before heading to the Marquesas and then onto Hawaii for their winter. We will miss them tremendously and hope our paths will cross at some future date. I believe we will stay in touch which at least is a consolation.
Once we left Anse Amyot we had a quick 28 hr.passage to Tahiti...as per usual it was windier than predicted and thus with more swells but that did allow us to make it in record time. So there you have it and here we are...now in a much anticipated countdown of 3 days till we see Zak,Sierra, Rob, and our precious Emma on Sat. night.

Anse Amyot A++

2010-05-30T14:37:00.003-04:00

Just outside of Anse Amyot, Tuau, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
15 51S 146 16W

This morning we left Anse Amyot and the Tuamotus for Tahiti in prep for the family arrival next week. We leave behind some excellent friends, particularly Dave and Sherry on Soggy Paws who we have been cruising with on and off for 5 months and we will miss them sorely. As a last hurrah we packed as much activity into the last few days as possible. Thursday we had a wonderful dive just outside the entrance, tying off to a blue buoy Gaston has for spear fishing. It was a wonderful gentle wall with a nice plateau at 40-50 feet with wonderful fish and beautiful coral. We also explored shore and met our wonderful hosts Valentine and Gaston who maintain the moorings and have a restaurant. I dove on the moorings with the left over air and confirmed that most are chain wrapped around large coral heads shackled to large line with a lower bouy to keep the line and chain vertical and a second float at the painter. Friday was a 4+ activity day starting with a snorkel with the Manta Rays. Gaston took us through the reef to the spot the Mantas feed and found us a group of 8-10 large manta rays who were in a feeding frenzy, looping in somersaults with mouths open, scooping as much plankton as possible. We took photos and lots of video (will post here once we get WiFi in Tahitti) and it was an event we will never forget. After a quick lunch we headed 1.5km SE along the shore to a yellow bouy Gaston put out on the reef for a dive. This dive had a nice plateau at 25 feet with a 10 foot deep hole with many fish, but the real attraction was a vertical walled canyon, wrapping 250 degrees around you and going down well beyond the 150' visibility. Beautiful coral and colorful fish make this an amazing dive with deep blue below and a visible overhanging cliffs at about 150' depth that we didn't dare dive down to.

After that we finished our air by finding a lost mooring for Gaston as the harbor was getting rather full. Dave and Bill went out fishing in the dingy and then we headed ashore for an amazing dinner by Valentine of Grilled Lobster, Poison Crue, aluminum foil packets of Fish in garlic and butter, coconut bread, rice, and the most amazing coconut based chocolate frosted cake. Stupendous meal for just CFP-2000 ($22) and a box of wine.

Saturday we went back to the canyon dive for a second viewing, then went to the beach in the afternoon and had a pot-luck dinner ashore. It was an exhausting last few days, but ones we will treasure for a long time.

Off to the land of plenty. Word from Fellow Traveler is that prices are reasonable if you pick your products and we will have WiFi to upload some of our great new photos and videos. We should arrive Monday midday, so hopefully I can have a new entry and some multi-media ready by tuesday evening or so.

More Videos uploaded and on their way on Visions YouTube Channel (see link on right pane)

Anse Amyot

2010-05-27T15:57:00.000-04:00

Anse Amyot, Toau, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
15 48.2S 146 09.1W

We left Fakarava yesterday morning and arrived after a spirited downwind sail at Anse Amyot around 2:00. This is a beautiful little bay though there is quite a bit of current constantly running out from the lagoon. It is an easy entrance and the local restaurant has 10+ moorings to use. We managed to pick up the "big boat" mooring in the center of the group thanks to our friends Estephan and Maria on Puerto Seguro who vacated it for us. This mooring is a 1.5" line tied around a large cement block with lots of chafe gear. Seems quite secure, but different than the moorings we are used to as there is no chain. Not sure yet what the smaller moorings are like.

Yesterday afternoon was too windy and squally to do much of anything but we enjoyed an early dinner and quite night. It is still quite windy (20 kts) but we are headed into shore soon to find out what there is to do around here and make reservations for dinner tonight. A few more days here and we will say goodbye to Soggy Paws and the Tuamotus and head to Tahiti to get ready to recieve our esteemed guests (Sierra, Rob, Emma, & Zak) on the 5th.

South Pass "Sharkarava"

2010-05-22T19:31:00.002-04:00

Fakarava, Tuamotus, French Polynesia

Yesterday we departed South Pass Fakarava after what was an outstanding couple of days. Our adventures started after a late afternoon arrival on the 15th. On the 16th it was still quite windy and the water was rather stirred up so we delayed diving and snorkeled in the South Pass during slack water. South Pass Fakarava is known as one of the best diving sites in the world so we had rather high expectations. The snorkel was good with several black tip reef sharks hanging around the edge and decent fish life, but visibility was poor due to all the wind we have had for a week. Mom noticed the divers at the surface waving arms and yelling to no avail as no-one on shore (where the dive boat was parked) was paying attention. We headed out in our dingy to help and gave the dive master Bill's mask as someone had mask problems and he gave up his earlier.

On the 17th we dove with the local dive shop, the dive master Niko, a consummate Frenchman (not necessarily rude, just french), led the dive with us and a couple of scot's Stuart & Trish on a 67' sailboat "Rhiane Marie" we had met the day before. We got dropped off "in the blue" and dropped to about 100' before hitting the wall. We climbed up to about 75' and hung on to the coral to hold position when we approached what Niko called "the nursery" where over 100 grey reef sharks were circling in the current. Many were pregnant and there were a lot of juveniles as well. Water clarity wasn't great, probably 50' or so, but still, the site was amazing. After a few minutes we zig-zaged across the pass wall up to about 40' were we saw a HUGE Napoleon Wrass (probably over 100 lbs) who was very friendly as well as many other fish and beautiful coral. The dive ended after about 60 mins by swimming up the beach to the dive shop. In the afternoon we took a dingy trip with Stuart & Trish to the western side of the pass to visit the pink beaches and a small island with human bones. Apparently they don't know how old the remains are, but they were unearthed 15-20 years ago after a big storm. They are now on display with a single skull and many other bones "artfully" arranged...a bit creepy, but kind of cool.

Morning of the 18th Soggy Paws and Nakia arrived through the pass about 6:30 for the morning slack as predicted and at 12:15 we all headed to the pass for our own drift dive towing the dingy. Visibility was better but still not great and we replicated our first dive nicely, dropping first into about 90 feet, just upstream of the shark nursury just inside the break on the eastern side. We drifted all he way through the main pass, past the village and then out he shallower side pass that heads east towards the anchorage. That side pass really moves, probably 4+ knots while the main pass is only moving at 1 knot. We saw many more sharks and really enjoyed the side pass even though it was going by way too fast. The colors are excellent and the coral very healthy.

On the 19th we again dove in the early afternoon (1:15 this time) and hit slack perfectly. Wind was calm now, seas were down, and visibility was much improved (probably 80' or more). We waited a bit longer this time, allowing the incoming clear water to start coming in and it was definitely worth it. We were moving faster, but the water clarity was worth it. We stayed deeper in the pass for longer and found a second "family" of sharks further into the pass. Not quite as big as the first group, but still very cool to see. We stayed down almost all the way back to the boats through the small pass and really enjoyed it. In the late afternoon we visited the eastern Pension run by Manihi and Tila, a Fakaravan couple who speak excellent English (and Italian) who have created an amazingly beautiful island paradise. We arranged for a dinner the following night for all of us (9 people plus their guests).

On the 20th, Bill, Dave, and John went fishing with Manihi in the morning, catching a wahoo for dinner. I opened up some coconuts (best ones so far, very juicy and sweet meat), then reprofiled and sharpened my knife (damaged opening the last set of coconuts), sharpened John's machete (used to open the coconuts) and then sharpened Dave & Sherry's which didn't have any edge yet as it came with a 1mm flat edge from the hardware store in Columbia. In the afternoon we did another dive (noticing a pattern yet) and had the best one yet. Visibility was over 100', no wind, bright sun. We got closer to the sharks, hundreds of them, 2 huge napoleons, a flounder, and many other beautiful fish. As we went out the small pass, there was a school of 4" long fish (sardine like) swimming the other way that we went right through. Very cool, kind of like driving into a snow-storm at night. In the evening we went into Manihi's pension for dinner and had an amazing meal of Grilled Ginger Wahoo and Beef Stew with Cole Slaw and rice and two excellent deserts for CFP2000 ($22) BYOB. Excellent company and a beautiful setting made it a special night.

Morning of the 21st the morning slack was finally late enough to dive on (8:45 slack, 8:15 splash). Mom was having sinus pressure so skipped the dive, but Bill and I joined Soggy Paws for another amazing dive. This time we stayed deeper longer, stopping right next to the sharks hanging out, taking some photos (more in the web-albums soon, I promise). With the current having come in for the last 6 hours, visibility was amazing at 150' or so even with the low light. The downside was that we finished with no current in front of the dive shop, missing the small side pass, but with adjustments to timing I am sure that could be figured out. We then left the anchorage, heading north. We will get to the north pass and internet by lunch time (22nd) and plan to dive there as well the next few days before heading to Toau for our last few days in the Tuamotus.

If any of you want to experience diving nirvana we can highly suggest Fakarava and have some information on a dive shop in the North that works with Manihi to arrange a few days north & Toau, then some time with Manihi and dives in the south pass...can't imagine a much better dive trip.

hello from Fakarava

2010-05-20T13:21:00.000-04:00

16 30.4 S 145 27.4 W in beautiful Fakarava, Tuamotus

Having some drop dead gorgeous weather at last after 4-5 days of howling winds and quite a bit of rain. Apparently we were stuck under the South Pacific Convergence Zone with a couple of troughs and lows controlling the weather and making it pretty miserable. There is not much protection in the Tuamotus against high wind so we were stuck on lee shores when the wind was coming at us at 25-30 knots but it has gotten calm again and so we are happy in paradise once more!!!

Had an easy departure from Tahanea on Sat...timed it to leave one pass on the morning slack and make the 48 miles to Fakarava by the later tide slack. We are lucky to have a fast boat since everyone else we are traveling with had to do it as an overnight not being able to make the 8+ knots to get in between the tides. We motorsailed to keep our speed up and found some good protection behind the atolls we were passing as the sea was still quite stirred up from all the days of high winds. East entrance thru the Tetamanu Pass on the south end of Fakarava and into a very nice anchorage with a couple of other boats already here. Met a really nice couple from Scotland aboard a beautiful 67 ft. fancy boat. Most boats that are cruising are more in the 32-48 ft range so finding someone as big or bigger than us has been rare! Nice people tho' and we hung out with them for a few days before they moved on.

We did our first dive here on Mon. and went out with the dive shop to try to get some pointers we would be able to use later on our own. This pass is noted as being one of the best dives in the Tuamotus if not the South Pacific and it was in fact pretty awesome. The water clarity was not perfect because of all the swell from the last bunch of rough sea days but it was still an amazing dive. Started off going down to about 110 ft and then followed a wall to the "shark nursery" where you can hold onto some coral and sit and watch about 100 or more sharks swimming a little ways in front of you...close enough to see beautifully but not scary (which coming from me is remarkable!) Then drifted with the incoming current thru the pass and over some beautiful, LIVE coral with tons and tons of colorful fish right back to the beach in front of the dive shop. Since then we have gone twice more (Soggy Paws arrived on Tues and we are now diving with them and towing our two dinghys) . We have been staying down for longer and catching the really fast eddy at the end of the pass and drifting most of the way back to our big boats. The water clarity has improved daily since the waves outside the pass have really died down. Yesterday we must have been moving at 5-6 knots thru that eddy and it was a hold onto your swimsuits kind of feeling!!! In the late afternoon we went over to a 2nd little motu here and visited the most wonderful "pension" that a fellow named Manihi and his wife have set up. Beautifully designed in a Polynesian fashion this place is almost luxurious and so charming. Impeccably clean and very well set up it looks like a great place for a total chill dive vacation. Will gather a little more info if any of our friends or readers want to know more...Tonight we are hoping to gather all 4 of the boats here with us now and go to dinner there. Haven't eaten out since Easter so that would be a real treat for moi(the cook and chief bottle washer!).

We plan on staying here another nite or two and continuing to dive daily thru this pass...there may even be a day that we can do two dives if the slacks line up early and late. You need to dive between slack and an incoming tide to keep direction and speed safe! From here we will go to the village (Rotovai) at the north pass and spend a few days before heading to our last atoll in the Tuamotus (Toaa) for a night or two. Then an overnight to Tahiti with our plan being to get there a week ahead of the kids to reprovision and get some boat work done. All in all we are loving the Tuamotus and wish we had a little longer here...Soggy Paws and Nakia(the SF boat) are on different schedules than us so will stay here for another couple of months. I think it is Memorial Day weekend so happy 3 Day weekend to all of you.

Fakawhata?

2010-05-17T02:55:00.000-04:00

South Pass Fakarava, Tuamotus, French Polynesia

I called my dad yesterday to wish him a happy 61st birthday and had to laugh at his attempt to pronounce all the places we have been and are going to. It reminded me of my first few days at Easter Island, thoroughly confused by polynesian's affinity for vowels. I quickly realized that my western mind has been trained to remember consonants and basically ignore the vowels. I remembered reading an article in some magazine discussing typography and the fact that our brains look at shape most of all, so depending on the type-face we will easily look over a misspelling such as "offslnore" and realize we are talking about being out in the ocean, not sleeping loudly with a lisp.

Scott from Beach House helped a lot by explaining that every vowel is pronounced separately, so Toau is pronounced Tow-Ah-oo, which by the way is the next island north of Fakarava. Anyway, that is enough language arts for one blog post....especially for an engineer.

We snorkeled the pass today (not very good vis today so we skipped the dive). We plan to dive tomorrow with the local dive shop as a primer and then be able to dive it ourselves. Tons of sharks, and very pretty coral....can't wait.

Tahanea in the Tuamotus

2010-05-13T17:59:00.000-04:00

16 51.0 South 144 41.6 West

Greetings from Tahanea, an uninhabited atoll in the Tuamotus that has been our anchorage since Sat. We left Makemo on Fri. and headed towards Katui another atoll that we had heard nice things about. The inside of that lagoon is alot shallower so we were planning on staying inside the pass at the recommendation of another cruiser. However, once we got there we felt very squeezed and decided we were just too big for this place...we remember a similar thing happening when we went to Criehaven (one of old favorite harbors in our Alden 44 but in this boat felt that the harbor must have shrunk)....no swinging room and too close to all the reefs . So we quickly manuevered our way out of there and spent the night going back and forth a 5 mile stretch off the opposite shore to be protected from waves. We needed to kill time in order to arrive at the next atoll-Tahanea- with the favorable tide/slack water to be able to enter the lagoon. This tide and slack thing is quite complex and means that timing is everything when it comes to the passes. Gram has actually produced a whole spread sheet called the handy dandy tide guestimator as there is very little help out here to rely on. We manged to get to Tahanea and only had to wait 1/2 hour outside before things looked good for entering. This is a wide pass and our best (least scariest) entry. Once in we found a beautiful spot behind a couple of reefs just to the west of the pass. This atoll has 3 passes and our plan was to set ourselves up to be able to move around and dive each of them. We were immediately greeted by 5 or 6 black tip sharks who were very curious about the boat. That variety is non aggressive so we even felt comfortable jumping right in the water. We found a few nice reefs to snorkel on that afternoon and went in to the beach(more like coral shoreline) for a little walk and to machete open some coconuts.

Sunday was Mother's Day and I was treated well by Gram and Bill...no cooking and our first dinghy drift dive in the northern pass. It was very beautiful...live coral and relatively shallow so we just drifted thru the pass as the tide was coming in. We did learn that timing (again) has to be perfected as we started drifting back out when the tide changed a bit early on us. Luckily because we had been at only 30 ft we could make a rapid ascent with no safety stop and get back into the dinghy and quickly out of the current. We saw tons of fish and a huge manta ray . One grey shark swam by us(they are not the definitively non aggressive variety) so it was good that he just swam away from us quickly. I got a wonderful email from Zak, wishing there were an FTD florist nearby so he could have sent flowers...little did he know that there is pretty much nothing but water and palm trees and very little soil even. Sierra sent mother's day wishes from the 3 of them so I got to be a happy mommy all around.

On Mon. our wonderful friends Dave and Sherry caught back up to us and within 1/2 hour after they had anchored...rush rush because of the tide timing...we were all off to the southeast pass (we had moved the boat closer to that spot first thing in the morning..there is an abandoned village of sorts there). What troopers those two are as they had been offshore on passage from the Gambiers for 6 nights and still had it in them to jump right in the water...obviously they LOVE to dive. Our timing was much better and we were able to just keep going thru the entire pass and had a longer, deeper dive again towing the dinghy with us. This dive offered some bigger fish, another ray, a small unassuming shark and a really long close viewing of a turtle which was way cool. We were able to just hang over him for a few minutes before he swam away. In the afternoon we went into the abandoned village which had 2 cisterns of "free" water...a real luxury that enabled us to wash our very dirty crew covers in the cooler we keep in the dinghy. Bill came up with the idea to agitate the laundry by stomping on it in the cooler so it was kind of like a grape stomping party and the dance was rather funny but worked incredibly well.
We went back the next morning and did all our sheets feeling like this was too good an opportunity to pass up on...having all the water you could want that is. In the afternoon we did the middle pass as another dive with Dave and Sherry...Aside from a rapid start as when we jumped in there was way too much current it was another great dive and now we could say we had done all three passes on Tahanea. We moved to an anchorage at the southeast end of the atoll. Bill and the other two boats (Soggy Paws and Nadia..some new friends from San Fran.)went out for a lobster hunt soon as it got dark while Gram and I made a sushi feast for everyone.

Yesterday we headed part way back to the middle pass anchorage with a lunch, snorkel stop along the way. The snorkel ended up being the best snorkeling we had ever experienced...so many fish and one place where you could kind of go inside the crater of the reef, hang onto a piece of coral and be inside the aquarium. It was awesome!!! Made lobster stew with the lobsters that had been caught the night before and had a lovely dinner with Soggy Paws(Dave and Sherry). John and Linda( Nadia )stayed at the snorkel spot for the night. Middle of the night we dragged for the first time ever...the wind had piped up to over 25 and from the total wrong and unpredicted direction so swells formed and must have dislodged the anchor. A bit scary as we had to pull up and move out to deeper waters in the dark. It was a fitful night sleep at best from then on as the wind howled and we rolled around a bit. So today we have a rainy day and have moved another little bit to a place that should offer better protection. Naps seem in order a bit later... Hopefully no more excitement and plan is to leave tomorrow afternoon and do an overnight to Fakarava , most likely our last atoll in the Tuamotus. It is known for its fabulous diving so we will stay there about 10-12 days before heading west to Tahiti to prepare for the Dietz's and Zak's visit. Can't wait for that .Hoping that I have not bored you with details.We do enjoy sharing our experiences with everyone...

Three Days, Three Passes, Three Dives

2010-05-12T02:28:00.000-04:00

Tahanea, Tuamotus, French Polynesia

We arrived in Tahanea on the 8th after tacking back and forth behind Katiu untill 3:00 am when I bore off and headed downwind. We timed it to perfection and entered with a light flooding current, finding a great anchorage just to the west of the main (middle) pass. Within minutes of dropping the hook we had 5 3' to 4' black tip reef sharks (later nicknamed "puppy-dogs") circling around the transom, checking us out in a friendly manner. About an hour later we got a call on the radio from a boat approaching looking for pass information. Nakia came in another hour after that and anchored near by. They are a very friendly couple from San Fransisco. In the afternoon we snorkled around the reefs to our east, walked along the shore, and borrowed a machette to open up our 3 coconuts from Makimo. We had an early dinner and got some rest.

Just before lunch on the 9th we got our dive gear ready, got in the dingy, and headed towards the west pass for our first drift dive towing a dingy and our first pass dive. The waves were still quite big outside, so we didn't get all the way out the pass, but we did have quite a nice dive through the pass in 30' of water. As we approached the end of the pass, the tide stopped and then reversed, flushing us back out the pass. The pass was quite wide and flat, with colorful coral and tons of fish. We saw a moray eel, some large groupers, lots of butterfly, angel, and other colorful reef fish, and even our first Manta-Ray that was quite huge. Mom was happy we didn't see a shark We went along for a while, heading back out the pass, then ascended to the surface so we didn't get too far out the pass towards the chop and standing waves that were sure to form as the current went against the strong winds and seas on the outside of the pass. The timing was perfect, we got back in the dingy and headed back to the boat having made our first successful dive. The best news of the day was that Soggy Paws was headed to Tahanea and would be there in the morning.

The morning of the 10th, as Soggy Paws came into the anchorage we relocated to the east side of the main pass, halfway to the eastern most, and smallest pass. We finally settled on a spot, dropped the hook and started getting gear ready again. Soggy Paws joined us for a dive, within hours of finishing their 6 day passage from the Gambiers (what a bunch of troopers). This time the waves were down a bit and we got further out the pass, but still not all the way to the wall. The current was a little stronger, but not too bad, probably 1.5 kts or so. As I got in the water, the o-ring that seals my regulator to the tank blew out and I had to get mom to quickly shut off my tank and hop back in the boat to put in a new one (thankfully I keep spares in my mask case for just this reason). It only took a minute, but by then we had drifted to the western side of the pass while Dave and Sherry were on the eastern side...oh well. We haded down the western channel that goes straight, starting at a depth of 30' and going as shallow as 10' before deepining again on the inside. This pass had steeper walls and agian a bunch of fish and colorful coral. At the end we were let out into some fairly poor visability, but amazing fish. One grey shark that I hid from mom till it was swimming away from us, lots of big groupers and jacks, and a small sea turtle, that was resting on the bottom. I got to within 1.5' from the turtle for quite a while before he finally got startled and swam away. Soggy Paws said the eastern side was shorter, but a little deeper throughout without the big fish at the end. In the afternoon we headed to shore to wash our crew covers using the cistern water from the deserted villiage. There were some locals spending the night there....very friendly giving us all some bread and offering cocunuts and all the water we wanted. We did the laundry in the cooler that lives in the dingy (acting as lockable storage for spare fuel, tools, compas, light, and pfd's. Bill looked quite humorous stomping the laundry with his feet. It was such a treat we planned to go back for more.

Today after some morning laundry we had an early lunch, then headed out the main pass for our 3rd dive/pass/day. The current was ripping at about 3 kts which made positioning ourselves while getting gear on quite hard. By the time we were ready to decent we had already drifted past the wall we were trying to start on and decended down to 50' I was towing the dingy this time and in the strong current I had to fight hard to swim to the bottom as the dingy was towing me along quite quickly and pulling me up at a 45 degree angle. Within a minute or so we were further in the pass and the current subsided to 2 kts or so. Still rather quick and if you blinked you would miss a ton. This pass was more like the western pass, wide and flat with colorful coral, though some dead and bleached spots, aparently from a huricaine a few years ago. Eventually we slowed to a nice pace (1/2 knot of so) as we got further in the lagoon. There were a ton of colorful groupers who weren't scared at all, coming right up to your face. Eventually the coral changed a bit as did the fish and we headed to the surface after our safety stop. Back to the boat, we washed our gear in our cooler we had filled from the cistern, then made a quick dash down to the southeast corner of the lagoon where we will spend the next day or so before heading back north for a night then on to Fakarava either the 13th or 14th. Soggy Paws has to do an overnight to Fakarava and is planning on the 15th, arriving the morning of the 16th if the weather stays the same as the forecast.

Overall a wonderful 3 days, especially nice to be joined by our friends from Soggy Paws.