The Sailing Adventures of Dave & Joanne on "Pied A Mer"

04 February 2012 | Tauranga, New Zealand
04 February 2012 | Tauranga, New Zealand
04 February 2012 | Tauranga, New Zealand
04 February 2012 | Tauranga, New Zealand
25 October 2011 | Pacific Ocean
11 October 2011 | Pacific Ocean
11 October 2011 | Pacific Ocean
27 September 2011 | 32 miles from Kosrae
27 September 2011 | 35 miles from Kosrae
22 September 2011 | East of Mortlock Islands, Micronesia
02 September 2011 | Ifalik
22 August 2011 | Ifalik
13 August 2011 | Woleai
07 July 2011 | Palau
07 July 2011 | Palau
03 June 2011 | Palau
03 June 2011 | Palau
03 June 2011 | Palau
20 May 2011 | Sagay, C amiguin Island
16 May 2011 | Siquijor Island

Rock Islands

07 July 2011 | Palau
Joanne
Thursday, 28th July 2011 Well it is time to update our blog again before we leave here on Monday 1st August, as our Visas expire on 2nd, unless the weather is atrocious, like it is today. We do not want to renew at a cost of $150 for just a few days. In my last blog we had Derek & Janet, along with Pauline & Mark from Sari Timur and I cooked a roast of pork which was enjoyed by all and Pauline did the dessert. Unfortunately pork roasts here are not like we are used to and there was certainly no crackling! We have been catching up on the never ending list of maintenance plus a few other jobs that are not essential but good to get done. Two weeks ago the husband of a couple (Jeff & Jules) who are living here for two years took us to see a waterfall which is in the Palau Eco Park. In the last few weeks they have opened a mono rail to the waterfall with an extension to a scenic area of the park. We actually walked down to the waterfall as well as part of the way back up and had a ride on the mono rail on the steepest part up. However it was a good bit of exercise for the day and I certainly had sore calves for a few days afterwards. That night we had dinner on Sari Timur. We finally got the first of our raw water pumps back from being reconditioned so on Friday 15th after getting our Jellyfish Lake Permit in the morning we took off down to the Rock Islands for 10 days. The first of the Rock Islands are only about 6 miles from Koror and these islands are just that, rock islands which are covered in jungle. We did a 7 mile trip and anchored in a bay called Nagasan which is named after a Japanese ship that is sunk there. We snorkeled at virtually all the anchorages and saw wonderful coral and hundreds of different types of fish. The next day we moved to a place called Sunset Bay where we spent two nights and on the second day went by dinghy to the Soft Coral Arch which had lovely different sorts of coral and is a popular place for the tourists who only snorkel. Also dinghied over to see the Natural Arch. The anchorage is a beautiful spot with islands right around and was just like a coliseum. We also snorkeled right around one of the islands there. From there we moved on to a place called the Salad bowl where we spent another two nights and dinghied over to a well known snorkeling spot, Cemetery Reef where there were also about 100 Taiwanese tourists who had come in half a dozen tour boats. As this was a big bay with lots of little bays off it we did a bit of tiki touring in the dinghy. From there we went to Ulong Island and decided as it was high tide to go through the narrow 1.5m deep channel into Swiflet Lagoon. This was a very sheltered anchorage and after having lunch got in the dinghy to go through a couple of shallower lagoons to the other side of the island to look at some of the sights on that side. On our way we met up with a couple of Belgian yachties (Mark & Marianne) and Mark told us that we were in for a nasty bit of weather so had thought we were going to have to spend the next three days sheltering there. We carried on to the other side of the island and then the wind got up and the rain came so we hurried back to the boat. However the next day the weather was okay so the four of us decided to head off to Mecherechar. We had a few coral reefs en route to dodge but they were clearly visible. Mecherechar is a large horseshoe shaped island with a collection of rock islands surrounding the main island and filling the interior. There are reefs, shoals, rocks scattered everywhere so one has to be on the ball when navigating around. However we found a good anchorage just inside and spent three nights there. One of the main purposes to go there was to snorkel in Jellyfish Lake which requires the Jellyfish Lake permit which is $10 more than the Rock Islands permit. In the afternoon we went in Mark's dinghy (he has a 15hp motor) the mile down to Jellyfish Lake. We had a short walk up and over a rocky path to the lake and once again there were lots of Taiwanese tourists there. These jellyfish are quite different to the normal looking jellyfish. Jellyfish Lake is one of about 70 marine lakes found in the Rock Islands and is a marine basin surrounded by a limestone island but connected to the inner lagoon by small and large tunnels that course their ways through the rock. These basins are closed ecosystems because of their isolation within the Rock islands, which means there is little connection between environments other than the saline water pushed by the tides seeping through the rocks. These jellyfish are of the Mastigias species and wandered into their particular marine basins thousands of years ago as either jellyfish or larvae. Once they populated the basin they became isolated from their ancestral counterparts , Mastigias papua. The jellyfish adapted to a completely new environment with no predators. As a result of not having to defend themselves they drastically reduced the number of stinging cells. Consequently people can swim among thousands of them and not be stung, hurt or irritated. They are absolutely amazing and all different sizes from little wee baby ones to much bigger ones. That night we had dinner on board Mark & Marianne's boat. The next day the wind did get up and drizzled on and off most of the day but we did a mile trip further up in the dinghy to snorkel at Clam City where we saw clams as big as a meter across, however they certainly don't have the lovely colour that the smaller clams have. The following day did another snorkel over a reef that we had seen a lot of tourist boats go to and then when we got back to our anchorage I did a snorkel around the bay and saw a turtle, who I followed and he was keeping a pretty close eye on me and then he took off - never realized how fast they could actually move with their front legs going flat out. That night Mark & Marianne came to us for dinner. Sunday was the last day of our 10 day permit so as we had not seen the Yap stone money at Ulong we headed over to there. A bit of excitement, we actually caught a lovely Spanish mackerel. We anchored off at Ulong and went and had a look at the stone money, had lunch and a swim there and then headed back to Koror, arriving back at about 4pm. We had Mark & Pauline over for a fish dinner that night which we all really enjoyed and we also had another meal of it as well. We finally got the second raw water pump back on Tuesday so we are now back to two good ones and on Tuesday we biked into town and did a big meat shop to stock up the freezer. Also had to get some money to pay the guy for our water pump repairs! Pauline and Mark on Sari Timur were to leave yesterday and heading for Guam but the weather forecast was not looking good so Pauline had to go and renew hers and the boat's visa as they expired yesterday. Mark being US has a year. Just as well they didn't go as we had a pretty rough night from the early hours of this morning and has continued on today. We had also gone out for a farewell dinner on Tuesday night!!. I have been wanting Dave to shift one of the GPS/chart plotters from the Navigation table up into the cockpit for years and it finally got done yesterday, but not without its problems and was a bit of a mission but by last night it was up and running fine. Just after we left Kudat in Borneo we had a fuel blockage which Dave cleared and while we were out in the Rock Islands it happened twice in a week so we decided we had to do something about it before we took off, so today was the day! We have to unscrew the table and then lift the floor to get at the inspection plates and unscrew the lids, all a bit of a mission. Fortunately we were low on diesel so we pumped the diesel into 20 litre containers so Dave could wipe the tank completely out. We had about 35 litres left. Unfortunately since we did the job it has been continually pouring with rain and haven't been able to put any fuel back in. We will put that diesel through the Baha filter to go into the tank. On hindsight we should have done it while the inspection plates were off. Dave has also been changing the oil and putting a new oil and fuel filters in - a good job to do on a wet day. Once we leave here we have an approximately 600 mile trip to either Eauripik Island or Woleia where at the latter or Ifalak (30miles east from Woleia) we will wait for Fran & Dave Chown from Te Kauwhata on Melric 11 who are presently on the hardstand at Kudat doing anti fouling and other repairs which are all taking longer than anticipated. Some of the other islands and atolls we may stop at are: Toas Island, Puluwat, Luckunor, Ngatik Atoll, Kosrae (where we will have to refuel), Juluit Atoll, Mili Atoll, Makin, Tarawa, Tabiteuea, Nukufetuea, Nukulaelae and through the Yasawas in Fiji to Bekana Island off Lautoka. All in all we have close to a 5000 mile (nearly 10,000km) journey so by the time we arrive back in NZ I think we will be feeling a bit shot!! Our friends, Don & Linda Jenkins from the US are going to join us in Fiji and I have booked a timeshare at Fiji Palms at Pacific Harbour from 12th - 19th November which hopefully we will be in Fiji by then to join them. Don is going to do the passage from Fiji to New Zealand with us and Linda will fly to NZ. We hope we will be able to set sail from Fiji to NZ on 22nd or 23rd November if the weather looks favourable. Linda and Don will spend some time in NZ, see the South Island and have Christmas with us and hopefully do a bit of sailing with us after Christmas before they head home. We will be on Sailmail while on our journey and hopefully it will work better than what it has here in Palau using the HF Radio. From here we connect through Brunei Bay Radio and the whole time we have been here I have not been able to make a connection which has been most frustrating, although going ashore I can get emails etc. through sailmail by connecting to the internet. It was even a battle getting connected when we were coming across from Suriago to Palau. However, the further East we go we will then connect through a station on the New South Wales coast in Australia. I can update our blog via sailmail as long as I can get connected. I think the problems all have to do with propagation.
Comments
Vessel Name: Pied A Mer
Vessel Make/Model: Beneteau First 456
Hailing Port: Tauranga, New Zealand
Crew: Dave Booker
About: Joanne Booker, wife, first mate and hand brake!!
Extra:
Our first venture into sailing was in December 1980 when we purchased a 10'6" sailing dinghy and launched on Lake Waikere at the back of our farm at Ohinewai. Cameron (6) & Rachel (4) were forward hands and Joanne, 7.5 mths pregnant with Leith was used as ballast against a stiff breeze. Then [...]

The Sailing Adventures of Dave & Joanne on

Who: Dave Booker
Port: Tauranga, New Zealand