SUWARROW

We took the weather window to go to Suwarrow (500 miles), forecast was 10 knots, picking up on the last day.  This is not really what we look for as we generally don’t think of ourselves moving in 10 knots, but we had enough diesel, so off we went with Somerset, Pacific Flyer and Monkey Fist. 

We drive/motor sail the first day, charging the batteries and making water.  Then the next day we put up the gennicker and with 10-12 knot and flat seas we made good speed, we averaged almost 6 knots.   We took the gennicker down at night and flew the full main the first night, then a reefed main the next night.  This too worked well.   Still once Pacific Flyer caught the wind she was gone, or as Paul on Monkey Fist said “now you know why she is called Pacific Flyer”!  The last day the wind did pick up and the seas came from 3 directions and it was sloppy, so we were glad to get in.

The flat seas made not only for a good passage, but good fishing.  Or maybe the good fishing made for a good passage.  “Fish on”!  The rod holder breaks, so it must be a biggie!  Cheryl is working the rod and reel, I am handing the line in two feet at a time.  We bring it in 50 feet, let it run.  Bring it in 50 feet, let it run.  Then bring in the fish.  I hold it by the leader, out of the water, while Cheryl gets the gaff.  A swing and a miss.  A swing and Interlude.  A swing and a hit.  We get the fish on board, a 48 inch (yes, 4 foot) Wahoo!  WAHOO!! is shouted many times over the next couple of days!

WAHOOOOOOOO......

Suwarrow is a marine park, part of the Northern Cook Islands.  They have 2 rangers on an atoll, who among other things do your paper work and collect the fees.  The atoll has fresh water and someone has donated the shell of a life raft so you can do laundry, one half for washing and one half for rinsing!  The agitator is your feet, so you do the laundry dance, which is cha-cha-cha-swish, cha-cha-cha-dip!  The line was in the sun and wind, so the sheets were dry in an hour!

Clean sheets Yeah!

The bad weather we came in on stayed for our whole time there.  So we spent much of our time on the boat.  Each night was either drinks on shore or a pot luck if you wanted.  Oh my God, someone brought a salad, greens, fresh stuff!  After 2 months when you see a salad elbows came out and forks dig in, a riot broke out in the pot luck line!

When the wind finally dropped below 20 knots (to say, 19) we went for a snorkel.  The visibility was great, despite the wind.  Lots of corals and lots of fish.  So the next day we went to the manta cleaning station.  We spent about an hour and a half with the mantas, just amazing.  There were three in total, the one kept coming back.  They did not mind us being there, watching the cleaning and the dance was priceless.

 

Cheryl dancing with the Manta

 

You meet some very gifted people on boats.  We crossed the Pacific with a boat called Full Monte, in fact they were one of the ones we saw and spoke to on VHF during the crossing.  The daughter, Jessica, age 13, is a poet.  She had written a poem about the crossing the Pacific and we had a long awaited date for her to read it to us and for us to have cookies.  Her poem was amazing; she really captured the feeling of crossing the pacific.  And the brownies were great too.

Three boats presented:  Movie night under the stars.  Somerset with its screen and projector, Monkey Fist with its amplifier and Interlude with her generator showed Master and Commander on anchorage island in Suwarrow.

We have been travelling with Somerset for a while and Sunday was Jim’s birthday and our last evening together.  So dinner was on Interlude with all of Jim’s favourites.  Cheryl made bacon wrapped water chestnuts as an appetizer.  Carol brought a bottle of Moet Chandon!  Dinner was stuffed lamb with massive amounts of potatoes (for Jim and Cheryl) and roasted vegetables.  Desert was Blueberry Crumble.  It was a great way to celebrate Jim’s birthday and the time we had spent together.

The weather window for our trip to Somoa, 507 nautical miles was 20 knots for the first few days, then to diminish to 15 knots.  Lets see.  We had squalls the first night, sustained 35, so we had only a kerchief up and still averaged in the high fives, in fact did 10.5 knots at one point.  Basically the wind speed for the passage was 25-30, plus squalls.  At times on the passage we did have the whole head sail up, but really not that long.  And the seas, confused, which is not fun.  (Our friends who left at the same time going south to Tonga had it way worse, because of their angles to the waves, more wind, squalls for longer and the passage was longer!)

We arrive on Friday morning, we thought.  It seems that the date line has been moved!  And it is Saturday in Somoa.  No one works on the weekend so we stay on anchor on the boat as we have not cleared:  Health, Immigration, Customs or Quarantine!

 

 

WOW and DOULBE WOW

We started French Polynesia with a WOW as we arrived in Fata Hiva after our Pacific crossing to a truly amazing site with towering pinnacles and lush green landscapes.  Then we finished French Polynesia  with 2 breathtaking atolls.  The first atoll was Maupiti, just 30 miles from Bora Bora.  It has a reputation of having a rather challenging entrance.  As we are coming in we see Somerset in their dinghy, having finished a snorkel, waving and welcoming us in, the pass was calm and the anticipated 3 knot outgoing current was not there, but still Karen had to add a little extra throttle to get us in.  As we entered we saw a stunning cliff ahead and on both sides we had beautiful aqua marine water letting us know we were going to have a sandy bottom to anchor in.

The next day we went with Somerset to play with the giant mantas.  The mantas hang out at this coral area where the tiny cleaner fish come out and do their job, sort of like a manta swim through car wash.

 














We head back to the boat and since we were wet we thought why not do a little cleaning of Interlude, so Karen and I started to clean the sides and a call came out that there are humpback whales just outside the pass.  Okay it was a hard decision …clean the boat or go swim with whales….yup the whales won.  Somerset, Carol and Jim, in their dingy called “Clyde”, a very appropriate name as Clyde is a much bigger dingy then Trouble, picked us up and off we went with 2 other dingies.  We saw a spout, then another and off we rush to the spot where they were, we jump in but we missed them, then we see a tail off in the distance and off we race, missed again, then right in front of our friends dingy on Saliander a whale leaps up and does a spiral, amazing.  We chased around for 3 hours watching these magnificent creatures entertain us. 

Finally with a flap of it’s huge tail the whales were off out to sea.  Thank you guys.  We figured there were 3 separate groups of whales and sometimes you could hear them talking. 

Sunrise in Maupihaa 

WOW WOW my friend from home gave me this book “50 places to sail before you die” and Maupihaa (or Mopelia) was on the list so off we went.  (Thank you Michelle!)  Maupihaa has a reputation as a very difficult pass to get into the lagoon.  In fact in the book it states the guy who wrote about Maupihaa had been there 4 times and only been able to get through the pass once.  We left Maupiti for the 100 mile passage to Maupihaa and the seas were calm so we ended up motoring most of the way so when we arrived at the pass the pass was easy, but it was still a little scary as it is only 65 feet wide with a sharp coral wall on either side no room to change your minded as there is a current.   Our first anchorage is in the north part of the atoll where we try to pick a spot that we think has the least amount of coral heads for us to get caught on, or not get caught on. We are still gun shy around coral heads as that is how we damaged our bow.  But after finding the perfect spot and the anchor is firmly planted in sand we look up and see a beautiful white sand beach, beautiful blues and turquoise coloured water around you and palm trees.  Pretty hard to take! Oh yeah and a few black tip sharks there to welcome you.

The next day is another calm day and off we go with Jim and Carol on Somerset for a snorkel through the pass.  Can you saw shark, okay lots of sharks and some of the biggest fish we have ever seen and they are all so different and beautiful.  We went ashore and met one of the families and they gave us a fresh coconut and showed us around their home and copra operation.  Copra is the process of taking coconuts that have fallen off the trees, removing the white meat and letting it dry in the sun and then it is shipped every 8 months to Tahiti where it is eventually makes it’s way into perfumes and skin products. Okay just some facts about the area: there are 13 people here spread out along the shore most of them women and the used to do pearl farming but now mostly they do copra.

 

The wind picked up and from the wrong direction so this time we moved right away and went to the other end of the atoll and once again picked our perfect spot to anchor between coral heads.   One of the boats Monkey Fists had befriended one of the local women at this end of the atoll and she invited us all to have a pot luck at her place the next night, but first we needed to help her go and hunt for some lobster and crab.  So off all 6 boats went lobstering in the dark with just a flash light and a bucket.  Okay Hena and Kevin, the 2 locals where successful, us, not so much.  The Lobsters didn’t have to worry about us finding them that night.  The next night was the feast and what a feast, fresh lobster, coconut crab, lamb, pork, scallop potatoes, salad, fresh bread and so much more.  Paul on Monkey Fist and Gavin on Pacific Flyer started playing the guitar and harmonica, soon Hena and Kevin provided the beat on an old plastic barrel and with spoons.  We all sang along or tried and we even got Hena and Kevin to sing their native songs.  What a great evening.

The Feast with Kevin and Hena

 

So what do you do on an atoll for 2.5 weeks.  Pot lucks, Birthday parties on the beach, sing and play music, snorkel and dive, do bonfires on the beach and watch beautiful sunsets. 

One day Saliander (Pete and Rae) invited all of us for an excursion for the day.  They have 55 ft mono hull.  First on the agenda was a dive of the pass, in a word WOW.  Rays, huge fish, with an occasional shark, just for fun.  We sure have to get use to the amount of sharks.  Hena and Kevin our new local fiends came with us and they caught a dozen fish spearfishing, so lunch on Saliander was fresh fish and buns.  (When Hena or Kevin caught a fish, they immediately held it above the water and slapped the water to keep the sharks away.  It seems to work, but we are not sure that we want to try that!)  Then off we went on Saliander out the pass to go fishing and whale watching.  With 4 lines out we finally got a hit on 2 of the lines but after a minute or 2 we lost them along with the lures.  Oh well, the fish get to live another day.  Then we spot a whale, no it’s 3 whales, they play and flap their tails for us and give us a show. Mother Nature is so cool.  After a wonderful day we return through the pass and back to our boats to watch another sunset in paradise.

 

One day we took the dinghy’s to bird island were we saw birds at every stage:  eggs, chicks, featherless and downy, and parents dive bombing us.  There were shore birds, bobbies, terns and…?  (We need to learn more about birds!)  We walked the lava rock around the island finding many marine creatures.  A truly educational day.

Who needs a movie theater when we have Somerset!  Jim and Carol invited the gang to their boat for a movie night complete with pizza and popcorn.  With a big screen made out of sunbrella fabric and surround sound we all sat back on Somerset’s bench seat, 12 of us, yup it is a catamaran and enjoyed watching the Life of Pi. 

For exercise, other than lifting a fork to eat, we played Bocce on the beach and we spent 2 days as copra farmers.  Yup the gang went and helped Hena for a half of day gathering coconuts that have fallen in the bush about 400 of them, cracking them open with an axe then removing the meat with a special copra knife, then the  hauling them to her place to be washed with sea water and placed on a drying rack.  It was not easy but it was fun and we all had fun trying and concluded that this was hard work. 

Yup Karen hard at work with Paul from Monkey Fist

A couple of days later Hena asked if we would collect coconuts for the cooperative (which is all 13 of the people on the atoll), so of we foraging for a couple of hours where we probably gathered 3000 coconuts.  We even got a few other boats to join us.  We had a goodbye party with Hena and off we went to anchor by the pass and get ready to leave this beautiful place as it seemed that there was a weather wind forming to allow us to move on.  We had another excursion outside the pass, this time on Somerset.  First we  went for a snorkel/dive of the pass, (we opted to snorkel so that we didn’t get our equipment wet before a passage)  the current at the pass this time was really moving so it was a 5 minute snorkel or dive!  After the snorkel Carol and Jim took Somerset out the pass where we traverse the shore line, of course our fishing lines were out, but no luck on the fishing front.  But we did get to see 2 turtles mating at sea and 3 whales putting on a specular show of tail slapping.  A final bonfire and pot luck on the beach and another beautiful sunset to say goodbye to a magnificent place.  The next day 4 of the boats prepared to leave for Suwarrow.  As one boat said, it takes three things to make a place:  the place including its people, the people you are there with and the weather.  Maupihaa had all three.  Thank you Maupihaa, you really were a WOW WOW! 

Interlude in Paradise

 

 

Tahiti, Moorea to Bora Bora

We tied up at the town quay, safe and sound!  Now we have to go about fixing Interlude.  It ended up that there was only 1 facility that could do our work, at least in our timeline.  The yard, Technimarine has a great reputation, so we were happy.  So now we have a plan and we are in Tahiti after all. 

They have an annual festival called Heiva:  we went to a night of the dance and chanting competition,  to a sports day, with activities such as javeline throwing, coconut husking and rock lifting! 

40 kg No Problem right?

 


Just aim for the coconut on a pole 100 feet away?

 

Even cruisers tried the traditional dancing

We took two days to tour the island, which was nice.  Most of the time you are at water level, pretty, but not spectacular, the highlights would be the waterfalls, view from Belvedere and for Cheryl the size of the fiddleheads!   We spent a day doing a walking tour to Papeete, which was a good deal of fun. 

Other than that we have been walking the town, going from hardware store to hardware store, chandlery to chandlery.  And eating some amazing food.  Somerset found an awesome restaurant that we have greatly enjoyed.  They have Roulettes, which is a chip truck on steroids, and they have a great range of food.  Cheryl came up with the best meal so far, a crepe with potato, sour cream and bacon!

We have been on the town quai three times now.  The location is great, right in the heart of Papeete.  As always life is interesting, we took out our below deck showers many years ago as it brings in too much humidity to the boat.  This really is normal for most warm weather boats and then you shower on the stern or in our case on the side of the boat.  Most people shower, in privacy, behind closed doors.  We shower on our deck, which is fine in an anchorage, but now we are in downtown Papeete, beside the boardwalk, showering in our cockpit!

We also spent time on a mooring ball at Taina marina.  You have an amazing view of Morea every morning and evening!  And great provisioning right around the corner, as there is a large Carrefour in walking distance.

We were hauled on Tuesday, with a scheduled splash time of Friday.  As is usually the case thing don’t always go quite according to plan.  They are putting the new anchor sprit on on Friday when they realize that they had not finished the bottom side.  So we were there for the weekend, as they don’t work on weekends!  On the Monday they have the anchor sprit ready and put on!  Now you have to reattach the forestay and it is blowing 30 knots!  There is such a curve in the forestay, due to the wind, so that there is no way of attaching it.  So they move us so we are facing down wind and it was much easier.  At 4pm they put in the 5200, which then needs to dry before we can test the windlass for alignment.  So we stay in the sling overnight and are launched by 7:15 the next morning!  This was the first time we were on the hard in winter, a much nicer experience than the heat you get in the summer.  And the view left little to be desired!

We head off to the town quai, again, to clean the boat as a yard is never a clean place and the water is a fixed charge.  Then onto a mooring at Taina Marina. 

As Karen was trying to wire the deck level running lights she noticed that a weld was missing on our new anchor sprit!  She takes pictures and sends off an email.  On Monday she calls the yard owner, no problem, will take an hour to fix.  So we let go of the mooring and head the 10 miles to the haul out.  They put us in the big boat haul out, put a barge in front of us as a work platform and do the weld, in just over 4 hours!!

We go back to the mooring at Taina Marina, to enjoy our view again.  Then back to the town quai as we have someone who is going to look at our SSB.  We can transmit 100 miles, or 1000 miles, but not inbetween!   So they fix a few connections and now we can only tune on the 2, 4 and 6 meg frequencies!!  We decide to move the tuner, that part of our installation is the problem, so half a day of part shopping and half a day to reinstall the tuner and now we cannot tune at all!!  The joys of boating!

On Monday the SSB guy returns, concluded that our fixing was OK, but our tuner is dying.  Yeah, we have a plan!

Tuesday we finish with water and move to Morea.  We go to Opunohu Bay, which has an extraordinary view.  We go snorkelling with the stingrays and black tip sharks, have dinner and head out for Bora Bora, an overnight passage.

We pick up a mooring ball in Bora Bora at the Mai Kai marina, which is really a restaurant with mooring balls.  Food at the restaurant is great, we have dinner there twice and lunch once!  We bike around the island, some 30 add kilometers.  Can you say bike butt?!  Some amazing views, but not the traditional Bora Bora views as the wind is too high and the coral of the water is very different.

We did do two dives in Bora Bora.  One just outside the path, while the coral was dead (thanks to a hurricane several years ago) the fish life were plentiful and varied, not to mention the large lemon shark!  Lionfish!!  Where is my spear?   But they are not a plague here (and not large enough to eat!)  The second dive was with the giant mantas, a worthwhile experience.

We walk the town, look at pearls and ready ourselves for the next passage.

Just a bit of math.  We did 1000 nautical miles from Panama to Galapagos.  Then 3000 nm to the Marquesas.  So we should be done, right?  Marquesas to Tuomotos is another 500, Tuomotos to Society Islands is another 300.  Now we have to go 700 from Bora Bora to Suwarrow, then 500 to Somoa and another 700 from Somoa to Fiji.  Added quickly, we have another 1900nm to go this season.

Tuamotos to Tahiti

Crossing the Pacific really changes your attitude toward distance.  (This is good as we still have a long way to go this season!)  From Nuka Hiva to Kauehi in the Tuamotos is just over 500 miles.  We left with as much prep as we normally would have for a day’s sail.  Which could also be that we never ‘unpacked’ the boat as the anchorages were rolly.

While we caught several very yummy fish crossing the Pacific, the Big One had eluded us.  As we approached Kauehi we had the line in and managed to catch a 24 pound skip jack tuna!  We did it all right this time.  Karen had the reel and Cheryl was ‘handing’ in the line.  We brought the fish in 50 feet or so, then let it out, brought it in, then let it out and only brought it in on the third try.  (Yes we finally heeded the fishing advice we had been given!)  Then Cheryl held the line with the fish almost out of the water while Karen got the gaff we had yet to use.  A swing and a miss, oops.  Second time lucky.  Gaffed the fish was on board!  Cheryl was using all her weight to hold the fish down.  Karen does the “Dexter” thing and puts a knife through its skull, hopefully through the brain so it is dead.  As we are too close to the Moto to clean the fish before entering we tie it up on the engine lift and put the 5 gallon bucket under it.

 

We made the passage with Somerset.  The Tuamotos are sunken islands surrounded by a coral reef.  So there is a coral ring around relatively deep water.  Most have passages in.  The wind and currents try to force water over the edge into the Moto, the current adds and subtracts from the flow.  As most of the entries are not that large the currents can get quite strong.  Kauehi is supposed to be a good training started Moto to go into, normal current is only about 4 knots.

Cheryl drove us in very nicely.  We did a wiggle as we hit the edge of the current, an eddy, but other than that it was fine.  We had 2 knots of current against us, but a little more throttle and we were through.  We drove to the South East anchorage and put the hook down.   A sandy bottom, no swell.  Jim on Somerset had been saving a bottle of Dom Perignon to share with us and this seemed the perfect time to pop the cork. 

We were in a beautiful anchorage and we could use our champagne flutes without worrying that the rolling of the boat would spill our wine!

We got many boat projects done, to the point that Cheryl has finished everything on her list that she has parts for!  We snorkelled and did one dive.  We will be a long time learning the names of the fish, there are so many, more colourful than in the Caribbean and more plentiful.  We walked into town, which was a great day.  We walked the beach, picked coconuts off the ground, burnt garbage and had many, many awesome meals with Somerset.  More importantly the morning was started with coffee and entertainment provided by mother nature.  As we were there for 2 weeks, we became a sanctuary for small fish, which means that each morning at feeding time for the tuna and mantas we had a good deal of activity around the boat, and the birds were there to pick up the spoils.

Then one day the forecast was from the North, that would give us 4 miles or so of open water, and it was forecast to move to the west, that would be 8 miles of open water.  This was forecast to not go above 20.  We thought that we could deal with this, but by mid-morning we were in 5 foot seas, so we decided to weigh anchor and go up by the village.  Karen starts to bring the anchor up and hears a crack. She goes back to tell Cheryl (too much wind for Cheryl to hear otherwise.)  Then goes back to the bow to continue bringing up the anchor.  The bowsprit cracks completely, the delta bow roller falls into the water!  Twice Karen lifts the chain back onto the windlass, but without the bow roller to guide the chain onto it it won’t stay.  All the chain goes out, no way to stop it!  Karen takes the Bruce off the bow, walking it back to the cockpit and calls Somerset.  Carol is already lowering the dinghy; Jim is over in a flash!  Karen now drives and Cheryl and Jim weigh anchor by hand!  Sore muscles prevail but all fingers accounted for!  300 feet of chain and a 45 pound delta weighed in 5 foot seas!  And no one was hurt! 

Now what do we do?  We could go to a moto with moorings, as we can’t anchor, but really we need to get Interlude fixed, so we deciding in 5 minutes to head 300 miles instead of the 30 mile passage to the next moot that we had been planning.  The forecast is max 20 knot winds, from a variety of directions.  Sounds reasonable.    We secure the boat as we drive out of Kauehi, Trouble is still in the davits along with its engine (we normally put Trouble on the foredeck for long passages, engine on the stern railing.)  Well that night we had over 40 knots.  We had only the head sail up and it was reefed to maybe 50% and we were still doing over 8 knots, once reading 9.6 for 5 minutes!  Then the wind moved to our nose and we spent about 2 hours going 3 miles.  Then the wind shifted again and it was on our beam for most of the rest of the trip, in the 20-30 knot range.  We made our way very quickly to Tahiti and paraded back and forth in front of the harbour in flat seas until daylight, when we could enter safely!

Now we are tied up at the town quay awaiting a quote to fix the bowsprit.  It will be stainless steel, so Interlude will be stronger than ever!   On the bright side, we are in the land of baguettes and brie, with boat stores full of exciting boat parts!

 

We made it across the BIG pond

ANCHOR UP YUP WE ARE ON OUR WAY

Our crossing was 25 days from April 20th – May 16th, and except for one particular squall, we had moderate winds, 10-15 kts a lot of the time and on better days (for speed), 15-25 kts. My impressions? The Pacific Ocean is very, VERY large, and we just covered a portion of it. It is a humbling experience to really grasp how much water we have on our blue planet and that it is water that dominates, not land.

We also were a bit surprised by the lack of sea life. Except for brief glimpses of dolphins twice, one Manta ray, and several turtles, we didn’t see anything. Fishing was moderately good (if our boat speed was higher we may have caught more fish), but tuna was hard to come by. Seems almost everyone was catching Mahi Mahi – which, really, who can complain about?!

So, what’s life on board like when making such a long passage? To start, and this is a very good thing, none of us got sea sick. Whew – that would not have been good, especially given all the awesome dinners we had (more on that to come). Mainly, life became very routine. Routines are set up and they are your friend, so that everyone knows what they should be doing, and when, and Interlude gets properly taken care of. We set up watches:

7-9:30 a.m. Jennifer

9:30 – noon Cheryl

Noon- 2pm Karen

2pm-4:30 pm Jennifer

4:30p – 7p Cheryl

7 – 10p Karen

10p – 1 am Jennifer

1am – 4am Cheryl

4-7am Karen
Keeping the boat clean – cockpit (aka the “Ledo Deck” ) and inside – and keeping salt out rather than in, was a priority. We had our “outside” and our “inside” clothing. This system worked very well. Keeping an eye on all boat systems, rigging, sails, etc., was also necessary and thankfully we only had the Genneker (cruising chute) halyard block shackle break. This slowed our progress a bit, but it was too windy and rough for Cheryl to climb the mast to do repairs.
We had all our meals together, eaten on the Ledo Deck. We ate really well on board (thanks Karen & Cheryl!). Breakfast was usually a variety of fresh fruit with yoghurt or some avocado on the side. Lunch was light and not very formal, sometimes just some soup with bread. Dinners were awesome! We had proper Sunday dinners and even throughout the week we had very yummy dinners. Definitely the highlight for me was the halfway-there & 15 year anniversary of K & C owning Interlude celebration dinner: duck spring rolls, spicy crab sushi and tuna sushi. Yum!

 

That was also one of Karen’s favourites. Cheryl was leaning towards the tuna in tangerine sauce dinner. So, we were not chowing down on ramen noodles, and we were not starving, that’s for sure. The fresh fish K & C caught were a delight to cook up.

“Fish on!” was the cry that just about trumped everything, including Cheryl’s nice end of day shower! We had a few Mahi Mahi that jumped the hook, but K & C with practice started landing the fish…whatever it took…like grabbing the tail, whipping the fish over the rail and slamming it down on the deck. Cheryl was the expert fish cleaner. But, so far, Interlude is not winning the SHIT fishing tournament (South Hook Invitational Tournament), but there is some argument as to when this tournament ends! Maybe K & C still have a chance
On afternoons when we weren’t napping, it was time for the PIG: Pacific International Games at which K & C excelled and I? Not so much. PIG consisted of games of Farmer’s Rummy, Farkel, and (so far), one lone game of Yactzee. Currently, C is ahead by one game of Rummy. I’m going for the consistently highest score of Rummy (not a good thing), but I somehow managed to win a couple of games of Farkel (How did that happen?!)

Another pleasure during the crossing was the twice daily SSB (single side band) radio nets with other boats making the crossing. At 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. boats would check in with each other, with one boat volunteering as the “control”. The net we were part of was “The Beagle Net” for boats that departed from Galapagos to Hawaii, Gambier Islands, Easter Island, and the Marquesas Islands in the 3rd week of April. This ended up being somewhat comical for Interlude because our propagation was not great (well, Patufa 900nm away enroute to Gambier Is could hear us), and K or C would be shouting into the microphone to no avail and we would end up needing a boat to relay our information to the net controller. We joked that the boat name had become “Interlude Relay”. During the net, we would give our position, wind speed and direction, swell size and direction, and any other pertinent info - like bragging about fish caught (-: Twice, we had boats close enough to talk on the VHF radio: once with Full Monty (couldn’t see them) and once with Kokomo (saw their sail off the port side).
It was Cheryl, around 2 a.m., who got to call out “Land ho!”
It was a rainy, overcast night and both Karen and I stumbled up on deck, peered through the plastic enclosure and harrumphed, “Is that it?” while looking at an unimpressive, low, barely visible lump 5nm off the port side. Meanwhile, Cheryl was doing her happy dance in the cockpit! K & I quickly disappeared below deck to sleep some more…leaving poor Cheryl celebrating alone.

Well, what a difference daylight makes. There, with jagged peaks, and cliffs plunging into the ocean was Fatu Hiva.
Very dramatic. Very green and lush. As we motored in towards the anchorage we realized that there was a very strong outflow wind. All the boats that had been on our net were there to welcome us with shouts, horns, and clapping. It was a WONDERFUL, awesome way to end the passage! A few came in their dingy to provide anchoring information. At this point the wind was honking through at about 35kts. It took a few tries, but we managed to get a hold!

Interlude is in the South Pacific! So what did it take to get her and her crew there?

• We went 2993.5 nautical miles from Santa Cruz in the Galapagos to Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas (another 1000 from Panama)

• We ran the engine a total of 56.25 hours, for power and to move the boat.

• We used 45 gallons of diesel, good mileage!

• Topped the diesel underway

• We saw 12 boats (only 1 sailboat)

• We caught 7 fish: 1 big eye tuna, 1 skip jack tuna and 5 mahi mahi

• We lost 4 lures!

• We averaged 4.8 knots, our best day we averaged 5.9 knots.

• Dinner Menus: Day 1 - Meatloaf and Scallop Potatoes, Day 2 – Eggplant Lasagna, Day 3 – Spaghetti and Tomato Sauce a la meatloaf, Day 4 – Chicken with rice and veggies, Day 5 – Chicken and Shrimp Phad Thai, Day 6 – Interlude’s pesto surprise Pizza, Day 7 – Spicy Thai beef with Eggplant, Day 8 – Canned tuna and tomato sauce over pasta, Day 9 – Sunday dinner, stuffed pork tenderloin with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and onions, Day 10 – Fresh! Mahi Mahi with an avocado crab salad, Day 11 – Poached Mahi Mahi, with steamed broccoli and couscous with peppers, Day 12 – Tangerine Tuna with small potatoes in a butter rosemary garlic sauce and a green salad, Day 13 – (Rough seas, supposed to be our halfway dinner) Penne a la vodka with spicy sausage, Day 14 – Halfway dinner – Champagne, Duck salad rolls, Spikey Crab and tuna sushi, Day 15 – Black Bean Burritos with a side of cauliflower, Day 16 – Sunday night dinner, Cordon Blue Chicken with scallop potatoes and a salad, Day 17 – Sheppard’s pie, Day 18 – Curried Tuna with red wine vinegar, Day 19 – Salad Nicoise (with fresh tuna), Day 20 – Stuffed chicken with sundried tomato, garlic and tarragon, baked potatoes and asparagus with red peppers, parmesan and butter, Day 21 – Tuna salad rolls and noodles, Day 22 – Stuffed eggplant with a Marie rose sauce and fresh skip jack, Day 23 – Sunday Dinner – Lemon Grass Beef over noodles with a cabbage/carrot/onion salad with a Thai dressing, Day 24 – Tuna Casserole, Day 25 – Mahi Mahi in a red Thai curry sauce with rice and veggies, Day 26 Mahi Mahi in a ginger/garlic sauce with potatoes and canned corn. (Note we had some near disasters as we had nicely plated meals that occasionally travelled to unwanted spots in the cockpit.)

• Things that broke: gennicker block shackle (of course, at the top of the mast), Port deck navigation light, steaming light, thread gave way in two spots on the dodger and chafing on one of the stack pack lines.

• Daily Routines:

o Checking the fruit and veggies for what was going bad, required before dinner menu could be established

o Walking the deck, checking for flying fish and squid in the am and chaffing

o Sending spot tracking or messages or in reach

o SSB net twice a day

o Checking for leaks (bilge and steering quadrant)

• Food that kept well: radishes, celery and carrots (in the fridge), tomatoes, peppers and watermelon, onion, squash and potatoes all kept in netting, pears, apples, tangerines, limes, grapefruit all lasted until used up.
A quote from Cheryl:

All the prep is like Christmas, your rush, prepare and the day comes to cross the Pacific. You are scared nervous and glad. Then you see the wild open blue, the awesome expanse of the sea. And nothing can describe it! The stars, the wind, the seas are magnificent, life is good!
A quote from Karen:

You look out and see water, many shades of blue and white, a different colour with a big wave cresting versus a small wave, and on she rolls. Amazing! I sat on the box on the stern, fresh air all around you, nothing for over a thousand miles! I got the girls to join me, the first time either had been out of the cock pit since we started. It was an amazing site, one that needed to be shared.

The anchorage in Fatu Hiva is very dramatic, very beautiful, with the little village tucked between cliffs and an old crater opening up behind it. The locals are friendly (and speak French). The village is small, but well maintained and housing is of good quality. There doesn’t seem to be much to do here, for folks to make a living, so we assume that the French Government subsidizes them well (hello brand new white Toyota pick-up trucks – a probably less than a couple of miles of road!). There are no proper shops.
Our first day there we went to a cruiser’s lunch potluck on shore and got to meet everyone who had previously just been a voice on the radio. We spent a few days getting the boat cleaned up and washing the hard green gunk off the hull. Things got rearranged for cruising mode rather than ocean passage mode. Then we took a hike inland to a lovely long waterfall with a pool at the base. Karen went for a refreshing dip along with some of the other cruisers. There are fruit trees galore all over the place – grapefruit especially, and it is very sweet.

Fatu Hiva is not an official port of entry, so after 4 days we raised anchor and motor sailed over to Hiva Oa to check in with the local Gendarme (an efficient, pleasant experience), replenish our fresh food supplies, change money, and make arrangements for my flight out. And, of course get some baguettes – pain really. The bigger grocery store has an impressive assortment of frozen meats and seafood, cheeses, etc., and being French Polynesia, pates too. It is not cheap here, but the quality is generally very good.
Then the rain really set in. There had been showers in Fatu Hiva, but Hiva Oa was rain, lots of it. We woke up on May 22nd, Karen’s birthday, to torrents of rain and wind, and we were socked-in (felt like I was in Vancouver still!). It didn’t let up all day. Luckily our major provisioning had been done the day before, so Karen was treated to mouthwatering meals all day, starting with banana buttermilk pancakes in the morning and ending with lamb chops, quinoa, and squash for dinner with a yummy apple crisp for dessert. The champagne and red wine flowed!

Next day didn’t look great, but there were blue splotches here in there in the sky, and off we went on our Island Tour, with John as our trusty driver and guide. Trust is the operative word here when you see some of the “roads” we took and the hairpin turns John negotiated. Hello having to go into reverse to be able to get around a cliff corner, complete with muddy tire tracks going over the edge! Don’t look, don’t look ;-) But the sun came out and the views were spectacular. We went through a few very small villages, checked out some bays on the north shore of Hiva Oa, went to a Tiki site, and had an awesome, delicious lunch before turning back for home.

Next stop was Hana Moe anchorage on Tahuata Island. It is a beautiful little bay, with a proper palm-fringed sand beach. And it is SUNNY! We have been able to dry out. The water is super clear and there are fish hanging out around the coral. This anchorage has been the highlight so far, especially due to the Manta rays that come to feed early every morning. Our first morning here we all jumped in the water shortly after 6 a.m. as we had already spotted the ray’s ‘wing’ tips on the surface. There were 3 of them gliding so gracefully through the water, feeding on plankton. They didn’t seem to mind us – just went about feeding and sometimes coming very, very close. Cheryl almost got kissed! When they feed, their mouths open very wide and they use their mandibles to help funnel water in. We were easily in the water for an hour enjoying the view. Later yesterday afternoon, we went to the beach to play bocce with friends from Somerset (Canadian-American) and Iolea (Australian). There is no village here, but there is a little “house” and the young Marquesan couple (his family owns the whole beach/bay and area behind) came over to talk with us. Marquesans are very friendly and generous people, with a good sense of humour. They are also very helpful. It was no problem to come ashore and he even invited us to use the flat area behind is home for bocce.
The final stop for me is here in Hanaiapa Bay, back on Hiva Oa. We motor sailed over yesterday and shortly I will leave for a flight to Tahiti. K & C will carry on to Nuku Hiva and then on to the Tuamotos and the Society Islands.
It has been a wonderful experience doing the passage and seeing some of the Marquesas Islands. Starting in Galapagos was also a treat – on of the best things of Puerto Ayora was the fish market and the seals / sea lions hanging out there for a treat. All in all, a great trip. Thanks Karen and Cheryl and fair winds for the rest of your Pacific journey.

Santa Cruz...Isabella....Santa Cruz

Okay you know when you wash your car it rains, we have a new twist.  You just wash the boat and Pelican comes over and sits on the pulpit and ok he looks so cute with those little eyes and the way he turns his head right around to look at you.  Then he lifts his tail and leaves a lovey present, and then the next day he leaves you a fish as a thank you for cleaning his toilet.  Well Galapagos has been a real wild life experience, a sea lion on board and now a pelican, who knows what while be next, an iguana perhaps. 

So after leaving San Cristabol we ventured over to Santa Cruz a more tourist island.  Our welcoming was a champagne cocktail on Sommerset with Carol and Jim.  Then the next day they had arranged a dive to North Seymour and a tour around town to get the lay of the land the following day.  Hey this is great.  What a way to get to know the island.  The north seymour dive started very very early with a water taxi ride to shore then a land taxi to the other end of the island then a dive boat to the site, and in the water by 8:30 am did we mention we started early.  Karen and I had to do a check out dive first, we both passed but Cheryl’s  BCD sprung a major leak so she sunk like a rock.  With a borrowed BCD off we went for our first dive:  we saw hammerhead sharks, mantas, green turtles. Sea lions, and a Galapagos Sea Robin way cool.

 

Galapagos Sea Robin

Scorpionfish

  2 dives done and we were only frozen for a little while as Jim offered to share his body heat so hugs all around for the 3 of us.   We did 6 dives in Santa Cruz and the second time was to Floreana a little island 2 hours away by boat.  It was our best dive yet in the Galapagos.   Our surface interval was spent snorkeling with baby sea lions, got to love it!   Then on our second dive we dove with the sea lions, if you did circles they would imitate you (or maybe we were imitating them!)  As you looked at shelves on the dive you say the white tipped sharks napping and if you looked closely you saw dozens of scorpionfish. 

 Gordon rock was the 3^rd dive with lots of hammerheads way off in the distances the visibility was not great so we think they were hammerheads.  Spotted eagle rays flew by and a Manta.  Here the surface interval was spent cruising around the rock, looking at the nesting sites for blue footed and Nasca boobies and sea lions sunning themselves.  

Sommerset introduced us to a few bars and the Waterfront restaurant, were we all had lovely tuna dinners.  Carol took out a leg of lamb and Karen stuffed it with blue cheese, roasted peppers and such and according to Jim, it was the best lamb he ever had. 

White tip shark 

So Santa Cruz for us on this visit was about great friends, diving and food!

We went to the Sat morning local market it was great lots of great veggies and fruit.  We will be back in Santa Cruz to pick up Jennifer who will be joining us to go across the pacific so we will explore the land later.  

 Off to Isabella

Islabella is a little more rustic then the other 2 islands with its dirt streets and laid back atmosphere. We arrived and set our hook and 2 boats dingied over to tell us the lay of the land.  One told us that he will be leaving later and we will want to move to his parking spot as it is less rolly so we waited and moved as soon as he left and boy was he right.  (Thank you Spruce!)   We wondered the streets of the town one day and then next day a hike to the wall of tears, we took a taxi up to the wall, it was built by the prisoners who were in incarcerated here yup it was a wall.   The walk back was the highlight we race the tortoises meandering on the road.  We gave them a head start.   There were side trails that we took on the way back; were we went in to lava tunnels, an iguana nesting area on a beach and a lookout tower with 200 stairs to climb, yup Cheryl counted.

Another day we walked to the tortoise breeding centre and saw the tortoise porn!  The walk is nice, 1.2 km over a board walk passing two brachish ponds.  Best of all, the walk started at the Iguana Crossing sign, and yes, the Iguana were crossing there!

We took a trip to Sierra Negro and the Chico Volcano.  We almost missed the trip as we had just a time getting a water taxi, in fact JC (our agent in Isabella) rode his bike to the pier and came out in a water taxi as he had been monitoring the channel and new we were having trouble.  This was a huge disappointment, not to mention the fact that Cheryl sprained her ankle rather badly and had to walk out, two and a half hours walk on very rough ground!

We organized a tour of the West Coast of Isabella.  This was an awesome day, the trip there was broken by some tuna fishing, and, yes, tuna catching!  Two tuna were caught in some 5 minutes!  The captain and his helper, Whisky, made some great ceviche for lunch.  We snorkeled in an inlet with the Galapogas penguins, we should mention that penguins like cold water; it was so cold the top of my head hurt.  We also stopped our trip west to take pictures of the pod of Orcas, Cheryl had the camera, Karen kept shouting to get the white bits!  After lunch we stopped on the way back to snorkel with the sea turtles, believe it or not, the water was even colder, but the sea turtles were amazing and happy to let us swim with them.  Probably the most amazing site was the tunnels.  This is an area were the lava flowed into the sea, the outside cooled as it touched the water, leaving tunnels.  We got in by going behind an amazing surf, as all were cruisers on board, we were cringing!  The water was so clear you could see the sea turtles swimming by along with other fish.  The blue footed boobies were dancing, trying to attract a mate.  The scenery was just spectacular and peacefull.      
   

Sun Tanning

Our last afternoon in Isabella was spent at Hausers farm.  He is an Austrian married to an Ecuadorian who moved there some 10 years ago and has a restaurant.  We had arranged this for the anchorage and had 18 people sitting down to lupper.  The food was amazing, the view was lovely and I got Callalou (called otoi here) to make soup!

We did an overnight passage back to Santa Cruz, overnight as it was just the wrong distance to do in a day and get in before dark.

We picked up Jennifer our 3^rd crew on Monday and we are starting to watch the weather for our date to make the BIG LEAP……