Tagish back in Marquesas - Circumnavigation Completed!

Feb 27 we left the Galapagos. The GPS showed 2978 miles to our destination in the Marquesas. This would increase to over 3000 miles as our course would zig zag a bit looking for wind and whims of wind vane self steering. The wind was about 5 knots as we motored most of the day and all night hoping to find wind as we left the islands behind.

We motored off and on for the next 4 days, more on than off. Saw a sea lion and a turtle far out at sea. Another day saw a large humpback whale swimming along nearby. We were doing about 90 miles a day with the help of a 1 to 1.5 knot current. We were motoring very slowly to save fuel and the 4th day did only 64 miles. The 5 day the wind was up finally and we had a good sail all day in a South wind. An Oyster 65 with a professional crew on board flew by us doing 9.5 knots by our AIS. This is the only boat we saw for the rest of the trip except for 4 fishing boas near he middle of voyage.

The next few days we had some good sailing and one day we even did 148 miles with a bit of help from current. But generally there was not quite enough wind for us to get good runs in each day, but at least we were sailing. We do not have enough fuel for much more motoring as we wanted to save some for the last couple hundred miles. A couple of nights we had rain off and on all night and intermittent wind, very annoying, like we were still in the ICTZ. We are about 4 deg South now and headed mostly west. The wind is light all day and the sails bang as the swells twist the boat around in the light winds. I find putting a reef in the main or even 2 reefs is better when there is no wind and the sails are slamming. The reefs flatten the sail and They don't seem to slam as much and the sail still helps stop the boat form rolling.

We have been talking to Mojombo on a daily radio schedule. They are now about 60 miles ahead of us, and they say they are getting some wind down at 5 deg South. We decide to head more South and we picked up some wind after motoring 45 minutes, so shut off engine. Some rain squalls came through and the wind picked up more and then we had a monsoon like downpour for over an hour and then it eased to steady rain. and then the wind was up to 30 knots and a bit more at times. The wind eased to 25 knots a few hours later and it blew like this all night and into next morning along with a rough sea. Mojombo got the same system we got so it was more than a rain squall . All the wind has been South winds, not the SE trades. Good sailing the next few days, wind up and down. Am throwing dead flying fish off the deck every morning now.

We are down at 6 deg South now and sailing in moderate winds more from the SE finally and sailing wing and wing. The nights are often very nice now, we have a full moon and no squalls. Late at night I will lie on cockpit seat with eyes closed listening to the water go by the hull as we are gliding along slowly at 4 knots and boat hardly rocking, it is like a magic carpet taking us to another foreign land. Saw large pod of dolphins come by and swim around our boat for awhile and then do a few spy hoping leaps. Finally they got bored with our slow speed and moved on.

We move our clocks back an hour every 15 degrees of longitude which is one time zone and we will go through 3 time zones getting to the Marquesas. Our favorable current has disappeared as we got further South but at least there is better wind. Our AIS alarm went off last night indicating a collision coarse with something. It was a 160ft Japanese fish boat near by. I adjusted course a bit to go around the back of him, but not too close in case he had a net out. Tried calling him on the radio but no answer. We saw three more of these vessels over the next few days. Two of them had AIS. Our SSB radio was not transmitting properly the last few days, I believe it is the tuner.

Today is our 24 day out at sea and the winds are still a bit too light for good sailing, but we are moving. There is a large number of goose neck barnacles on the hull now. I have never seen so many. They attach to hulls of moving boats. I am sure this growth is slowing us down some, like we need to be going slower. We did 84 miles today. Our day is from 8am to 8am to measure our 24 hour runs. It use to be noon to noon when every one took a noon site with their sextants.

The odd squall comes by but they do not have a lot of wind in them and just a we bit of rain. The wind picked up a couple of days later and we put a reef in the main for the night and part of next day. But this eventually eased again to light winds which seem to be the norm now. It is funny how the moral on the boat goes up and down with the winds. Good winds is good moral. We only have a couple hundred miles to go now, looking forward to some fresh fruit and french baguette. Today we crossed our out bound track that we made to Fata Hiva 4 years ago. We are now Circumnavigators!

The wind got very light as we approached the islands so we started motoring, the first time in a couple of weeks. Land Ho was about 40 miles out as we say the mountains of Ua Huka. Rather than spend another slow night at sea, we decided to anchor at Ua Huka, an island about 35 miles from Ua Pou our destination. We dropped our anchor here at about 05:30 pm  Mar 29 and had a great nights sleep. Just after dawn we upped anchor and continued on to Ua Pou of the Marquesas islands. We ended up motoring all the way in 5 knots of wind. It is Sunday now and we dropped anchor at 04:30pm It is a spectacular anchorage with tall rock pinnacle mountains in the foreground. There was several boats in here with the Arc rally.

The next morning we launched our dingy and rowed to the cement dock by the stairs and found the gendarme to clear into the country. No problem here and a half hour later we were free to explore the island.

Our third day here we were having dinner at the pizza cafe and two Gendarmes came in and told us there was a tsunami warning out due to an earthquake off Chile. and we should move our boat out to sea for a few hours. I knew the shallow basin we were in would not be a good place in even a small tsunami, so we decided to head out. The Tsunami was expected to arrive here between 11:00 and 12:00am midnight. It was said we should stay out until 2am. a real nuisance this time of night. Of course there was a nice 18 knot sailing breeze out there just when we did not need it. So we bounced around in the swells for a few hours. Did a slow beam reach out and then back in. before we left we say some of the locals moving their small boats off the walls and out into the center of the basin. We came back in at 1:30am and I don't think anything happened. Note: We did finish our pizza before we left, very good.

INFO

-Our strategy to get from the Galapagos to the Marquesas had been to ease down to 4 deg South and go straight west and ride the favourable current and winds all the way. But we left in March which can have fickle winds and is not as ideal as April or May to leave. This in Cornells cruising guide, and I guess it was right. So we dropped further South to get better wind but lost the current doing this. This was the first time in trip around the world that we did a long passage not at the optimal time.  We took just over 29 days for passage.

-Anchorage at Ua Huka. Dropped anchor in 42ft at 08 55.73S 139 32.02W It is a bit rolly in here, but tolerable. We had a good sleep here. Big surf on beach and we did not go ashore.

-Anchorage at Ua Pou in 22ft at 09 21.49S 140 02.81W good anchorage and holding, not as rolly as other Marquesas anchorages as long as your behing the breakwater.

-Clearing in. We said we only wanted to stay 5 days and then Nuka Hiva a few days and then on to Hawaii. Hoping to avoid the bond hassles. The Gendarme phoned up someone and said Canadians don't have to do the bond but Americans do. That was news to us, maybe it is new, but we were not going to argue. So we filled out a form and were done, no charges.

-There is a water tap on beach and by cement dock, but they say it is not drinking water including taps in peoples houses. There is two taps marked potable war by the school for free drinking water for anyone. But it is a 15 minute walk. The tap on the beach I treat with bleach and put in the tank. The drinking water jugs we carried down to the school or used our small water maker.

-There is a poor selection of fruit and veggies here, but we did get a bunch of apples. Lots of cans of quality baked beans and other canned goods. Found no oats or porrage which we needed. The owner of the pizza cafe across from store speaks good english and he got us a bunch of pampelmous, like a grapefruit. Cant seem to buy them in stores. 

-Polynesian Franc is about 80 to a dollar.