Today at around noon we tied up at the fisher pier in Neiafu, Tonga. Then we learned that it’s actually sunday and all offices are closed. So we relocated to a mooreing and go back tomorrow morning to officially clear in.
It was a very demanding journey – 1554 nautical miles that took us 13 days. But right now I’m too tired to write a lot. I’m gonna sort the pictures and put together a nice story tomorrow.
After more than one year in french Polynesia it’s time. Time to leave and time to sail again. In a few minutes we’ll be heading out to sea again. The journey is about 1300nm and should take something in between 10 to 14 days. Oooou yeah !!
Slowly it’s getting embarassing. Every time I announce new plans I gotta revise them only days later. Well… we only wanted to be in Bora Bora for one night and to clear out. But while we were underway a low pressure system has developed right here above these islands and we won’t have any wind during the next days.
To reach Vanuatu in time we would have needed stable wind conditions all the way and even without that low it would have been quite tight. So we again changed our plans, stick around here until the weekend and then we’ll sail towards Tonga. I guess the change is not for the worst as it somehow felt wrong to skip past those beautiful islands.
Of course we also discuss what we’ll gonna do for the Cyclone season but I guess it’s too early to write about it. You know…. plans can change…
After a night with a lot of wind and rain, the weather seems to be getting nicer and we’re setting out on our next voyage. Towards Vanuatu with a short stopover in Bora Bora to clear out of french Polynesia. It’s another long journey that awaits us: about 2500nm(~5000km) towards Port Vila, Vanuatu. As usual we’ll be reading our emails daily via shortwave radio and the satellite phone we’ll turn on every day in the morning for an hour or so.
The dinghy is on deck, everything prepared, the tanks are full… Now we’re having lunch and then we’re off.
The roller furler is up and furls again. The new setup needed some special adaptation but now it’s all rock solid and mounted a lot better than before. At night, about an hour after sunset, the wind finally decreased to let us hoist up the Genoa and finally test the whole thing.
We of course used the winches to get the forestay in place and that was when we realized the winches also need some service. So I took apart and serviced the windlass and both Genoa winches. And as I could see from the hard grease and dirt inside it was quite necessary ! Well that’s for our preparations. Now that the boat is ready, of course we got another delay. This time it’s the laundry. HAhaha. We used the last opportunity to do two loads and hang them in the garden of our friend, J.C. to pick them up dry and nice in the morning. BUT during the night it started raining ! The first real rain in at least two months. Why now ? Why in exactly that night ??? Moorea just won’t let us go….
Wie so oft vor grossen Ozean-Schlaegen wuehlen wir uns durch die diversen Schapps und Bilgen des Schiffes, machen eine kleine Inventur, sortieren aus was gleich verkocht werden muss, entdecken no-name Dosen mit Ueberraschungsinhalt, wundern uns darueber, warum wir Spargel aus England haben, etc.
Eigentlich wollte ich mir ein Posting zum Thema Proviant sparen, da ihr die Bilder bereits kennt: Ein Kleinwagen voller Lebensmittel wird quer ueber den Strand und ins Dinghy geschleppt, zum Schiff gepaddelt und verschwindet dann langsam aber sicher wieder in den schier endlosen Staufaechern der Suvarov. Der Grund fuer das heutige Posting ist eigentlich der neue Rekord. Ablauf-Rekord ! Und zwar haben wir ein Arnika Massageoel gefunden, dass im September 2003 abgelaufen ist. – Der letzte Rest wurde vor zwei Tagen in eine massiv heilende und wohltuenede Ruecken-Massage fuer’n Captain investiert. Das ist die Silber-Medaille. Gold geht an eine paar Knick-Lichter, die im Juni 1998 (!!) abgelaufen waren. Diese wurden in der Leuchtkraft sogar vom Plankton der Lagune uebertroffen. Aber vorwerfen kann man ihnen das nicht… - im letzten Jahrtausend abgelaufen. Haha.
Ach ja und dann gibt’s da noch zwei Fotos aus dem wunderschoene Stoffladen, den Gui um ca. 80kg leichter gemacht hat. Diese Farben – einfach unglaublich. Und zu sehen wird’s die Stoffe dann wieder in zwei Jahren geben, in der Coquito Fruehling/Sommerkollektion 2015 !
While the new forestay was in the works, I focused on other little things that were still on the ToDo list. The surfboards got a nice little rack on the starbord side, I installed a tiny little platform onto the windsteering as a step-up from the bathing platform. Underneath I put the spool with 200m of safety line.
One thing I saw on the SY Ui wouldn’t let go: The owner reversed the tiller to gain extra space when underway. And that’s exactly what I did to our boat now: I switched the whole tiller around and adapted the windsteering accordingly. Now the steering only uses the very last part of the ship instead of running lines and moving the tiller all around the aft deck. Which is stupid as it’s a very nice place to be during sailing and we loose a lot of space with that old setup. I hope the new idea works as expected.
The new forestay is already in it’s place and yesterday we spent trimming the rig. Now the mast is 100% straight again and all shrouds have the proper tension. All seems to work out. Well… the lower end of the roller furler has to be adapted still. The new forestay is 12mm instead of 10mm and the newer, thicker terminals also grew in lenght. That’w why I have to extend the steel plates that hold the roller furler to the bow. That’s something for today.
ps: Right now we can’t publish bi-lingual since I recently updated the underlying blog software and the plugin to manage the translations (qTranslate) isn’t up to date yet. Up until then we’ll alternate in between english/german.
The weather is changing. The water got a lot warmer during the last two weeks and the sun is back to it’s full power. – The southern summer is approaching and we should be gone by now. It hurts to see the wind pick up. There’s perfect sailing conditions from here all the way to the torres strait. But instead of using the wind, again we’re repairing. We took down the Genoa, dropped the roller furler including the stay (inside) and dismounted it. Now we can take the cable and try to find a replacement in Papeete. Actually it’s going to be an upgrad as we’ll put a 12mm stay – it should have been that size all along anyway.
During the ‘breaks’ I stiched up the Genoa, put UV protection spray on all our sunroof, tried to repair the handle of the stove twice (but proke off again), glued the floor of our Kayak three times (always to find yet another hole), installed the missing vents for the aft cabin, replaced completely corroded rivets that attach the boom to the mast, installed a new navigation light on the top of the mast, tested the shortwave antenna, etc etc.
Gui is working non-stop for Coquito as these are our last days with internet connection and the new collection is about to hit the stores in Europe. Phew ! After all this, the sailing to Vanuatu will feel like a holiday…
Finally we’re getting ready to leave. We meet friends and families for lunch or dinner, give and receive gifts and we work a lot on the ship to finalize the last remaining items on the ToDo list. Finally on the move, finally back in to the english-speaking world !
It takes me three days to install our new mast steps. A exhausting and dangerous work. But a cruising boat needs mast steps: Sailors are lazy people and when there are no steps one rarely wants to climb the mast and so never gets to check the rigging. No steps = higher risk so to say. As soon as I put the last two steps on the mast, I start looking at all the blocks, terminals, shackles and immediately I find a major defekt: The forestay has two strands broken right at the upper terminal ! So we got to get the sail and roller furler down and inspect the whole thing, probably replace it. That means time, money, work. And that we’ll not be able to get going in the next days. Ouch !!
Sunday Morning we start our voyage towards Tahiti, where we arrive at 16h and tie up at the city pier. Today it’s Sunday program: dinner at the Roulott’s in the harbour and afterwards we take the kids to a childrens’s movie at the cinema – who knows where we will find the next cinema ?
Monday is work day: Gui, me and the kids march towards Fare Ute, Gui continues to the customs where she will negotiate the ‘Papeetisation’: If a ship changes owners here in french Polynesia, 26% of the value of the vessel have to be paid as a tax. But the Rancho Relaxo couldn’t be sold and we will give her as a present. Thanks to the persuasion of Gui and a very helpful agent we can lower the Papeetisation to next to nothing. It would be totally in Moitessier’s sense: We were extremely lucky when we had our crash landing and thanks to the help of so many friends and our families we got a second chance. Now we help somebody else and give our old ship without anything in return.
In the meantime I walk in that order to: ACE hardware 1, ACE hardware 2, dive shop, tool shop, Nautisport, Yamaha dealer, Sing Tun Hing Marine. At noon we meet for lunch as most shops and offices are closed. Afterwards we again visit: ACE1, ACE2, Nautisport, Sing Tun Hing, steel shop, AS Systems, Ocean 2000 und fully packed we get back to the ship. That’s really something. Marching the whole day in tropical heat with two children through the town without the little ones complaining even once ! At the ship we unload everything, put the new shortwave antenna on deck and only minutes later we’re on our way south towards the Taina Marina.
Tuesday, early in the morning I bring Gui ashore where she continues her oddysee: Papeete again to deliver papers to the agent, later to pick up my new sunglasses then all the way down to Taravao in the south of Tahiti where she orders new mast steps for the Suvarov, then to pick up seeds and two seedlings of the ‘Magic Tree’. In the mean time Christoph the new owner of the Rancho arrives and we show him the Rancho and start working. We have to repair the bilge pumps, replace the leaking stuffing box, check the fuel, start the engine, repair the steering and the kerosene stove and bend the sprayhood back to it’s original shape. We install a spare anchor at the bow and clear the deck, etc. At 18h the Rancho is ready and we’re all wrecked. We meet ashore to have a shower and a beer and call it a day.
Wednesday morning, Gui again travels to Papeete to finally pick up the fabrics for Coquito, while I get the Suvarov ready to leave and Christoph removes ten months worth of mussels and green stuff from the hull of the Rancho. At ten in the morning Gui arrives and we meet at the gas station where we get 120 liters of Diesel, Christoph brings the bottom part of Rancho’s old Mast on bord and we store about 50kg of fabrics. We set back out into the mooring field where we go alongside the Rancho and fill her tank with 20l Diesel and put the kayak on bord so Christoph has something that floats – just in case. At noon we’re ready and travel through the lagoon towards Papeete, followed by the Rancho. Christoph is at the steering and smiles like a child at christmas as we exit through the pass and find ourselves out on the Pacific again. For once the weather report was correct and indeed we have no wind and nearly no swell. We run under engine with five knots towards Moorea, the Rancho always 100m behind us. As we start dreaming of Tonga and Fiji and can’t think how it could get any better, a huge whale jumps out of the water just 200m in front of us ! Seconds later a younger whale follows and splashes back into the sea. We stand at the bow, shout ‘Uuuuh !!’ and ‘Aaaah !’, while we slowly pass the whales. What a crazy day ! Soon later two other whales follow us a bit towards the Cook’s Bay. At 16h we enter the Opunohu Bay and find ourselves surprised how much we think of this anchorage as our ‘home’ now. We throw the anchor while the Rancho is tied to the mooring that was prepard for her right in front of Christoph’s house.
The next months he will slowly restore the Rancho to her old beauty. And as both he and his wife are sailors the chances are quite good that soon the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas will set out for another amazing journey. Oh, wow. We’re sooo happy !!
Yesterday when we came from shopping and sat down in the shadow of a tree to have a snack, I saw a whale blow just in front of us – outside the reef. Yeah. It’s ‘humpback season’. And to get our chance we filled the tank of Lorenz’ dinghy and mounted the big (40hp) engine. Today right after breakfast it was our chance: a mother whale and her calf came right to the entrance of the Opunohu bay.
Ten minutes later we were in the dinghy and zoomed out towards the pass. We hopped in the water and only seconds later those huge, magnificent mammals were coming right at us. I could feel my heartbeat soar up and had troubles holding the camera still but still managed to make some shots. The whales went out to sea again and followed the reef to the north, towards Cook bay. Again, we parked the dinghy in front and hopped into the water. This time we were even closer – Lorenz and me had to swim out of the way to not get ‘run over’ by the mother whale. Puuuh ! And although they seem to move in slow motion, they still do 5-6 knots. We followed them out into the open sea as far as we could but then lost them.
A memory for a lifetime. And a video to share with you:
This is weird, I thought: That boat there looks exactly like the one we’re waiting for. But shouldn’t it have a german flag ? And isn’t there too many kids on board ? (You never can be sure – it’s been two years since we last met.) So anyway to fulfill my duties as harbourmaster of Opunohu, I row over to say hello. The swedish family is very sympathetic and of course they know which boat we’re looking for: “Oh – you mean the Supermolli ? Well they should arrive any day now.”
Bruno didn’t mind – he was just too happy to have kids around that talk english that’s already quite something. So only minutes later they set out with the sailing dinghy and weren’t seen until late in the afternoon.
Yesterday, we’re installing the new membrane for the watermaker as I see yet another green steel ketch enter the bay. This time it’s no drill. It IS the Supermolli !! Bruno and Viola stand on the foredeck and start chanting while I make a few pictures. As soon as the anchor hits the ground we’re in the dinghy and on our way. Last time we saw each other was in Germany, two years ago. And that also was quite a coincidence – as is the whole story of our boats: It was us who actually wanted to buy the Supermolli in 2009 ! But then things developed differently and we started our voyage with the Rancho Relaxo.
Well now we can stop reading and commenting each others blog posts for a few weeks, I guess.
While we get white fingers running around with paintbrushes, Lorenz is racing Bruno’s dinghy through the anchiorage. And as Bruno is filling the third page of my tax papers (he really likes doing that), a weird looking little boat silently enters the bay.
The ‘A’ is 119m long, displaces 5500 tons and carries 750 000 litres of Diesel. Using that, the up to 14 guests on bord can cruise for about 6500 miles at 19 knots speed. After all that’s from Panama to Fiji. But before continuing one should top up the tank. At current prices here that’s a bargain a little above 1 million and it should be full again. I’m not gonna start writing about the ecological footprint as shoes of that size are not invented yet.
It seems we’re back in our old modus: One little boat project every day.
Today, I took the third solar panel off the starboard handrail and put it together with the two on the arch in the back. That position is better as the side-panel always was in the shadow with the current wind direction. So I took the panels off, remounted them and hooked everything up to our old solar charger from the Rancho. That is now maxed out at 20 Ampere during mid-day. We still could use one or two more solar panels but for now it’s good. Not much else going on that would be worth mentioning.
Finally I got the engine fixed ! Since we got the Suvarov, the engine had problems with the cooling and started to overheat after a few minutes of regular use. On the first try, a few weeks ago I took apart the water intake and cleaned all the filters. The second time, I took apart the waterpump and got rid of a little leak there. But on our last trip we still had problems with the engine, the ‘water’ lamp coming on after a few minutes and we could see white water vapor coming from the exhaust. Today I took off the rest of the hoses around the engine, cleaned them, drained the whole system of all fluids and dismounted the exhaust with all it’s cooling parts. I couldn’t really find anything that was cloaking the cooling but still – it seems it has worked. After today’s repair I started the engine and let it run for an hour without problems.
That’s one big, bold lettered item off the todo list ! And I’m even more happy about it – since I’m alone here with the kids and usually don’t get too much done these days. The kids – well, they found friends on our neighbor boat ‘living’ and try to spend every waking minute with the two boys.
All well in the South Pacific
On our way towards the southern pass we have the predicted 25 knots of wind. As we approach the pass, we can see it disappear in front of our eyes : Usually quite wide and easy to sail through, it has shrunken to a third of it’s usual size. The rest is white water and waves. We already had set sails during the two miles we had to motor through the lagoon. The main sail is in the third reef as is the genoa. We are only a few minutes outside the reef as the Maramu really kicks in. With amazement I see the wind instrument showing 50 knots while I put another reef in the sails and roll both of them to the size of a big towel. Now is also the start of the rush hour on channel 16. During the next two hours there will be no silence on the emergency channel. We hear of yachts drifting through anchorages, dinghies that get thrown through the air and recovered by other boats. The MRCC is in contact with two vessels that are out on sea and in troubles. Later we hear of a catamaran drifting towards the reef in Moorea.
That all happens while we’re doing eight knots going downwind towards the north-east corner of Moorea. Luckily we had our little test run a few days earlier, so nothing comes loose on the deck and also on the inside of the boat everything stays in it’s place. It even is dry inside as the deck vents don’t leak water anymore. But two breakers about half way through our journey bury the whole aft deck and cockpit in white water and a few liters find their way in through a broken seal in the back entrance. It was planned as a fast voyage with 25 knots downwind sailing and instead we get a ride in a storm: For the two hours that we are in between the islands, the wind establishes itself at 45 to 55 knots with gusts reaching over 65 knots. That’s where the beaufort scale ends – at force 12 !
Just after the NE-corner of Moorea we get some more choppy sea after which the waves quickly die down in the lee of the island. The wind also eases to 30-35 knots and we put a little more sail out. We continue sailing along the reef in close distance and finally tack through the pass into the Opunohu bay. The anchorage we enter under sails and Bruno receives cheers from the neighboring boats while he helps me anchoring the boat.
That really was an exciting trip and another good test for the Suvarov and her crew. Especially as we were without our capitana this time. She’s already landed in New Zealand and will continue her travel to Buenos Aires in a few days. – Odysee, LosLocos style. Now I’m gonna pack the wet mattress into the sun and relax for a while
With the LosLocos, everything always is well planned and organized and that’s why we always are so extremely relaxed. This for example means that the day after we arrived from Bora Bora we spent the whole day emptying out the ship and cleaning everything on the inside with fresh water. The night we had two friends of the Bruno staying for a sleepover. Next day we started at 06h with birthday action and later had a nice party on the beach. Just when everything was over and we had cleaned the dishes, we went anchor-up and left for Tahiti.
This time we stayed at the pontoon in the city. Next morning at 06h Gui was already underway to get her carte de sejours – to extend her allowed time in the country. On the way back through the city we bought about 50 kilos of fabrics for Coquito and had to wrestle everything back to the ship. Right after we get everything on board, we leave towards the Marina Taina. It’s a few miles south and is closer to the airport in Tahaa. But I’m a bit nervous about the anchorage there as the wind is supposed to shift to the south on the next day and that can lead to a Maramu: a strong wind from the south that get’s accelerated in between the islands. We’ve seen it before and know that we could not get ashore in our dinghy in those conditions which means we might have to plan for a water taxi.
When sailing towards the marina we are amazed by the number of boats here. The main season really has arrived. No free mooring balls and plenty of yachts in the limited space there is to put an anchor. But we boldly throw the iron right in front of the dinghy dock into the 16m deep water of the lagoon. While Gui fights to fit 60kg of luggage into two bags a 23kg and her hand luggage, I take the kids to Carrefour where we get some good food for the coming days. While there I run into Lily from the SY Portal who contacted me earlier to talk about selling the windvane of the Rancho Relaxo. We agree to postpone the negotiations to dinnertime in the pizzeria. At sunset we’re in the restaurant and enjoy our last minutes together – and we also sell Wendy our windvane.
On wednesday at 04:50h in the morning the buzzing of the alarm clock throws us out of bed and I take Gui and her luggage to the dinghy dock where the cab is already waiting. Later at about eight in the morning we see how the windvane is dismounted and transported to the SY Portal. That’s when we also see the dark clouds approach from the south. We quickly say good bye to our friends, get the dinghy up and leave before the Maramu hits…
After a few wonderful days in Bora Bora with our swedish friends we have to leave. Gui has an appointment with the immigration office to get her ‘carte de sejour’. And she really needs to be there in time as her flight to Argentina is only a couple of days away. I tell you that because actually – if I had the choice, I would have waited a few more days for a better wind. But we can’t and so we leave.
We exit the lagoon of Bora Bora through the only pass that is on the west side. And right here we can already see and feel the big, long swell coming in from the SW with a wave height of about 3 meters. In the beginning the wind is light and we glide along with four to five knots, slowly sailing southwards in the lee of Bora Bora.
As the night approaches the wind increases slightly but it stays quite comfortable during the first 16 hours. The ‘Fleming’ windsteering is holding the course very well and as the sun rises and Gui comes up we do the first tack and head ENE. The whole trip was not just to have some great time and see those wonderful islands but also to do a proper testdrive with the Suvarov. And now, on the second day we shall see what the boat can handle. A few small rain fronts pass overhead and we bash through them with full sails – despite having wind with 30 to 35 knots. On our old boat, the Rancho Relaxo, we would have sailed with the main in the second reef and probably the small jib. But the Suvarov with her longer and much wider hull doesn’t even need a reef. We stay hard on the wind and accelerate to 8.5 knots without any problems.
But the wind generally increases and the sea gets wilder on the second day. So additionally to the swell coming from SW we have now steep and choppy mix with the windwaves that come from the SE. The Suvarov smashes through the waves, the spray covers the whole ship and we see the first drops of water coming in through a small window in the bathroom and the two deck vents in the saloon. We push some towels into the vents and solve that problem.
During the night the waves increase and every now and then the whole deck is covered with white water. Later at night I’m downstairs at the chart table doing a logbook entry as I hear some weird watery sound from the kitchen. Can it be the water running by the hull ? No. That sounds different. There’s also that distinct noise that floating cans make. I open up the floorboard and my heart drops in my pants as I see all our food floating around in the bilge. We’re taking on water !!! Damn ! I wake up Gui and ask her to start her watch a little early while I use a portable pump to get the water out of the ship. A little bit more and our batteries could be buried in seawater. Not good. Not good at all.
After a while the water level sinks to a few centimeters and the rest I have to get out using a sponge and a bucket. While I’m at it I see where the water comes from: a deck vent in the kitchen acts as funnel and with every wave we get a few liters of saltwater. *rrrr*
The vent we close with a rag and some duct tape, that’s no problem. But we have lost a lot of food and also some of my spare gear that was stored further in the front. A little more than three hours later the bilge is dry again and we don’t take on more water.
That’s one thing to do in the next days: to get rid of the leaking vents. And rinse the whole boat with freshwater. Uuuuh. A lot of work. But – hey – otherwise we had a good trip. The Suvarov proved herself as a tough ship that can handle some beating. The sail upwind was good, actually better than with our old boat. And we were quite fast as we did 234 miles in a little more than two days, going against rough seas and a wind with 20 to 30 knots average. Now we feel like sailors again and we know we also have a good ship ! Yay !
The most important day in Sweden is Midsummer. It’s also Bruno’s – and on the next day – Caroline’s birthday. So we had a lot to celebrate. Our friends made proper costumes and we made some lovely shots with the main island in the background. In the afternoon we drove the dinghies to the other motu where we danced around a decorated pole, sang swedish songs and had a endless drinks.
The beach on that motu is private and owned by a polynesian called Bruno. As all locals he was extremely generous and welcoming and we had a great time, making a bonfire, barbequeue, jumping into the water, eating and drinking again, singing and so on… On the way back I somehow ended up in the water (at two in the morning) and lost my sunglasses. But as the water is crystal clear it was no problem finding them seven meters down in the water. – Oh and that is again my last pair of glasses as I lost my NEW pair of sunglasses on the way to Raiatea. Meh.
After two days in Raiatea we said good bye to our friends and set sail again. We had a beautiful cruise through the lagoon that connects both Raiatea and Tahaa. In the north-east corner of the lagoon we found a free mooring in the lee of a little motu and spent the night there. There was too much wind and the distance to the motu too big to row there with our dinghy so we went snorkeling and spent the night there.
Next morning we got up early to continue our round trip of Tahaa. Unfortunately a winch stopped working right in the middle of a jibe and we managed to create a big sandclock with our Genoa. So we rolled it in as far as we could and searched for a little valley to drop the anchor and get the sail working again. A little wind from the front and a few tries of rolling in and out did the trick and soon after we continued sailing around and back south again on the west side of Tahaa. We exited through the pass in between the islands and found ourselves in the Pacific again.
Sailing towards BoraBora only took a few hours and just before sunset we sailed through the only pass on the west side and into a little anchorage in the lee of a motu where we found all our swedish friends again.