Author: kerri

26 October 2016 (+12 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
We departed Savusavu at 0520 this morning in the rain and SSE winds at 20-25 knots. The first few hours wasn\’t much fun, but after that we re-entered the large reef system at Nasonisoni Pass on the south side of Vanua Levu, we had lovely flat water with nice winds. We exited the system and crossed the channel to the reef entrance at Viti Levu (the largest and main island) and where 5 years ago, my port dagger board hit an uncharted part of the reef. The chart said it was 120 feet deep. I think they meant 120 centimeters!..:-)

Speaking of hitting reefs. We met a young Canadian couple yesterday who hit the corner of the reef at Laucala Island in their Leopard 44 foot catamaran(which we had passed two days before) and separated both \”keels\” from the hull. This cracked the fiberglass and created leaks in both hulls. They have two small children aboard and were lucky that they hit it at low tide and were able to float off at high tide. The insurance company for some reason had decided to declare the boat a total loss. Someone is going to get a VERY good deal as it will be repaired pretty inexpensively in my view. There is no panic about hauling the boat out either.

Today\’s voyage was indeed through a great deal of reef systems and we crossed the infamous \”Bligh Water\” where Captain Bligh kept going, not allowing his men ashore after the famous Bounty Mutiny. He was terrified of the then (yes really they were!) big time Cannibals. The last known Fijian Cannibal died just after WW2!

We\’ll go through what is essentially an \”inland water way\” tomorrow, well protected (but still quite \”reefy\”) en route to Denerau Marina on the islands South West side. Today, we did 73 miles, tomorrow, 53 miles.

That\’s all for now, the internet is indeed good, so we should be able to start posting photo blogs shortly!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/26 04:59
LATITUDE: 17-18.73S
LONGITUDE: 178-13.95E
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 12
WIND_DIR: SE
CLOUDS: 90%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1012.3
AIR_TEMP: 28.9C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED -Nananu-I-Thake Motu, Viti Levu, Fiji. Viti Levu is the main island and we are at the Northeast corner having just entered the reef system.

21 October 2016 (+11 UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
This is one of the most stunning anchorages in the South Pacific. Yesterday, we did the hike from the Batavu Bay to look down at this gorgeous setting.
There are about 10 large \”mushroom\” like rocks that range in size from a small to a very large truck!

If Cyclone Winston didn\’t ruin the habitat, this is the anchorage where 1000\’s of fruit bats will fly all around the anchorage around sunset. If so, photos will be taken.

Photos will be forthcoming, but in the meanwhile if you\’ve an interest, google \”Bay of Islands – Fiji\” and you\’ll likely find some stunning images.
I wish my drone skills were there, but alas, not yet.
We\’ll be here one night and then move toward Taveuni, possibly stopping at Kimbombo Reef \”Secret Spot\” tomorrow?

In the meanwhile, we\’ll relax, explore and take lots of photos. Fiji has some of the best internet in the Pacific, so when we get to the \”big city\”…:-), perhaps we can start posting photos.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/20 22:16
LATITUDE: 17-10.87S
LONGITUDE: 179-01.03W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 12
WIND_DIR: SE
CLOUDS: 85%
VISIBILITY: 25
BARO: 1013
AIR_TEMP: 31.1C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Bay of Islands, Vanua Balevu

13 October 2016 (+12 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
We did the trip from \”New Potatoes\” as the cruisers call Niautopotapu in about 25 hours and covered 175 miles – all of it motoring into light southerlies.
We beat the re-establishment of the trade winds which was our goal as it would have made this trip very uncomfortable. The trade winds will start to re-establish late this afternoon. No whales so far!

We\’ve already caught up with several old friends on the radio and many of the boats we came across from Panama are here as well as many of the boats we met in French Polynesia. This is sort of a collection spot for boats prepping to go south to New Zealand. About 85% of the boats will be headed that way within the next 6 weeks, the rest of us will call seasons end between Fiji and Australia. A few are heading north for the Marshall Islands.
For us, it will be Oz. Still another fun filled 2200 nautical miles to go!

We\’re on a mooring, settling in and we\’ll go ashore in the next few hours to check in and see the lay of the land.
KIT,
All well onboard.
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/12 22:06
LATITUDE: 18-39.74S
LONGITUDE: 173-58.97W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 9
WIND_DIR: SSE
CLOUDS: 0%
VISIBILITY: 25
BARO: 1013.8
AIR_TEMP: 30.6C
COMMENT: Beach House – MOORED – Neiafu Harbor – Vava\’u, Tonga

12 October 2016 (+12 on UTC) Not across the date line yet, but \”politically\”, we\’re in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Dear Friends and Family,
We had brief 4 days in Niautoputapu (Forbidden or Secret Island), but it was quite interesting. This island only gets about 20 visiting yachts a year and that\’s a lot more than they used to get. We\’re probably the last to visit this season as Cyclone time will be upon this area soon.

This is an island that was badly damaged in the 2009 Tsunami and we got to see the evidence and hear some of the stories first hand.
We\’ll blog on that with the photo blog when we can catch up on the internet.
We left this morning around 8:30 a.m. local time and are about 1/2 way to Vava\’u, 165 miles due south of Niautoputapu.

We met a lovely young couple while we were there, Mana and Bulu and their two young children born after the Tsunami. They survived by being on the neighboring \”Volcano\” island. Their home on the main island was destroyed in their absence. Only 800 people inhabit this island.

We also weathered a pretty severe low pressure system and had a bit of a hurry up to relocate the boat in a 30 knot squall. All went according to plan and after that and a bit more rain, the weather has turned down right delightful. We had to make the decision to leave this morning as if we didn\’t, we\’d be bucking against the trade winds trying to get to our next destination, Vava\’u. This is the where most of the cruising boats head too along the main \”milk run route\” and the now, lack of wind after the storm is allowing us to motor the 165 miles overnight to arrive there tomorrow before mid day.

Tonga stretches about 600 miles, north to south in 4 island groups. Niuatoputapa is the most northerly and most remote. The Vava\’u are the second most populated and most interesting for the \”yachties\” due to their extensive cruising grounds, whale watching opportunities and good anchorages. Next further south is the Ha\’aapi (my favorite) and finally, the jumping off group is Tongatapu; the Capital and most populous.

These islands are one of the primary humpback calving grounds in the entire southern hemisphere and I\’ll be surprised when we arrive if we don\’t see several whales as we are now arriving at the height of the season. The Ha\’aapi usually has the most whales and for some reason, cruisers don\’t often stop at this most remote group. I suspect it is because the anchorages are not as well protected and the reef systems are more complex. It\’s also one of active underwater volcanic areas on Earth. Pumice can frequently be seen on the surface. The second deepest part of the ocean in the world is adjacent to these islands, the Tongan Trench. This is where the earthquake and volcanic activity arise from. You could fit Mt. Everest in the Tongan Trench and it would still have water above it.

We hear there is a lot of boats now in Vava\’u, mostly waiting to get a weather window to head South toward New Zealand for the coming South Pacific Cyclone season. We and some of the other boats will continue on West into Fiji before heading to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island and finally into Sydney, Australia.

Vava\’u is noted as the best \”hurricane hole\” in the South Pacific as it\’s completely isolated from the ocean with 300 foot hills ringing in the 1/2 mile long by 1/4th of a mile wide bay.

There is supposedly decent internet available and if so, we\’ll try and catch up with some photo blogs. Hope springs eternal.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/12 07:50
LATITUDE: 17-15.88S
LONGITUDE: 173-57.07W
COURSE: 185T
SPEED: 6.6
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 8
WIND_DIR: SE
SWELL_DIR: E
SWELL_HT: 1.3M
SWELL_PER: 6
CLOUDS: 30%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1013.6
TREND: 1
AIR_TEMP: 28.3C
COMMENT: Beach House – EN Route – Vava\’u, Tonga

Dear Friends and Family,
First, congrats to all our friends in Florida for surviving Hurricane Matthew. We had a report of about 100 mph gusts in Stuart, Florida!
Another bit of excitement, we heard a medical emergency on another boat about 500 miles west of us. He was being assisted by the ever present and ready Pacific Seafarers Net (Ham Radio 14300 at 0300 UTC). We\’ll find out the hopefully happy resolution this evening if we are on the net.

We had a pretty rough night. Wind on or just forward of the beam with a short sloppy chop, winds 17-25 knots.
Crew had a few reefing drills. We were told the channel here would be very narrow with a few bommies right on the leading marks.
It wasn\’t that narrow and the bommies are properly marked – not on the leading marks. Navionics Charts were spot on as were the \”leading marks\”.
Just before we entered the channel, we had a bit of a start when our port engine wouldn\’t start. We think the battery is the issue and were able to start it with our cross connect from the starboard engine and the chargers on. I\’ll keep it charged now daily when we use the generator.

As we expect a \”blow\” here (top of the tail from what will develop well south of us), we will move to Motu (small island) \”Hakautuutuu\” and hide behinds it\’s southern flank. Go ahead and say that name 10 times real fast.

Nice depth over there and completely ringed in a large swimming pool of a reef. I don\’t expect more than 30 knots and that only briefly, but who knows!
The weather models don\’t agree. We should be about 550 miles north of the system and \”best of\” to our friends in Tongatapu which looks to be more or less ground zero (so far?). If the weather cooperates, we may move the one day sail down to Vava\’u, Tonga (after the blow) as Nikki really wants to see \”whale country\”.

We\’re the only boat here and we\’ve got to go scrounge up customs/immigration as it\’ Saturday and no one seems to be much around ashore.
KIT,
Full Reports later,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/10/07 21:39
LATITUDE: 15-56.50S
LONGITUDE: 173-46.09W
COURSE: 206T
SPEED: 0.6
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 15
WIND_DIR: ESE
CLOUDS: 15%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1016.6
AIR_TEMP: 31.7C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Niatapatopu, Tonga

COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – Apia, Western Samoa

So far, a very pleasant surprise. We heard the marina wasn\’t particularly nice, but we think it\’s just fine! We got the last slip too! There are only about 8 so far.
They are putting in lots more. There is 220V/50 hz power which we can use on \”Beach House\” and we can keep the batteries up and the small air conditioning unit on at night. It\’s 90 degrees F right now (32.7 C) and it\’s 6:30 pm as I write. The docks are nice and clean with good power. The facilities look good (from afar). There is a small restaurant here as well.

When we came in the harbor, there were 4 Chinese Rust Bucket fishing vessels moving hodge podge all over the harbor. We felt like we were playing a bit of dodge ball and we were the ball!

We left at 0410 a.m. this morning and arrived here at 5:15 p.m. This included a two hour time change (later time – as they are on Daylight Savings) and are +14 on UTC!

As such, this is the new land (as of 2012) where the new day begins (Politically at least….:-)). We hope to spend up to a week here and so far, it looks like we might find a bit of gem? We shall see!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

TIME: 2016/09/29 04:06
LATITUDE: 13-49.65S
LONGITUDE: 171-45.57W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 14
WIND_DIR: ESE
CLOUDS: 30%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1009.7
AIR_TEMP: 32.2C

25 September 2016 (-11 UTC)
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Pago Pago, American Samoa (total run 149 miles – 23 hours)

We had a brief spat of wind last night, but a false alarm and as such we ended up motoring the entire distance from Rose Atoll to Pago Pago, American Samoa. Pago Pago is pronounced \”Pango Pango\” (Why? who knows). We were within 8 miles of the Manu\’a Islands of American Samoa which might be interesting, but going back against the trade winds is against my personal belief system.

The main feature here is the Starkist Tuna Canning facility and the tuna fishing fleet in this very large natural harbor. We noticed the McDonalds as we turned toward the anchorage for the small boats which is tucked way inside. This harbor has a reputation as being very deep and lots of junk on the bottom to catch your anchor on. I recall a story from \”Amadon Light\” where they said they pulled an old railroad two man hand car up on their windlass! – Yikes. We\’re however in 27 feet of water (which is not deep) and hopefully won\’t pick any flotsam up off the bottom when we go to leave. The water here is not clear as the bottom is muddy from the high mountains that surround this natural \”hurricane hole\” harbor. There are 10 other boats here, all seem of the local liveaboard type except for \”Scoots\” which we have heard of, but never met.

The trade winds are very light now and are expected to remain weak and along about 20 to 30S. The trough is NOT often this far north and is weakening all the trade winds. This will end mid next week. We hope to be headed for Apia, Western Samoa about that time which is 88 miles from here. This is where will spend most of our time in Samoa – we expect up to a week there.

Our main reason for being here is, other than to see this famous place, to take advantage of the supposedly nice USA shopping. There is supposed to be a Costco and many other nice food markets here. We suspect a Wednesday departure will hopefully be in order. US Customs is closed today (wouldn\’t find that in the 50 States!) and as such, we are sort of quarantined aboard till they open tomorrow. We see wifi and if so, we\’ll try and connect for our first internet in a couple of weeks.

I\’ll put out a final report on the wonderful time we had at Rose Atoll within the next few days and update you on our experience here.
KIT,
Cheers,
Scott and Nikki

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/09/25 19:28
LATITUDE: 14-16.37S
LONGITUDE: 170-41.87W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 5
WIND_DIR: E
CLOUDS: 70%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1014.5
AIR_TEMP: 30.6C

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/09/22 20:00
LATITUDE: 14-32.88S
LONGITUDE: 168-08.89W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 7
WIND_DIR: N
CLOUDS: 25%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1013.3
TREND: 1
AIR_TEMP: 32.2C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Rose Island, Rose Atoll, American Samoa

What a Magic Place!
We were met by dozens of Boobie Birds outside the reef for the last 9 miles and we actually spotted Rose Island at about 10 miles out. Easily picked up on radar at 10 miles as well.

Rose is listed at 65 feet high and I estimate that there are at least 5000 birds on or flying over Rose Island. As an aside, there seem to be no bugs here as I suspect the birds eat them all? We\’ll see when we go ashore. It\’s hard to tell about the state of the tide, but I think it\’s low. The lagoon is absolutely flat calm. No \”twitch\” at all so far from swell coming over the reef. The conditions however are truly calm out at sea, so this may not always be the case.

We also saw at least 6-8 large Green Sea turtles, several mating as we anchored. The water is so clear, you can\’t tell if it\’s 5 feet deep or 35 feet deep. We\’ve anchored in about 35 feet of water as the shelf rapidly rises and gets very shallow. No worries and we put out 200 feet of chain. The conditions are gorgeous and calm, we expect them to stay this way while we are here. The winds should swing around in two days to the prevailing ESE, but not with any gusto per the weather files.

The entry was calm and generally straight forward. For those following in our wake, the Navionics Charts have you a bit closer to the Western Reef on entry than you might think (It is marked as \”Boat Pass\”) and then you\’ll need to go left as you get to the inside, then back right. If you want some waypoints, let me know. Shallowest depth was briefly 11 feet, but if you were a little more right of where we were on the inside, you\’d have been in 15 feet all the way. There was only that one shallower spot. Otherwise, 25-50 feet deep on entry. The entire lagoon seems navagable at 35-60 feet deep.

Since we arrived at Rose Atoll around 0900 Tahiti/Cook Islands time and we\’ll now move the clocks back to -11 on UTC. We\’re getting quite close to the International Date Line.

After a tidy up, breakfast and a rest, we\’ll head to shore wearing hats for \”bird\” reasons and give a full report soon.
This also seems it would be an ideal Humpback Calving spot, but alas, no whales….so far….:-)
From a sailing perspective, this reminds me in many ways of Beveridge Reef (which is only 335 miles south of here), but this has land which Beveridge does not. From here, any destination from Niue to the South, Tonga or Fiji to the Southwest and Samoa to the Northwest is sail-able.
Drop us a note,
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

20 September 2016 (-10 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
We spent three days and nights in Suwarrow and overall it was quite interesting. One of the big attractions for the cruising crowd is to walk in the steps of the late Tom Neale. Neale was a Kiwi ex-pat who had moved to French Polynesia and then Rarotonga, the Capital of the Cook Islands.
The Cooks are a group of 15 islands spread out over an area roughly larger than 1/2 the size of Australia or the USA. Their total population is about 16,000 of which most are on Rarotonga and one or two other islands. Several are either very lightly inhabited (less than a hundred people) or like Suwarrow, uninhabited.

In the 1940\’s a Canadian ex-pat whose last name was Frisbie grew copra on Suwarrow and wrote a book on his adventures there. I must try and find a copy. It was Frisbie who in a chance encounter in Rarotonga met Tom Neale and inspired him to try and make a go of living on Suwarrow. Neale first was able to live in Suwarrow for just under 2 years when he had a most unusual episode where his back went out so badly, he had to leave. He was very fortunate that one of the (then), very rare sailboats ventured by and helped rehabilitate him before he was taken off the island a few months later. It took him six years to return.

The second time he made it 36 months alone but due to his age and health, he felt it was time to go back to Rarotonga despite his mixed feelings on departing. He frankly feared a lonely death at Suwarrow and (not in the book), he did die of stomach cancer about 14 years after he departed.

There is a statue to his memory on the island placed by his estranged family and his main house (really a room) still remains as well as his kitchen located next to the house. There is now a 2 story wood built house, open air on the ground floor, made for the Park Rangers in 2001.

The two Rangers were father and son. Harry and Pi. Harry has been there six years, this was his son\’s first stint on the island. Pi is a strapping young chap who is into guitar and fishing. The two mega yachts that arrived (all with full crew and no guests), also had several musicians and a beach jam session took place at the BBQ. They were actually quite good!

The unfortunate thing for we far flung sailors is that in essence civilization\’s hand has reached out to Suwarrow. Despite the fact that it\’s uninhabited 6 months of the year, during the cruising (non cyclone season) from May to November, no one is allowed on any of the other motus (small islands). The official reason is that they are bird sanctuaries and they don\’t want any invasive species or rats re-introduced which they have eradicated. It means of course, we stay at only the main \”Anchorage Island\” and have limited movement. They also do not allow Scuba diving. You can take your dinghy and anchor anywhere, but not your main vessel. There is a manta ray cleaning station 200 meters out of the anchorage with a buoy to tie your dinghy too which several of the cruisers enjoyed and we missed the one day trip with the Rangers to \”Perfect Reef\”, an area inside the lagoon about 4 miles from Anchorage Island that has some of the best snorkeling inside the reef. The others who did go, said it was worth the ride. Speaking of others, we were the 5 th boat when we arrived, the others all being smaller monohulls. Then an Amel 54 arrived followed by a 100 foot sailboat and then a 143 foot sailboat! These \”mega yachts\” were on delivery, both to eventually arrive in New Zealand. A crew of 6 aboard the 100 footer and 8 aboard the 143 footer. A good time was had by all.

Despite the fact that we have little wind, we\’ve decided to move on to try and enter Rose Atoll. Rose is a part of American Samoa and has only two motu\’s inside the reef and about 1.5 miles at it\’s longest. The motu\’s are quite small. We\’ve heard good reports second hand from people who have visited here and it is more or less right on our way to Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Winds are currently from the NE at 11 knots, directly behind us and as such, we\’re motoring. Predictions are for the wind to swing a bit north and drop to 7 knots by tomorrow, so this maybe a 40 hour motor boat ride? At least when we get to Rose, conditions should be ideal. The inner lagoon is plenty deep and the entry is marked at 31 feet or just less than 10 meters.

That\’s all for now, we will of course post a photo blog on Suwarrow and Rose at our next internet stop.
In the meanwhile look for our Ship\’s Mini Blog\’s and Position Reports.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki