Month: March 2017

JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STUNNING TUOMOTUS ISLANDS

Raroia, Fakarava, Toau, Rangiora, Tikehau, July & August 2016

Tahaena & Makemo, October-November 2016

Click Link to: Tahaena Photo Gallery

Passage Journal: July 23,2017 Leaving Nuku Hiva heading for Raroia Atholl

We are careening along hard on the wind at 8.4+/-kn toward the Tuomotus. We hadn’t really expected the wind to be so much from the south, so even with only 20-25kn of wind the ride is heeled over and rather rough going to move around any. We’re close to 100 miles along the way and keeping up a bit over our expected average. Although it was stormy leaving Nuka Hiva, once we left the island, the sky cleared and we had a lovely moonlit night. Lots of stars, no traffic, all in all a good night.

July 24 day 2 of 4 (11-27.81S/140-56.96W)

We continue to move along at a good clip. Perhaps our winds are a bit influenced by the weather north of the equator, hard to know. I think that I’ll request a weather grib that spans a bit of both hemispheres just to see what’s going on up there. We met a boat about 4 weeks ago that was heading north to Alaska from Nuka Hiva, I hope they are well past that storm and safely on their way. The refrigeration has gone off again, so we’ll be learning to live without cold anything after that which is frozen fully thaws. I’ll need to get creative with rice, lentils and canned stuff. John has worked really hard to try and get it functioning, but it looks like we need a major overhaul of the system, something which cannot be done until we get to Papeete. Not wanting to spoil our time together with Jodie any more than we have already, we’re going to continue cruising the islands until she leaves for Australia. Otherwise, all is well.

July 24 (13-01.35S / 141-28.25W)

It’s nice to see the sun up after a night filled with squalls of strong winds and seas crashing over the boat. Needless to say it was not restful for anyone and quite damp. On the positive side, we are still moving along at a good clip despite a reef in the mainsail, a reef in the headsail (if it’s even used) and the staysail. We averaged speeds of 8-9kn with the headsail, but the load became to great during the squalls, so we’ve taken that in and are on a smoother 6-7kn of speed. All of us are anxious to arrive, drop anchor next to white sand beaches in clear water and jumping overboard:) Then eating lots of great food. Not much food prep going on this time, it’s exhausting enough just to make a cup of tea with the boat bucking and heeled over. All is well on this new day.

July 25, 2016 ARRIVED RAROIA! (15-24.43S /142-15.25W)

We arrived at last after a rather arduous journey hard on the wind shipping lots of water and being thrown around the boat. Jodie immediately felt better as soon as we made it through the pass into the idyllic lagoon of Raroia Atoll.  It took about another hour of navigating around coral heads, including having to divert our planned course to avoid a bunch of buoys and nets from the pearl farm before dropping our anchor. We’re bobbing away in turquoise water looking eastward over several islets of various sizes and vegetation, all strung together with white sandy beaches creating multiple shades of blue water. In the distance beyond is the open ocean crashing up against the surrounding reef. It’s picturesque – the quintessential South Pacific atoll location. Best of all, the boat is finally flat calm held in place with a steady eastern breeze. Surprisingly the water is much cooler down here (about 10 degrees further south from the Marquesas) and even the air seems more refreshing.

We’ve enjoyed lots of swimming, snorkeling and beach combing. Jodie went out for a 1 1/2 hour swim this morning dragging our inflatable kayak tied to her waist so she could paddle across the deeper, scary bits, and just for security if any sharks got too curious. There isn’t the ability to run or bike at this atoll, although she’ll be able to do that at a couple of the others…for now her exercise is meditation, yoga and swimming:) Because the freezer is mostly belly-up, we are busy trying to eat as much food as possible. We enjoyed huge steaks the first night, lots of fancy cheeses yesterday and a big dinner of curried chicken, a sausage and French Toast with strawberries for breakfast, lentil soup and ground beef nachos for lunch, with plans of hamburger steak for dinner….John is able to keep the freezer at refrigerator temperature so that’s giving us a bit more time to consume! We’re going to go out in a bit, far from our boat, and feed the sharks that lovely tuna I’d accumulated, which isn’t keeping well without the freezer. Should be interesting!??! I guess we’ll have to catch some fish for our future meals. We plan to stay here tonight and maybe move on in a day or two. The next atoll is about 85 miles, so an overnight trip. Jodie is very happy to just linger a bit longer here:) As I type, she is breaking open and preparing a coconut.  

We’ve had a busy day with some long swims/snorkels, beach/island exploration and even making some sourdough bread. We just returned from visiting the island where there is a memorial for the Kon Tiki expedition lead by Tor Hyerdal in 1947 – their raft went aground on this atoll and only about 1/2 a mile from where we are anchored. We found a bit of the wreckage while snorkeling this morning:) It’s happy hour now, so as soon as Jodie is out of the shower, we’ll relax for the evening.

Yesterday we visited a tiny clump of coconut trees on the edge of the atholl, surrounded by white sand and tourquoise water. The visit was guided by our hand held GPS which declared that this particular islet was the one that Thor Hyerdedall set foot on after his epic journey in his papyrus raft from Easter Island in 1947.

I say set foot on because he first had to wreck the raft on the colossal raging surf on the windward side of this atoll and walk half a mile over the exposed reef whose effect on salt soaked skin is like broken glass. I would say that last half mile was much more dangerous than the 2000 miles he traveled by sea. But it was here that the stout Promagnon appearing Norwegian first made a footprint in the sand and so his great grandson came and collected some coral, bound then into a small plinth with local sand and placed a brass plaque that commemorates his great hero. What an idyllic setting to be remembered. I remember how much our own Dad enjoyed Hyerdall’s book ‘Kontiki Expedition’ and how it inspired a post was generation to think again of great adventures. Of course that was 10 years before they landed a man on the mood. As for us, we set our compass on simpler achievements an will leave today to hop to the adjoining atoll 75 miles away to explore the next minor conquest and claim it for the Queen.

July 30, 2017 At sea again. After going across the atoll into town and anchoring out so Jodie could have a run, we made our way out through the pass with the setting sun and are now making a night passage to the atoll of Makemo. We hope to arrive in about 7:30am. Will keep you posted! All is well on Raynad.

July 31, 2017 2am – After waiting 6 hours for favorable wind/weather and tide conditions to enter Makemo, we’ve had to give it up. Too many squalls combined with wind against tide and poor charts.  Sad, but we’ll move on toward Fakarava.

We had a fast and nail-biting outgoing passage our of Raroia last night and then were on our way at a quicker than expected speed toward Makemo. Although we’d encountered several squalls during the night, at about 3am they became a bit more cyclonic and caused havoc with our sails! A bit of wee hour excitement, but eventually we got it all down and motored the remaining few miles toward our waiting point to enter the lagoon. Unfortunately, the squalls have not stopped. Just when we think it might be clearing, another blanket of black heads our direction. With unpredictable winds, very disturbed water, dark gray skies and seas, we could not safely make it through the pass during the slack tide and so have now missed our opportunity. Currents in this pass can exceed 8kn so it’s worth being patient. We’re now hove-to offshore and waiting to see what happens over the next few hours. Not the ideal we had imagined when we left last night and had our sights set on dropping anchor off the town so Jodie could run on their roads and then making our way across the lagoon to the reportedly beautiful sandy beaches on the far southeast corner of the lagoon. Now we just wait. If it looks good at the next slackening tide, we will enter and stay here. Otherwise, we will head toward Fakarava which is one of the largest atolls in the group.

FAKARAVA ATOLL

At last we have arrived at Fakarava Atoll and are safely anchored on the southern end, just inside the pass at Tukirimaraerae. We finally gave up on a weather/tide window to safely enter Makimo Atoll – the entrance continued to be obscured by squally gray and wild looking seas – so we chose to carry on overnight for another 135 miles. A night filled with more squalls, rain and shifty winds, although occasionally we’d get a lovely glimpse of the starlit sky behind it all. Mostly just absolutely blackness; Capt John had us navigating with the radar. Entering the pass was a unique experience because we not only had to navigate the channel, but avoid all of the dive operators and their divers in the water! This south pass is supposed to be one of the best drift dives in the Tuomotus – we’ll likely check that out tomorrow:) For now, we’ve indulged with a French toast breakfast and are settling into cups of tea, reading and of course naps. This is the second largest atoll of the group, about 35 miles long and even has a road along about 15+ miles of that. So Jodie will also get a chance to do some training on her bike and running once we move north a bit so she can access the south end. I’m already starting a list of provisions for her to carry back on some of her ventures to town at the far north end of the atoll.

Pink Sand Beaches:  16-31.27S / 145-28.39W

Yes, the weather has improved and the waters are a beautiful turquoise against white and pink sand beaches:) John and Jodie took the dingy over to the little dive shop shack at the south pass to inquire about drift diving. They were fully booked, but came up with a time for us on Aug 3 for $70 per dive (special “boaties” price.) When the weather cleared yesterday afternoon, we moved the boat over to an area of islets and pink sand beaches where we are now anchored amongst massive amounts of coral patches – a hair raising experience for Jodie to navigate us through. Dropped the anchor and two reef sharks immediately came over and started circling our boat! It’s beautifully clear water so we’ll do lots of snorkeling and swimming today. Should be very relaxing.

After a stormy couple of days offshore, we have totally appreciated the paradise found here in Fakarava.  As soon as the squalls cleared, we moved our boat over to be amongst the coral and pink/white sandy islets. As I dropped the anchor, our first shark swam by and by the time we finished setting it, we had three sharks circling around!

They were like dogs coming for their dinner!?!? Having initially been planning to dive off the boat and swim to shore, Jodie had a change of heart and instead set to inflating our kayak:)

That completed, she set off paddling until reaching more shallow waters and then swam for over an hour dragging the kayak behind her (sort of like a security blanket.) The black tip sharks continue to visit our boat. There are also some nurse sharks lurking about amongst the coral. We’ve done lots of snorkeling, even drift snorkeling and beach combing. Most stunning are the many blue lipped clams. Jodie and I managed to boat hook down four coconuts yesterday evening which she macheted open for our “happy hour” drinks. She is now off on yet another kayak expedition. It’s nice that she has a bit of freedom from the old farts.

We’re scheduled for a drift dive through the south pass tomorrow – should be exciting!

INCREDIBLE SOUTH PASS SCUBA!! Lots of sharks!!

We had an amazing day diving yesterday with some strong currents and masses of sharks! The pass had valley sections like wide alleyways with layer upon layer of mostly black tip reef sharks stacked up and just hovering, semi-comatose with their noses into the currents. It reminded me of early morning, sleepy commuters just sort of swaying with the motion of the train. Jodie thought is was like a traffic jam of cars all waiting for the petrol station, although maybe the description of thugs just hanging out and waiting for a fight was more applicable!?!? We would hang on to the coral at the edge of the valley and gaze across the dark blue alleyway filled with sharks. Just in one lookout we “counted” 300 sharks. We literally saw over 500 sharks on just the first 50 minute dive. Apparently because they are night feeders, the sharks “rest” this way. We are told the same area at night is crazy, frenzied chaos – no night diving for me thank you! There were also some nurse sharks down on the sands, some beautiful Eagle Rays, lots of stunning tropical fish and large corals. This was a great dive both relaxing and exciting. The second dive was much more challenging as we had waited too long for the other divers to finish their lunch and so were late dropping into the ocean waters where the current was both strong and fast. It was a battle to get down to depth and over to where we needed to be without getting swept away from the group. Again, we saw the incredible stacked up rows with huge numbers of sharks, lots more colorful and impressive coral, but we also spent too much effort and at times anxiety navigating back and forth across the valleys and various currents. I’m glad that we really took advantage of the opportunity to dive, however, we would likely have been happy to stop after the first dive. The massive line up or volume of sharks was truly impressive and not something seen in other places. John and I were quite tired and happy to relax back at the boat, Jodie became restless and took off for an early evening kayak adventure. We all enjoyed a lovely, calm night with clear dark skies filled with stars. Jodie challenged John on his knowledge of the constellations and eventually she even chose to sleep out under stars swinging in a hammock:) This morning we made our way further west in the lagoon so we are now anchored midway on the north side near a small and friendly pension with easy access to the 15 mile sand/coral road where Jodie can try and catch up on workouts. No more rest for her!!  Another beautiful day in paradise – All is well on Raynad.

 

August 5, 2017 -Fakarava Lagoon west of Tonae (16-13.54S / 145-33.51W)

We’ll be staying at this anchorage for at least 3 nights to try and give Jodie some serious shore time for her training. She’s really barely keeping fit enough to even consider this big Half IronMan that is coming up in one month! The road here is coral/sand and goes from where we are along the atoll toward town and the airport which is about 15 miles, so she can get a 30 mile bike ride in and more if she wants to turn around and go back!! I’m planning to motivate her a bit with a shopping list:) We are both dressed to go ashore and get some exercise this morning. The winds have picked up (we had gloriously calm weather for a couple of days – the day we dove the lagoon was mirror flat) and we’re getting some rain squalls. I’ll run for about 30-40mins – she’ll do something more. The family at the little pension has said that we can store the bike in their shed, so that’ll be nice to only have to haul it once in the dingy. They also have a small dock that makes our landings much drier. After exercising, we will enjoy cups of tea and reading:)

August 8 – Anse Amyot west side Toau Atoll (15-48.21S/146-09.09W)

Just made it into the moorage at sunset. Picked up a buoy and have listened to the wind howling all night. Our boat computer keeps dying on us, so we had to navigate with a small Aser laptop yesterday. Worked fine, but we only have intermittent access to this email. We’ll eventually end up in Papeete and John will work on fixing this problem plus the refrigeration. Just so you know. At times, we may not be able to communicate via winlink. We are fine and nicely tied to a buoy on the Toau Atoll, Anse Amyot lagoon on the west side. This is called the “False Pass” as you can enter the little private lagoon which does not have an outlet into the main lagoon. Kind of an inlet in the reef which is supposed to have great scuba diving and snorkeling. It was a rather high pressure passage yesterday because we just had lots of stuff going on and ended up leaving a bit late after picking up Jodie in town after she’d already ridden the bike into town hoping to do another dive (didn’t work out), rode back to the resort where she found us missing so she had to ride back to town (the hand held radio wasn’t strong enough to communicate) so she ended up with a 66km+ bike ride, one way against 25-35kn winds! We arrived at Toau after sailing a 42nm passage having to average over 7kn speed to make it before dark and arrived just after sunset, picked up the buoy with minimal light and lots of wind (25-35kn)-fortunately the old guy who lives here came out in his skiff and helped us pick it up. Lovely place to be, calm and flat boat with the winds howling through the rigging above. Great to be here:)

RANGIORA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIKEHAU

TAHAENA during the October nesting season:

 

 

ARRIVED Nuku Hiva – Raynad Celebrates!

Latitude 8-55.13S Longitude: 140-06.01W

We dropped anchor last night, immediately put up some sun shades and called our onshore support service on the VHF. Somehow he mis-communicated the time zone here resulting in John and I setting our alarm to get up at 5:30am to be onshore by 6:30, only to find out that it was in fact 5:00AM – a weird 1.5 hr time difference. Yes they use a time zone that is 30 mins off any other. Nonetheless, we checked in no problem and even got to watch the local fishermen clean their tuna catches and chumming the waste right off the edge of the dock to a school of waiting sharks! Good thing neither of us fell in while trying to land the dingy and climb up a slippy 6ft ladder!?!? A large cruise ship came into the bay this morning and our crew support guy, Kevin offered us two empty spots on his tour. So, we jumped ship and went roaming around the island in a convoy of 3 Toyota pickups with AC:)   This island is amazing! We wound across the country on exceedingly steep, narrow roads through small villages and around super dramatic peaks and valleys,….very unique. It was a lovely day and a nice change from boating:)

 

 

 

Raynad Anchored Hakaui -Kings Valley 

We just dropped our anchor in Hakaui, King’s Valley and it is spectacular with huge black cliffs on three sides and a sandy beach at the top. Tomorrow we will hike up the valley to a waterfall that’s 350meter high, about 15km rtn hike. No Internet while we explore around the island, but we do have winlink (we hope!)

We are out of the main town now navigating around the island of Nuku Hiva. We went hiking yesterday up the Hakaui Valley of the Kings to a spectacular waterfall. The rivers we had to cross were full of muddy water and unfortunately because of all the heavy rain, there had been a big rock slide which prevented us from getting up to the pool beneath the waterfall, so no magic tropical swimming this time. It was very, very slippy and muddy but a good long hike all the same.

The densely vegetated cliffs soar almost straight up for 800+ meters making it almost unworldly in beauty and mystic. Lots of bugs here, mosquitoes, black & white biting flies, every time we forded through a river we had to reapply the repellent. It was quite the jungle hiking experience! We finished up the trip by eating a traditional Marquisan meal with a local family. Stocked with tuna, papaya, banana, starfruit, grapefruit and limes….we’re off to the west side of the island and will hopefully get away from some of the wind and swell of our current rocky-rolling anchorage. We have yet to sleep in a still boat since we left the dock in San Diego. Most of the bays here are fairly exposed and open to a sometimes very substantial swell. 

 

June 11, 2016 Raynad anchored Baie Haahopu 

We are in a lovely, very small bay on the west side of the island and out of the swell- at last- yeah!!!!! There is a dirt road from here going up the hillside to the airport (15 miles) which we explored for about 5 miles, then ended up meeting a truck of locals and getting a ride back to the dock. There is an old dock here from when they used to get the airport people here and then boat them around to the main town. Now there is a concrete road across the island. So, we have it almost all to ourselves, no houses and a small sandy beach, clear water….more what we traveled the distances for. 

We’re still at the bay on the western side of the island. It’s called the desert section and we are enjoying the lack of rain and drier air. Even did 3 loads of washing yesterday (sheets and towels included:) We’ll stay here tonight again and then move around to the north end. I know we’ll get rain up there, but it’s supposed to be very pretty and also a calm bay. We’re sort of postponing going back to town and the rocky-rolling anchorage. No real hurry if we don’t need the Internet as we need to hang around here until Jodie arrives on July 1st.

We decided to stay in this bay again last night, it’s so lovely and quiet here compared to over in town. Another boat came in yesterday afternoon, but we’ve kept to ourselves. John and I went scuba diving yesterday for only about 25 min and a shallow dive, but it was good to use our new equipment and lovely to view the underwater world. We saw some nice coral and tropical fish, nothing too special. This morning though after I did my 50min run ashore, we saw a Manta Ray! Right from our boat and it sort of swam around and under us. It was absolutely magical – they are such graceful fish. Now we’ll take down our shade tree and move on around the top of the island, maybe trying our luck at fishing on the way:)

June 15, 2016 – Baie D’Anaho on north side of Nuku Hiva (08:49.35S / 140:03.87W)

We just finished coffee and a wonderful breakfast of local watermelon:) Yesterday we took off hiking along the beach and around the bay where we found a pretty established footpath so we followed it up and over the hillsides coming out to a beautiful vista over the next bay and the northeast end of the island.

Continuing on downhill we discovered a gorgeous farm valley where a family is working industriously to produce watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes along with the usual papaya, limes and bananas. We scored 2 watermelon (not cheap, but rather exotic here,) some very nice cucumbers and a kilo of fabulous limes.  The woman had been harvesting the ripe produce and getting it ready to transport to market which is a big undertaking as they have to load it onto horses and take it across the mountains to the town a couple of bays over where they can connect to the road and then drive it to town. This bay has no road either so the path continues up and over another ridge of mountains. Limes grown here are sold to Bora Bora for the resorts there! 

We have two other boats here and one is a couple from Estonia whom we had them over last night – they are on a round the world voyage. We’ll take off and hike again today, probably back over to that valley, but maybe over to the neighboring bay and village. We have already visited there when we went on that first road trip. It’s very pretty, but I don’t think that hike is as nice as what we did yesterday.

Today was Manta Ray day!! First after coffee we hiked over the hills to the farm in the other bay and bought some more limes (3 kg), a watermelon and cucumbers. The limes are beautiful, fresh off the trees and smell wonderful – plus are great for tuna. Then on our way back to the boat I spotted a Manta Ray – kind of a small one (only 5ft across or so) but lovely and in very shallow water so we got a really good look. Then later in the day after doing a bunch of projects and getting super hot and sweaty, we decided to go over and snorkel a new area where the reef drops off and WOW these two huge Manta Rays came up out of the depths and swam around within inches of John. It looked like some surrealistic ballet with the two black and white Mantas and John in his wee black swimsuit:) They startled us both at first, but then stayed around and just swam these huge circles that always returned to where John was while they scooped up water to catch the plankton and diatoms. John was so close he could literally see the processing of the water in their huge mouths! I was close too and occasionally they would swim toward me, but mostly they just stayed with John – it was absolutely amazing to watch!

June 24m 216 Haahopu Bay Nuku Hiva – Anchored for Sunset

We’re back in the quiet anchorage on the west side of the island which is supposed to be the “desert” side, but we’ve had two big rainfalls, so it’s not quite what we’d expected, although much better than town. I got a good long run in yesterday and will go out again tomorrow morning, although I think they’ll be a fair amount of mud and puddles to negotiate on the dirt road.

YES! I definitely missed my ability to go running, biking, swimming, or just moving anywhere off the boat on that 23 day sail. I have a 20+ minute exercise routine that I tried to keep up at least some of every day and added some other things to it depending on the boat motion. Nearly every morning I do the same routine and then try to run 3-4 times per week when I can, or at least take some hikes with John. It’s been great to have the ability at this anchorage to get out and run. It was super muddy after the rains yesterday and I came upon a herd of wild horses who were blocking the road and not keen to let me pass, so had to turn around a bit early. Exciting to see them, they were lovely. I also saw a wild boar up in the bushes. John and I saw a stingray and a large turtle while snorkeling yesterday, which was pretty cool. Mostly this isn’t a great swimming/snorkeling bay, but it’s very private and we like that, plus we get the sunsets:)

JODIE ARRIVES ON RAYNAD in the MARQUESAS!!

Jodie is here safely on Raynad after touring the island in a rental car. She is tired but contented. The moist island tropical air has helped her cold a little. We will possibly set out for a quiet little anchorage tomorrow – the one we are in is rolly-polly and that makes Jodie a little sick.

It’s our 34th today. Still behind every other sibling so bringing up the rear. But the bigger triumph is that we are all still married to the original. 5 out of 5 is pretty good. Some would think this reflects good judgment, good morals, good skills in conflict resolution and that we are shinning examples to those who failed. But it is more likely that we share the Scott’s approach to marriage – first enunciated by my old nurse Louise (the only nurse I have ever know that went to ‘Assertiveness Training’ – I didn’t see a certificate but to all appearances, she had it mastered). Louise was not intrinsically pleasing to the eye and her Scots husband was shriveled by years of domination. She said about her marriage ‘Auch – but he is TOO CHEAP to divorce me !’ So maybe we have the answer .

We’re having a great time with Jodie. We left right after I spoke with you on Saturday and came around to the west bay. Yesterday, our anniversary started miserably rainy with a rocking rolling boat:( super bummer – BUT the sun did break out mid day so Jodie and I went to shore for a walk and ended up running – me for about 4 miles and Jodie for about 8, then swam around and back to the boat, followed by shower, double happy hour and an evening under the stars with steak and wine. A super day after all and a great anniversary. This morning early we took Jodie to shore with the bicycle so she could ride and John and I walked for about 2 hrs. She got in a nice long ride, came back totally muddy, so a big project to get the bike all cleaned up. It’s a nice calm day, with good visibility in the water and no rocking-rolling. We’ll head back south tomorrow and take Jodie into the King’s Valley so she can hike up toward the waterfall and take in the dramatic scenery there.

July 7, 2017

Baie Hakaotu on Ua Pou Island – 9:23.84S / 140:07.71W

We just dropped anchor after a great sail across the water from Nuku Hiva to Ua Pou. We’re on the western side of a very medievally dramatic island with towering rock spires demurely brushed by clouds. The water is so clear, we can see 10 meters down to our anchor! Lovely and we’ll be able to catch the sunset:)

Raynad anchored Hakatao to give Jodie a run (9:26.70S / 140.05.4W)

We left our scenic anchorage to try and get Jodie to a place where she can land and run on the dirt road system that goes around this island! We’re planning a night passage to Tahuata Island about 70 miles from here. It’s so hot going during the day, we thought that it’d actually be easier to travel at night:) We shall see. The island of Ua Pou has several stunning spires and cliffs both on top of the mountain and at points around the coastline. It’s hauntingly beautiful.

Jodie is doing well and having fun, although she’s still working on her sea-legs. She and I toured around part of the coastline near our bay this morning and found a nice spot for us to go back and snorkel with John. The water is so refreshing and we saw some nice developing coral and schools of fish.

We anchored around the corner from Hakatao because the area in front of the town was not large enough or safe for our boat. John just left to take Jodie over in the dingy.

July 14, 2017 Hanamoenoa Bay, Tahuata Island ( 09-45.86S/ 139-08.42W)

We are in the southern group of Marquesas Islands in a lovely bay on Tahuata Island. Jodie is with us and still working on getting her sea legs – the rocky anchorages have not helped. So far we’ve managed to find some land opportunities for her to mostly run, but also bike a bit, and of course she swims whenever the location allows that. It’s so special to have her with us.

We made a successful passage the other night from Nuka Hiva to Hiva Oa and into a safe anchorage and a very lazy day. Yesterday we had planned to go for another bay on the north end of Hiva Oa, but the weather was very windy from the NE and we were getting a lot of waves, so we headed south to this island and into a lovely clear water bay with a sandy beach. Still a bit of rocking, but much better than yesterday! Jodie does get seasick and it’s been a challenge for her, I’m sure that you can sympathize. At least Jodie can swim here, so she’s happy about that – the last bay was very muddy and had sharks!! Although we did get a nice hike up the valley and were able to buy some papaya. The bunch of bananas we’ve had hanging on the back of the boat are starting to all get too ripe, so banana bread will be one of today’s projects. We’ve been eating lots and lots of vege/fruit stuff to try and eat up all the fresh provisions we bought before they spoil. Healthy, but also a lot of work chopping and preparing. Jodie has fixed a couple of meals – it’s nice to have another cook on board:)

7/17/2017

 

 Atuona, Hiva Oa  (09-48.23S / 139-01.93W

We ended up staying in Hiva Oa through Sunday so that Jodie could get a long bike ride in and I’d also hoped to do more Internet. We woke up to rain, but went out all the same and Jodie ended up having a great 4 hour ride around and about the hilly island. There are some spectacular views and this time she took her phone so she got some photos. I ran into town (about 2 miles from the anchorage) and bought a few more fresh supplies and hoped to do some Internet, but all day we could not get any connections…so no more Skype. Not sure if the whole system was down or if the provider was just overloaded on a Sunday. We sailed around in the late afternoon down to our current anchorage where we are nestled in a cove surrounded by super steep and rugged terrain. There are 4 other boats in here including a superyacht…so no solitude. The other end of this bay has a small village that we’ll go visit, the water is very clear so we’ll do some snorkeling and then we plan to leave and make our passage to Raroia Atoll, a trip of about 415 miles, so 3 nights. By leaving at night, the passage is cooler and we’ll hopefully arrive at a good time to transit the pass and make our way across the lagoon to a good anchorage. Jodie is very excited about getting to the atolls:)

Our refrigeration expansion valve is bust and the freezer is rapidly thawing – we are currently on our way sailing back to NukaHiva to have the part flown in from Papeete and have access to the equipment John needs to complete the repair (we hope?!?!) In the meantime, we had steak for dinner and a medley of frozen veges- busy trying to consume maximum food before it spoils. With any luck I’ll be able to put at least some of it into a borrowed freezer and save our lovely special foods hauled all the way from San Diego and the tuna we’ve frozen from here.

We are spoiled with this complex boat.

SV Raynad headed back to Nuka Hiva

We are nearly there after a long night passage. Jodie is doing much better now with her sea legs and came in handy as a 3rd watch person:) Still the ride was bumpy and swingy, so not much sleep for anyone. I’m keen to arrive, get the refrigeration up and running again and take off for the wee atolls:)

 

2011 Vanuatu Gallery  (photo collections)

VANUATU 2011:  w/ John, Kristy, Jodie ,Scott & Grandma (Fran)

VANUATU CRUISING with Jodie & Scott June & July 2011

Jodie, Kristy and John had a great sail across from Noumea to Port Vila. Arriving after dark, we hove-to and entered the next morning. Jodie has already swum around the entire bay! She and Scott are registered for a open water race in a few days. Scott arrives tomorrow.

EPI & Beyond
6/13/2011
After completing  formalities in Port Vila, we set out last night to make our way to the island of Epi. We’re hoping to see the Dugong and sea turtles. Then we have plans to go across to Malekula island and the Makelyne area. Jodie also wants us to try and go to Ambryn to see the volcanoes. She’s beginning to feel that her vacation/cruise is coming too quickly to an end and the tensions are building to try and do more stuff! Tough for her when John and I get bogged down with boat stuff, laundry, provisioning, etc. I imagine she’ll be more assertive about launching out on her own on the rest of the trip. Scott is still a bit dazed and adjusting to the new climate, living conditions, etc. He seems happy just to be around our company.Vanuatu is quite lush – the climate hot and humid with at least drizzles/mists of rain most every day. My freezer/fridge are always covered in condensation which I wipe and mop up several times a day.

6/15/2011
We had a lovely afternoon yesterday walking in the village of Lamen Bay and snorkeling around a bit. We were up at dawn looking for the Dugongs (sea cows) that are supposed to be around here, but with no luck, however we did see several turtle which was very cool. The water this morning was so clear that we could see all the way to the bottom and watch the fish swimming around just from the side of the dingy!

Jodie, John and I arrived in Port Vila, Vanuatu on June 10th and Scott arrived into the airport there from Portland on June 11th. They have a fabulous little “bus” service of vans that will take you anywhere around Port Villa for 150vatu ($2US) We were pleasantly surprised to find that Port Villa is really very developed, yet has maintained a local/cultural element.

The people were very friendly and hassle-free, so it was easy to just wander around. After a couple of days getting have-tos like laundry, provisioning and engine/boat repairs accomplished, we set off for the island of Epi. Lamen Bay in Epi is reputed to have the Dugongs – a sort of sea elephant creature which we hoped to see, but despite lots of watching, snorkeling and even getting up at dawn…we did not see any. We did enjoy some lovely snorkeling though and saw several turtles. The villagers were friendly and as it turns out, Lamen Bay has one of the few secondary schools in the area. Students from surrounding islands come to “board” there and attend 7-12th grade. Fees are steep for the locals – 30,000vatu per term ($500US), hence only a small percentage of children attend school beyond 6-7th grade (age 12.)

Now we are off toward Malekula Island and a group of islands on the southern tip called the Maskelyne Islands.

On the 15th of June, we sailed across from Epi toward Malekula Island anchoring in the lovely cove of Awai Island. John and the kids had just set off to investigate the anchorage by dingy when our boat was visited by a series of dugout canoes. I really enjoyed the interactions with the shy and inquisitive people. They were wanting our empty plastic bottles and wanting to sell us some fruit. They were really sweet and so thrilled with the addition of not only receiving an empty plastic ice cream box, fish hooks and cans of food, but especially with magazines! Fortunately I’d grabbed a few “women’s” magazines from the laundry room in NZ because most of ours are news/journalistic sorts with very few pictures. Too bad I didn’t grab more fishing, boating, cooking and fashion mags – note for next time!

News break….As I’ve been writing this, we’ve had three canoes of teenage boys hanging around the boat chatting with Jodie and the exciting message arrived that one of the boy’s father just speared a shark! All but one of the canoes took off to get ropes and help bring it to shore. Another canoe of boys have increased their efforts of shooting a boy and arrow system out at the water, the special arrows float upright in the water.

A highlight of the trip with the kids so far was the opportunity we got to visit the beautiful Maskelyne Islands. Willy, who turns out to be quite a character, arranged for us to meet him at 7:30AM outside the narrow reef passage of the lagoon for their village, so that he could guide us over the shallow (only 1.5meters under our keel!!??) pass. Our big yacht tried to follow their dug out canoe – it was quite a sight! We then went ashore to visit the four villages, meet the chief and watch a very special men’s cultural/sacred dance of the Nambas. The men are naked except palm wraps around their penis which are then secured up to a thin strap around their waist, plus they had some body paint! The local women are not allowed to watch this dance (for obvious reasons) – but I guess Jodie and I were exempted from such modesty – we tried to keep our focus on their faces. They were obviously having lots of fun, especially the drummer who sat and pounded out the rhythms on a hollowed out log while calling out the song.

Typical of John – he suggested that he and Scott join them. Fortunately both of them had their little Speedo suits on under their shorts, so Jodie and I, not to mention the local men, were spared the full Monty!?!? Needless to say, we have some terrific photos:)

The rest of the day was spent wandering the villages, visiting a local soap production and visiting a clam marine reserve started 20 years ago by one of the teachers, closing the day with our attending a potluck with the chief and his family.

They shared traditional foods with us and we shared a large pot of stir-fried beef, some chocolate cookies and lemonade.

Setting off early we motorsailed (light winds) to Ambrym Island with hopes of anchoring in a bay that would allow Jodie and Scott to try and climb up to the volcano. Unfortunately, even the light winds and swell that we had made the anchorage unsafe for the night, plus the mountain was venting alot and covered with clouds of smoke, so we went back across the water to anchor in Aulia Bay. The convergence zone of clouds and moisture have descended on us once again, so although we could see the massive clouds created by the belching mountain, we did not get to see the red glow at night.

Today we will probably just meander up the coast investigating some other bays. There is almost no wind, it’s very hot and humid and mostly overcast. Predictions are for the winds to shift south, which would be great since that’s better for our sailing AND brings drier air. It’s a real struggle to dry swim clothes, towels, etc and the mildew is creeping in on us. Because of the conservative culture, Jodie and I must swim in long shorts and shirts. Otherwise, we wear mid-length skirts.

John just got the outboard running again, up until now we’ve only been able to row the dingy around which is okay but very time consuming and limiting. He and Scott are off for a test run. Looks like we’re ready for day ahead.

06/18/2011 Malekula
(written: John)
We are in Vanuatu where there are villages of 100 people clinging to the waters edge in islands shared with three or more ACTIVE volcanoes. It is dark and the sky is half lit with stars and half with towering cumulo-nimbus of the thunder and lightning variety. It is baking hot as Jodie starts baking in out little 400sqft appt. We will be sweating when the meal is ready. Bugs of enormous variety haunt the video monitor as I type and surround every other dim light. The shoreline with the villages is dark as night. No power, no light, but lots of laughter from the kids and spontaneous singing. What a great way for the kids to play hide and seek and procreate in the bushes as they do. 14 year old unmarried mothers are supported by toothless grandparents who throw their head back and laugh while talking with the grandchild in their laps playing with a cell phone because although light has not arrived, cell phones have. I think it is a status symbol because it costs US$1 minute to call and I have never seen anyone talking or receiving a call on one.

We are all well , sunburned and looking forward to the cool morning (5:30 snunrise) so that we can get out of our sticky hot beds. Sleeping outside is better.

(written: Kristy)
We have Jodie and Scott on the boat right now and are currently motorsailing up the coast of Malekula in Vanuatu. We’ve had some interesting and fun encounters with the locals including a unique men’s cultural dance in the Maskelyne Islands, in which they are clad only with the vine wraps on their penis’ which are tied up to there waist. These five dances were given just for us in a private clearing. Apparently it’s forbidden for the local women to see this dance, but not so for Jodie and me!?!? Tough to focus on their faces, not their dangling jewels. Typical John, he suggested that he and Scott join the dance -argh!! Good thing they both had on their little Speedo briefs, thus sparring Jodie and I the full Monty!! Great picture moment:) Lots of rain and hot humid weather, I’m hoping for some nice breezes to come around from the south.

06/21/2011 Luganville/Aore Island
Jodie and Scott were off and racing this morning in the Santo-Aore Ocean Swim.

 

 

They both swam the Segond Channel between Luganville, Espirito Santo and Aore Island, a 2.6km swim starting off the beach in town, swimming over the reef, across the open water (80 meters deep) and ending at the beach for the Aore Resort. Each swimmer was accompanied by a canoe, which was a good thing as everyone became quite separated, some occasionally swimming off-course.

John and I supported both from our dingy with cheers and photos, keeping well clear of the swimmers.

The kids did great- Jodie was the fastest woman with a time of 51 mins

winning a carved trophy and a one-way ticket on Vanuatu Airlines between Espirito Santo and Port Vila! Scott was just thrilled to have finished since he’s never done an open water swim before and this was a pretty challenging swim complete with waves, currents and deep water. After a big post-race buffet lunch, we’re back resting on our boat as it floats around on a mooring at the resort.

Fortunately we made it back and put our shade cover up just in time to avoid the torrential downpour and winds outside – Jodie is teaching herself to play a song on the guitar that she’s picked up off my Ipod, Scott’s looking through our photo album, John’s reading…pretty chilled.

Jodie and John have booked a double dive to explore the USS President Coolidge wreck and a reef.  Scott and I will go hang-out at the resort pool, read and maybe even go into town on the inter-island ferry.

 

 

06/25/2011

The winds were howling last night so we had to take our Shadetree cover down at midnight – woke up this AM and it was pretty nice, even got pretty hot mid morning so we put it back up and just as we were finishing the winds struck followed by incredibly torrential rains that have continued for the last 4 hours! This is Jodie’s last day so she and Scott just decided to go snorkel anyway and are off swimming in the the waves and rain. After jumping in they said it was warmer in the water than out in the rain:)We plan to enjoy a nice dinner out at the resort tonight.

John is off trying to use the resort computer to download a computer virus program…Jodie downloaded some files for John while at an internet cafe onto a USB a few days ago for John, but when she went to load them in our boat computer, we got infected with a new and nasty virus!!? Argh…at least John is a good sleuth and will hopefully sort it all out for us.

VANUATU CRUISING & Boatyard w/ Scott

6/27/2011 (Scott, John, Kristy)
Palekula Bay, Espirito Santo
Alas, we have sailed onwards into the gales of 25-35kt winds, a fast sail about 10nm around the point. Scott was totally awed by the massive seas, not at all frightened and actually a bit in the way as he bounced around the cockpit exclaiming loudly at each new roller and breaking wave:) We’re once again anchored in what should be a beautiful spot with lots of old wrecked rusty boat littering the surrounding reefs. Espirito Santa, especially near Luganville is home to lots and lots of wrecks from WWII. Jodie and John dove on the USS President Coolidge and “Million Dollar Point”. I think John and Scott will enjoy lots of dingy exploration tomorrow. Hopefully the winds will calm a bit. It’s still about 20+ in here. Nice to have a good, strong boat and anchor!

It’s a beautiful sunny morning here and the winds are still blasting us at 25+kts, but from the SE so the air is nice and dry – a good morning for laundry after a good sleep by all with the natural fan that blew all night. Was tough to get your Dad to shut down his wind generator overnight, he was so-so-so thrilled with the voltage production in these winds, but it was the first thing switched on this morning – so we are once again producing natural power:)

06/29/2011 – Surunda Bay, Espirito Santo
We’re anchored ow in Surundu Bay which is supposed to have been the setting for Michener’s book from which the musical South Pacific (Bali Hi) was inspired from. Michener was stationed here during WWII. For now, the best property is a lovely private estate with large main house, pool and two lovely guest cottages, plus dock and catamaran and power boat – all marked No Trespass! We reinflated the kayak and I went exploring up a fresh water passage through the mangroves and found the infamous “blue hole” mentioned in the guide book. It was kind of fun exploring up the channel between the mangroves – you’d have liked it:) Now, we’ll keep saying, “oh Jodie would have liked this, or Jodie really would have been excited by this….and alway…I wish Jodie was here:)”

(written by Scott)
Mom is cooking a lovely Vanuatu beef stirfry now as our boat rests at Surundu Bay. We have all had a wonderful day, mostly sunny with no rain. We just arrived here today from Palikula Bay where we saw a large lionfish and a cow stingray. There were large wrecks all around, very rusty and often all the way onto the beaches just around where we were anchored.  There is a nice narrow spot cleared in a thick bunch of mangroves that we have used our inflatable kayak to go through that we found full of funky bugs, fish, and big crabs. Surundu Bay is the countries cattle ranch. It features a nice new rich estate with cattle at the shore. There are a lot of turles that we have enjoyed watching as they check us out. One turle made a whale-sounding breath right by our boat during happy hour. It is dark now, and we plan to watch the movie Clear and Present Danger starring Harrison Ford while we eat dinner.

06/30/2011
So, Raynad was social tonight!:) We’re in a different bay and I invited the couples from the other two boats over for happy hourish 4pm. One is an Aussie/Kiwi couple, the other couple is from the US and get this…from “oh, just a small town in Colorado- Gunnison”!! Amazing that last year I met a couple from Gunnison in Tonga, and now a couple from Gunnison in Vanuatu..this town is like only 2500 people max without any sizeable water, so go figure!?!? A nice evening all around. The Aussie/Kiwi couple however got Ciguatera from a Mango-Jack fish(sp??- the reef fish neuro-sickness) and have been really sick. They have been eating off of their fishing for years, including eating this type of fish, and no problems, but here they got hit hard. They are devastated since they won’t be able to eat ANY fish for several months and will be ultra-sensitive even after that.

07/03/2011
So, the drive shaft is officially seized and we are engineless. Not information that I’m going to share right away with anyone but you. We’re now looking into our options of repairs in Port Vila, but may likely need just stay where we are right now and then sail our way to Brisbane after my Mom and Scott leave. The facilities for pulling a boat the size and weight of ours out of the water, just aren’t available in the islands and Brisbane is only about 300 miles further than Fiji and much better equipped. It’s a real bummer and a real change for our future plans, but at least Australia keeps other new options open.

We had a lovely dinner out last night to celebrate our 29th anniversary. Scott stayed on the boat, ate noodles and watched the movie Ghandi which he really enjoyed. John and I went over to the LucaLuca Resort, a very new place built by a South African guy who’s lovely estate is on the bay we’re anchored in, and ate some of the terrific Vanuatu beef fillets (a nice portion of two fillets each) and shared two bottles of SA merlot:

07/06/2011 Sailing back to Port Vila for Repairs
We decided to take the opportunity to sail back out through the reef guarding Surundu Bay with our new friends standing by for support. Steve and Serena of s/v Westward were headed north to the lovely Oyster Bay area, so they too were leaving with the mid-morning sun and lowering tide. Quite the feat for us to lift anchor and navigate around coral heads and out a narrow passage between two reefs with just sails!?!? A bit of good fortune helped us squeeze just over/past a couple of big bommies (yikes) and the current helped us keep a good 2 kts through the reef. Now we’re fluctuating between 4-15kts of wind and speeds of 3.0-7.2kts of speed, with an average of about 4-5kts. Not as bad as was predicted by the grib files, so hopefully the winds will hold enough to keep us off the reefs as we make our way southward past Malekula, Ambryn and Epi to Port Vila. Had our speeds been better, we’d marked a possible anchorage on the NE side of Malekula, but as it’s going, we won’t get to Wala Island until about 6pm, so dark, we’ll probably need to tack offshore and continue on for the night.

Scott has been quite the explorer with the kayak, almost always just with the fading light of the evening. Last night he went way out and we were getting really concerned just when he turned around. Lots of turtles around, so that was fun. They are such funny things and they didn’t seem as frightened by the kayak after a day or two.

We’re tack, tack, tacking our way down between Pentecost and Malekula Islands, the winds have chosen to be on our nose, but at least pretty good so we’re making zigzag progress. Scott and I are on the first night watch, we’ll wake John to tack and then switch over. At this pace, our trip will probably take 2-3 days.

Ambrym News Flash!
Scott just gave me quite a scare when during our night watch he suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, Mom look, look, what’s that!?!” My first sighting was of something very bright red and fiery on the horizon. Fortunately, I remembered that we are only about 34nmiles north of the volcanic island of Ambryn and we’ve been fortunate enough to witness one of it’s eruptions! Very cool. It looks like a blazing setting sun from our viewpoint. Since the moon will disappear in about 2 hours, the view should be even more spectacular. We will eventually be within just a few miles of the island, during the night hours, so John too will hopefully get to enjoy the sight during his watch.

Just had to share the excitement:)

07/07/2011
Lots of zigzaggin all night long – definitely the slow way to make distance! At last we have a good angle, so keep your fingers crossed that it will last for awhile and maybe even all the way to Vila…too much to hope for probably. 6.8kts of speed now, so captain and crew are happy. Was lovely watching the bright red volcano spouting last night, now it’s just gray clouds.

I too am now looking forward to bobbing at anchor/mooring and getting an undisturbed night of sleep. We now have a pretty steady 12-16nts of wind just forward of the beam, so are making more direct progress toward Port Vila. The glow of the volcano was really cool, we could see it throughout most of the night since we were zigzagging about, until the sun came up and everything went back to gray smoke. Scott is taking a few short watches and is very good about it, but one of us is always up with him to manage the sail issues, etc. He’s the best critter spotter and totally comes to life when dolphins or birds come around the boat.

Arrived outside Mele Bay about 5am, winds have dropped so are still zigzag tacking our way into the bay and hoping to be able to line up and sail through the passage at the entrance to Port Vila. We really could use a little wind help, the tide is incoming until 11am and we need that current to assist us, otherwise we won’t be able to go into the port until tomorrow! Will keep you posted.

07/08/2010 – Port Vila, Efete Island
YES! We are happily anchored at last near the Q-dock in Port Vila:) It’s been a long journey without any use of the engine – lots of zig-zaggy tacking and light/fickle winds. I think our average over most of the trip was only 2-3kts of speed, however, we did get some strong winds and good directions for a few hours and we luxuriated in the ability to pick up Raynad’s skirts and fly!! Captain and Crew are quite proud of ourselves for managing the entire trip purely using our sails, even to navigate in, out and around the reefs. You can imagine our stress levels sometimes, but everyone put their best efforts into the project and now we can feel good about our impressive sailing skills:)

07/09/2011 Star of Russia
Raynad is swinging on a buoy beside the haul-out slip waiting for repair. The buoy is in a depth of 30m and is tied to the wreck of the Star of Russia which is a sailing ship converted to steam that plied the trade winds until its untimely death in 1914. One of the local dive trips is to the wreck and the divers descend the very line that we are tied to. So one wreck is tied to another, a happy conjunction.

The story goes that the Star of Russia was built in the same boat yard as the Titanic which also sank.

07/11/2011 Port Vila Boatyard

Well we got pulled today -yeah- an amazing thing to work on and watch!?!? John was at the stern, Scott at the bow, and I was in the skiff revving the engine at full speed pushing the boat around – and that was just to line it up for pulling onto the skates, then securing, then wrenching , then hauling up the ramp with a tractor! Took about 2 hours and I took lots of pictures after my job was finished and I was able to just beach the skiff:)  

So now we sit up 20+feet off the ground with a view out over the beach to the bay. Mind you it’s the industrial area so we view the container port and we have some trees brushing the back deck, but all in all not too bad and we have a bit of a breeze. The owner, Sue, has allowed me to put the freezer stuff in their ice freezer, so the steaks are safe. I have everyone on bug and cockroach patrol and the toxic substances are ready to fire – buggers – but I do not want an infestation and we do literally have the trees draped on the swim step, so it’s pretty easy access for all kinds of undesirable critters.

As soon as they’ve finished securing the cradle underneath us, a bit unnerving to be up high in the boat and feel it swaying underneath and being jerked around !?!? the guys will come aboard and we’ll definitely have a happy hour!

07/13/2011
(written by John)

Raynad is a Tall Ship today because it is out of the water in a yard in Vanuatu getting its bottom inspected. The shaft bearings were giving out so I spend a lot of time looking up narrow orifices under the boat. Kind of a colonoscopy for yachts. I feel qualified. We have to get this work done before Fran comes Tuesday since she is bringing shorts and straw hats and dreaming of sandy beaches whereas our vista now is the usual filthy boat yard with coated with a grimy mixture of mud and finely ground dust made of toxic soft black bottom paint that gets everywhere. We have a lot of cleaning to do. Its just like old times but way too hot to wear a boiler suit.

07/16/2011

Scott’s Birthday!!

Tough to celebrate in the boatyard.  Scott and I went diving in Havana Bay and visited a turtle reserve.  Scott really liked the turtles. Then out for a meal – of course Scott had to have Coconut Crab – great fun watching him crack his way through that monster! Finished it up with a traditional Vanuatu happy birthday song performed by all of the restaurant workers. Very fun day after all.

VANUATU CRUISING with Scott & Grandma (Fran)

07/22/2011 Mele Bay and Geckos!
Mom made it safely to Vanuatu on Tuesday – looking very much like the earth trotting grandma she dreams of being complete with straw hat and sunglasses:) Sorry for the slow correspondence, but she arrived in the midst of activity in the boatyard and logistics management to get the boat launched back into the water (an incredibly crazy nail-biting process,) cleaned up and re-provisioned. We secured a little apartment in town, so everyone enjoyed a couple of nights sleeping with air conditioning and fans after luxuriating under long showers. Not to waste time, as soon as food was put onboard and Mom secured happily into the cockpit…Raynad took off and raised the sails. A short trip, but a perfect inauguration for mom since the winds were about 8-15 knots, bay waters pretty calm and we only had about 5 miles to go, so we just tacked back and forth giving her a 2 hour, gentle sail arriving into the head of the bay and dropping anchor next to the Hideaway Resort.

Rescue story: Just as I dropped the anchor, what should also drop off of it but a small white gecko!! My exclamation snapped Scott to immediate attention and action. We thought the gecko had sunk and drowned, however, we had to lift and reset the anchor and when I brought it up, there was the gecko trying to swim for its life out toward the open sea! Scott sprung to action to try and net and save the gecko, but alas all was happening too fast and as the poor struggling creature started disappearing behind the boat, Scott dove overboard to the rescue:) We now have a tiny gecko living between two clear plastic cups, quite happy after eating the assorted bugs that Scott captured for it last night. It’s scheduled for release on land sometime today.

Coffee is on this morning. Torrential, convergence zone rains have been falling all night and this morning, so no water shortage here, nor ventilation for that matter. A rather hot and sticky night. We’re hoping the skies will clear later this morning so that we can take mom and Scott to shore and visit the Mele Cascades (a series of waterfalls and pools) and a cultural/garden center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, it’s pretty rocky-rolly where we are anchored, so we may just head back to town and more stability for Mom.

7/25/2011

Roadtrip- Efete Island Vanuatu w/ Fran & Scott

Yesterday we took off driving with plans to hit the hot pools up at the Beachcomber and then come back toward Vila and go to the waterfalls, however, as things go and small side roads start attracting attention from Dr. T, we ended up at a gorgeous resort restaurant in Havana bay.

Even more magical was the fact that they were setting up for a wedding on the beach point. It didn’t take us all long to decide that we wanted to linger in this lovely oasis, enjoy a lunch/dinner and take in the view.   The small wedding took place about 2:30pm, so we joined the small gathering of non-attendees who observed the ceremony down on the beach from the lovely lawn above. So, we now have another “honeymoon” spot to recommend:)

We still drove out to the hot pools to let Grandma have a good soak before coming back by the Havana Point for sunset.

All, in all, it was a lovely day with nearly perfect weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VANUATU CRUISING ONWARD -John & Kristy alone again….

August 13 – Avokh Island
It’s a mellow Sunday morning here in the bay neighboring where we anchored with both of you (Awai Island amongst the Maskelyne Islands,) it’s a very quaint, traditional and religious village stacked on the hillside of the tiny Avokh Island. We didn’t stay at the lovely Awai Island anchorage because there were already 4-5 boats in there and it seemed too crowded. Funny though as we passed John was looking through the binoculars and saw that one of those boats was that of our friends from Surunda Bay (remember Steve and Serena Scott, the Aussies we exchanged happy hours with who had gotten that fish poisoning-cequaterra(sp??) John called them on VHF16 and sure enough it was them!! We might dingy across soon and see if they are still there. That poisoning is pretty tough as Steve said they were just last night enjoying their first beers since getting sick. Apparently any alcohol consumption just made the symptoms worse. They still can’t eat fish. For such reasons,sadly I was not trying to fish more after coming closer in shore and didn’t have any fish to give the villagers who this time asked us if we had any since they had not been able to catch any and their village was getting ready for the big Sabbath Meeting. It was already sunset when we arrived, so I passed over some empty plastic bottles, got permission to stay, and the greeting canoes left. Just as it got dark the village bells tolled and what had been lots of laughter and village noises completely stopped. All lights went out and a total quietness settled over the bay. In respect of their apparent call for silence and darkness, we turned off our stern and anchor lights and went down below to eat an early dinner with dim lighting and then just go to bed. We were both pretty tired after getting up at 3-4am to set out.

August 15- Avokh, Sakao, Gaspard – Maskelyne Islands

Today has been a very busy day! Our last adventure of the day was to end up anchored next to a beach at Sakao Island, also in the Maskelyne Group and going ashore to meet three kids who were jumping around and absolutely ecstatic to see us actually drop anchor:) Seeing it was a small group and probably just a family vs a full village, I grabbed the plastic flutes that Jodie had bought in New Caledonia, and took them with me.   What a hit they were as they shyly at first tooted and then got more and more aggressive about playing them- laughing and dancing around the whole time. It was a girl, Emma, age 11 and her two brothers and a baby cousin. I showed them how to try and make different notes, with mixed success,   but they were keen to try. They all walked with us as we toured their charming homestead complete with some actual attempts at landscaping, a lovely beach and fabulous views out over the other islands.

I think that they are quite vulnerable to big storms though as some of the more permanent structures had been quite damaged over time, including an old boathouse complete with stone and steel ramp and motorcycle engine. We went across the wide channel in just the dingy for a couple of hours to try and find the Dugongs of Gaspard Bay and saw about 8 of them – mostly rolling up and diving down, but still very cool:) When we returned, your John decided to take the three kids dingy riding.

What a hoot that was – a bit scary when he let them drive and I’d watch the skiff rear-up and zoom away!!??!! Lots of squealing and laughter and big waves – I’m not sure who had more fun, the kids, or John:)

 

Last night, we were sitting drinking a cup of tea and trying to decide our future destinations when I looked out the window and saw a canoe approaching paddled by one guy in a red shirt. I went out to greet him and he had brought me the two pawpaws that I’d mentioned to another the day before that I might like to have. Turns out he is one of the chiefs, and he ended up coming aboard, talking for over 2 hrs, seeing the boat, drinking a beer, getting a solar light, 10meter rope and empty 1gal Chlorox bottle from us along with the promise that we would come ashore at 8:30am the next morning to see his kava plants, the school and walk through the village.

So, that’s what we did, complete with long sucking walks through marshes of mud..(broke my sandals)…but he was sincere and it was fun. He left us on our own in the village where the Presbyterian’s were having a church meeting of elders from the surrounding villages. The minister ended up having all of the people sing us three hymns. John really liked that and we even sang along in their language using hymn books.

We passed out candies to all of the children, John hi-fived all the teenage boys – much to their amusement, since I’m not sure they’d ever done that before. We’d planned to anchor overnight at the bay with the dugongs, but it was too windy with lots of shallows, etc., so that’s why after leaving Avokh Island where we’d been for two nights, ended up coming back to the anchorage across at Sakao Island.

Tomorrow we’ll set sail around the corner for Sandwich Bay and the Island Night Festival Aug 16-17.

14 August 2011 – Sakao Island continues
So, next incident in the calamity of cruising for Raynad this season, we got our anchor chain completely stuck yesterday – it was super nasty and after about 1+hrs of really working it, we could only bring up 10m out of 60m of chain and the poor winch was really taking a beating..the grinding sounds were horrific from the chain. We figured that it was wrapped around some big coral thing, or even a wreck down below us. Since we were in 25m of water, we couldn’t see what was going on by snorkeling, so I called out on the VHF16 for anyone in the vicinity with scuba gear. Interestingly, a couple in a bright yellow catamaran called Citrus Tart,came by about 2 hrs later saying that they were “avid snorkelers” and would give it a try. The guy pulled himself down the anchor chain, but due to ear problems couldn’t get more that about 15m down, so wasn’t able to see anything. Super nice couple though. I called out on VHF16 again and this time a boat called Delos came back and said they had scuba and were on their way to south Malekula from Ambrym and would come help. Being John, your dad continued to fiddle with the chain/anchor and since we were in a super eddied/tidal area, the boat was being moved around alot by the tides and powers of the water around us….so long story short at about 3:30pm the chain and anchor came up!! What a thrilling moment of relief. The unfortunate side was that Michelle and Steve from Citrus Tart were coming over for happy hour at 4:30pm and we’d really been looking forward to chatting with them (they just came from some of the areas were are heading to and were super friendly – she looked a bit like a triathlete) but once the anchor was up, we could hardly drop it back down for the night. We’d be idiots to get stuck twice?!?! So, onwards we went the 10nm to Sandwich Bay arriving and dropping anchor (in mud- no bommies) at about 6pm. In debriefing the incident this morning, we both agree that scuba gear is a priority for the future whenever it becomes possible to buy AND it’s still a real puzzle just exactly what was down there holding our chain. Once it started to come up, it just came straight up with lots of crunching and terrific noise, but up it came and off we went!

PORT SANDWICH CULTURAL FESTIVAL, Aug 16-17

Yesterday was the first day of the cultural festival here in Port Sandwich, Malekula. They opened with a traditional men’s “culture dance” like the one we saw with the kids in the Maskelyne Islands – the small nambas – where the men were clad only in banana wraps on their penis’ which were then strung up by a vine around their waist, rooster tail feathers in a headband (this was new), greasy/mud body painting, and rattling seedpods around their ankles.   Two men beat the tam-tams and lead the singing which was mostly composed of songs for battle. After this we were just free to wander, but there is a Peace Corps volunteer here who has been teaching English, she’s also the one responsible for starting this whole idea of a festival, and she’d brought her students over with instructions for them to “interview” us. I ended up spending the time with a young woman, age 18, called Aleka who is already a mother of an 18month old, but is taking courses in computers, home/domestic skills and English. She was delightful and ended up showing us their gardens out the road and taking us to her home to meet her mother.  The community fed us a lunch of traditional foods which were eaten off of mile-a-minute plant leaves! In the afternoon, the women did some traditional dances for us in their grass/mat skirts, no tops and shell necklaces – the old lady who was calling the song and beating the drum was quite a character:) The women then gave us a demonstration of how they prepared a couple of traditional foods and it was really interesting to watch how they split coconuts, scrapped them, peeled and grated tubers, sliced and mushed green bananas, all using only bamboo knives, shells and other basic utensils.   One was a combination of coconut creamed & mixed with green bananas and stuffed into a hollow section of bamboo stopped at each end with banana leaves. The other was a mixture of grated/mushed taro and coconut placed between sheets of “island cabbage” and cooked in a banana leaf pack on the open fire. They also roasted scrapped taro over the fire. Although the tastes were very mild, it was all good, my favorite unexpectedly being the simple roasted taro.  After a break, we came back to shore for an evening of string band music, kava and beer. I brought back to Aleka some prints of the pictures we’d taken of her and her mother and a Cosmopolitan magazine! They were a total hit with lots of giggling from Aleka and her cousins- her mother insisted on giving us some mandarins, a cucumber and a handful of peppers. The string band produced amazingly good music considering that the guitars all had only 3 strings, were taped together and the bass was the old soapbox and single string sort.  The bass player was actually the most impressive of the group – he and the goofy descant singer. All-in-all a fun and interesting day.

 

Today we’ll open with a Circumcision Ceremony!!

 

 

 

Since they had one of the yachties kill the pig for yesterday’s ceremony, I wonder if they’ll be looking for volunteers for today’s??!!?!

 

 

 

 

 

5/30/2011 Iles Des Pins

We had a fabulously sunny day yesterday and at last totally enjoyed exploring an island paradise. We sailed through the perilous reef next to our first bay to a small island totally surrounded by untouched beautiful white sand and nearly totally surrounded by reef. Six raptor birds were very irritated at our arrival and flew threateningly close to us when we first landed the dingy, until we managed to figure out which way to walk and avoid their wrath.
We also came upon two separate white and black ringed sea snakes that were making their way up the beach – never thought about sea snakes being on land before. Although we weren’t certain at the time, these snakes are pretty harmless. They have a super lethal toxin, but because their mouths are so small only two people have been bitten, so you would have been safe getting very close to them. It was a fabulous day of exploring.

Today Jodie and I hitch hiked to a cultural fair which was very interesting and we even ate the local snails “escargot”- delicious!!

06/05/2011
We had a wonderful morning snorkeling among the reefs in clear water under mostly blue skies. We saw lots of colorful corals and fish. Both Jodie and John were up at the crack of dawn to enjoy the early morning. Jodie tried to do her meditations on the fore-deck, but was continually distracted by jumping fish and even dolphins.

Setting out about noon from Ile Mato, we made it into Port Moselle just as the sun was setting. Now we’ve all eaten a chicken curry supper, snacked on chocolate brownies, had long hot showers and are enjoying the solid setting of the harbor for a night.  We’ll get fresh provisions and set sail on the 325nm passage to Vanuatu.

OUVEA- LOYALTY ISLANDS

We are in an atoll in the Loyalty Islands with unbroken horizons of white sand but bucking around at anchor holding tenaciously to the sandy bottom until a weather system moves through and we get a chance to do the vacation bit for Jodie. Even putting the motor on the dinghy requires such athleticism that we have postponed it for a while, focusing on indoor routines instead. That means Jodie doing Yoga on the forward deck and Pilates on the salon workout mat (push-ups right now) so Kris and I step over Jodie while transiting from book reading to kitchen duties. We had thunder and lightening last night with clouds down to the deck in pitch black. The moon does not rise till 3am so it was quite spectacular. When the weather system moves off we will be in paradise with turquoise water, white sand and protected from the trade winds by the reef so we will do some snorkeling. We are in the Tropical Convergence Zone so these Son et Lumieres are par for the course.

Well we aren’t quite in paradise yet, although there is a hotel that goes by that name on this island. The weather has been quite unexpected and not what we’d all dreamed of. Ouvea is a lovely atoll with a very long white sandy beach and large lagoon, which could be quite beautiful if the winds and rain would give us a break! We’ve had a couple of small openings in the clouds and for a brief time yesterday afternoon, the winds slowed, but overall it’s been very rocky, rolly and not conducive to enjoying “paradise.” We’ll probably end up sailing back toward Lifou, or maybe even the main island?? We went into “town” yesterday, which is interesting because it’s really just one long stretch of random houses and building, no real town center, just a bunch of villages strung together.

The one grocery store opened at 3pm yesterday, so we bought some stale baguettes and a couple of sodas – it was really different because everyone was waiting outside for he store to open and then once it did it was just a counter with all of the stuff back behind it and people had to line up to ask for what they wanted. Just getting to the beach is a bit of an adventure with the ocean swell and waves – we got a bit swamped before we could all scramble out of the dingy and quickly pull it up the beach. Then to return, we had to launch it out into the swell and jump in and start paddling quickly before the waves swamped us back onto the beach. Not a very dry experience. Jodie and I decided to swim back to the boat last night, which proved to be quite arduous as we ended up doing breaststroke over the rollers. John slowly rowed the dingy back beside us. At least it was exercise off the boat!

5/28/2011
Lifou in the Loyalty Islands

At last, we had a gorgeous day yesterday beginning with a clear blue sky and early morning coffee in the cockpit as we looked out over the turquoise lagoon of Ouvea that’s rimmed with a stunning white sand beach. Since the winds were still blowing a bit, we decided to set sail for Lifou, about 53 nautical miles away. We watched a large manta ray which was fantastic and also saw several eagle rays as we traveled across the lagoon. We are now bobbing at our anchor in a lovely cove with the clearest waters I’ve ever seen. We can see all the way to the bottom 7 meters under our boat and look over the vast fields of coral teeming with little fish.   Up on a cliff and out on the point sits the lovely Chappelle Notre Dame de Lourdes, a white sided and red roofed catholic chapel. It’s still a bit too windy to go snorkeling, but that’s on the itinerary as soon as the waters calm a bit.    Our plans are to sail around the north end of the island tomorrow into the main town of We, where we are hoping to rent a car and drive around the island and also find an internet cafe, etc before we travel further down the coast to what promises to be a the most beautiful beach in Lifou, called Luengoni beach. We’ll probably set sail back toward the mainland around June 1st, perhaps stopping for a few nights in the Iles des Pins. We must go back and clear out with customs and immigration in Noumea before traveling to Vanuatu.

5/30/2011
After a lovely calm morning looking over the side of the boat and watching sea snakes, squid and other fish swimming by while drinking our morning coffee, we set out in the dingy to go snorkeling and it was wonderful! We saw two turtles, a white tip reef shark and lots and lots of beautiful fish and very healthy colorful coral:)

Now we’ve lifted anchor and are motorsailing across the bay and away from Lifou toward the Havannah Passe and probably on down toward the Ile Des Pins. Depends a bit on the winds, etc. It’s a fairly calm day, but we’re hoping to have enough winds to at least sail part of the way and save on diesel. It’s a little over 100nm, so will take us 16-20 hours. We’re still in the convergence zone so have had several rain squalls and a very impressive lightening and thunder storm last night. For now the sky is broken clouds, not too hot or cold, nor raining…so life is good.

I’m on the night watch as we make our way back across the waters from the Loyalty Islands to Ile Des Pins. We got much more wind than expected, so are arriving too early for a safe passage through the reef, so we’ve slowed up. Lots of traffic around New Caledonia. We just had two different very large freighters pass by. At least we have AIS now, so we get some warnings and positions on our MaxSea navigation software. Very, very helpful.

View a New Caledonia Photo Gallery and then READ BELOW for our journal and more photos!

PASSAGE-MAKING JOURNAL: New Zealand to New Caledonia (John, Kristy & Jodie)

5/7/2011- The good ship Raynad is on its way north out of New Zealand. Terrible weather the past two days- 30-40 kt winds on the nose with 3-4 meter seas-ugh! Today is much calmer, but the wind is still persistently on the nose and we’re all getting tired of needing to use the engine so much. Hoping to hit northeast winds after rounding Cape Reinga.

5/10/2011 -At last the winds have arrived and we are now screaming along with full sails, good seas, and only 632nm to go!! Should hopefully arrive in Noumea Saturday if we can keep up these speeds. Everyone is getting their sealegs. It’s great to have Jodie on board to help with the watches. Makes a big difference in the amount of sleep that we get. A bit of carnage on the boat this morning…we now have a small squid on deck and a few small fish!

5/11/2011- We are at last sailing again after what turned out to be a nasty storm. It’s good to be back on track and even enjoying some sunshine. The temperatures are getting warmer the further north we go. Probably won’t be to New Caledonia until Sat/Sunday.

5/13/2011- I’m doing the 11pm-3am lookout shift on the boat and am having a hard time staying awake. We are becalmed by almost no wind and pretty flat seas. In an attempt to save some diesel, we decided to just bob around for a bit until the wind picks up.  Here we sit rolling back and forth in the middle of the vast ocean. Every 5 mins or so I go out on the deck and look for any ship traffic. It’s  a half moon and when the clouds break, it’s very pretty to see the moon rays reflecting on the black water. This has been a sailing trip of extremes. First we had very strong headwinds which we had to motor up through, then we had some good sailing winds, but these kept building until they reached storm proportions and so we hove-to for 12+ hours to let the storm pass through and the waters settle a bit, the ocean swell and waves were pretty amazing. Now we have no wind. What was supposed to be about a 7 day trip is turning into 11-12 days. Poor Jodie, I don’t think that she’d planned to spend so much of her vacation time with us making such slow progress toward New Caledonia. We are ALL really looking forward to arriving in NC.

5/15/2011 – We are at last getting the winds in the right direction and are clipping off the miles at great speed! Captain John is ecstatic. We’re hoping now to make it into Noumea by tomorrow afternoon. It’s definitely warmer now and all of us are in short sleeve shirts, shorts/capris, and barefoot:) Woolies are put away and sunscreen brought out.

5/17/2011 – Jodie, John and I arrived safely into Noumea, New Caledonia yesterday afternoon. We were so relieved to at last be motionless and to get a full night of sleep without interruptions requiring us to get out on deck for our watch! Just in time too, because the weather was turning yesterday into rainy squalls and higher winds. Although our enjoyment of the area is somewhat curtailed because of the weather, Jodie and I did go to the open market to buy some fresh fish and produce, and John is out exploring the chandlers and other hardware shops. I’m sure he’ll come back soaking wet, but happy to have been out on his own for a bit. Jodie and I are heading up to the internet cafe as soon as we get a break in the rain. We’re planning to stay in Noumea for 3-4 days, maybe even rent a car and explore a bit by road, and then we will set out to sail  some of the the lovely bays and outer islands.

5/23/2011 – We left the main island of New Caledonia this morning and are now sailing to the Loyalty Islands: Ouvea and Lufeu. If the weather cooperates, we’re hoping to enjoy some lovely sun drenched, white sand beaches on these atolls and clear snorkeling in the lagoons. So far we’ve had lots of rain and some pretty high winds. We’re hoping the weather calms down so we can enjoy the islands. We have to go back to Noumea before sailing to Vanuatu.

Noumea to Vanuatu Passage

06/07/2011
We set off from Noumea after filling up with duty free diesel and provisioning with EXTRA baguettes for Captain John:) Don’t know where he puts them all, but he’s been averaging two baguettes per day when they’re available!! Jodie helps out a bit with her Vegemite on top, but they are free of any competition from me…baguettes do not tempt me at all. However, Jodie talked me into buying another quart of coconut ice cream, so I’ll fuel my passage with bites of that:)

There is a lovely sunset over John’s shoulder, Jodie is laying on the settee reading “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, I’m doing my usual computer fussing, navigating, etc…. the skies are clearing, so could be a lovely night on the water.

06/08/2011 Ile Tiga
We had the most delightful surprise visit to Ile Tiga, a very small speck of an island in the Loyalty group. It literally rises up out of the depths and is ringed by a very precarious reef, however, we’d read about one passage area and one small spot to anchor in 10meters with a sand bottom, plus various surrounding coral heads! Since the charts gave almost no information, it was approached totally by sight with me on the bow, Jodie on the top of the hard dodger with binoculars and Captain John steering. The waters surrounding the island were incredibly clear and we enjoyed snorkeling amongst the massive coral heads and reef accentuated against the blindingly white sands, where we saw schools of huge fish and even a couple of reef sharks:) The surprise was our excursion into the village of about 100 people. Using our combined,yet still pathetic French, we tried to find the Chief so we could ask permission to be anchored and explore. He was out so the casual “guide” we’d inquired directions from ended up taking us to meet the priest! When John asked about their water supply he immediately assumed we were thirsty and hungry, so he invited us to sit at his table, drink some mint flavored water, eat mandarins and then he insisted on giving us four large papayas from his trees and a couple of fat taro roots. We reciprocated with some Cadbury chocolate bars and chewy mints. Our guide and his dog escorted us back to the dingy, we half wondered if he was hoping for a ride to Noumea since that’s where they thought we were headed since we seemed to mis-communicate so much!

Now we have lifted anchor and hoisted the sails in the setting sun to continue our passage-making toward Port Vila, Vanuatu, which we expect to take about 36 hours. With our fresh provisions, we’ll eat well and stay healthy.