by Kay Muir
May 2011
Last issue, we joined Don and Kay Muir, as they began their South Pacific adventure and visited the Galapagos Islands. This issue, we join the crew and sail 3,000 nautical miles to the Marquesas, the eastern-most island group in idyllic French Polynesia ...
23rd April, depart Academy Bay, Galapagos Islands: Happy St George’s Day. At 0715, up came the anchor and we quietly motored out of Academy Bay. Two other boats left about the same time, but they must have ‘put their foot down’ and soon motored out of sight. We had a gentle sail in a very light breeze. We even caught a fish, but as usual, it escaped. On the first day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... A very light south westerly.
24th April, en route to the Marquesas (1°09.5’S / 90°41.2’W): Happy Easter and a Day in the Doldrums: The wind held out until about dawn when the engine was turned back on. All day we had Isla Isabella in sight and it didn’t seem to go away; just sat there all day, crowned with its own voluminous cloud, until the sun set and that was all we could see. Other than a couple of sun-basking seals lolling on their backs in the water and a few birds, that’s all there was to see. We had about five knots of wind, but were doing about three over the ground. Don't expect any wind until the middle of the week. We had a large fish on the lure but again it got off. It was too big to wind in so Don doesn't even know what it was; probably a yellow fin tuna. On the second day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Two knots of current and a …
25th April, west of Galapagos Islands, en route to the Marquesas (1°38.8’S / 91°39.4’W): Easter Monday and Anzac Day: I was there at dawn, watching the sun slowly creep through the clouds, sharing it only with a gathering of sea birds resting on the water having a committee meeting about the day’s events. No dawn service for us. No Easter eggs, bunnies or bilbies either. More to the point, no wind! Without the engine we would be drifting slightly backwards in the current, but we can’t keep motoring; we have over 3,000nm to go. All we have is sea, swell, sun, sky and clouds (fluffy ones). Also some fish, brand unknown, about 25-35cm long, a purplish back with a yellow band of colour just before their tail fin, swimming alongside the boat, completely ignoring the fishing line and lure trailing behind. On the third day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Three squally showers; Two…
26th April, en route to the Marquesas (1°47.4’S / 92°47.7’W): Flying fish, swordfish, dolphin fish and a large pod of dolphins: The line had been out a while when we heard the sudden whirring of the reel. No matter we were under full sail, we’ve got slowing the boat down quickly down to a fine art (we’ve had plenty of practice). This time we had a swordfish battling on the end of the line, but not long enough to take a photo of the evidence. As usual, it got away taking with it a souvenir lure. I’m sure old Neptune’s got a lot of them down there in his treasure chest.
Not long after that excitement and we got underway again, there was more whirring. This time a pan-sized dolphin/mahi mahi fish, which was carefully filleted and cooked for tea. Apart from the abundant flying fish which were darting over the sea, the next excitement was to have a huge pod of dolphins swimming around and near the boat, diving and darting, this way and that. They stayed a while and then went off in search of another adventure. On the fourth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Four purple lures; Three …
27th April, (1°48.8’S / 94°19.2’W): Squalls and a rainbow: Sailing SW with a SE wind of 15-20 knots, at two degrees south of the equator. So what if there was a 3-4 day SW swell over an underlying SE one and a 1.5 knot current against us and it was not quite spinnaker stuff yet, we were almost on the downhill route. A fair bit of squally weather with gusts of 27 knots and boat speed of 7.8 knots, resulted in a reefed genoa and main (an ideal container for catching small squid that have jumped on board) and a beautiful complete rainbow ahead of us. On the fifth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Five swordfish; Four…
28th April, 2,600nm to go (2°33.0’S / 96°00.6’W): Scooting along: More S, S, S and C, plus a steady SE breeze of 15 knots and going over 6 knots. All well and then the portable freezer packed in. Never had a freezer on board before, so this was a luxury and we filled it as much as we could. Emergency Plan A: Reshuffled food in fridge and thought of lots of different recipes to cook with chicken etc. Then Mr Fix It stepped in and fiddled, later declaring the freezer un-resuscitable. However, it spontaneously sprang back to life, although a not very cold one, was re-fiddled with and declared “as well as could be expected”, until further treatment could be obtained on land (only 2,500nm away). Plan A was revised and recipes put on hold. Then, 15 minutes after the generator went on, it spluttered and came out in sympathy with the freezer. It was turned off and declared tomorrow’s job as we had had a fair amount of wind for the wind generator, though not too much sun to top up the batteries. On the sixth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Six gulls a screeching; Five…
29th April, 2,350nm to go (5°01.0’S / 99°51.2’W): Wedding? What Wedding? Apparently there was a royal wedding today. Fortunately, we were blissfully ignorant of the fact. It wasn’t until late evening that we found out when we spoke to CD, who was still at anchor in the Galapagos Islands and had seen some highlights on a local TV. On the seventh day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Seven squid on decking; Six…
30th April, 2,178nm to go (6°15.1’S / 102°17.7’W): Cruising: Boat maintenance in exotic places! The generator was fixed on the run. Some little critters had made a home in the inlet pipe and were soon evicted. Generator, now happy. Winds 15-20 knots, gusts 28 knots, average speed 7.5 knots, max 8.6 knots, with a reefed genoa and two reefs in the main. The problem was the confused sea with two (at least) different swells, which gave us a very bumpy ride, not to mention a few bumps and bruises. Also, with waves coming over the bow, water found its way into the locker in the front cabin and being on a starboard tack, the water travelled along the side of the cabin, soaking the newly upholstered cushions. An emergency fresh water bath was required for the covers and cushion.
The freezer saga: Sadly the resuscitated freezer did not survive for too long and ceased to be. Back to Plan A and also Plan B which was to construct a shelf under the eutectic bit (the freezer bit) in the fridge. Don squatted in the cockpit measuring and sawing bits of aluminium tubing to construct said shelf. Hey presto, it worked well. No longer does food propped up by the freezer part, slide to the bottom when something else is removed from the fridge. The luxury of a separate freezer was short lived. On the eighth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me ... Eight mermaids
singing; Seven…
1st May, 2,014nm to go (6°57.2’S /104°56.8’W): White rabbits: Who can believe it? 1st of May already. Should be settling into autumn down under, but here it’s, well, equatorial. There’s a very slight but noticeable drop in the temperature at night, even at 6 degrees South. However with 15-20 knots of SE wind coming in the cockpit and a body clock that wanted to be asleep, maybe it’s not surprising. Very different to the northern side out of Panama and the Galapagos where it was very humid. The moon was on its last appearance for a while, just a silver sliver low in the sky. We did at least have the stars and I even recognized the Southern Cross! I’d been staring at the sky watching for those elusive shooting stars but I must’ve been looking in the wrong place at the wrong time.
1000 miles: We’ve sailed 1,000nm from Galapagos and have 2,000nm to go to the Marquesas. On the ninth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me Nine stars a shooting; Eight…
2nd May, 1,863nm to go (7°27.9’S /107°25.2’W): Dawn Deck Patrol: It has become a routine now to do a deck inspection each morning to check how many flying fish and squid have landed there during the night. So far we’ve only had one in the cockpit, one in the main sail reef, but lots on deck—enough for a marinara dish.
Boat bites, bumps and bruises: We’ve still got a confused swell with 20 knots of SE breeze and one knot of current against us. This made for a very wobbly ride and the big rollers only come in when you are doing something. For example, I placed a washing up bowl, with about 25cm water in it, on a non-slip railed surface, while I transferred my hold to another. In that split second a huge wobbler rolled the boat. The bowl stayed in situ but the water flew out of it, all over the cooker (which was ready for a wash anyway, but...) in one of those slowed down cartoon-like motions. Meanwhile, I was projected onto the cooker’s safety rail, landing with loud expulsion of air from lungs, sustaining beautiful bruises to left arm and ribs! Thus adding to the collection from the other day. I’m sure someone is watching and waiting, ready to give the signal as soon as someone is about to pour boiling water from the kettle, or serve up dinner, or pour milk into a cup, or ... the list is endless, but someone out there knows! On the tenth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me Ten fish a flying; Nine…
3rd May, 1,720nm to go (7°52.6’S /109°51.9’W): Ripping Yarns: The first day we’ve had the right winds to be able to put up the spinnaker/MPS. It went up at 0800 and came down at 0805 with a large L-shaped rip in it. So much for that! Instead, we did a wing-and-wing with a jib and genoa that worked OK. Nothing but S, S, S and C again all day until late afternoon when we were visited by a large pod of dolphins, doing their acrobatics and swimming in the bow wave in pairs. Once again, they stayed a while and were off. On the eleventh day of sailing King Neptune gave to me Eleven dolphins leaping; Ten…
4th May, 1,570nm to go (8°02.2’S /112°17.5’W): Reef in, reef out, reef in, reef out. Need I say more? Wind variable 14-20 plus gusts of 25 knots. Still lumpy seas, but despite that, “The Time” had come. All bread eaten, all wraps gone. It was time to make some bread. Not a difficult process normally but with wobbly seas, it was a challenge to get the small batches of buns in and out of the oven without burning them and myself. That was successfully achieved but somehow or other the buns seemed to disappear at a greater rate than they were produced. That story about not eating fresh bread just out of the oven as it will give you a tummy ache is just an old wives tale to stop you eating it quickly and have some left for the following day/s.
Half-way mark: At precisely 2310 we reached the half-way mark of 1,500nm. Only another 1,500nm to go! On the twelfth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me Twelve buns a baking; Eleven…
5th May, 1,415nm to go (9°44.8’S /138°02.2’W): No change in the weather. The wind was still 20 knots from the ESE so we were sailing almost downwind at seven knots. It wasn’t a good angle and the boat was veering around with the 3m swells, but we have 12 complete days of sailing and 1,400nm to go … On the twelfth day of sailing King Neptune gave to me “Twelve buns a baking; (nearly burnt); Eleven dolphins leaping; (synchronised swimming and diving); Ten fish a flying; (the ones that didn’t land on the deck); Nine stars a shooting; (still delirious or lacking rum?); Eight mermaids singing; (delirious/sleep deprived or was it the rum?); Seven squid on decking; (breakfast!); Six gulls a screeching; (don’t they know we haven’t got any fish?!); Five swordfish; (all the ones that got away); Four purple lures; (and took the lures); Three squally showers; (it is Easter); Two knots of current (wrong direction) and … a very light south westerly (supposed to be SE) breeze.”
6th May, 1,285nm to go (9°37.6’S /117°02.2’W): Another Rock and Roll Night ... to the sound of ‘the Southern Cross’ and ‘Breaking Waves’. So much for this elusive South Pacific SE swell. We rocked and rolled all night and day. It was impossible to try and sleep in the back cabin with the wind and waves up the stern. It was like being on one of those double-ended swings at the fun fair but going sideways and then being rolled over from side to side. Being in a washing machine would be about as much fun!
7th May, 1,156nm to go (9°27.0’S /119°14.2’W): A swell of a cocktail: To a large volume of water (salted) add a SE swell and an equivalent NE swell of at least 3m, both with a short fetch. Then add a one knot easterly current. Top with white foam and 27-knot gusts of wind and there you have one swell of a cocktail! Don’t forget to decorate with a bobbing, not quite completely downwind boat. I’m sure all of this was because we didn’t pay proper homage to Neptune.
8th May, 1,005nm to go (9°11.0’S /121°50.2’W): We were still sailing in 3m seas with 25 knots of wind. We had 30 knots overnight. I don't know what happened to the expected calm Pacific swells; we have had nothing but confused uncomfortable seas AND a current against us, but all’s well on board.
Youngest person, to date, to attempt sailing solo around the world: That would be Laura Dekker, sailing Guppy. She was stopping. Jessica didn’t. Since reaching the Caribbean from Europe, it seems that Laura had arrived in a place, just as we were leaving. After she left the Galapagos, she was on ‘our’ Pacific Reef Runners net, an informal radio net for those who wished to communicate whilst “jumping the puddle”.
9th May, 855nm to go (9°24.8’S /124°27.6’W): A Gazelle at sea: Gazelle was a 60ft sleek-looking, dark metallic champagne-coloured cat with a carbon fibre mast. The deck was pristine; no fuel or water cans, dinghy, bikes etc. It looked like a Mercedes sports car in a showroom or at least it did. Last seen 23rd April about 0900 when it went by us having left the Galapagos an hour or so behind us. We heard that it reached the Marquesas in 13 days! At 1700 today we still had 800nm to go in still confused seas with a 4m swell, 30-knot gusts and a max speed (not sustained) of eight knots.
10th May, 716nm to go (9°34.6’S /126°55.5’W): At last, we came off the big dipper and got onto a gentler roller coaster. The winds dropped to 10-15 knots. Where’s that spinnaker when you need one? There was still a swell and still some big wobblers but nowhere near as many as the past few days. Maybe we might be able to get some better sleep. Still not much, if any, wild life to be seen and even though the fishing line went out today for the first time in a while, we caught our usual quantity, zero.
11th May, 596nm to go (8°52.7’S /129°02.2’W): By the light of the silvery moon: There was half a moon (the bottom half) resting in the cloudless sky, casting a shimmer on the water. The stars were out in force, twinkling brightly (someone must have put an extra shilling in the meter), as stars do. What better place to view the heavens than miles out at sea without influence of any man made lights? I guess it doesn’t get better than this. Whilst sitting in the cockpit, mesmerized by stars, my thoughts turned to that forbidden four-letter word. I pondered the difference between long distance sailing and nursing. The answer: not a lot. Your hands are always getting wet; You still have to make regular observations and recordings and appropriate changes as required; You still do shift work; and you are forever looking at charts! I rest my case. No need to go back to …!
12th May, 462nm to go (9°04.8’S /131°16.2’W): A great day for sailing: Blue skies, fluffy white clouds, 15-20 knots of SE wind and a small swell (relatively speaking). At 1702 we recorded 400 nm to go. Also a great day for fishing! But what constitutes a great fishing day? Not a great catch of mahi mahi or anything else edible, but one where you don’t lose any line or lures! Like we did yesterday.
13th May, 308nm to go (9°28.5’S /133°50.7’W): Friday the 13th and only two days to go if the wind holds. All good on board. Not that I’m superstitious or anything, but touch wood and avoiding ladders, if we keep up this good sailing, we should clock a few miles today. 15-20 knots of wind and an average of seven knots sailing. At 0841, we recorded (not that I’m counting down or anything) 300nm to go. At 2316, 200 to go!
14th May, 148nm to go (9°43.5’S /136°30.7’W): Only one day to go, but where did all the trade winds go? Tootling along quite nicely about six knots in the early morning. Then we gybed. The genoa had other ideas and instead of just moving to the other side when the pole was moved over, it decided that the top half would wrap itself around the forestay. Meanwhile the bottom half was trying to fill. Déjà vu. We’d done this before, only with the spinnaker. Before we knew it, the sail and sheets had done several counter wraps around themselves that made it impossible to unfurl. Forty minutes later, after a few pirouettes, the sail finally unfurled and we were back on track. By late afternoon, the wind had dropped to below 10 knots and we were making slow progress at 3-4 knots, but at 1644 precisely, we had only 100 nm to go.
15th May, 58nm to go (9°44.8’S /138°02.2’W): The answer was blowing in the wind! The wind died and we drifted towards our destination at 2.5 knots. Very frustrating being so close. How could it go from blowing 20 knots with 3-4m swells to nothing - just a swell - in a shorter time than you could say the Beaufort Scales? The answer may well be blowing in the wind but we didn’t have any! With only 72nm to go at midnight we had hoped to get in late this afternoon but we’ve been cheated and looks like it will be Monday. If the engine wasn’t on, it would likely be Tuesday. I thought I’d done with night shift for a while but there’s still one to go!
We parked once again in the Pacific and it was very fortuitous that there was no wind as a belt on the alternator had broken and needed replacing. What else do you do in the wee small hours of the morning? The water maker also decided to go on strike and we were getting close to empty. Haven’t been able to catch any rain because there has been relatively little to catch and impossible to do so when windy. Today’s the 15th and not 13th, isn’t it? Anyway, taking the water maker apart, finding the offending broken part and finding a spare kept Don amused for a while, otherwise he would have had nothing to do but admire the view. A very glassed out, oily-looking ocean and a clear blue sky. Did I say we had sighted land? There were a couple of light grey patches on the horizon topped with fluffy clouds. Must be the Marquesas.
16th May, anchored at Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas (9°48.5’S /139°01.9’W): Nous sommes arrive! We arrived, at last. 0658 hours local time (1558 Australian time) and anchor down. No room at the inn behind the breakwater, so it was a rolly anchorage and a long dinghy ride to another dodgy jetty. We met up with our local agent and checked in with the Gendarmerie. Paperwork done we explored Atuona, main town on the island of Hiva Oa, purchased two very yummy baguettes before returning to the boat to feel stable - the land in the Marquesas was a little wobbly! After 24 days at sea, a celebratory drink and dinner, we all enjoyed a long and unbroken night’s sleep.
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