So farewells said, Svend & I departed the yacht, Svend after nearly 5 months away & on board & me nearly 2 months. A lovely old south pacific style hotel was found & we settled in there for the next week coming & going & made to feel very much at home. A car was hired, Fire Shows watched, village cultural shows attended, reefs snorkelled & the Islands simple beach side Fales stayed in, (simple hut like structures with, palm leaf walls & roofs, with mattresses & mosquito nets set up to sleep in, with open views to the surf & reefs) completed our Island experiences. Beautiful & friendly people calling out to you everywhere you went, people always busy, no inactivity, families looking after each other was really refreshing to experience. Probably the most ‘pure’ place we have ever been to. And we were very impressed with their social structure, whereby everything was controlled by families, or the village elders, so everyone did the right thing, young people respected the older people & elders & never wanted to bring shame on their family. We could easily see how when the Islanders come over to Australia they get into a lot of strife, especially where alcohol is involved. In Samoa it is strictly controlled but in Australia with no social structure to adhere to, things can, & often do get out of control for them due to peer pressure from young friends. Very sad to see.
We could also see that on the Island, no one had more than they needed & I could appreciate that if someone came to visit the best thing they could do was to bring a suitcase FULL of our excess clothes & just donate it to a village, think of all our kids clothes that just go to waste, it would be so much appreciated & distributed amongst everyone. On the other hand they don’t seem to want for anything, & if someone needs something the family will give to each other. If someone needs money the family will never see another in need. However there does seem to be a disproportionate number of churches throughout the island, most small villages have up to 4 churches & these aren’t your simple structures, these are massive, elaborate buildings, costing a fortune in maintenance & upkeep & the people are mainly responsible for this, except where the Mormon church has crept in & making in roads very fast as the Americans subsidise them & the people can see it is cheaper for them to convert to that religion than stay with the Methodists or any of the others that are there. Really, really amazing to see the depth of religion that is there. So once again on Sunday we did our rounds to be entertained by their magnificent voices for one last time. We were also privileged to be at the Fire eating & cultural show which was attended by a very old lady called Roberta Haynes & her entourage, she was introduced to us all & revealed that she was the actress in the 1952 movie Return to Paradise with Gary Cooper & they had just that week had a reunion at the now flash resort called the same. At the cultural centre we were also shown a family of traditional tattooists, doing an almost full body tattoo to the knees on a man in the old way, using a titanium tipped wooden rod, dipped into black ink & tapped or hammered into the skin, this could take days to complete & is without anaesthetic, it is extremely painful & is not undertaken lightly, if you decide to start you have to see it through. The artist does his own design based on the life of the person & his status in the village. He will never do a copy of a requested template or pattern. There was a lot of blood & one man was just mopping up, another was swishing flies away & another was tap tapping. The result is more a raised pattern of scars but black than the tattoos we are used to seeing, we weren’t allowed to take photos but it was quite something to experience non the less. We visited both Samoan Islands Upolu & the lesser visited Savaii, here we stayed again in the rustic Fale structure on the beach & the highlight was visiting a coastline of about 1km of roaring blow holes in full swing, wow, what a sight to see, seas creating this magnificent natural sight, very impressive to say the least & we could stand almost on the edge & have the fountains of spray erupt above us, the sound was the most awesome part, just the roar was amazing. Our last night was spent having a drink on the yacht with the crew who had not actually departed yet due to customs & immigration closing on Friday so delaying any official stuff until Monday( of course how could we keep forgetting everything in the south pacific closes for the weekend). So farewells said our bags packed & we were on our way back to Australia via a short stop in Fiji, & a nice surprise pick up from the airport by Bernadette, (very welcome I must say) We know it won’t be our last trip to the Islands; it has just given us a taste for more, & we were even looking at flights to Tonga next year, or Fiji or who knows where we’ll go next……………… So ends the blog for this time. I’ll put some more photos up very soon, so now we are back to reality, waking up in our own bed (not rocking around) & not really knowing where we were, Svends cutting lawns & I’m doing paperwork. !!!!! That’s life!! 26/5/2015 0 Comments More joys of life on board!!!The trip from Bora Bora to Samoa took 14 days which was quite an experience for us all, even lifetime sailors & boat owners often never get to experience this type of journey.
Generally all went well but when it doesn’t you realize how extremely vulnerable you are with all that water around you & NO way to reach land quickly. We'd had a few days of wild seas and swell, winds and rain that made life on board a tad unpleasant (2 torn sails, one had to be taken down & replaced at sea, also the navigation lights had stopped working, meaning other boats couldn't see us so we had to keep a more vigilant look out for them on our night watches and spotlight the sails by torch if we saw another fishing vessel close) we were all quite glad for a rest when we reached land. At this point Mark is now quite far behind schedule for getting the boat back to Australia and was deciding to shorten stays in the next stops of Samoa and Tonga so we could see we'd be at sea quite a lot without having the pleasure of the islands so we made a decision that when we got to the next island we would leave the boat. Svend was also getting anxious to get home as we realised he'd only been home 3 months in the last 14 months so it was quite understandable. So we would miss Tonga but as it happens they'd also decided to only visit the northern islands and Clive Mona and Tina will depart from there and mark and Maureen will continue at sea onto Fiji etc. where more repairs will need to be done. So with this decision made a good few hours were spent assessing various options for the next part of the trip, flight options checked etc. when we got good Wi-Fi. Svend & I booked a flight from Samoa back to Sydney & then planned our next few days on Samoa. After 14 days at sea, food has started to run out and some of our frozen and fresh food had gone off as the fridges and freezers had to be turned off sometimes, as the batteries weren’t charging properly. Our bed linen also needed a good wash as did our clothes as it had been so hot & humid on board, and although we had showers on board we all needed a good sprucing up in a stationary shower without rolling around at sea. AND we could finally comb our hair which we generally didn’t bother doing because it gets blown all over the place, hence the necessity for a good hat!!! All a good experience to try. The night watches take a lot out of you as you then tend to sleep a lot in the day but still hard to get up for 3 hours in the middle of the night. The last couple of nights Svend let me stay below as it was quite terrifying out in the cockpit with rain, wind, sails flapping and the boat suddenly picking up speed when the wind changes. So all rather quickly came our departure from the boat, but we are all still good friends & we will sail again, just not weeks at a time on the ocean, been there, done that, ticked off our bucket list. After 14 days at sea we reached American Samoa which we'd been told to miss by so many misinformed people. And we are so glad we went there. It wasn't just like “America” at all as we had been told by people who had never been there, but a pacific island not unlike its sister Western Samoa. It was still very simple with friendly people and villages and a gorgeous albeit working harbour. Mountain peaks crowned the harbour and we were pretty much the only yacht there. All official immigration and customs offices were closed for the weekend so we were told to just moor at the marina and do it all on Monday if we were still there. If not then we'd just be gone. We spent a lovely day on local buses and hitching around the island and using the Wi-Fi when we could find it. The buses are open sided and fit as many as can squeeze on which made for an interesting trip as the Samoan people are not exactly small built, in fact some, or rather a lot or people are extremely large, which makes sharing a small bus seat with one and surrounded by another 30 very large bottoms a very unforgettable experience. This coupled with VERY loud reggae music added to the experience. Our bus picked up workers from the tuna canneries that is the main employer on the Island, unfortunately they also smelt of fish so our senses were really taking a battering. When someone at the back had to get off most of the bus had to get off & on again to let them through. We took the bus as far as it went and found it was the last bus of the day and we were now half way round the island with no transport back to the harbour but a family out sightseeing in their pick-up ute gave us a lift in the back with 6 others and took us sightseeing to the other side of the Island, which was fine by us, getting us back to the boat after dark.
They had hoped to spend the next day with us too so were pretty disappointed that we were leaving. Next day was rainy but we filled our morning going on a church crawl. Svend and I went from one church to another listening to the harmonic Polynesian singing but slipping out once the sermon got into full swing. We managed 4 churches of different denominations and we received a warm welcome by all. Then it was off to McDonalds for more Wi-Fi. We then slipped out of the harbor without registering our entry or exit, as if we never existed! Leaving behind very warm memories from our stay. 18/5/2015 0 Comments Suwarrow Island, Cook Islands, what a little gem! Our own Robinson Crusoe paradise.Suwarrow Island, Cook Islands, what a little gem! Our own Robinson Crusoe paradise.
Suwarrow Island was finally reached on the morning of our 7th day at sea, & what a little gem it turned out to be. Surrounded by reef, & other out of bounds protected Islands it was truly magic. Not so easy to reach we had to navigate through very shallow waters, with reef below us & through an opening in the reef to reach a shallow mooring where we dropped anchor. There is a ranger & his wife living on the Island & they also act as customs & immigration officers for entry to the Cook Islands. He spends 8 months on the Island & leaves during cyclone season. He did say he had only arrived 2 days ago for this season so we were pretty much the first boat he had checked in. & really the Island wasn’t open until 1st June, oh well we were here now & didn’t really want to leave quite yet. We radioed him & he told us not to come ashore until he had done all our papers, so we sat on the boat & waited & realized that the boat was surrounded by circling SHARKS, about 11 of them in all that just kept circling & circling, we joked they were the rangers Rottweiler’s keeping an eye on us, something very James Bond about it!!!! So we waited for harry to arrive & by this time we were joined by another yacht with Swedish couple on board, so Harry had a very busy morning ahead. When he did come over we found him to be very friendly New Zealand educated man, who we later found out used to be a pearl diver (always handy to know one of them) who in his hey day could dive up to 18m without a tank.!!! He let us know that the circling sharks were not dangerous, they were black tips but not to throw food overboard as that WOULD bring the bad guys or sharks in, but yes it was safe for us to swim. With trepidation I let my fellow crew members swim for awhile before I entered the waters, then you couldn’t really keep me out. We snorkeled & walked around the 1km by 300m Island , Svend & I collected washed up plastic bottles that were littering the shore line, and enjoyed being on land for the rest of the day. The Island is literally covered in coconut trees & sprouting coconut trees & alive with moving crabs, from tiny ones to massive coconut breaking, tree living & climbing blue crabs, most of the crabs are hermit crabs that live in various abandoned shells until they out grow them & find a bigger one, so you see the paths alive with moving sea shells of all kinds, some nice, some attractive or ugly, just like human dwellings, all shapes & sizes & in states of repair & attractiveness. Svend & swam back to the boat & snorkeled surrounded by the ever present sharks, that you had to tell your mind ‘were NOT ‘ dangerous. I was pretty happy to reach the boat even so. The sharks also kept us company at night & could be seen in our spot lights still circling which kept us entertained until we went to bed for our first still nights sleep for quite a while, with no night watch to get up for….. bliss! We stayed another day but decided reluctantly (I could have stayed a week there) to get 14 hours under our belt of our next 5 days trip to Samoa by leaving at night. Another two boats had arrived during our stay & one of these left at the same time as us, it was a catamaran & had a lightly faster trip out over the reef than us as it sits higher in the water so they soon left us behind. Unfortunately it didn’t take long into the night to remember why I really am not a sailor, when the wind whipped up & sails were lashing everywhere , people had to go on the front deck to take down poles & adjust tangles in the pitch black with only a torch lighting the night, boat banging around, an adrenalin rush if you are into that, but I can never get the thought out of my mind that I am 4 or 5 days from land & how vulnerable we really are. Svends decided he’s not a sailor despite being on board for over 4 months now & being very competent, & very good at repairs in all shapes & forms, Tinas not a big fan of the wild nights & long passages, however Maureen & Mark seem to love it as does Clive & Mona who have done plenty of sailing before. We’ve decided we won’t be buying a boat & spending the rest of our lives sailing (as many we have met have done, sold everything & this is now home) but chartering wouldn’t be out of the question, in the Whitsundays or wherever we fancied it, we just have other things we’d rather do than long passages of saiing on open seas, watching movies, reading books or suduko. Still its been a great experience & we are happy we were included in the trip. To leave French Polynesia we all had to attend the local police station & get stamped out in our passport, a very simple process. We had fuel on board, & petrol for the dingy & we stocked up with food for 10 days sail to Samoa. We have a desalinator on board which makes water seemingly non stop for all 7 of us, so we don’t have to fill tanks with water when we get to land anywhere, hopefully it never break down because we go through an amazing amount of water everyday, with just showers, dishwashing & clothes washing.
So we head first to Suwarrow which is part of the Cook Islands, & 700 nautical miles from Bora Bora (we are travelling at about 5 nautical miles an hour, so I try not to calculate that in days,) but soon realise we are four days into the open sea sail & have at least another 3 left until Suwarrow, then maybe 4 to 5 days to Samoa. Svend & I had the 1am to 4am sea watch so your days sleep gets disrupted, regardless of the endless sleeping hours done. Ive just been woken by non stop banging & realized we were at about 9 second intervals of hitting waves with a large thud, (sometimes 5 sec intervals), rains pouring down & the boat is also tossing from side to side. And I realize that I am protected from the worlds deepest body of water by just a couple of centimetres of boat!!!! You can hear the constant sloshing of water against the sides, (surprise, surprise!!)Another 10 days of this doesn’t seem very appealing at the moment. It doesn’t help that Ive been down the last few days with a fever & unbelievable fatique, not making my time very pleasant, Svend & Mark to some extent also had this bug, where just getting up & staying upright for 10 minutes was a struggle. (Fortunately no one has had sea sickness so we have to count ourselves very lucky) Our nearest Island I have just found out has a population of 0, as in zero. It is a National park & doesn’t have an airport, (im still quite hopeful as it doesn’t say it DOESN’T have an airport, there’s just no mention of it at all) This all just adds to my gloom, what are we doing travelling for nearly two weeks on a boat to get somewhere that modern technology has enabled us to fly!!!!! & we would be there in less than two hours. However I have to come to terms that we are now 4 days from Bora Bora & the only way is forward regardless of how long it takes. I have also realized something that I already knew, that I am no aspiring Captain Cook, & at the moment don’t really give a Sh….t where he went, regardless of the fact we ARE sailing his voyage & landing where he did. He did, however have the excuse that there were no Virgin Pacific flights taking him where he wanted to go! So what ,I have to ask myself is my excuse! Especially as my attitude to boats has always been that I thought they were like ‘Being in prison…….. with the chance of drowning.’ Not that I’m not grateful to Mark & Tina for this generous experience but today I’m just kind of thinking its not really my thing, At least a root Canal treatment is over in 3 lots of half an hours, & you feel better afterwards, & at least the sky dive the boys got me to do for my 50th was over in 4 minutes. Maybe tomorrow will be better! 18/5/2015 0 Comments A day at The Hilton Bora Bora.Bora Bora didn’t quite live up to its fame & name, mainly because we had also been to Moorea which was my favourite island paradise & Tahaa a close second. However Bora Bora was very pleasant if that’s the Island you have chosen for your resort holiday. Svend & I spent a day at the main beach by hitching a lift there & back with local people who were very obliging despite the whole Island being involved in tourism, you would expect them to be somewhat cynical. The next day was quite exciting for me a during a snorkel run on the reef I found myself along with Tina swimming with two to three huge stingrays & a few sharks all at once. I tired to photograph them whilst keeping a wary eye on them but didn’t quite capture the real essence of the moment in the pictures that eventuated. We also snorkeled over some coral but by that time a storm was brewing & the sea getting choppy so we decided very hurriedly to call it a day & I was hauled into the dingy very unceremoniously whereby I got stuck half way in & out of the dingy not being able to move & having fits of laughter that I couldn’t control. Hopefully no one caught my undignified & & immodest views on camera because it wouldn’t have been pretty.
That night we anchored fairly near to a small private Island hosting The Hilton Bora Bora, but from our view point it looked deserted & in renovation mode with cranes & new materials strewn nearby. Next day we decided to investigate so took the dingy to the Island, mooring it to a dilapidated jetty & strolled around the building site that was The Hilton, not a single person was around so it felt like a scene from an apocalyptic movie & we were wondering if something had happened in the world whilst we were at sea, & maybe we were the only survivors. We continued exploring walking further & further into the resort , passing machinery & new pavers, trenches etc, when we passed a palm tree barrier & Hey presto just like that we were in Disneyland type movie set that was the Hilton in full swing. And that’s where we spent the next few hours, lapping it up, buying lunch, using the pools & Svend & I eventually after much laughter managed to stand up on the paddle boards kindly provided for our use!!! No one asked us where we came from as I’m sure ‘through the back of the building site’ wouldn’t have been a suitable answer. Mark didn’t experience the trappings of The Hilton but the rest of us had a really good day. However on reflection it occurred to me that we could have been anywhere warm in the world with a pool & palm trees, & that when you actually buy a holiday to these cleverly marketed brochure resorts you are only actually buying a holiday at The Hilton, or Sofitel or Hyatt, & you might spent an afternoon at the most in the centre of Bora Bora where there really isn’t very much to see anyway. There are many, many more interesting places to have a romantic holiday but the name lives on. We did notice that a lot of the top resorts seemed to be abandoned & closed down or were in need of a refurbish & that maybe there was rather a surplus of accommodation on Bora Bora now, & that it isn’t quite the exclusive place to go that it once was. But all in all our trip to French Polynesia was very charming & beautiful & the people still seemed unspoilt & not at all jaded with all the tourists they get & that apart from Bora Bora the rest of the islands have kept their charm which I hope will continue. 18/5/2015 2 Comments Svend & I haul the yacht by hand!!In Papeete the Monday dawned & we compelled to move the boat from the side of the dock to a mooring on the new marina, easier said than done when you don’t have a gear box working & sails are impossible for the 100m move. The new marina was now working & we were officially the first occupants regardless of how we achieved this. The only thing was to pull it by ropes & strategic planning with regards to winds & a big container ship moored alongside us. Svend & I were given ropes & dinghyed across to our new home, Mark stayed in the dingy & Maureen was on the boat, both giving instructions to the new work horses of where we had to pull the boat to without letting it slam into the jetties etc or let the wind swing it around into the container ship etc etc. This we managed with precision timing, only losing control a little when the boat became to strong to hold & I couldn’t get the ropes ties onto the moorings quickly enough but Svend came to help out & the move was achieved in less than 30 minutes, (with about 12 hours of planning) Mark was immensely pleased with his crews efforts!!
The new Marina was officially opened a few days later with a ceremony & drinks & food laid on. There were speeches by the president & the mayor, followed by Tahitian dancing & drumming with all the necessary tribal costumes pulled on replacing their billabong shorts & t-shirts! The night was a lot of fun & we made sure we enjoyed their Beers with Vodka, (sold commercially in a bottle) & their dubious pineapple spirited cocktails which tasted like soft drink. Also over the last week or so repairs have required Svend & then Mark to be harnessed up, secured with ropes & hauled up the mast which is around 20m tall, on a tilting boat on the water. They & the rest of the crew got quite proficient at this exercise even though it was heart racing stuff for the individuals involved, but it would be a different story out at sea. Lessons on how to deal with stress! Again we all know that people deal with stress in different ways, & on a boat of 7 people stress is can be observed quite intimately. Quite rightly when the yacht had gear box failure & needed to be towed one would imagine a person to be immensely stressed, & would be forgiven for how he reacted. First things when we hit land was to find internet or wifi access, which was understandable as a lot of people needed to be contacted re the repairs on board & services etc, so a few hours of internet was purchased which should cover the next few days. It was now weekend & most business were closed until Monday which restricted how much could be achieved. Svend & I wandered around town & found a bar where we spent a few hours contacting our family & friends, checking emails & banks etc. And also of course Face Book was logged onto to see what was happening away from paradise. One of the first items I noticed was from Mark our captain, (posted about 10 minutes ago) posting NOT his experiences or frustrations with the sailing BUT some article about science that he was subscribed to!!!! Followed by umpteen others.!!!! OK the captains not so stressed that he’s not tempted onto Face Book when he has the chance. We returned to the boat several hours later & came up on Mark still on his computer, “come & look at this” he says, ……Ok some solution to one of our many problems???” I’ve been watching some clips on You tube on South Pacific,“ Oh, research on where we are? “NO,”he says “clips of the movie & musical South pacific Ive always wondered where it was set!!” Stressed, …….nah, Relaxed, yes,…….. he’s almost horizontal!!!! 3/5/2015 0 Comments Bora Bora. Island of Legends.Its now a week since we left Papeete, during that time there we had everything fixed that we could & mostly it turned out to be not as dramatic as first anticipated, a bolt here or there had sheered, so not the whole gear box, the fridge was repaired in a make do fashion & various other issues solved. Svend & I hired a car for 2 days & drove around Tahiti, spending a night at a small guest house near to the worlds biggest waves at Teaachupao. Amazing but still very primitive village despite its world fame.
Another day we took a ferry to Moorea & hired a scooter & spent the day driving around the small island snorkeling & enjoying life. We set sail for the Bora Bora region & spent a full day motoring after the main sail rope came out of the mast which I believe wasn’t a good moment as it meant that someone would have to climb to the top of the mast the next day to retrieve & re thread it into the mast. Raitea & Tahaa were the next Islands we visited & this time Svend & I found a local guy who took us on a boat tour to a Pearl farm, coral garden where we snorkeled, lunch of raw tuna, vanilla farm we met a Dane who had left Denmark to the French Foreign legion!!! & thereafter lived in French Polynesia with his local wife. A few cruise ships arrived whilst we were anchored spewing out 1000’s of people for the day & sailing them away into the night to their next destination, to be repeated all over again. When there are no cruise ships in town the place is deserted & most of the shops don’t even open. Strange to think we get this imagination about a place based on our first impressions which are not real. Off to Bora Bora we left but the auto pilot we had just had fixed decided not to work after a couple of hours, meaning we couldn’t sail so on went the motor again & we arrived at Bora Bora just before sunset. We had to find our way into the lagoon through an opening in the reef & try to find a place to moor that wasn’t too deep, this proved quite difficult as it was either too deep or too shallow, by this time it was pitch black so we attached ourselves to a floating mooring close to shore but still very deep & hoped for the best. Overall Bora Bora is nice but I think the other Islands which aren’t so touristy are much better, more pure. We spent the days exploring the Island & the beach which had shuttles running all day with yet another cruise ship (this time from Sydney with a few thousand aussies on board) actually I think Bernadettes brother was on the cruise & it had left the day of the terrible Sydney storms so they all had stories to tell about wine bottles being smashed & being locked into their cabins for a few hours with no food being served & 10m waves, what a great way to start a 3 week cruise. 3/5/2015 0 Comments A week in Papeete.So nicely installed in the centre of town & with the new Marina opening on Monday with its official launch on Thursday night, we were in THE SPOT! We literally had to step off the boat & we were at the visitors information centre, the produce market was 3 minutes walk & all the sites of the city (v small) were at hand, as well as the night market food stalls a few steps away from us.
We got all our information from the tourism board, of which was a priority especially for Mark with impending work needed to be lined up was wifi. We also found out what we needed to see & so forth. Papeete we found closed down from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning but we still had a pleasant time exploring. Svend & I managed to suss out a couple of churches, which we attended on Saturday night & Sunday morning. This gave us a chance to listen to the mesmerizing sounds of the Polynesian people singing, a truly beautiful sound. Both churches, the catholic & protestant were full & their choirs didn’t disappoint. The protestant one in particular was interesting in that the congregation all wore white shirts, the women ALL were dressed in what looked like a school uniform & wore the oldest fashioned white straw hats. Wonderful. There was also a black pearl museum & a myriad of black pearl shops. Marks wife Tina was arriving on Wednesday with another couple so Mark was looking forward to that, so Svend & I decided to clear out for a couple of days whilst Mark informed Tina about the extra dollars they needed to spend on repairs, no not really, we thought they needed a couple of romantic days since they hadn’t seen each other for over 4 months!!! Having previously said how well it has all gone, our last night at sea before we hit Tahiti was not a pleasant one. The trip was not pleasant, very bumpy waves & we didn’t have a lot of sleep & the auto pilot didn’t want to stay on course with currents & winds etc, add to that at 1.30am Marks wakes us up to say we have run out of diesel from one of the tanks, which meant the engine needed to be bled as air had got into it, apparently this had happened before but took about 1 ½ hours last time, this time they were able to do it in about 15 minutes and without diesel getting all over inside of the boat.
Then early in the morning the water pipe had a leak & we were able to pick this up before the whole boat was flooded. But we were nearly at Papeete in Tahiti where Mark had scheduled a whole range of repairs & services, the generator kept cutting out so that the batteries weren’t fully charging, hence the freezer had to be turned off at night, add to this the thermostat on the fridge wasn’t working. The sails needed some work when hopefully Tina arrived with spare parts to make them run up & down the mast (an on going problem from Jamaica) the auto pilot needed looking at as that had also stopped working in Panama (this was the newly installed one) so they reverted to using the old one, & the hydraulics & needed a service. So all was good & from early morning land was in sight which is a novelty after a few days at sea. As we approached Tahiti we obtained permission to enter the harbour & go to the old marina where we had booked a berth for a few days. The new swish marina was due to open in a few days & was reportedly very nice & right in the main part of town so would have been ideal but we were too early. So with about 4 minutes till we entered the harbor & all our markers for safe entry through the reefs were in view & we were now on motor to maneuver the boat more easily, the bloody gear box stopped working & we were left motionless,……. In the middle of the main shipping lane to Papeete, WITH a bloody great car ferry steaming towards us. Whoops, we were on the radio to the harbor master who was telling us the ferry had right of way & we were priority two & basically get out of the way. No sorry we aren’t able to go ANYWHERE so the ferry WILL have to divert around us or straight into us. Fortunately this was realized in time & the ferry did divert grudgingly. We then requested a tow (this was going to be expensive & we did get a quote of about $600 US. Not much we could do about it, it took quite some time for a tug to be mobilized & in the mean time we had to put up sails & tack or jibe whichever we could to stay in the harbor entry out of harms way, circling for a good tow hours before our little green tug reached us, attached a rope & pulled us into the side of THE NEW MARINA, where we weren’t allowed to be, but had to be for the weekend (when everything shuts down) & we could get things repaired. So as I always say, be careful what you wish for, if you get it there’s always a price! 3/5/2015 0 Comments Life on board Thinking of DaveI undertook this trip somewhat like I did my skydive, not thinking about it. I hoped it would turn out better than the sky dive as I didn't enjoy that at all and that lasted for all of 4 minutes. This could be up to 2 1/2 months!!!
Surprisingly I have so far after 14 days enjoyed the experience. I haven't been sea sick yet and not taken any tablets. So that's good!! Time hasn't dragged and on the 8 days at sea I haven't felt panicked and wanted to get off. It's also amazingly warm on board where I thought it would be cold. I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in my bikini sailing along day and night. We are rostered on for 'watches' and these are 4 hours at a time. I forgot to mention after my second day onboard Steve had to leave because of a family crisis and we fortunately hadn't left the islands yet so we were 4 on board if my non sailing experience can somehow be counted. The days pass at sea talking cooking reading and sleeping. I must say everything is much more difficult to do swaying and rolling around on a moving floor but I'm coping well. I just haven't got to think that I'm in a box bobbing around on a deep ocean, at least a week from land, with unknown creatures lurking in the water below me, and a very good chance of drowning if I happen to fall over board or my box breaks. No I won't think about that at all!!! After 5 days at sea we came across a coral atoll called Rangiroa where the highest point of 15m is the top of the palm trees growing. We spent a couple of days there and Svend and I hitched around the 12 km stretch of habitable land exploring where 2000 people actually live. We had a very pleasant afternoon watching fish and stingrays in the water and had lunch. Svend also managed I show off his acrobatic skills when he slipped on a slimy jetty taking a photo, managed to soak him self but save the camera an d stood stock still until the locals with much hilarity formed a chain to rescue first the camera then him from the slippery boat ramp.
Next day was a bit blustery so upended our plans for exploring by boat. So we planned to leave at 3pm on the turn of high tides some of the channels were quite shallow with coral reefs. However as we prepared to set sail and leave the boat wouldn't move and the anchor was stuck very deep under a rock. It became apparent it wasn't going to dislodge no matter what we did and it was way too deep for any of us to dive down. Last resort was to cut it and abandon the anchor at at cost of $1500 replacement in Tahiti. So we tried to get the attention of some locals. Finally a fishing boat came by and we asked him if he happened to know of a pearl diver who would be interested in having a look at our anchor 15m below our boat. He said give me a few minutes and I'll ask around. In less than 5 minutes he was steaming back to us with a young pearl diver who happened to be hanging around the dock. He borrowed our snorkel and fins and duck dived down. After a few attempts he'd freed the offending anchor and we were able to winch it up. Job well done. And he was very happy with the $50 and two six packs of beer we gave him in return!! 21/4/2015 0 Comments The daily life of a yachtie grinds to a halt (compared to the rest of the world)So I was finally together with the other crew members on the yacht. Mark the owner (Tina is joining us in two weeks) Steve an old sailing friend of Mark's and Maureen an experienced sailor they took onboard in Panama. I then started to observe life on board as an outsider fresh from the city. Daily schedules were planned the night before, and went something like this..... Ok tomorrow we need to find wifi, send two emails, pick up the laundry from the quay and do some shopping. Some of this was delegated and the plans put into action and by the end of the day everything had been accomplished. I had moments of mild panic, I'd dear how was I going to fill my days. I quickly remembered that I had with me my ereader with 420 books loaded, 460 movies on my hard drive, 3000 songs on my iPod AND The Woman's weekly bumper edition book of puzzles and crosswords. With that my panic dissipated and I am happy to report that after a few days I fell completely into sync with the rest of the crew and days passed very quickly indeed.
My first few days were spent on Hiva Oa & then Nuku Hiva each with a population of about 2000, where we hired a car on both Islands & spent the day driving the 40ish kilometers around & reaching breathtaking view points on each of bays & volcanic peaks.
We then had a busy day preparing to leave for about an 8 day sail to Tahiti with a stop at an atoll called Rangiroa. Surprisingly the days at sea passed quickly, eating sleeping & reading, & doing night watches on a rotating roster of 4 hours each shift. This was the hardest part & really made the rest of your days very tiring & I have to say that Svend did let me sleep of a large part of our shifts. I did slowly learn a little of what it entailed to sail a yacht when it wasn’t on motor, seemed like a lot of yelling to pull ropes or slacken them depending on where the wind was blowing & basically to stop any flailing of the sails. Mostly this went well although on a few occasions (usually in pitch dark & wilder seas) things happened like ropes got caught of a sail ripped or something, that meant getting out of shelter on board to sort out. I’ve even got my own set of sailing gloves to protect my hands when pulling ropes so I feel like a real professional Ha ha. Rangiroa was beautiful & the highest point was the tallest palm tree growing there, lots of coral reefs & fish (which we haven’t been able to catch) & of course a gorgeous buffed pearl diver who helped us escape from paradise when we got our anchor caught on the bottom of the reef. We cook with gas & Maureen & I have been ingenious in providing meals from an array of supplies still in the cupboard. Even cooking muffins & bread, roasting a chicken, fried rice, pasta dishes & pancakes & fritters. Svend & Mark were quite happy to eat anything we put in front of them even though I had previously been indoctrinated that Mark didn’t like fish, well……. now, he eats it anyway. 19/4/2015 0 Comments The gendarmes come for Helen.Entering French Polynesia on a yacht is a little more complex than arriving by plane. I simply needed a return ticket out of here which I will refund before it expires. The yacht had an agent who is paid a premium so that the crew don't need a ticket out of here or pay $1600 US cash as a refundable bond then report to the French police or gendarmes. Mark did all this and added me to the crew list. All paper work done as we were happily back on the boat enjoying happy hour in the harbour when another yacht yelled over to us to turn on our two way radio adding the gendarmes are looking for helen Petersen. Indeed they were, two of them were actually on the dock. I grabbed all paperwork and passports and zipped over in the motor dingy. They had no record of my arrival (because I'd come on a domestic flight )and wondered where I'd come from. Fortunately I had arrival stamps in Tahiti before I flew to another island and my ticket out. They seemed happy with this and didn't arrest me as an illegal visitor.
So I managed by modern technology and planes buses and automobiles to intercept Marks yacht 'Thinking of Dave' on a little blob of lava in the South Pacific called Hiva Oa, 4 hours flight from Tahiti, population 2000 and a handful of yachties. A very long journey intercepted with run ins with authorities, and on arrival on Hiva Oa finding there was no one there to meet me.
Firstly arriving in Auckland at midnight I found I had to collect my bags and go through customs and re check in. This meant that the bananas I had in my bag needed to be dumped or eaten, so I ate them. However going through customs check out the sniffer dogs pounced on me and insisted that I had fruit into bag. No I haven't. Yes the dogs say there's something,but on a full search, of course they found nothing even though I'd told them they had been there before I ate them. I then waited 9 hours for the next flight, i checked in at 4am found a place to comfortably nap and casually walked to the gate with 15 mins to spare. On arrival my name was being called rather stressfully. So I ventured over with all kinds of imagination running through my head. We've been calling you for 90 minutes!!!! Yes?? We've quarantined your check in luggage as the X-ray showed up an explosive like stick and with you not coming to board we've been very worried. So can you identify what's in the bag. Mmmmm?? So anything that can explode remember you signed the declaration that you packed the bag and there was no explosives. !!! Yes but there isn't. Ok mrs Petersen is there a parachute or life jacket in there. ...... One that self inflates..... With a gas cannister.....,, oh dear woops forgot about that. (The one that Steve gave to Svend who gave it to me to put in my luggage. ) except I didn't think it helpful to say this. Your bags won't make this flight and may have destroyed the suspect package. Here's a form to sign that all damage and retrieval of your bags are at your own expense where ever you need to get them. Ok!!! Fortunately at arrival in Tahiti my bag was there untouched and complete with my explosive device. Which incidentally is the same as under 350 seats on the plane!! So as mentioned before on arrival on Hiva Oa there was no one there to meet me. I knew there was no public transport and svend had mentioned that he would try but if not they would be in the harbour. So after a cursory look around in the shed that was the terminal I accepted my fate and realised I either had to walk or hitch a lift. Fortunately a tractor bus full of the local football team were leaving so I hopped on board, and had a very pleasant journey down the mountain to island music and the smell of frangipanis worn by the returning footballers. !!!!!! I got dropped off at the harbour where only 6 boats lay and realised there was also no reception party awaiting me DESPITE knowing my time and date. Feeling rather at a loss I wondered what to do next but my thoughts were interjected with the sound of a Suzuki jeep appeared careering along the jetty with Svend and mark in it. They'd just been to the airport (late) I'd waited all of 4 minutes and we'd missed each other. What a shame as svend had hired a car just for me, went back to collect mark and missed me in the process. Oh well these things happen when you travel for 3 days to meet someone in the middle of nowhere!! We then proceeded to have a wonderful day exploring the island and I was finally ensconced on the yacht later that evening. Hi guys,
Svend & Helen are on their travels again, but just for ease I will keep with the same blog address as before. so basically:- Svend left Australia on 12th January to fly to Jamaica & meet Mark Emery (from our mothers group & owner of "Thinking of Dave" a 50ft Beneteau yacht) & sail with him & two others through the Panama canal, to the Galapagos Islands, then do a 28 day non stop ocean voyage across the Pacific Ocean towards French Polynesia. I remained behind despite having a ticket booked to Jamaica, (which i cancelled two days before departure) & spent time with Aden & Nathan, attended various parades, graduations & enlistments, as well as looking after our holiday houses during our peak season. Now all thats done & dusted, everyone is settled & holiday houses flow into low season, it is now time to join Svend on the rest of the journey. I am preparing to leave Australia tomorrow & fly via Auckland to Tahiti, then catch a 4 hour flight to intercept the yacht at Hiva Oa in the Marquesa Islands. Hopefully the Yacht will be there & we will be all reunited after 3 months apart. I will endeavour to add photos from Svend & Marks earlier trip & add my own spin & thoughts to our travels. Mark is also writing his own blog with his own style of writing, so between the two of us you can keep track of our trip in two completely different ways!! |