On 230726 I stayed with my friend Shigeo already the first night in this wonderful bay. As the bay is open only on W direction, the currently strong ESE wind and swell doesn’t effect boats here. There is almost no swell in the bay.

To get out of the Hiva-Oa’s Tahauku Bay was a question of good timing. There were pretty strong rain showers coming down on us, but with breaks in between, being long enough to lift the hook, and get out of the bay. We got this nicely. OBM at the helm station steering MaRe and I lifted anchor.

As expected we got a 2 – 3 m swell rolling onto MaRe from about 50 deg PRT matching the AWA.

To be on the very safe side – OBM wasn’t on board for 8 month – I only set the main at reef 3. It was a bit slow. Reef 2 would have given us much more speed. But safety before speed.

When we entered the Canal du Bordelais we trimmed the sails for 120 deg AWA and with up to 8 KN we passed through the canal between Hiva-Oa and Tahuata islands. Getting around the NW corner of Tahuata the swell got down but we still got a very nice sailing wind. MaRe started really running despite the too small main sail.

Pretty soon after passing our WPT at the NW corner of Tahuata, we started the engines, furled the genoa, turned into the wind, and ran already into the bay. Thus, in the shortest time possible I got the main down and we approached a good anchor spot a bit behind the NZ Sun Odyssey and the catamaran “Kudeta”, which I know already.

Beside us there is only another cat in the bay.

The hook is down at 10 m and I gave almost 60 m of chain. Pulling back with 2000 RPM showed the anchor has a good hold. MaRe is safely anchored.

The wind in the bay varies from 12 KN – 25 KN. This could make our SuperWind 350 charging our batteries during the night.

Work after being secured at anchor, was done in portions. Whenever the rain stopped we did the next work. In between we had some board made sandwiches, tea, and fruits. For the dinner something with a risotto is on the unwritten menu.

The bay is, despite today’s rain nice. A pretty long sandy beach with palm trees in the front row invites us to take the tender and go on land tomorrow – provided that tomorrow the rain is gone.

Currently MaRe’s panorama window at the stern. offers a view to a dull grey rain front west of us, interrupted by very lively deep hanging cumulus nimbus clouds and bright sunny spots of sunlight where the clouds are having their holes.

The sunset unfortunately was not too be seen today. Clouds were just too “thick”to let the sunlight through.

In the Tahauku Bay, the main bay at Hiva-Oa, 2 days ago a pretty strong swell started rolling in. It was even on a catamaran pretty rollying. Thus, yesterday, I pushed through with all work needed to be done for departure this morning.

The last work was getting the garbage at land. In Hiva-Oa garbage can be put in 2 public trash container at the harbor or at Marquises Maintenance Service, where there is also a trash container for sailors On Tahuata and Fatu-Hiva there is no place to leave trash.

It was already dark when I did this work and the swell in the bay was at least already half a meter. It was “fun” getting the tender into the water, and later out again. It was a dance with the waves.

This morning, the swell and wind in the bay increased. The water turned pretty brown from the sand and mud raised off the ground.

Also from such dirty water my Dessalator water maker can still make excellent drinking water, but the mechanical 20 and 5 micron pre-filter collecting too much dirt, thus need an earlier replacement.

We got out of bed when we heard in the very early hours a big anchor chain dancing down through the hawse hole. It was, as expected, the “Ananui 5” supply ship, which came in. We watch the docking manoeuver for a while. They drop their STB anchor about 30 – 40 m before the pier to control the bow and prevent the ship going forward. With slow running props and the rudder hard to PRT, they bring the stern to the pier.

Then we suddenly saw that the neighbor boat, which was always our concerns, increased the distance to MaRe. The boat’s anchor slipped and the boat drifted towards a NZ 45 ft Sun Odyssey. From a boat which came from the harbor, the NZ yacht crew was informed just in the last minute. They immediately lifted their anchor and moved away. As there was no real good other anchor spot available, they left the bay. From my point of view it was the best they could do. Thus, it was no surprise to us, that they are at anchor just 70 m from us.

The drifting boat’s anchor then got hold again before the boat was washed ashore because in the drifting direction the water gets shallower, which makes the effect of the anchor stronger. Curious to see where the boat will be when we go back into this bay.

Yesterday OBM arrived back on board. It’s great that she’s back.

She also brought some needed smaller parts with her.

After refueling and provisioning we will take off to Tahuata Island where we want to drop the hook in the wonderful Hanamoenoa Bay before continuing South. We also sail to Fatu-Hiva and go into the Hanavave Bay, one of the most beautiful bays in the Marquesas.

You will read how things develop.

Three days ago another boat dropped it’s anchor close to MaRe. Then, yesterday morning, the wind changed into another direction and the boats came too close to each other. The other skipper was not on board.

I had no other choice but re-anchor MaRe. Fortunately there was a bit space open because one boat left the other day. However, to find the optimal place between 5 boats and a line between two markers at both sides of the bay, was not an easy job. (The line is the SW boundary of the anchorage area. The area SW of the line is blocked for the supply ships to come in and go out.) It took me 4 attempts to find the right spot. Additionally wind in the bay became stronger and it started to rain. Fortunately the rain was warm but I was a full shower I had to take.

About hours later MaRe was again safely anchored with enough distance to the other boats around her.

The rest of the day was PC work.

Oh, and I had to cook me something…

And today, it looks like a rainy day and my laundry gets another rinsing…

Yesterday, I worked all day long on my PC.

I not only haven’t had internet connection for 4 month, but I also have to change to another PC. My beloved Thinkpad X230 from 2012, the best PC Lenovo built (strongly influenced still by the IBM heritage) has a problem with the charging cable connector. Although from 2012, it still runs fast, because I’m using Linux Mint; booting time 30 – 45 sec. I’ll miss this wonderful machine.

Data are transferred. A few settings still need to transferred. A big chunk of work was deleting all unneeded mails while accessing my mail accounts directly in the server.

What I learned here is that I’ll need to replace an anonymous email address because I’m getting to many junk mails through this one email address. It always good to have such an email address which can be changed when to many spams come in.

In an attempt to synch my contacts and calendar while I was in the instable 2G network in the Gambiers, some settings for damaged on my mobile phone, thus I have to take care of that as well.

I hope that with 2 days more of work, that I’m back to normal.

Next comes the installation & setup of OpenCPN, a navigational program which provides very valuable information. The installation in Linux Mint is very easy. About 3 – 4 clicks and it’s installed. But then comes the the work, the setup, which includes download of pretty big amount of various charts. I expect that this takes a few days as well.

Such work is also needs to be done while sailing as well.

Weather became good again. Swell in the bay is also back to the normal level. I changed cockpit enclosure from rain protection to shade providing.

I’m doing boat jobs. Maintenance, little improvements and repairs.

Beside this I’m fighting SW problems. It started with the Offshore App for my weather information. Just now it seems that I need a new tablet PC because mine doesn’t connect to the internet …. I FEEL that the OffshoreApp caused the problem because the problems appeared in a direct sequence. However, I can’t prove it. I just need too much time with the bugs I really can demonstrate. If there would not be Keryn providing me good support, I would look for an alternative.

I’m not feeling bored at all.

Most important: 15 Aug my OBM comes back on board again!

Yesterday morning Shigeo left to the airport to fly back to Tokyo via Pape’ete and Auckland.

We had another good time sailing MaRe and I’m sure he’ll sail another leg with me on my looong sail from Europe to Japan and back.

The PredictWind Outside Offshore App is pretty bugy and it might be that I can’t even upload here my narrations for a while. Please don’t assume that MaRe sank with me or my OBM who will join me in the next sail to 2 – 3 Marquesas islands. If you want to reach me please send an email to skipper-cat-mare@myiridium.net

This is only test text

With this narration I need to make a test of another, new bug in the Offshore App.