We are still following in Visions of Johanna's wake, and this was their selection as the final stop before the leave for Tahiti in a couple of days. They wanted a place that was easy to leave from, so they could time their departure for a convenient arrival time in Tahiti.
There is actually a pass that takes you inside the Toau lagoon. We hope to get back there later to check it out.
Our sail yesterday was relatively easy. We did an early exit from Fakarava on the last of the outgoing tide... with the current still running at 3-3.5 knots out. There was quite a chop in the middle of the pass, but we edged over to the east side, and it was no big deal, since the wind and the current were going the same direction. The wind blew all night in the 15-20kt range from ESE (right down the 25 mile length of Fakarava), so the 'chop' inside the lagoon was getting pretty big...2-3 feet when we left, and we had a fast beam reach for the 6 miles from the town anchorage to the pass. The pass would have been really nasty on an incoming current, with the current directly opposing the strong wind.
We set our route to sail right by the main pass at Toau, to get a look at it. The current was still running out, 2-3 hours after it should have turned to run in. We think this is the classic wind/wave effect, where the wind is blowing strong, pushing water into the lagoon over the low reef to the south. We thought we were passing far enough out that we wouldn't have been affected by the current, but we did get into some dicey waves, with the current still blasting out against the ESE wind and waves. We took one good square wave across the deck before we managed to get out of there... and we were almost a mile off the pass!
After that we had a really nice downwind sail along the coast of Toau. By the time we got halfway up the coast, Toau was sheltering us from the big southerly swell, which really smoothed the ride out. We gybed once to get around the corner, and on converging with the coast again near Anse Amyot, caught a nice big Mahi Mahi.
The entry into Anse Amyot is in the lee of the atoll. So even though the wind was blowing in the 20 knot range, it was an easy entry. It is pretty well marked, and the reefs are easily visible. The one thing we didn't expect was the 2-3 knot outgoing current. We understand that anytime the wind is blowing hard from the SE, there is an outgoing current here. This made picking up a mooring a little challenging, but fortunately, we had help from Visions in their dinghy. Fortunately there were 2 free moorings available when we arrived. (Our friends on s/v Puerto Seguro had answered our call on Ch 16 and confirmed there were moorings available, while we were still enroute.)
More on Anse Amyot itself later...
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At 5/27/2010 4:03 PM (utc) our position was 15°48.14'S 146°09.09'W
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We opted to make our hop as an easy overnight. We picked a great weather window--the weather was fine and the wind started out about 12 knots from the SE and was forecast to die off from SSW during the night. Using Gram from Vision's 'current predictor' spreadsheet (which takes an available tide point, makes an adjustment for an estimate wind/wave factor, and also some minor adjustments based on personal observations at that pass, we had an easy out of Tahanea.
We sailed off our anchor from our favorite anchorage at Tahanea (Taha5) about mid morning, and used Vision's waypoints to go direct across the lagoon to the middle pass. We could easily see the coral patch reefs that Visions had mentioned to us, and also noted dozen more on our chart. Because 'Janet', our autopilot, was in a cranky mood, we wandered quite far from the intended route at times, and so got to explore more of the lagoon. The water in the middle of the lagoon is quite deep--100-125 feet. The coral comes up to within a foot or two of the surface. Each patch reef is more than just one coral head, but really a small patch reef--usually something like 20' wide and 100' long, with light brown/yellow coral. In decent light, they stand out from half a mile away. If there was any significant chop in the lagoon, there would probably be disturbed water over the heads to make them visible, too.
We had a beautiful sail across the lagoon. Sunny skies with 12 knots on the beam, and we weren't in a hurry!! We circled inside the pass once to take a close look at conditions in the pass, then headed out, still under sail. We did turn on the engine as we entered the pass, just in case, but it was not necessary. There was a little chop on the west side of the pass, but the east side, still in 50' of water, was smooth. As we got outside, we were greeted by a large pod of dolphin. They raced to meet us, jumping out of the water ensemble in their haste (sorry, we didn't get the camera on deck in time to catch this beautiful sight).
The current was still in full ebb and pushing water out the passes close to a mile offshore. But with a SE wind, the north side of Tahanea was calm, and we had a very nice sail close in along the coast in calm water.
Next stop, Fakarava, 50 miles away.
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At 5/19/2010 7:36 PM (utc) our position was 16°30.28'S 145°27.36'W
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(1) Solid coral bottom
(2) Sand with a lot of coral heads
(3) Sand with a few coral heads (rare)
Due to being chased around by weather, we are currently anchoring in sand with a lot of coral heads. The water depth is usually 35-50 feet, and the coral heads are 4-5' off the bottom, and scattered on the bottom at about every 6-10 feet or so, with sand in between. This is a perfect setup to badly wrap your chain, damaging the coral and endangering your boat. If your chain gets wrapped close to the boat, you no longer have the 'catenary' of chain that provides a shock absorber when the wind blows or the waves get big. You can snap the chain or break bow rollers and windlasses in this situation.
On the advice of another cruiser (also fairly new to cruising this area), we bouyed our chain in 2 places to make it hang in the water above the coral heads. This turned out to be a pretty neat arrangement. Using readily available 'pearl farm' bouys, which can be found on any windward beach, we tied 2 together with a short line, and tied that line thru the anchor chain, to make one 'bouy'. The amount of flotation required depends on how heavy your chain is and how far apart you place the bouys. We found that 2 pearl farm bouys is just perfect to suspend 25-50' of our 3/8 HT chain.
Our friend recommended one bouy 1.5x the water depth from the anchor, and another 2.5x the water depth, with enough floatation to hold your chain up. You first put all your normal scope out and get the anchor set well, then pull up carefully to add the bouys in the right place.
After deploying ours as recommended (using a total of 4 pearl bouys in 2 sets of 2 bouys), I snorkeled to check the anchor and the chain. It looked pretty slick. The anchor was well set, the chain was hanging eerily over the coral heads and we were ready for the expected windshift, no problem.
Well, the middle of the night brought almost a 180 degree shift, and 25-30 knot winds in gusts. The fetch across the 10 miles of coral lagoon caused 4-5 foot waves in the anchorage, and our bow was pitching heavily, with a few waves breaking over the bow. Dave actually sent me below in the middle of our anchor drill, to batten all the hatches as if we were at sea!.
For the first time in a long time, we actually dragged anchor. Over a period of several hours and several squalls, we first held OK, then came loose from one coral head and held at another position, but then in a particularly bad squall (when a neighboring boat also dragged), we dragged our big 88-lb Delta about a hundred feet through the coral heads before it finally re-set itself.
We ended up in 10' of water (after having initially anchored in 35 feet), on a lee shore in a blow, with an isolated coral head within about 2 feet of our keel (unbeknownst to us at the time), and the reef right behind us around 100'. It was rainy and dark as hell, so we couldn't actually see the reef behind us, but we knew it was there, and our chart plotter told us we were 'on the coral' already, so we knew it was very close.
Fortunately, with the shallower water, our 'scope' ended up about 10:1, our anchor had found a good pocket of sand, and we held finally pretty well. We were damned lucky. We spent the last 4 hours of darkness with the engine on (in neutral, but ready to go) and one of us at the helm, watching the GPS and ready at the throttle if we needed to. We counted the minutes to 'first light' so we could safely assess the situation and decide how to extricate ourselves.
We considered, but rejected, trying to re-anchor in the night. But, not knowing how our chain might be wrapped, and the complexity of getting the snubber and the bouys aboard as we're pulling in the chain, and the 25 knot gusts that would make low-speed maneuvering almost impossible, we opted to sit tight and hope our anchor would continue to hold. Fortunately, it did.
At dawn, holey moley, there was the reef close behind us!
I jumped in the water to assess the situation, and saw the one coral head a few feet under our keel as we swung back and forth. By then the wind had eased some, and gone back East a little, giving us a little protection from the waves. We turned out not to be too badly wrapped, the bouys having done the job well. To solve the problem of bouy retrieval while pulling in the chain, I took a sharp knife out and cut the bouys free.
As to why our 'never drags' Delta did drag, Dave suspects that the bouy close to the anchor was set too close, and interfered with our Delta's holding/resetting power under extreme conditions. We probably were also not set in really deep sand.
So when we re-anchored, we opted to go with only one (set of) bouys, placed about 1.5x the water depth from the BOW (vs the anchor). This leaves about 30-40' of chain laying on the bottom, where it might wrap, but also provides the correct angle of pull for the anchor. But the last 100' of chain is neatly suspended about 10' above the tops of the coral heads. If the wind switches, we would probably wrap the first 50', but we always have more chain we can let out (and another set of bouys we can deploy, if necessary).
To facilitate bouy attachment and retrieval, Dave found a snap shackle that fits the chain, so he now has 2 bouys tied together with a 3-4' line, with the shackle tied in the middle. He can easily snap on and remove a pair of bouys in a few seconds, as the chain is coming in or going out. The shackle only has to hold a few hundred pounds of chain, in water, so it doesn't need to be super-hefty. Caribiners or something similar might be scrounged out of your spare hardware box to do the trick. We have the second set of bouys ready to attach another 50' down the chain, should we need to let out more scope.
We'll let you know how the whole thing works out in the end.
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At 5/14/2010 8:14 PM (utc) our position was 16°51.06'S 144°41.55'W
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At 11:30, we took off in the dinghy behind the crew from Visions of Johanna, to dive the pass at the tail end of the incoming current. Nice dive!!
There are only 3 boats here that we know of... Visions, Soggy Paws, and Nakia (svnakia.blogspot.com).
Happy Hour on Soggy Paws tonight--coconut steamed breadfruit is my appetizer, along with breadfruit french fries.
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At 5/10/2010 5:22 PM (utc) our position was 16°49.35'S 144°28.47'W
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But 20 years ago, everyone just thanked their lucky stars when they could get safely past the Tuamotus, giving them a wide berth. The atolls are only coral reef with a few palm trees, so they are not visible for more than 3 miles. There are currents around here, between the atolls. It took some pretty tricky and risky navigation to do what we've done in the past 2 days.
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At 5/10/2010 5:13 PM (utc) our position was 16°49.48'S 144°27.51'W
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We've been sailing along in gentle winds and gentle seas all day, but still making about 5.5 knots. Nice!
I got several Happy Mother's Day's from Dave, a nice email from daughter Nicki (followed up by a short satellite phone call from me to her), and even the guys on the Pacific Seafarer's Net wished me a Happy Mother's Day.
We are eagerly anticipating landfall tomorrow morning sometime at Tahanea.
I went looking for other sources of slack current information, and found contradicting information in the British Admiralty and the US Pacific Pilot guide (Pub 126). The cruising guides seem to quote one or the other. Gram on Visions has put together a spreadsheet, presumably to enter the moon rise/set times and come out with expected slack times. I'm not sure which one he's based it on, but they've been in and out of 3 atolls now, so we are assuming they know. He told us to shoot for 9am tomorrow or 3:15pm. It looks like we'll get there in time for the 9am.
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At 5/10/2010 7:21 AM (utc) our position was 17°03.30'S 143°39.45'W
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Just when we were starting to count our chickens, we got a wind switch that drove us more west than we planned. This was complicated by the fact that we had set the spinnaker pole up on the jib, and with the pole up, we couldn't 'harden up' and keep our original course line. We didn't want mess with trying to take that big spinnaker pole down in big seas in the dark. (For the non-sailors, a spinnaker pole is an aluminum pole about 20 feet long and 4 inches in diameter, used to 'pole out' a sail to keep it from flopping when sailing downwind).
We spent the whole night dodging squalls with 25 knots of wind, rain, and wind from the wrong direction. Neither of us got much sleep.
We took the pole down at first light, but by then the damage was done. We couldn't make our waypoint without really bashing into 20 knot winds and 8 foot seas. No thanks. So we took the easy way out, and sailed up the west side of Hao. It afforded enough protection from the big seas to give us a breather, time to take a nap, and consider what we wanted to do. We were close enough to see some tiny palm islands on the rim (called 'motus' in Polynesia).
We had planned to arrive at Hao with winds having eased to under 15 knots for at least 24 hours. But the forecast changed and it had been blowing almost 20 for at least 24 hours. We were pretty sure that, even if we'd made it on time, we would have found a 5+ knot outgoing current anyway.
If we'd really been stuck on Hao, we would have just hove to for the night and tried it in the morning. But it takes the lagoon several days to empty off all the water that washes into it when the seas/winds are high. So it was iffy. And Dave really wanted to go to Tahanea anyway. :)
So we had lunch, plotted a course for Tahanea, and bore off WNW for Tahanea, 230 miles away. Its almost, but not quite, dead down wind. So we will gybe a couple of times to get there (unless the wind shifts). We will have to dodge around a few atolls also. (Thank goodness for our GPS and very accurate French electronic charts).
So we are enjoying a nice downwind sail--no moon right now, but lots of stars. No squalls tonight, thank God. The wind has eased to the 15 knot range and the seas are much better also. ETA Tahanea sometime Monday, in light winds.
Our friends on Visions of Johanna are there, and the big attraction at Tahanea is DIVING!! (The visibility at Hao was very poor, Visions said). We are FINALLY going to do some serious diving in some seriously fantastic atolls.
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At 5/9/2010 7:37 AM (utc) our position was 17°45.33'S 141°43.76'W
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The challenge we face in calculating the best arrival time is twofold. Exactly when is high/low tide and therefore when to expect a slack current. And what effect will the wind and seas have on things. (and third, how long we feel like hanging out outside waiting...)
We learned that at Hao, when the wind has been blowing hard for a few days, there is NEVER a slack current--the current is always outgoing at 5-10 knots!! This is caused by the waves breaking over the windward side of the reef, filling up the lagoon, and the only outlet is the passes, which are typically on the downwind side of the reef. Our friends on Visions, with a 62' boat that motors comfortably at 8-9 knots, went in without paying too much attention to the slack current issue, and got pooped by a huge standing wave (first time in 5000 miles of voyaging). They have a pretty good blog post about it (vofj.blogspot.com, about 10 days ago).
So the reason we left Gambiers in 'boisterous' conditions was to arrive at Hao when the wind was easing. We're hoping there will be a slack current at some point.
We use WXTide32 (freeware downloaded from the web) to figure our tides. Generally it is pretty accurate. But for the Tuamotus, there are only 2 tide points, and there is some confusion about what time zone the tide points are on. For Hao, there are actually 2 tide points--basically the same one but on 2 different timezones. One is labelled '-10', meaning, we think, UTC -10, which is the time zone that Hao is on (one further west than Hawaii). The other is labelled Tz: Pacific/Marquesas. The tide times are 1.5 hours different! (For some reason the Marquesas are on a half a time zone).
But knowing when the tide turns doesn't always tell you when the current will be slack. We have a reference from the Pacific Islands Pilot that says "To avoid a difficult passage through the reef, vessels should wait for the two periods of slack water associated with the flood current, which are short. Slacks usually occur about 4.5 hours and 2 hours before moonrise; and again 5 hours and 3 hours before moonset. When the tidal race slows or stops, the channel may be entered".
So this is what we'll be basing our slack current information on. (Plus the advice of Visions of Johanna, who was at Hao for a few days).
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At 5/7/2010 6:39 PM (utc) our position was 20°03.82'S 138°42.00'W
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No one warned me that the Pacific was so big and the islands so far apart. I long for the Bahamas, only 75 miles from home, with lots of islands only hours apart, and enclosed by a big protecting reef. (And fish you can actually eat!)
Dave keeps telling me that the Bahamas are crap, and he'll never pay $300 to go there (that's the entry fee they enacted for boats over 40 feet a few years ago). And he says... wait til you see the diving in the Pacific. Well, I'm still waiting. (Though our friends on Visions have been diving at Makemo in the Tuamotus and raving about it).
And we'd never get around the world hanging out in Marsh Harbor!! (or Double-Breasted Cays).
Anyway, I digress. We left the Gambiers 2 days ago, in pretty rough (for us) conditions. The wind was blowing 18-20 kts and the seas were about 8 feet. If we hadn't been going on a broad reach, I would never have been able to get Dave to leave in those conditions. But he is learning that wind is good!! (even if it does get the boat all salty).
It has been relatively easy. The biggest challenge has been getting our autopilot to steer well on a broad reach with the big genny up and a small triple reefed main. Dave likes to have the main up for a steadying sail and a 'last resort' sail in a squall. But it makes us unbalanced and Janet (the autopilot) doesn't like broad reaching with that sail combo at all.
Every time we get things set up so we're going where we want to go, the wind speed changes a little and we have to rebalance all over again. (Let sails in and out, tweak the heading on the autopilot). Add in the 'dark as hell' factor at night, where you can't see what your sails are doing (or the weather coming at you), and it makes life interesting!! When Janet doesn't like the heading we've picked, she responds by veering back and forth about 100 degrees... luffing the sails because we're too far upwind on one extreme, and because we're too far downwind on the other extreme. Tweak the heading 5 degrees, and she's happy and settles right down and steers properly.
We are threading our way between many small atolls, but unfortunately, none have passes that would let us go inside, and it doesn't seem possible to drop a hook on the outside in most conditions. (At least we have no guidebooks or cruiser accounts of anyone who has done it successfully). So we are going direct to Hao, which has a big pass, marked entry, and for which we have detailed charts.
We have about 180 miles to go--about 25-30 hours more at our current speed.
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At 5/7/2010 6:34 PM (utc) our position was 20°04.16'S 138°41.62'W
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This trip will be about 465 miles, and we expect to get into Hao late in the day on Saturday, May 8th. If you want to read up on Hao, check Visions' blog at vofj.blogspot.com. They were there about a week ago.
The weather forecast looks pretty good. We expect 15-20 kts on our port quarter for the whole trip, and are projecting an average speed of about 6.3 knots.
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At 5/5/2010 2:44 PM (utc) our position was 23°08.56'S 135°02.81'W
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From what we understand, flour is a subsidized item, and the bakery gets an allotment of government-subsidized flour, and when that's gone, they go on vacation til the next ship comes in with a new allotment.
With all the cruisers passing thru now (gobbling up baguettes like they're going outta style), they really ran through their normal amount of flour early.
We still have one or two left in our fridge (we stockpiled when they were available). Since we can't get regular sliced bread, we use the baguettes for all our bread needs, so we buy 6 or 8 at a time. They're not too bad when re-heated in the oven--they get nice and warm like they were just baked, and soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside, just like good French bread should be.
I COULD bake some bread. I bought tons of flour in Ecuador before we left. But so far this year, I have only baked one loaf of bread!! Dave is a nut when it comes to stockpiling bread, and though I'd much prefer fresh baked bread... it's a lot of work!!
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At 4/18/2010 4:04 PM (utc) our position was 23°09.61'S 135°02.27'W
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Labels: Gambiers