It’s a squall, y’all! Sunday 29 Sep 19

16º 58.351s 145º 29.821w

Mon Sep 30 2019

As Mike Tyson used to say, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. We departed Moorea Friday morning with the loose intentions of sailing to the false pass on the Northwest corner of Tuahu. Lovely place, good snorkeling and plenty of fresh coconuts to be had. I even know where a big grouper lives, one without ciguatera, so it’s safe to eat. Mr. Weatherman made it look like the sailing angle would support that decision, only we would have to motor for the first few hours of the journey to get through a big blue hole.

Well, that worked out to be about 20 hours of motoring, and when we did finally get sailing conditions we found that our initial Southeasterly course had set us up to sail a course almost to the Southeast corner of Tahanea, an atoll we hadn’t yet visited. Heck let’s go! Tahanea is South and East of Tuahu, and the atoll of Fakarave with both a North and South pass is in between. We needed a good Southeasterly to lay Tahanea, and if that didn’t work out we could always fall back on Fakarava as a fine compromise. Lots of pretty fishies and sharks to swim with there. Between Fakarava to the Northwest and Tahanea to the Southeast lies another atoll called Faaite. We haven’t considered it as an alternate stop, but certainly we need to avoid hitting it and becoming another boat load of hapless sailors who weren’t fully informed about or didn’t show proper respect for their operational environment.

There’s this darn schedule that’s driving us onwards towards Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, and come hell or high water we have to be there by October 14th and hopefully much sooner. Shawnee hasn’t experienced any of it and we do want to be good hosts; as well getting there a bit early will be a lot less stressful and lower the risk of bad decision making driven by an aggressive schedule.

At the end of the day, Mr. Weatherman drives our decisions, and as the conditions evolve, so must our decision tree. The last couple of nights have served up numerous squalls, the first night (Friday) on Isabel’s 0100 -0600 watch, and last night (Saturday) on my 1800 – 0100 watch. Last night I put in reef 1 when the wind built and the ride got rough, and then reef 2 as the seas built and the ride got rougher, even though the winds had steadied out. Sometimes it’s best to just slow the boat down and let folks sleep, as Seawind likely built a tougher boat than our moms and dads built their sons and daughters. At least that’s how it feels after several days of sleep deprivation.

Last night Isabel even sailed along for a bit at only around 1 knot in the wee hours as there were still squalls around and she didn’t want to shake the reefs out, and she didn’t want to burn diesel just to get to our destination too early. Recall that each of these atolls has one or more passes to enter the lagoon through, and that entry must be timed with the wind and tidal flow. So, when I arose this morning she was in the process of shaking out the reefs, and she was obviously exhausted and unable to understand a problem with a tangled reefing line. Off to bed Isabel, you’ve done your duty but you can’t think straight anymore! Nothing to be ashamed of, happens to all of us and its why flight crews have mandatory crew rest requirements.

Reefs out, I spent the morning dodging squalls and keeping the boat speed under control. Eventually Isabel and I put a reef back in the main Jamie Gifford style, and that settled things down so that we’re moving along nicely without a lot of bashing and crashing, and funnily enough Isabel noted that the boat points a little higher as she’s reefed down. Going to have to study on that one a bit.

PredictWind serves up fresh weather twice a day. Where we are the forecast is new and wonderful at 0900 and 2100, and we never neglect to read the news. This morning’s weather update showed a big blue windless hole developing in another day and a half, so after much pondering of our navels Isabel and I hatched a new plan to continue our voyage a bit further Northeast to Makemo, an atoll with 2 passes with a more Northeast exposure which should allow for safer entry during these Southeast wind and swell conditions. We’re lucky that the wind conditions aren’t even requiring us to tack, so we’re laying the course nicely. Turns out slack water at the Northeast pass will be around 1300 tomorrow, so we’ve now adjusted course and our attitudes AND Shawnees expectations to experience this new atoll, an exciting opportunity because it’s one we’ve got on our list to visit anyway. Looks like the blue hole will last a couple of days, so current plan is to explore the atoll for a couple of days while we also rest up, then be spring loaded to launch the 400+ nautical miles to Fatu Hiva around Wednesday afternoon.

That leg may involve some motoring in dead conditions, but that might give us a leg up on what’s to follow, an unwanted Northeast breeze that will force us to beat upwind all the way to the Marquesas. We much prefer a beam reach, but we must get there so we’ll be watching closely and considering all our options for a safe passage. I hate schedules.

Anyway, as my old friend and work associate Sonny Ellis used to say, “if you can’t handle inconsistency and dynamic rescheduling, you don’t belong in the flight test business”. Ten to one everything changes again in another day and we’ll have new actionable intelligence. We’ll roll with it, and not worry about the things we can’t change.

Underway for Tahanea atoll 28 Sep 19

17º 30.450s 146º 44.708w

Sun Sep 29 2019

We waved goodbye to Moorea and Tahiti yesterday morning on the promise of an encouraging weather forecast. We figured we’d have to motor and/or motor sail for around 12 to 16 hours then we’d be off and running with the hopes of laying the South end of Tahanea. I guess they call ‘em weather guessers for a reason. . .

About an hour into the trip we were surprised to have some nice sailing conditions, so up came the main and out with the jib. A bit later we realized it was perfect conditions for the screecher so out it came and we picked up another 1.5 knots or so. Well, it didn’t last and pretty soon we were motoring along in flat seas and about 4 knots of headwind, so we elected to aim East Southeast to be in a good position to lay Tahanea when the wind did fill in. We ended up motoring until about 0245 this morning when Isabel finally decided there was enough wind to raise the main which I had stowed just a few hours earlier, roll out the jib, and when I awoke around 0530 this morning we were sailing along quite nicely, thank you very much. Three to four knots isn’t scalding fast, but it doesn’t involve noise and consuming diesel and more frequent oil changes, so I’m all for it.

Today was going swimmingly until we found ourselves in a big blue hole on the forecast chart, a virtually windless area where local conditions matched the forecast. Another opportunity to push Southeast while burning dinosaurs, aiming to motor out of the big blue hole. Our strategy worked and late afternoon we were sailing again at 3 – 4 knots. Isabel whipped up a killer Indian curry with leftover lamb roast, and we feasted mightily. Conditions were mellow as she headed off to bed around 1830, leaving me and Shawnee to tend the store.

Naturally the wind started to pick up after dark, and a squall suddenly appeared on the radar screen. Once we started tickling 20 knots apparent wind and hitting over 8 knots speed over ground I began to seriously consider reefing. The seas were getting lumpy and it was obvious it could be a stormy night, so in went reef 1. Well that slowed things down a bit, but the wind and seas continued to build so reef 2 was next. I played around with furling half the jib as well, but eventually the wind calmed a bit and out came the jib to keep the speed up.

Now of course there are 2 reefs in, and the wind has settled so that we’re doing a lousy 5.5 - 6.5 knots, but the seas are still lumpy so perhaps that’s fast enough. There are bound to be more squalls tonight and the last thing Isabel needs is to have to put a reef in during a nasty rain storm. Likely that would involve getting me out of bed to help, so that’s the last thing I need too. We’ll make do with our 2 reefs and roll up some jib as needed to slow things down. The good news is the sail angle is just what we need to lay the South end of Tahanea atoll, and a Monday early morning rounding of that tip to make the pass during slack water at 1000 looks realistic. Yachtzee!

As much as I like to go fast, beating the boat up doesn’t pay big dividends. Beating the crew up is just plain stupid. It’s one thing to push during daylight hours when we can see squalls forming in the distance and get ready for them. It’s another to pound along in the black of night creating a poor sleeping environment. Are we getting older? Yes, but we’re also getting smarter. We’re not on our way to a fire, we’re sailing our house in “interesting conditions”, so why push it?

Still, a 200 mile day would be a kick in the ass. Maybe if we can get the seas on the stern and enjoy a clear, cloudless night with a big moon. Maybe next week when we’re driving towards Fatu Hiva.

On the road again 27 Sep 19

17º 51.836s 148º 34.012w

Sat Sep 28 2019

With apologies to Willie Nelson . . .

Tahiti and Moorea are now in the rear-view mirror. We came, we saw, we spent heaps of money on repairs, provisions, and generally having a good time. Isabel is now a certified yoga instructor! Mark took a couple more kite boarding lessons and dropped a wad of cash on new equipment we can both use. For the next year or so we’ll each be the other’s “kite bitch”, chasing around in the dinghy rescuing the one of us who is doing the kiting. If all goes well, we’ll drop another heap of $$ on more gear so we can both have fun at the same time.

We spent 5 days in Marina Papeete investigating the town and making arrangements for a major repair on our water tank and some canvas work to keep rain out of the cockpit. We spent 13 days in Marina Taina while the work was being done. There’s a giant Carrefour grocery store about the size of a super Walmart about a 5 minute walk from that marina. There’s a craft brewery called “Les Trois Brasseurs” about a 10-minute walk from Marina Papeete. Both marinas were good experiences, but we don’t like being in marinas unless we absolutely have to be there to get work done or secure JollyDogs for storage. Our favorite anchorage was up by Point Venus; black volcanic sand, a nice park nearby, kite boarding location around the headland, and great provisioning about 1 kilometer walk from the park where we could secure the dinghy.

We anchored in several spots near Marina Taina, on the reef and in a lagoon. It’s an easy walk to the airport from the lagoon near the runway end, about a 20-minute dinghy ride from downtown Papeete where we discovered a shop called Maxi’s. You can buy Kirkland brand stuff there! We provisioned for all we were worth, and now we have our favorite French Roast coffee, mixed nuts, crackers, and other things that make life worth living.

Shawnee arrived about 8 days ago, toting 2 suitcases full of repair parts and “improvement” materials. Since then, I’ve been installing said parts like a madman, while Isabel and Shawnee have been completing all our provisioning needs for the next 9 months, as well as hunting gifts for everyone looking after Shawnee’s house and cat and whatnot back home.

Moorea was good to us; we spent time anchored in Cook’s Bay, Opunohu Bay, and on the sandy shelfs near the reef outside each bay. For the last several days outside Cook’s Bay we were anchored on the sandy shelf with about 5 feet of water under the keel. We had our own pet turtle who was constantly tooling around, and we had a spotted white puffer fish who seemed to want to help me clean the boat bottom. Nice to have aquatic friends! We dinghied down to Stingray City to feed and swim with a whole heap of stingrays. We hoped to swim with a momma whale and her calf like Isabel had done the previous week, but that opportunity eluded us, so we’ll look to do that somewhere else along the way.

We’ve got flights booked out of Nuku Hiva on October 16th so it’s time to move in that direction. The weather forecast made it look like we’d have to motor for around 12 – 16 hours before the wind filled in, so we launched out from Moorea around 0600 today (27 Sep 19). So far we’ve sailed around 2 hours and motor sailed the rest, and right now we’re just dragging the main sail along. New weather data is downloading, so if it’s going to be light the remainder of the night I’ll be dropping the main to rid us of the drag.

We’re aiming to hit one or 2 atolls in the Tuamotus, and just to be ambitious we’re aiming for Tahanea but that’s a “stretch goal”. Likely we’ll end up at Fakarava and then continue working our way East from there, with the ultimate objective of getting up to Fatu Hiva and the rest of the Marquesas by around October 8th. We need to be at Nuku Hiva by October 12th or so to prepare to secure JollyDogs for about 7 weeks of caretaker storage on the hook, as there’s no opportunity to haul out.

It’s pitch black out tonight – supposedly a 1% moon but it’s hiding well. Stars are spectacular, so time to plug in my favorite Motley Fool podcast and enjoy the night sky. Shawnee and Isabel have crashed, and I’ll do my best to let Izzy sleep until -0100 or later before rousting her out. The first night of a multi-day passage is always hardest and given this is a short one we’ll just about hit our rhythm when we arrive. 

Nuts.

Still, it beats working for a living.