Stranded in Paradise

April 11, 2008--It has taken us two days, but we are finally recovering from 25 days at sea. Yesterday we stayed on the boat all day since Steve had to repair a hole in the dinghy and the glue is supposed to dry for 24 hours. We did some laundry and worked to get the boat put back together and cleaned up.

Around 2 p.m. Patrice, who is a mechanic, came out to the boat to help Steve diagnose our engine problem. After much discussion they decided to remove the fuel injection pump. Once it was removed, they were able to see that two of the four tappets (the things that roll on the fuel cam and push the fuel plunger) had no spring tension. He did a little disassembly of the unit and found that those two plunger springs were broken. He was surprised that two were broken but that at least resolves what is wrong with the engine. The pump went out to a shop in Tahiti on this morning's plane. Unfortunately, it is a weekend so it will be late Monday or early Tuesday before we know if it can be repaired. If not, we will have to order a new one from the U.S.

We went ashore this morning to drop off the pump and walk around town. We ate breakfast, which consisted of pastries, chicken, fried shrimp, a doughnut, and raw tuna in coconut milk, on the wharf. The food was all very good. As we were sitting at the table, I noticed a couple that had come ashore. It turned out to be Carl and Yvette from the sv Liberty. They were the boat that checked on us when we were becalmed at the equator and offered us any food or water that we might need. We sat and talked for awhile and then we all walked the main street trying to locate the bakery and grocery stores. We never did find the bakery, but the grocery stores carry baguettes that are just wonderful. The food is expensive here, but there are some bargains such as baked beans for $1.00. Candy bars are $2.00, and Steve paid $8.00 for a six-pack of Heineken beer. Our food stores are in very good shape, so we won't need to do any major provisioning for a while.

We had planned to go to a pig roast and dance presentation; however, we learned that there wasn't much money in that it is not held any more. Therefore, tonight we will go in and have pizza along with the crew from Liberty. We think that we will be here for 2 to 3 weeks, so we have been looking for things to do. It is very beautiful here as everything is lush and green. When we were sailing into the bay, I told Steve the smell was wonderful--all the greenery and the flowers combined to create a wonderful fragrance. Steve and I are not living up to the saying that cruising is "working on your boat in exotic places." I will say, however, that if we have to be stranded, there are far worse places to be.

Tomorrow morning at 4 a.m., yes I said 4 a.m. all the local farmers and fishermen have a market with fresh fish, vegetables, and fruits. The prices are supposed to be more reasonable so we will go in to see what they have. It is over by 5 a.m., so we will then probably come back to the boat and go back to bed.

Internet service is not great here, but it is available so I hope to be able to upload some pictures in the next few days.

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We Made It

We are now in Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hive, Marquesas, French Polynesia. It was a long last night as we stood off until dawn and then the wind died. Fortunately a squall gave us that last push to sail to anchor. We checked in today with the Gendarmerie and now we will sleep for a week. At that time we will have the energy to write more of our adventures. The trip from Cabo San Lucas to our destination was 2,783 miles, 25 days, 100 three hour watches each, and only 15 hours of engine run time before if failed.

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Land Ho

April 8, 2008--The good news is that we are in sight of land--Ua Huka. The bad news is that Nuku Hiva, which is where we need to go, is still a bit more west. Yesterday we thought that if the wind held, we might make it in by this evening. Well, last night the winds died, which meant that we would get in at dusk, so now we have had to actually slow down in order to try to time our arrival for tomorrow morning. If we can't, we will have to heave to and wait outside the entrance to the bay. We were hoping to avoid another night of watches, but it just isn't meant to be.

The day before yesterday we had a spectacular 24-hour run of 162 miles. We had almost a knot of current pushing us to the west, and that really helped us to make those miles. Yesterday, we had another good day with a run of 147 miles. Both days were picture perfect days with blue skies, white puffy clouds, and a beautiful blue ocean.

Unfortunately for Steve the fishing has not been too good. He has not caught anything in quite awhile. The boat needs to be going at the higher speeds in order for the fish to hit the lures. We spent so much time barely moving along that the fish didn't bother. We have had a fair share of flying fish come on board during the night. Night before last, I was sitting on watch when suddenly I heard a loud sort of crash. I immediately thought that the Monitor line had broken again, but it turns out that a large flying fish had come sailing into the cockpit and hit the steering pedestal.

We will keep our fingers crossed for our making landfall some time tomorrow morning.

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Life is Good

April 6, 2008--Just a quick update. Oops--if you are following our Yotreps course, you might notice a problem. Our friend Dwight reminded us to be sure to indicate south and not north on our latitude. We usually enter our position after a night of standing watch so we might be less than 100 percent.

We have had a fantastic 24 hours of sailing on a beam reach--10 to 15 knots of wind and boat speed between 6.5 and 7.8 knots. The seas fairly calm which makes for a nice ride. We are now 325 miles from the Marquesas and HOPE to arrive by Wednesday.

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Things are Looking Up

April 5, 2008--Our days since the first of April have been a very mixed bag. The winds have, until last night, been anywhere from 4 knots to 10 knots. The sea state affects us more than the wind. With the lower winds, if the boat gets knocked by a wave, it loses all forward momentum, and we end up bobbing around waiting for more wind. So we have had very moderate days lately as far as mileage is concerned.

The night before last, we were in a lull, and I was sleeping down below when suddenly Steve called me up to the cockpit. A squall had come through and the winds were increasing rapidly. He was hand steering the boat so I had to help him pull in some of the head sail to reduce sail area in order to make it easier to steer in the high winds--they got up to 28 knots. Then it began to rain. We have a bimini over the cockpit; however, the rain was coming in sideways. Needless-to-say, the cockpit and Steve and I were all soaking wet. What's really amazing is that even though we are south of the equator, it is still cool in the evenings. We were both shivering in no time. The good thing about the squall was that we finally had some wind, at least for awhile.

Yesterday was not good at all. We had so little wind that the sails were just slapping back and forth. It's amazing how that noise begins to irritate you. It is also extremely hard on the sails and the rigging. That went on all day and almost all night. Every now and then we might 10 knots of some decent wind, but then it would drop off again. I came on watch at 4 a.m., and Steve went below to sleep. He had pulled in the jib, and we were just bobbing in one spot. Not 15 minutes later, the wind piped up to 12 knots, but the boat was basically into the wind so I called him back up to help me get the sails set. He thought that it was just wind from a rain cloud; however, we got everything set up, and then he went back to bed. The wind is still blowing around 11-13 knots, and we have had great sailing since early this morning. We have averaged between 6.5 and 7.5 knots, which will make it a very good day.

We are now under 500 miles to the Marquesas. We are definitely ready to get there and relax before we tackle the engine problem. The whole fleet behind us is experiencing very light winds. It was supposed to be a La Nina year, which meant above average trade winds. I'm not sure what happened, but we haven't seen them. We have been very lucky regarding squalls. The few that we have encountered have had rain but no lightening. One boat was in squalls for 3 days straight. The rain is fine since it washes all the salt off the boat.

Today is really beautiful and sunny with just few clouds in the sky. Yesterday and today have been good solar days. We have had to use the generator about every 4 days since we don't have an engine to charge the batteries. The wind generator really kicks in when those squalls hit. The winds were up to 28 knots the other night so the generator was screaming.

We are hoping that these winds are now really part of the trade winds. We will just have to wait to see if they continue this evening.

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Underway Again

April 3, 2008--We are on our way again. We spent the whole day on Tuesday just bobbing in the ocean. We were really beginning to wonder just how long we might be stranded there. Yesterday the wind came up just barely in the morning, and Steve worked and worked to get us going. At first we went very slowly, about 2 knots, but as the day wore on and the winds continued to steadily build up to almost 10 knots, which meant that we were sailing at about 5 knots. That is a lot better than nothing. The winds continued through the evening, and we have had up to 13 knots of wind today and boat speeds up to 6.5 knots.

We feel pretty confident that we are in the trade winds now, but they are from the east. That means that we are sailing almost due south. As soon as the winds clock around to southeast, we will be able to sail a much better course for the Marquesas. We have been lucky in that we have not run into too many squalls. The few that we have gone through have had just rain, no high winds and no lightening. Some other boats have experienced some nasty squalls on their routes.

We have completely lost our engine, so we have spent the past few days getting information from other cruisers regarding the best place to find a diesel mechanic. There are not too many in the Marquesas. Instead of going to Hiva Oa, we have decided to go into Nuku Hiva, which is also a port of entry and has some pretty good facilities. It also has an airstrip for flying in parts and also a mechanic, or so we have been told. We will have to sail into the bay to anchor, which will be good practice since we haven't done that in quite awhile.

We are always amazed at how the cruising community comes together to help fellow cruisers. Every night the boats heading to the Marquesas check in on a SSB radio net giving their positions and weather information. When they heard that we had lost our engine, many of them stepped up to try to help. One boat motor sailed past us when we were becalmed. They called us on the VHF radio to see that we were all right and to ask if there was anything they could do. They wanted to be sure we had enough supplies on board and that we were able to make power--we were fine on all counts. A couple of boats discussed giving us a tow just to get us a few miles south into the winds; however, we decided that we did not want to do that. We have had three other boats with diesel mechanics on board call us on the radio to offer their help. It is reassuring to know that people are there to help.

Well, it's time to put the bread in the oven, take care of some other pesky items, and figure out what to have for dinner.

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We made it across the Equator

April 1, 2008--We are very happy to report that at 9 p.m. last night we crossed the equator. Steve wrote in the ship's log

0356 UTC--Be it known to all that at this time and on this day aboard the s/v Linda, Stephen B. Maggart and Linda L. Maggart paid their respects to King Neptune with the appropriate zeal ad excitement due him on such a momentous event. Here at 130 degrees 32.8 minutes west the equator was crossed on a heading of 220 degrees True, under full sail, bound for French Polynesia, and the aforementioned polywogs shed that title for the honorable title of shellbacks.

Steve had his dram of Glen Levit scotch, with an offering for King Neptune as well, and I had a glass of wine. We blew horns and tossed confetti. We will post pictures when we next have internet available.

The morning did not begin well. We were basically in dead calm, drifting back to the north because of a counter current, and our engine was out because of fuel problems. Steve fixed the fuel situation so that we could start the engine and motor from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. That helped to get us into some wind, which was good because when the engine died at 7 p.m. we were able to sail. We had light winds almost all night. During my first watch at 11 p.m. a dolphin, which was large compared to the ones we are used to, came to swim next to the boat and was only a few feet from our boat. A second dolphin was a little farther out.

During Steve's watch that began at 2 a.m. the winds died down even more, and he found us drifting back to the north again. He thought that we might have to celebrate the crossing a second time. Anyway, he hand steered for 3 hours in order to keep us heading south.

My next watch began at 5 a.m. I was amazed at my surroundings. The evening was so beautiful. The crescent moon was throwing its reflection onto the water, the sky was completely clear, and I could see the Southern Cross. I makes me realize that we are just a speck upon a large ocean, which is a humbling thought. I was happy because some wind came back and we were able to sail using the wind vane. I want to put in a good word for this old gal that we sail. In 6.6 knots of wind we were sailing at 3.5 knots. That is pretty amazing considering how heavy she is.

We are doing well but will be happy when we get into a bit more wind. It always seems to be just ahead of us. We have 750 miles to go and are anxious to arrive.

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