Bora and Bora - last stop in French Polynesia

We briefly stopped by a performance of local dancing by children from many schools on the island. Quite liked this picture of Mom and a little one. Wearing flowers in the hair is very common throughout FP.

Bora Bora – they liked it so much they named it twice (sorry!). BB is about 130 miles from Moorea, hence a morning departure makes sense. It took us about 25 hours and, wait for it, we finally had proper trade winds – about 15 knots with Ainia on a broad reach most of the time with only the genoa up and poled out with the spinnaker pole. It was a very pleasant and relaxing sail and hopefully will be only the first of many as we head west north of 20°S.

Along with Moorea, BB is the ‘face’ of French Polynesia in magazines, movies and the like. It is certainly beautiful with gorgeous water and a lovely crag in the center of the island, but to our mind it has been spoiled by tourism. The people seem to verge on surliness and you know things are not good when the woman in the tourist information office is not friendly and helpful. This is not to say that everyone is unpleasant, but there were enough people here were that it leaves a bad feeling. Perhaps it is because this is a place for very high end tourists with virtually all hotels having the over-the-water-bungalows that rent for $1000+ a night. The locals may just be tired of being nice to tourists that their natural friendliness is lost.

Bora Bora is like most of the Society Islands (western French Polynesia) - mountains in the middle, a reef and motus around the outside and a protected lagoon in between. Here we are entering the only pass into BB. It is deep and wide enough the cruise ships enter.

The full moon came up over the mountain at the anchorage at the BBYC.

We did not do much here. Went to a supposedly famous cruisers’ hangout for dinner. Bloody Mary’s is certainly not that at all. Eight of us went from the anchorage and we were the only sailors there. Everyone else was from the hotels (we shared our shuttle bus with folks from the Four Seasons. BM’s was very expensive (some entrees were more than $40) and very formulaic – perhaps the tipoff was that they sold many t-shirts advertising themselves. The food was OK at best and one of our may have had a touch of food poisoning.

Some of the famous people who have eaten at Bloody Mary's. They did not ask us our names - perhaps they already knew. Hope they get the spelling right.

Speaking of supposedly famous cruiser spots, we took a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club which is not a YC at all but another restaurant. They are being remodelled for an opening with new management so the moorings were free which was nice since anchoring in BB is hard since the water is very deep in most spots.

Tomorrow (June 17^th) we are leaving for Suvarov which is about 700 miles from here. We have been waiting for some wind for a few days but the pressure gradient was killed by a very deep low (965 mb – yikes!!) that is passing far to the south of us. There will be some wind building in the next days (to 20 knots) but also swells from the south that may be in the 17 foot range. We hope to do an end run around the worst of these but may have to motor tomorrow to get a good start.

Miscellania

• Here are a bunch of topics that I have missed along the way Spending – Our May spending was about $3700. Three things contributed to this large amount – we stayed in a marina in Papeete for more than two weeks. This was partly for convenience as we had many errands to run in town and partly because anchoring is not easy since most areas for anchoring have been filled with moorings. We also had to spend quite a bit of money on fixing things from our knockdown – a new solar panel, stanchion, and bimini repair. Finally, shopping was superb at the hypermarche, but it was not cheap.

Also, it has been brought to my attention that boat parts worth about $2000 that were brought to Ecuador by our friend Ian were not listed in the expense summary. I will try to update that when possible. We have ordered some things to be delivered to American Samoa because it is easy (no customs for stuff from the US) and cheap for shipping.

• Peru election – Of course everyone has been following this with great anticipation, but just in case you have not, I learned that you cannot pick favourites based on how many signs they have. In the first round of the election, the leaders were Ollanta (a former general who is quite populist in his views) and Keiko (daughter of former president, and now convict, Alberto Fujimori). I am using first names here because that is how they ran for election. In the runoff election between these two, Ollanta won narrowly so Peru now continues the trend in South America toward populist leaders (see Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil). Ollanta says he is more like Lula da Silva in Brazil than Cesar Chavez who is the boogeyman who gets linked to all of these left-wing leaders.
• Boil on my leg – A visit to the new and impressive hospital in Papeete gave me more information about what I had – a staph infection of the skin that got serious wherever there was a break in the skin e.g. insect bite or scratch. By the time I got to the hospital I had three lesions – the one that started it all coming from Easter Island and two others also on the same leg plus one on my arm that was just getting started. The very nice and competent doctors and nurse cleaned everything out (thanks for the nitrous to distract me from the digging) and sent me to the pharmacie with a long list of things to buy. The two smaller lesions healed within about 10 days but the original one is still thereafter 10 weeks although the opening now is quite tiny.

For those who are planning to go off cruising, I would suggest that you talk to your doctor about what to do about such infections. There was an American boat at the marina with a crew with similar infections – I think it may be a tropical thing. I used an oral antibiotic designed for skin infections, a topical antiseptic and a dermatological soap. BTW, the cost for the treatment at the hospital was less than $50 (and involved two doctors and a nurse, in total for more than an hour). Supplies at the pharmacy were something like $130. I shudder to think how much it would have been in the US.

· Hood-design – I had a question (sorry for the delay) about how our Hood-designed and Bristol-built boat has done so far. Overall I would give it an A rating. It is remarkably strong and resilient. I suspect that our knockdown might have been worse and damage much more with a lesser boat. I am very appreciative of the 17 tonnes+ of displacement we have. It makes the boat more comfortable both at sea and at anchor. We have been experiencing another maramu wind at Moorea for the past few days with winds gusting above 40 knots at time. There is a Saga 43 (nice boat, but fairly light) anchored here and it gets thrown around in the gusts and heels at least 15° at anchor.

The centerboard configuration has been helpful and it gives us three advantages I think. We can get into shallower spots (more of an issue in the Bahamas than here where anchorages can be 80 feet deep and more), on those rare occasions where you need to point it is great, and most often, when reaching it allows easy control of weather helm which is essential with vane steering.

Complaints? The bow could be a bit higher and fuller which might keep the deck drier. It is common to have lots of water on deck. Having to rely only on the deck drains means that more water comes before the previous wave has drained – the high toe rail (a very nice feature for putting your weight against) also does keep the water on board. I would like interior construction that would make it easier to access tanks, wiring, etc. Too much stuff is built-in and not easily accessible.

12 things about French Polynesia

• French Polynesia is huge more than 1000 miles from Gambier Islands in the SE to Bora Bora in the NW. It is big enough for there to be significant differences from one area to another.

• There is enormous variety, both of landforms and settlement here. The variety of landforms can attributed to the fact that FP has examples of all of the stages of atoll formation according to the theory developed by Charles Darwin (yes, he did study things other than evolution). According to his theory, which is generally accepted, you need two conditions to exist. The first is a volcanic eruption sufficiently powerful to reach the surface. This is not a trivial requirement since the water is typically something like 13,000’ feet deep. We passed one volcanic cone on the way to Tahiti from the Gambiers which was a perfect cone about 1400’ above the water, but almost 15,000’ high in total – sort of like Mt. Fuji set on the sea bed. Volcanic islands are not very good to visit by boat because they lack protected anchorages – Easter and Pitcairn being good examples.

The next stage in the process is the growth of coral in the shallower water along the edge of the volcanic mountain – which requires water shallow enough for the sun to penetrate and warm enough for coral. The result is the gradual creation of an outlying reef with a lagoon in between the reef and mountain. If there are navigable passes through the reef you have an ideal situation with a protected waterway behind the reef and many possibilities for anchoring. Tahiti and the other Society Islands of western FP are magnificent examples of this. The Gambier Islands and Moorea are slight variations on this stage since what is above water are edges of a huge volcanic crater rather than the entire volcano. In the Gambiers, the islands you see are parts of the entire crater. In Moorea you see only the southern edge of the crater (see photos)

As time passes, small islands called motus can develop along the reef. Motus will rarely be more than a couple of feet above sea level but do provide an alternative place to live (or to anchor behind).

Given enough time though, the volcano will erode away or subside below sea level leaving only the reef, the motus, and the lagoon. Again a navigable pass is needed before these islands, called atolls, are much use to cruisers. The Tuamotus are atolls, ranging in size from less than one mile to more than 70 miles across. The lagoons of atolls are often jammed with coral heads that come close to the surface meaning that navigation can be tricky..

Settlement patterns also vary greatly. Tahiti is very, very busy with quite serious traffic issues while Mangareva is so sleepy you have to keep checking your pulse to see if you are still alive. The only traffic issues were when half a dozen pickups and scooters would converge on the boulangerie to pick up hot baguettes at 5 pm. Moorea and most other large islands are somewhere in between.

This is the main (and almost only) street in Rikitea, the only town in the Gambiers with a permanent population. This might be rush hour or perhaps not ... it was very hard to tell

• Great beauty – The photos of Moorea show this wonderfully. We never got tired of looking at the crag in the middle of the island. It looked different depending on the light and the weather.

Anchorages don't get much prettier than this one at Opunohu Bay, Moorea. The peak in the back looks different depending on the weather and time of day.

Could not see the pot of gold but I know it was there somewhere.

Sunsets are so spectacular it is too easy to take them for granted.

Bruce and our friend Marina at the Belevdere overlooking Opunohu Bay on the left and Cook's Bay on the right. We are anchored just behind the left edge of the mountain behind the reef in the lagoon - and yes, we did walk here. While the eastern bay is named after Captain Cook, he di dactually anchor in Opunohu.

Bruce and Marina (and June with the camera) enjoyed the special ice creams made at the FP agricultural college half way up the mountain in Moorea. They are made from fruits (and flowers) grown at the college. Vanilla, made from actual vanilla pods, was wonderful as were the others we tried. Unfortunately they were out of gardenia ice cream.

• Weather – I now know the name of the kind of storm that knocked us down coming here. It is a maramu (like the model of Amel sailboat) or possibly a super maramu. We also had one of these pass over us at anchor in Moorea. It seems to start with an occluded front spinning north from one of the nasty lows in the Roaring 40s. This is accompanied by one of the very big highs that exist between the southern lows. These highs, often above 1035 mb extend quite far north (to 20°S or even a bit further north). The result is a very steep pressure gradient. The worst part of the system are the winds from the south but you can get winds from other directions as well. For someone from the continental part of the northern hemisphere it is a revelation to find that high pressure cells can generate very nasty winds – where we are from, highs bring settled weather and little wind.

• This is such an expensive place in which to live. Other than baguettes, some cheeses, and solar panels we found no bargains here at all. The poverty rate is very high and it is easy to understand why. We walked down a back street in Moorea and found a large number of people living in shacks made of corrugated iron. At the same time the Porsche and BMW dealers seem healthy in Tahiti where there were people living on the street. You sense considerable resentment among poorer people and wonder how this might play out in the years to come.

Every evening in a park on the water in downtown Papeete, Tahiti about 20 rulottes (vans) pull in and set up tables, chairs, and cooking equipment. It is good place to have dinner ($12 to $20 for a large plate of seafood, steak, etc) on an island where restaurants are very expensive. It attracts many locals and some tourists.

• Currency – The unit of currency here is the French Polynesian France (CFP) which is worth a bit more than one cent. The result is that you quickly get used to large numbers of francs for everything. Since the exchange rate is about 85 francs to the dollar and most people find it hard to divide by 85 in their heads, you tend to divide by 100 and then add a bit more than 10% to the result –e.g. the banana split costs 950 francs, divide by 100 is 9.50 and add a dollar – it costs about $10.50 – and June decided she did not really want it after all.

The money here is also very large. The photo shows the largest FP bill – 10,000 francs or something over $110 compared in size to a US bill. It is too big for a standard North American wallet for sure. The silver coin (actually made of aluminum) is 50 francs – get a few of those in your pocket and you walk with a list.

• The economy is in very bad shape in FP. The two significant foreign exchange earners are tourism and cultured pearl production, both of which are dependent on a healthy world economy since no one really ‘needs’ a pearl necklace or a costly holiday in a distant spot. And holidays here can be very costly indeed. The specialty here are the resorts with individual bungalows over the water. Very nice, but very expensive with prices starting at about 80,000 francs a night, not including meals. This works out to almost US$1000/night and there are some that are much pricier – one on Taha’a is listed in Lonely Planet as starting at 104,000 francs (about $1200/night). With meals, the cost could be well over $1500 a night for a couple and FP’s traditional markets – Western Europe, US, and Japan all have bad economies.

Even if tourism and pearl farming were healthy one wonders how much FP would depend on subsidies from France. I suspect that there are more than a few folks in Paris who would love it if FP did go ahead with full independence (there is quite a bit support for the idea).

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Pearls before they reach the world market. These were being sold by a man in Mangareva who buys them from the pearl growers and sells them to foreign buyers. He had a bucket full of pearls in the kitchen he uses to prepare food for the air flights that come to Managareva three times in every two weeks. The pearls vary enormously in quality, shape, colour and size - and price. His pearls ranged from about $10 to one large (17 mm), golden one at close to $2000. There are lots of poor quality pearls to be had very cheaply (a bottle of rum for a cup full). These ones will never be sold commercially. If they do not meet minimum quality standards they are ground to powder.

Pearls are a luxury good to be sure. The pendant in the front here was 225,000 francs or about $2600. In Japan or France it would be much more. A necklace of large pearls could be more than $10,000

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, megayachts tied up at the marina in Tahiti. To give you a sense of scale, the 'small' sailboat furthest to the right is 118' long. The problem for Tahiti's economy is that there are not enough rich tourists - in yachts or coming in by plane to support the tourism infrastructure.

• Moorea is the first place we have visited where not everyone is friendly. We have run into people who ranged from unhelpful to, in one case, holding in a lot of anger. Don’t know the source of this (economic problems?) but it came as a shock after visiting so many places and finding so many friendly, helpful people.

• Polynesian people seem to fall into two categories – enormous or not. Most men and women over 30 are very big (not necessarily tall). In Mangareva where I visited the clinic every second day, there were many people who were much overweight and had troubles walking and even amputations (related to diabetes?). What is starting to happen with younger people though is a desire to keep their weight under control. The result is that there are lot of men and women who are remarkably fit and healthy looking and attractive – pretty much what you see in movies about the south seas. Whether these folks will put on 60 pounds when they turn 30 I don’t know, but I suspect not.

• You see beautiful flowers growing everywhere and they are used to replace jewellery and even hats in everyday use. It is not unusual to see half a dozen women on the bus going to work with a flower stuck behind their ear. Some older women wear a sort of wreath of flowers on their head like a hat.

• Pronouncing Polynesia words is easy, as long as you are good with vowels. I was given the advice that you need to pronounce every vowel separately so, for example, the airport in Tahiti, Faa’a, sounds sort of like you are singing a Christmas carol but have a mild speech impediment. The marina we stayed at was in a suburb called Punaauia, which is tricky enough to say when sober. When we were looking for the new hospital in Papeete, the man who gave us directions was not sure if it is was in Taone or Taaone – and finally decided it was the latter. We never learned if there also was a place called Taone.

• They have very interesting motorboats here. They range from around 18’ to 24’ with a good-sized outboard. The interesting feature is that the driver sits at the very front of the boat, where the boat is only 3’ or so wide. They steer using a vertical tiller from this position. I surmise that this design became popular because it gives the operator the best possible view of the water and the coral heads that are so common inside the lagoons.

Cost overview for 6 months

Thought I better do this before we look at May in Tahiti where we have spent quite a bit of money. Our spending from Florida to Polynesia has been (significant expenditures in brackets) Everything in $US:

November $1033 (Customs and other govt fees - $555)

December $1030 (Panama Canal costs (not including refundable deposit) - $610)

January (until we went exploring on land in Ecuador and Peru) $1558 (Food - $558 to take advantage of low prices in Panama)

On shore travel costs in late January and Early February (almost a month) $2458

Second half of February $1212 (Government fees (Galapagos) - $676; Mooring rental in Ecuador -$330 for one month)

March $2023 (Sightseeing (4 day tour in Galapagos mainly) - $913)

April $547 (Internet for the entire area of French Polynesia - $217); note that it is hard to spend money at sea or in harbours where there is not much to buy.

Categories of spending (for 6 months)

Boat maintenance - $528

Boat capital improvements - $40

Dockage, moorings - $588

Government fees - $1773! (Panama, Ecuador and Galapagos are very pricey; Gambier Islands was less than $2 (for two stamps)

Sightseeing and souvenirs - $3548 (money well spent we think for mainland tour in Ecuador and Peru and tour of Galapagos)

Food - $982 (remember the boat started off in Florida well-provisioned)

Fuel - $589

Water, garbage disposal - $36

Shore travel - $103 (local buses and, in a few place,s taxis)

Entertainment Ashore - $528 (meals and drinks ashore – you could spend a fortune on this if you wanted to)

Internet - $252 (free to cheap in many places except French Polynesia)

Miscellaneous - $761 (mainly Panama Canal fees)

Total - $9708

The only thing I resent in all this are the government fees and associated costs for mandatory agents. In Panama and Ecuador, it is a bit of a lottery who will hit you for money and how much it will be. Probably Panama is the worst with charges for customs, immigration, port captain, agriculture dept, buoys and lights, mariners’ visas, fines for not having mariners’ visas (that were not offered in the first place). These countries’ hurt themselves by making it unattractive for cruisers to visit.

Knockdown on way to Tahiti

Rikitea in the Gambier Islands is that kind of place where you almost need to check your pulse to make sure you are still alive. We could have stayed there a very long time indeed, but our visas for French Polynesia are only for 90 days and this is a vast area of ocean with many interesting islands to visit. Our original plan was to travel northwest from the Gambiers into the Tuamotus, a group of dozens of atolls (lagoons surrounded by coral reefs). Some of the larger ones have passes into the interior lagoon. Without a pass you can only anchor in the lee of the island in the open ocean so we were looking at the former. The first of these islands that had a pass was Hao which was a bit over 400 miles from Rikitea. There is a problem with these passes though. Water can enter the lagoons when waves wash over the reefs which are most common on the southern half of the lagoons. Once in the lagoon the water tends to only exit via the pass so that even though the ride range is quite small – the currents can be fierce and you can even have periods of time when there is no flood, only continuous ebb. At Hao, the current can be 12 knots when there have been strong winds from the southern quadrants for a few days.

When we left the lagoon of the Gambiers we had pretty much given up on Hao because the forecast was for SE winds up to 25 knots and swells of up to 4 meters – all of which would really load up the lagoon with water. We were going to go directly toward Tahiti, a distance of something like 852 nautical miles. Once we got out we found the conditions were much more benign with winds of about 15 knots and waves more like a meter or so – as a result we headed toward Hao. But then the conditions worsened so that by the next morning winds were 25 knots and swells much bigger – so back to Plan A, Tahiti. There was an occluded front to the north, the remnant of a low pressure system in the Roaring 40s (we were at 22° S, so we decided to head due west to try to get around the end of the front. This decision had an interesting side effect – it meant we would be passing very close to the two islands used by the French for nuclear testing from 1966 to 1996. In this time there were 193 atomic and hydrogen bombs exploded here, both below ground and in the atmosphere.

On our second full day out, winds were even stronger, in the 30 to 35 knot range and we were running in the general direction of Tahiti with only a little bit of jib up. By afternoon, it really started to blow and the dinghy, which was tied to the foredeck started to play hovercraft so I went forward to add some extra lashings to it. As I was almost finished, sitting on the lee deck with the last knot half tied, we must have broached (swung sideways to the wind) and were knocked down by a particularly large wave. I was not in the best place to see all this and my take on the knockdown was that I was sitting in warm water up to my chest and starting to float away. I was not going to go far though since I had two tethers attaching me to the deck and two hands holding tight to a stanchion. When I got back to the cockpit it was full of water (to the top!) and there was dirt all over from a pot we had used to grow lettuce. June, who also had her harness on was bailing water with the pot – a process that went well even though it had four largish drain holes in the bottom. After the water was gone (did not take long), we could see some damage, while other damage appeared gradually. Our bimini was torn in several spots and we had to get it off since it was flogging badly. Some water had gone into the cabin even though the doors were closed and soaked seats and the like. The (heavy) chart table lid and flipped open and our digital camera had landed in the water and mud (it is DOA which explains why there are no pictures with this).

Once we got going we discovered that boat the Monitor vane and Raymarine electric autopilot where not working since the force of the water had driven the gears apart – horizonally in the case of the Monitor and vertically for the Raymarine. These were both fixable (for no cost!) but only once we arrived in Tahiti. The result of this was that we hand-steered the boat for 5 days – an experience that we never want to repeat (btw, this was two hours of steering followed by two hours of rest – the watches from 3 to 5 am and 5 to 7 were particulary hard). The next day we discovered that one of our solar panels had been destroyed by the wave – it bulged out from back to front and you had to look at it from the outside to really appreciate the damage.

As to wind strengths, I checked the Beaufort wind scale descriptors and I think we had Force 10 conditions for an hour or a bit more. An American boat not too far away from us had 45 to 55 knots for 12 hours. We certainly did not have these strong winds for so long, but can believe the 55 knots. During this time, the water had a bizarre appearance. It looked quite smooth, like some giant hand had wrapped the surface in Saran Wrap. At the same time, the tops of the waves were being blown off by the wind. Ainia did great. A lesser boat might have suffered structural or rigging damage but we were fine. After securing the boat and with lower winds (30 knots) we curled up inside until morning.

As must always be the case in such situations, the next days brought light winds so we went quite slowly downwind toward Tahiti. We only used the engine when necessary (ie no wind at all) since we had no new fuel after the Galapagos and finally arrived in Papeete after another 5 days. Anchoring opportunities near the city are very limited so we decided to go to Marina Taina in the western suburbs. This marina has excellent facilities and is well-placed for us getting everything fixed onboard. It is nice to have some luxury after a long and often trip from the Galapagos.

French Polynesia is a very costly place – perhaps the most costly I have ever visited. A beer in the supermarket is about $4 a bottle and going out for a meal in a modest restaurant will be $20+ at least, not counting a beverage. And yet, there are lots of big boats, nice houses, Porsches, and the like so there are some people here with money. It is like Bermuda in the sense that there is no income tax but high import duties.

We did find one cheap thing here – solar panels! So we have a new panel and much cheaper than the old one in the US. Adjustments fixed both autopilots and the bimini is out for sewing. We had a new stanchion made to replace one that was badly bent. Probably we could go in another few days, but we will likely stay for another week or so while we wait for delivery of a new digital camera from Canada. I checked cameras here and those that are $300 in North America are $800 here.

On the medical front, the boil I had is almost healed (after more than 6 weeks) but I had two other develop on the same leg. I went to the spiffy new hospital here and had them treated (one was infected) and it seems I have staph infections so I have given up ever scratching my leg and am using a special dermatological soap on my skin. June has several small infections where the infection might have come from treating me. Hers are slowly getting better and she is extra careful about washing her hands after changing any of my bandages. Going to the emergency department (‘urgence’) cost less than $50 and I was treated by two doctors and a nurse and likely had about an hour of direct attention. It was excellent care I think. We spent more than $100 on various medicines, chemcials, and dressings at the pharmacie. I was told it will be at least three weeks before everything heals.

From Spanish to French (with a touch of English in the middle)

A few more comments about Easter Island before we start heading westward to Pitcairn Island and French Polynesia… Emily did arrive on Bobby a few days after we left. The Chilean navy sent a boat out a few miles to tow her into the anchorage. There were a couple of cruising boats there to help her and there help was both needed and appreciated. Winds swung to the NW which meant that swells were heading directly into the anchorage for a couple of days. At times the swells were more than 10 feet high and it was a challenge to anyone’s ground tackle and Bobby’s anchor rode parted and she was only being held by her (fairly light) snubber line to the chain. Jeff on Curare, another BC boat, took over some of his spare chain to help her secure her situation while the navy were there with a patrol boat which was taking breaking waves over its length. Can’t imagine what it must have been like but it sounded horrendous. BTW, it was impossible for any boats to enter or leave Hanga Piko, the slightly better, but smaller, harbour nearby. Also it was not possible for boats to seek alternative anchorages since the swell was entering the northern anchorage and the winds were soon to switch to the SE and make the anchorage on the this side of the island untenable. There is a reason why not that many boats go to Easter Island in spite of the obvious attractions there.

Our last day there was not without a bit of drama. We went ashore in the morning to check out with the navy (they also come out to the boat), to get water and do some provisioning. By time we got back to the dinghy, the waves had built up across the narrow gap that lead into the boat landing. About a third of these were breaking (think for minor league surfing) and it was hard to pick out a pattern. At times, five in a row would break and then there would be eight or so that did not break, but then three would break and there would only be a short interval until more breakers came. It did not look like a very safe exit with our limited outboard power and a heavy load so we chickened out and paid one of the local dive boats to tow us out past the line of breakers. I think that this was a good decision since a capsize would have made a big mess and could have been dangerous.

Hanga Roa anchorage is the area in the distance here on the right. At best the swells here were around three feet but after we left the boats here had swells in excess of 10 feet. This is not a big surprise since the anchorage is open to about 160 degrees of the ocean.

A final comment is about the the Chilean Navy, the Armada (I thought that word only applied to the Spanish fleet in 15xx that Drake fought. In fact, it just means ‘navy’ and everyone – Chile, Peru, etc. has an armada. Anyway, the Armada folks on Easter were terrific = professional and helpful at every turn. When they came out to check us in, they damaged our toe rail – perhaps really nifty boat handling would have avoided this but accidents happened. The Port Captain accepted responsibility and took our estimate of the repair cost ($250) and paid this in cash – they also did not charge us the $130 health fee. When they left they made a point of using a large inflatable rather than a heavy fibreglass launch to make sure that no further damage would happen – this was appreciated because swells were much bigger than on our arrival. Chile’s entry procedures are more complex than they should be, but that is not the fault of the local guys. At every turn they were friendly and helpful, while doing their jobs professionally.

If the trip to Easter Island was noteworthy for days of strong winds and close reaching, the trip from Easter was the exact opposite with light winds and broad reaching and running. The distance to Pitcairn Island was about 1100 miles. In normal trade winds we can sail about 150 miles a day (+/-) so that would be about 7 days. The problem was that we were south of the trades and winds were light, generally from the north or north east. The passage took us 15 (!) days and was hard on the sails with much sail slatting and banging.

To add insult to injury, when we go to Pitcairn there was almost no wind but swells coming from both the south (large (10’ or so) but regular) and north (smaller (4’) but confused). The result was that none of the anchorages on the island were tenable. The north swells were sweeping into Bounty Bay (a terrible anchorage at best) and making it a lee shore). The alternative anchorage on the other side of the island, Tedside, was being swept by the southern swells. The best solution we could come up with was for the surfboat to come out to take June ashore for the day while I floated around a few miles offshore and admired the beauty of the island. Even getting into their boat was a huge challenge which involved timing the waves and jumping down at the right instant – stepping down was not an option.

Ainia is just visible in the middle of the picture taken from Adamstown, Pitcairn. There are cliffs around almost the entire island. The village and other features are up a steep hill from the landing in Bounty Bay which is the tiny bay at the bottom middle of the picture. Water shallow enough for anchoring is quite close to shore and the disturbed (white) water in the picture.

June with some of the Pitcairnites. Considering the people are the descendants of English sailors and a few Polynesian men and Polynesian women, the people are very European-looking. Brenda Christian (not shown) was an exception, she was much more Polynesian in appearance.

June absolutely loved the island and its people (current population is 66). The launch was driven by Brenda Christian who is the great granddaughter (6 generations later) of Fletcher Christian. Other than the odd person from Britain and New Zealand, all the people ashore are Christians or Youngs and they could not have been warmer or friendlier. The island only gets about 100 visitors a year, mainly from passing yachts and they looked after June royally. She bought stamps, carvings (they travel to an island 100 miles away to get wood for carving), and even a lot of vegetables at a very good price (in spite of a recent drought). She was even given some honey a product for which the island is becoming famous. By the time she got back to the boat she seemed to be on a first name basis with half of the population!

From Pitcairn our next stop, Mangareva in the Gambier Islands, was only 290 miles but the light winds continued and this was an almost 72 hour trip (we did end of slowing down on purpose so we could arrive at daylight). We are now anchored off the town (village?) of Rikitea which is the metropolis of the Gambiers (population about 600). The Gambiers are part of French Polynesia but very remote. They get on airplane a week (with a second one every second Sunday ). They get a supply ship every 25 days (which is better than Pitcairn which has no airport and a supply vessel every 3 to 4 months. The only industry here is black pearl cultivation and we are trying to decide if we are rich enough to afford to bsy some of these. Nice, medium-sized pearls seem to sell for $50 to $60 each so a string of them would start to get pretty expensive. We are keeping our eyes open for someone selling the imperfect pearls (size, shape, colour) that go very cheaply.

The anchorage here is very protected but there is still a nice breeze. We will be spending a couple of weeks here before heading northward into the Tuamotus and then westward to Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora and those more famous French Polynesian islands. Our visa here is good for 90 days and I am sure we will use most of that time relaxing and working on our French (it is tempting to say ‘Gracias’ rather than ‘Merci’ because we have been in Spanish places for so many months.)

Our passage from Easter to Mangareva also included our first significant health problem. I developed an infected boil at the top of my left thigh. At its worst it was a lump the size of a baseball with a red area around it that extended from by butt to my knee. It also produced a mild fever. Fortunately we were in contact with Silas Crosby whose captain is a doctor from BC – yay, Dr. Steve! He suggested the treatment - hot, wet compresses twice a day to keep it all open so the infection could drain out, along with dressings covered in a topical antibiotic (Fucidin) along with oral antibiotic (Cipro) and for a few days, Extra-strength Tylenol to reduce pain and fever. June did heroic work sailing the boat and doing the medical treatments. I could not sit on one side for two weeks and found it hard to even find a comfortable way to lie down. The clinic in Rikitea have been great and they are doing the dressings now and making sure that it heals correctly since the possibility of a re-infection is there.

For those making up a cruising first kit, take a lot more gauze pads and tape than you think you will need (3x as many) – we used many of these since when the infection was most active the dressing had to replaced 6 or so times a day as great amounts of blood and crud were leaking out. We also used maxipads – cutting them into three pieces. We are also going to check with a doctor and pharmacist about whether there is a better oral antibiotic for skin infections than Cipro which we had more for digestive system and respiratory system infections. Making up an offshore first aid kit is expensive but you really appreciate it when you need it. BTW, my leg should be better in another week or so – in total about a month since the problem first appeared. I checked with Steve and with the doctors here and they both said that these things can just happen and there is little you can do to prevent it.

South to Isla Pascua (or Rapa Nui or Easter Island)

This was to be our longest leg of the year – about 2000 nautical miles in all. Cornell’s book suggests that after leaving the calms around the Galapagos it should be a beam reach in the SE Trades almost all the way to Easter Island. He suggests avoiding an area outlined by 3° S and 8°S and 90°W and 95W° where calms and gale-condition squalls have often been reported. In theory, when you leave the Galapagos you should have SW winds that will allow you to sail south or almost so until you pick up the trades around 3°S. We had south winds and had to choose whether to go SW or SE and the latter was the direction we were trying to go anyway. The result was that we went right through the area mentioned above and had the nicest weather of the passage- go figure.

If the passage from Ecuador to the Galapagos had been uneventful, this one was anything but. At first we had no winds to speak of and had to combine some motoring (15 hours or so) with a lot of ghosting along and picking up bits of wind from nearby squalls. For those familiar with it, it was very much like Lake Ontario racing in July. Squalls were constant and we probably went through 40+ on this trip. Some were welcome because they brought wind; many were not since they only increased the wind from 25 knots to 35 or so.

Once we reached about 6°S we finally found the trades but also a frontal trough that gave us far too much wind for a day or so. The trades seemed to be mainly SSE rather than SE (let alone south) and the difference really matters. We had a great deal of water over the deck for days on end and even took two waves into the cockpit. We found leaks in Ainia that we had never seen and had a bit of damage to sails and rigging. The result is that we will be a true sloop until Tahiti where there is a rigger – not that we ever used our inner stay and staysail.

We sailed this leg in radio contact with four other boats: Silas Crosby and Curare from British Columbia, Pyewacket II from Australia, and Bobby from California. Of these, the only one we actually saw was Silas Crosby, Our paths crossed about five days out from the Galapagos. Pyewacket was at Easter Island when we arrived and we will likely see much more of them since they are going to the same places as we are.

Much excitement was added to the trip because Bobby , a 40 year old 34’ Taiwanese ketch, crewed by a 25 year old woman ,was having some serious problems. It has wooden masts and the top of the mainmast broke between the main and mizzen sheaves. The result was that the upper part of her main and mizzen were not supported – in fact, she could have lost the entire rig except that a lower forestay kept the main up. There were long SSB discussions about how best to secure the rig and then to jury-rig some sails so Bobby could make Easter Island (this all happened about 600 miles from the island and this is a very lonely part of the world – and it was blowing 25 knots most of the time from a direction that did not allow her to lay the island.

She was combining sailing and some motoring (to get east) and we were heading for a rendezvous with her when two things happened. She had a broken coupling between her transmission and drive shaft. Running the engine with this out of alignment meant that she was taking on quite a bit of water. Scratch the motoring part and her need for fuel. As we were running toward her position we ran into a problem with a jib getting caught in the furler extrusion half-way up. The result was that the top half of the sail was acting as a jib and the bottom half as a spinnaker. We jury-rigged this to control the loose part and turned tail toward Easter since Emily no longer needed the fuel.

As I write this, Emily and Bobby are about 250 miles from Easter Island. The wind has switched to the east and even NE but it has also dropped substantially so she is only making 1 to 2 knots with a combination of a small jib, triple-reefed main (her damaged rigging does not allow her to raise more), and even a mizzen staysail. It does not look like we will be here when she arrives but she deserves a lot of credit for not giving up and finding solutions to the many problems she has faced. The Chilean Navy people here are waiting for her arrival and will tow Bobby into the very little, very sketchy harbour at Hanga Piko for repairs. It sounds like most of what she needs can be found on the island (repairs rather than new parts) so here trip is likely to continue at some point. (There is an Australian boat here that has been making repairs for five months and Jim on that boat will help Emily get going on her repairs. BTW, the Chilean Navy, like many navies and coast guards around the world will respond to an emergency and take a person off a boat but they will not tow the boat – so one is left with a very difficult choice.

We arrived at Easter Island after 15 days and started our repairs and the drying out of the boat. The island is quite pretty and interesting but the anchorage is not very good at all. There are only a few areas of sand and the water is quite deep (we are anchored in 45 feet) and swells come around the island in both directions so it is very rolly. When we go ashore in the dinghy we have to go between two sets of breaking waves that are so close together that you actually can say hello to the kids surfing. Some days you cannot get ashore at all here as the waves break right across the entrance to the dinghy dock. Something like 80 boats a year visit Easter Island and it is quite busy now as there are five here (two Canadian, two Australian, and one French).

Most of Easter Island is like this with surf crashing on the shore. There are only a couple of decent-sized bays on this quite large island. The ship is a Chilean navy vessel that brings freight to the island. Lighters go out to the ship to bring cargo ashore one container at a time.

Here we are anchored at Hanga Roa about 100 m beyond the surf line. This was a very calm day with little surf running. You need to come through a gap in the surf that is usually about 30 m wide and then make a hard left into the little basin that you can see where your only problems are significant surge, a spider web of lines used to tie up about 8 dive/fishig boats - and being careful not to hit two large turtles (3 feet across the shell) who hang out here to eat the fish guts and heads/

We did a tour of the island and the statues are quite remarkable. There are fewer than I thought – about 40 or so have been restored (all had been pushed over during various times of tribal conflict) with many more lying on the rocks, often broken at the neck. It is incredible to drive from the quarry where the statues were carved to the sites where they were displayed. One weighs 80 tons and was moved over a sizable hill a distance of perhaps 8 km.

This is part of the most spectacular group of statues - there are 15 here with a great view of the ocean behind. It seemed that all of the statues that were close to the shore faced inland.

We are very much looking forward to finding a quiet anchorage (Mangareva in the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia) and will be leaving on Saturday for this spot. Along the way we will be passing Pitcairn Island and will try to go ashore there. This is often very difficult as the anchorage there is even worse than the one here – we will try our best however and look forward to buying some of the famous stamps there. Pitcairn is about 1100 miles from here and Managareva another 300. Weather conditions should be much nicer and we will be going down wind for a change.

SPOT watchers. We received message sent notifications all the way to Easter but don’t expect this to continue very far as we go west.