So we take out our “post pacific passage” to do list and start with a series of more or less small repairs.
First thing Reto needs to go up into the mast to check what happened to the broken wifi antenna of which luckily after one week in the pacific we had found the loose part down in the net between the two swimmers. We realize that only the cables were broken, the rest must have gotten loose even though he thoroughly checked it just before leaving Panama.
Reto sewing the genua with the good old bernina sewing machine..structural improvement -the bathing ladder platform is strenghthened with epoxi
Next thing is the provisory repair of the genua with the help of the good old Bernina sewing machine.
The largest bit of work is the improvement of the bathing ladder platform.
Since once again the screws became loose Reto now makes 4 square holes, fills them up with a sponge and epoxi and afterwards a nice layer of gelcoat.
Afterwards it looks better than new and now for sure there is no more water dripping inside…
At the same time we do several small hikes in the surroundings of Taiohae.
Paepae with Tikis in Kouevaa holy tree where the ancestors have been buried
First thing we visit the cultural site of Kouevi about 45 min above Taiohae. After some pictures we flee again thanks to a large number of mosquitoes.
the girls wearing crowns of flowersit does look like it would hurt…the students admire the guys doing and receiving the tatoosthe art of wood sculpturesthe sticks are pealed and one of their layers gives the skin for the taroplates and pouches made with banana leavesthe pouches used to be used to put food in the marquesian oventhe two marquesians are a bit quicker than Reto in getting off the coconut bast but still it is hard work..here the modern way of producing fresh coconut milkin comparison Reto using all his tools to peel the outside of the coconut
Together with Ellen and Martin we hike to one bay to the west.
Passing the college we realize that it must be a special day. We find out that it is “marquesian day” and all the students learn about their culture and customs today, rather than maths or french…
We admire the art of tattooing,
the art of making wood sculptures,
the way of making baskets and plates from cocopalm leaves,
the procedure of getting out the tapa cloth from a piece of a branch,
and of course the procedure of making coconut milk which we already have seen at Fatu Hiva, but which once again is impressive (and still a bit more efficient than what Reto does on She San in the meantime…).
Taiohae seen from the westthe over and over green neighbour baycurious horses disturb our picknickcurious puppies on the way backTiki on the beachon Saturday there are the second election rounds for the French president in Nuku Hivathanks to no alcohol on election days a very sober gathering eventthe children are enjoying the waveswe are in the canou training paththe ladies team is exercising
Of course when we continue our hike, the sun is almost at its highest and we sweat quite a lot on the way up the west side of the bay. We continue down to a onesome beach where we have picknick in the company of some curious horses that don’t even eat carrots I have to learn.
On our way back we get held up by two curious but very cute puppies that would like to follow us if it was up to them. We instead head for the terasse of the hotel to get some refreshing lemonade and Hinanos, what a treat!
the portal of the former church serving as todays entrance to the church squarewooden sculptures in the church of Taiohaethe church is full with people
Then on Sunday morning we arrive at 5 to 8 am at the local church called Notre Dame des Marquises.
It has been rebuild in 1975 completely out of stone and wood, The numerous wooden sculptures made by local artists are very nice and have features of local people.
We are happy to get a place to sit, because it really is fully packed with people…
At punctually 8 am the mass starts and of course the first thing is singing.
We are absolutely amazed by the way the marquesians sing.
It seems to be naturally for them to meet the different tones and even to sing in canons without having anyone apperantly coordinating who does what…
After 1.5 hours we absolutely do not regret to have joined. It really was an event for us.
we all admire the flight of the drone..She San from far aboveand does she come back again?
In the afternoon Franzi and Pesche visit us with their drone and we get the first closer experience of this “toy for big boys” as Reto says. Some awesome pictures and movies, only sad that the sun is gone already.
Biketour from Taiohae
finally on the bike again!and once again the bay of Taiohaeabove 500 m the tropical rainforest is gone…the path to the antenna is full of mud and horsesmountain chain of Nuku Hiva – the road to the airport goes over these mountainson the far end the Baye du Controlleurand once again Taiohae..;-)
Then on Monday morning we finally get out our mountain bikes. It is the first time since more than half a year in Santa Marta, Columbia.
Apart from some flat tires they are fine and we leave early in the morning to head upwards. Luckily we also have a bit of drizzling rain, just enough to cool us down the first few hunderts of meters.
After 850 meters of height we stand at the antenna that is overlooking the bay. Great views and we are happy to have been able to come up here after such a long pause…
Tatoo from Moana
and the marquesian compass is ready 😉
The following morning we actually had planned to leave, but due to a chat with his sons Reto got challenged to also get a compass tatoo on his arm… We visit again Moana, whose work we have admired already and take the next open appointment he has for Thursday morning.
So finally we have arrived at Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. Our eyes are very pleased to look at the steep green slopes, what a change after 37 days surrounded by water. Of course, soon we realize why everything is so green here… Continue reading Exploring the Marquesas together with Sylke and Michel→
On Saturday, march 4th, finally the big moment is there – we think that we have done everything that had to be done, in the morning Reto had to go up one last time into the mast to secure the new “lightening antenna”, we tell our parents that we are leaving now, and then we go anchor up heading towards the marquesas.
The pacific welcomes us in a very friendly way, the first sailing day we have excellent wind, a calm literally flat sea and so make 163 nm (nautical miles) in the first 24 hours.
After half a day we get our first 4 fish
On the first morning we catch two times two tuna within one hour, all of them in a nice size of around 2 kg each, giving me a lot of work on that day…the next few days the menu is full with tuna carpaccio for lunch and tuna fillet for dinner…
with the parasailor into the sunsetAnd another beautiful sunsetsunrise in the doldrumsour first bird using SHE SAN as cleaning stationwhile he is cleaning himself…and after a while he is dry and clean
Then already on the second evening the wind turns completely off, but Reto takes it cool, he puts the alarms on and sends us both sleeping… in the morning at 2 am we continue sailing, but the coming days we move with a rather disappointing speed and only make 70, 74, 94 nm per day..
We stay cool and enjoy the width of the pacific, the sunsets and sunrises, the weak wind sailing with the parasailor during the days and find a lot of sleep due to the calm conditions.
Our wind forecast shows us the zone of a low east of Galapagos, which apparently should bring us some nice sailing winds in the north of Galapagos going west. We adapt out course and go a little bit faster, but still only make 101, 106 and finally 128 miles per day.
In that region quite close to Galapagos we get a series of visits from birds.
The first one comes on board and is totally wet and looks like he just got out of bed.
We then watch him cleaning himself thoroughly for many hours, then he uses our beam and bimini as his toilet, moves a bit to the next clean spot, takes a good nap and in the morning hours he goes off again.
The first of this days birds dares to land..…should I really land there?, yes, now it is donethen they are three…In the end it’s more than 8 on board…
Two days later his colleagues come, the first two with blue “mouths” and red feet.
After the landing of the first one it takes quite a while that the second one also dares to land, then they happily kiss, clean themselves and take a nap. Then a third one comes of the same kind and still everything is fine.
But soon after other kinds come on board, they start to fight between them and when we have a total of 8 or nine of these rather large birds on board, we have to take the decision to send them away.
The first four come back after a while and we let the stay on the bow where the cleaning is not so problematic…
Other than that we are busy with the routines on board, that means sleeping and eating, the kitchen and cleaning (me) and making the communication via short wave radio (Reto). In addition I have to do the daily check on fruits, vegetables and eggs, and especially the eggs are disappointing this time, the daily turning of them only works for a part of them…
Second and third week in the Pacific
Slowly we move further westwards because the promised winds generally do not appear.
sunset with cloud towers
Most of the time we move with the current of up to two knots and only a little more dire to the flapping of the sails in the little wind that there is…
a beautifully squall next to us 😉And another squall
In addition we regularly get squalls, mostly at night but also quite frequently during the day. In the meantime I am even sometimes happy about them because they bring some wind, at least for a short time…
The first large dolphins visit us
One evening just before sundown we are visited by a school of large dolphins, heavy animals moving slowly but they are also able to jump up and turn completely out of the water. We are fascinated and follow them with our cameras, but they only appear from time to time and therefore t is quite hard to take a picture of them.
after two weeks we pass the equator!
After 15.5 days we finally cross the equator! We both follow the event staring at our GPS, but since it is 2 am we only give Neptune a nice rum but for ourselves we save the “equator beer” for the next day 😉
The sea is flat, that’s really the doldrumsand another beautiful sunset in the doldrums
On that day we really have the doldrums feeling, the sea is completely flat, we use the engine for more than 24 hours.
But also the following days the situation does not improve much, on the contrary, we get in addition a strong current from the side, and even with the engine at cruising speed only move with 4 knots…
a squall behind us seen on the radar
Then, on Thursday, Mar 23rd, we have a great wind but from the other side than expected. During the night we pay the price and heavily get haunted by squalls the whole night through.
Unfortunately we still have the main sail up without a reef, therefore we have quite a lot to do not to get too much pressure in the sail during the 25 knots wind peaks in the squalls…
Then the next morning the wind takes a break again for a few hours and then finally starts from the right direction. We think we have made it now, we are in the steady trade winds!
Fourth and fifth week in the pacific
A rainbow comes out after the squall
Unfortunately we learn that there is a new additional ITCZ and unsteady winds are going down to 10 degrees south and even further. so we change our course, also go further south to 11 degrees south, but again we only have little winds for the coming ten days and the speed is rather at 4 knots than 5 or 6 which we would have in “normal conditions”.
Well, what is normal, in today’s world? It seems that there is a chance that 2017 is the third El Niño year in a row, that for sure is not really normal…
Our first two wahoos
But in order to keep us busy we at least have quite a number of bites and most of them we are able to bring in. After two wahoo (nice to have some white meat for a change…) we catch another small and medium Bonito with 3.3 kg.
Then one morning Reto calls me urgently while I have my hands fully covered with bread dough, as the Genua seems to be flying off the boat. We take it down and recover it from the see and quickly realize what has happened: the shackle of the new profurl furling system is broken. We are surprised, the thing was not inexpensive and should last a bit longer we should think. A replacement is quickly found, but how to get up the sail again, as it normally is taken up rolled in? In the wind shade of the beamed out main sail and with the help of a rope serving a a kind of a provisory forestay we get it up the same day and are happy to have found a solution and that nothing more broke or happened.
On one of the evenings we forget to take the fishing lines in, and just after sunset we have a bite, a big one we immediately realize. We take one hour to bring him close to the boat, then the line rips off. I a happy, because the huge shade most probably belonged to a rather large animal, I presume that it was a shark…
Almost lost the rod with this catchthe 2 6 kg thunas just fit into the kitchencleaning, cutting out the filets etc. is getting routineair dried Thuna, just like Bündnerfleisch 😉
Next catches are again tunas with 4 and 5 kg, and two days later another two with each 6 kg.
The last catch almost costs us our fishing rod, since the line goes out to the end and in the end rips the rod out of the fixation, only the line securing it still holds it attached to the boat…
Now we are really full with tuna on board… the two fish are the new record on SHE SAN, we never had such a big catch before, but only seconds after taking the fish in board we have a new speed record as well. Because of the fish we didn’t pay attention to the weather and a squall coming over us makes our SHE SAN accelerate up to 15 knots of speed, well luckily only for a short time…
The last couple of nights we get in addition some terrifying lightenings all around us, but thanks god they stay away from us far enough.
Finally Land!!
Reto is very proud of his self made flag
Then, on Monday, April the 10th we finally we see land on the horizon! We are approaching Hiva Oa!
A few hours later we struggle to find a place in the anchorage, move 3 times and finally stay outside the harbor where there is a bit more swell, but at least enough space.
After 37 days out in the ocean a good feeling! We have a couple of beers and go to sleep…
