Sunday, 29. June 2008, 12:00:00
The Marquesas Island of Nuka Hiva is beautiful. I love the high green clad mountains with the rugged rocks. The steep ravines and sharp peaks. It reminds me of Table Mountain in Cape Town and more especially the Kirstenbosh area with the sea right up to the parking lot of that world famous garden paradise. The island is kept immaculately clean and tidy. Every afternoon there are little fires where they burn the leaves just raked up although I wonder why they don’t allow them to compost down in a neat corner somewhere.
We were given some Pampelmouse. Delicious grapefruit like fruit. So juicy and not as sour or bitter as the usual grapefruit.
Hoping to stop at a few more bays and islands in this group but for now have been busy with all the fix-ups. I can’t remember that camp fire song with actions but our boat reminds me of it.
The windows are not so good so tape the windows.
Then the dinghy has sprung a leak so pump the dinghy, tape the windows.
Then the spin rips so sew the sail pump the dinghy, tape the window.
Then the ….
You get the idea.
Along the way although the mast gate track was fixed properly the sliders fell out and were lost overboard. Not too bad but we knew we would have to drop the main rather than reef and once it was down we would not be able to rehoist it until making some sort of replacement parts. Shortly after dropped the main to hover around the vicinity of another yacht having some problems with their spinnaker overboard and wrapped round their props and later we spent the night chopping the chopping board for a piece of plastic to round down into a 8mm dowel. Early next morning we are back in business sailwise and no noticeable difference to the bread board that has already donated a part of itself to the base of the jammers.
One night needing to reef we started the engines to come head to wind and the port engine won’t start. The battery has died. Just like that. Dead as a dodo. No hint of a problem before back in any other part of the world where the battery will cost a fraction of what it has here in the Marquesas. But that is the nature of boats for you. We continue working on the boat in exotic locations or in one word, cruising
Lorna and James
Saturday, 28. June 2008, 12:00:00
There is an informal cruisers net at 8 am each morning on SSB radio. We can receive but not transmit. Positions and conditions are exchanged. The SSB range is far greater than that of the VHF but there are a lot of bubbles and squeaks to listen through. This transmission quickly becomes the highlight of our day. It is like a game of Chinese whispers by dyslexics.
We sail on without coming within VHF range of any one else. We hear others asking about us and between them, the yacht with the best SSB reception and the net controller Mind the Gap becomes Mind the Step.
We listen intently to the conversations so that we can plot the other boats positions on our chart. We would then estimate where each one would be the next day and became fairly good at the predictions as most would be only a few miles from our estimations.
The conversations became really interesting and we were so frustrated when we could not correct or intercede when obvious (to us) mistakes were being made.
We would hear one yacht report their position as 112 degrees west instead of 122 degrees. We immediately knew it was wrong, numerical dyslexia had firmly set in, they could not possibly have gone that far backwards. This is our version of some of the transmissions we heard:
Te Harinui - “Callaback, Callaback this is Te Harinui do you copy”….
Silence
Hanne Danske – “Tararahooey, Tararahooey, This is Hanne Danske I will try to contact them for you”
Hanne Danske – “Calabash, Calabash this is Hanne Danske”
Falabrach – “Hello Dancer, Hello Dancer this is Falabrach”
…….an exchange of positions.
- “Callabrack, Callabrack do you have the position of Wizard?
Blizzard - “Belly Dancer, Belly Dancer this is Blizzard. Our position is….”
Temaraire – “The net controller is asking if there are any other yachts wanting to report their position”
Doucorcy Spirit – “Tia Maria, Tia Maria Our position….”
There was a bit of chit chat between Doucorcy Spirit and the others.
The next morning and for the following week there was always someone asking where Corsica was. It was so frustrating. We knew the name had been confused in the bubble and squeak of the SSB with Doucorcy Spirit. We were dying to get in there with the position of Corsica just north of Sardinia in the Med.
Without intention the yacht names changed and took on whole new meanings……
Te Harinui (from a Maori song meaning blessings from the sea) became Tiara Newy, Tarara Hooey, Tamara Hui, and a variety of others just stopping short of becoming Banana Gooey.
Falabrach (Italian for naughty boy) became Callaback, Callabrack, Falafel and Calabash.
Hanne Danske (Hanna the Dane) became Canadansa, Kelly Danza, Hanna Dancer, Can-Can Dancer and the favourite, Belly Dancer.
Arbuthnot (Norwegian and Scottish for where the river meets the sea) became Abernot, Agernaut, Aga Nought, Argernaut, Butternut.And then there was Flame, what can be funny about Flame, well you had to be there to appreciate it and you also had to have watched a Blackadder series where he and Baldric were in the trenches during the 1st world war and Baldric proudly announced “I have written a poem sir”. – “Oh very well then lets hear it” says Balckadder. Baldric -
Boom, Boom, Boom, BOOOM. Second verse.. BOOOOOM boom etc. well that is what the call to Flame sounded like as they were out of range and the call kept being repeated.
.
This is Lorna aboard “Duck your head”, “Watch your step”, “Mind the Gap” standing by on e mail.
Friday, 27. June 2008, 12:00:00
We blew the spinnaker. What’s new! It shouldn’t have gone though. Not in 11 knots of wind.
Only just put it up, no flapping or flogging or sudden gusts. At first I thought the halyard had slipped as all I could see was the spinnaker dropping down but as I clambered along forward I saw it had ripped. Starting from the luff tape, and while I unwound the snuffer lines, ripping before my eyes all the way across the crown and then carrying on all the way down the long leach just in from the tape edge. James makes it forward in time to drag the bits on deck while I drop the halyard.
It took hours – no make that days of hard graft, sewing patches back and front. First tacking it in place by hand after carefully lining up the torn threads to keep the shape, then machine stitching it roughly before all the zig zags to hold it all down and give it a bit of strength. Not too much stitching in one place to avoid strengthening it too much and make the bit alongside weak.
The machine can only do straight stitch so to get the zig zag effect I have to turn the fabric around the machine needle.
The first couple of days I got the bulk of placing the patches done and then we were off in a fair breeze. Sewing at the cockpit table was impossible with the wind catching the thread and wrapping it around other bits of the machine in between stitches. Sewing inside is not so comfortable.
A couple of days out and the wind started easing. I knew in the morning it would be spinnaker weather and my shifts through the night were spent climbing in and out of my spinnaker cacoon either to check on our sailing progress or to get behind that other wheel and turn some stitches. Sometimes I would only just find my place and I would need to climb back out of mountains of fabric to make some adjustment to the boat trim.
Eventually I had it all patched up. And here the photos are so disappointing. (will upload asap) They make it look like a tiny tear across the top point. In reality the red section coming down along the side is about two meters. The one whole side needed work and patches went on back and front. Also it was not a neat straight tear. There were great holes of missing fabric, inches of waft threads with all the weave threads in a fuzzy ball at the nearest seam, and horizontal, vertical and diagonal rips.
Up it went early morning only to have to come down for a quick fix in a unrelated spot showing some daylight through a small tear. A few hours later and a another safety measure patch on a patch repair was done. We dropped it for the night late afternoon as the wind was starting to pick up.
Next day with the lighter wind it went back up and it stayed up for the following night with me watching it like a hawk and adjusting our course so as to keep the pressure off “Threads” even if we sailed a little slower. With James on duty and me trying to sleep through the nightmares of a freshly broken spinnaker I am woken with the thing hanging it tatters again. I think James has gone for the speed and direction option as opposed to the “save the threads” option.This was supposed to have been a heavy duty spinnaker. It has now ripped all the way across again but just below the last repair. I have been chopping up the old spinnaker for patches but I think I should have chopped up the new one to repair the old.
I am not impressed. My back and neck still ache from the last lot of sewing. I do not want to see the thing again and tell James to leave it in the locker on deck. In all his wisdom James insists on examining it and bringing it back to the cockpit. For the next few days I get to stomp over it umpteen times. Eventually I tackle it without enthusiasm and no more carefully matching threads I put in a huge overlap with darts and puckers in the wider lower part so that it fits to the narrower head section. It can now only be used in very light winds and no more tight angles to the wind. There will be days when it will come in very handy.
Sew, sew and more sew and early one morning after a relatively slow night up it goes. I am not convinced it is the right thing to do. The wind is light but patchy. We have had a day of this patchy stuff and the full main has been up then as it starts flopping and flogging with the wave action it has been reefed. Hardly done and the wind has picked up that tiny bit and the reef has been taken out. No sooner done and it has started flogging again. Reef in. Reef out.
Now the full main is up with the spinnaker. This is good as it will shield the spin from any strong puffs but then it is also a problem in that during the lulls it takes all the wind and the spin flops.
The spinnaker is only just up when it flops gets caught up on the spreader which pops a hole in it near the leach tape and hooks out the leach line running up the tape. The spin doesn’t rip but it is stuck up there on the spreader. In our efforts to get it down we cause some damage and I have yet again more sewing to do. After all that sewing the spinnaker has flown for a maximum of 36 hours.
I had really looked forward to this particular leg of our journey but I have found it the worst. Too much sewing and repair jobs to enjoy the journey or was it the race effect of having other yachts also sailing the same leg. When one yacht sails a journey it is a cruise, when more than one yacht sails the same journey it is a race! Give me cruising any day.
Thursday, 26. June 2008, 08:16:13
We left the Galapagos island of Christobal after a couple of days. Time enough for the sea lions to make themselves at home aboard Mind the Gap and have a snooze on the transom steps whenever they fancied. They are smaller and friendlier than their Cape Town cousins and leave as soon as requested. None of that teeth baring and lip curling snarl at your approach.
Went on a tour to see the giant tortoises, a volcano crater, and flora and fauna along the way and the iguanas. These big land based iguanas have adapted to diving into the cold waters for their food. They have to lie on the rocks in the sun to get their body temp back up to normal. There they lie baking in the sun and sneezing salt.
Head for Isabela sailing past the rim of a volcano that is just above sea level in places but the leeward side still rises high above the sea, making a beautiful crescent shaped bay. Unfortunately facing the wind and sea but what remains is probably the result of the wind and sea eroding the rest.
Isabela is beautiful. Sand roads compacted hard and flat and the street lamp posts made from almost straight 4 – 6 inch diameter length of tree branches with a lamp on top. A field of dried lava looked like the rumpled skin of some huge old beast. We had the erupting volcano lighting up the sky with a red glow of fire and brimstone for two nights but we were safe enough about 20 miles upwind.
No bank on the island which caused a bit of a problem when the port captains “problemo” needed settling. An obliging hotel helped out.
The day we are due to leave Te Harinui and two other yachts sail into the bay. The Port Captain is there quick sticks and wants us all out by late afternoon. Isabela is not really an allowed stop for us yachties.
We were lucky to have a couple of days even if not allowed to go swimming with the Hammerhead sharks or go on any of the other tours. I think I am done with tours. You do get to see some extra sites but it all turns out a bit too organized and fake. I much prefer seeing a snippet naturally, like the turtle tracks on the beach in Barbuda with no one else around, no signposts and yackety guide.
A quick trip ashore for the others after their all night sail and before sunset all four yachts sail out of the bay. Next stop Marquesas about 3000 miles away.
You’d think sailing the ocean is lonesome, by the morning there are nine yachts in a twenty mile radius around us. That is the range that our VHF radio receives and transmits. All have recently come through the Panama Canal and all heading ultimately for NZ or Australia with stop overs in the Marquesas, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji plus other islands on the way.
We all left a Galapagos island within days of hours of each other and are following the desired course just south of the rhumb line to make the best of winds and currents.
Channel 16 is for emergencies but can also be used as a hailing channel before switching over. Out here on the ocean with only us cruisers in range all the chit chat between the yachts is listened to by all the others. Being about mid fleet one morning we found ourselves to be the relay station with yachts almost out of range up ahead hearing one side of our conversation with friends of theirs almost out of our range behind us. Messages were being relayed back and forth then other boats joined in asking about conditions further left or right. I had no sooner said “Mind the Gap clear” when another yacht would call us up asking for a relay to someone else.
It doesn’t take long and although we are all headed in the same direction each boat sails differently and a degree or two change in course makes a big difference and we all fan out sailing the best course for our own boat. The seas are lumpy and bumpy and the wind is not blowing according to the expected pattern. We are pleased to have “Blizzard” behind us and “Delicate Dawn” ahead.
Two days later and we are all alone on an empty ocean.
Not quite alone but out of VHF range.
Lorna and James
Wednesday, 25. June 2008, 07:45:17
Hi All,
Being Sunday the internet cafes were all shut and the mails couldn’t get sent.
We are now in The Marquesas after 3000 plus miles of some quite fast days clocking up near the 200 mile per day mark.
I fixed the spinnaker, fixed it, fixed it, fixed it, James broke it. I fixed it again, James broke it again……. Mast track sliders got redone, engine fan belt replaced and the list goes on.
Will be in touch soon.
Lorna and James
(PS. Our google Earth file is now up to date)
Monday, 23. June 2008, 23:14:18
We arrive late afternoon and with a following wind we have the spinnaker up. Tootling along nicely we look behind and see the wind squalls building and heading our way. Looks like we will have 25 knots through this cut! Being a major port the entrance was much bigger and it didn’t produce any surprises. We tied up at the town marina as the sun was going down.
Too late for checking in today but no problem going ashore before completing the formalities at this island. We are back in civilization and 100 yards from the boat is the city centre, shops, multi lane high ways, cars, busses, traffic, people and fast food outlets. There is even a cinema.
This is July and carnival or “Heiafa” month. There is a cultural show on but the performance is already underway when we get there. We make enquiries and are escorted to front row seats when they hear we have arrived in Tahiti only hours ago. We watch the competition for the individual dancers. Hoola-hoola for the girls and a thigh-squat, thigh-jiggling war dance for the men accompanied by live music on the wooden drums and other instruments.
The performers, ushers and a number of others, mostly women but not all, are wearing headdresses of garlands of flowers. All the poles and posts are decorated with woven palm fronds and more flowers. It is all beautiful and the air is thick with the perfume of the fresh blossom.
Ahhhh Tahiti!
Monday, 23. June 2008, 08:25:18
Isabela 90 miles or so from Isla San Christobal and last in the Galapagos island chain.
We left San Christobal after waiting for 2 days to get our exit documents. The day we arrived, the port Captains officer came aboard, took our details and promised to deliver our exit papers the next day. Next day, no papers. The day after I tried to find out what was going on. The Naval base officers said try at another office. I tried there but it was like speaking a foreign language to them. To be fair, they were Spanish. Anyway, left without the prepared documents, which couldn’t be found anywhere, but I still had a copy of my Panama exit papers.
We were not 5 miles away, doing over 9 knots when we again had problems with the main sail track and sliders, return to Christobal and fixed things as best I could and left again early the next morning. We arrived at Isabela just before sunset and anchored inside a very pretty sheltered reef. Good stuff to see out here but the tours are very expensive.
I got on with repairs to the mast gate track. It is now better than new. I will go into details about the repair if some of you are interested - let me know. The main head board sliders are worn and I will replace those as soon as I can.
We were visited by the local Port Captain and he said we have a “problemo” but that the problemo could be sorted out for $125. We now have exit papers for Marquesas but we can only stay here for 2 more days to fix our broken spinnaker and we are not allowed to visit the tourist sites. Fine by me. How many seals, white tipped sharks, boobys, tortoises, iguanas and lava rocks do you want to see? Well, maybe I always like seeing the boobys.
Then there was the fire and brimstone event. The local volcano is fortunately downwind of us and gave a spectacular display at night, the red lava shooting skywards. We are far enough away for it not to pose a threat to us. Lorna has been working very hard in trying to make our spinnaker operational again. Hopefully we will be able to use it on this trip to Marquesas if we treat it gently.
3 other boats, including Te Harinui has just turned up at this anchorage and we will be leaving with them tonight. (Sun 1 Jun).
All news for now.
James.
PS Happy birthday wishes to the following and belated wishes to Julian.
Lynn
Chris
Henk
Rachael
Finnley
Happy Birthday. We will be thinking of you while we are somewhere between Galapagos and Marquesas Islands. If I get the spinnaker sewn up we could be there in 27 days. If I don’t or it doesn’t fly maybe 35 or so and if the new improved sliders and mast track …….no James has fixed that good.
Lots of love,
Lorna and James
Saturday, 21. June 2008, 10:56:11
...continued from last post.
So Ngaire and I hop off the bus from Panama at the supermarket stop and head for the taxi rank. The supervisor sees us coming, finds out where we want to go and while she explains to the driver where to take us, and he understands, (which is a good sign as it is not the usual route for the locals) we hop into the only taxi available.
It is a battered and clapped out wreck, but not as much of a skedonk as the one James and I took in Margarita. When we asked for a taxi, the group of men with their heads under the bonnet, hammering away, simply dropped the bonnet with a clang and said “hop in”. The doors closed with a two inch gap all round and I won’t go into the rest. But that was back in Margarita.
The driver partly turns round to Ngaire and I and I see his one eye is very clouded over. No health and safety issues here about being allowed to drive or even drive public transport. The rules of the road are equally casual. We reach the busy junction of cross country motorway, shopping precinct and downtown main road. Cars, busses, trucks and taxi’s all criss crossing the 5 or 6 way intersection. We have seen very few traffic lights and stop signs. All the four way junctions appear to be controlled by each driver’s sense of fair play and patience. Somehow it usually all works out.
At the sound of a blaring horn and a squeal of brakes and with our bonnet protruding into another lane beyond the back of a bus, our driver turns to reassure us and we see he is ideally suited to these junctions at rush hour – his eyes work independently of each other.
We make it across the BBQ grating over the locks while the water surges below with the pressure of the draining lock and to the end of the forest track just before dark. With a smile our driver offers us his card in case we need a taxi again. His name! - Dracula. I kid you not! You can’t make up stuff like this.
Monday, 9. June 2008, 23:12:06
The Marquesas were a favourite stop. Beautiful rugged mountains interspersed with lush vegetation and bare and barren patches. Friendly natives, watched over by bug eyed stone Tiki, kept the islands immaculate.
Back home why was I so obsessed with mowing the lawn in dead straight stripes three degrees off due North and keeping the edges sharp and crisp. Here the patchy grass (that admittedly grows horizontally and not vertically) leaves sandy patches in between was merely raked over and it all looked so casually neat and tidy. No stress.
Fabulous little bays around the deeply indented coast sometimes hard to see from the sea opened up into beautiful secluded and sheltered bays.
From the main port on Nuka Hiva we sailed five miles down the coast to Baie De Tai Oa a very hard to see narrow inlet between steep sided menacing looking black cliffs. Once through the winding gap it opened up into two beautiful bays where it was hard to decide which one to anchor in for the night.
The left appeared totally deserted with a black sand beach and a track leading into the mountains to a very high waterfall. The waterfall drop was high but there was minimal water and we declined the adventure. We anchored off the white sand beach with the remains of a dwelling although we saw no signs of life apart from a few goats and a clutch of chickens that seemed to have the mountain to themselves. We are used to having horizon to horizon sea views but here we had high mountains all around us. It felt like our boat had been dropped into a private pool in some sci-fi movie set.
Further around the coast we stopped at Hatiheu where we trekked over to the archaeological site dating back centuries. Huge stones fitted together into broad flat terraces and platforms. Totem poles and what could have been a sacrificial pit.
The bug eyed Tiki were all over the island. Huge carvings sculptured out of stone and resembling some strange life form with very pronounced eyes.
One that impressed us was at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea at Topotucho Point, At first we thought it was an amazing rock formation but as we sailed around we saw that it was definitely manmade and appeared to be a couple of figures keeping watch for marauding tribes.
Monday, 2. June 2008, 07:55:42
While we waited at Colon for our transit through the “Big Ditch” we (Ngaire, Lloyd, James and I) took the bus to Panama city for the day. At the bus depot was an enormous shopping mall and before we knew it was time to make the two hour ride back. An enjoyable day outing like a bit of window shopping.
A couple of days later while up the Chagras River we set off extra early to repeat the trip. (A repaired camera needed collecting.) This time James elected to give the trip a miss and dinghies us to the fisherman’s dock at the top of the river. Walked up the thickly forested track to the main road then waited ages for a bus and catch one. Going left, unsure how this will get us to Colon across the locks and harbour.
The bus is jam packed not an inch to spare. This is one of the ex USA school busses now privately owned and graphically spray painted up using as many colours as possible. The cruisers refer to these as the “chicken bus”. All the lights on the dashboard are on, brake, seatbelt, oil, engine check, which is surprising as all the wires are hanging loosely out underneath. So dashboard lights on this bus work whether they should be relied on is probably another matter.
We make a sharp right into the high security area of the locks and I think we have hopped on the locks workforce bus. But we turn again with the tyres screeching against the concrete edges of the ramp and cross the lowest lock by way of a BBQ grid bridge.
In Colon we change busses for the air conditioned express for Panama about 60 miles away. We grind to a halt half way there because of strike action. Apparently the locals will strike for anything causing huge delays. We arrive in Panama in time to have a bite for lunch and to get the next bus back.
We have noted that we can hop off earlier than Colon at a supermarket complex and take a taxi for a shorter distance across the locks. Pop into the supermarket and stock up. By the time we arrive at the track we find the Nature Reserve gate across the track locked. It is now pitch dark and we have bags of shopping to carry down to the little wooden dock.
The past few nights we have been up and down the river in the dinghy with paddles and a torch trying to see the reflected red eyes of the crocs but have not seen any.
Now with the sound of the howler monkeys in the 50 meter high trees that close up overhead, things that go rustling in the undergrowth, twigs breaking on either side of the track and the glow of eyes all around we find ourselves up the track without a torch but with bags of heavy shopping.
Something follows us. We have no inclination to stop and think about what is behind us as we are way too concerned about the eyes around us. One hovers in front then circles around to the side. Another sort of scales a tree but in a very flighty way and I realise the glows must be fireflies. Whew! The thing behind us meows. Hopefully it is just a wild cat.
Make it down to the dock as James who has been radioed arrives with the dinghy.
The Camera was not ready last time and now our new one is playing up so we make another trip. This time Lloyd joins James in declining yet another shopping trip and Ngaire and I are cautioned by the men not to be late back.
We get both cameras sorted chop-chop faff around and are back at the bus depot in plenty of time. The woman officer at the gate tells us “no bus to Colon” We can’t believe it. What, when? She says “Maybe in an hour”. Outside the gate is a local bus with destination “Colon”. We decide to wait. A couple of minutes pass and we think maybe we should take the chicken bus. We try and get though the gate but the woman says “no” “no bus to Colon”. We point at the one right there and Ngaire says “this one goes to Colon, this chi…bus, we’ll take this one”. The officers eyes grow large and her eyebrows nearly go over the top of her head before she allows us through. We board and take two of the last few seats.
Look for the parcel shelf but there is none. No problem. My backpack will have to rest on my feet and the stack of hot pizzas for supper will have to rest on my lap. Ngaire a few rows back will have to do the same with her backpack and at least for her the box of donuts are only warm not hot. It is only a matter of seconds before the lack of air-con hits and I glance round. In the split second eye contact with Ngaire we communicate that we have made a big mistake and need to get off this bus. Chancing the track in the dark will be a better option. The inspector smiles as she allows us back in the gate.
Then at the taxi rank....Dracula awaited........to be continued.
Sunday, 1. June 2008, 23:12:57
The Tuamotus are a large group of atolls spread across the ocean and on the main route from Marquesas to the Society Islands.
Atolls are the remains of volcanoes. The coast line of the original volcano gave rise to coral formations that built up over the centuries. At some point the volcano collapsed in on itself leaving only the ring of coral which continued to grow until it made it above sea level and Hey Presto! New Land!
Mostly they are a string of islands of various sizes around a lagoon. They are a bit like a beaded necklace. Because they are low lying they are hard to see especially at night but the distances between them generally necessitates some night sailing. It is possible to navigate into most of the lagoons but it is tricky as there is usually only one pass and that is possessed by devilishly strong currents and best attempted at slack water. To see all the coral heads in and around the cuts it is best to do this between 10 and 2 with he sun directly overhead but that may not be the best time for the tide and the currents and it may not coincide with your arrival time.
Once committed to the cut there is no turning back. Doing a u-turn is out of the question in the narrow channels and reversing is at best a tricky manoeuvre and not to be attempted in a confined space beset with a rip and rock hard sides.
Our first atoll is Manihi. We have studied the charts, read all the info and seen pictures and diagrams of the lay of the land or rather the channel markers, coral outcrops and bad rip tide areas. We line up for the cut watching the red and green buoys and keeping as far from the areas where the rip is worst. Here we go. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. The engine alarm sets off a nerve jangling ear piercing shriek. We have just enough time and space to swing around and out. The one fan belt is shredded. What a time for that to happen.
Yachting is all about managing stress levels and yachts are all about providing stressful situations! James replaces the belt and adjusts the brackets that should line it up better.
There is not much in the way of civilization on these atolls. A few black pearl farms and a smattering of life on one or two of the islands is the sum total. Transport is mostly by boat although some did have cars. When the island is only half a mile wide and about six miles long, that Sunday afternoon drive in the country soon gets to be the same as last weeks drive.
The lagoons inside the necklace of islands can be vast. Rangiroa the second largest atoll in the world and is about 40 miles across. Some islands rise no more than a few feet above sea level and with nothing but the odd tall palm tree to add height, from a couple of miles away you cannot see anything. Even though you are in the lagoon it looks like you are in the middle of the ocean.
We stopped in Manihi a couple of nights then considering carefully left as the tide turned. We had current with us but now the sun was ahead and lower on the horizon making it so hard to see the coral. Our next stop at Rangiroa is equally as challenging with a rough sea in the channel.
As we enter the cut, I see a huge shark between our bows but more interesting are the snorkellers about 50 yards away that were dropped sea side of the cut to drift with the current over the coral and into the lagoon. You float along at a good speed and see all the sea life zipping along below you without you having to swim. With luck the shark is enjoying its own drift dive.
We leave Rangiroa and it is a rough exit. The waves are rearing up against the outgoing tide and we buck and bronk along. Not quite like Rio but it is getting there.
Saturday, 31. May 2008, 16:21:53
Just arrived in Isla Isabela about 70 miles from San Cristobal.
Will stop a couple of days then the long haul to Marquesas.
Some old stories......
Have you got long ears?
We noticed the private glance our visitors aboard exchanged between themselves before giving us a strange look from the corner of their eyes. It was then we realised a question we ask each other so many times a day must sound a bit odd.
We both need glasses for reading and with charts to study, books to read and the instruments to keep checking we have collected a variety of supermarket glasses that are always on hand somewhere on the boat. My favourite pair and the pair that James keeps "borrowing" are easily spotted amongst the folded up collection because the ear pieces stick out further beyond the lenses than any of the others.
I call them "Long Ears". To our visitors the question "Have you got long ears?" or "Do you want long ears?" must have sounded a little bit peculiar.
Regards
Lorna
Wednesday, 28. May 2008, 17:00:03
Galapagos – 900 miles as the crow flies
Pity we could not fly with the crows. We did a bit extra. We decided to sail rather than motor the distance. This was against the perceived wisdom of most of the cruisers who tanked up with diesel and took even more on board in plastic drums for this journey. You could be stuck for days in little or no wind and against currents which could make you lose your hard fought gain.
Left form the Las Perlas islands after helping Lloyd scrape some barnacles off the hull of his leopard. Should’ve left when there was wind early that morning but after coffee with the Parker’s, we left in almost no wind. Lloyd and Ngaire just motored past and other than a brief meeting a few hours later, (when a piece of king fish wrapped in plastic landed with a thud on our deck) we did not see them again as they motored into the distance. We lost the VHF radio contact that night as they went out of range.
We did all to coax every fraction of a knot out of our boat and had the spinnaker up in wind barley enough to fill it out, let alone drive the boat forward. Early that first night Lloyd radioed that we need to be aware of fishing activity in the area he was then in. We did not want to get caught up in their nets. We passed the fishermen just before dawn. A very slow sail ensued the next day with the boat sometimes hardly moving at all. We exited the Gulf of Panama early that evening to be met with 20 knots of wind and we flew along on a close reach. This trip would not take long after all.
Then came the lighting and the thunder to liven things up a bit. We instinctively ducked our heads as the thunder clapped and lighting struck around us, although if the lightning struck us ducking certainly would not be much good. All this fun could not last and it started to blow over 25 knots so we put in 2 reefs. It was pouring with rain and we got soaked. We made good progress until Lorna’s watch at about midnight when the wind came up to 30 knots so decided to just drop the main and continue under jib until the morning. Lorna released the main halyard as I pulled in the luff reefing lines at the mast, helping the main down. Then disaster! The mast track gate slipped out of place, fortunately all the mast cars fixed to the full length battens were already down else we would have had ball bearings bouncing all over the deck and blown into the sea. Unfortunately the head board attachment slipped out of the track. When I tried to put it back, to my dismay I saw that the sliders that form a lining between the mast track and head board fitting were missing. Lorna came to the mast in the lashing rain and howling wind where I was busy to see what was going on. I told her what had happened and she returned with a torch and luckily found one slider lying at the foot of the mast. We could not find the other as it had more than likely found the sea. We lashed the mast gate in place and also the main head board and fitting onto the boom around the lazy bag so we did not lose those. We were cold, wet and despondent. I got my wet gear off and had a troublesome sleep, worrying about how I was going to sort this problem out. Lorna stayed up all night to watch the illuminations and made sure we stayed clear of ships in this very busy waterway.
Next morning I tried to deal with the problem. We were in a real predicament; we cannot continue this journey unless we could resolve this problem thru some manner or means. A temporary fix for a 1000 mile journey would be a real pain and thereafter where there is some support it is in the Marquesas 2500 miles away. I could not use the main without the sliders. Even if I could hoist the main it could damage the mast track to the extent that the rest of the mast cars would jam going up or worse still, coming down and obviously the same applied to the mast head board fitting itself.
Next morning, the only thing that exceeded the foulness of my mood was the weather. Right the first step is to wait for the rain to ease and enough light to remove and examine the damaged gear. It was a real gloomy morning, grey, low visibility with wind and rain. I removed the mast gate track and the main head board fitting from the main. A retaining bolt on the mast gate track had broken and that fix I could deal with easily but the mast slider was a problem. Before I started trying to find something that I could use as a replacement I would thoroughly search the deck, the lazy bag and main sail folds just in case it was by some miracle still on the boat. Well nothing on the deck anywhere, nothing in the lazy bag and nothing in the one side of the main sail. But, low and behold, there is a God. In the last fold of the main, there it was. It was like finding the holy grail and I said a silent prayer of thanks. We are back in business. Well we got under way again but now the wind had dropped and we made painfully slow progress for the rest of that day except for the few rain squalls.
That night we had the rain, thunder and illuminations show again but without much wind. The sail continued uneventfully other than being frustrating and at times down right unpleasant. Frustrating - for the lack for wind, then in the wrong direction to use the currents in our carefully planned and plotted route. There were times that we were sailing at 4-5 knots in conditions that we would normally, without current against, be doing 7-8.
Unpleasant due to the bumpiness of the waves as when we did have wind it was 20 to 25 and bang on the nose. We could not use the current as we had to tack backwards and forwards across it.
That reminds me, what is tacking? Tacking is going to a place that you do not want to go and then going to another place where you do not want to go and repeating it until you get to a place where you do want to go. But, enough of the negative. We were joined one evening by a least a dozen whales, escorted by a few big dolphins. While the dolphins did their usual, playing the pressure of the bow waves, the whales swam around the transoms and in between the hulls. Some were almost a touch away. An amazing sight, one which we will always remember. They were with us for the best part of an hour and left us just before sunset.
It seems we are always on a high or a low with not too much in between and our crisis just vary in intensity. We have blown our spinnaker yet again. Lorna will have a go at repairing it but it is a really big job and one that would take several days if possible at all.
It blew on our last day out as approaching Galapagos. In 11 knots of wind, can you believe it! Anyway we arrived safely, took us 8 days and went the scenic route, 1066 miles sailed and 1.5 days behind Te Harinui (Lloyd and Ngaire) who used their engines and a more direct route.
We are about to leave for the last of this island chain and meet up with L & G there before continuing to the Marquesas, some 3000 miles away. Lorna has been writing up some notes for news events that will be passed on but I do not know when.
The first set of Galapagos photos can be found here.James
Monday, 26. May 2008, 23:01:34
Arrived in the Galapagos very early this morning. Not the best of sails, gloomy, grey and wind and or currents on the nose. Still made good time. All well.
Lorna and James
Tuesday, 13. May 2008, 21:02:52
We have made it through!
The last couple of days have been a touch stressful. Thursday evening (with hints from our agent that we could transit the canal over the weekend) we move downriver closer to the mouth and anchor at sunset. Preparing to dinghy up the creeks the heavens open and for the rest of the night it buckets down along with lightning every few seconds. To cap it all we see a tiny light up river and hear another small fishing boat cruise past in darkness and then stop downriver. Lately there have been a spate of dinghy and motor thefts and it turns into a restless and watchful night. Who else would be out in this weather but no-gooders. Turned out they were only fishing.
Friday morning back at Colon, we hear (subject to confirmation at 6pm) that we will be going on Saturday night. We start asking around for line handlers. Each yacht needs four plus a captain (James) and a Canal Advisor/Pilot. As luck will have it, we have just bumped into Mark who we met years ago when he worked for friend Andrew at Necol in Sint Maarten. He agrees to come along with Kerry his daughter plus friend, Jaime from the yacht Slapdash. They are all waiting for their transit.
At the club we hear our agent has brought some tyres for us plus the lines. Car tyres are better than your own fenders if you end up against the lock wall. Yachts get rafted up together through the locks but no one knows if you will have the outside berth or not. If there are two cats then they like to have a monohull in the middle. If there are more monohulls then they will have the cat in the middle. It’s best to have a tyre every meter and we plan on having 9 each side.
We load up the tyres and lines in the dinghy and chug out to the boat across the choppy harbour. No sooner heaved it all aboard than someone comes up claiming we took their stuff. Try phoning our agent who proves to be as elusive as the crocs up the river and reluctantly give the tyres and lines back. Hours later meet up with the agent and get our gear. Chug it out to the boat again. He has our passports for clearing out of Panama so things look good for going this weekend.
Try and get an internet hook up at the club but it is afternoon and they can’t be bothered to input our wireless IP address.
We phone the Scheduler who confirms that we are on the list. Things look good. They have arranged a special lockage for fifteen yachts. This is great not having to share with a big ship and have all the ships prop wash to contend with in the lock.
Saturday morning all ready to shop for the last fresh goods and we hear we are definitely not going. No Way! We are back to the 24th.
Go shopping anyway and James dinghies over to Mark to tell him it is off. Mark responds, but there has just been an announcement on the cruisers net that there are three spaces for tonight’s transit. He would go himself but doesn’t have any tyres and lines. Frantic phone calls follow but the phone network is down and James hotfoots it back to the club to try the landline. The Scheduler says no we are definitely not going. James mentions the radio announcement and tells him we are all ready with tyres, lines and checked out as is Te Harinui (the NZers). While James holds on there is some discussion with other schedulers and he comes back with “okay you are going”. “Tonight at 17:00”. We are on again.
Try again for internet at the club and because it is Saturday there is even more reluctance to add our IP address to the wireless system. Manage to get a note out that we are going but with no skype and the mobile phone network down can’t be sure any of our friends and family know.
Mid afternoon with everything in place we hear the signal station calling all the yachts in turn advising them of their pilot boarding time. We are called and ours is 1800.
The Canal pilots (advisors) come out in a big pilot launch. It can be hard for them to identify which yacht amongst all the others and they call on the radio for your whereabouts so the launch can pull up alongside. German line handlers on a Swiss yacht heard their boat called but with English not being anyone’s first language and especially the English as spoken by Spanish speaking Panamanian authorities resulted in some misunderstanding. Only the word “launch” was understood. Their reply after some thought was “Yes, we have had lunch”.
We have watched yachts preparing to leave with a boarding time similar to ours yet nothing happening for a good three hours. Still we are ready. James collects the crew and we run through the tasks while we have some daylight. All goes according to schedule and we motor off towards the Gatun locks at just after sunset. We are to have a monohull rafted up each side and will be the 2nd of 5 groups of three yachts lining up in the locks.
We ended up 4th of the 5 groups in the Gatun locks which consist of 3 chambers going up almost a hundred feet in total. All goes well, the lock gates close, water comes in with a rush and James is constantly busy with engines and rudder keeping the “rafted boats” square in the chamber. The centre boat having to do all the manoeuvring inside the locks, while the line handlers on the outsides of the monohulls had to keep the right tension on t.he lines.
Mark was a star performer, a true sailor and comfortable with any task, be it driving the boat or handling lines. It was a real asset having him aboard. But the girls, they were really special and James must been the envy of all the male yachties around, having these gorgeous girls aboard.
When we entered the lock the side walls and lock gates towered above us. The canal crew throw down monkey fists at the end of long thin ropes for the fore and aft line handlers to tie to the 125 foot 2.2cm diameter lines on board. While the yachts motor forward in the locks the canal crew walk forward and then after pulling up the thick line slip the pre tied three foot loop of bowline over a bollard. Once all the groups are secured to the walls the gates close behind us and the water rushes in. We rise up quickly and it is not long and we are looking out at ground level. The rafted up group motor through the front gates with the canal crew taking the lines up a steep set of stairs and on to another set of bollards and we are back to having the walls towering above us for the second of three locks.
It is about midnight when we are through all three locks and we undo the lines tying the three yachts together and we separate and anchor in the Gatun Lake for the night. The Pilots are collected and will rejoin us in the morning at 0600.
We eventually make a move around 0800 and take the Banana Cut through the lake saving a few miles off the longer main shipping route. I expected the Banana Cut to be a narrow channel surrounded by tall trees but it was very open. The tops of the trees that once stood tall before the valley was damned still stick out just above the surface of the water on either side and we did need to keep between the channel markers. With all the yachts motoring along in single file we rejoin the Shipping channel and get rocked by the prop wash of the passing ships. Through the Culebra / Gaillard Cut where they are busy widening the channel it is roastingly hot. As soon as we reached the locks on the other side we raft up in our three abreast formation for the downwards locks.
We had a number of anthems blaring while transiting the locks with flags waving and the girls dancing on the coach roof. The anthems included Swing Low for the Brits, Shosholoza for the South Africans Mark and Kerry, Canadian for Jaime, Irish and Scottish for the crew of the monohulls rafted up alongside and the Haka for Lloyd and Ngaire from NZ in the group behind. Think our performance was appreciated by the crews as well as the crowd of onlookers from the viewing building as we passed through the final lock before entering the Pacific Ocean. The web cams positioned along the locks may have captured some of our antics. We were sorry the phone network was playing up and we could not get a message out to tell anyone we were there.
We are into the Pacific Ocean.
We plan on leaving today for a stop at Las Perlas Islands, about 80miles, then Galapagos about 1000 miles (hoping for wind in a good direction but it is not the time of year for that) and then Marquesas.
From the Pacific we send our love to all,
Lorna and James
Saturday, 10. May 2008, 08:12:45
we transit the canal tomorrow evening about mighnight GMT we are meant to leave the anchorage here at 17.00 local time.
James and Lorna
Thursday, 8. May 2008, 07:30:41
Hi All
Anchored up the Chagres River ...about 5 miles up, a good walk to the Gatun locks.Beautiful wide and peaceful river. virgin rainforest . lots of wildlife. take snappy swims off the boat. We had to be real quick because there are some crocs around. We haven't seen any but we have seen toucans, monkeys, iguanas and kingfishers up close.
Lorna and James
Wednesday, 30. April 2008, 18:56:27
Hi All,
Woke up to good news today after yesterdays rain and gloomy weather. We have a new transit date of
30th May! 
Still hoping that it will come forward a little but even if not, a one month leap forward is fantastic.
Regards
Lorna and James
I wonder if the Panama canal authorities are starting to get some pressure put on them by the yachties delayed by the "working to rules" action.
Yachting Monthly are mentioned in the following article:
http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20080429114645456A Panama Canal Authority spokeswoman has assured Yachting Monthly that they are 'concerned' about the bottleneck of yachts piling up at the Caribbean end of the canal, which we reported on yesterday, and are 'working aggressively to reduce the backlog.'
The response to the article from Chantal is quite amusing.
Ms. Arosemena explanations to the yachting world for the "momentary" slow-down are complete BS...
The pilots in their overzealous compliance "non-strike strike" are the ones who decide whether or not to refuse or accept to take yachts thru the locks along larger vessels and right now the pilots "non-union union" recommends to flatly refuse "FOR SAFETY REASONS" to take more than one small craft a day thru the canal, thus opening a whole new and lucrative market for the new DRY CANAL operator... If this is not a conspiracy to force the hands of the "poor" yachties, I don´t know what is !
I think Chantal is right, additionally for every ship that goes through there is space available for at least another three yachts. Unfortunatly they need rope handlers onboard, and these guys are not willing to do the work. Someone must be pulling some strings for James and Lorna's date to jump so far. I don't think they will be the only ones to have had their date shifted either.
Regards
Charles
Friday, 25. April 2008, 10:06:34
Hi All,
We sailed into Colon harbour yesterday, checked in with an agent, had the admeasurer aboard this morning for boat measurements and all the documents and now await a date for transitting through the Panama Canal.
After leaving Cartagena we stopped a night at the idyllic San Blas islands. These are the picture perfect white sand, palm tree abundant, largely uninhabited, islands most people dream about. There we met a fellow yachtie who had just sailed back to San Blas from Panama having got his transit date in six weeks time! They are having a "Working To Rules" strike here and us grotty yachties are not at the top of the list. It seems we could have almost two months to wait.
http://www.bulletinpa.com/index.php?id=871The Panama Canal Pilots "Malicious Compliance" Non-Strike - By Don Winnerhttp://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20080429114645456We will keep you informed.
Love to all
Lorna and James
Thursday, 17. April 2008, 10:32:21
We left St Maarten early on Sunday the 16th March heading for Margarita. We had planned to leave a few days earlier but Andrew offered to take us for a flight to the British Virgin islands as he had some work to do out there on of his clients boats.
Unfortunately the boat let him know that it would not be able to make the rendezvous so we cancelled the trip and decided to have a leisurely breakfast with Andrew on Mind the Gap. While he was aboard he also resolved a charging problem on the starboard engine’s alternator.
We made good progress to St Kitts and it was dark by the time we sailed past Nevis. The journey to Margarita was only a few hundred miles and we made good time. At dawn we had already passed the islands of Antigua, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St Vincent, St Lucia, Bequia, Carriacou and were sailing past the coast of Grenada although we could not see it.
We would not make Margarita before dark so we decided to head for Los Testigos which was a little island about 30 miles closer to us than Margarita. We had a good look at the Tsunami chart, it was an interesting shape and with our limited knowledge of Spanish come to the conclusion that the name was very appropriate.
Battling against the current to get there before nightfall and just managed it. We anchored in the fading light as the sun had already set. We were glad to have a good nights rest.
It was an easy journey the next morning, downwind all the way, we arrived in Margarita by noon. This island belongs to Venezuela and the currency is called Bolivar’s, named after Simon Bolivar a so called freedom fighter that liberated the region from slavery. It was a great place to stock up as prices for food and groceries and fuel is cheap.
We also visited the dentist here and Lorna had a tooth fixed. The dentist, Vincente could speak good English. He and his wife Maribel ran this very neat practice. He did a good job on Lorna’s tooth. As he was also interested in boats we invited him and Maribel for a drink onboard and offerd to show them around. As we left his surgery he came running out after us and suggested that it would be better if we came out with him on Sunday and he would show us around the island and we could barbeque some fish.
We had a real good day out and Vincente and Maribel were perfect hosts. We were able to see much of the island that would never otherwise had been possible. We met the local fishermen and were able to get a first hand insight to their humble and stress free way of life.
We left Margarita the Tuesday, early and sailed west to Tortuga, another island in the Venezuelan chain. We arrived before sunset and anchored in a beautiful bay. Two other boats were there already, both French. One of the boats was a cat owned by Christian and Isabelle Picard. They own the yacht brokerage AYC. We went to see his employee, Francious in Montpellier in France back in 2005 just before I bought our boat. It was Franscious that showed me around the Dufour Nautitech 475 and that I became interested in buying one of this type. Small world indeed. We had a delightful evening with them and their children, Lucy, Thomas and Silva.
Photos to Follow
James and Lorna
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