Trade Wind Sailing

Ua Pou Church

Well, we are under way again from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus and we are sailing full speed - 9 knots in 16-18 knots of breeze on a beam reach.  Pippa arrived on Friday with many spare parts and we have fixed lots of problems - most important a gooseneck pin so we have full use of the mainsail, but also a new control box for the mainsheet winch, a key terminal for the domestic alternator which we had fried, a lock mechanism for the forward heads, a new joystick for the bowthruster! So some important and others nice to have. So our remaining problem is the gearbox which at low revs judders horribly and makes you think you might shake the engine off its mounts. So we have on delivery to Tahiti from the UK a new gearbox, new drive plates, and a new engine-to-propshaft-coupling which we almost certainly don't need.

Oh yes, and an engineer from NZ to do the work as Tahiti doesn't seem confident to do it!

Pippa and William arrived Friday and were put straight onto Marquesan horses and went for a ride in the Alpine pastures of Nuku Hiva. Then on Saturday it was Fete des Meres and we went to the party - 70% local - to judge the most beautiful mothers in three age categories, eat poisson cru and goat,
and then watch Marquesan dancing again. Great fun. Dinner aboard with more sashimi. The

Approaching Makemo

exchange rate is 2 coca colas equals 1kg of freshly caught yellowfin tuna equals 4 carrots. So the freezer has 3kg of yellowfin tuna in JUST IN CASE we don't catch any. Buying tuna this way is cheaper than buying the lures to catch it. Sunday morning was Fete des Meres service where we listened to the beautiful singing without hymn books outside the packed church.

Then to the island of Ua Pou and dinner ashore chez Jerome. A walk round town and a visit to the beautiful cathedral with a wonderful carved pew. A sail round the corner and then a walk up towards the amazing basalt volcanic plug spires and a swim in a gorgeous waterfall. Only downside is that you

Two chart plotters and forward looking sonar

had to keep your shoulders underwater to avoid the mozzies. We left at 5pm and now at 8am the following morning we are 130NM on out of the 485NM to Makemo where we will visit our first atoll. It has been windy so the atolls are full of water that has been blown into the middle and we are approaching springs, so it will be interesting navigating to find slack water. We are going too fast and will arrive in the dark on Thursday morning but it is such fun to have proper wind, good sails, Calliope in her element.

Catching up - Cruising the Marquesas

Baie des Vierges, Fatu Hiva

You'd think we have lots of time to write and let you, our faithful readers, know what we've been up to. And yet... I think it's partly that we just don't spend time at the computer, or even on our 'devices' - except when we go ashore and join the saddos at the nearest wifi spot, where it's a delight to hear

Waterfall Fatu Hiva

from y'all. It's only this address, mailasail, where you need to keep it without pictures or links - feel free to write at length (though preferably without big attachments) to our usual .me and .icloud addresses.  I liked hearing from Susan about Islington's history exhibition, which she's helping to curate, for instance. I enjoy still being on the mailing list for Book Club -

Tiki Hiva Oa

I read and loved the set book, Days without End, by Sebastian Barry. It's good to hear that traditions are being maintained in our absence and that the Skerritts popped into the O'Briens for a drink (or was it the other way round?) And it's sad to hear that Robin Mabey died - and that Kasper the dog is no longer with us. Life and its opposite go on,
even when we are far away.

And we really ARE far away! The Marquesas Islands are just dots in the Pacific on any normal map, and not much bigger on navigational charts.

They lie three and a half hours flight northeast of Tahiti, which is the only way to get here by air. Very few travellers make it here, apart from yachts, and it's the very definition of unspoiled. We arrived at the easternmost island, Fatu Hiva, on 5 May, two days after my birthday, which was celebrated in style with candles on a birthday brownie-cake. Cards and presents from home and

Calliope in Ahona Bay, Nuku Hiva

Switzerland had been smuggled aboard, which was lovely. We (that's Charles and I, Alex and Roger and Dinah Graffy) had taken almost exactly 19 days to cross from the Galapagos. It's hard to summarise a long passage like that: there were eventful moments, some more pleasurable than others (catching fish and eating it as sashimi minutes later was wonderful, briefly losing Alex overboard - though he was always attached - much less so) There were long periods of not much happening, which is not a bad thing in itself and was particularly calming on night watches. Gazing at the Milky Way and shooting stars, the hours passed quite quickly.

Local Boats

Life on Fatu Hiva is quite simple and we found that with no local currency (the French Polynesian franc), everything we needed had to be bartered for. A lipstick (I'd equipped myself with 15 from the pound shop) bought two breadfruits, a large bunch of bananas and several pamplemousses (less bitter than the grapefruit we're used to). When we wanted to buy a wooden bowl from an artisan carver, we gave him some sheets of sandpaper and a pair each of reading glasses for him and his wife. Alex and I went to church on Sunday and were thrilled by the singing and sung responses - not a hymn book in sight. We went on an epic hike involving several wrong turns to a beautiful waterfall and swam in the pool below it. Alex joined in the locals' football practice and even played in their match, though he had to retire due to injured (and muddy) bare feet.

On to the next island, Hiva Oa we checked into French Polynesia officially at the gendarmerie and hired a car; this involved taking the keys out of the ashtray and driving it away, not so much as a 'may I see your driving licence?', let alone paperwork, even of the 'name and address' variety. We went on a fairly hair-raising drive, much of it on dirt tracks, finding sandy coves, dramatic cliffs and hillsides with a mind-blowing variety of trees - coconuts, palms, ferns, conifers and what we think were a kind of mimosa, with wide, feathery flat tops towering above all the others. Just a short dinghy ride from our anchorage, we snorkelled with manta rays a couple of metres across, very eerie in the opaque water (the Marquesas have lots of suspended nutrients in their waters - not so good for diving, but great for whales and dolphins). I spent a lively morning in the local primary school, fielding their questions (in French) about England and teaching them some basic phrases, then being shown their vegetable garden.

Nuku Hiva dancers

From Hiva Oa we went to neighbouring Tahuata island and had a great evening sharing sundowner drinks and snacks ashore with lots of other Oyster rally crews -- the first time we'd seen many of them since the big crossing. Then on to Nuku Hiva, the capital of the Marquesas, where a fantastic party was laid on by Oyster including unbelievable warrior dancing - similar to New Zealand Haka, very
ferocious particularly as the men are tattooed all over and wore only grass skirts. We've been here for a week and will stay one more, awaiting Pippa and William's arrival. It was very hard to say goodbye to Alex after almost six weeks together, a really precious time, and to send him on his marathon journey to Buenos Aires (via Auckland!) to see whether he can find the kind of work he's looking for there.

We've been for a drive round this island too, which yielded the anticipated banana and palm fringed beaches, with a grilled lobster lunch stop, and the utterly unexpected northern end of the island, which is alpine and reaches 1200m above sea level: cows, conifers, hairpin bends and air so cool I had (for the first time since January) goosebumps. Yesterday we walked up a valley through
fertile gardens and agriculture to a waterfall - apparently the third highest in the world - but we couldn't get close enough and the river went into the tightest of gorges, and then came back to a lunch of grilled goat, raw fish, papaya and other salad, and mango sorbet, all grown and prepared by a couple living the Marquesan self-sufficient life. $10 each including a  mass of pamplemousse, mangos, ginger, breadfruit and limes in

Waterfall Valley Nuku Hiva

return This evening we are anchored in TaiPaiVai bay, made famous by Herman Melville's Typee. No, there are no cannibals in sight. In fact, there is not a single sign of human habitation, only a few goats making their way along the cliffs. It's beautiful, remote and the only downside is that there are lots of little mosquitoes, called nono. We are a very long way from home and that's fine, but please do keep in touch. We will sail to Tahiti next, via the Tuamotus (otherwise known as the Dangerous Archipelago).  Love from Paradise!

We have reached the Marquesas

Land Ahoy, Fatu Hiva

It took 19 days from the Galapagos so about 4 days longer than our Atlantic crossing in 2009

We broke the gooseneck pin so had no mainsail for 15 days. However we only lost 1/2 days vs those who didn't have this problem.  We sailed with poled-out genoa and the staysail led wide on the other side, or with the kite which we managed to double-wrap and spend most of a day trying to solve the Rubix cube of unwinding it.  Genearally winds were light, when we probably would have liked some more with the lack of mainsail. We had to do quite a bit or motoring for the last 4 or 5 days, when we began to want to get there

Fishing was not great we only caught one amberjack and one skipjack tuna, and lost about six lures.

Spirits remained high, food was delicious. Many books were read. A rhythm was maintained, and crew remained happy.

However, landfall was exciting and Fatu Hiva was a much bigger and taller island than we had expected. Green, green and with high clouds above it.  We couldn't clear into Fatu Hiva but other boats reported no issues, so this didn't seem the place to worry about bureaucracy - and it wasn't.

On landing we went ashore and tried to see if we could buy anything. Two issues: no Polynesian Francs and the locals had no interest it Dollars and Euros; and not much to buy. But we did buy a lovely small wooden bowl, and paid for it with two pairs of reading glasses, three sheets of sandpaper, and some lipstick.

On passage again

I am sorry about lack of correspondence, but we has problems with the Satphone logging on and downloading stuff we didn't ask for when we wanted to send and receive emails, and then running up $70 of charges each time.
Now fixed and I hope you get this on mailasail or blogspot.

If you have been watching Yellowbrick you will see we have been going quite slowly and losing ground to the fleet. Problem is no mainsail, which means we have the genoa and the staysail, and now we have the asymmetric ready to go when we get the right wind. Wind has been light for the last two days so there has been quite a lot of motoring and we are only doing 6 knots under
engine to conserve fuel. When the wind blows we have two efficient sail plans - either poled out genoa to one side and the staysail to the other which enables us to go 8-10 knots with good wind, or both foresails to one side which works well with the wind on the beam and we can make 9 knots in 15 knots. We had that for about two hours this afternoon, after which the wind has dropped to about 10 knots and we make 6 knots. So only 150NM days. We are now 850NM to go so next Friday seems like a likely arrival date in Fatu Hiva.

Roger and I did a lot of stainless cleaning today. Nicky has been embroidering, and Alex and Dinah have done a lot of reading. Fishing has been poor returns. We have had 4 fish hooked, landed one and lost 3 lures so far.

Nicky's birthday will be at sea. Happy May Bank Holiday weekend to you all!

Broken Gooseneck

Yesterday was one week since departure; we about 1300NM from Galapagos and about 1700NM to go. Winds have been about 12-20 knots from E or ESE. Main problem has been that the gooseneck pin sheared about 3 days ago. Roger noticed the boom moving after dinner when I had gone to bed, and so we had to furl the main away, secure the boom and make it safe with topping lift,

spinnaker halyards and guys amidships. Then the following day we made up a new gooseneck from the backstay/vang handle which has worked well in terms of safety but not enough to fly the mainsail from. So our sail pattern is
poled-out genoa and staysail led wide amidships to the padeye for the guy. It's fine when the wind is close to 20 knots and we can make 8knots, but
below 15 it's a bit slow and we drop into the 6s. We have managed 180NM noon-to-noon ydy with this rig in good winds, after which it has been a bit light. Overall I think it is costing us 1 knot of speed which adds up over 10 days! I don't think we have a chance of making Fatu Hiva for Nicky's birthday.

I managed to make a bad furl on the asymmetric and get the top down and bottom up going in the wrong direction. So we have tried hard to get it to shake out but it wouldn't so we have manually unwound it all, and will have to hoist unfurled without a sock, which I only feel comfortable doing in lighter winds than we have. So we haven't been able to fly the asymmetric but it's just a bit windy for that at times. A rock-solid not-too-large symmetrical spinnaker might be the answer, but that would be harder to do with single watches.

Single watches are working well and everyone has time to get good sleep, if it isn't too rolly. Nicky packed the freezer with meals she pre-cooked in Panama and they have been great in these conditions. Last night was Babotie, previous night chicken in tomato and Noilly Prat sauce, night

before that was fillet steak with Dinah's delicious roast potatoes. Fruit and veg is holding out in the netting in the saloon and in the pilot berth, but needs daily checks to throw out hairy carrots or potatoes.

Crew good, great fun to have Alex on board. Roger is a fantastic fixer of things. We have a shiny new flush shackle on the anchor which shouldn't catch on the stemhead; we have tried hard to isolate the electrical fault on the mainsheet winch (but manual is fine); and we haven't yet fixed the problem on the engine start battery (but we can link to the generator battery which is working well).

Massive book-reading going on. Elizabeth Jane Howard Cazalet novels, I am Pilgrim, Sebastian Barry, Bryson's a short history of nearly everything

Glad Arsenal made the FA Cup Final. If Macron winds the French election with a party that is less than 2 years old what does that bring? UK Election presumably driven by the Tory Right - I think we keep sailing

The long passage to the Marquesas–3000 nautical miles–and the Galapagos

Ocean passage relaxation

Apologies for being so long since our last post, but life has been extremely busy with the Galapagos and then departing for the Marquesas. We are into the afternoon of the third day and since yesterday morning we have had good winds and good boat speed. Let’s hope that we are properly into the trade winds. Our course to the Marquesas is c 260 degrees and we have been trying to get south first to find winds so sailing 220 degrees to begin with and now 240. We are now 8 degrees S and the Marquesas are 10 deg S and 135 deg W.  The Galapagos are on the equator and 90 degrees west, so you see the amount of westing we have to make – one eighth ot the globe’s circumference.  The wind is just south of East and so we have been on a beam reach all day making 8.5knots.  Can we get to 200NM in 24 hours?  We are five up with Alex and Roger and Dinah

Daytime snooze in the Nest

who joined us in the Galapagos.

All well and the food which Nicky spent such time in Panama preparing is delicious. [note from Nicky: most recipes are my mother’s – layered ratatouille and chicken with Noilly Prat, for instance – but I also have four Meg Campbell boboties frozen. I’ve made mocha squares this morning and Charles and I take turns making bread – his ciabatta with sunflower seeds yesterday was a great success.] We need to eat food in the freezer and fridge to make space for any fish we may catch. Alex caught a 7kg yellow fin tuna within about 3 mins of putting the line in last week which provided delicious sashimi and tuna steaks.  With five on board and single two hour watches, you can get plenty of sleep and we are now adapting to the rhythm of the boat and watches.  It is strange to feel so small and alone on a night watch – no other vessels, only stars and sea.  We had two dolphins accompanying us day before yesterday and the odd bird flies past, but mostly it’s just…emptiness. The Pacific is huge.

Lucky at the helm

The Galapagos Islands were amazing – wildlife and scenery you can’t see anywhere else.  At the airport Nicky managed to get past security into baggage reclaim to meet Alex whom we hadn’t seen since October after his Ambling through Africa, and Pippa whom we last saw in January.  Floods!   Mike – stand by for Tahiti airport! 

Sea lions on the transom

You kept on thinking what the next superlative could be: we dived with hammerhead and Galapagos sharks off San Cristobal, swam in a ball of fish and watched shoals of 1000 yellow fin tuna and barracuda swim past; we walked volcanoes and volcanic forest paths, stepping over marine iguanas, black as their lava rocks, with spiky crests; we swam with turtles, sea lions and sea horses in Isabela; we visited tortoise rearing centres where we saw tiny babies and 160 year olds (ugly and slow, yet fascinating); and then, just as Pippa was about to leave us, we went snorkelling off Pinnacle Rock on Bartolome (an extraordinary, moon-like place) where we found new reef fish and then three little penguins, who obligingly dived in off the rocks and went fishing right in front of us about a metre away.  Oops – I nearly forgot seeing the humpback whales and manta rays, 5m in width, jumping. All the animals are so unafraid that on San Cristobal we saw marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies and a sea lion on the same rock next to the pier.

Bluefooted Love

The steps to the dock were covered in sea lions jostling for the best spot.  [Nicky again: I’m embroidering animals and birds we’ve seen – at the moment I’m sewing turquoise feet on a pair of blue-footed boobies, which we saw courting and nesting].

I hope the Ecuadorians keep the Galapagos safe and keep the visitor numbers balanced.  On the one hand it is good it is all very controlled; but on the other hand there are masses of regulations, some more sensible than others, everything is a tour which provides employment but does make it all feel a bit packaged. Our cruise boat had engine failure and so we did a series of DIY outings, which I think we actually preferred.

San Bartolome

PS how do we get a postal vote?  4 out of 5 of us will be out of the country.
Alex: fans of hearing about our sat phone data allocation will be disappointed to hear I’ve got nothing to add on that front. Dad’s covered most of what we’ve been up to, although I feel Pippa’s contribution is underplayed – she barely gets a mention! It was lovely hanging out with her for the first time in six months: she’s still as competitive as ever; it was entertaining to compare her tan with ours; she may have mentioned once or twice that she’s got a boyfriend called Will… Mum breaking through security at Galapagos airport was a highlight, and thankfully the police decided to not get between a lioness and her cubs. Every time you think the Galapagos have exhausted their wonders, they manage to surprise and delight once again. Uniquely unique. Oh, and many thanks to the universe for putting on an excellent private nightly shooting star show out here in the middle of the Pacific – it feels like you can reach out and touch the Milky Way, although given that there’s absolutely nothing for hundreds of miles around us, and a 4,000m drop to the sea floor, I haven’t tried too hard!

Crossing the Equator - two up to the Galapagos

Hitch-hikers

We arrived safely in Galapagos after an uneventful and windless for the last two days crossing from Las Perlas.  But we successfully made it two up without incident including flying the asymmetric two up and the poled-up genoa.  We had company the whole way, with Miss Tiggy following us as their autopilot wasn’t working and and it’s much easier, when hand-steering, to follow – especially at night.  There was no moon so it was very dark and the stars and planets were magnificent.



We also had company in the form of birds: four of them perched on the pulpit all the last night, leaving a lot of guano evidence, and each night white birds swooped around our navigation lights.  I’m not sure what was in it for them, but they accompanied us for hours and it felt as though they were watching over us on those long (4 hour) night watches. This system gave us just enough sleep over five nights, although dodging fishing vessels on the last night into Galapagos was tiring.

We crossed the equator at 3am and paid homage to Neptune, though we had celebrated with a bottle of champagne when Miss Tiggy swam across at 5pm.  We did have two days of good sailing in flat seas.

San Cristobal is our first Galapagos island, with a bustling little town and efficient water taxis to pick you up from your boat – just as well, as any dinghy left in the water for even a moment is colonised by smelly, moulting sea lions.  We all put fenders and other obstacles on the boat’s swimming platform (our “seal defences”), but several friends have had their cockpit occupied overnight.  The whole archipelago is a national park with very strict ecological rules, so when we arrived we were visited by eight officials, who checked that we were separating our rubbish (though when we came ashore we found it all goes in one bin…), didn’t have any fruits with seeds on board (I hid the lemons at the back of the fridge) and that the boat’s bottom was clean. 

Miss Tiggy

Movement of yachts between islands is strictly regulated, so there’s a whole industry of ferries and tours – we are hoping to visit Espanola on Wednesday.  Yesterday we went diving (Charles) and snorkelling (Nicky) to Kicker Rock (Leo Dormido), an impressive hunk of rock with masses of sea birds, including blue-footed boobies and frigate birds displaying their red neck pouches.  It was rather overcast, so not ideal diving conditions, but we ticked off various sharks, including a hammerhead, as well as many fish and impressively large turtles, close enough to touch.

Punta Pitt, San Cristobal

Ecuador held an election yesterday and citizens were not allowed to drink alcohol for 48 hours leading up to election day.  Might a similar ban have affected the Brexit vote or the US elections?  Anyway, today there is a recount and it seems the same party has stayed in power – at least, I think that’s what our taxi aquatico driver said.  One thing I definitely do NOT miss is politics!