Approaching Fakarava, Tuamotus

May 11, 2008--So far this passage has been a very nice one. The weather has been stable and the winds have been consistent. We are experiencing days with temperatures in the mid-80s, which is nice, but we have quite a bit of humidity and that makes it seem hotter.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful except for a mishap with a Boobie. A group of three came flying by the boat, circling a few times to check out our wind generator. The generator is on an 8-foot pole at the stern of the boat. It has three rotating blades. Well, one Boobie that was not too bright decided to try to land on the wind generator. Steve was on the side deck of the boat, and I was saying something to him when all of a sudden the generator just stopped dead. It makes a slight whine when it is running so I knew it had stopped rotating. Both of us looked up to see the Boobie trying to recover from its encounter with the machine. We thought that maybe the hit had broken the generator, but it started whirring once again. When we looked out over the water to see the Boobie, it was no where in sight so we are not sure if it survived.

That leads me to another Boobie story. Back at Nuku Hiva Steve was fishing when the black tip sharks were feeding around our boat. Well, he cast his lure and was reeling it in when all of a sudden a Boobie swooped down and bit his lure. In the process the bird hooked his wing. I think that you are beginning to understand that these are not the brightest of creatures. Steve asked me to get a towel (to cover its head) and the needle-nose pliers to pull out the lure. Well a cruiser, one from a European country, started yelling from his boat that was anchored next to us. He jumped into his dinghy, zoomed over to our boat, grabbed the fishing line, cut it with his very large knife, took the bird, and zoomed back to his boat. Steve and I just sat there speechless. He came back in a few minutes with Steve's lure, minus a barb, hands it to Steve and tells us that we shouldn't be fishing when there is a Boobie around. Steve responds that he never saw it, made a few other remarks, and put away his fishing gear for awhile. The cruiser left the next day so Steve pulled out his fishing gear again and got back to work.

Last night was again a beautiful evening. There was a crescent moon, as there has been for the past few nights, that cast a beautiful beam of light across the ocean waters to our starboard. Unfortunately, the moon is rising around noon so it sets around midnight. The rest of the night is pretty black except for a few stars or planets that are bright enough to shed light on the waves as well.

Today the color of the water was even more spectacular than before. It was still a cobalt blue, but this time it was a bright blue not a deep blue.

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A Day at Sea

May 10, 2008--Yesterday was a very good day as we averaged 7 knots all day. Last night things calmed down a bit, but we still made pretty good time. The sky last night was spectacular, with millions of stars visible. Steve's favorite is the Southern Cross. The Big Dipper is visible to the north, but it is very low in the sky. We are working to identify others.

A rain cloud passed quickly over us last night and dropped a small amount of rain. Other than that, the seas were calm and the winds fairly stable. We had a spectacular sunrise this morning with rays from the sun shooting up through one of many cumulonimbus clouds in the sky. Steve got some good pictures of it. Today we noticed that the color of the water had turned from a dark, almost oil color, to the most beautiful cobalt blue. Late in the morning we had more rain showers, and these gave us more fresh water to help wash off the boat.

I was looking out at the sea when I saw a large gray shape in the water off our port beam, but I didn't see a dorsal fin so I knew it wasn't a shark. It turned out to be dolphins; however, these dolphins were different in that they rarely came up for air. Most of the time that they were swimming around the boat, they stayed just below the surface.

We are running the engine now to charge the batteries a bit. Actually, with the sunny days and the wind over the past two days, we have done very well charging with the solar panels and the wind generator.

We hope to arrive at Fakarava in the Tuamotus early on Monday if the current weather conditions hold. We have definitely learned that schedules don't mean much out here--the weather does what it wants to, not what we want it to.

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Tuamotus

May 9, 2008--First of all my May 7 blog did not go out so I am positing it with this one. Secondly, we left Nuku Hiva on the 7th planning to head straight to the Tuamotus. When we got out of the bay, we noticed that the knot meter was not working on our new instrument, and the depth meter on our GPS was not working either. We decided to tuck into Daniel's Bay at the southwest end of Nuku Hiva. We had wanted to go there any way.

The entrance to Daniel's Bay is a bit of a challenge. It is a narrow entrance, and there is a rough sea at the entrance and the surf breaks on the eastern point. The west side has sheer cliffs. However, once you get into the bay, it is very protected and calm with spectacular scenery. A deep green valley comes down to the shore, and this is where you can pick up a trail to hike to a waterfall. We anchored among seven other boats and immediately took a swim to cool off. Steve then pulled the speed transducer and took a dental pick to it. All the growth, barnacles and such, was just amazing. Next he pulled the transducer for our GPS and did the same thing. His technique was quite good, and I told him that in his next life he could become a dental hygienist. When he finished that job, we just sat in the cockpit and enjoyed our wonderful surroundings.

We planned to hike to the waterfall the next morning, but when we got up, the valley was surrounded by rain clouds, and it was already sprinkling a bit. We decided to skip the hike, probably a good thing as the beach has a lot of noseeums that bite, and just head on south. The winds looked pretty good for the next three days, so we got ready to leave.

We put up our main sail while still in the bay, the engine was running just fine, and we headed out through the entrance. The ocean waves were coming right at our bow this time, and the boat was struggling to take the waves head on. Then the engine begins oscillating again. Darn, we were sure we had it running pretty well. To make a long story short, we backed off the rpms a bit and just held our breaths while she lumbered slowly out the pass. Finally we were clear of the entrance and could get our head sail out. The winds were gusting, and we had some pretty large seas, but once we cleared the island a bit, every thing settled down.

All day yesterday we enjoyed from 15 to 19 knots right off the beam, which is our fastest point of sail. The seas were big during the morning, but they calmed down by afternoon and remained that way during the night. We had no squalls or sightings of ships last night. There was some lightening off in the distance, but it never came close to us. Right now we are looking at a 155 mile 24-hour period, which is very good. We planned for a five-day passage; however, we hope to make it in four days.

Steve snagged another fish, but it got off the line. When he pulled his lure in to check it, the hook was about half way straightened out--must have been a big fish. He changed lures and will continue trying.

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Departing Nuku Hiva

May 7, 2008--Steve has been working on the fuel injection pump timing for almost two days, and after using 6 beer cans for shims, 1 file folder for a gasket, and 1 rubber seal from our head rebuild kit to temporarily replace the forward main engine seal (that broke during disassembly),we agree that it is running well enough to get us to the Tuamotus and on to Tahiti. We will have it checked out by a mechanic when we get to Tahiti.

We think that we really are underway this time. We have decided to go directly to the Fakarava in the Tuamotus without any more stops here in the Marquesas. We don't have enough time to really enjoy any one place so we would rather get south and enjoy a new area. It is unfortunate that we saw just one island here; however, we are both more than ready to leave.

I went to town with Mary from s/v Horizons this morning to get my hair cut. I figured that I might as well get it cut short so that it will last awhile. It was only $30 (oh I do miss Mexico), but that is pretty cheap for French Polynesia. Yesterday we paid $7 for 2 Cokes--now there's a deal. The beer here costs about $3.50 a can, so the shim from a can of beer costs the same as a shim from the factory. It is just so amazing. We heard the term bleeding red ink in French Polynesia, and it is definitely the truth.

We will update our Yotreps position today and then continue every day, and it should take us about five days to reach the Tuamotus--weather permitting.

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Hotel California

May 5, 2008--Well, we checked out but we couldn't leave. Actually, we chose not to leave. Let me backtrack just a bit. On Saturday, we began preparing the boat to leave. We pulled our stern anchor, and it was an awful mess. After 3 1/2 weeks under water there was growth all over it, and it was muddy and slimy. It took Steve an hour to hose off most of the crud. When the anchor came up (a Danforth) he actually had to take the dinghy oar to it to break huge chunks of mud off it. It was a total mess. Then after the deck was cleaned off and everything was put away, we went to turn on the engine, and the alternator alarm was screaming. The alternator had gone bad. Luckily for us, we had a spare, so Steve replaced it. To make a long story short, we spent the rest of Saturday just mulling everything over and trying to figure out where we should go, and Steve continued tinkering on the engine.

Sunday morning, we turned on the engine and found that the starter battery was dead (the good times just keep on coming). We switched over to the house bank and started the engine. It still didn't seem perfect, but we decided to head over to Oa Poa and see how it did during that 4-hour trip. Steve pulled the anchor, which was also a complete mess. He cleaned the chain as best as he could with the boat brush. We headed out of the bay with the engine at 1500 rpms just moving along nicely; however, when we tried to accelerate past that point, the engine started struggling again. It just couldn't get past that point. Running out of ideas, Steve said that perhaps it was the governor (he is definitely running out of options), and we decided that it would be better to work on that here than at Oa Poa, which is a smaller town. So, we turned around and anchored back in the bay.

I have to take a minute to discuss why we made this decision. Steve had his heart set on seeing the Tuamotus, and I agree. We have come all this way, and they are supposed to be really wonderful. If we bypass them and go to Tahiti, it is very difficult to return to them especially this season. We could go ahead and go there, but you really should have an engine that you can count on when navigating the passes into the lagoons. That is why we keep trying to get this engine problem fixed.

John from s/v Horizons came over and offered to help Steve work on the engine, so they spent the whole afternoon yesterday tearing it apart and inspecting everything they could think of. They checked the governor and it looked fine. So it's back to square one. The boat is torn apart literally. There are tools everywhere. After taking the engine apart, the engine gasket was trashed, so we ended up making a new gasket out of a file folder. Thankfully John and his wife Mary had us over for dinner last night so I did not have to cook and add to the mess.

We got up this morning, and Steve immediately set to work getting the last of the engine put back together. We discussed all the options and possibilities. Ron from s/v Island Time came by and said that s/v Orca III will probably be coming in here in the next day or two and the skipper is a diesel mechanic. We will try to contact them on VHF to see what their plans are, and we feel that it would probably be worth staying until they come in if it is only a few days.

Wednesday will make it four weeks that we have been here. It seems that every year one boat experiences a major problem, and I guess that we drew the unlucky card this year.

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Life is Good

May 2, 2008--Our engine is now fixed and running beautifully. We couldn't have asked for a better anniversary present. Polynesian Yacht Services put the order on a plane yesterday morning; however, since it was a holiday, the package wasn't brought to town from the airport until today. At nine o'clock this morning, Moetai told Steve to check back at 2:30. When Steve got back, Moetai said he couldn't pick it up until 4:30 so Steve said that he would pick it up personally. It was about a 3/4 of a mile walk through town, and Steve said that he kept looking at the package but didn't want to open it until he got to the boat. We were a little worried that it might the wrong pump. We unpacked the items--the injector fuel pump, a raw water pump, and a heat exchanger--and Steve proceeded to install the pump without any problems. After we pumped fuel through to fill the lines, she started right up and sounded sooooo good. Some people thought that we would have a problem with the timing, but on our engine, it was really quite simple.

When we arrived here from Mexico, Steve noticed a drip from the raw water pump, and after the injector fuel pump problems, he ordered the two additional spare parts. This turned out to be a good thing because when he installed the injectr fuel pump, the raw water pump leak had become worse so he also installed that pump as well. We started the engine again and ran it for about an hour, and she didn't miss a beat.

I cannot express what a relief it is to have this problem fixed. We were beginning to get a little stir crazy just sitting in this anchorage since there is only so much you can do to pass the time. It was difficult watching all the cruising boats coming in and then leaving for points south. This morning we worked to get the boat ready to leave because we decided that if the pump was not right, we would leave any way and just sail to Tahiti. We have a few things to do in the morning (more baguettes), and then we will head to the southwest side of this island to anchor in Daniel's Bay (a Survivor season was shot there). There is a nice hike to a waterfall that we want to take. We are not sure where we will go after that--we are still trying to decide.

Rose had another Friday night Happy Hour at her restaurant. She was serving beer and wine, and she was also serving a chef's salad or a raw tuna dish. We both enjoyed the fresh salad, and it was, of course, accompanied by fresh baguettes. We had a chance to meet some different cruisers this week and had a very nice evening.

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A Treat for Us

April 30, 2008--We decided that, since our anniversary is on Friday, we would spent an evening at the Pearl Resort. So Monday at noon we checked into our bungalow, which had a large window that overlooked the bay. The bungalow is built on stilts and the exterior is all wood. The main room had a very comfortable bed that faced the window. There was a long shelf that served as a table that ran the width of the room and was mounted right under the window. The bathroom had a large walk-in shower. There were wooden louvered windows by the sink and in the shower. There was a small deck out to one side with a sliding glass door. There was also a small refrigerator and a small TV; unfortunately, all the programs were in French. The first thing I did was take a very long, very cool shower. Steve was next. The best part was that the room was air conditioned!

We went to the restaurant to have lunch, and then we headed to the infinity pool to relax for a few hours. The pool is built on the side of the hill so when you are in it, you are again looking out over the bay. We could even see our boat at anchor just off the beach. We returned to our room and took another shower, of course, and then just sat on the deck reading our books. Around 7 p.m. we had a delicious dinner--Steve had Mahi Mahi and I had pesto pasta. We topped it all off with Creme Brulee that had a hint of coconut, a scoop of ice cream, and whipped cream with a cherry. It was the best we have ever had. We waddled back to the room and read for the rest of the evening.

We slept in the next day in order to take advantage of the comfortable bed and the cool room. During the night Steve actually had to ask me to turn down the temperature on the AC a little--he was cold! We slowly got around to packing up our things, and we checked out around 11 a.m. We met some other cruisers in the lobby, so we stopped and had a drink and caught up with their experience on the crossing. We got back to the boat around noon. It is very interesting that while we loved being in the air conditioned room, sleeping on a regular bed, and swimming in a pool, it did feel good to be back on the boat--it is our home.

The internet connection has been down for two days so we weren't able to track our engine parts. We finally got on today and FedEx reported that they were in route to Tahiti. They sat in New Zealand for three days. Tomorrow is Labour Day here, so everything will be closed. If we are really lucky, we might have them by Friday although they had to clear customs in Tahiti, so who knows. We will continue to keep our fingers crossed.

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