New Zealand

I need to get one thing off my chest ... to fellow cruisers planning their South Pacific voyage: New Zealand is NO longer an inexpensive place to have boat work done. There are long faces everywhere from this years cruising group. Not sure if it is inflation, exchange rates or just too much demand. Some of the costs come in weird ways and are unavoidable - like having your electrical system certified (100,if you pass otherwise double) propane tanks certified (40, yes even brand new ones if they are not NZ). Lots of mark ups on all parts etc - a guy needing to replace his engine got a quote with a 2,500 mark up over the U.S. or U.K. - now shipping might be a tiny portion of this but taxes are not as you buy everything tax free as a foreign boater in NZ.

Fortunately, we had lots of cosmetic things but nothing major, we are definitely re prioritizing our work list though.

The adjustment to NZ has been difficult, the relief of safely making it through all the passages, the uncertainty of what you will do with yourself now that the schedule is blank for 6 months, and the cold..... we are freezing. We are also looking forward to the holidays with family back in WA State so a bit distracted and excited.

We have decided to buy a car and go camping as our way of touring NZ, that way we are sure we can get down to the South Island, which otherwise would be a 2,400 mile round trip sail. Used cars are very inexpensive though you are picking up a beater for sure. Ours is a Ford Taurus, wagon, 1996, with 80,000 miles, though clean on the inside for 2,700.

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To New Zealand

We left this past Monday for our last South Pacific leg of this cruising season. A trip of about 1,100 miles from Tonga, so expected 7-10 days. This is passage is notorious for bad weather and the problems always occur near to New Zealand so therefore difficult to depart Tonga with a reliable weather forecast.

We are now on Sunday, 67 miles to go and have had a good passage overall. The first three days were typical trade wind sailing with us running a SSW course across the winds to it was boisterous. We then ran into the high pressure system and horse latitudes where winds are usually light. They were for us and we pushed ahead under motor, our goal to get south of 30s before a strong low moved through.

Usually the lows move south of 35-40s so if one is to pass your course you slow down, because it will invariably have gale force winds a very rough seas. This one though was running well north so we hustled and did make 32s, avoiding the low and the worst of the weather. We did have to go through the associated cold front and got 20 knots of wind on the nose thus pushing us backwards for about 12 hours, but managed that well.

So the last few hours of our trip, weather is very clear, we are motoring in calm winds, and hope that it stays that way. Oh ya and it is cold...... we are all in winter wear.

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Canadian Thanksgiving - Written by the s/v Artemo

Thanksgiving day started off like any other cruising Thanksgiving in the beautiful shelter of a Tongan anchorage. We had made plans that we would have dinner on the beach with everyone in the anchorage since one boat could not hold 40 people. The kids all went to the beach and we played for a while.

At the beach we started to get bitten. The mosquitos here have Dengue Fever, so there is a chance of disease. We were marooned on the island with two kayaks since the dinghy had been taken back by the adults on Tyee. They had brought the kayaks there and left on the dinghy. They told us if we hollered loud enough they would come and get us. At this point we were getting frantic about the mosquitos, so I jumped in the kayak to go and grab a dinghy to collect everyone. Jake a 7 year old from Nikita jumped on the back. Just as we pushed off the kids on the beach got a hold of my mom (Julie) and she came to the beach to carry everyone back to their boats.

The idea of having dinner on the beach was crossed off. Simpatica had just came back from the main town and anchored and they dropped their dinghy in the water and came over to Artemo. They had heard that the beach had mosquitos and Captain Louis was looking for a new plan. He had heard that our friends on another kid boat called Stray Kitty were coming in so as quick as a flash Louis was downstairs on Artemo radioing Stray Kitty to tell them that they were rafting up to Simpatica and Artemo would raft up to them. Captain Chris on Stray Kitty thought this was a fine plan. We aren't sure he realized though at this point that he was agreeing to hosting the party!

Artemo and Simpatica had both their anchors out to relatively the same distance so they were parallel to each other. The theory was that Stray Kitty would tie up to Simpatica and then two powerful dinghy's would push Artemo up to Stray Kitty to tie on. After all was said and done it turned out pretty well. The end result was two multi-hull boats tied up to Artemo a mono hull.

As the night progressed Artemo presented itself as the boy boat because we had the Wii. Simpatica the other outside boat was the girls boat and the middle boat Stray Kitty was the party boat. Lucie on Tyee had cooked a delicious turkey and Christine on Stray Kitty had made pumpkin pie. Everything you would expect at a Thanksgiving dinner was on the table which in this lifestyle is surprising since comfort food from home is hard to find. During the nights conversations you could hear, "...that was my last jar of something or other".

As the night went on the girls made a show which included a number of Taylor Swift songs and a song Amelia made up awhile ago. Simi on Tyee even got up and sang "Skater Boy", much to Captain Louis's chagrin because he said he would get up and dance if Simi sang. The next song he got up and danced with Kerry who is around 6 and it was hilarious.

As the night went on more beers were downed and the party started getting pretty funny. Later that night I learned how single malt whiskey is made and what chasers are and how to serve beer, which by the way is drinking the first couple sips! (thanks for the lesson Captain Dave)

Everyone started to leave before the rain started and when it started to rain it filled the dinghy's to the brim which is a lot of water. The morning after Captain Louis organized a boat cleaning party and we scrubbed Stray Kitty till it was spick and span and generally wasted a ton of water.

We disbanded from our rafted up formation and later that day I thought to myself that this Thanksgiving might just tie with my Auntie Theresa's Thanksgiving.

BY:(well i hoped you guessed it) Alex Perry

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Ha' Apai

We have spent the last week in the Ha' Apai group in Tonga. This group of islands lies between Vavau and Tongatapu, is lightly populated and rarely visited. There are numerous reefs and shoal areas with average charting of such. The anchorages are all exposed to one or more directions and the islands principally low lying atolls.

The snorkeling, beach combing, fishing and whale watching have all been superb. Last night we had whales in the harbor with us, swimming within 300 feet of the boat. Most of the anchorages we have shared with only one other boat and most of the anchorages have been off of uninhabited islands. The coral has been the most lively in memory with very little algae growth or other damage. The fish life has been good, with lots of pelagics and several reef fish, though the reef fish are heavily fished by the locals so tend to be on the smaller side.

Our next stop will take us to Tongatapu where we will stage for our trip to New Zealand.

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Whales Redux

Hmmm, well that blog post was a little early. No more than an hour later, we were off for a snorkel in the dinghy when we came across a female (mom) and baby humpback. They were playing a little, coming up out of the water, but as we approached began to swim. I jumped in the water but could not keep up with them and then they dived. We waited and they surfaced again, we moved closer and Jake and I got in and began to swim with the whales, this time they let us approach and the baby came over to our side to have a look. Rae Ann got in a bit later, though they were swimming away and got a good glimpse as well. We then proceeded to our snorkel spot......

After our snorkel we get back in the dinghy and all of sudden the mom is completely out of the water splashing down with a huge slap. The baby follows, they put on a 20 minute show of breaches and fluke waving before diving again.

We were still back in time for lunch.

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Whales

We have a great couple of weeks in the Vavau group. It is currently humpback whale mating and calfing season. We have been able to see several sets of whales, some from afar and others up quite close. Amazing animals.

We have also met a boat that carries their own dive compressor, and they have kids..., so we have been having a blast diving and playing. I saw my first set of clown fish, pretty cool after watching Finding Nemo 400 times.

Slowly all the boats are now starting to head south with the official start of the NZ crossing season being October 15, we will plan for an early November trip. Hard to imagine that our cruising season will actually be coming to an end as we reach NZ.

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The Big Race

We arrived in Vavau just as the annual regatta started. While we were unprepared to participate in the around buoy race, we did get our act together for destination race. The race course was about 12 miles in length and contained downwind, beam and upwind legs. We got Nikita in here most sleek condition, but that still including the dinghy on deck etc... not much of a classical race look. But this was our first official race in Nikita so we were excited.

The race started with about 40 boats ranging from 30 feet to 60 feet, monohulls and multihulls. Nikita got a good start, about 30 seconds off the line, others were better. We quickly closed on the first bottle neck of the course a narrow point leading out of Neiafu harbor, we had about 5 boats within beer passing distance as we rounded the mark. With some quick work including using the deck to stop the free fall of the pole, we got our genoa polled out and ran wing and wing downwind, quickly separating from all but the boats flying spinnakers. Rounding the next island 4 miles later, we came up on a beam reach quickly unpolling the genoa, we then gained on the spinnaker boats whom slowed down getting their spinnaker down. We raced along in 5th place at that point separating from the pack on a strong beam reach. Through the next bottle neck we came up hard on the wind, side by side with the 4th place boat, a 50 footer, we crossed behind them nearly putting our anchor in their davit hung dinghy. We fell slightly back and worked hard, rail in the water down to the pass and the final turn.

At the final turn we tacked in behind the 3rd place boat hoping we could hold a very tight angle. The 4th place boat held for a later turn. We shot ahead crossed through the reef lined pass and headed for the finish line 3 miles away.... in 4th place and we held that all the way beating the 5th place boat by 100 feet. Great fun, close racing. The first and second place boats were all 50+ monos, the third place boat a 42 foot Jboat, and then 40 foot Nikita. The multis finished behind, as well as several, probably 10 50+ monos... a great showing for Nikita.

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Tonga

We had a fairly easy 48 hour sail from American Samoa to the Vavau group in Tonga. We arrived in the middle of Regatta Week here, so immediately were thrown into the festivities including a kids day and a yacht race. Unfortunately, the pub crawl was the previous night, though there is a full moon party over the weekend.

We lost a day on the way here, basically getting very little of Thursday before crossing the date line. All the better as what little we had was pretty squally with a mean SSW swell to bash into - glad it was Friday three hours later.

The cruising fleet has basically split in two, with most of the Australian bound boats off towards Fiji and beyond, with many miles left to go. While the New Zealand bound boats are now in Tonga with one large passage left to complete by mid November or so, thus plenty of time to enjoy Tonga.

Isabelle has had trouble on the last two passages getting sea sick as we departed on both occasions. Each time she very pitifully asks to go home/buy a house.

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Leaving Samoa

It is a sad day for Nikita. We will be leaving Samoa on Tuesday, bound for Tonga. This time though s/v Broken Compass (Chad and Bret) and s/v Liquid Courage (Don and Devin) will be going separate ways. We have developed very special friendships with all four of them, based on our mutual lover for snorkeling, card games and beer. The kids as well got along well so it is a sad day, lots of miles covered together - about 4,500 all together. Fair winds and following seas boys.

American Samoa has been great, we got our refrigeration repaired, provisioned the boat very cheaply, did some hiking and ...... visited Tisas Barefoot Bar, a dangerous haunt 15 years ago, is still the same in a gorgeous setting on the beach with cold beer, fabulous food and great people.

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Return to American Samoa

About 14 years ago, I used to travel annually to American Samoa to audit the local power company, spending about 6 weeks a year here. I have many fond memories, including the great house we used sitting on beach, which because the Samoan's thought it was haunted did not want it. Well we drove by and as it was no longer being used by the audit firm it has since sat abandoned. The Samoan's are very superstitious people.

The trip to Samoa from Suvarov was miserable, repayment I guess for having so much fun in Suvarov. We had high winds (30+ knots for 18 hours) and very confused seas, reaching as high as 15 feet. Basically, any activity other sitting or laying down AND holding on was out of the question. The galley served up cereal or ramen noodles. A tough 3 days, Isabelle announced that we are selling Nikita in New Zealand and buying a house.

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Night Fishing

Still in Survarov, not sure when or if we ever want to leave. The other night we went out lobster hunting which requires a low tide, night and no moon. We had the perfect conditions and went out on the reef at about 30 minutes before sundown. After the sun set, with a green flash no less, we started to walk the 3 miles to where we could get picked up by the boats a taken back to the yacht anchorage.

Jake and I went, finding an octopus that eventually escaped by inking us, several eels, many small fish, crabs and birds. About an hour after nightfall the fun stuff came out, 3-4 pound parrot fish and grouper were then found sleeping just off the edge of the ocean under ledges in the reef. We used a hand spear, stood over them and with a swift down thrust got 7 fish. The lobster, though in similar areas, where much harder to find and we only caught one. Though others in a different part of the reef picked up several.

We finally met with the rest of the group (about 16 people in all went) after a long hike at about 10 pm and got back at about 11, still needing to clean the fish and lobster. A very fun and exhausting night.

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Suvarov

What a magical place. A short list of adventures:
- whales in the lagoon
- coconut crab hunting
- spear fishing
- trolling
- bonfires and beach bbq's
- snorkeling on the many lagoon reefs - water clarity is to 100 feet
- refurbishment of Tom Neale's coral wharf

Add to that two great park rangers, James and Apii, who are both great hosts and fun people, plus on average about 15 cruising boats with fun loving people. The topper for Jake and Isabelle has been, at the peak, 13 kids ranging from 4 to 13 years of age, leading to great games of capture the flag until 11 pm at night under a full moon.

It will be very difficult to leave, basically running out of fresh produce will one day force our hand........

Rae and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday as well. Hmm not sure we can top this one.

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Suvarov Arrival

After a long 14 hours of being hove to, we entered the pass to the atoll of Suvarov at 7:30 am this morning anchoring behind the western side islet. Overall it was a reasonable passage with about the right amount of wind and ok seas. We made a tactical mistake not motoring on Friday night when winds were light and thus messed up the timing of our arrival. Being hove to was not ideal for Nikita and a fair amount of work so we are tired.

Suvarov is part of the Cook islands of which there 15 small islands totaling 93 square miles of land spread over 750,000 square miles in the South Pacific. Basically, you pick one or max two of the Cook islands in the northern or southern group and have to miss the others, just to much sea in between and bad wind angles.

Suvarov is a deserted atoll with two park rangers on sight during the winter months to meet cruising boats and collect a park fee. The island was made famous by Tom Neale a New Zealander who lived on the atoll for a number of years as a hermit, ultimately penning the book, An Island to Oneself.

We have a shark circling our boat right now, seems very interested in Isabelle.

The Crew of Niktia

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Day 5

Well we made it. Sort of. We are hove to about 12 miles off the island. The winds died away last night so we went very slowly resulting in too late of arrival today to safely navigate the coral into the atoll.... so that is for tomorrow morning. Position 13.15s 162.53w

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 4

Well we had a good night with a glorious moon set in the early hours. The winds have died away and shifted to the ESE which puts us dead down wind and slow going. Probably means we will not make it to the anchorage before nightfall tomorrow, unless we turn on the engine..... stay tuned.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 3

We had a difficult night. First a wind shift of 50 degrees required us to jibe the boat, and with main prevented and jib to windward on the pole we had much work de rigging, switching sides and setting everything back up. I then had a couple of squalls with rain and 30 knots of wind... usually I reserve those for Rae Ann. Today has been a bit calmer with less wind and seas so we have been catching up on our rest. Position 14.53s 158.00w.

The Tired Crew of Nikita

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Day 2 - Suvorov

Well it must be a passage for Nikita, as we have 20 knots of wind and 8 foot seas..... hmm, well at least we are making good time. A little to rolly but otherwise all is well. Position 15.26s 155.30w.

The Crew of Nikita

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Leaving Bora Bora

We have departed and are en route to Suvorov in the Northern Cooks. Conditions are favorable with 15 knot winds and 7 foot seas, we expect similar conditions for the entire trip. Position 16.07S 152.57W.

The Crew of Nikita

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A Way A Birthday Should Be

Well I turned a young 38 on Sunday. The day was rung in Saturday late night over too many beers, a BBQ at the Bora Bora Yacht Club and cards. We then took a convoy of dinghies around to the east side of the island to find the elusive manta rays. We had the tides right and manta rays were in feeding, one with about an 8 foot wing span. We then came back to the west side of the island and went out the pass into the ocean to look for sharks. One of the guys with us speared a puffer fish to chum with. We were rewarded with 5 very large bull sharks and 14 smaller black tip reef sharks. Though none of them ate the puffer, we wonder.... do they know it is poisonous as well??

Back to the boat for rest, cake and some reading on my birthday gift, a Kindle.

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Bora Bora

It has been a busy couple of weeks. We had hauled about 10 days ago to apply new bottom paint as we were getting much marine growth. This was our first time living on the boat well in the boat yard so we were expecting the worst but found it to be a rather easy few days. The work, done at the CNI yard in Raiatea, went very quickly with the yard providing some help on some tasks. The kids did great climbing up and down the ladder to use the facilities. Jake got into the hull waxing thinking it was a great "treat" to be up on the scaffolding 8 feet off the ground with his dad.

After getting back in the water we sailed over to Bora Bora. I hiked the mountain, and if memory serves the first peak I have ever been to the summit of, a grueling 5 hours but well work it. We have been snorkeling on various parts of the reef and lagoon and Jake has been knee boarding until his arms nearly fell off. Other than the cruisers everyone else in Bora Bora is on their honeymoon, which makes for a interesting contrast in the bars and restaurants.

We will likely leave French Polynesia in the coming week, weather permitting, heading towards the central south Pacific, and the widely spread Cook Islands.

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