Craig
07/18/2008, Somewhere between Bora Bora and Suwarrow Atoll

Hello from Mr. Toads Wild Ride,

It has been 48 hours of gale force winds (35-45) with seas churning at around 15 to 20 feet. Little Wing has been flying straight down wind, pinned at hull speed and sometimes greater with just a tiny piece of jib rolled out. We once hit 11.5 knots as a huge growler broke under the hull. We'd be scared, but were too busy to think about it. Actually, we have the highest confidence in our little boat, and we're nowhere near needing to heave to as of yet. We departed Bora Bora with five other boats all around 40-50 feet and four of them are still in VHF contact. Two are behind us. It's not a race, of course, but a testament to how fast the Bristol Channel Cutter can be in gnarly weather. Currently, we are passing a much larger boat. Keepin' up with the big boys.

It's nice to be able to chat with the other boats on the radio. Besides the normal routine of giving each other position reports and weather updates, we entertain each other with corny jokes and tales of food to be eaten when life regains normalcy. If the weather allows us to enter Suwarrow Atoll (we're still not sure the weather will lay down enough to go through the pass) we are planning a beach side bonfire to toast our happiness to be on land again (such as it is....Suwarrow being barely above water level).

So all is well on Little Wing...even if it is a little chaotic. We hope to be anchored by this time tomorrow. Less than 100 storm tossed miles to go!

Love to all, Craig

Comments [1] | | More

Craig
07/17/2008, Underway broad reaching

Hi Everyone, Little Wing's single sideband tuner packed up so this posting is through our sat phone. I hope it works. We left Bora Bora with a heavy heart. Many friends will be heading south while we continue 590 miles west toward Suwarrow Atoll. Yesterday,we headed out with five other boats: Fearless, Blue Plains Drifter, Island Time, Argonaut and Macy. After 48 hours we are all still within VHF contact. The winds have been steadily building to 25-30 from the southeast. Little Wing is proving her stuff by keeping up with these boats all within the 40-50 foot range. It's nice to be sailing out here among friends.

We're happy to be on a long passage again. Island hopping is fun, but we started to get restless not going somewhere further afar. Suwarow Atoll is a tiny spec between the Societies and American Samoa. Besides the pioneer Tom Neal, who popularized this remote spit of land by homesteading it, Suwarrow is relatively unremarkable. The mystique, however, is how isolated it is. We shall soon see if going out of our way was worth it.

Hopefully, we can get our SSB fixed or replaced in American Samoa. Until then the sat phone is our link to the world. Hope all is well back home. Craig

Comments [1] | | More

Craig
07/08/2008, Bora Bora

Hello Everyone,

Well, we're down to three days before our 90 day visa expires. The last time we reported in we had just left Tahiti for the rest of the leeward islands. Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora were all spectacular. The story was always the same- perfect anchorages, great snorkeling and a cruising fleet of increasingly tight knit, like minded people. From here, however, the fleet will scatter. Basically, there seems to be three options of where to go from here- Rarotonga in the Southern Cook Islands, Suwarrow Atoll in the Northern Cooks, or the big leap straight to Tonga. Kay and I haven't decided what we are going to do yet. In fact, we may pull anchor, head out and see where the best point of sail takes us. Yesterday, we had a great "final party" on Don Pedro (you may recall, we met Don Pedro in the middle of the Pacific somewhere near the equator). Kay and I rigged up our sailing dingy "Poppit" and proposed a time trial race around all the boats in the anchorage. Attending the race were the crews of Fearless, Don Pedro and Tin Soldier. We all must be getting fantastically bored out here because we couldn't of had a better time in our dumpy little tender. We haven't laughed like that in a long while. It's amazing how we can all cross oceans, but get tangled up trying to jibe a seven foot dinghy. After the awards ceremony, we attempted to see how many people we could safely cram in the small boat and still sail. By "safely" I mean without sinking. Slowly we added one person after another, each time sailing around a bit to get used to the added load. By the time we had four people aboard, water started to flow in through the center board trunk. When we picked up the fifth person we added a bailer to the equation. Amazingly, we managed to sail around a bit without mishap...but constant bailing was a priority. With great confidence we added a sixth person. Now things were getting technical. The rail was inches from the water and everyone had to pay very close attention to their movements. One misplaced arm or leg spelled disaster. So now we had six people in a seven foot dinghy which alone weighed only 45 pounds! Once again, we sailed out 100 yards, tacked and got back safely, but one bailer was not enough...we quickly got a second. So now it was time for the record...the seventh person climbed in. We were so tightly packed in it was like some aquatic version of twister. Arms and legs intertwined to the point you lost track of who's were who's. The bailing started immediately. We shoved off the stern of Don Pedro, sheeted in and we were off. Amazingly, we were sailing! The whole crew of seven were laughing like maniacs. Emboldened, I decided it was time to tack...that's when disaster struck. Poor Poppit couldn't handle the load. Immediately, the boat sank straight down. One second we were floating, the next we were swimming. The swimming was hard due to the uncontrollable laughter. Sailing geek fun! Photos will be posted soon. So were off to new horizons. While underway, Kay and I will be doing position reports every 48 hours. Stay tuned. Hello to all our friends and family...we miss you very much. Craig and Kay

Comments [0] | | More

Craig
06/17/2008, Tahiti/Moorea

Hi Everyone,

Little Wing was in the Tuamotus when we last checked in and much has happened. The passage from Rangiroa to Tahiti was excellent. We had perfect beam winds and covered the 190 miles in 30 hours. Pretty good for a tiny boat. Papeete, the only city on Tahiti (and all of French Polynesia) was a shock to our system. After months of small villages and uninhabited atolls, we had to brace ourselves for the quick pace of city life. We med moored Little Wing to the quay in the middle of downtown and enjoyed 8 days of urban convenience. Everything we needed to provision was at our fingertips, although the prices were exorbitant. Despite that, we splurged and bought some items we haven't seen since the States. Believe it or not, we payed ten dollars for a bag of Lays potato chips. We enjoyed every last chip, then licked the inside of the bag...Yum. We topped off on the essentials, propane, diesel, food and water. I finally had a chance to fix a few things and touch up our bright work. Little Wing was starting to look a little rough around the edges and a coat of varnish on the exterior woodwork was long overdue. Within 100 yards of where we tied up, "Maltese Falcon" a 290 foot private sailing yacht loomed over us. This is one of the biggest privately owned sailing yachts in the world. Little Wing is smaller than her tenders! I must say however, it is one cool boat. Check out our last photo gallery update to see pictures of her next to us..

After eight days in the city and two more a little South near Marina Tahina we decided city life was getting to be a bummer, so we set sail for Moorea. Moorea is only ten miles West of Tahiti and the channel between the two islands is crazy. We had 10-15 foot waves coming from all directions and breaking over Little Wing far too frequently. The south wind, called the Maramu, was blowing 20-25 knots. For such a short hop, we were exhausted by the end of the day. To our delight, we anchored in Cooks bay amongst many friends. Some we have known since the Marquesas, some we just met in Tahiti. The snorkeling here is excellent on the reef near the entrance where we are currently anchored. Tomorrow we will leave in the afternoon for an overnight sail to Huahine, the next island West in the Society Island archipelago. Word is, it is very beautiful and less crowded since it is farther away from Tahiti.

So life is good. Hope all is well back home. We miss our friends, family and Ernie our chocolate lab very much. Tahiti represents to us the midway point of our journey. From here on out we are getting closer to our goal of New Zealand, not further away from our starting point of Seattle. This is a reassuring thought for us and hope it is for all of you who have us in your thoughts.

Craig and Kay

Comments [4] | | More

Kay.
06/03/2008, Rangiroa, Tuamotu

Well, as the saying goes, "time sure flies when you're having fun". The last two weeks have been packed full of adventure. To start, the south end of Fakarava was spectacular. We did a "drift dive" in the pass. This means snorkeling along with the dinghy while the current moves you along. Craig did this twice. On his first dive he saw several hundred reef sharks, everywhere. At first it was disconcerting, but he got used to it. By the time time I dove later, there were only fifty or so around. Fakarava is know for the abundant shark population, but we didn't expect this. I believe I have finally conquered my fear of smaller sharks, at least. The coral was alive and beautiful. After the dive, we gathered for lunch at a small cafe over the water with Wayne from Moonduster and Sergio and Dominic from L'Oie Sauvage (savage goose) our new French friends we met the night before. The high-lite was feeding our leftovers to the young sharks swimming below. The next morning we headed for the village of Rotoava for provisions and then on to Toau, Atoll. Dominic and Sergio sailed along with us for our 25 mile jouney. The two boats were nicely mached and the sail was nothing less than perfect. We, (Craig and I, Wayne and Sergio and Dominic) spent two wonderful days tucked into a small, but protected inlet in the north part of the Atoll. The family who lives there prepared a spectacular dinner of lobster, rice, poisson cru and coconut cake for us on our second night. We had a wonderful experience.

After several weeks of cruising with others, Craig and I decided to venture out and have some alone time, and that we got. We headed north to Apitaki, Atoll and did not see another boat for four days. The first night we spent on our own tropical islet swimming and drinking from the coconuts. We slowing made our way around the large lagoon and left for Rangiroa, Atoll last Friday afternoon. Sailing through the night for the 75 mile passage was very nice. It felt good to be on the ocean again for more than a few hours. Rangiroa is the largest and most populated of the Tuamotou. It is also the most visited. As soon as we rounded the corner from the pass several large power yachts were anchored inside the lagoon along with a hand-full of sail boats. We put our hook down right in front the Hotel Kia Ora, a four star resort. Needless-to-say, it wasn't long after a quick tour of the neighborhood that we found our selves at the bar with Mia Tia's and lunch. Yesterday, we had some pretty miserable weather move through. Craig and I spent the day on the boat reading and debating as to whether we should move to a more protected spot. Unfortunately, there isn't a more protected spot in the lagoon. We waited it out. Today was perfect. We slept late, had coffee in the cock-pit discussing the options which the day might present and finally ventured to shore. The hotel offered bicycles for rent. We snagged two and headed off to town about six miles north west. Several of the shops had items we needed and the exercise felt great. We stopped for lunch again at the hotel and spent a quiet afternoon on the boat. Tomorrow we head for Tahiti, about 190 miles south west, weather permitting.

I must say, we are a bit homesick, as crazy at it sounds! It's best to keep moving on when you start feeling that way. All our best.

Kay and Craig.

Comments [6] | | More

Craig
05/22/2008, Fakarava Atoll, Tuamotu

Greetings,

It's been a while since we last checked in and much has happened. Before we left Kauehi the mayor gave us a tour of his pearl farm. Very cool. They produce close to a million black pearls a year. He offered me 50 pearls of various size and quality for my sun glasses! Unfortunately, he only wanted my style and I couldn't oblige since they are my only pair.

We left the next day for Fakarava, an atoll 30 miles West of Kauehi. It was an easy and wonderful day sail. The trick is to time the passes so you catch the last of the ebb when departing and upon arriving your new destination, flood in. Kay and I have a lot of experience doing this from sailing the Pacific Northwest for 15 years. The tides here are only 3 feet or so as opposed to the 15 foot tides back home, but the passes can run fast none the less. Fakarava atoll is twice the size of Kauehi. Its town is located on the Northeast corner and is much more connected to civilization with the airport running one flight a day from Tahiti. The town boasts two groceries, two restaurants, take out pizza and a bakery. The post office has an internet connection! Compared to where Little Wing has been in the last few months, this feels like Metropolis. As usual, everyone is friendly.

We planned on staying anchored off town for a few days and then explore the south end of the atoll, but the weather got the better of us. Strange weather patterns (for this time of year) set up and a series of lows from the Southwest moved North and reversed the Southeast trades. We found ourselves anchored on a lee shore with 20 to 30 knot winds from the Northwest many days in a row. Despite the uncomfortable anchorage, we were safe and postponed our plans to head south to the less protected side of the atoll. Yesterday, the weather finally started to cooperate and we sailed 30 miles to the south end of Fakarava. This sail was one of the best we've had since we left Seattle last August. The water was perfectly flat and the wind was blowing 10 knots apparent off our beam. We set the asymmetrical and main, then didn't touch them the entire day. The water down here is crystal clear. Friends who had already explored this area told us the diving is the best they have ever seen. We'll test that observation today after coffee and chocolate filled croissants.

Hopefully we'll have time to explore two more atolls and then we're off to Tahiti only 200 miles away. That will be a shock. Civilization! Until then, we're roughing it in paradise. Check out the photo gallery for new pictures from Nuka Hiva and Kauehi. Hope all is well back in the states and everywhere else. Love to all our friends and family.

Craig and Kay

Comments [1] | | More