Eventful Passage from Niuatoputapu to Neiafu

After watching the weather carefully for several days, to pick a weather window that was not too light or too strong, we left Niuatoputapu early on Sunday morning.

Our friends on Dream Away had opted to leave on Saturday evening, planning a 2-overnight sail, in light winds, for the 170 miles SSW to Neiafu. My Maxsea routing optimization showed that we could conservatively leave on Sunday morning and get in to a reasonable anchorage before dark on Monday, if we got going early on Sunday.

So we were out the pass at 7am and under full sail headed south by 8am. Several other boats left just after us, so there was a parade heading south, on the east side of Niuatoputapu. As forecast, the wind was still a bit light and had a bit too much south in it for a great sail at first. But by 11am it had picked up a few knots and was swinging more east.

Around lunchtime, while Dave was snoozing in the cockpit, I heard a weak and scratchy voice in broken English on the VHF, saying something like "Can you help me, our engine is broken." At first I ignored it--it was so weak that, and the English broken enough, that I assumed it was far away and not intended for us. I heard nothing about a sailboat, so they couldn't be talking to us, right?

Then we chatted with our friends on Shango, they had heard it too, and so had Chesapeake, close behind Shango. Finally (somewhat reluctantly), I called on the VHF "Disabled vessel, can you hear me? Where are you located?" Then Dave took over, with is US Navy officer training... After several minutes of back and forth, with very poor copy (both because of weak VHF and because of heavily accented broken English), we established that it was an 11 meter (35 feet) fishing vessel with a broken engine, and they were located about 7 miles behind us. They had been broken down for a day already, and were basically nowhere near anything for at least several more days of drifting.

At this point, as much as we wanted to keep going, with a fair wind and things awaiting us in Neiafu, we decided that we must turn back and render assistance. It turned out that, good friends that they are, both Shango and Chesapeake turned back with us. It seems overkill, but it was nice to have company, and it turned out that all 3 vessels helped in some critical way.

Shango has an integrated Radar on his chartplotter, which was nice for finding the fishing boat. Shango and Soggy Paws both have active AIS, so it made it easy for us to coordinate our actions over the next few hours. Chesapeak is a pretty fast boat, and they sailed ahead of us to provide advance communications.

When we reached the fishing boat, we quickly decided that towing was not an option. We were 25 miles from Niuatoputapu, in fairly good seas, and Lesila, the fishing vessel, was a heavy steel boat. None of us felt comfortable risking our boats and engines taking him under tow. It turned out that his problem was a broken transmission. So the first thing we did was "loan" (give) him some tools he needed to take his transmission apart. Soggy Paws stuffed a socket wrench and 3 sockets of the required size into a gallon milk jug, and tossed them to Lesila as we sailed past. Then we all hove to to see if they would be able to fix the problem.

About an hour later, the captain announced on the VHF that the transmission had a broken part, and there was no way he could repair it on board. It needed to be welded. So Dave started talking to him about gathering up their passports and things, and we would take the 4 of them back to Niuatoputapu (NTT). The captain, of course, didn't want to leave the vessel. So we explored other options. First, we got the owner's telephone number in Nukualofa (about 300 miles to the south), and we called the number on our satellite phone. He wasn't in and wasn't expected until 7pm, and the person who answered had almost no English. About that time, the Pacific Seafarers Ham Net was gearing up on 14,300, and we called them for ideas. Basically, the answer was, 'You are so remote, and it's not a life and death emergency, it's not likely we could get any assistance for you, but let us know how it turns out.' We did get a few phone numbers for people in Neiafu and Nuiatoputapu to contact, but none of these panned out.

The captain finally suggested that we take him and another crew with us to Niuatoputapu, with the broken part. His plan was to get the part fixed/welded in NTT, and somehow get back to the boat. Meanwhile, the 2 other crew would be left on board, with the GPS and SSB radio, so it would be possible for someone to rendezvous with the drifting vessel the next day.

Shango volunteered to take the 2 crew on their boat, back to NTT, if we would go along for support. We knew at that time that we couldn't reach NTT before dark. We hoped to be able to get someone from the village (or one of the cruisers still there), to come out the pass in a small boat to take the passengers aboard, so that we could turn right around and head for Neiafu.

That seemed like a workable plan. The two crew jumped in the water and swam to Shango, with the part. Chesapeake went with us, sailing ahead and providing first contact via VHF with (eventually) Eric on Secret Agent Man. Eric then contacted Sia and Nico ashore and arranged for a boat to go out and pick the crew up off Shango.

We had a pretty fast sail back north--the wind had freshened enough, and was on the beam. But it was 10pm before Shango had managed to drop their passengers off and turn around. So, 14 hours after originally setting out, we again headed south. We were all pretty tired by then AND knew we had turned a 1-night passage into a 2 night passage. We also knew that bigger winds were forecast on Monday night and Tuesday, and we wouldn't be able to beat them into port as originally planned. *sigh*

Sunday night wasn't too bad, other than the fact that we were all tired.

Monday afternoon, however, the weather started setting in, and we had heavy rain and squally conditions all afternoon and most of the night. On my watch, I spent the whole time reefing and unreefing sails, with the wind varying between 'less than 5 knots' and 'almost 25 knots'. One time I finally gave up trying to sail, and started the engine to motor thru the calm, and not 2 minutes later shut down the engine and had to reef in again, as the wind was back to 20-25kts.

To put the final icing on the cake... Late Monday afternoon, when Shango went to turn his engine on to motor through a flukey wind spot, his engine wouldn't start. He and Dave did some troubleshooting over the radio, but they were unable to solve the problem. So, Shango had to sail through to squally conditions, conserve battery power, and rendezvous with us outside the harbor so we could tow them into port.

We all made it safely, and fortunately, by 8am when Shango sailed into view, the weather had abated a little. Without much trouble, Soggy Paws took Shango in tow for the last 5 miles into the harbor. Chesapeake, also standing by, went ahead into Neiafu harbor to get assistance with finding a mooring for Shango, and get a couple of dinghies lined up to take them onto the mooring.

It all turned out well, but is sure turned out to be quite a different passage than we had envisioned!!
-----
Sherry & Dave
Hanging out in Tonga for cyclone season!
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 10/10/2011 9:38 PM (utc) our position was 18°39.73'S 173°58.99'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Beautiful Passage to Niuatoputapu, Tonga

The passage to Niuatoputopu, or "New Potatoes", as the cruisers call it, is 180 miles--just barely beyond what we could comfortably conservatively manage in an overnight passage. So the discussion was, do we be conservative, and leave late in the day and plan a 2-overnight passage. Or do we hang it out a little, leave early in the morning, hope the wind holds, push a little, maybe have to motor a little, and arrive at a strange place with a reef entry just before sunset?

I was pushing for the conservative approach, but Dave was adamant that we could make it in one overnight. If we didn't we'd just heave-to and wait for daylight outside the pass.

We ended up with perfect weather--we got a little more wind than we thought we'd get. It was only a few more knots than forecast, but it was enough to boost our speed from the planned 5 knots to 6.5 knots, and we had a BEAUTIFUL beam reach for nearly 30 hours. We arrived at the pass at 2pm, with plenty of good light for getting in and anchoring. Dave, of course, got a pat on the back for making the right choice.

We are now in Tonga, which, though still situated a few degrees East of the actual "International Dateline", is on a time zone that is on the other side of the dateline. So we shifted our clocks from "-11 plus DST" to "+13". That means we lost a day and gained an hour. Today is now tomorrow here.

I have changed my computer clock to match (somewhat reluctantly), so only god knows what date this blog is posting when I email it. It is very confusing... it is Thursday, October 6 here in Tonga, but it is only Weds, Oct 5, in the U.S.

We are enjoying Niuatoputapu (New-ya Tow-pu Tah-pu). It is a very small out-island, which was totally devastated by the tsunami 2 years ago. They have no running water and no central electricity--only cisterns and a few houses and government buildings have solar power. There are about 800 people living here in 3 small villages, with about 10 working cars/trucks. The supply ship comes here every 1-2 months. There is one small store that is out of all but the most basis supplies, unless the supply ship has been here recently.

But the people are friendly, and they all like to practice their English (thank god!). There is one local with a VHF radio and good English that helps organize things for the yachties. Last night we had a nice Cruiser Potluck at Sia's, and tomorrow she is organizing a pig roast for 25 pa'anga per person.

We are looking at the weather forecast, and must leave here on Sunday, in order to have reasonable winds for the our next hop, 160 miles south to Neiafu, Tonga. This will be our last ocean passage for about 6 months!!
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At 10/05/2011 7:39 PM (utc) our position was 15°56.49'S / 173°46.08'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Safely in Apia Marina

We arrived after an easy overnight passage from Pago Pago to Apia. The wind forecast was for very light north winds, but they ended up NW, and we actually t-t-t-tacked (once, after a long discussion).

At sunset the wind dropped from 10 knots to almost nothing, so we turned on the engine and motored the rest of the way to Apia (about 50 miles).

But the first few hours were a pretty nice sail. We saw whales several times, going around the southern tip of Tutuila (the main island of American Samoa). We caught one fish--a small tunny, which Dave threw back before I even got a picture of him. Between the tuna we got on our way from Suwarrow, and all the meat we bought in Pago Pago, we really don't have any room in our freezer anyway.

We arrived at Apia as planned just after 8am, and were tied up at the dock in Apia Marina by 0830. Clearing in here is easy--you wait on your boat and all the officials come to you...all 5 of them, one-by-one. By 1130 we were fully cleared. All the money is paid on exit, so I'm not sure the total fees for check-in/check-out here.

Staying in the marina is mandatory for yachts. And if there is no space in the marina, you can anchor out, but you still pay the marina fees. It is a very nice marina, with floating docks, water, electricity, cold-water showers, and a 24x7 guard at the gate. For our boat we will pay about $20 USD per night for the marina.

Our friends on Dream Away have been here for 2 weeks, so we will buy them a drink tonight and get the skinny on sightseeing Samoa. They rented a car and even took the car on the ferry to the neighboring island of Savai'i.
-----
Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 23/09/2011 10:02 PM (utc) our position was 13°49.67'S 171°45.56'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Anchor down in Pago Pago

We arrived yesterday evening after an easy passage. We have good internet!! Maybe some picture updates from the last month when I get a chance.
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At 9/14/2011 6:53 PM (utc) our position was 14°16.42'S 170°41.72'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Samoan Weather Forecast

We have started to request the American Samoa weather forecast out of Pago Pago. We were interested to see that it comes in both English and Samoan.

The Samoan version...

LE ASO...SAVILI MAI SASA'E 10 I LE 15 NOTE. SAMI E 7 I LE 9 FT.
E TAAPE NAI TIMU.
PO NANEI E OO I LE PO ASO FARAILE...SAVILI MAI SASA'E 10 I LE 15
NOTE. SAMI E 7 I LE 9 FT O LE A FAAITIITIA I LE AOAULI O LE ASO FARAILE
E LATA I LE 5 I LE 7 FT. E TAAPE NAI TIMU.
ASO TOONA'I E OO I LE ASO GAFUA...SAVILI MAI SASA'E 10 I LE 15 NOTE.
SAMI E 5 I LE 7 FT. E TAAPE NAI TIMU.

Look at all those vowels!!

Translation:

TODAY...EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 7 TO 9 FT. ISOLATED SHOWERS.
TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT...EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS
7 TO 9 FT SUBSIDING TO NEAR 5 TO 7 FT FRIDAY AFTERNOON. ISOLATED
SHOWERS.
SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY...EAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT.
ISOLATED SHOWERS.

We are still having a great sail. Clear skies, a few small puffy clouds, and about 14 knots of wind. We saw a green flash at sunset tonight, and the moon was already up as the sun set. It will be nearly full tonight.

It doesn't get much better than this!!

There is a nasty low passing well south of us (causing the big swell), but the forecast for where we are is for settled weather for the next week.
-----
Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 9/9/2011 6:05 AM (utc) our position was 14°07.25'S 166°05.75'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Saying Farewell to Suwarrow

We left Suwarrow finally yesterday morning, after nearly 3 weeks of hanging out.

After the stormy weather, we were blessed with 10 days of beautiful stable sunny conditions.

We had a great time there hanging out with James and John, the Rangers. We snorkeled with Manta Rays, we took a reef walk out to a motu with nesting birds, we learned how to open coconuts the Cook Islands way. We watched the shark feeding several times. We explored some dive spots, and made one very very nice dive.

Suwarrow is a special place. It is so remote that only sailors can visit it--made famous by Tom Neale who came there to live, to experience fending for himself alone on an island. He wrote a book about his experiences called 'An Island to Oneself'. The Rangers are deposited on the island in April with a 6 month supply of basic provisions. They augment their provisions by fishing, by collecting coconuts, growing their own vegetables, and by socializing with the cruisers.

Just sitting in the anchorage on a sunny day is a fantastic experience--the vivid green of the coconuts on the island, the beautiful beach, the turquoise water, the frothy white surf on the reef, the curious black-tip sharks that hang about the boat. It is hard for a picture to convey how nice it was, but Dave got a couple of really good pics, which we will share when we have time and internet.

In Suwarrow we had 'anchorage sharks' the way there are 'anchorage barracudas' in Florida and the Bahamas. It was a little startling to go up on deck and see 2-3 sharks hanging about. It is really intimidating to newcomers to the anchorage, but I snorkeled all over the anchorage area with no problems. These little (3-4') guys are just looking for handouts--which the Rangers have forbidden. They request that all garbage come ashore and go onto the compost pile, and any fish cleaning be done at their station. They then take the fish carcasses and throw them to the sharks on the reef on the other side of the island. Though Charlie's Charts talks about 'aggressive sharks in the anchorage', we have found them to be curious, not aggressive, and have heard of no incident between sharks and cruisers.

With Graham and Avril on Dream Away, we took the dinghies one day up to the Seven Islands area for a snorkel. We found two great snorkel spots (following John on Sete Mares' guidance). It was a bit of a bash in the dinghies, even in moderate winds. Would have been nicer to take a big boat up there, towing the dinghies, the way we did in Mopelia. But the Rangers forbid anchoring anywhere but behind 'Anchorage Island'.

We spent a couple of days there where there were only 2 boats in the anchorage... this was after the 'population' peaked in early August at 28 boats. But a few days later, after the next weather window opened up in Bora Bora, about 8 boats dribbled in over 2-3 days. A whole new group of friends!!

In the lull between groups, we had a chance to sit and talk with James quite a bit. He's a unique individual. In spite of his pot-belly, topknot, tattoes, and toothless smile, he is a very intelligent guy, and very committed to environmental protection of Suwarrow and the Cook Islands. Dave spent quite some time trying to help him with the antenna to his donated VHF--so he could hear incoming boats more than a mile out (without success, unfortunately).

We had one last Sundowners on the Beach to welcome the new boats, and then on the final night, a very nice potluck.

We are now 24 hours into our trip west toward American Samoa and having another beautiful downwind sail.
-----
Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 9/8/2011 6:21 PM (utc) our position was 13°38.17'S 165°08.55'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Enroute to Suwarrow - Day 5 & Arrival

As of 0800 local August 20
Miles today: 125 Total Miles Behind Us: 628
Miles to go: 0
Wind ESE at 15 kt Large Southerly Swell

We came in the pass at Suwarrow at 0800 this morning. We spent the night lollygagging around trying to sail comfortably without arriving too soon. It really is hard in decent winds to slow down. If you pull in too much sail, the boat rolls uncomfortably. So it is always a challenge to slow down. But we managed to jog along at about 4 knots for most of the night, with teh wind a little aft of the beam.

We originally thought we'd go around the south side of the atoll and hang out on the 'back side' for the night. But the winds picked up later than forecast, so we would have arrived at the south end of the atoll too late. And, on more thought, it would mean we'd have to be very vigilant on watch because of our proximity to the reef. So we changed our plan at midnight, and decided to reach up on the east side, a comfortable 10 miles east of the reef, and gybe at around 5am and reach back for the pass. This meant we had to take the spinnaker pole down (15' long and 4" in diameter) in the middle of the night. But with a moon and reasonable conditions, it was no big deal.

Dave hates to handle the pole at sea--we normally set it before we go out into the ocean, and wait to take it down until we arrive. But we did need to get it down. And with our big pole, one end is permanently affixed to the mast. So the 'pole dance' isn't a real big thing. Dave handled the controls at the mast and I handled the outboard end of the pole--assisted with the foreguy and afterguy. We bring it down until the pole end is at the lifeline, attach it to the lifeline to stabilize things, and then get the topping life, foreguy, and afterguy all sorted out. Our pole stores on the mast, so once all the lines are detached, Dave hauls up on the pole and I attached it to the ring on the mast. Simple (in 15 kts and 5' seas).

We had a good set of waypoints for the pass, and though it was a little early for 'good light' the reefy points we needed to avoid in the pass were all breaking, so easy to see. I would have hung out for another hour, but Dave wanted to go in.

By the time we got the mainsail down and went into the anchorage, the sun was up a little higher and we could easily see the bad spots around the anchorage.

Our anchoring was much facilitate by the fact that about 5 boats pulled out this morning, leaving some nice gaps for anchoring. A few weeks ago the boat population peaked at 29 boats. We now have only 11 boat, including us.

We anchored once in deep water (55'), but once we learned that a couple of catamarans were leaving that were closer in to the island (and therefore better protected from the 20+ knots forecast for tomorrow), we pulled our anchor and moved closer in to take their spot.

The Rangers in their nicely accented (Australia/NZ) Cook Islands accent, came on at 0830 with a short VHF net. They said goodbye to the boats leaving and welcome to the boats leaving. They told us to come in when we were rested to do the formalities (clear into the Cook Islands). Can't wait to meet them!

Passage Statistics, Anchorage to Anchorage
------------------------------------------
628 miles
5 days
Avg speed: 5.2 knots
Eng hrs: 21.5
-----
Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 8/21/2011 12:01 AM (utc) our position was 13°14.87'S 163°06.47'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Windows Activation in the Middle of the Pacific

Last night on Dave's watch, our navigation computer, an older Dell laptop that we've had for a couple of years, suddenly came up with a Windows Activation Alert. Dave swears he didn't do anything unusual. He said he accidentally shut the computer down (instead of sleeping it as we normally do when underway). When he restarted it, the 'Windows Activation Needed' banner came up and stayed in the lower right corner. This computer hasn't been connected to the internet in about 2 years, and we've never had any activation warnings before. It is a Dell we bought used and has a Windows XP sticker on the bottom that looks legit.

So I wasn't too alarmed until I rebooted it again, and a warning came up that we'd have to activate in 3 days or Windows would stop working. !!!! There was a convenient 'Click Here to Activate' button.

Well, of course the Activation process requires internet or a telephone. Fortunately, we have a Sat phone, and the conditions aboard were calm and we've got a good signal on the phone. So I called the number listed--first the 'no toll free' number, which is no longer valid, and then the 'toll free' number. The Sat phone doesn't recognize toll free numbers, and so I got the warning that I'll be billed 'international rates' for the call. *sigh*

Anyway, holding my breath that we wouldn't move out of the Iridium 'cell' and drop the call in the middle of the process, I interacted with the voice-prompt computer to say the 54-digit number that was displayed on my Activation screen. It was easy, with the computer prompting for each number group in turn. The only hitch was caused by me mis-reading one of the numbers, but 'he' gave me several chances to re-read the number. Then the computer read off my activation code. Again, slowly, clearly, and in groups that matched the fields on the screen. Click to finish, and Walla! I was activated again. Guess we're good for another 2 years.

Sheesh--fortunately, even if we couldn't resolve the problem--we have 3 other computers aboard, all configured to be able to plug and play as the Navigation computer. But what next, Microsoft!???
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Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 8/19/2011 10:08 PM (utc) our position was 13°28.71'S 161°49.28'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Enroute to Suwarrow - Day 4

As of 0800 local August 19
Miles today: 125 Total Miles Behind Us: 513
Miles to go: 96 (1 more day)
Wind ESE at 10 kt Large Southerly Swell
Sailing WNW at 5kt
Sail Config: Genoa poled to port, reefed main vanged to stbd, staysail sheeted in the middle

We motored all day yesterday in mostly glassy conditions until 1am. At our 'change of watch' time, the wind had come up to about 8-9 knots out of the ESE. Since we knew we'd arrive after dark tonight no matter what we did, there was no need to keep motoring once there was enough wind to move at all under sail.

So we set the sails in our nice stable 'Dead Down Wind' configuration, and were surprised to be moving along at nearly 4 knots. We had a nice quiet sail the rest of the night.

Now we are going too fast. Our current ETA at the current speed (10am) of 5.5 knots is about 2am tonight, and the wind is forecast to build to the 15 knot range, so we will probably go even faster. The problem with slowing down is twofold... First, we have been bitten before by slowing down, then have the weather change. Second, to slow down you have to reduce sail, and reducing sail in seas means that you roll more. So we'll keep on at a reasonable speed, and plan to tuck up behind Suwarrow whenever we get there, and heave-to or sail slowly back and forth until daylight. (Dodging our 2 other friends who will also arrive after dark).

We do want to get in as early as possible tomorrow (Saturday), because the winds are building, and the sooner we get in and get settled, the better. The forecast for Sunday is for winds over 20 knots from the SE. Hopefully there will be plenty of room in the anchorage for us to tuck up into a protected spot for the higher winds. The boat count at Suwarrow is now about 12-15 boats, and our little group's arrival will add 5 more. And the normal anchorage is a little exposed to strong SE-ly winds. If the normal anchorage is too crowded, we understand we can get permission from the Rangers to move to a place a short distance away called 'Seven Islands', which is well protected from the SE.

Still having a pleasant sail in mild, sunny conditions. Looking forward to our arrival in Suwarrow!
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Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 8/19/2011 9:28 PM (utc) our position was 13°29.00'S 161°45.98'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Enroute to Suwarrow - Day 3

As of 0800 local August 18
Miles today: 126 Miles Behind Us: 388
Miles to go: 214 (approx 2 more days)
Wind NE at <5 kt Seas confused!
Motorsailing WNW at 5.5kt - 1 reef in the main, full staysail

Well, we had 2 1/2 days of perfect sailing weather. But the wind started to drop last night (as anticipated), and at 6am Dave couldn't stand the slopping of the sails any more, and turned on the engine. We anticipate having to motor for at least 12 hours, maybe 24, before the wind fills back in. We still expect landfall sometime Saturday.

Right now (11:30am), the sea is glassy and what sails we do have up are hanging slack. But it beats 20-25 WNW that our friends are having further south.

Our friends on Dreamaway are in sight, about 3 miles ahead of us. We are amazed that we've stayed so close together without really any collaboration. We've had trouble staying this close to Infini after 3 days of sailing in the past, when we've been TRYING to stay close!

I've just finished reading Tom Neale's "An Island to Oneself" about his stay alone on Suwarrow in the early 1960's. Interesting reading, and especially poignant when approaching 'his' island for a visit ourselves. He once spent 13 months without visits from any boats. But now, with GPS, and the internet (sharing of cruising information), they regularly have ~120 boats a year visit. The island is once again uninhabited, except seasonally, 2 Park Rangers are placed on the island to watch over and facilitate cruisers' visits, from April to November.
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Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
At 8/18/2011 9:52 PM (utc) our position was 13°58.89'S 159°49.66'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Southern Cooks vs Northern Cooks Route

Folks might wonder if we're going to interesting places like Palmerston and Aitutake, as well as Suwarrow. We are not.

The Cook Islands are scattered all over the middle of the South Pacific. Cruisers going between French Polynesia and Tonga generally need to make a choice between the Southern Cooks route, which include either Rarotonga or Aitutake, and then typically Palmerston, Beveridge Reef and Niue. Or via the Northern Cooks route, which includes Suwarrow, and usually a stop at American Samoa and/or Western Samoa.

We could spend a month out here and hit them all, but these islands/atolls are about 300 miles apart, so it would be logistically difficult and a lot of sea miles. Plus we'd be dodging cold fronts this time of year.

We chose the northern route for two reasons--Tom Neale's "An Island To Oneself" is set in Suwarrow, and so it's a cool place to stop. It is now a park, and two Cook Island Park Rangers stay there during cruising season to shepherd the passing cruisers through the atoll. They make it a point to show the cruisers an interesting time. Our friends have just raved about the experience.

The second reason is that the northern route seems to be north of the passing cold fronts. We are congratulating ourselves tonight on our choice, after hearing friends on the radio enroute from Aitutake to Beveridge Reef going through a cold front with 25 knot NW winds. Yuk! We, on the other hand, have 12 knots of gentle northeasterly winds. We are about 350 miles north of them, headed more north, and should not get much weather from the passing cold front. (Remember that we are in the Southern Hemisphere, so north means warmer down here...). The season right now is 'late winter'--the Northern Hemisphere equivalent of February.

If you're totally interested and want a geography lesson, here are some approximate lat/longs of some of the Cook Islands:

Suwarrow 13-13S 163-04W
Palmerston 18-04S 163-12W
Aitutake 18-55S 159-46W

Get out your Google Earth!
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Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 8/18/2011 6:41 AM (utc) our position was 14°32.64'S 158°44.28'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Chocolate Ice Cream in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean!

Our new freezer is doing a great job off keeping ice cream cold. Dave loves chocolate ice cream so much that we finally broke down and bought some in Bora Bora. We are enjoying the sunset and eating ice cream, on a beam reach. It doesn't get much better than this!
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Sherry & Dave
On our way from French Polynesia toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 8/17/2011 10:01 PM (utc) our position was 14°47.50'S 157°58.57'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Enroute to Suwarrow - Day 2

As of 0800 local August 17
Miles today: 135 Miles Behind Us: 262
Miles to go: 333 (approx 3 more days)
Wind NE at 13 kt Seas confused!
Sailing WNW at 6kt - 1 reef in the main, 80% genoa, wind slightly aft of beam

We have had a lovely 24 hours. The wind has been pretty steady at 12-14 knots, and shifting in a favorable direction. The seas have been going down, the weather fair, and we have a full moon for most of the night. We've hardly had to touch the sails in 24 hours, and the only messing with the autopilot has been to tweak it to point more at our final destination.

We are still in VHF contact with Dreamaway, who left about 45 minutes behind us. They are about 10 miles ahead of us.

We've been monitoring and checking in on several SSB nets. First, the afternoon 'South Pacific Cruiser's Net' and the morning 'Pacific Reef Runner's Net'. These two are nets set up by different groups of boats that are 'puddle jumping' this year. So they are moving nets that will likely disband as the boats arrive in Samoa and Tonga and form up different nets for their onward passages to NZ or Australia. We have also been checking in on the evening Pacific Seafarer's Net--our old friends based in Hawaii, California, and NZ who track Hams on boats all over the Pacific.

Plus we tried to tune up the Fiji-based 'Rag of the Air Net' (8173 1900z) this morning--but copy was poor--maybe it will be better tomorrow as we get closer to Fiji.

Our current sailing conditions are fantastic, but they are forecast to get really light tomorrow. We have about 24 hours of barely-sailable wind, as a front passes south of us, and then they should fill in for our last 24 hours to Suwarrow.

Though we are sad to miss hooking up with many of our friends in Suwarrow, we are happy to hear that the big wave of boats there has started to move on to American Samoa and Tonga. They set a new record of 29 boats in Suwarrow at the same time this year, about a week ago. We have been dragging our heels on the way there, hoping that the numbers will be down by the time we get there. It's a remote place that should be enjoyed by 'less than a mob'. And of course, anchoring will be easier in the deep water with fewer boats to worry about.

We are sad to report that one boat we are acquainted with, Ri Ri, was lost on the reef at Palmerston Atoll yesterday. We haven't been able to get all the details, but Ri Ri was on a mooring there and apparently broke free. (no word yet on whether it was mooring equipment that failed, or boat-based equipment, and how they got so stuck so fast that they couldn't get off). A huge effort was made to pull her off the reef, but they eventually gave up that effort and started just trying to salvage stuff inside. So Frank and his girlfriend are fine, but are sitting on a pile of used boat gear in Palmerston, wondering what to do next. Very sad. As always, a number of cruisers are headed for Palmerston to help out as much as possible--and one has already promised them passage on to Tonga when they are ready.
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At 8/17/2011 6:09 PM (utc) our position was 14°55.01'S 157°38.41'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Enroute to Suwarrow - Day 1

We had an easy exit from the pass at Mopelia. Conditions in the pass were better than we'd seen it since we'd been there. The current was still ripping out at 3-3.5 knots, but there was no incoming swell, so it was flat calm. We flew through the pass at close to 8 knots, with no incident.

After a "Man Overboard Drill" to retrieve Dave's hat (outside the pass, in the calm waters) we had the sails set and on our way by about 9:45am.

It was a beautiful day, with about 15-16 knots of wind, well south of east. Of the 5 boats that set out around the same time (Soggy Paws, Dreamaway, Loose Pointer, Blue Moon, and Night Fly), all set out on port tack to take advantage of the southerly direction of the wind. The forecast is for the wind to back to the NE eventually, so staying a little south of the rhumb line will enable us to gybe to starboard tack when the wind goes NE.

We didn't bother fishing--too many other distractions, and Dave doesn't like cleaning fish underway. So we fish when coming into an atoll, but not on leaving. Though from our diving, the fishing near the pass should be fantastic. We saw Wahoo, Tuna, Jacks, and big Snapper on our dives.

We set up in our Dead Down Wind (DDW) configuration, with the Genoa poled to port, the Main vanged to starboard, and the Staysail sheeted in tight to starboard (to stop the rolling). In 15 knots of wind, this is a very stable and reasonably fast configuration for us. In the last few downwind hops, we have tried other configurations and none has worked as well. (Genoa alone on a pole, genoa and reefed main, etc). With this configuration, we have about 45 degrees of directional latitude, so we could accommodate the slow wind shift without a lot of sail handling.

We sailed like this all through the day and until our 1am watch change, when the wind had backed around to a more easterly direction, and we threw the main over to sail on a starboard tack broad reach, in a WNW direction. Unfortunately, the wind had eased during the night and we're slopping around a bit, but it's not too bad. Our speed is down to about 4.5 knots.

Current ETA Suwarrow is mid-day Saturday. 457 Miles to go.
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At 8/16/2011 5:42 PM (utc) our position was 16°14.19'S 155°50.92'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Underway for Mopelia

We worked hard for 2 days--even passing up a chance at a hike and a scuba dive--to get ready to leave this morning.

Sunday was spent reorganizing our boat for 'at sea' conditions, and putting away the toys (kayaks and bicycles) we got out for Fred & Suki's visit. Early Monday morning, we left our nice mooring (and good wifi) at Bloody Mary's and headed for town, where we fill up with fuel, got groceries, and checked out of French Polynesia for good.

Once we got our town chores done, we moved to the pretty anchorage west of the north end of Motu Toopua. This is a really nice spot--pretty, somewhat remote from town, and with OK wifi. Wish we could have stayed there longer. But it was time to move on.

We sailed out the pass at Bora Bora at 0845 this morning, and saw a couple of whales!! What a nice start for a passage.

We have been mostly running Dead Down Wind (DDW) all day. We are using the 'Tom Service' configuration--genoa on a pole to windward, main vanged out to leeward, and the staysail in the middle. This is surprisingly stable, even in pretty big seas. Our autopilot will hold a course with this configuration pretty well, and it's the maximum sail area we can spread.

In the late afternoon, we tried going over on a starboard tack for awhile. It worked for a bit, but then the wind came around, and we went back to our DDW configuration.

The wind is only about 12 knots, and the seas are calming down. But we would like to make the pass at Mopelia by about noon, so we are hoping for a couple of more knots of wind. For awhile we were only making 3.8 knots, and that wouldn't cut it, but we are up to about 4.5-5kts, which will do fine.
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Sherry & Dave
In French Polynesia til August, then west toward Tonga
http://svsoggypaws.blogspot.com

At 8/10/2011 5:48 AM (utc) our position was 16°35.94'S 152°37.74'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Overnight Passage to Huahine

We were finally ready to move on from Moorea to the next island, Huahine. Huahine is pronounced 'Wah hee nee' (just like the Hawaiian Wahine). We had pretty much 'done' Moorea, and we had the weather we'd been waiting for--15 knots from the east and settled weather.

The trip from Moorea is only 80 miles, so we spent the day rearranging things after Jim's visit, and getting ready for the passage. At 4pm we motorsailed out the Opunohu pass, and pointed for the north end of Huahine 305 degrees, 80 miles.

We had a pretty nice night, except that Dave really wanted to have the main up in addition to the Genoa. He thought our genoa-only trip from Toau to Tahiti was too rolly.

With the mainsail up, we couldn't quite make our course, because the main would blank the genoa. So we had to sail about 320 degrees all night. There were about 10 boats on passage, plus two inter-island freighters that passed us during the night. Fortunately, the freighters had AIS, but almost none of the other boats on passage even had receivers. So there were a few close encounters, and a lot of 'are you the boat to my south?' conversations during the night, some quite comical.

Many of the 'Puddle Jumpers' who arrived in the Marquesas in April are running out of time--their 90-day visas are expiring, so they leaving Tahiti and Moorea in droves, hurrying west, trying to see a little more of the Society Islands before they have to leave.

Though it was really a nice night, I didn't really enjoy this passage much. I stubbornly refused to accept that we couldn't make the heading I wanted, and Janet, our autopilot doesn't steer well on that point of sail. She wandered all over and flogged the genoa frequently. And the swell was still pretty big from the huge swell a few days before, and it was slewing us around quite a bit. By the time it was Dave's watch, I was pretty grumpy and ready for sleep. When Dave called me up to gybe for Huahine at 5am, I was sleepy and even more grumpy--I was not very nice to him. These short passages are hell!!

We gybed at 5am, and once we got close to Huahine the wind got really light and we gave up and motored the last 7 miles around to Fare.
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At 7/9/2011 8:05 PM (utc) our position was 16°42.77'S 151°02.38'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Nous sommes arrivee a Tahiti

We (along with about 15 other boats on passage at the same time) arrive in Tahiti early this morning. We managed to be the first ones at the Tahiti Yacht Club and have gotten on a mooring. Though we emailed them a couple of times, they will not reserve moorings. What we heard was 'come in and if you find one, take it, then register in the office'. We are liable to be kicked off at any time if a member returns, but the manager, Michel, did not seem fazed when we told him we were hoping to stay for 10 days.

Our friends on Infini, who arrived from Rangiroa yesterday and anchored overnight at Point Venus (made famous by Captain Cook), arrived right behind us and also got a mooring. Two other boats we met in Toau are also here (Songline and the Dutch boat Libis).

Our first order of business was breakfast (omlettes ashore at the 'snack' next to the yacht club), and then the grocery story. We have notified our agent that we are here. We have 48 hours to complete our formalities, and may go ashore in the meantime.

The moorings at YC de Tahiti are 900 CFP per day (about $10) per day, and come with hot shower privileges. There is a laundry here too, which costs $8 for wash and dry.

Most of our friends proceeded on downtown to the 'Quai de Yachts' or to the moorings/anchorage off Marina Taina.
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At 6/13/2011 9:18 PM (utc) our position was 17°31.42'S 149°32.17'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Au Revoir, Anse Amyot

One of the biggest downsides of traveling as we do is eventually having to say goodbye to special friends we have met along the way. It was with genuine tears in our eyes that we hugged Valentine and Gaston one last time this morning, and started preparations for a two-day trip to Tahiti.

The last week has been frustrating for the 15-18 boats bottled up at Anse Amyot--waiting first for some wind, and then waiting for the wind to stop blowing. We went from literally zero wind to 25-30 knots within a few hours last Saturday as a cold front swept in, and it has been blowing like stink since then, until late yesterday.

Before the wind started blowing, we took advantage of the calm conditions to do a lot of diving. We made at least one dive a day, and on the really calm days, two dives. We explored along the wall further in both directions--finding a few more neat dive spots. We usually had an entourage of several dinghies following us--some new friends. One a diver, and another couple were avid snorkelers. It was nice sharing our favorite dive spots with everyone, and it's always safer having at least one extra dinghy along when going outside the atoll (it's a long drift to Tahiti!!).

Once the wind started blowing, we mostly stayed on the boat and caught up on chores. I finally got the courage to upgrade the hard drive in my laptop. I had bought the drive back in February, but never had the time while we were in Hawaii to get it installed. Our friend Gene on Reflections, on a mooring with us at Toau, gave me the encouragement I needed, and also loaned me his drive enclosure and a disk cloning program. That made the job really easy.

Dave did Preventive Maintenance on the dive compressor, and also lots of other similar chores around the boat. Together we spent one whole afternoon removing and re-bedding the port genoa track--which leaked like a sieve on our way down from Hawaii.

In addition to the boat chores, we enjoyed socializing around the small fleet. We had several happy hours ashore, as well as other social gatherings for important functions like burning trash and swapping books.

Today when the weather finally calmed down, Anse Amyot emptied out. 14 boats scattered to the wind--3 went south to Fakarava, 1 went north to Apataki, and the rest headed west for Tahiti. We were the last of a group of 4 boats who left around 3pm today. Everyone is joking about having to keep a proper watch on this trip, because so many boats are headed for Tahiti right now.

Anyway, all is well. We are looking forward to getting to Tahiti and checking out the big grocery store we have heard about. We are almost out of bread, and are down to our last tomato.
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At 6/12/2011 7:50 AM (utc) our position was 16°05.37'S 146°43.16'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

In Anse Amyot, Toau

We had a nice sail for the 80 miles from Manihi to Toau.

80 miles at our planning speed of 5.5 knots is 14.5 hours, and there are only about 12 hours of daylight here right now. So we had to decide whether to make it an overnight or mostly-daytime trip, with arrival at night. I favored the overnight plan, but Dave felt we knew Toau well enough, and the entry was simple enough, that the daylight plan would work. The deciding factor was the wind forecast. If we left in the morning, for the daytime run, we'd have mostly 15 knots. Waiting til evening for the overnight run would possibly change the conditions up to the 'near 20 knots' range.

So we pulled anchor in Manihi at first light (5:30am) and crossed our fingers that our carefully-laid anchor would come up easily. It did. We had used our 'Fishfinder' when anchoring the day before, to find a less-contoured spot on the bottom in which to drop our anchor. It took 3 passes to find the best spot, and then get the anchor to the bottom in that spot, but it was worth the effort.

According to our tide calculations, the tide should have already turned in the pass as we exited. So we were expecting a couple of knots of incoming current--no big deal. But we found we actually had a couple of knots of outgoing current. The only explanation is the higher winds (and waves) push more water into the atoll over the low reefy parts than can get out in the pass on the leeward side. Manihi might be one of those atolls where, in high wind/sea conditions, the current never turns. (But we weren't sticking around to find out).

We trolled a fishing line all day. We got one hit, but the fish got off before we started pulling it in. No more strikes. We are finally eating down the stuff in our freezer and have some room for fish, if we catch one.

We had a great sail--the wind was in the 14-18 knot range, and almost on our beam, so the rough hard-on-the-wind trip I envisioned turned into a very nice fast sail. We reefed our genoa to keep our speed under 7 knots. We got our first squall just before dark (and it's been squally on-and-off ever since, so we made the right decision to go).

Getting in at night, though, was a little dicey. Anse Amyot has a lighted range, but one of the range lights is out. So we had to rely only on our GPS, which we knew was 'spot on'. No moon out at all. With the GPS screen radiating too much light in the cockpit, even in 'night mode'--I couldn't see a thing, but just had to rely on instruments. Dave was on the bow, though, with a spotlight, and he could see pretty well. He told me to keep on coming, and eventually spotted the two unlit entry markers. We fortunately finally reached a boat in the anchorage on VHF before we came in--they saw our lights wandering around outside and turned on their VHF. They put their spotlight on an available mooring that they knew had a floating 'tag line', near them. This made it easy for us to pick up, and in a couple of minutes we were secure. So in the end it wasn't that hard. (Dave thinks it was easy, but I wouldn't choose to do it again.)

Since we arrived, the wind has been blowing pretty hard, so we haven't gone diving yet. We did spend yesterday morning looking over the moorings--checking the chains around the coral heads were still OK, and looking for wear in the lines. Dave has a list of maintenance items to make all the moorings servicable again, which we'll help with over the next few days.
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At 5/28/2011 12:55 AM (utc) our position was 15°48.19'S 146°09.17'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm

Anchor Down in Manihi - YAHOO!!

After 20 days 14 hrs, and 2403 nautical miles, we are safely at anchor in Manihi. There are 8 cruising boats from 4 different nationalities here (US, Canadian, Australian, French) right now.
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In French Polynesia
At 5/20/2011 6:46 PM (utc) our position was 14°27.89'S 146°02.22'W
http://svsoggypaws.com/currentposition.htm