The Tuamotus Diaries #59, Day 126 – October 1st 2016
As I write this we are sitting at the expensive comfort of Marina Taina in Tahiti. We came here from Toau, after a rather straight-forward, overnight passage.
It’s been 125 days in the Tuamotus. 4 atolls, 57 entries in our Tuamotus Diaries, hundreds of pictures, and a number of life-changing experiences. The amount of time we had was enough to allow us to not bother about it – time – for a long while. And with that pressure out of our systems, the enjoyment of life got just so intense.
We loved each other, and enjoyed being loved by one another in levels that we had not done before. We have been able to feel our natural surroundings in a way we didn’t do before.
The decision to come this way was made about a year ago, almost trivially, over wine on a casual dinner with friends. And looking back now, it was amongst the wisest we’ve made in our lives.
And the coolest part? The Journey isn’t over – far from it.
I often write about what happens during our passages, but not so much about the details of them. Given it was a simple one, I will talk about it this time.
As mentioned above, the passage is rather straight-forward, without any hazards along the way – it is basically a straight line from Toau to Tahiti. Moreover, in Toau we stayed in Anse Amyot, which is a false pass on the lee side of the atoll. As such, it can be exited at any time – no need to fuss with tide times as for the other atolls. Similarly, tides are not an issue at the passes we intended to use in Tahiti. With that we could loosely chose our departure time to optimize for wind and time of arrival in Tahiti, our goal being to arrive some time during the morning.
depart on Thursday, enjoy more winds, but likely endure a higher swell from all the wind that blew during the week
depart Friday, with less swell, but less wind as well, plus running the risk of getting becalmed along the way
We chose the latter. The only caveat was that the wind was forecast to diminish to nearly zero by the time we arrived to Tahiti, meaning we might likely have to motor on the final hours approaching the island. A fair compromise for a smoother passage.
According to the forecast, the wind would be blowing at ~14kts from the East upon our departure, and then gradually veer to the East-North-East and reduce in strength to 8-10kts by the time we arrived.
We left Anse Amyot in Toau at the same time as the sun slid behind the horizon. In my heart, only the now-usual anxiety associated to departing on a passage at dusk. All feelings associated to leaving the Tuamotus had already been processed. In hindsight, my heart had already left this paradisiac place back in Fakarava.
Anyway, just after leaving the pass in Toau, we felt the swell. It was still there, but definitely at a manageable level. During the night, I steered a course some 20 degrees to the North of the straight line route – the rationale being to keep the wind nearly on a dead-downwind angle while it was still strong enough for it, and reserve some “southing” on our direction for later in the passage, for when the wind started to get lighter and veer to the North. We sailed all through the night just with our Genoa out at a tranquil pace.
During the first portion of the passage, sailed at night, the wind was still strong enough to allow us to sail dead-downwind. We did so, heading on a westward direction, some 20 degrees to the north of our straight-line route. We used our Genoa fully set, no Main, and averaged 6-6.5 knots, with winds ranging from 14 to 20 knots.
At dawn the wind had slowed a bit, the Genoa wasn’t all that effective anymore, and we set the Spinnaker instead. It reached the top of our mast before the sun was completely up from the horizon. Pesto jumped ahead and we resumed our average speed to the targeted 6 knots we had for the passage.
It was a glorious day of sailing, with just the spinnaker up, on a broad reach to a gentle breeze and the seas, which were now getting flatter by the hour. In the afternoon the wind started to veer to the North and got lighter, as forecast, and then we used the “northing” we had built on our track to maintain the wind at a broad-reach direction, thus keeping the spinnaker full. Had we sailed on a straight line since departure, we would now have the light wind dead astern, and wouldn’t be able to sail anymore, having to use the engine all through the night instead.
During the next day the wind diminished gradually, as expected. We brought the Genoa in and hoisted the Spinnaker – our largest sail and adequate for downwind angles. As the wind decreased, we adjusted our course to the South gradually, thus making the most out of apparent wind to keep the sail full. Pesto’s average speed remained within the 6-7knot range, as we desired.
The decision to keep the spinnaker up and sail during the night was made just before dusk. The sea was very calm, the sky looked steady and the forecast – which had been unusually consistent thus far – pointed for a hazard free night. It was indeed an easy one, with all four of us sleeping at the cockpit and just a few occasional checks required during the night. By sunrise the wind then subsided to a point that we were barely making any progress, the spinnaker deflating constantly and rubbing against the rigging. That was it. We had been able to sail for over 200 miles, and the time had come for our faithful Volvo Penta to do the honors for us for the remaining 20 miles towards Taina.
During the second – and last – night of the passage the wind kept its diminishing trend. However, we were North enough of Tahiti at this point to be able to sail closer to the little wind there was, thus maximizing the effect of Apparent Wind (a wind component created by the movement of the boat – similar to the wind that blows through the windows of a car as it moves). With that, we were able to sail all through the night with the spinnaker. Pesto’s speed decreased gradually along the night, from ~7kts to ~4kts at dawn, when the spinnaker started to collapse and we finally switched the engine on.
And so it ends. One tranquil, stress-free passage to wrap up the pinnacle of our Journey so far.
Go wonder what lies ahead …
THANK YOU for following our Tuamotus Diaries. This is our final entry, and we will now resume our “regular programming” of posts on the blog.
The Tuamotus Diaries #58, Day 124 – September 29th 2016
Toau is the third Atoll we visit in the Tuamotus. And it will be the last.
Even though we have been here for nearly a week now, for all practical purposes our stay here has been just under 48 hours.
Another spell of very windy weather has been keeping us pinned down to the boat since Sunday evening. However, the few hours we had available before all this show started were worth it. Knowing settled weather doesn’t last here, we tried to make the most our of what we had, to good effect, as hopefully the pictures will tell below:
The Tuamotus Diaries #57, Day 120 – September 25th 2016
We are in Toau – the third Atoll we visit in the Tuamotus, and the last.
We arrived here the day before yesterday, Friday, after an easy day passage from Fakarava.
It was exceptionally mild upon arrival, and the Atoll was in full splendor. The forecast, however, was promising “normal” (aka Very Windy) conditions to resume on Monday again, so we tried to take the most of our time. Snorkeling, walking on the beach, visiting a portion of the motu nearby.
Today, Sunday, the wind started to pick up more or less in the middle of the morning. It was a gradual, subtle strengthening. From a near-calm during the night, it accelerated to a light breeze just before noon. It was all gentle, the sky remained clear, the Atoll and the crystalline water all sparkling around us.
And I started feeling uneasy.
I couldn’t put my finger on it. All looked good, but that slight breeze just unsettled me.
I downloaded another forecast package, and everything insisted the winds would pick up only tomorrow, when they would accelerate to approximately 17-20 knots.
Hmmm … but that gut feeling …
Using the crystalline waters and the swarm of fish under Pesto as an excuse I got my mask and flippers and dove to check the mooring that we were using. The system was composed of a sturdy 1-inch nylon rode. Near the bottom, a length of chain had been wrapped around a coral head, and the rode tied to it. It all looked sturdy and in good integrity.
But that gut feeling …
Moorings are cool. They are a nice way to protect the coral, for boats don’t need to drop their anchors, tying to the moorings instead. However, I don’t like them much. First off, Pesto is heavy, definitely on the heavier end of the average cruising boat here. Moreover, she loves to sail while tied to a mooring, thus adding more stress to the system. But the fundamental diatribe I have with a mooring is the stealth nature of they failure. If a mooring breaks, your boat is set loose without any warning, and with anything to hold it back. It will just drift silently until hitting something. An anchor, on the other hand, may even drag, but not without a fight, thus providing warning in the form of noise and vibration, and some much-needed time for reaction.
Ok, back to the story. Still trying to honor the mooring system, I decided to set up a redundant line. It was deep, 50 ft, but my gut feeling was a strong incentive to try harder. My goal was to tie two of my own lines to the chain, and leave them slack. Just as a backup in case the original rode snapped. Two large Groupers watched my efforts to reach the bottom with some disdain, as if knowing I was off to being defeated. Indeed, after a couple of tries, it became clear I didn’t have enough air left in my lungs to tie the line to the chain and return to the surface alive.
The little I was able to stay near the bottom, however, was enough for me to notice the chain was substantially smaller than the one we use on Pesto for anchoring.
“But it is still chain”, I reasoned “… and it withstood the whole season, potentially with hundreds of yachts using it without a glitch. We should be alright.” I reasoned further.
But the gut feeling had now been upgraded to anxiety. Not only was I not able to set up a backup for the mooring, I was now aware (and dissatisfied) of the size of the chain fastening us to the coral.
I stood on deck, watching loosely around us, trying to gather some hope that the weather wasn’t going to be bad.
But the gut-feeling-turned-anxiety wouldn’t let go of me.
And then I realized that patch of light green water some 100 meters ahead, closer to the reef upwind of us. I invited the kids to come with me, and together we went to scout the place. My heart filled with hope when I realized the patch was indeed a hump of sand that came at a steep angle from the coraly bottom, some 60 ft below, up to a shallow depth of 20 ft. It was indeed a perfect spot. Just that hump of sand, without coral heads or anything to snag, damage or be damaged on a 100ft radius.
Back to Pesto, Reason continued to question me, and the need for all that fuss, since we looked securely fastened to the coral via the mooring. “Why not wait until tomorrow?”, Reason said.
Seeing my puzzled expression, Adriana, who was cooking and rather oblivious to all that happened up to that point, asked what was going on. I explained, she listened, and came straight on deck, leaving knives and vegetables on the galley counter, saying that we should move to the sandy hump asap. After so many miles together, she has learned to trust my gut feelings more than I do.
The engine fired up, I let go the mooring line, we proceeded to the light-green patch, and dropped our mighty anchor there. As we moved, I could sense over my shoulder the puzzled expressions of our two neighboring yachts, and an uncomfortable stare from the family that lives onshore. But I KNEW we were doing the right thing. Should conditions go bad, it would be far safer for us to be anchored on that sandy patch than tied to a mooring. Besides, our scouting confirmed our chain would only meet with loose sand there, and not bother or be bothered by any coral.
Anyway, our mighty anchor went down, bit the loose sand ferociously and we made ample use of reverse gear to incentivize it to dig even deeper. I was still at the bow, tying our snubber, when I noticed a peculiar line of clouds at the horizon. The gut feeling subsided. Now I KNEW the forecast was crap and that something intense was about to happen.
With Pesto now securely anchored, I could sit and watch the spectacle. That thing approached us from the Southwest. It was a blanket of clouds, not too thick, and with a nearly-perfect straight edge spanning all the way across the sky on a line from SW to NE. It was not a squall. They were not heavy, dark clouds. Rather, a moderately thin layer of clouds, homogeneous and soft as fleece, with a pastel color with hues of beige and light grey. It passed over us, casting the fleecy blanket over our sky, and an utter silence reigned. Reason was about to start questioning my guts again when it happened. Within some 10 minutes the wind picked up substantially, and by sunset it was blowing a steady 25 knots, with gusts surely reaching 35, if not more.
The sun setting under the blanket of clouds … we still didn’t know by then, but we were in for a full five days of a continuous blast of 25-35kt winds.
I downloaded yet another forecast package, just to check mine and its integrity. It was still reassuring me of 17-20kts STARTING TOMORROW. “17-20knots my %^&%*”, said Reason, somewhat humiliated by the recent lesson from my guts.
The wind is howling outside, Pesto heeling successively to port and starboard. At least the water around us is calm, since we are on the lee of a reef. I know I will wake up a number of times to do anchor watches during the night. But had we been on that mooring by now, I would for sure be awake all night. And God forbid me thinking what would have happened if that mooring was to snap during the night in these conditions. With less than a minute to react, and the wild ocean now frothing over the coral just a couple hundred meters behind, it wouldn’t have been pretty.
One thing I have learned on sailing is that our Guts have a voice, and they are often right.
The other is that Preparedness goes a long way in offshore cruising.
POST SCRIPTUM – AFTERMATH:
The wind blew consistently above 25Kts for 48 hours straight, from that Sunday afternoon, and then receded to around 20 knots, and continued blowing that way for another 48 hours. It s worth mentioning that the forecast consistently underpredicted wind speed – by 5 to 10 knots during the first 48 hours, and by ~3 knots for the remainder of the time.
This experience ended up being a substantial test to our anchor for the following reasons:
The bottom was composed of a coarse “sand”, made mainly of fragments of coral. It was light material, and loosely arranged at the bottom. It wasn’t as strong a holding ground as regular sand, or thick mud for example
We anchored in an area prone to currents: approximately 2 to 3 knots when it was ebbing (twice a day) and just under a knot when it was flooding (also twice a day). When the current was ebbing, it was in the same direction of the wind, thus adding to the static tension on the chain and current. When it was flooding, it was against the wind direction. This caused Pesto to sail significantly, at times accelerating to 1knot in between “tacks”, thus imposing significant dynamic loads to the chain and anchor
I dove daily to check in the status of the anchor, and it didn’t move an inch, despite the relatively poor holding.
As I expected, the chain didn’t interact with any coral formation other than this sand, even with all the sailing that Pesto did during the event. And that was another learning from this experience.
When the wind started to blow, Pesto started sailing at anchor. This was expected, since she tends to sail when the winds freshen. However, this time the amplitude and the speed of sailing appeared to be higher than at other times. I reduced the exposed surfaces to the wind to minimize the effect (folded the paddleboard, tilted the solar panels, and removed much of our awnings), but with no effect. Over time, and studying the movement, I identified two independent factors underlying the augmented sailing:
The profile of the bottom: as mentioned before, we dropped the anchor atop a small hump of sand which raised steeply from a deeper bottom. As a result, the anchor lay at around 20ft depth, and the chain then dropped along the face of the hump to a depth of ~40ft before turning up again to Pesto’s bow. But with the strong wind pulling hard against the chain, it in fact “floated” for most of the time, thus hardly touching any ground. So, in practice, even though we had a lot of chain out (~140ft), it offered very little lateral resistance due to the lack of friction with the ground, thus letting Pesto free to sail
The Current: when the current was ebbing, thus flowing parallel and in the same direction of the wind, Pesto sat still, hardly sailing at all. However, when the tide turned to flood, it “pushed” us toward the anchor. The chain got slack, but because of the steep aspect of the bottom (see “1” above), it still “floated”. With the chain well slack, and offering little lateral resistance, Pesto felt free to sail significantly to all that wind.
And sail she did. I left the chartplotter on during all five days of this experience and during that time she logged a disturbing 1.76 miles !!! When the wind was strongest, and the tide flooding (that is, opposite to the wind) Pesto covered arcs of up to 100 feet in length, often reaching speeds of 1 knot in between tacks. Luckily we had ample swing space and my piece of mind was the only thing to be bothered by all that movement during those five windy days.
This picture shows Pesto’s track as it sailed in arcs against the anchor and chain during the 5 days of winds. The arcs are the red lines – she covered just under 2 miles of sailing at anchor during those 5 days. The anchor was positioned more or less where the white cross is on the picture. At the time I captured this image, winds were lower and Pesto was sailing at “just” 0.4 knots in between the tacks. We often hit – or exceeded – 1 knot when the winds were stronger.
The Tuamotus Diaries #56, Day 117 – September 22nd 2016
We are well past the hump of this year’s cruising season already, well beyond its climax. And as the end of the season approaches, our attention, decisions and actions are getting more and more oriented towards it. Short term planning.
Accordingly, I have spent the last four days enslaved by the internet. Sending inquiries and requests, awaiting for replies, and using our credit card at a disturbing rate.
Each mouse click triggers a long wait time until something shows up on screen, or more money comes out of our pockets, thus adding to the discomfort.
The kids, watching us pegged to the screens for such long periods, and tired of waiting for us to play with them outside, ended up following suit and are spending themselves long times in front of their own screens, watching videos and playing games.
The paradisiac environ around us has faded and our days have become utilitarian and materialistic.
The Tuamotus Diaries #55, Day 113 – September 18th 2016
Yesterday may have been one of the windiest days here in the Tuamotus – second only perhaps to the day of our failed attempt to reach Hao – which would have been our fist stop in the Tuamotus, almost three months ago. It blew, and howled solidly all day. It was difficult to stand on deck. Pesto yanked nervously pulling against the anchor chain, and down below we could hear the strain of tension running along her hull. It was intense.
So, when we woke up this morning with the wind back down to “just howling” status, we decided it was time to weigh anchor. As we did, I watched with melancholy as our little piece of Eden stood on our wake. Not for long, tough. The way out of the anchorage was tricky, with shallow coral heads popping everywhere around us, made difficult to spot by the excessive wind waves and sun glare.
Once out of the danger zone we switched off the engine, set the sails, thus realizing how strong the wind still was. Even under heavily reefed genoa and mainsail Pesto shot forward on a close reach with speeds between 8 and 9 knots.
As we quickly closed in with our destination for the day – an anchorage at the middle of the atoll’s East rim – melancholy set once more. We still have some more cruising left here in the Tuamotus, but from the moment our anchor came up from the white sandy bottom of Fakarava’s South pass area earlier this morning, every mile we cover will now set us closer and closer to the Societies, the next island group we will visit here in French Polynesia. We are excited to be on the move, looking forward to the remaining cruising here in the Tuamotus, to reaching Tahiti, and to seeing good friends there. But a part of me is already anticipating the melancholy of leaving such a special place like this on our wake …
