2018 October Samoa to Wallis

Now that we are heading east towards Wallis we are finally making some speed although with the wind directly behind us it is hard to hold the course.  Despite 6 years on the voyage, I have not actually had a lot of experience sailing a course, so this is good practice.  We have a new wind gage, right at eye level in the cockpit which not only gives wind speed but shows where it is coming from in relation to the boat.  All I have to do is hold it in position and we are good.  There is of course a small problem, the wind vane is not working  Apparently at some time during our last season in Vuda we smashed against the concrete wall while stern in and bent the wind vane.  It had not been a problem while we were going into the wind but now that we were going downwind, It would not work right so it was back to hand steering with the help of tiller ropes

A day and a half  later we are off the coast of Wallis.  The entrance is through a narrow passage which needs to be run on the slack tide in the day time so we heave to to sleep until daylight and wait for the tide.  The passage through the reef went smoothly and once we were inside the reef the seas calmed down.  In typical French fashion, the channels are marked with well maintained, highly visible markers which we followed around to Gahi Bay where we dropped anchor at last, 10 days after leaving Fiji.

It is Sunday here.  Even though we are on the other side of the 180 line the International Date Line wanders all over the place out here.  Monday morning we gather our paperwork, launch the dingy and head to shore to clear customs.  We are not actually anchored off the town, but in a more sheltered bay about 10 miles west.  According to our trusty guide book we just walk up the hill and catch a ride with the friendly locals.   We are met as we get ashore by a lovely woman and her two children.  She asks if we have any “pourbelle” and once I figure out what the word means takes our bag of trash from us and gives us a large bag with bananas and papaya.  It is so different from Fiji.  Instead of small houses clustered into villages there are lovely homes set on wide lawns  with beautiful landscaping.  As promised, shortly after we come to the main road we get a ride to the main town.  

The rest of the day was a series of irritating misadventures.  First, we arrived at the Gendarmerie at noon so of course it was closed for the traditional two hour French lunch.  We decided to see if we could find an ATM while we were waiting so we walked down the hill to the post office to ask for directions.  Unfortunately, we misinterpreted  the directions (remember, our French is minimal) and walked half and hour in the wrong direction.  Once we got turned around we caught a ride to the one and only “shopping center” on the island.  It consists of an large hardware store, several boutique clothing and fabric stores, a grocery store under construction, a small cafe  and the bank with an ATM.  The only ATM on the island and it will not recognize any of our 3 debit cards.  Of course the bank itself is closed until 2:00 and it is raining.  I had brought along some US dollars, just in case, so when the bank reopened I went in to see what I could do.  First the clerk went back with me to the ATM to be sure it was not just out of cash.  It was not.  When I produced my American dollars she said that yes, they could change them but only in the morning tomorrow.  Not today.  So here we are, low on food.  No wind or beer on board and no way to get any money.   

Now the it was after 2:00 we headed back to the gendarmerie.  Luckily the pelting rain had stopped because there was no ride forthcoming this time.  Back at the gendarmerie the officers were friendly and helpful.  They confirmed that the only way to get around the island was by hitchhiking.  There are no cases or taxis here.  Apparently the French subsidies their cars somehow so everyone has a fairly new car.  We also learned that the government officials  are sent from France for a 3 year tour of duty.  We were quickly stamped in and told the we now needed to go to customs on the dock to complete the paperwork there.  Turned out they closed at 1:00 for the day.  Next stop, the post office to see about wifi.  Turned out they had closed at 4:00. It is now getting late and we are tired.  We had passed a grocery store just the other side of the gendarmerie so we tracked back up the hill once more.  Luckily they would take our credit card so I got some bread and pate and shrimp and beer and a few other odds and ends.  I did not find any wind.  This time we did get a ride back to Gahi and made our way back to Rhapsody.  After a lovely dinner of garlic shrimp on pasta we turned in early for a long night’s sleep.  

Next day we ended up just staying on the boat.  The weather was lousy, the outboard won’t start and we are tired.  In the late afternoon the local outrigger racing team showed up to practice.  So lovely.  Too bad Fiji does not have outriggers any more.  The older we get the longer it takes to recover from one of these adventures.  Wednesday we headed back to town again to try our luck at the bank where we were finally able to exchange dollars for Polynesian francs.  With coins in our pockets we hit the cafe for French pastries and cafe au lait.  Our next ride took us to La Cave au Wallis (the liquor store), waited while we shopped and then drove us down to the wharf so that we could finally clear customs.  Unfortunately the customs office was out so while we waited we walked back to the Post Office to see if we could finally get onto the internet.  After a few false starts we purchased 2 passwords, one each, good for 24 hours each for $10.  We finally sorted out the log on process and then discovered that it would only work in the immediate vicinity of the Post Office.  Not in the shopping center and definitely not in Gahi.  Alan went back to customs to finish clearing in while I went back to the market and bought baguette, pate, cheese and cornichons to make a picnic lunch.  We sat on the lawn outside the post office and had lunch and checked email and updated Facebook so people will know we are safe.  

The next several days we just stayed on the boat, reading, doing odd jobs and watching the weather .  The weather here is lousy.  Wind and rain every night, clearing slightly around 10am and then clouding up again in the afternoon.  Sunday and Monday it poured but Tuesday it cleared up a bit and we decided that it was time to leave.  Once more into town to check out with the gendarmerie and customs.  After asking several different people and walking a good way down the street we finally found what seems to be the only restaurant in town.  Alan is determined to have a good French meal before we leave here.  The palace was packed.  The portions large and the food good.  Also expensive, especially compared to Fiji.  We made one last stop at the market to stock up on pate and pickles. Unfortunately they were out of bread.  I never did find a produce market.  Hitchhiked back t the boat one last time rowed out,  hauled up the dingy, folded it and tied it down on deck.  Next morning we left Wallis on the tide. 

2018 October Fiji to Samoa

By noon of day two we had gone 100 miles and still had the engine on.  There was still one more area of reefs to pass but the seas have changed to deep ocean swells.  At 3:00 we finally turned the engine off and put up the rest of the sails.  Then we called Chris.  He had not gotten any of our emails and was totally unprepared to be our security contact and was on Vacation at Bryce Canyon but eventually we got things sorted out and set up a schedule to call. 

 With the engine off, our speed has dropped to 2 knots and we are headed too far north and not enough east.  It is stormier tonight and at one point Alan tacked south to avoid a large storm cloud full of lightning.  By the time I came back for the midnight watch we were headed north east again and the sky had mostly cleared.  I could use Orion to steer again.  Just at dawn the crescent moon rose. Huge and beautiful with the shape of the dark moon clearly visible in the arms of the crescent.  We won’t see the moon again for several days and then it will be setting at dusk.  

With the sky so clear during the day we were in serious danger of sunburn and heatstroke so I dug out a piece of shade cloth that I had picked up in Mexico and rigged an awning over the cockpit.  Not elegant but it does the job, at least on this tack.  We discovered later that on a downwind run it blocks the view of the sail.   When the wind got down to 7 knots we took the sails down and turned the engine on and headed east for several hours.  With the engine on we use the Raymarine auto pilot. We usually don’t use it under sail because it uses so much battery power.  With the sails up we use the Monitor wind vane which has it own problems.  

Finally, on day 5, the wind shifted and we were able to head mostly east and a good speed.  At one point we actually got up to 7 knots.  Unfortunately it did not last and by midnight we were once again battling NE winds with gusts to 20k and short choppy seas.  So on we slogged, getting closer but still way too far north and not enough east. Our preferred course takes us along the southern edge of the island and through a fairly narrow pass which looks to have a lot of shallow spots. Then it is a run down the north side to the harbor at Apia.  The weather forecast shows a fairly strong blow coming in 2-3 days we needed to be in the harbor at Apia by then.  We are within 100 miles so we decide to turn on the engine and make a run for it.    

Unfortunately at this point everything started to go wrong.  The wind had build to 15-20 knots directly on the nose with accompanying swells.  Shortly after I came on watch at midnight, the autopilot went completely off course and when I put it on standby so that I could hand steer I still could not hold the course.  It was like something was wrapped around the rudder or under the keel pulling us north.  Alan had just gotten to sleep but he came back up to see what was going on.  We disconnected the autopilot completely and checked everything we could think of to see if something was caught or dragging.  I even took the boat hook and prodded along the rudder to see if I could feel anything.  As far as we could tell, everything was fine.  Eventually whatever it was seemed to let go and I could once more hand steer.  Poor Alan had once more just settled down to sleep when I realized that the jib sail had come loose from where it was tied down to the bowsprit and was dragging in the water.  Alan took the tiller while I went forward to drag it back on board.  Luckily it was the light weight Genoa and not the heavy mizzen and also very luckily the sheets were still secured to the winches so they helped to hold the sail down and also did not themselves flip into the water and wrap around the prop.  No sooner was the sail secured than I realized that the anchor was starting to come loose.  Once more Alan got up and staggered forward to secure it.  

Shortly after dawn, we gave up and hove to.  We are too tired.  We still have 100 miles to go and are only making 1-2 knots headway against the wind, even with the engine on.  The weather forecast still shows a strong front coming through just about the time we will hit the narrow pass and we are likely to run out of fuel at this rate.  On top of everything else I seem to have caught a cold just as we left Savusavu which is making me more tired than usual.  We got several hours sleep, ate breakfast, discussed the situation and decided to give it up and head for Wallis, directly west.  We are so close but we are not going to make it.  We called Chris and turned around.

  

2018, October Leaving Fiji

Leaving Savusavu, October 6, 2018.

We finally set out from Savusavu just at noon on Friday, Oct 6 after days of bad weather.  The sea was still choppy but not too bad. At 3:00 I took over the tiller while Alan went below to check in with the Pacific Seafarers Net.  About half way through the transmission of our position, the radio suddenly stopped, dead.  Nothing he did could get it to work again.  He finally figured out that we had blown a fuse but not what had caused the fuse to blow.  So now what?  Even if we turn back there is no one in Fiji who can fix it.  We already spent weeks trying that  We will be passing close to Taveuni and several of our friends should be at Paradise Resort.  If we stop there, maybe they can help us figure out the problem.   By now  the sun had set, there was no moon and it was very dark  Taveuni has about 6 mooring balls very close to a steep rocky shore.  We knew several them would be in use either by our friends or by the resort dive boats.  We altered our course to take us closer to the island but the closer we got the more we did not want to try to get a mooring ball in the dark.   We  tried to get them on the radio but we were still too far out.  Then we tried to see it there was an internet signal but again we were too far out.  

Another possibility was to use the sat phone to call Chris once a day and give him our position which he could then post to my Facebook page.  Eventually that was what we decided to do.  If we stopped we would loose at least one, maybe two days. So we altered course again and headed on to Samoa. The sea was calm and there was alight wind.  We had sails up but kept the motor on and were making 6 knots.  Just as were passing Taveuni the iPad quit working.  It was the dreaded 180 again.  For about an hour we were without a chart plotter.  Luckily we were in open waters and had a good compass course.  Eventually it came back on again and we were perfectly on course.  It was a beautiful clear night with lots of stars to star by.  One by one they rose ahead of us and a new one took the place to the previous one.  Eventually I realized that I was steering by Orion.  At 3:30 a lovely huge present moon rose directly ahead of us and by 4:30 the sky was starting to lighten.

We have never actually settled on a watch schedule but it goes something like this:  “You look really tired, I’ll take over.  You go sleep as long as you need to”  Typically I go to sleep early, shortly after dinner and sleep for 4 or five hours.  Alan is ready for bed about midnight and needs 7-8 hours of sleep to feel rested.  As long as conditions are benign this works well for us.  Sometimes he will spell me for an hour or so about 4am and then go back to bed until 7 or 8.  He makes breakfast and then I get to go to bed.  If conditions are rough, watches can be as short as 1 or 2 hours each but then neither one of us is rested and we start to make mistakes.  If we get too tired we heave to and both sleep.  

While we are underway we can use the sat phone to get weather reports.  I is a complicated and time consuming process but usually works.  I requires having the phone outside with a direct line of sight to the satellite, challenging if the weather is bad.  Once a signal is established we use the iPad to download the grid files into Predict Wind.  This can take as long as 15-20 minutes.  Once the file is downloaded everything is disconnected and put away and we have the weather report to study at our leisure.