Had a chance to get back in to the internet.  We’re now updated with pictures to 5.28.12

We finally found a decent internet connection today and spent over three hours uploading pictures. We would have spent more time since we only updated through May 5th, but the battery in the computer died. We might be able to go back tomorrow morning and finish since our next leg requires that we leave in the afternoon for an early morning arrival after about three to three and a half days (depending on wind). It’s not just us. Everyone we’ve met has been frustrated by the lack of connectivity in French Poly. It’s the good news/bad news syndrome. One the one hand it’s great that it’s so primitive and therefore relaxing, but on the other hand we want to share the pictures from the adventure and the internet that is here is usually only capable of the barest of text connections. Think early 1990s AOL.

The photos we managed to upload barely do the beauty of this place justice. On some of them it’s worth it to “click” to see it a bit bigger, but it’s so hard to capture the beauty and grandeur here. It’s all so “big”. You put on the wide angle lens to bring it all in and the steepness and height disappears. And the colors are phenomenal, buy the light is so bright, the contrast is hard to impossible to control except mere minutes before sunrise and after sunset. In any case, we hope you enjoy seeing some of what we’ve been doing.

Not much else to report today, we’re getting antsy to get going again. We would have been to the Tuamotus by now if the broken alternator had not put us in here during a holiday weekend (we still don’t know what holiday they celebrated) where we couldn’t supply or refuel.

Hopefully tomorrow night will find us blogging from sea again, so we’ll see you then.

P.S. A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT-OUT TO MY DAUGHTER KELLY WHO IS TURNING 21 TOMORROW! Wish I were there to help celebrate, but I know she’s got some great plans with both family and friends. So Happy Birthday Kelly. For anyone who reads this who knows her, please tell her the same! Thanks!!

I finally got to a decent internet link.  I have now uploaded pictures to the blog from April 1st to May 5th.  You have to got back and sort of browse to see them.  I’ve tried to put them at the beginning of the text.  Sorry-ran out of battery and we’re leaving in the morning.  Will try for more from Tahiti in about three weeks.

We thought today would just be an easy day getting ready to leave the Marquesas. The plan was to get up, go to the clinic for Elephantitis pills (yes, it’s a problem in French Polynesia and we don’t want it-the pills are free), go shopping for final fresh food, then get fuel in preparation for sailing to the next island chain, the Tuamotus.

Well…we made it into town-a little later than planned. Of course, laundry always takes longer than expected (about 2 hours!) That’s OK, things move pretty slowly. Ran into some friends on Black Dog at the dinghy dock and chatted for a while. OK, actually we gossiped, but it was well intentioned gossip. Anyway, we took our leave and looked for the clinic. The directions were something like- “Go up the hill toward the Gendarmerie. The clinic is ‘up there’. If you get to the hospital, you’ve gone too far”. A little vague, but workable. So up we went. We got to the hospital, whoops, too far. So back a bit. Nothing. Finally Ann went into the hospital to ask (and that’s another story we don’t have time for here) and they pointed; “not this house, but the one on the other side”. So back we went to the one we thought might be the clinic but since there was no signage, we were worried it was someone’s house. Turned out to be the clinic. The woman inside was very helpful and with broken English and our basic French we determined that you take the pills based on weight. Four for me, three for Ann. (My surprise was I’ve lost about 25 pounds since leaving the US! Yeah! Back to 252 which I haven’t weighed since the mid 1990’s). Ann has lost another 5 pounds too!

Once fortified with pills (they are not preventative, they are “for the larvae of the mosquito” as she told us, sort of like worming your cat so we’re to take them upon leaving French Poly), we headed to the store. Got there just in time to find it had closed for lunch. Rats. All stores here close from 12PM to 2:30PM. Oh well. Back to the dock where there’s an outdoor crepe shop. We sat down and ordered a couple “completes” with bacon, cheese, ham and egg. They were delicious!

We were just getting ready to go to the store when John from Orcinius called us on the hand-held VHF radio. They were ready to do the fuel thing. Fueling over at the fuel dock is a very scary experience with three foot waves and massive surge; it’s very hard on small pleasure craft. It’s more made for the supply ships that come in once a week. John has a couple custom 40 gallon fuel bladders and an electric pump for transferring fuel. We were going to go get 80 gallons in the bladders in the bottom of the dinghy and then back to Charisma and pump them out into our tank. Sounds much easier than Med-mooring (back in and tie up with your stern to the dock) at the dock in all of the surge.

First off, getting the fuel was pretty funny. The supply ship was in so we motored the dinghy just under the huge bow of the ship and next to the side of the wharf where there’s a steel ladder up about 15 feet to the dock level. I walked over to the fuel station and said I wanted 300 liters (about 80 gallons). They said I had to come back when the ship was gone since there was no room at the wharf. I said my boat was already tied up and pointed out at the bow of the ship. They looked at me kind of funny as from their perspective, there was nothing there but a huge ship bow. Finally I got it through I had a little dinghy with fuel bladders, etc, etc.

So, got the fuel. Now, with the dinghy almost sinking from the weight, we motored over to Charisma. This was going to be great! Easy as pie. We opened the fuel port, pulled the hose up, started the pump, it whirred with a passion and…nothing happened. No fuel came out. I won’t bore with all the detail of the rest of the afternoon except to say it was spent taking the pump apart to find a broken check valve. Once fixed, everything worked and we transferred the fuel, but voila, afternoon gone. No shopping. Day over.

Fortunately Ann had a much more productive afternoon albeit in the “sweat shop” of the cabin on a hot day. I found her slaving over the sewing machine with both fans on high and aimed at her perspiring forehead. While John and I were fooling with machinery on deck, Ann did a beautiful repair to the staysail cover and she made a bunch of tie-downs with buckles for the jerry cans on the bow. Now I don’t have to untie miles of rope when I want to get at the water, rum or diesel up on deck. I just unsnap the buckle on the tie-down and we’re good to go.

By the way, I may not have mentioned that one of our jerry cans is full of rum. We learned awhile back in Mexico that liquor is very, very expensive here in French Poly but you’re also not supposed to bring any in. Our solution- fill a 5 gallon “water” jerry can with rum. Hopefully it looks like water and customs won’t ask. Well, not quite fill, but we bought a bunch of 1 liter bottles of a decent yet cheap rum and poured it in. I think something like 10 liters or so. Now when we’re out of rum in the decanters in the cabin, we just go to the jerry jug bring a funnel and fill up. In Mexico the rum we’ve found here for $60 was about $10, so we’re doing pretty well on the operation.

So, there you have it. The going is easy, but never as easy as you think. But at least our rum is cheap.

It was a pretty simple day. We got up late, dinghied into the dock, walked into town and bought some groceries. Four six packs of beer, four steaks, a pound bag of shrimp, bottle of white wine and some miscellaneous dry goods like mayonnaise, pate, crackers and a couple other things. $180. That’s why we loaded Charisma down with supplies back in Mexico. We have enough of the basic commodities to make it to New Zealand in November. In the mean time, we just resupply some of the perishables and things we didn’t anticipate we’d go through as much or as fast.

We did some walking, found an internet hot spot to check bank balances with. It might be fast enough to send a few pictures tomorrow, but we’re not sure. Today was a holiday, so no-one was around. We’ll see.

Ended the day going to cocktails with Orcinius to our friends from La Cruz on Bright Angel. Nice to see Bob and Linda. Then we all took two dinghies into the beach and hiked up the hill to The Pearl Lodge, which is a very nice restaurant/hotel up the hill from the beach. In fact it’s about the only one around on this island. Nice to just relax and have someone else cook dinner while we all caught up and told stories.

Dinghy ride back through the light surf. You always get at least a little wet going anywhere and this was no exception. Wet feet, shoes and butts all the way around getting the boat off the beach and into deep enough water to row out where we could start the outboard.

That’s it. We’re just bidding our time before tomorrow when we can get fuel and prepare to leave for the Tuamotus. Hopefully on Wed, but there’s a big low off New Zealand that might be throwing some weather and/or unfavorable swells toward our destination. We’ll see.

Ann and John meet the Bishop

Ann went to church early in the morning. Our friends on Orcinius were nice enough to pick her up at 0715 in their dinghy and they headed ashore. Their mission: church. Mine for the day was to charge the batteries with our new alternator (it’s been cloudy/rainy so the solar panels are at half capacity) and run the watermaker as we’re running low on water. Done and done.

Meanwhile, Ann, Lisa and John reported that the service was beautiful, the singing outstanding and a surprise, the Bishop of the Marquesas was present. Ann got to kiss his ring and then later talk with him. He is Polynesian, but has spent some time in Los Angeles and San Francisco and was very fond of SF. After church they toured town and bought some more supplies for the next leg (beer, we are almost out of Modela and are on to Hinano). Since it was Sunday, the stores were only open until 1130. Tomorrow is some sort of holiday we haven’t figured out yet, and again the stores are only open half day, so we’re going to have to get things done early. We’re hoping we can fuel, but that may have to wait until Tuesday.

Bob spent most of the day on the boat plotting the next leg. There are so many options/atolls in the Tuamotus. We have to decide what course we want to take and which ones to visit. Despite the number, a lot are “disqualified” because of being too difficult or dangerous to visit. Atolls in general are notorious for being difficult to enter. You have a giant basin inside the atoll that is ebbing and flooding twice a day through one or two small openings in the coral fringe. The result is currents of 6 to 10 knots bursting through the openings at certain times making for hazardous/difficult navigation and control of the boat. The trick is to approach them at slack water. The problem is that slack water is not always when the charts say it should be. The other issue is once you run the gauntlet and get inside, you are then presented with numerous coral heads lying just under water. Unless the sky conditions are just right (typically you want the sun a little behind you with no clouds and a little wind for maximum visibility into the water) you can’t see the coral and could bump into it. Well, it would likely be more of a CRASH! than a bump, so we want to avoid that too. If everything’s right, you can see 50-100 feet deep and thus can navigate around the obstacles. As of now, we’re looking at a “central” route (versus Northern or Southern route) through the atolls. The central route is less traveled than the Northern but the navigation is a bit more challenging and the atolls somewhat more difficult. We’ll see. For now, ones we’re looking at include: Raroia (our proposed landfall and the place Thor Hyerdahl and Kon Tiki make landfall from South America when he was trying to prove his theory of ancient migration into Polynesia), Kauehi, Toau, Rangiroa, Apatiki, Tikehau. In reality we’ll probably only have time to spend on three out of five. The list is still in flux.

The other fun thing about today was about the utility of having a ham radio license. We haven’t had time to use it much since making landfall, but as we’re getting ready to go back to sea (the Tuamotus are about 400 miles away, which is a three to four day trip) we’re been listening to some of the ham nets. Today we talked with some of our friends who are a week or so ahead of us and already in the Tuamotus. They are 400+ miles away. We also contacted our friend Dave from Camanoe who recently left Mexico for Hawaii. We successfully chatted for a while and exchanged our radio email addresses. Dave was about 300 miles off of Baja, or about 2800 miles away from where we are and we were able to sustain a conversation. It’s fun on two levels: One you can chat up people that far away without wires. Two, we now have friends cruising all over the Pacific that we are keeping in touch with.

Also, while here we’ve found that we’re not the only ones with a major breakdown (the alternator) in a place where there just are not any spare parts. We also consider ourselves lucky we fixed it so easily (knock on wood!) Orcinius has been waiting for two weeks to get parts for their outboard motor which is being cantankerous. ShantiAna caught a spinnaker sheet in their prop which wrapped around the shaft so tightly it stalled the engine and caused it to torque so hard it broke an engine mount. Picara is waiting for a new exhaust manifold as their burst in transit. All the stuff that has to ship in has to come through Tahiti. There is lots of paperwork and import fees and very little infrastructure to get stuff here. As I have mentioned, it was a miracle (and some hard work yesterday) that we found, adapted and replaced our alternator in a relatively short time. While we could have made it to Tahiti without it, I wouldn’t have chanced going through the Tuamotus without solid electrical capacity to run the radar/GPS. People used to do it, but there’re also a lot wrecks out here to testify to the difficulty of doing it successfully.

So, we rested today. Tomorrow we finish preparing for the next leg and hopefully leave on Tuesday. Back at sea again after a month in a delightful place called the Marquesas. Wonderful people, amazing vistas, a fun time and we both have our tattoos to remind us of this place and the journey to get here long, long, long` after we’ve left.

Sure had it today. Actually more than just two. It was a crazy day with all kinds of stuff.

First, Ann went in to the wharf with our friends from Orcinius to the Farmers Market at 0530. I slept in to prepare myself for a day of trying to install the new alternator. She not only scored some good vegetables, which are hard to find in the islands, but also brought back: chocolate eclairs (!), croissants (!) and a three pound lobster (!!) More on the lobster later. The eclairs and croissants were delicious. We had coffee and pastries at 0630 when she came back.

Second, I prepared to tackle the dreaded alternator installation. First off, let me quote our friend Mark from Blue Rodeo who told me that he wants his tombstone to say; “Nothings ever easy”. That would be the quote of the day for replacing the alternator. We had fingers crossed on this because it’s been cloudy and were not quite keeping up with our energy needs with just the solar panels unless we severely conserve. That means no fans (!!!), no water-maker, curtailed refrigerator (kept at 50 degrees instead of 40 degrees and no ice (!!!!!!). As I mentioned yesterday, John had one he didn’t need. Turns out it was exactly the same make and model. So, I thought everything would go like clockwork and we’d be back making ice by 1030. “Nothing’s easy” as Mark says. The “same” make and model had a different flange where it bolts on to the bottom support point. My broken one had a one inch thick flange. The new one had a two inch thick flange. It wouldn’t fit. Enter John once again. He has an angle grinder. You have to see this thing in action to believe it, but to shorten the story I’ll just say that he basically cut an inch of thickness off of the mount making it an exact fit to my old one. Back to Charisma with the newly trimmed alternator. After much swearing, some adjusting, bolt tightening, fan-belt judo and careful reconnecting of the 12 volt wires to the alternator terminals (I’ve been known to short the plus and minus terminals by touching them together with the wrenc-; the space is very small and hard to work in), the new alternator was ready for the ultimate test. Would it blow up and burn, or would it work. Ann was stationed at the helm to start the engine; I was below watching the charge indicator looking for any sign the thing might burn us down if installed incorrectly. OK, “start her up!” Ann murmured a couple “Hail Marys” and turned the switch, the beast came alive in all its cranking, clanking glory and as I watched, the amp-meter climbed. “It’s working! We have electricity!” Then it was a matter of leaving it on for a while to make sure there are no issues. I’ll check it again after a couple hours to make sure the belt stays tight, etc. But, huge emotional relief. We went from; “uh oh, we’re going to be here a couple weeks fixing this”, to “wow, how did we get so lucky to fix that in a day!” So, chalk up another thing I’ve never done before that I can now fix and that I hope I never have to fix again (with the grinding help from John). That was a BIG second thing. The third was we went into town to buy some supplies. Some good finds including more eggplant!. We’ll do more on Monday closer to our departure for the Tuamotus.

Fourth: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that while I was down in the cabin sweating, swearing and in general carrying on, Ann was quietly floating in the dinghy scrubbing the waterline which gets filthy, dirty when you’re cruising. It turns brown with sea gunk and barnacles. It’s not easy to scrub off, in fact, it’s just plain hard work, but she did it hanging onto the dinghy, sometimes upside down, and the side of the boat in shark infested waters. We did tell you that after our arrival yesterday Ann spotted a six inch fin swimming around Charisma, right? We now look good again with a nice, clean hull.

Fifth: back on Charisma and it’s time for COCKTAILS! Yay! We’ll deserved today.

The sixth and last part of the day was the lobster dinner. The lobster was too big for the BBQ, so I pulled the tail and legs off, cut the tail in half down the middle, slathered some butter on it and threw the legs and tail sections on the grill. Yummmmy, is all Ann had to say between bites dripping with melted butter.

So, an emotional rollercoaster and we’re both exhausted, but a good ending in a cruiser’s day. Things break, you fix them. Opportunities present themselves, you take advantage of them (the lobsters). I’m finding that if you worry about what’s going to break next, you don’t have fun. You have fun, when you just go with it and know that whatever breaks (and things inevitably do), you’ll somehow find a way to fix them. Sometimes there’s also a lot of luck involved, but that’s part of the adventure.

We repositioned 20 miles south today to the main town on Nuku Hiva. We’re here mostly for fuel and food, but yesterday our alternator kicked the bucket, this time for good (I could smell the burnt electrical smell), so we’re also here to fix that.

After starting out around 0900 we got in here around 1430. It’s like a reunion of the boats who have crossed the Pacific. There’s at least 10 other boats we know who are here re-supplying as well. So, we all decided to go into town for pizza of all things, in Polynesian. It’s owned by a nice Polynesian lady and we all had a wonderful time catching up.

So, after finding out the alternator was not charging and trying all the tricks to get it online, but finally deciding it has really quit this time, I spent the last 24 hours worrying that we might be stuck here for days and weeks trying to get a new one. Enter John from Orcinius. He said he had a “bunch” of alternators and I should come over to his boat and check them out. Turns out that two of the ones he’s carrying are almost the exact same one I have. There is a dimensional thickness difference on the bottom flange that attaches to the engine mount, but I noticed that the mount itself looks to be adjustable. So…fingers crossed, tomorrow I’m going to take the old one out and try and get the new one to fit. If it does, John has really saved the day. Ironically, he’s been waiting for a week for parts to his dinghy engine. The shipment keeps getting screwed up and he’s just sitting here waiting. Frustrating.

Cross fingers. If we don’t post tomorrow it’s because we’re saving energy. Fortunately the solar panels do a fairly good job, but it’s been cloudy so they are not keeping up with all our needs and the shortwave is one that is not essential. We are even writing this by headlamp to save every amp possible.

Hopefully, though we’ll post success. If not, we could be here a while.

Stay tuned…

We’re just taking it easy today. No adventures or anything. Did a few boat projects, Ann did the laundry (which is actually a huge undertaking), I dove on the anchor (more on that below) and we rowed ashore for a little walk. We’re getting ready to leave tomorrow morning and sail the 20 miles down to Taiohae Bay on the south side of the island. That is the largest town out here and best chance to provision for the next month that we’ll spend in the Tuamotus. We won’t find much in the way of fresh anything there, so whatever we can carry and keep is what we’ll have. Otherwise, it’s pasta, potatoes, well, you get the picture. We also need fuel and it’s the only semi-reliable place in the Marquesas to get it.

About the anchor- several other boats in our little bay had a hard time getting their anchors up. Apparently their chain tangled on rock. One boat needed a diver from one of the other boats. He spent more than ½ an hour under water trying to untangle things. Word has it that as long as you are in 40 feet of water, you’re over sand, but closer in and you get the coral/rock problem. We dropped just in 40 feet, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Everyone else including our friends on Orcinius who are behind us and closer in, have had problems. Orcinius and we have agreed to leave at the same time tomorrow. That way if one has a problem, the other can hang around and help. There’s no-one else except a couple other boats and nothing on shore. Not like you can call the tow truck.

I’m making some curry dinner right now since we were lucky to find a couple eggplants and some onions and string beans! They are the long French kind. I’m sautéing the eggplant, onion, a wild pepper, and tomatoes we found from a local who grew them, in olive oil and coconut milk. Later I’ll add some of Ann’s home-made yogurt, curry powder, then serve over rice. Fried bananas in coconut cream on the side. Unbelievably we’re getting close to out of bananas. The last two days we’ve collected a dozen mangoes though, so soon we’ll have a “mango problem” as they all ripen. I’ll probably be making some mango curry. I think we may have also collected enough limes to get us to Tahiti. There are lots of wild lime trees, so we procured a small backpack full. People tell us we may be able to trade for stuff with the limes when we’re in Tuamotus.

While the curry was simmering, we stopped for evening Charismas. The Australian boat, Samba, that was near us stopped by to share some vegetable news with us. Apparently they hiked around the bay to the west and found a vegetable gardener. So they are going around the anchorage telling everyone. They also had some books to share with us so Pete took our thumb drive and brought back some good books. Unfortunately, both boats suddenly seemed to be closer than normal. Could be a wind change or that one of our anchors had come unhooked from a coral head. We let Pete know that we would be happy to re-anchor if he felt it necessary. Politeness abounds here. Pete said he’d just watch it and call us if he thought it was becoming a problem. As dusk was setting we decided, why wait? So in a half of an hour’s time we pulled up our anchor, moved and re-anchored further out so we all could sleep better. Not bad.