08/17/2009, Beveridge Reef
We began our approach from seaward to the infamous pass at Mopelia, otherwise known as Maupihha, about 130 miles west of Bora Bora, still part of French Polynesia, somewhat nervously. Well 50% nervously....Rebecca being the nervous half. The channel into Mopilia is the narrowest, about 45' wide, and can have the highest velocity of outflow of any pass in the South Pacific. All the ocean waves washing over the barrier reefs of the atoll have no where to go but out this single channel.
The wind had shifted out of the traditional south east and now blew from the north. Waves rolled towards the pass then raised up and tripped when hit by the out flowing current. The conditions would quickly become more turbulent the longer the wind blew from the north. This was serious eyeball navigation. Reefs on port and starboard, a turbulent river of water in between. There is one white post at the seaward edge of the pass and another further into the lagoon. We had set the stay sail and sheeted it in tight to help slow the roll of the boat in the rough water ahead. The sail would give some effort to overcome the strong current. With the engine in gear, we had to approach from just the right angle, through breaking waves. Just as we started in to the waves, I smelled rubber burning, and Patrick concurred. At the last possible moment to turn out of or approach we quickly turned the boat around to be slapped broadside by rolling waves and we worked our back to open water. Climbing into the egine compartment, as Patrick suspected, the alternator belt had worn through. We installed a new PowerMax alternator from Hamilton Ferris which has exceeded the output of our previous 150 amp alternator, but at the expense of having to over tighten the belts. To get a higher alternator output at a slower engine RPM they use a smaller pulley which puts a larger load on the engine and the single fan belt. So he removed the belt and installed and tightened a new one as I sailed the boat back and forth in front of the pass. We spent a good half hour motoring around outside the pass to break in the belt and make sure it wouldn't loosen up and cause problems through this pass. The guide book to Mopelia says the pass can have up to a 9 knot current. It would be impossible to turn around in pass once you are in it and not to enter it in a northwest wind- we had a north wind with an increasingly western tilt to it, so we were on the edge of not being able to go in. Every minute we spent breaking in the new belt brought more turmoil to the pass putting us closer to impassible conditions. .
When Patrick felt the new belt was OK, we made another approach to the pass.. with staysail up, engine gauge needles on their green settings, we were committed. Patrick could not take his eyes off of the washing machine waters in front of him for even a second to look at the engine RPMs. It took continual and hard twists of the wheel to keep us on course. I read the numbers to him when he needed it. A wave picked us up and surfed Brick House towards the narrow slot in the reef. More throttle, more RPMs more noise from the engine and commotion surrounding us. We needed even more power to fight the four knot current, let the staysail out to catch the following wind. I ran back and forth to the Link 2000 monitor to make sure the alternator was still pumping in amps, signifying that the belt was remaining intact. Whenever I stopped to look ahead or to the side of Brick House, tears welled up in my eyes, with complete fear of what I saw. Coral on both sides of the boat, close enough to touch with a boat pole, current rushing by, speed over ground 2 knots as the engine roared louder than we have ever pushed it, and a big wave slapped into the cockpit. Yikes! Before we knew it, we were out of the ocean torrent and struggling in flat water against the current. Quick decisions had to be made to go around a number of coral patches and heads. It all looked incredibly shallow, although 10 feet was the smallest number flashed on the depth sounder. Slowly we escaped the grip of the current and the water became much deeper. We motored a few miles to the northern part of the atoll to get the best protection from the wind and waves. Three other boats congratulated us on our arrival. It was hours before my stomach settled down from that one! The other boats had arrived only an hour ahead of us but in that hour the conditions at the pass had greatly deteriorated.
Later that afternoon we took a dinghy ride around to see what the snorkeling was like. We didn't find a lot of life inside the lagoon unfortunately....which was why we came here in the first place. The next day, we joined Nick and Marlene on the yacht Content to dinghy out to the pass and do a drift snorkel through it. When I saw the pass again, even though it had calmed down some, I chickened out...I wasn't ready to face it again. I stayed in one of the dinghys, anchored in the lagoon and waited for the others to do their death drift. Even inside the lagoon the current rushed by so feverishly that one of the snorkelers almost got hurt when swept going from one dinghy to the other dinghy. I prayed the anchor would hold while I waited for them. Within seconds they had drifted through the pass and were out at the breaking waves. I feared for their lives as I watched. If the dinghy was not aimed into the waves as they held onto the sides, the dinghy could easily be flipped over. But they spent a lot of time out there, diving on the outside reef...I began to regret that maybe I was missing something fantastic that Id regret. I was relieved when they came back and said that there was very little to see.
On shore, the only inhabitants were pigs, lots of them. They were not friendly but did keep a distance even when we tossed opened coconuts to them. A hurricane had hit this atoll in 2000 leaving only shells of a few houses standing.
A few days later the 20 knot wind shifted to the south east. We picked up anchor and moved down to the southeast corner of the atoll to take up protection behind the long island. The yachts Bravado, Content and one other sailed out the atoll with the wind shift. We found 2 more boats in the southeast corner, both of whom are French citizens who cruise here in French Polynesia for 6 months every year. They were here in Mopelia for several weeks and had been here in previous years. They were waiting for a favorable wind to blow them in the direction of Raitea where they would be hauled out till their next season of sailing.
Landing our dinghy on the sand beach, we met an older man, Taputu Kalami, and a younger man who seemed to be a hired helper. On this day 5 people live on this atoll- so we met 40% of the population!
Listening to the morning cruisers Coconut Net on the single side band radio, we had learned that the 37' Swiss flagged yacht, Avatar drifting 200 miles west of Mopelia had lost its rudder and was hoping that someone could deliver 6 two by fours so they could build an emergency rudder system. Looking up each word in the French dictionary, we wrote a not explaining the disabled yachts problem and the wood they needed. Taputu was very concerned and took apart the roof of his copra shed to supply the wood! From the bottom of an old bucket they even dug out nails for us to bring to the yacht Avatar! We spent the rest of the day hanging out with them on their island. We asked about the pigs that we had seen on the north part of the island. They explained that there is more for the pigs to eat up on the north part of the island so they let them roam up there rather than trying to keep them near their home in the south. Twice a week they go up to split open fallen coconuts for them, and they were going soon up the narrow coral trail; would we like to come? SO we rode in their pickup truck with them, with all the windows down - the exhaust pipe was broken! We bumped our way past blown over homes and other obvious hurricane destruction. We passed the one other family living on the island, husband, wife and a child. When it started raining everyone rolled up the windows and held our breaths!
After feeding the pigs, they took us to a great windswept, waveswept beach, on the east side, filled with polished rocks and shells. I found a beautiful shiny cowry shell and when I showed my enthusiasm about it, one of the men presented me with an even nicer bigger one as a present. It was very endearing to see these 2 grown men combing for polished rocks and being so enthusiastic when they found a nice addition to their collection. Then that night, they invited us to their home for dinner, I brought salad, and crackers with dip. They made unbelievable chicken curry and coconut crabs, along with white sticky rice. It was a feast. They also loved the TANG I brought. Dining at their simple wooden table, with cement floor and single exposed light bulb hanging from the wiring from the solar charged battery was pretty amazing. They don't have refrigeration, so the chicken must have been just recently butchered...I hope. Some gifts were exchanged and we signed their thick visitor book, and said our goodbyes and thank yous. We left in the dark that night, as they explained that they wouldn't be here the next day before we departed- they were going to work the coconut trees at on the north of the island at 5am.
At 8am the next morning, with Avatar's repair lumber strapped to the side deck of Brick House, we picked up anchor and made our way around the abandoned pearl farm buoys, out to the pass. That terrible pass awaited us in strong south easterly winds of about 20 -25 knots. Surprisingly, with the wind from the south east, the pass was completely benign with no standing waves at all outside of it, and about a 2 knot current to help move us through. We laughed as we went out, talking about how we really probably shouldn't have come in during those north winds...that this was such a pleasant departure!
SO destination from Mopelia is the moving target Avatar - 237 miles to our west. The winds were 20 -25 but the GRIBS weather reports showed that the wind would be decreasing as we got closer to Avatar. The wind actually died a little sooner, and we motored quite a bit to get to them before the wind would pick up again and make the transfer of materials too difficult. When we were about 40 miles away, we stopped motoring and sailed slowly to meet up with them at sunrise.
Sunrise found us with huge swells but no waves and little wind. We circled around Avatar trailing the first piece of lumber on a long rope as though towing a water skier. When they had the first piece of lumber in hand, we then kept the boats a safe distance from each other and quickly transferred piece by piece the 7 pieces of lumber. Then we edged the boats a little bit closer to pass over the bag of nails. Mistake. The bag nicked something on Avatar and landed in the water and slowly sunk. Patrick dove in, but without fins he could not swim fast enough to catch up with the bag and it was lost to the great depths.
Patrick and Beat swam back and forth between the boats with additional parts that may help with the repair, and to discuss the options. Beat had put a lot of thought in to the design and was fairly set on how he would make and attach this rudder. The one flaw we both saw with the system was that he had made the rudder out of a spinnaker pole and a tabletop. Running poles are made for compression loading not side loading.
We drifted for hours near Avatar while Beat and his wife Lola assembled their new rudder. We also rummaged through our boat looking for anything which might be useful to Avatars situation. But Beat had a definite thought out plan on how to strap his makeshift rudder to the starboard quarter of Avatar. By afternoon the assembly was finished and ready for testing. We agreed to sail along side of him until he felt it was going to work for him. After a few hours of sailing with him slowly, and both Beat and Lola taking turns getting to know their new steering system, they encouraged us to leave them be, it was working well. They had even figured out a way to make it so they could steer from the cockpit instead of leaning over the gunwale to steer. They were pretty happy when we left them, as well as having plenty of water and food for the long slow voyage ahead of them to American Samoa- more than 800 miles to their west. If nothing else, Drifting would get them there. If the wind was more than 15, their plan was to dismantle and take the rudder up in to the cockpit, because they didn't feel that the rudder would take weather any heavier than about 15 knots. It was blowing 10 when we left them.
Later than evening, the wind picked up to 15, maybe even 20. We heard the next morning that they did not disassemble the rudder when the wind picked up, and that the running pole had folded inwards under the hull. Beat made a wooden dowel to repair the pole t and was confidant that it was stronger now. He was waiting for lower winds to deploy it again. He drifted for many days waiting, while we made good time to Palmerston Atoll in the Cook Islands.
We stayed in Palmerston a grand total of 5 hours since the wind and swell was making it a very uncomfortable anchorage on top of them wanting $70 to check in to this unofficial check in point. Patrick became greatly annoyed when the "official", who could not stamp or passport, said that we had to pay any way because we were passing through Cook Island waters! Another yacht had departed Palmerston an hour before us when he was greatly annoyed by the "officials" and their fees. That yacht had hauled auto parts and medicine from Raratonga free of charge for the locals and now was greeted with fees. We sailed on to the very desolate Beveridge Reef , another couple days away, and entered the pass there and anchored near a wrecked steel fishing boat. The wreck is the only thing at the atoll above water. There is no land at all.
Patrick immediately scoped out the wreck hoping to find something to bring to Avatar which was now 350 miles to our north. He found 2 great stainless steel posts and other fitting that may fit Avatars needs for a newer better rudder system which could fit up into the broken off rudder post. We spoke with Beat on the SSB the next night explaining the plan. Beat was appreciative but he wanted to stay with his current design.
So we turned our attention the fishing and snorkeling on Beveridge Reef.
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07/23/2009, Mopelia, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Our hike with Graham and Sue on Chandrika , in a valley in Moorea, was very fun. The problem was no one had been on that trail for a very long time so we lost the overgrown trail in the jungle half way up the mountain. We never found got to the top. We got a few mosquito bites - there is always present the worry of Dengue fever, carried by mosquitoes. So far, 3-4 weeks later, so good. Although the hike was fun, Patrick slipped on a rock and fell hard on his left shoulder. A week earlier he pulled ligaments in that same arm when climbing the mast. Pulled ligaments, damaged rotor cup =3D sleeping propped up, eating prescription pain pills and keeping the arm in a sliing. So now I have a half hearing, one armed captain lets hope the rest of him stays intact .
After an evening concert on a another boat, Hypnautical , the boat owners professionally plays harp, guitar, and sings, we left the next day. By the way, Patrick didn't go to this concert due to the pain in his arm, and I promised to take good care of the dinghy when I left without him. When I crawled up on Hypnautical, I handed the dinghy line to SOMEONE and then never thought about it again till someone came by in a dinghy and asked if anyone lost the dinghy he was towing. Embarrassingly - it was mine. Yes- I took good care of the dinghy Everyone promised to not tell Patrick, but of course it was the first thing I told him about when I got back!
Our sail to Huahine, which by the way I had the pleasure of being "captain", since Patrick was enjoying being cabin fluff due to his shoulder, was pretty docile. We had about 15 knots off the port quarter, and I flew the genny most of the way. We came in the wide and deep pass at Huahine and settled in to the anchorage at the town of Fare. The next day we motor sailed the 10 miles down the west coast to get to the southern anchorage which is a pretty sand beach, with lots of blue water to marvel at. We stayed there almost a week. One night was our wedding anniversary so we spent one expensive night in a very comfortable hotel. We even watched CNN but after a half hour and all the commercials we turned off the television. It was a relaxing evening with a very nice candlelight dinner with traditional Polynesian fare. We slept in too late the next morning to have breakfast, so we instead had a nice brunch on the boat.
We really splurged on this island and rented a car for the day, and toured the entire island. Its only about 20 miles around the whole thing, going down every road and stopping at every "tourist attraction". In a stream below a bridge, we saw (and fed a can of tuna) the sacred ancient blue eyed eels, and visited the archeological sites of which there are many on this island. We saw lots of beautiful vistas from the tops of the low mountains, and ate ice cream. It was an enjoyable day.
So after about 10 lazy days in Huahine, we sailed onward another 25 miles to Raitea. Raitea has the most important archeological sites in French Polynesia. The sites were used for communicating with departed ancestors and making offerings and sacrifices to the Tikis. So we anchored dinghy distance to one of the sites and had a nice stroll. Aside from reading the signs, there was a lot left unexplained a guide would have been nice but the area was set more as a park than a pay to enter tourist attraction.
In Raitea, we had a great walk up a nearby valley not too far from the big archeological site. There were farms growing all the vegetables you could want, and then further up, there were fruit orchards, many of which had gone wild and were overgrown. We came back with a full bags and backpacks of grapefruit, carambolla, (star fruit) oranges, limes, and some kind of squash or pumpkin. It was a fun day of food gathering.
After a few days we sailed the coast northward to a town called Tahaa. The sun was going down, and we weren't sure if we would actually make it there before dark so we decided to anchor in between the two islands. Our Tacktik depth finder hasn't been very reliable. It does ok in shallow water but gets lost in anything over 60 feet. On the chart, we picked a spot to anchor in 12 feet of water but as we approached, it was clear to me, with my polarized sunglasses, that it was NOT 12 feet as the depth sounder was indicating- it was maybe 2 feet. Patrick takes great delight in scaring me. SO he slowly edged up to the shelf anyway, and hung the bow over what turned out to be beautiful coral. The depth finder suddenly says we are in 2 =BD feet of water, I shriek at Patrick, telling I told him it was 2 feet, and why is he still going forward?!?!?! He says no, I think we can make it- although the boat was no longer moving forward I go up to the bow and take a look. I scream back it is definitely not deep enough for you to go forward! Its not even deep enough for our dinghy!!! Finally he decides that he has toyed with me enough and backs out. We never hit it was such a great drop off that it went from nonreading which lately is over 60 feet deep to 2.5 feet in a split second! NO number in between! We motored like mad to Tahaa and picked up a mooring ball as the sun went down. My heart finally stopped pounding a few hours later.
The next day we motored out of the pass which in itself was a little breathtaking to say the least. Huge breaking seas on both sides of the pass, and huge swell in the pass. Luckily its very deep in the pass so you know you wont bottom out but it was still a little exciting. Not a time for the engine to give up
15 miles later, we were at Bora Bora. Motor sailing the first 5 miles due to the lack of wind and a nice sail the last 10. Bora Bora has a vertical, majestic beautiful as so many Polynesian islands are. After hiking to a mountain top and looking down to the lagoon and all the aqua colors I was struck Bora Bora is indeed the most beautiful island I've seen, at least from a mountain top! We were not going to go to other anchorages in Bora Bora until I saw these colors and then I HAD to put our boat in some water like that. For the next 2 days we moved around the lagoon to the south. . We snorkeled in the gorgeous green, blue water but didn't see many fish at all. We did follow a tourist boat around and they led us to a stingray site. These stingrays weren't as friendly as the ones at Moorea, but we still had fun with them. I shouldn't say WE really. Patrick, after 3 weeks is still very uncomfortable . His arm is healing and becoming more mobile but its been a a slow process. The discomfort keeps him from getting the water. We went snorkeling with Sam from the boat Yanti Perazi - a friend of mine from before I even knew Patrick. I crewed for him. So it was Sam and I in the water while Patrick operated the dinghy for us. The moment that the tour boat left, the party broke up and the sting rays departed too. It's a shame though, the snorkeling here seems to be really suffering from lack of fish due to over fishing and the construction of too many hotels. . I would be very disappointed if I spent 5k to come here as a tourist and the snorkeling was this poor. The water is clear, but there is little to see. Actually, not many tourists spend the money to come to French Polynesia. There are far more empty hotel rooms than occupied ones. I did not dive the pass but Sam did and he said he only saw a few sharks and not much else. Its too bad. But we have enjoyed Bora Bora for other reasons. We enjoyed the hula dance competitions in town for Heiva (festival) for a few nights, and we love the people here. You can leave groceries in your dinghy, just tied to a dock, and when you return not only will your dinghy still be there, your food will be too its not like that everywhere in the South pacific. Also, we love that people will so freely share the fruit in the trees in their yard. All you have to do is ask for one, and you will walk away with a sack full.
Oh and here is something the US should implement. No bags given at the grocery store. You must bring your own. Yes, I know a pain at first, but then it becomes habit to bring a bag with you when you shop. If you forget you can buy a bag for a dollar, so its not like you get stuck, and you can usually find a cardboard box. But can you imagine how much plastic would be saved if we did this in the US?!?!?
We leave in the morning for an atoll 130 miles to the west. It is the last island which is part of French Polynesia, but not many people go to. Its called Mopelia. It has a population of 4. We collected oranges from someone's yard today to bring to them. We have heard that the spear fishing might be good there so we are going to try to go in. The pass is suppose to be one of the trickiest of all of French Polynesia. The pass is 40 feet wide through a shallow reef with a constant out flow of a strong force. The weather has to be just right to go in. We think we have a good weather report for it so we are gonna go "take a look". If we cant go in safely, we will continue on 550 miles to Palmerston, and take a look there instead
Rebecca and I are extremely fortunate to be contributing editors to Blue Water Sailing magazine. Putting together an article is a lot of work. It can take 4 to 6 weeks and many rewrites to finalize an article which can be read in 15 minutes. Our association with Blue Water Sailing does not restrict us from submitting articles to the other sailing publications. SAIL magazine, July issue, ran our Night Flight article about a close tolerance night of navigating along the Caribbean, Mexican coast. The September issue of SAIL will contain our article about engine room maintenance. One article I am excited about will be in the September issue of Blue Water Sailing. It is about our passage through the Panama Canal. Over the years I have steered three other yachts through the Panama Canal. I can say that the Canal is not the well oiled machine it once was which affected our transit and the transit of other yachts we know of . One article I am now working on is about the island of Fatu-Hiva. Thor Heyerdahl, of Kon-Tiki fame, lived off the land of Fatu-Hiva for a year back in 1930 and wrote a book called "Fatu-Hiva, Back to Nature". Since we researched the history of the Marquesas and retraced some of Heyerdahls steps on the island, we can now see that Heyerdahls book is a yarn riddled with inaccuracies and made up material.
Since leaving Rhode Island, this is a list of our published articles.
November 07 Introductory article on Brick House including boat upgrades December 07 Raymarine Auto Pilot Install January 08 Electronics (Rebecca) February 08 Communications Aboard Brick House March 08 Monitor self steering installation April 08 Sea Frost refrigeration install May 08 Safety Equipment onboard Brick House June 08 LoFrans windlass install July 08 Provisioning in Bahamas Aug 08 Sept 08 Shade Tree awning Oct Nov 08 So Far So Good. What has and has not worked after one year. Dec 08
Jan 09 Feb 09 Communication Aboard Mar 09 Jumentos , French Consulate April 09 Hauling Out In A Foreign Port July 09 SAIL magazine Night Flight navigation Sep 09 Panama Canal passage Sept 09 SAIL magazine Engine Room maintenance
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