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2016
27
Sep
The last stop on our passage eastward was Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands. The island has a fringing reef, but the narrow lagoon is too shallow for sailboats. We stayed 1 week in Avatiu harbour.
(35 photos)
2016
27
Sep
Whenever other cruisers heard/read of our journey from Tonga to Tahiti eastwards, the reaction ranged from horror to awe. ‘You’re going in the wrong direction!’ In times when sailing ships were the only means to transport people and goods across the oceans they went all directions during all seasons, but it seems that during the past few decades a consensus has been laid down that cruising yachts can never travel against the trade winds (maybe due to bibles like Jimmy Cornell’s ‘World sailing routes’ and seminars for Puddle Jumpers). People were picturing us tacking up and down, beating against the trades all the time. Yes, we did sail close-hauled most of the time, but we found life on a heeling boat with constant sail pressure more agreeable than the constant rolling on a downwind course.
Mostly we tried to make easting during northerly or southerly winds. That happens whenever a trough moves by and with the South Pacific Convergence Zone sitting over the area such wind shifts occur during the Southern winter about once a week.
Our system was simple: we set out as soon as the wind started clocking around and tried to reach the shelter of an island before the easterly trade winds set in again. There are numerous islands stretched out between Tonga and Tahiti, most of them only have open anchorages on the west side, so it’s ideal to spend time there during easterly winds.
Tongatapu to Niue:
On August 10 we started the first leg from Tonga in rough weather with SSE wind of 25 to 30 knots, the next two days the wind shifted to the SE still blowing 20+, Pitufa did daily runs of 120 nm and we reached Niue in 2.5 days. We spent 5 days in Niue exploring parts of the island we hadn’t seen the first time around. (320 nm rhumb line, 322 nm sailed miles).
Niue to Beveridge Reef:
On August 16 the wind turned to the ENE (the buoy field in Niue gets uncomfortable with northerly wind) and we set out again, tacked once, then the wind shifted to the NE so we sailed E and reached Beveridge reef with the last breeze before a calm period of 2 days. Perfect! (135 nm rhumb line, 155 nm sailed)
Beveridge Reef to Palmerston:
On August 20 the wind shifted to SW so we headed out again on a SE course. The next day the wind turned to the SE and we sailed E. We had not decided which of the Cook Islands would be our next stop, but they are so conveniently spread out that we were sure we’d make it to one of them–in the end Palmerston lay directly on our course and we stayed there for a week (285 nm rhumb line, 305 nm sailed).
Palmerston to Rarotonga:
On August 30 the grib files suggested a wind shift to the NE, but the wind remained E for a day (sometimes even ESE), so we were pushed too far south, the next day the shift finally came and we reached Rarotonga after 3 days. We stayed 1 week in the capitol of the Cooks (rhumb line 270 nm, 281 nm sailed).
Rarotonga to Tahiti:
This fifth and last leg should have been easy, we wanted to set out in NE winds on September 8, make easting and then ride the SE trade up to Tahiti. Unfortunately the wind stayed NE (sometimes ENE) for 2 days (we tacked once), turned north and died down, so we had to motor for 2 days. We made enough miles east, so that we were able to sail straight N up to Tahiti when the wind set in from E. With a stop in the Austral Islands (we passed by Maria and Rimatara) we could have avoided those two days of motoring… (7 days sailing, rhumb line 620 nm, 780 nm sailed).
In the end the dreaded passage in the ‘wrong direction’ took us 5 weeks, but 3 of these we spent in anchorages/buoy fields exploring lovely islands. We added approximately 340 nm to the rhumb line of 1500 nm (Tongatapu straight to Tahiti). We tacked only twice, the rest of the time the wind shifted conveniently to take us to the next destination. We had winds of more than 20 knots on 5 days and less than 10 knots on 4 days (that’s when we motorsailed for 48 hours), the rest of the time Pitufa sailed in comfy 10 to 20 knots doing average daily runs of 120 nm. We are lucky to have a boat that sails very well windwards, but towards the end of the journey wear and tear on the material started showing (chafe on sheets, etc.).
2016
26
Sep
At the moment our days are just not long enough for everything we have to do. After the long trip Pitufa needs quite some attention, the boiler was leaking and Christian removed the electric heater element that was rusted through (followed by happy bilge cleaning as 25 litres of freshwater had drained onto the engine twice). Yesterday was a 9 hour Pfaff-day (that’s the name of our sewing machine), we resewed almost all seams of the lazy-bag plus added some patches.
This morning we took our broken boom (4.5 m) with our dinghy (2.7 m) to a machine shop. We started out at 7, because we wanted to use the calm morning for the ride. We arrived there in calm weather, they promised to weld a plate over the crack until tomorrow morning. We did some shopping and by the time we were ready to go back to Pitufa the wind had set in and the ride back was seriously rough. Imagine a tiny dinghy heading straight against 25 knots of wind and steep seas up to 1.5 metres. It’s only 1.5 nm from town to the anchorage, but we were drenched completely and the dinghy filled up with water by the time we got home–fortunately we had thought ahead in the morning and brought a dry bag… This was our second-worst dinghy ride ever, the worst took place along the same channel two years ago, when our old dinghy got smashed in town and we returned half-sinking only with air in the inflatable keel left…
2016
25
Sep
We stopped for a week at this interesting atoll. Most of the 57 people who live here are descendants of William Marsters and his 3 polynesian wives. Arriving yachts are greeted by a host family and integrated into island life.
(50 photos)
2016
24
Sep
In August 2016 we decided to sail from Tonga back to Tahiti. Using shifting winds during passing troughs we sailed in short hops eastwards from island to island.
(20 photos)
2016
16
Sep
Check out our Atlas of Prevailing Ocean Winds!
As a convenient alternative to pilot charts, our site provides an interactive wind atlas and windrose browser. Unlike classical pilot charts, this atlas is based on satellite data (uniformly-sampled, unbiased), insofar similar to Jimmy Cornell`s Ocean Atlas (but that one is on paper and pricey…). We visualize world-wide ocean wind data from the SeaWinds scatterometer onboard the QuikSCAT satellite monthly-averaged over ten years. Data taken from Climatology of Global Ocean Winds—COGOW.
2016
16
Sep
After a brief excursion west to Tonga, Niue, and the Cook Islands, Pitufa is back in French Polynesia.
2016
16
Sep
Last night we reached Tahiti at 1 o’clock in the morning after a very rough ride with 20 to 30 knots of easterly wind. In the lee of the big island seas and wind calmed down quickly and as it was a moonlit night we decided to sail in through the pass south of Taina Marina. Even with a GPS track and lit markers it’s still a bit exciting to go through a small pass in the reef with noisy breakers left and right… We dropped the hook just next to the pass in the basin south of Marina Taina, quickly tried to desalt at least the cockpit and the aftdeck (Leeloo was of course quicker and happily jogged around the whole deck and jumped up the Bimini before we could stop her), opened a bottle of bubbly and enjoyed the perfectly calm lagoon anchorage. Soooo nice when the boat finally stands still again!
2016
14
Sep
It looks like this journey is going to end like it started a bit over a month ago: squally, windy, rainy, grey and nasty. Anyway, in between we were quite lucky, so no need to complain. 97 nm left as the white tern flies! At last we fly as directly as all the before mentioned birds. We made enough easting when we had the chance and now we sail straight up north in the easterly winds.
2016
14
Sep
After almost two days we’re finally sailing again. What a relief to turn off the engine and just listen to the gurgling of the waves along the hull and the soft, well-known creaking sounds of the sheets and blocks. The wind is still just a breeze, the sea’s calm and we enjoy these hours of perfect sailing–soon it’ll pick up and we’ll be pounding into the waves again.
We used the calm conditions of the last two days to run the watermaker, clean up the boat, air the boat (all hatches open), do some maintenance and small repairs (Christian glued the junction box of the solar panel that got smashed by the flogging sheet of the ripped gennaker and as the cartridge was already open I redid the silicone in the bathroom as well–what else to do on passage?). This morning we checked the diesel level in the tank and topped up 50 litres from jerry cans, now it’s more than half full again–just in case.
Leeloo hates the loud engine and spent lots of time in the cockpit. She even wanted to stroll out on deck, but during the first rough days of the passage the deck was almost constantly awash and therefore covered in salt, so no way she could go sunbathing there, but try to explain that to a stubborn, bored cat…
173 nm as the brown booby flies!
2016
13
Sep
We try to avoid motoring whenever possible, as it’s a waste of diesel, the noise downstairs is deafening and the engine heats up the boat. At the moment the wind is very light (about 8 knots), but it would be enough to keep the boat going slowly, so usually we wouldn’t start the engine at that point. However, the grib files show that instead of the predicted Southeasterlies we relied on the wind will set in tomorrow from the East, blow hard from the East on Wednesday and will then even turn Northeast on Thursday. Therefore we must reach Tahiti before that turn and that means we have to put up with the droning Yanmar and keep on motorsailing for a while. 270 nm as the greater crested tern flies!
2016
12
Sep
Today we’ve had beautiful light-wind sailing with calm seas, small fishies jumping, big fishies jumping after them and birds hectically catching fish. We also caught a tuna in that bruhaha. Very often we feel like in a lifeless desert out on the ocean, so today was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately our ancient gennacker blew out just a few minutes after we had set it (a long awaited casualty), so we’re going very slowly (3 to 4 knots). The latest grib file threatens with NE wind instead of the promised SE that we need to sail up to Tahiti (yep, that’s NE of us…). We’ve been looking at satellite pictures and cruising guides of the Iles Australes this afternoon–just in case.
2016
11
Sep
During the night the wind shifted north and then even to the northwest remaining light, so we had a very quiet, restful night with nothing to do but listening to audio books, munching chocolate pudding and taking a look around every 10 or 20 minutes. Maria, the westernmost Australe Island lies north of our course, so we’re officially back in French Polynesia. 400 nm to go as the Noddy flies!
2016
11
Sep
We had good sailing today, finally making miles towards the destination. On this trip material fatigue has started showing. Apart from the crack in the boom yesterday we had smaller things breaking. A shackle that holds down the running backstay snapped, today the sheet of the foresail ripped–nothing spectacular and all things that were quickly repaired, but it shows how hard the past few months have been on Pitufa (and her crew).
460 nm to go as the red-footed booby flies!
2016
10
Sep
I was catching up with sleep this morning when a shout had me stumble up on deck in record time: ‘The main boom’s broken!’ We quickly got the sail down and then Christian showed me a long vertical crack in the boom, just above the place where we had repaired it in Panama with an aluminium plate and rivets.
While I still desperately checked on the chart plotter which islands ahead were big enough to probably have a welder (a few small Cook Islands and the westernmost Australes), Christian already had the tools out for a repair. Handy smurf indeed!
Fortunately there wasn’t too much wind so Pitufa wasn’t heeling or bouncing too badly (15 knots) and handling the drill and rivet tool on deck worked out okay. We fixed three metal plates with 5 mm rivets and the boom looks like something from the Mad Max movies now, but stable enough to hold the mainsail again (a must on our course close to the wind). Keep your fingers crossed that it’ll hold out till Tahiti!
The promised wind shift to the NE still hasn’t happened and we’re blown way too far south, gaining only few miles toward Tahiti (550 nm to go as the frigate bird flies). The positive side effect of our detour is that we see islands we never expected to see, right now we’re sailing by Mangaia, one of the raised atolls of the Cook Islands chain.
