The wifi link here in Papeete, Tahiti is so incredibly slow....and expensive! Papeete is pronounced "papa etay" in case you wondered or thereabouts. It's quite nice being in a marina again for a while with unlimited water and electricity. I just wish the wifi was better because it really hurts having to pay nearly £3 an hour and then wasting it all waiting to get into hotmail or something similar.....then when you finally get through, your credit runs out! I am waiting to upload some photos for this blog but it just never happens and we go offline every single time as it has just done again.
Never mind...you'll get them sometime...maybe from Moorea where we are heading next in a day or two when the engine thing is fixed......I'm not sure if this engineer knows quite what he is doing......he's very nice but keeps dropping things in the bilges!!
Most of the other Bluewater boats left for Moorea a couple of days ago. It's quite close, just 5 hours sailing away and looks lovely from here. This place is nice though, if a little busy, lots of traffic but lots of good shopping too. I found ear candles. Hurrah!! I also bought some "cheap".... but still real...... black pearls from a market stall. The ones on sale in the jewellers shops are way too expensive for the likes of me. I simply wanted a small variety of shapes and colours which I found. The "perfect" (and incredibly expensive) ones look like ball bearings so I was told!
Just after the other boats left, our part of the marina was taken over by five strange craft which turned out to have come from other parts of Polynesia...New Zealand, Vanuatu, Samoa, Cook Islands and Fiji so we learnt. If I can get this wifi to work properly, I shall post a photo or two. Otherwise, you must wait a while!! These boats, about 70' long are only a year old but built in the traditional style with twin hulls, raised sterns and have no electricity or running water. They are crewed by 16 volunteers and hand steered across the ocean using the enormous tiller/oar which looks really dangerous to me! The crews come from all over Polynesia I believe and the purpose of the year long voyage is to maintain contacts between the Polynesian Islands as well as being eco friendly etc. They all look as if they are having a lovely time too.
This wifi link is so bad that I'm having trouble even getting this typed so photos will definitely have to wait until next time now....Sorry.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Thursday, 13 May 2010
I managed to get some time online in Nuka Hiva at huge expense but then spent all but 5 minutes or so trying to access hotmail etc and only managed in the end to get Facebook briefly to send a couple of quick messages and to post my blog, so sorry if you were expecting an email from me! The phone was expensive too and the credit I had lasted just two minutes! Apart from this I loved these islands and would have liked to visit the others in the group.
We spent 5 days in the Marquesas anchored in Taiohae Bay before setting out again for the 6 day sail to Tahiti having decided not to visit the Tuamotu archipelago which lies about 450 miles from Nuka Hiva en route to Tahiti. The Tuamotus are famous for black pearls and French nuclear tests and are an extensive range of very low lying coral atolls, Rangiroa being the largest.
Anyway, back to Nuka Hiva….I was dreading the infamous attack of the nono flies which frequently lead to hospital visits but in the end, they just weren’t biting (much) and I just had one half of my lower right leg exposed briefly, unDeeted, resulting in about 5 bites only. Phew!!
We spent the first day recovering from 19 nights at sea and getting our shorelegs back. The second day was spent repairing the tape on the foot of the yankee which we had to do by hand and which was an enormous effort, taking over 8 hours to sew about 5 metres. The third day was spent recovering from that and doing some provisioning (French cheese….lovely!!), but on the fourth day, we had a day out!
We hired a local guide, Richard, a lovely Polynesian who could do the “haka”( he says it originated in the Marquesas) to drive us around the best parts of the island in a 4x4 which we shared with a delightful young couple on another boat, Lucie and Jamie from Bamboozle.
The Marquesas are quite simply spectacular; rugged volcanic peaks and dense greenery everywhere. Apart from the scenery, the Marquesas are most famous for their cannibalism which only ended about 100 years ago. Google it for more info? A visit to the sites of the ritual sacrifices is a must…… a strange aura pervades in these damp gloomy areas….. unsurprisingly. The authorities are now starting to preserve these places thank goodness. They were full of mysterious stone carvings called tiki which were deteriorating rapidly. This is because they were carved from the native volcanic rock, basalt, which disintegrates easily because the minerals inside break down very quickly with rainwater etc. (We amateur geologists know these things!!) It felt just a little strange putting my head on the block for the photo knowing that countless others had been beheaded on this stone..though not sideways of course! The stone has been moved from its original position perhaps because the last known example of cannibalism took place in 1907 when a grandfather killed and ate his young grandson…there must be other descendants of this man still around? Once you’ve tried it…..? Who knows??
Next day was time to leave, not too early thankfully. We headed out southwest and enjoyed a good couple of days sailing before the weather turned as we approached the Tuamotos. A visit to Rangiroa would have been impossible under the circumstances as we sailed between two atolls in 40 knots and driving rain which lasted nearly 24 hours. Imagine trying to spot coral heads and land only about two metres above sea level when visibility is down to a few metres. We couldn’t see any land at all as we crossed the 150miles or so through this archipelago until the weather cleared the next day and we could just see some palm trees on the horizon about 8 miles away.
The last part of the sail to Tahiti was fairly uneventful except that we had to motor for some time as the wind died and then “something” went wrong with the engine so that we didn’t dare shut it down in case it wouldn’t start again……. And so it goes on but we are currently safely tied up in a marina with water, electricity and wifi.
Time to catch up with some sleep…. More soon.
PS Not sure if the photos will go this time as the connection is slow…
!
We spent 5 days in the Marquesas anchored in Taiohae Bay before setting out again for the 6 day sail to Tahiti having decided not to visit the Tuamotu archipelago which lies about 450 miles from Nuka Hiva en route to Tahiti. The Tuamotus are famous for black pearls and French nuclear tests and are an extensive range of very low lying coral atolls, Rangiroa being the largest.
Anyway, back to Nuka Hiva….I was dreading the infamous attack of the nono flies which frequently lead to hospital visits but in the end, they just weren’t biting (much) and I just had one half of my lower right leg exposed briefly, unDeeted, resulting in about 5 bites only. Phew!!
We spent the first day recovering from 19 nights at sea and getting our shorelegs back. The second day was spent repairing the tape on the foot of the yankee which we had to do by hand and which was an enormous effort, taking over 8 hours to sew about 5 metres. The third day was spent recovering from that and doing some provisioning (French cheese….lovely!!), but on the fourth day, we had a day out!
We hired a local guide, Richard, a lovely Polynesian who could do the “haka”( he says it originated in the Marquesas) to drive us around the best parts of the island in a 4x4 which we shared with a delightful young couple on another boat, Lucie and Jamie from Bamboozle.
The Marquesas are quite simply spectacular; rugged volcanic peaks and dense greenery everywhere. Apart from the scenery, the Marquesas are most famous for their cannibalism which only ended about 100 years ago. Google it for more info? A visit to the sites of the ritual sacrifices is a must…… a strange aura pervades in these damp gloomy areas….. unsurprisingly. The authorities are now starting to preserve these places thank goodness. They were full of mysterious stone carvings called tiki which were deteriorating rapidly. This is because they were carved from the native volcanic rock, basalt, which disintegrates easily because the minerals inside break down very quickly with rainwater etc. (We amateur geologists know these things!!) It felt just a little strange putting my head on the block for the photo knowing that countless others had been beheaded on this stone..though not sideways of course! The stone has been moved from its original position perhaps because the last known example of cannibalism took place in 1907 when a grandfather killed and ate his young grandson…there must be other descendants of this man still around? Once you’ve tried it…..? Who knows??
Next day was time to leave, not too early thankfully. We headed out southwest and enjoyed a good couple of days sailing before the weather turned as we approached the Tuamotos. A visit to Rangiroa would have been impossible under the circumstances as we sailed between two atolls in 40 knots and driving rain which lasted nearly 24 hours. Imagine trying to spot coral heads and land only about two metres above sea level when visibility is down to a few metres. We couldn’t see any land at all as we crossed the 150miles or so through this archipelago until the weather cleared the next day and we could just see some palm trees on the horizon about 8 miles away.
The last part of the sail to Tahiti was fairly uneventful except that we had to motor for some time as the wind died and then “something” went wrong with the engine so that we didn’t dare shut it down in case it wouldn’t start again……. And so it goes on but we are currently safely tied up in a marina with water, electricity and wifi.
Time to catch up with some sleep…. More soon.
PS Not sure if the photos will go this time as the connection is slow…
!
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Having just sailed over 3000 miles....
Once again, it was time to go as the engine and generator were now purring nicely, stores bought and stowed, water and diesel acquired and the necessary clearing out procedure completed. We had bought most things we needed in Panama but there is always something extra that was overlooked. This time it was sugar and there was none, at least no white anyway, in Santa Cruz in any of the shops. There was also no cheese (apart from the cream variety) to be found. This is one of the minor problems living in isolated places! Hoping though that the Marquesas will have lots of delicious French cheeses to make up for a virtually cheese free three weeks!
We set off early, before breakfast with the intention of heading south from Santa Cruz then south west for some while to clear before nightfall “that” island, Tortuga which had caused us so much trouble on our unscheduled return to the Galapagos two weeks ago. This time again proved slightly problematic with unfavourable winds and currents so that we had to motor for most of the day to leave Tortuga clear enough to starboard…this we did in the end thank goodness! It’s actually a lovely little island, the remains of an almost perfectly circular volcano with a sunken crater. On another occasion, maybe a visit!!
So now that we have been at sea for 48 hours and have long passed the spot where the engine and generator failed us last time, I thought I would start to keep an occasional diary of this trip as it will be the longest leg of a circumnavigation that any cruising yacht normally does, longer by over 250 miles than the Atlantic crossing from east to west. I have to say that although Moonshiner has had an awful lot of trouble these past 6 months with engine, genny, electrics etc, the hull, sails and rigging have caused no problems at all and this is after all what a sailing boat is all about so I am looking forward to about three weeks of good sailing!
After a day of indifferent winds where we wallowed a little doing just about 3 knots, the wind picked up and settled during the second night so that we are now able to make over 7 knots on average with two reefs in the main and yankee. If all goes well, we should be able to continue now like this for most of the journey. This is because we are already in the SE trade wind belt which hadn’t yet established itself last time…hence all the rain and squally weather which the other Rally boats had to endure for some days until they were far enough south and west. It would seem that March is still too early to leave the Galapagos for the Marquesas? It’ll be interesting to see what our journey time is compared with other similar size boats on the Rally….. just so long as the trade winds continue like this that is!
I am hoping to see some wildlife other than the usual flying fish and frigate birds. Yesterday afternoon, I saw my first large whale (longer than the boat!) which was spouting regularly as it swam slowly by. I think it was a humpback, going by the dorsal fin. It would have been nice to see it breach but it was just idling along. Still, it was a sight all the same.
Doing the night watch from midnight is a wonderful time to look at the stars as long as the sky is clear which it was last night. Scorpio dominates the sky overhead at this time and it’s interesting to be able to see the Southern Cross and the Plough on the opposite side of the sky at the same time. The heavens “move” exactly overhead from east to west just like the sun at this latitude making it easier to envisage things in relation to one another. My aim is to identify some of the southern stars and constellations that I haven’t seen before. The Milky Way was very clear too. I have just finished reading the Robert Graves “Greek Myths” which says that the Milky Way was formed when Hera breast fed baby Heracles after being coerced to do so by Athene. Heracles sucked so strongly that Hera, in some considerable pain, violently pulled him off the breast and some milk spurted across the sky leaving that “milky” trail…
It’s been quite cold out here so far too. I wore my cotton guernsey for warmth last night on watch, the first time I’ve worn it since the Atlantic 16 months ago.
Day 5
Still going great guns mostly over 7 knots and little sign of squalls apart from a few drops of rain last night. We are fairly near to a mystical “box” on the chart within which there are supposed to be unsettled conditions. We are trying to stay out of this area which covers 18 degrees of longitude and 5 of latitude (95 to 103 W and 03 to 08S) for obvious reasons and managing quite well so far!! We have covered over 600 miles since starting on passage on day 2. Not bad going!
There has been very little wildlife above the waves to see apart from some storm petrels and shearwaters and only one turtle so far as well as the humpback but several small squid committed suicide on deck last night. I found them this morning as dawn broke. I’d been wondering what the smell was!! Other boats on the rally reported being inundated by flying fish on deck and even being directly hit on occasion. Quite frightening I should think to be suddenly thumped by a lump of cold kamikaze fish in the dark!
Day 7
Managing to cover over 180 miles a day which is amazing! We decided to do 6 hour watches each covering the hours of darkness, so that’s 6pm to 6am local time. Dick does 6pm to midnight and I do midnight to 6am or thereabouts. This is working out quite well as it means we get a decent night’s sleep in one go rather than having to get up more than once each night.
The watches have been easy as the wind stays pretty well constant at 15-20 knots throughout the day and night and the odd patch of dark cloud brings only a slight wind shift and a few spots of rain so there is little sail handling to do. I listen to my mp3 player during my time on deck and watch the stars when it’s clear enough. I was looking at the Southern Cross last night and at the two bright stars nearby, Rigel Kent and Hadar and wondering where the names came from. Certainly not named by the ancient Greeks as they weren’t visible to them. They sound like an unlikely pairing of a daftly named private investigator, and his Australian Viking sidekick, the not so horrible….!
I also tend to ponder at these times, things like the obsession with adding rice grains to salt cellars, supposedly to keep the salt dry. Well, I can tell you that salt has a much greater affinity to water than rice does. Try putting some rice and salt together in a saucer with a little water…… Hmm!
Day12
Strangely enough, the Pacific is now proving not to be “pacific” and is at least as lumpy as the Atlantic was, for these last 5 days anyway. The magic box that we so carefully avoided didn’t end conveniently at 108W long, 03S lat but continued out westwards snaking right into the boat’s route and just making everything a little less comfortable with a fair amount of sea finding its way inconveniently into the boat when least expected! Oh well….. at least nothing important (like this computer) got wet and all the hatches are now closed!!
We are now about two thirds across with just over a thousand miles to go and keeping up a good pace, hardly surprising with up to 30knots of wind and 10foot seas. The main now has three reefs and we are using the staysail rather than the yankee which is hard to handle in strong winds but are still doing over 7 knots on average.
Night watches can be long but at least I have the dawn to see around 6am local time (now -8 hours GMT) each morning. A rosy dawn is a good thing in the tropics where the weather comes from the east unlike around the UK so I changed the rhyme to…
Red sky in the morning, a great day is dawning
Red sky at night, sailors take fright!
Absolutely no wildlife to see apart from the usual ocean birds but the sea is always nice to look at when the sun is out. I particularly like the lovely deep aquamarine colour which can be seen just below the white crests of the bigger breaking waves. I wish I could capture that on camera even though I’d probably never look at the picture again………!!
Day 19
I think that “box” which is rectangular on the chart is more like a trapezium with its upper left corner stretching several hundred miles westwards…….. but we are finally out of it after a week of lumpy seas etc. Unfortunately, the conditions have now changed to light E/SE winds so our progress has slowed somewhat. We have just over 350 miles to go as I write. We are better off than the boats about 1000 miles behind us though as they are becalmed and having to motor, not good when there is such a long distance to cover and a finite amount of fuel. We could safely motor the whole of the rest of the way from now on but there is no need as yet as we are still averaging 5 knots.
I made the second loaf of bread of this trip yesterday and it came out better than the first one which suffered from damp flour and then a fall onto the deck while it was proving! Incidentally, one of the drawbacks about the Galapagos is that everything natural; leather, wood, cotton, food etc gets mildewy very quickly and it’s an unpleasant surprise to open a locker after just a few days and find it and everything in it covered in a coating of mould.
Day21
We made it! Arrived this morning just about breakfast time giving us a total journey time of almost exactly three weeks to the hour. Now peacefully anchored in Taiohie bay along with about 20 other yachts, some of whom I recognize from back east somewhere. The final couple of days were uneventful… the wind virtually died so we motored for about 36 hours and we saw some spinner dolphins…the first marine wildlife (apart from birds and flying fish) for well over two weeks.
First impressions of the Marquesas ( Nuka Hivu) are hard to say as we haven’t been ashore yet but I’m looking forward to having a restaurant meal or two while we’re here and doing the 4x4 island tour if there’s enough time. We have a few things to mend on the boat too…hardly surprising after three weeks at sea but the generator and engine have both behaved impeccably I’m delighted to be able to say!!
And finally, as you are now reading this, it will mean that we have arrived safely...... This is short as internet connection is slow and expensive here but first impressions are that it's a lovely place if a bit rainy. Doing an island tour tomorrow and sailing off the day after that for Tahiti where you will have to wait for photos updates etc!!
We set off early, before breakfast with the intention of heading south from Santa Cruz then south west for some while to clear before nightfall “that” island, Tortuga which had caused us so much trouble on our unscheduled return to the Galapagos two weeks ago. This time again proved slightly problematic with unfavourable winds and currents so that we had to motor for most of the day to leave Tortuga clear enough to starboard…this we did in the end thank goodness! It’s actually a lovely little island, the remains of an almost perfectly circular volcano with a sunken crater. On another occasion, maybe a visit!!
So now that we have been at sea for 48 hours and have long passed the spot where the engine and generator failed us last time, I thought I would start to keep an occasional diary of this trip as it will be the longest leg of a circumnavigation that any cruising yacht normally does, longer by over 250 miles than the Atlantic crossing from east to west. I have to say that although Moonshiner has had an awful lot of trouble these past 6 months with engine, genny, electrics etc, the hull, sails and rigging have caused no problems at all and this is after all what a sailing boat is all about so I am looking forward to about three weeks of good sailing!
After a day of indifferent winds where we wallowed a little doing just about 3 knots, the wind picked up and settled during the second night so that we are now able to make over 7 knots on average with two reefs in the main and yankee. If all goes well, we should be able to continue now like this for most of the journey. This is because we are already in the SE trade wind belt which hadn’t yet established itself last time…hence all the rain and squally weather which the other Rally boats had to endure for some days until they were far enough south and west. It would seem that March is still too early to leave the Galapagos for the Marquesas? It’ll be interesting to see what our journey time is compared with other similar size boats on the Rally….. just so long as the trade winds continue like this that is!
I am hoping to see some wildlife other than the usual flying fish and frigate birds. Yesterday afternoon, I saw my first large whale (longer than the boat!) which was spouting regularly as it swam slowly by. I think it was a humpback, going by the dorsal fin. It would have been nice to see it breach but it was just idling along. Still, it was a sight all the same.
Doing the night watch from midnight is a wonderful time to look at the stars as long as the sky is clear which it was last night. Scorpio dominates the sky overhead at this time and it’s interesting to be able to see the Southern Cross and the Plough on the opposite side of the sky at the same time. The heavens “move” exactly overhead from east to west just like the sun at this latitude making it easier to envisage things in relation to one another. My aim is to identify some of the southern stars and constellations that I haven’t seen before. The Milky Way was very clear too. I have just finished reading the Robert Graves “Greek Myths” which says that the Milky Way was formed when Hera breast fed baby Heracles after being coerced to do so by Athene. Heracles sucked so strongly that Hera, in some considerable pain, violently pulled him off the breast and some milk spurted across the sky leaving that “milky” trail…
It’s been quite cold out here so far too. I wore my cotton guernsey for warmth last night on watch, the first time I’ve worn it since the Atlantic 16 months ago.
Day 5
Still going great guns mostly over 7 knots and little sign of squalls apart from a few drops of rain last night. We are fairly near to a mystical “box” on the chart within which there are supposed to be unsettled conditions. We are trying to stay out of this area which covers 18 degrees of longitude and 5 of latitude (95 to 103 W and 03 to 08S) for obvious reasons and managing quite well so far!! We have covered over 600 miles since starting on passage on day 2. Not bad going!
There has been very little wildlife above the waves to see apart from some storm petrels and shearwaters and only one turtle so far as well as the humpback but several small squid committed suicide on deck last night. I found them this morning as dawn broke. I’d been wondering what the smell was!! Other boats on the rally reported being inundated by flying fish on deck and even being directly hit on occasion. Quite frightening I should think to be suddenly thumped by a lump of cold kamikaze fish in the dark!
Day 7
Managing to cover over 180 miles a day which is amazing! We decided to do 6 hour watches each covering the hours of darkness, so that’s 6pm to 6am local time. Dick does 6pm to midnight and I do midnight to 6am or thereabouts. This is working out quite well as it means we get a decent night’s sleep in one go rather than having to get up more than once each night.
The watches have been easy as the wind stays pretty well constant at 15-20 knots throughout the day and night and the odd patch of dark cloud brings only a slight wind shift and a few spots of rain so there is little sail handling to do. I listen to my mp3 player during my time on deck and watch the stars when it’s clear enough. I was looking at the Southern Cross last night and at the two bright stars nearby, Rigel Kent and Hadar and wondering where the names came from. Certainly not named by the ancient Greeks as they weren’t visible to them. They sound like an unlikely pairing of a daftly named private investigator, and his Australian Viking sidekick, the not so horrible….!
I also tend to ponder at these times, things like the obsession with adding rice grains to salt cellars, supposedly to keep the salt dry. Well, I can tell you that salt has a much greater affinity to water than rice does. Try putting some rice and salt together in a saucer with a little water…… Hmm!
Day12
Strangely enough, the Pacific is now proving not to be “pacific” and is at least as lumpy as the Atlantic was, for these last 5 days anyway. The magic box that we so carefully avoided didn’t end conveniently at 108W long, 03S lat but continued out westwards snaking right into the boat’s route and just making everything a little less comfortable with a fair amount of sea finding its way inconveniently into the boat when least expected! Oh well….. at least nothing important (like this computer) got wet and all the hatches are now closed!!
We are now about two thirds across with just over a thousand miles to go and keeping up a good pace, hardly surprising with up to 30knots of wind and 10foot seas. The main now has three reefs and we are using the staysail rather than the yankee which is hard to handle in strong winds but are still doing over 7 knots on average.
Night watches can be long but at least I have the dawn to see around 6am local time (now -8 hours GMT) each morning. A rosy dawn is a good thing in the tropics where the weather comes from the east unlike around the UK so I changed the rhyme to…
Red sky in the morning, a great day is dawning
Red sky at night, sailors take fright!
Absolutely no wildlife to see apart from the usual ocean birds but the sea is always nice to look at when the sun is out. I particularly like the lovely deep aquamarine colour which can be seen just below the white crests of the bigger breaking waves. I wish I could capture that on camera even though I’d probably never look at the picture again………!!
Day 19
I think that “box” which is rectangular on the chart is more like a trapezium with its upper left corner stretching several hundred miles westwards…….. but we are finally out of it after a week of lumpy seas etc. Unfortunately, the conditions have now changed to light E/SE winds so our progress has slowed somewhat. We have just over 350 miles to go as I write. We are better off than the boats about 1000 miles behind us though as they are becalmed and having to motor, not good when there is such a long distance to cover and a finite amount of fuel. We could safely motor the whole of the rest of the way from now on but there is no need as yet as we are still averaging 5 knots.
I made the second loaf of bread of this trip yesterday and it came out better than the first one which suffered from damp flour and then a fall onto the deck while it was proving! Incidentally, one of the drawbacks about the Galapagos is that everything natural; leather, wood, cotton, food etc gets mildewy very quickly and it’s an unpleasant surprise to open a locker after just a few days and find it and everything in it covered in a coating of mould.
Day21
We made it! Arrived this morning just about breakfast time giving us a total journey time of almost exactly three weeks to the hour. Now peacefully anchored in Taiohie bay along with about 20 other yachts, some of whom I recognize from back east somewhere. The final couple of days were uneventful… the wind virtually died so we motored for about 36 hours and we saw some spinner dolphins…the first marine wildlife (apart from birds and flying fish) for well over two weeks.
First impressions of the Marquesas ( Nuka Hivu) are hard to say as we haven’t been ashore yet but I’m looking forward to having a restaurant meal or two while we’re here and doing the 4x4 island tour if there’s enough time. We have a few things to mend on the boat too…hardly surprising after three weeks at sea but the generator and engine have both behaved impeccably I’m delighted to be able to say!!
And finally, as you are now reading this, it will mean that we have arrived safely...... This is short as internet connection is slow and expensive here but first impressions are that it's a lovely place if a bit rainy. Doing an island tour tomorrow and sailing off the day after that for Tahiti where you will have to wait for photos updates etc!!
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Are we there yet? No we're not!!
So nearly another two weeks go by in “paradise” while we wait for the engine parts to arrive, this time from New York via Miami and Quito. The people who have helped to fix these latest problems have been wonderful as usual so no complaints there. We are now seriously behind the most of the Bluewater fleet however and have some major catching up to do; quite something when you have to make up over 3 thousand miles to start off with! At least the weather is supposed to be much better for the crossing in April rather than March……
Meanwhile, spending a lot of time sitting here at anchor on the boat because the tours to the other islands are either too expensive or fully booked at this time of year, I have had a lot of fun watching the wildlife (birds, fishes and sealions) at work and play. The water around here is teeming with life; millions of little fishes swim in huge shoals seeking protection beneath the boats but they are easy prey for everything else both above the water and below. Fast swimming fish charge at them from below actually breaking the surface and creating splashes and general confusion all around. This attracts the pelicans which swoop down and plunge their bills, expanded to full capacity, into the water to “net” some small fry that have escaped. The pelicans then slowly sieve out the water and gulp down the fish left inside. At the same time, the delightful brown noddies are hovering all around hoping to pick up a tiny fish too but the funniest sight is when they sit on the pelican’s heads ready to pick up the odd escapee. The pelicans don’t seem to mind in the least either! I wish I could have captured this on camera. Sorry. The sealions are funny too as they swim lazily around the huge shoals and gulp down the tiny fish as sort of titbit. They often turn over onto their backs and just float by without a care in the world. What a nice life!
Other things about these islands are not quite so entertaining….. we were warned about the water here and they were right. Many of the boat crews went down with amoebic dysentery, this vessel included. Nice! Still, the antibiotics are readily available from “Pharmacy Row”..this is the main street in Santa Cruz where quite literally every other shop sells drugs (and toiletries) without prescription. I’ve no idea why so many pharmacies and these drugs aren’t cheap either. I think the source of the illness may be the bar adopted by the Rally where we spent many a “Happy Hour” drinking one particular cocktail…possibly the ice…who knows? Anyway, I shall not be drinking said cocktail again. Sticking strictly to bottled stuff from now on!
This should positively be my last blog entry before we leave…..let’s hope so!!
Meanwhile, spending a lot of time sitting here at anchor on the boat because the tours to the other islands are either too expensive or fully booked at this time of year, I have had a lot of fun watching the wildlife (birds, fishes and sealions) at work and play. The water around here is teeming with life; millions of little fishes swim in huge shoals seeking protection beneath the boats but they are easy prey for everything else both above the water and below. Fast swimming fish charge at them from below actually breaking the surface and creating splashes and general confusion all around. This attracts the pelicans which swoop down and plunge their bills, expanded to full capacity, into the water to “net” some small fry that have escaped. The pelicans then slowly sieve out the water and gulp down the fish left inside. At the same time, the delightful brown noddies are hovering all around hoping to pick up a tiny fish too but the funniest sight is when they sit on the pelican’s heads ready to pick up the odd escapee. The pelicans don’t seem to mind in the least either! I wish I could have captured this on camera. Sorry. The sealions are funny too as they swim lazily around the huge shoals and gulp down the tiny fish as sort of titbit. They often turn over onto their backs and just float by without a care in the world. What a nice life!
Other things about these islands are not quite so entertaining….. we were warned about the water here and they were right. Many of the boat crews went down with amoebic dysentery, this vessel included. Nice! Still, the antibiotics are readily available from “Pharmacy Row”..this is the main street in Santa Cruz where quite literally every other shop sells drugs (and toiletries) without prescription. I’ve no idea why so many pharmacies and these drugs aren’t cheap either. I think the source of the illness may be the bar adopted by the Rally where we spent many a “Happy Hour” drinking one particular cocktail…possibly the ice…who knows? Anyway, I shall not be drinking said cocktail again. Sticking strictly to bottled stuff from now on!
This should positively be my last blog entry before we leave…..let’s hope so!!
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
We could have found a worse place to be stuck
So there we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, two days into our epic voyage of over 3000 miles to the Marquesas Islands.It was fairly late at night and it had been absolutely pouring with rain for hours so we were all completely sodden and not making much progress with flukey winds and therefore having to motor through it all. Then the engine stopped…….. Oh dear! Still, we had some way under us and carried on sailing for a little while using the autopilot powered by the generator running. Then the generator coughed and gave up….Oh double dear!! Nothing for it then but to heave to and drift around for the night as it was virtually impossible to find out what had gone wrong in the dark and during a deluge that eventually continued the whole night.
Next morning found us extremely damp but afloat and with one or two decisions to make. The chances of everything suddenly resolving itself so we could carry on were non existent so we decided to “sail” back to Santa Cruz where we knew there were people who could help. Hmm! Sailing back became quite an ordeal as the winds were mostly from the wrong direction or too light to get us under way. We also had to hand steer the whole way as the autopilot uses up too much battery power and we needed to keep some charge so we could use the radio and various other essential pieces of equipment like the fridge which had to keep going. We were going to need a cold beer when we finally returned to Santa Cruz….Ice Cold in Alex?
We gave our daily position and predicament to the Bluewater rally boats, by now well ahead of us and they were naturally very sympathetic, offering much advice but there was nothing we could do at sea. So on we sailed having to put in numerous long tacks to get us around the southern islands of the Galapagos archipelago. One very small island we had to circumnavigate became our “bête noir” as we climbed into the cockpit for our hand steering watches only to find that we had barely moved at all for hours or even gone backwards on occasion! Very frustrating but we weren’t unduly worried as we had plenty of food etc on board and we knew we would get there in the end which we finally did on day five….. We could have asked for a tow into the anchorage from the authorities but that would have cost $2000….no chance! One or two Bluewater Rally boats were yet to leave Santa Cruz and eventually Aqua Luna came to our rescue, towing us in, in perfect conditions, from about two miles out. Thanks Gabrielle and Jonathan, Allan and Charles!!
So here we are back anchored in virtually the same spot we had last week, waiting for things to be fixed so that we can set off again…… Claudio, an ace electrician/mechanic came to our rescue. We had met him before… !!He was a little surprised to see us but knuckled down to help. The generator was quickly restored to fully working capacity with a little rewiring to bypass the troublesome bits but the engine is proving to be a little trickier to resolve. It seems we need to get spare parts ( a high pressure fuel pump) which is not available locally so we are obliged to wait until it can either be fixed here or a new one can be couriered out from the UK or somewhere, anywhere…… Easter is happening at a most inconvenient time All very frustrating and expensive but I could think of worse places to be stranded!
Ed, our crew member had a decision to make too as he is due to meet up with his wife in Tahiti in early May. We won’t be there by then I expect so he decided to jump ship and join the last rally boat, Roundabout, to leave who is due to depart as I write. Bon Voyage Ed!
We will hopefully get going in a week or so but the other cruising yachts, Troutbridge and Delicado among them and who are not part of the Rally, are expecting to arrive here in about 10 days. It might be a better option to stay here a little longer and rejoin them all so we can sail on in company. I have missed their company anyway so it would be really nice to see them all again.
No decision yet however as we must find out if and when the engine will be sorted out for once and for all now. It just isn’t a good idea to set out on what must be the longest stretch of a circumnavigation, unless things are all in shipshape fashion!!!!!
More updates soon……….
Next morning found us extremely damp but afloat and with one or two decisions to make. The chances of everything suddenly resolving itself so we could carry on were non existent so we decided to “sail” back to Santa Cruz where we knew there were people who could help. Hmm! Sailing back became quite an ordeal as the winds were mostly from the wrong direction or too light to get us under way. We also had to hand steer the whole way as the autopilot uses up too much battery power and we needed to keep some charge so we could use the radio and various other essential pieces of equipment like the fridge which had to keep going. We were going to need a cold beer when we finally returned to Santa Cruz….Ice Cold in Alex?
We gave our daily position and predicament to the Bluewater rally boats, by now well ahead of us and they were naturally very sympathetic, offering much advice but there was nothing we could do at sea. So on we sailed having to put in numerous long tacks to get us around the southern islands of the Galapagos archipelago. One very small island we had to circumnavigate became our “bête noir” as we climbed into the cockpit for our hand steering watches only to find that we had barely moved at all for hours or even gone backwards on occasion! Very frustrating but we weren’t unduly worried as we had plenty of food etc on board and we knew we would get there in the end which we finally did on day five….. We could have asked for a tow into the anchorage from the authorities but that would have cost $2000….no chance! One or two Bluewater Rally boats were yet to leave Santa Cruz and eventually Aqua Luna came to our rescue, towing us in, in perfect conditions, from about two miles out. Thanks Gabrielle and Jonathan, Allan and Charles!!
So here we are back anchored in virtually the same spot we had last week, waiting for things to be fixed so that we can set off again…… Claudio, an ace electrician/mechanic came to our rescue. We had met him before… !!He was a little surprised to see us but knuckled down to help. The generator was quickly restored to fully working capacity with a little rewiring to bypass the troublesome bits but the engine is proving to be a little trickier to resolve. It seems we need to get spare parts ( a high pressure fuel pump) which is not available locally so we are obliged to wait until it can either be fixed here or a new one can be couriered out from the UK or somewhere, anywhere…… Easter is happening at a most inconvenient time All very frustrating and expensive but I could think of worse places to be stranded!
Ed, our crew member had a decision to make too as he is due to meet up with his wife in Tahiti in early May. We won’t be there by then I expect so he decided to jump ship and join the last rally boat, Roundabout, to leave who is due to depart as I write. Bon Voyage Ed!
We will hopefully get going in a week or so but the other cruising yachts, Troutbridge and Delicado among them and who are not part of the Rally, are expecting to arrive here in about 10 days. It might be a better option to stay here a little longer and rejoin them all so we can sail on in company. I have missed their company anyway so it would be really nice to see them all again.
No decision yet however as we must find out if and when the engine will be sorted out for once and for all now. It just isn’t a good idea to set out on what must be the longest stretch of a circumnavigation, unless things are all in shipshape fashion!!!!!
More updates soon……….
Friday, 19 March 2010
Doing the Galapagos?
Galapagos barn owls trying to ignore about 75 Bluewater Rallyists all shouting at once!
I gave in eventually and crawled inside just to make myself look ridiculous!
Scrabbling in the mud and trying to look happy.
Just another iguana...there are millions of them here but I had to include one didn't I?
A Big Daddy on guard at the harbour, Floreana.Having been here in Santa Cruz for nearly two weeks, it was about time that we had an organized day trip to one or two of the other islands but this wasn’t happening for various reasons. More later however…….There have been several things to sort out on the boat such as ordering enough fuel and water aboard for the three week trip as well as getting things fixed which have gone wrong……..the water maker, the engine start battery, the 12volt alternator to name just a few! It’s not just Moonshiner though; several other boats have had major problems such as steering failure, cap shroud parting and a fire in the bilge on passage….that’s not just on the one boat though!!
There has been at least a very good social scene here with the other rally boats nearby so we have had a few entertaining evenings ashore. We did manage to see the famous giant tortoises at the Darwin centre (which is only half an hour away) including the solitary survivor of the Pinta Island species, Lonesome George, the one with the extraordinarily long neck. The other day, after another lunch ashore, we had an interesting trek across the lava fields to a gorge (formed from a fissure in the lava I think) for which I was wearing unsuitable shoes as usual. This type of lava is called Aa Aa (or something like that) which probably comes from the noises one makes as one stumbles across it….it’s sharp!!
The next day found us travelling into the slightly mountainous interior of Santa Cruz, which is usually bathed in cloud and therefore cooler, for the “crew briefing” about the sail to the Marquesas. This naturally included a meal and some relaxation around the pool in a lovely setting surrounded by a type of wilderness. I took the photos of the Galapagos barn owls here. They were quite happy snoozing in one of the changing rooms and seemingly oblivious to all the happy snapping going on about six feet away from them.
I was completely unaware just how built up these islands were before we got here. This main town of the Galapagos, Puerto Ayura has a population of 20000 with all the facilities we would expect such as supermarkets and laundries as well as many very good and cheap restaurants and luckily also, all the right people to mend the boats….we are not the only boat with problems! One or two boats have yet to make it here from Panama so have some catching up to do and one boat has had to pull out having had to turn back twice to Panama after a couple of days into the Pacific.
Lying here in the anchorage is very entertaining, if a tad rolly when the swells come in from the south, as we are surrounded by marine life, birds, turtles, iguanas and sealions. In fact, it is possible to see four of the “big five” Galapagos creatures right here, the only one left being the Galapagos penguin for which one needs to visit another island……..
My favourite creature has to be the sea lion. They are so entertaining and so tame (though we don’t touch them as they may bite and we’re not actually allowed to touch the Galapagos wildlife anyway!). I just couldn’t resist the one lazing on the park bench. They also visit the fish market daily and hang around waiting patiently along with the pelicans for the scraps, fish heads etc. Iguanas often swim by looking like floating logs in the water. Frigate birds, pelicans, brown noddies and storm petrels hover over the sea surface waiting for the little fish which jump out of the water to escape the larger fish predating them from below. We have also seen small sharks swimming by and several large rays too.
So then, it was high time for a day out. Dick was still fixing things on the boat however so Ed and I decided to “do” the highlights of Santa Cruz via an organised taxi trip We were driven up into the highlands where it was almost cool and “dumped” at the beginning of the lava tube having been told that it was about 400 meters long and that we would be met at the other end. Our delightful driver didn’t tell us that we would have to crawl on our hands and knees through slippery mud for some feet en route though!! See photo!!! It was good fun and we were able to wash the mud off at the next place we visited which was the tortoise reserve.....here we had to don wellies and tramp through more acres of slippery mud on a giant tortoise hunt….we found one or two and then stopped for a beer where I was eventually persuaded to wriggle into an old shell for a ridiculous pose or two….Hmm. The last stop was the spectacular collapsed craters at Gemelo. No suitable photos here though as my pathetic excuse for a camera had no memory left so you’ll have to Google it for pictures.
The next day we booked a one day tour of the furthest island south, which is Floreana, as this place promised a glimpse of the “Big Five”….that meant the penguins and the blue footed boobies although we had already seen them in Puerto Ayora. We set off quite early for the 2 hour “crash through fairly lumpy seas on a 2x200hp speed boat to Floreana with a temporary stop part way to circle a pod of dolphins chasing tuna. This was for the benefit of the non yachties aboard. We’ve seen thousands of them already but it’s still pleasure to watch anyway. Once on the quay, we were immediately among dozens of sealions and huge iguanas and, incredibly there in the water below were four swimming Galapagos penguins! My camera had no chance of a photo so I am relying on Dan from another boat with a decent Nikon to email me an image or two. They were lovely, quite tiny and very cute looking.
After a bone shaking bus ride into the hills to see caves, yet more giant tortoises (yawn…Oops!!) and geological formations and after a pretty passable lunch we returned to the boat to try snorkelling. I say “try” because I have never snorkelled before and am still yet to give it a go because the sea conditions were just a little rough for beginners this time. I shall have to wait now until the Tuamotus after Marquesas (no swimming allowed there….tiger sharks everywhere!) The clear, calm, shallow, turquoise lagoons of the Tuamotus sound just perfect…looking forward to that.
So not too much else to do on the boat before we leave in a couple of days…we need water, fresh fruit and veg and some meat if we can find it. I’m hoping there will be fresh fish en route too. The weather may be a slight problem. A southerly swell is forecast which will make this anchorage very uncomfortable and the winds down south don’t look too good at the moment either. So, do we go or do we stay?.....More information I hope as soon as I know and if there is none, it means we’ve gone!!
There has been at least a very good social scene here with the other rally boats nearby so we have had a few entertaining evenings ashore. We did manage to see the famous giant tortoises at the Darwin centre (which is only half an hour away) including the solitary survivor of the Pinta Island species, Lonesome George, the one with the extraordinarily long neck. The other day, after another lunch ashore, we had an interesting trek across the lava fields to a gorge (formed from a fissure in the lava I think) for which I was wearing unsuitable shoes as usual. This type of lava is called Aa Aa (or something like that) which probably comes from the noises one makes as one stumbles across it….it’s sharp!!
The next day found us travelling into the slightly mountainous interior of Santa Cruz, which is usually bathed in cloud and therefore cooler, for the “crew briefing” about the sail to the Marquesas. This naturally included a meal and some relaxation around the pool in a lovely setting surrounded by a type of wilderness. I took the photos of the Galapagos barn owls here. They were quite happy snoozing in one of the changing rooms and seemingly oblivious to all the happy snapping going on about six feet away from them.
I was completely unaware just how built up these islands were before we got here. This main town of the Galapagos, Puerto Ayura has a population of 20000 with all the facilities we would expect such as supermarkets and laundries as well as many very good and cheap restaurants and luckily also, all the right people to mend the boats….we are not the only boat with problems! One or two boats have yet to make it here from Panama so have some catching up to do and one boat has had to pull out having had to turn back twice to Panama after a couple of days into the Pacific.
Lying here in the anchorage is very entertaining, if a tad rolly when the swells come in from the south, as we are surrounded by marine life, birds, turtles, iguanas and sealions. In fact, it is possible to see four of the “big five” Galapagos creatures right here, the only one left being the Galapagos penguin for which one needs to visit another island……..
My favourite creature has to be the sea lion. They are so entertaining and so tame (though we don’t touch them as they may bite and we’re not actually allowed to touch the Galapagos wildlife anyway!). I just couldn’t resist the one lazing on the park bench. They also visit the fish market daily and hang around waiting patiently along with the pelicans for the scraps, fish heads etc. Iguanas often swim by looking like floating logs in the water. Frigate birds, pelicans, brown noddies and storm petrels hover over the sea surface waiting for the little fish which jump out of the water to escape the larger fish predating them from below. We have also seen small sharks swimming by and several large rays too.
So then, it was high time for a day out. Dick was still fixing things on the boat however so Ed and I decided to “do” the highlights of Santa Cruz via an organised taxi trip We were driven up into the highlands where it was almost cool and “dumped” at the beginning of the lava tube having been told that it was about 400 meters long and that we would be met at the other end. Our delightful driver didn’t tell us that we would have to crawl on our hands and knees through slippery mud for some feet en route though!! See photo!!! It was good fun and we were able to wash the mud off at the next place we visited which was the tortoise reserve.....here we had to don wellies and tramp through more acres of slippery mud on a giant tortoise hunt….we found one or two and then stopped for a beer where I was eventually persuaded to wriggle into an old shell for a ridiculous pose or two….Hmm. The last stop was the spectacular collapsed craters at Gemelo. No suitable photos here though as my pathetic excuse for a camera had no memory left so you’ll have to Google it for pictures.
The next day we booked a one day tour of the furthest island south, which is Floreana, as this place promised a glimpse of the “Big Five”….that meant the penguins and the blue footed boobies although we had already seen them in Puerto Ayora. We set off quite early for the 2 hour “crash through fairly lumpy seas on a 2x200hp speed boat to Floreana with a temporary stop part way to circle a pod of dolphins chasing tuna. This was for the benefit of the non yachties aboard. We’ve seen thousands of them already but it’s still pleasure to watch anyway. Once on the quay, we were immediately among dozens of sealions and huge iguanas and, incredibly there in the water below were four swimming Galapagos penguins! My camera had no chance of a photo so I am relying on Dan from another boat with a decent Nikon to email me an image or two. They were lovely, quite tiny and very cute looking.
After a bone shaking bus ride into the hills to see caves, yet more giant tortoises (yawn…Oops!!) and geological formations and after a pretty passable lunch we returned to the boat to try snorkelling. I say “try” because I have never snorkelled before and am still yet to give it a go because the sea conditions were just a little rough for beginners this time. I shall have to wait now until the Tuamotus after Marquesas (no swimming allowed there….tiger sharks everywhere!) The clear, calm, shallow, turquoise lagoons of the Tuamotus sound just perfect…looking forward to that.
So not too much else to do on the boat before we leave in a couple of days…we need water, fresh fruit and veg and some meat if we can find it. I’m hoping there will be fresh fish en route too. The weather may be a slight problem. A southerly swell is forecast which will make this anchorage very uncomfortable and the winds down south don’t look too good at the moment either. So, do we go or do we stay?.....More information I hope as soon as I know and if there is none, it means we’ve gone!!
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Ed bearing up quite well as he was subjected to various indignities, such as wearing a dress, while we celebrated "Crossing the Line".
The pelicans in Santa Cruz behave rather like the swans in the UK except that they simply won't eat bread that we toss to them! They much prefer meat or fish, unsurprisingly. They are incredibly tame here coming close enough to touch.
The frigatebirds also fly very close to the boats almost within touching distance. We also see lots of brown noddies and storm petrels around the anchorage plus several sealions which lie around sunning themselves on the decks of some cabin cruisers. Beneath the water, there are black tipped reef sharks, manta rays and turtles. It's almost not worth leaving the yachts to go on expensive daytrips! I do want to see the penguins though....... That means a day trip south to Floreanas I believe. Will do that soon ....lots more photos after that!It is hard to believe that we are already very nearly one quarter of the way round the world at over 89degrees west also just south of the equator (which we crossed on the 5th March in perfect conditions) and are now sitting in a very crowded and rolly anchorage in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos.
The story since we left Balboa, Panama just about 12 days ago…….. We headed about 50 miles more or less due south during the day to anchor overnight in one of the Las Perlas islands, San Jose or something like that. These islands are still part of Panama but are relatively unknown apart from the Shah of Iran spending his exile there. I have to say that they aren’t the most interesting unless one is passionate about rocks and birds…so that’s me then! The geology was actually quite boring though I did see some unusual birds (a pair of Mexican Tiger Herons then) and suffered from about 200 bites from the “noseeums” for my pains. All in all, we were quite glad to leave after three days there though the departure was quite sudden…a 30 minute tsunami warning for the Bay of Panama after the Chilean earthquake. Slightly alarming but nothing happened….much better to be out at sea though just in case!
The sail across to the Galapagos is supposed to take between 10 and 15 days with mostly light winds so we were surprised to find ourselves facing a force 6 on day 2/3 after flat calms at first. The wind continued to blow quite nicely from all directions (!) but we carried on more or less in the right direction towards the equator….. Ed, who had joined us just before we left Panama had crossed the equator many times but had never gone through the “ceremony” before so had no certificate to prove his crossings…and it has to be at sea anyway as Neptune himself would tell you, so he was fair game for some minor fun!! Photo attached I hope. It was a perfect day, weatherwise, and the best time of day too, to cross the line thank goodness!
After seven days at sea and having only used about 25 gallons of our precious water just in case…….. ( I have found a wonderful way to stay feeling cool and clean without using water; it’s called “menticol” cheaply available everywhere here…just don’t use it on any sensitive bits. My hair suffered a little though after over two weeks without a wash!!)...... we arrived at Santa Cruz and anchored in the middle of the "other" Rally, the World Arc who were leaving the next day or so. With 30 boats there, the anchorage was very crowded and we have had to put out a stern anchor for the first time to stop us swinging.
Having been here for 3 days now, it's about time we started doing a day trip or two to the other islands so my next blog should contain lots and lots of those touristy photos of blue footed boobies etc. Sorry in advance for that but you know how it is.....!!
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