Pangolin and Yotreps

We finally got the Pangolin / YOTREPS tracking working.

 

You'll find Kalini in the boat list which is organized by call sign – ours is ZMG2957 which is near the bottom of the list. Here's the info:

Link:  http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps_reporting_boat_list

Call Sign:  ZMG2957

Boat Name:  Kailani

We have this working in that we can post our position, BUT its dependent on weather, sea conditions and battery power, so please do not expect a position update or WORRY if the position does not update at all.

Remember the boat is equipped with an emergency radio SSB AND EPIRB so if something does happen the signals from either or BOTH of these devices will be intercepted and a rescue will ensue – so Summer no more alarm bells please.

Moorea, Tahitian Windward Islands

17⁰ 30’ 231 S
149⁰ 49’ 232 W

09 May 2014

Fakarava Tuamotus to Moorea 250 nautical miles

We decided that for us passages must be a bit like child birth – you never know for sure what you are going to get and how long the pain will last and afterwards (I have been told) you somehow think it wasn’t so bad….and that yes you really could do it again!

Exiting the atoll of Fakarava through the North pass on a Friday afternoon in light winds was very nice to say the least. The current through the pass was barely a knot and we shimmied through into the ocean swells and light trades.

250 miles at 5 knots would get us to Moorea around 9 in the morning in two days, daylight arrivals are still mandatory for us. We had light winds throughout the afternoon, and into the next morning. Our average speed was closer to 3.5 knots as opposed to the estimated 5. Things again were not looking good for the planned daylight arrival.

GRIB files

We now have access to digital weather information thanks to the SSB radio. GRIB weather files are downloaded and interpreted with software. It means you think you can anticipate the weather and make the appropriate plans. In our case this was 17 knots of wind from the east, and while 17 knots is a little more than the average husband and wife cruising couple would ask for, at least it was coming from the right direction (from aft of the beam) and 17 knots is normally no problem. Now this tale ends happily and we were never in any danger – still it’s fun to tell the story.

Around 10 the rather large black cloud began to encroach toward us from behind. Pretty soon we had 30 knots + and just about no visibility with torrential rain. Waking up Carolyn who had only just put her head down was no fun. She rallied and together we reefed the yankee head sail (much easier to reef than the lager genoa which was removed at the Marquesas). In these conditions one has to hand steer at least until the sails are reduced enough in order to engage the autopilot or the wind vane. After reefing the main sail we felt the boat was under control of some sort.

Trouble was you couldn’t see 50 meters as the rain was so heavy and we were approaching Tahiti – yep what about the ships? In the end Carolyn managed to get the radar powered up and scanning every 10 minutes, we only saw small dots so theoretically no ships. Fortunately the sky lightened and the wind dropped to a respectable 22 to 25 knots and there it stayed and the sun came out. However this sort of wind does increase the size of the swells. Meant a bumpy ride and sometimes wet into Moorea, but we really can’t complain as the wind was behind us.

On our approach, we spotted the island of Tahiti in the distance. It’s very easy to spot as it’s so large and has mountain ranges of 1700 meters or so. I don’t have the exact altitude, but you get the idea. We decided earlier not to visit Papeete, Tahiti since it’s such a ‘big city’ and re-provision instead in the outer islands. In the end we arrived at Cooks Bay, Moorea around 1430 on Sunday, May 11^th. Surprisingly, we made it according to schedule thanks to the increased wind on the final day.

Approaching Tahiti

 Approaching the Avaroa pass on the northern side of the island was effortless. The pass has many channel markers making the traverse quite simple. Hooray! (Each of the Society Islands are surrounded by coral reefs navigable through passes. I guess it can be likened to the island as a castle, the reef forms the moat, and the bridge as the pass. Once through the pass, you can navigate with caution between the island and the protective reef – I just thought that deserved mentioning.) After entering the bay, we dropped the main sail and made for the protected areas in shallow water. There weren’t many boats in the bay, but much to our delight we spotted Discovery, a boat that we had been in radio contact with during our Pacific Ocean passage. They were the closest boat to us during the passage at about a week ahead of us. We’d followed their progress, course and weather reports along the way, and it was always so nice and even a bit comforting to hear them on the radio. We’d hoped to meet them somewhere in the Marquesas or the Tuamotus – but as I said – they were a week ahead! Anyway, back to Moorea, there they were at anchor in the very same bay. Ooooo, happy days – we had some company! They weren’t aboard at the time, so we had to delay our excitement.

The pass to enter Cooks Bay

sv Discovery in Cooks Bay

We found a nice little spot in the bay close… but not too close… to Discovery and quickly set about dropping the anchor and setting the boat up for some serious relaxing time. The weather was perfect – sunny with just a bit of cloud and 28⁰C. The bay is a perfect anchorage, a muddy bottom in relatively shallow water with high protective peaks on the three of the four sides of the bay. Bill could finally relax! No more coral heads to worry about! And there are facilities close by; two little markets that carry all the basics and a Mobil gas station that also sells bread and pineapples.  But the best part is that we’re anchored in front of the Bali Hai hotel. I’m so over the moon about that! I can’t stop singing the silly song. And the icing on the cake is that they’re friendly to cruisers and allow use of their dingy dock and a few other luxuries.

Kailani in Cooks Bay

At the Bali Hai

Pool at the Bali Hai

Kailani was anchored just to the left of here

So there we are, giving the boat a fresh water wipe down to get rid of the salt following the 2 day passage – and Andy and Betty from Discovery roll up in their dinghy. It’s such a great thing to finally meet people you’ve only met by voice and finally put a face to the person. They looked exactly as we’d imagined – fun loving and relaxed…PERFECT! They hail from Seattle and are some of the nicest people we’ve meet. They fit like a comfortable pair of old shoes. We were lucky to enjoy two nights with them before they headed off for Raiatea to pick up some guests. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to cross paths with them again…

Andy & Betty from Discovery

Once again, we rented bicycles and had the ambitious idea to ride around the 70km island. Man, did our arses hurt by the end of the day. Bicycle seats are a lot different to our nicely cushioned cockpit seats! The bikes were in pretty poor condition – but you get what you get! 

 

On the west coast, we passed the camp ground that Suzy and I stayed in back in 1996. Sounds a shockingly long time ago, but it is what it is. So Suz – these pics are for you….

Yes, it was 18 years ago that we were here!

Camping Nelson

The beach at the campground.. just down the road from Club Med!

Our bungalow

It was a really nice place to stay and is just down the beach from Club Med. Anyway, we continued on our ride and made various stops to slug a Hinano (local beer) or two and stopped for a little picnic of baguette and cheese using the Swiss army knife we received as a departing gift from our neighbors in Binningen, Franzisca and Kees. Thanks again you guys!

It sure isn't Swiss cheese, but it still tasted good!

The west and south coast of the island are known as surfing spots. You can see the waves crashing against the reef offshore – not at all suited for a sail boat but it was great to see another side of the island. There were loads of little ‘villages’ along the way, but really the island is mostly populated along the north coast.

Stone carvings

See the fishing nets drying in the tree?

Small fishing village

 

We passed a veggie stand and decided to stop and have a look. Veggies here are outrageous. Tomatoes cost a whopping USD$10 a kilo or $4.50 a pound. We decided not to buy veggies but bought a “Coconut Glace”. I expected it to be ice cream and was surprised when the fellow came back with a cold coconut with a straw sticking out of it. I was disappointed at first, but after drinking it we were delighted. There is so much milk in them and it is so refreshing and filling at the same time. We cracked the nut open after guzzling the milk and ate the flesh which was thin – less than 6mm or ¼” thick, but equally delicious and filling.

Coconut glace with the veggie shop man

Other than the bike ride, we’ve really just spent the rest of the week chilling out. The snorkeling here is surprisingly good. The water is not clear in the bay so we took the dinghy and anchored it near the pass to have a look at Moorean life under water. We were amazed at the colors and variety of fish. It was much better than our experience in Fakarava which was totally unexpected. We fixed a broken sail slider on the main sail, and also did more laundry – the novelty of hand washing is getting old pretty fast. Bill decided to attack the leaky mast post issue. He’s ingeniously configured a strange drainage system to divert water that leaks through the 4 bolt holes into the compression post where it’s supposed to go. Looks a bit like the Borg from Star Trek. We have no idea if it will work, but we’re supposed to have ‘torrential rain’ next week which will pose a challenging test.

The compression post "Borg" fix

On a final note, on the day we left Fakarava we snapped a shot of the local shark that patrols the shore. He’s recognizable by an odd green growth near his mouth which you can’t see in the photo, but we wanted to share it with you all.

Shark at the dock in Fakarava

And also, we had a few ‘pets’ in Fakarava – a group of Pilot Fish attached themselves to our hull. Bill enjoyed feeding them bits of bread each day. You can see the flat areas on the tops of their heads where they ‘suck’ onto the hull. They deserted us on our way to Moorea and I don’t blame them!

Our Pilot fish pets

Crab

 

Still in Fakarava!

After our last post, we did another check of the weather and.... it changed for the better! So, we decided to hang out in the atoll a little bit longer.

Unbelievably, a catamaran anchored near us in the bay which is registered in Basel, Switzerland! We had to dinghy over to introduce ourselves and say "Gruezi". Ends up Kurt and Brigit are from Zurich and spend half the year on their boat and the other half in Switzerland. We had a few laughs together and decided to do a 'tour' the next day.

We rented bicycles and rode the 10 km to the northern pass of the atoll to do a bit of snorkeling. The weather was hot and sunny - perfect for a ride and swim!! Here are some pics.

 

I wouldn't mind living here for a while! See the kids playing in the water?
"Kids, go play in the backyard" has a totally different meaning here!

On the way out of 'town' Bill, Kurt and Brigit take a break in the shade.

This is the main entrance at the airport in Fakarava.
It's a far cry from LAX or Frankfurt airports!

Kurt just had to ride his bike on the runway. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift off...

We passed a small kiosk and had a cold drink. What a treat!
Unfortunately, they ran out of Hinano beer so a cold coke had to do.

Bill and Brigit chatting with the proprietor. He spoke a bit of English as well as French and was a proud new father of a baby boy!

Brigit and Carolyn nearing the pass.

We found a snorkeling spot and decided to give the bikes a break

Aaah. The beach and reef for a good snorkel.

Kurt, Brigit, Carolyn and Bill in paradise

Just us this time....

We don't have an underwater camera so no pics of fish. At least you can see how nice the water is.

 We had a great snorkel on the reef. There were loads of colorful fish and coral. We even saw a few sharks - they weren't interested in us... thank goodness!!

We got back on our bikes and rode to the actual 'pass' to check it out. Bill and I will be traversing it soon so thought it would be a good idea to have a look. It didn't look very welcoming, and in the shallows we saw more black tipped sharks.

Black tipped sharks in the northern pass. See their fins?

Carolyn making a run for it after spotting the sharks!
Just kidding :)

Fakarava - heading north to Rotoava village

Our anchorage in the south west corner was lovely, but cut a bit short due to a weather system approaching from the west and north. We were fortunate to meet Livia and Carol on Estrellita who have been cruising the Tuamotus for about 2 years. We followed their track to the south pass where we'd hoped to hang on a mooring for the bad weather. Unfortunately, the mooring had sunk and wasn't there, so we decided to remain in the atoll and head for the north pass. An anchorage about half way up the atoll seemed a good idea to stay for an overnight.

We anchored near a channel marker. This ended up being very fortuitous. Bill changed the oil in the engine while I prepared dinner. During the night, we had heavy rains with thunder, lightening and wind. We kept a minor watch. It was difficult to discern where anything was- the ocean and the sky seemed to merge into one and the shore was not visible so our bearings were obsolete. The beacon was our only point of reference plus the GPS. When the sun came up, we fired up the engine and had a quick look to make sure all was well following the oil change - and discovered a leak in the saltwater pump. Major bummer! Together, we quickly dismantled the pump replacing the seals. All in all it took about 2 hours to complete. Not sure why the seal failed as it was replaced in Ensenada and only had 100 hours of use. Spike (friend) warned that the new style of seal supplied by Westerbeke wasn't trustworthy and gave us some original seals as a precaution. Ended up, he was right! But that's no surprise if you know Spike.

Squalls

So, we pulled the anchor without incident (didn't get hung up on any coral) and went north. Sure enough, we had lots of rain. It's ok - we still managed to enjoy our coffee! We made it to the northern anchorage and dropped the pick. That's where we are now! Here's a nice sunset pic:

Sunset at Rotoava

 Again, we had heavy rain from 1630 till sometime after we went to bed. The dinghy was half full of rainwater by morning. We washed some clothes and filled the solar shower with the fresh water!

Filling buckets and the solar shower

Shops at Rotoava

Bill securing the dinghy to go ashore

The exposed ocean side of the atoll. Bill made a new 4 legged friend along the way.



Bill finally got ahold of the camera!

Took a walk along the lagoon.

Looked like a good place for a cold drink!

Bike? Velo? Ours are still in Switzerland!

Aaaaah. Cold Hinano beers...

The tables were in the ocean. Nice and cool!

Aaaaaahhhhhh

That's us!

 

Standard activity following beer drinking.

 We are leaving tomorrow, the 6th of May to head for Tahiti/Moorea. We feel the atolls are a little to precarious for our comfort. Anchoring is difficult (we've had ours tangle twice) and there's no easy escape route in the event of bad weather. The prevailing SE winds are not present and we continually find ourselves wondering where the wind will come from next. So.... we're outta here! Tahiti - here we come!

The local church in Fakarava - shells were strung everywhere with had sewn tapestries. Very pretty.