Passage: Bora Bora to Western Samoa

5 July 2014
160 12’ 918 S    1520 22’ 742 W

It’s our first night out in a long time. Our last passage from the Tuamotus to Moorea was the second week of May, so we’re completely out of practice! We don’t have near the quantities of provisioning stores for this passage as it’s only 1,300 nm from Bora Bora to Tonga (or wherever we end up). We have too many destination options – American Samoa, Western Samoa or Tonga. We’ll decide where to go based on the wind. Our current course is for Sowarrow, a small atoll that lies in our path, but if the weather and sailing is good, we’ll probably keep going. There are a few lows moving west to the south of us, so we’re taking a more northern route. It’s 00:30 and a half moon is waxing. The sails are wing on wing with the whisker pole supporting the headsail. Winds are directly on our stern out of the East at 10-15 knots, however the swells are very close together so sleeping with lee cloths in place is a must or rolling out of the bunk is quite likely!

It feels good to get going again. We had a great time in the Leeward Islands, but it was time to go. The islands are beautiful and the people are friendly (mostly?), but we found it was too overpriced. A bottle of Hinano beer (the local brew) in the grocery store was 250XPF/$3USD per bottle. In a restaurant you’d be lucky to get one for 500XPF. And it was hard to find a place to eat for under 2,000XPF/$25USD per person for a main only. That excludes a drink, starter or desert. Bread (baguette) is subsidized as it is in France and is 52XPF/$0.70USD and you could get good cheese 300-500XPF/$3.50–7.00USD and fantastic New Zealand rump steak for not much. But the best was buying tuna from the bonito boats on their return from fishing, or from a fisherman on the side of the road selling tuna steaks the size of small logs for 1,000XPF/$12USD.

People sold fruits and veg on the side of the road too. The pickings were small, but good enough. You could get tomatoes, green peppers, cucumber, eggplant, long beans, mangos, bananas, papaya and taro. We provisioned as much as we could from the stands as the produce is from peoples gardens. But even though it is garden fresh, it doesn’t have a long shelf life and spoils surprisingly quickly even with refrigeration. I don’t know why.

The moon is setting; it’s going to be very dark very soon! I’m hoping for lots of stars. The winds have increased to 13 knots and we’re doing 6.2 knots!! Yea!!!

9 July 2014

14⁰ 19’ 088 S    159⁰ 30’ 960 W

We’ve had a number of perfect sailing days. The suns been out, not too hot, not too much cloud, winds generally 10-16 knots from the East and steady all day with long rolling swells. We’ve mostly sailed downwind which is not the most comfortable point of sail, but with these conditions, how can one complain?! It’s been a bit difficult adjusting to broken sleep again. We generally do a 3 hour watch shift, which means the longest stretch of sleep you can get is 3 hours.

We’ve had a few hiccups that make for interesting stories. We’ve been using the whisker pole on our downwind tack, and the other day the wire loop that attaches the up-haul rope to the pole had broken off leaving the pole to jostle around freely before slowly sliding down to hang precariously over the side rails.  Of course, we had to furl the head sail and jimmy-rig a fix by tying a high strength rope in place of the wire loop that I’m sure now lays 5,000 meters below on the bottom of the Pacific. The fix was pretty quick and easy, the seas were calm and it was full daylight. What a difference to doing it in the dark and rain!

We managed to pick up a Honda generator from another sailor who has decided to pack it in and sell his boat in French Polynesia.  We also bought a 2 person inflatable kayak, gear to rig a better preventer, dive fins, a diving Hookah with a tank for shallow dives (help free our anchor and change zincs, etc.), misc. nuts, bolts, shackles and sailing hardware, and 6 bottles of alcohol. All our Christmases came at once!

Anyway, the first time we tried to use the Honda generator, our Xantrex charger wouldn’t accept the load. Bill tried to bypass it using our spare Dolphin charger – and it worked! Yea!! Two days later we needed to charge the batteries again so connected the Honda to the Dolphin, started charging, and “poof” went the Dolphin! Yup, we killed it – no lights and a hot electrical smell. Luckily, it was our spare. The next day, I set about cleaning a bit and organizing the fresh food stores, cleaned the toilet, rotated the sheets on the settees where we sleep on passage, etc., and Bill decided to try the Honda again with the Xantrex. After reading the manual (which was suggested the first time, but men generally don’t like to read instructions!) he found he could adjust the current charge settings. With a bit of tweaking, he got it to work. So, we got the batteries all charged up since the solar panels haven’t been giving us enough. Sailing West downwind means the sails block the solar panels in the early afternoon, so we can only get a half day of charging. So the Honda charger is our new best friend on board!

After the charging was done, we decided to have showers on the bow. Back to salt water showers with a fresh water rinse using the solar shower. It was such a nice day, sunny and calm seas with just enough wind to propel us along comfortably. Then, not long after the showers, the wind died. We furled the headsail but kept the main sail up hoping the wind would return while we motored along. Then the baton popped out of the car and was loose …. AGAIN!!! Aarrrggghhh.  It happened the day before too. We can’t figure out why the lower two batons continually extract themselves from where they’re supposed to be – but they keep managing to do it. We lowered the main and put on our thinking caps to come up with a way to lock ‘em in, but the rain came so down below we went resigned to fix it all up the next day.

In the morning, we had a bit of trouble determining our course. We said we’d stop at Soworrow weather permitting - and it is, but its unlikely we’ll stop as it’s often hard for us to get going again! Tonga was the intended destination, but it’s looking likely we’ll head to Western Samoa. After downloading the GRIB files to help determine our course, we set about to fix the main sail. We came up with a better way of fixing the Velcro that holds the luff end of the baton, then with a needle and twine, we tacked the Velcro fold in place and whipped it all together. Hopefully it will hold.

It looks like another Low starts moving Eastward in 5 days time, so we’ll keep our eyes on it and see where we end up landing next!

12 July 2014

12⁰ 45’ 970 S    162⁰ 51’ 492 W

Bummer, but over the last days the wind has swung around to the West, directly on the nose. There’s a big Low just to the south west of us, so our best option was to tack north. Today, we passed Soworrow to the north and decided not to stop. We don’t want go through the hassles of customs and immigration for a brief stay (weather looks good only for one day), so we’re passing up Soworrow.  We decided our destination will be Apia, Western Samoa.

We pinched to windward for two days, only to have the wind die completely leaving us to motor for the last 24 hours. The wind is supposed to clock around to the East tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll be able to turn off the Westerbeke then. Even though we’re headed in the wrong direction tacking north, we’re still enjoying the passage. The motion of the boat has been fantastic, relaxing and comfortable. Our days have been lazy; reading lots, sleeping lots, and eating lots! Feels like a real holiday.

Moon rise

Cling-ons

“It’s landed” Carolyn mused and we looked at each other contemplating just how big the mess would be if we left the bird to spend the night or to shoo him away. OK he wasn’t too big and neither of us had the heart to make him fly away. Still he was on the solar panels and once the birds have done their business it sets like concrete and is hard to remove. Not to mention we would probably not be able to clean the panels until we were anchored. We decided to leave the bird be.

Thump – its big brother arrived on the panel, this bird carrying a much bigger payload had to go. Waving ones arms and screaming provoked little response from either bird, it was dark so sorry no details on the type of bird. Can say both were brown and quite downy like cuddly bears. Anyway I climb up on the rail with C holding my torso and reach over to shoo the big bird at least, away. Now birds are smarter than I thought, he knew I couldn’t quite reach him I was about 6 inches short. So he just sat there watching me while I tried to wave him away without at the same time falling off the boat myself. This really wasn’t working  a solution was required and fast.  Enter the water cannon, I managed a direct hit on the big bird (Carolyn yelling at me in the background to preserve the ammunition, fresh water) – this was enough for him and he glided off. Next I targeted the small bird and he followed his big brother. Needless to say 15 minutes later the little bird was back – we left him alone and he didn’t leave a deposit.

Our stow away

17 July 2014

13⁰ 49’ 652 S    171⁰ 45’ 569 W

More main sail woes – The wind came up during the early hours so we unfurled the genoa deciding to wait until daylight before hoisting the main sail. Without the main sail your speed is probably around 4 knots versus 5.5 to 6. With the sun coming up I woke up C and between us we began the process of hoisting it. Means furling the genoa, starting the engine, setting the lazy jacks in place and pointing the boat into the wind. All was going fine with the main sail up, the lazy jacks back in place (the lazy jacks catch the sail when you come to lower it). The wind was behind us at this point so I attached the preventer, this is a rope system that stops the boom from swinging across the opposite side of the boat avoiding “crash jibing” and can be dangerous to crew and gear. Anyway attaching the preventer and steering the boat downwind while easing the main sheet out is a 2 person job (don’t ask me how single handers do it). The tearing sound is one I won’t forget, we had done everything right but the reefing line had somehow given way and caused the sail to rip in two places. We both couldn’t believe our eyes – another main sail repair would be needed. This new tearing is totally unrelated to the previous baton issue, you fix one thing only to have another area fail! Fortunately we could still use the sail with the 2^nd or the 3^rd reef but make slower progress.

The rest of the trip was reasonably uneventful (thank goodness) arriving in Apia Western Samoa at 0730 19.07.2014. We travelled about 1300 miles in just under 12 days. We spent 4 days under motor using about 40 gallons of diesel. Normally this trip is known for SE trade winds of 20-30 knots, but nobody told the weather gods that as the winds we experienced were 0-15 knots from the West (on the nose!), then North and back to West again… then none. Even though, it was some the best sailing we’ve had so far. We had great weather, sunny skies and soft rolling seas. We were able to relax, read books and eat a lot! It felt like a real holiday!!

Western Samoa is very nice with the friendliest people you could imagine. Laughter is everywhere and everyone wears a big smile. We were visited by 4 officials in order to check into the country; Customs, Immigration, Fish & Agriculture, and Health. It took all day as they come one at a time and you can’t leave the dock until clearance is obtained from each official. No matter, we enjoyed more than a few beers and rums with Tony on Knot Tide Down who is also in the marina. An official or two enjoyed an ‘unofficial’ rum with us too. Gotta love it! Tomorrow, we’ll venture into town!!