Beautiful Ua Poa. View from the anchorage on a clear day.

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. 

Messing around in the Galapagos

The Galapagos are made up of many islands, but just four big ones.  Why did we choose to go to Isabela, the biggest of the islands?  We had read that on Isabela you can see everything here that you can see on the other islands.  Isabela has less people on it, about 1500 population. It is a quiet laid-back island with no city atmosphere, and has  the best anchorage apparently and the officials are supposedly a bit better to deal with.  Also we hope to avoid the ARC rally here..

     The anchorage is fairly peaceful, you don't have tour boats roaring through it constantly.  There are tour boats around but they are off to the side because of the nature of the anchorage, and you seldom get them through the anchorage, just the small boats come through  occasionally, depending on the tide height.  Isabela island is about 60 miles long and sits right on the Equator and our anchorage is at the South end of island or about 40 miles South of equator.

    The first thing we did here was explore the small town about a 15 minute walk from our dinghy dock.  The dinghy dock behind the large main dock often has sea lions on it, and on the way in if the tide is down you can see blue footed boobies and the occasional Penguin.  Also you may see a manta ray or a turtle as well on the way in.  The path from dinghy dock has lots of the black iguana's along it, some up to 3ft long.

    A couple days later we took a taxi for $10 up the coastal road to its end at the 'wall of tears' built by prisoners.   Here there is a short steep hike up to the top of a hill for a great view.  Then we walked the 7 km back to town, there was a number of short side excursions off the road you could take to different beaches and lagoons and see birds.  We also saw lots of large land tortoises along the way.  We were nice and tired when we got back, party because of the heat and mostly because our legs had again got out of shape after 11days at sea.  It is nice and cool near the water but inland it is very hot.

 

      A couple days later after we were feeling a bit fitter, we booked a hike up a volcano.  The hike costs $30 dollars each which includes the 45 min ride up and a tiny lunch.  It is a 16km round trip hike that takes you up along the slopes of the volcano to to some fantastic views of the huge crater and then the trail takes you along long lava tubes and caverns created by the molten lava.  The volcano area is often socked it and gets more rain, so our views were sporadic as the clouds came and went.  We had a bit of light rain off and on and it was fairly cool out.  We also saw some steam vents that are hot if you put your hands in them.  The included lunch was nothing much, recommend you bring some of your own food and water.  It was interesting talking to some of the land tourists on the hike, some from Equador, Italy, Austria and one Canadian girl. 

   Another day I replaced some of the rusty galvanized turnbuckles on our rigging. I had bought some replacements for $18.00 each just before we left Panama.

 

      Today we did the "tunnels" snorkelling trip for $70  each.  It is a 45 minute hi-speed boat ride up the coast to an area where the volcanic lava had flowed into the sea and there is many arches, tunnels  and channels that our boat  could work its way up.  Then the boat tied up to a rock and we walked around on the arches and rock.  We could see lots of large turtles and fish swimming in the channels.  All very impressive. Then we went to a couple of different snorkelling places. Some people who could dive down saw seahorses. Lunch again was a laugh, one apple and one tetra pack of juice was lunch. People were not too happy, we had brought some of our own food so were okay.  

    There is no apparent culture on island, it is just a tourist place.  Not much money spent on place, the roads are still mostly unpaved and dusty.   There is now 18 ARC boats here from the world rally.  They came in a few days ago and have plugged up the anchorage and overwhelmed the place, so much for our peace and quiet.  We thought they were just going to the other 2 islands which was one of the reasons we came here.

     One day we were rowing in to shore and there was some surf curling in the shallow waters of low tide.  We watched a sea lion body surfing.   He would swim around and surf the wave, then go around and out and do it again and again. I guess they like to have fun to.

      We rented a couple of nice bikes for $2.00 a hour and did the trip up to the weeping wall again for some scenic exercise.  Came back hot and sweaty. 

   We will probably stay here another 6 to 8 days, that is until near the end of February and then head off to the Marquesas 3000 miles away.

 

INFO

 

-JC organized a water delivery to the dock for the 3 yachts now here. We bought 25 gallons for $1.50 every 5 gallons. There is a huge tank on back of a pickup truck with a hose.

 

-There is some garbage cans near dinghy dock that we use. Mention this because I read on one of the sites you have to keep all your garbage on boat.

 

-You can also have diesel delivered to dock. JC said he could get it for $4

 a gallon.

 

-There is always a few sea lions on the dinghy dock, but we have never seen them get in the dinghies.  They do get on some of the small boats that never move. One yacht with a swim platform at stern would have a sea lion there occasionally.  The sea lions here are very small.  The sea lions we have back home are 3 times the size of the ones here.

    There are lots of fly's here during the day on the boat, but they don't bite and they disappear at night.  The small town surprisingly has no paved roads and occasionally you have a dust cloud around you when a truck goes by.  At least there is not a lot of traffic.  Not sure what they do with all $100 park fee they collect from every single tourist  who comes to the Galapagos, you see little sign of it being spent here. 

     After you stop thinking about how you have been robbed of $700 (twice as much as the next most expensive place in the world) for the right to stay for a meagre 20 days, you see that the island is a nice quiet pleasant place to stay. Though it's certainly not in the league of places like Reunion and Rodrigues islands or a number of other places we have visited.

 

-  The grocery stores have a lot more produce that we had been lead to believe, and it comes and goes.  The canned goods selection is very poor, a few canned veggies and few other things.  No baked beans!  Also all expensive.  Though occasionally you are surprised by some lower prices.  Where we sometimes do internet I get a juice for a $1.

 

 

Very dry in the lowlands. Lots of these Prickly Pear Cactus trees around.

There were a lot of sea turtles in the Los Tuneles area.

Snorkeling with a sea lion

The tourist shot.

We took a boat trip to Los Tuneles. First it was an exhilarating ride in through the surf zone and then we maneuvered amongst the lava rocks. Erosion has left many tunnels and arches.

Saw lots of these tortoises in the wild on one of our hikes. There is also a breeding center here where you can observe turtles of all ages.

Crabs here are very colourful. Too pretty to eat.