Hiva Oa

We have spent the past week on Hiva Oa, first in Traitors Bay and now in Hanamenu. Traitors Bay was ok, small and tight so everyone has to use two anchors to stay both correctly oriented with the swell and to not hit anyone. The village of Atuona where we checked in, had good food provisioning and a great hamburger joint that we ended up visiting twice. Otherwise the water was a little dirty and the dinghy landing a little dodgy.

Hanamenu is a beautiful spot, in the dry area of the island with steep cliffs, like a miniature Grand Canyon. There is a fresh water spring that creates an oasis at the bottom of the cliffs. We hiked and swam near the pool, then followed that with a beach BBQ and bonfire, that lasted through the entire night (though the crew of Nikita did retire earlier than that).

We will move to the northern islands of the Marqueses in the coming week.

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Bay of Virgins

We have had a marvelous week here. We have done some hiking and snorkeling, took a dinghy trip to the other and larger village on the island, attended the Sunday church service, attended a Polynesian dance, played soccer with the islanders and caught up on boat projects. All and all a great introduction to the islands of the south pacific and nice way to recover from the passage.

The panorama of the anchorage is absolutely stunning with the sheer cliffs coming down to the water and the village nestled in the valley at the bottom. The village is absolutely spotless with fruit bearing trees growing everywhere. Our favorite local fruit is the pamplemousse, a relative of the grapefruit.

The interaction with the villagers has been a mixed bag, we have traded for fresh produce, been bullied a bit, especially the kids, felt at times welcome and at others very much out of place. It is a very small village with about 300 people and very isolated as they get only one ship per month of goods and have no airport or other intra island ferry service. I think at times they resent the crush of cruising boats and at others are happy for the economic opportunity. Though with the support of the French government there does not seem to be much incentive to work hard.

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Butchers Bill

A term used by the British to describe casualties after a battle at sea. While those types of casualties are fortunately rare occurrences now, the sea does take a toll on the boats.

Nikita lost a spinnaker block, which also destroyed the sheet, the tachometer failed, and the spinnaker attachments both top and bottom are partially broken and in need of attention.

Other boats fared better, and some worse. The list includes; a lost propeller, a fuel tank that chafed through from the motion and dumped all the diesel into the bilge, a broken shackle on a genoa letting it fall into the water, transmission with water ingress, failed impellers.

We stayed close to the boat with the fuel tank issue to assist if needed. As it turns out they made harbor without issue, but have no way to service the tank until Tahiti. We are not sure how the propeller issue has been addressed as that boat is still some days out, but sea conditions were much to rough to try to attach the spare.

This by the way is just the eight boats that left with us.

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Passage Summary

The Facts
2,900 km in 420 hours, or 6.9 knots. 40 hours motoring and 380 hours under sail. Wind speeds averaged greater than 15 knots and seas about 7 feet. Highest wind was 33 knots sustained and seas maximum was 15 feet for about 6 hours. Lowest winds were 3 knots and seas were nearly flat.

The Expectations
The pilot charts show a wind average of 12 knots and 5.2 foot seas on this passage. A multitude of cruising guides suggest that while the longest passage most people undertake, it is also one of the most comfortable. We were expecting to have a "life" while on passage, planning home schooling, projects etc. We did none of that, we simply existed. We also thought the passage would take 25 days, so there is the upside of higher winds and seas. Overall, this expectation gap weighed heavily on moral.

The Kids
While Rae and I huddled in our bunks or in the cockpit, the kids had the run of the boat. They were never seasick, never complained about being out there so long (Jake wants to go on a longer passage in fact). They built forts, watched lots of movies and were all in all quite happy and content.

The Dreams
About one week into the passage I could not stop having dreams about being on land. I would always wake up at the same moment in the dream, at the point when whoever I was speaking to would ask "where did you leave the boat?", which of course immediately confused me because I could not leave the boat anywhere for many many more days. I always woke up very confused and disoriented.

The Watch Schedule
Many cruisers complain that the watch schedule is too draining and ultimately leads to sleep deprivation. Rae and I did not have any issues with this and felt rested nearly every day. The one exception was when we had lost of squalls one night and both of us were awake to manage sail changes.

After being in the Marqueses for one day, the answer to the question "would you do it again?" has already changed from Hell No!, to Ya Probably. It is pretty darn cool here.

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Arrived - Fatu Hiva

We are anchored in the Bay of Virgins, Fatu Hiva Marqueses. We arrived just past midnight (using old Galapagos time, no idea what time it is here, but it is dark), having motored the last 12 hours in light winds. The trip took us 17 days and 12 hours and we covered 2,900 miles. We sighted the island of Fatu Hiva about 25 miles out and almost immediately had an escort of dolphins for about 5 miles.

All is well with everyone.... the boat is not moving.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 17

Well the wind and waves will not give up, even to give us a last couple of days of nice weather. A boat which just arrived today in the Marqueses had so little wind that they motored for about 30 hours to the final harbor. We are only 150 miles away but have 20-25 knots of wind and big seas... hmm... tough passage.

All is well and we are looking forward to arriving, looks like about midnight or so on Sunday. We are not sure we can make harbor at night so will may end up waiting and floating outside until day light on Monday to anchor.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 16

Wind and seas back up today, though from behind so reasonably comfortable. Sailing slowly tonight to allow some rest for the crew. We are about 315 miles away so expect to arrive Sunday night/Monday morning, though need to wait for day light to enter the harbor.

All is well on board.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 15

Oh what a difference. Winds and seas have been light and from behind us.... finally a beautiful trade wind sailing day. We did little other than enjoy it. We are less than 500 miles from the Marqueses, shooting for arriving at Fatu Hiva. Of the 8 boats we left with, one we are very close to, about 30 miles, which is quite amazing after 2400 miles. However, this boat has a problem with their diesel fuel so we are going to stay close and help them into the anchorage if necessary.

We think we should have some nice sailing the last few days of our trip as the weather outlook is pretty good.

Now bring on the rum and those island girls, we are ready for landfall.

The Excited Crew of Nikita

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Day 14

Conditions have improved substantially. We still have about 20 knots of wind but the seas are way down. Actually an enjoyable day of sailing. We have less than 700 miles to go, I guess that is the upside of having so much wind, we covered many miles in a hurry.

It was amazing yesterday to come down the face of a swell and at the bottom see nothing but a wall of water in front and behind, then rise up on the next one to see for miles on the horizon. Nikita handled everything very well, feeling solid the entire time. I did a bit of hand steering as the autopilot reacts rather than anticipates the next wave and thus slides side ways many times, which can be dangerous.

We are now beginning to smell the end of the passage.

The Relieved Crew of Nikita

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Day 13

Well this is the roughest weather that Rae and I have ever been in on a boat. We have had 30 - 33 knots of wind with seas building to 15 feet. It seems that the worst is behind us as we have had only about 25 knots for the last few hours or so, but the seas remain the same size. We are not sure when the weather will break and begin to subside. Nikita is doing very well as are the kids, who watched alot of movies today.

position 6.06S 125.49w

The Crew of Nikita = Hanging On

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Day 10 & 11

Conditions continue to get worse with 25+ knot winds and seas up to 8-10 feet. Nikita is handling everything very well and we are running in front of all of it, thus somewhat off course. We expect at least another 24 hours but likely 48 hours of these difficult conditions. Hmm.... not what was promised for a trip to the south pacific.

Down to 3 reefs main and genoa, essentially nothing in sail area, making 7-8 knots. Position 5.42S 122.20W.

The Tired Crew of Nikita

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Day 10

Well conditions have gotten worse, mostly as forecast with much higher winds, we have had 25+ knots all day and large seas. Nikita is handling all well, we posted our fastest 24 hour run at 178 miles today and passed the half way point.

The Crew on the other hand is a little tired of the boistorus conditions, unfortunately they look set to last for another few days.

We have started to have problems with our email, so updates may not be as frequent, though in a pinch we can have another boat send on for us.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 9

Well we continue with alot more wind and seas than we had expected. The wind though is slowly turning east allowing us to begin to sail down wind more and more. This makes things a bit more comfortable as well as sailing fairly fast. We will experiment with alternative sail plans tomorrow to try to find the best combination.

We had many squalls last night again, much more equal opportunity with both Rae and I's watches having many wet and windy hours. Tonight though as I write this things have been much clearer and thus relaxing.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 8

What a night. We had squalls throughout, but the early evening until 1 am was particularly active with lots of rain and wind. Fortunately Rae Ann was on watch, so I just woke up occasionally to see if she was alright. Rae did great navigating Nikita down wind in the 25 knot gusts and keeping her going as the wind would die away at the end. After a particularly massive squall the wind died completely, when we fired the engine we smelled a sharp burning smell. So we tore apart the instrument panel in the middle of the night to discover the engine hours meter had stopped working. Looking at it again today it seems that, it now works again, and it must have been moisture that got in and created a short. We saw no damage last night but need to look at it again carefully. When we fired the engine today there was no burning smell.

We also found that our genoa clew was chaffing through, normal for this much continuous use. We taped on a piece of rubber hose over the chafe area. Should hold for a while. Got plenty of hose and tape.

The day turned out better with good sailing winds and calming seas. As I right this though the squalls are building for another night time assault.

The Rain Soaked Crew of Nikita

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Day 7

An odd day all the way around. It started with very nice conditions, that in the afternoon changed to lumpy seas, ever changing wind directions and then multiple squalls. In between we hooked up with a true monster fish that threatened to snap the rod, huge, largest I have ever had on. Of course now said fish has our lure and 300 ft of line. Rae and I also looked at each other today and say why in the ..... are we out here, old fashion mid passage blues.

We did cross our 1000 mile mark today, having a small celebration, next up, likely on Saturday is the half way mark.

The Rain Soaked and Fish Poor Crew of Nikita

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Day 6

Well the nuttiness in the seas will just not go away. We now have several forecasts that call for diminishing seas the rest of the week.... lets see. We have a running joke now, every time Rae goes down to make a meal the winds and seas pick up making it very miserable for her.

Our watch schedule has settled so that during the day the watches are just informally shared, with Rae preferring the cockpit anyway so taking the majority of the watches. Rae then takes the 8-Midnight watch and I take from midnight until everyone is up, some time around 7am or so.

I take all of the navigation, communication (we have two radio nets with other boats each day) and sailing responsibilities. Rae takes galley and primary responsibility for the kids. We jointly make all sail changes of which there have been many this trip so far. The kids take responsibility for cleaning the squid and flying fish off the deck (6 this morning) and of course playing.

The Bumpy & Grumpy Crew of Nikita.

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Day 5

Conditions of deteriorated significantly with winds out of the SE at 20 knots and building seas. We are deeply reefed and sailing on a course of 260 at 6 knots. All is well on board.

Isabelle caught breakfast with a flying fish making it in through her window and into her bed this morning. Earlier at about 5:00 am I was treated to a dolphin show that lasted about 15 minutes as they played in our bow wake.

The Over Winded Crew of Nikita

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Day 4

Well it has been another mixed day. Winds came in quite nicely but the seas are still quite lumpy and from a more SSW direction so tend to throw us around a bit.

The only minor mishap was Isabelle splitting her lip open when she was playing in the cockpit and slipped banging her mouth into one of the winches. Not a happy moment, but no significant issue.

The Bloodied Crew of Nikita

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Day 3

Winds have been mixed today, sometimes perfect, sometimes non-existent. The seas have been both very calm and bumpy. We have been making sail changes nearly every hour it seems, not the relaxing set and forget of the trades yet. Progress continues to be good and the crew is doing well.

We saw some dolphins today, our first wildlife of the trip, unless you count the birds that fly around the boat at night dropping fish guts on the deck for me to step on during sail changes.

The only drama so far was a bent swivel on the top of our Spinnaker, which with liberal application of hammer and rigging tape is fixed. Does not look good, but is fixed.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 2

We have had good progress today with good winds in the 10-15 knot range and ok seas, still on the bumpy side. Really just a day at sea as everyone gets their sea legs and adjusts.

Position 1.46S, 94.11W
Sailing 260 degrees at 7.5 knots.

The Crew of Nikita

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