Pacific Crossing

Marquesas, French Polynesia, 12th April 2011

Well we finally arrived to the beautiful Island of Hiva Oa, all the way from the bottom of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, a trip of 2,620 nm.

16 days on one heading with virtually the same wind strength blowing from the same direction, and probably the only gratifying thing with all of this was the sense of achievement, therefore satisfaction of having a boat with everything switched on and working every minute of the day and no real issues to deal with.

The trip was just a means of achieving rewards that are to come later when we explore the destination fruits ahead of us all the way back to the land of Oz.

Not too many things went wrong, and if it did I had Jimmy (Mr fixit) to work on it.

One particular problem was a leak in the Hi pressure line with the watermaker, and Jim attended to it like an expert, just as a relentless house builder would do, except I wasn't going to sue him if it didn't work.

I will be prepared to profoudly claim, that for me personally, this 16 day passage was the most boring thing I have ever done in my life, would never do it again, and would talk anyone out of it if they had a choice to find an alternative.

The only positive thing to come out of it was I had a chance to read my cook books.

Clearing in with the Gendarmerie in Atuona, Hiva Oa, with the help of our sweet Marquesian agent Sandra.

Sandra is married to a Frenchman who made guitars for a living.

We stayed 4 days to renew our personal batteries and get our land legs back.

Rick left the boat unexpectedly for home, so Jim and I set out from Atuona and sought an anchorage at Baie Hanamenu on the north west side of Hiva Oa, which was more like Mexico, and completely devoid of anything green around the hills, except for a coconut plantation in the valley.

We stayed one night here, then off to Ua Pou, a very scenic island slightly off a direct route to Nuka Hiva.

About an hour out of Baie Hanamenu, we discovered a sail boat closing rapidly on us from astern which didn’t seem to add up. We were doing 7.5 kts, and this boat, without Class A, AIS, seemed to look bigger the closer she got when passing a mile or so off our stern and pointing almost directly towards Nuka Hiva.

When we got to Nuka Hiva three days later we were to find our ghost ship was the futuristic 120’ charter yacht named Ghost.

Later on we were to discover that this monster could get up to 23 kts with the right conditions -awesome!

After three very pleasant nights at Hakahau, Ua Pou, we had French guests for dinner from a neighbouring sail boat. Eric, Marielle, and their two beautiful daughters 5 & 3.

Eric and Marielle are both doctors and are cruising the world helping out people in remote locations. I certainly hope to run into them again in the future heading west.

Ua Pou is a beautiful place to visit with its towering eroded volcano plugs always buried in clouds. The people were again so friendly and made us feel welcome as we find wherever we seem to go.

Next we arrived at Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva after a small steam, checked in with the Gendarmerie, then touched base with Regina who was our agent there.

Engine fuel filters

Regina was kindly going to receive our spare 10 micron John Deere on engine fuel filters coming from the US.

I made a bad miscalculation thinking that the John Deere Agent in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico would have stock of both filters needed, as they said they had, instead of only having the 2 micron, so we proceeded to go to sea without a spare which was risky, but the 10 micron one was installed in San Diego, and we had been taking on only very good fuel in Mexico.

I would put this down as my biggest blooper ever on the boat. When the filters arrived by Fedex, and duty paid, the cost was about 4 times more than if I had of prepared better, but actually nothing compared to clogged filters.

One comfort is that fuel being returned to the engine from the fuel reservoir has been polished so many times by the three filters, including the 30 micron Racor, then maybe not such a big problem, but dumb on my part just the same, so I gave myself a good talking to.

Med moor refueling incident

After 3 nights in Taiohae Bay we replaced both our on engine fuel filters early in the morning, then faced one of the biggest challenges yet for us on SKIE, and that was to Med moor (anchor dropped from the bow and backed up to tie off from the stern) to a rough concrete ships wharf where the sea was surging like crazy.

This was to take on 2000 litres of fuel that I reasoned was the prudent course to take, even though we had enough onboard to get to Tahiti.

Now this was one tricky pucker exercise as I had to have the anchor set carefully out off the bow that would allow us to ease back and get close enough to the wharf, but not slam into it.

Jim had to jump for a ladder on a surge to take mooring lines to tie us up. This meant I had to be increasing the anchor scope to get close enough for Jim to jump off the swimstep with lines in hand (one in his mouth), and these enormous surges picking us up constantly, and with me sweating at the cockpit control pod (thank goodness we have one), ready to push the hammer down to go forward back towards the anchor to keep us off the concrete.

Half-way through the refuelling one of the two aft mooring line snapped, and we went hurling forward towards the anchor, pulling the hose out of the filler, me holding the nozzle with one hand, and the other on the throttle, screaming our 70 tonnes back to the concrete, but not too close though.

This was hopefully before we lost the hose overboard, which we fortunately didn't . We managed to secure two new lines, but doubled this time, complete our fill, and passing to Jim, who was still stranded on the wharf, my credit card and other papers in a ziplock bag on the end of a boat hook to pay for the fuel and get the fuel discount authorisation (He had to come back and ask me for the pin number for the credit card though).

Getting Jim back on board was again going to take some pucker, impeccable timing, and serious good luck.

Jim made a skillful leap, and away we went full throttle forward. Only damage sustained was a bent swimstep stainless steel staple that hit a large rubber mooring fender, and maybe just a few years off my life, but it was a great adrenaline rush, supported my long held theory that if it gets scratched or bent, it can be fixed.

A catamaran stood off us for a while but decided after the show we put on that it just wasn't worth it.

On reflection it was an amazing experience and now sits up there with my Bass Strait crossing in 2008, hitting my pet rock in Fords Terror, Alaska, and getting into an uncharted cyclone shelter in the Kimberley against 8 kts of current.

Great fun and further notches in the belt of learning.

Why I love these experiences surely must defy normal logic, but I'm wiser by far. Don't ever think that you will ever know it all. The sea has mysteries being thrown at you all the time, and there is always something around the corner ready to test your mettle.