We departed peaceful Tahutata at dawn. Actually since it was a 65mile trip we began before dawn as the sky was just getting light. We had plenty of wind for a couple of hours as we gybed back and forth to avoid the wind shadow of Hiva Oa, then the wind shut down completely and we motored for about two hours, then it cranked back up to 20kts and we were flying. We arrived at Ua Pou in the late afternoon just as the freighter that supplies the island was leaving. A surprise voice from the past, a guy that I knew in Silicon Valley, popped onto to radio and suggested we stay outside until the ship had finished maneuvering off the dock. We had a problem dropping the main with a fouled line so it was easy to hold off for 30 minutes. When we finally entered, the harbor was full of boats, anchored bow and stern to pack them in tighter. There was no room at the inn! We ended up anchored in an exposed position, not protected by the breakwater, essentially an open roadstead. The wind blasted gusts from every direction and the waves rolled us. We did not sleep and we departed Ua Pou at first light, again, though far less rested.
For our sail to Nuku Hiva we had 20-30kts of breeze, close reaching with a reefed main and reefed jib. It was a little over 25miles and were we were in the harbor at Taiohae in about three hours, and that included raising and lowering sails! It was a quick trip. The last 3-4 miles the waves were pretty impressive with 10-12' seas from the SE combined with a lot of reflection waves from the island while the breeze dropped to only 20kts. Inside the bay it was much calmer, but I immediately noticed that there was still a substantial swell within the bay, and that while the swell was from the south, the boats were all pointing east and there was a band of rain sweeping the anchorage. An indicator of what was to come.
We anchored and quickly realized that the gusts were coming from every direction. The wind on the deck would be 90-180 degrees different than what the wind gauge at the top of the mast indicated, with big blasting gusts. When we were beam to the swell we rolled pretty wildly, sort of a replay of Ua Pou but not quite as bad. We slept a little better, but not well. It was enough to make me think about catamarans!
I had avoided using a stern anchor for three years, but now the time had come. The stern anchor holds the boat into the swell so we don't roll, but it then the anchors have to absorb a side load from the wind which is much more demanding than a straight pull.
Thursday I spent about 2hrs cutting 10' of 3/8" chain from a spare length of 50'. It took 2hrs because my Dremel decided to die half way through the job and the hack saw was difficult to use trying to cut the chain more or less on cockpit sole with no vice (I didn't want haul 50' of 3/8" chain into the galley to use the vice in my "shop". I ended up using the Dremel cutting wheels in a cordless drill. After destroying about 10 cutting wheels I finally got the link cut on both sides so I had a 10' length of chain. I shackled it to a Fortress FX-37 anchor and 150' of 3/4" brait rode. Then we tried to set it.
Setting it is more or less pretty easy, I just throw it off the swim platform. That night it was very stormy and about 3am we got a big squall with some very strong gusts and managed to drag our primary anchor. It reset immediately and it's a large bay so we had plenty of room with no big worries, but were clearly out of position. Everything had to be set again in the morning.
Retrieving the stern anchor was another story. I could hoist it up most of the way with the cockpit winch, the rest of it the retrieval was manually off the back of the swim platform. The anchor only weighs 22lbs, plus another 15lbs for the chain and maybe it's a total of 40lbs max. But dead lifting it over the end of the swim platform, trying to avoid dragging the chain across the edge was not a good back exercise.
On the second set I used more rode on the primary anchor to compensate for the side loads introduced by the stern anchor. That worked well, we have not dragged the primary anchor again, but we dragged the stern anchor about three times. This morning I set it again, backing down very hard on 250' of chain and 100' of 3/4" brait on our primary anchor and when I was convinced I had the primary rode pretty well stretched out, I dropped the stern anchor. It seems to be holding and life onboard is much more comfortable.
The entire time we've been here it has rained and rained and the wind has blown. Everything is wet and Fay thinks the entire boat has turned into a petri dish for mold. There has been no need for sun screen or the bimini. The bay is brown with run off (we won't be using the water maker here) and the mountains have sprouted new waterfalls. However, everything on deck has gotten a really great fresh water wash down!
Apart from anchoring we we've met some other cruisers and had a couple of social nights. Two nights ago we were guests on Sete Mares, a 60' (with 30' beam!) aluminum catamaran. Very nice boat with lots of conversation that included two South Africans making a made dash across the Pacific. The newlyweds bought a boat in Mexico three months ago and plan to sell in Brisbane in November! Then they'll return home and start a family.
Fay has found good shopping for fresh produce and fruit, plus the bread and pastries. The French know how to use butter; the croissants and pain au chocolat are excellent!
Last night, when the squalls stopped, and the full time rain started, we went ashore to attend a benefit for some local children who will be attending an international children's performing arts festival in Spain in a few months. Lots of local dancers and drummers, a big variety of meat and vegetable dishes, and a large supply of beer and wine. We partied all the way past cruisers midnight (9pm). Then we walked back in the rain to the dinghy "dock" (think concrete wall with stainless steel ladder) and tried to find New Morning through the rain and wind. Fortunately John from Sete Mares was chauffeuring us in his center console dinghy with a big outboard so it was a much nicer ride than our dinghy. We needed a good flashlight to discover and avoid unlit boats in the anchorage.
Tomorrow we're renting a car to drive over the mountain to the next set of bays and attend a reception for the Polynesian replica canoes arriving from New Zealand. Check out www.pacificvoyagers.org.
