Yesterday morning, I got up very early in the morning to check if I caught the fishing line of the very careless sailor of the day before. Fortunately I didn’t find traces of fishing line around the propeller and around the shaft.

I was relieved!

However, I found a few goose barnacle (Entemuscheln in German) at the area closer to the water line. They seems to be bit resistant to copper coat. In the warmer Pacific waters they stick to MaRe’s copper coated hulls.

Thus, I took a spatula and removed the few on both hulls.

Thereafter Inge and I sat in the cockpit drinking coffee (Inge) and tea (me) and talked when towards 1100 a dinghy came straight to MaRe. A young French couple invited us to a beach barbeque. We agreed to come.

When time came to go at land we also saw other dinghies heading towards the beach.

As there is a very shallow coral area, we dinghied carefully the last 100 – 200 m. I watched on the bow and Inge steered.

Then we reached the beach. Getting out of the dinghy in knee deep water, Inge took the cooling bag ashore and I pulled the dinghy into hip deep waters. Dropped the anchor in the sand and made sure it was buried deep enough.
I watch the dinghy for a while and it was nicely kept in place by the anchor.

Then we walked to the BBQ place.

What a nice surprise it was seeing there Sabrena, Alex, and their baby Noa.

“Hello” and self introduction to all the others. Beside an American lady, we were the only non French people.

Then sailors’ talks started. A permanent exchange of information. How long are you here, where do to came from, where are going next, have you been in this bay or that bay, and, and, and… Some of them are in French Polynesia since a few years…

Alex had already fired up the grill (he must have gotten it from a local person) and had quite some meat on it. Inge place the stuff we brought along to the other food. Later, I learned that Alex got the meat from a local person.

We also learned that Sabrena & Alex where the ones behind our invitation. They recognized MaRe but I didn’t recognize the turquoise colored lazy bag of their boat. Their AIS has a problem so I could not see their boat name on my AIS screen, thus, didn’t know they are here.
Now I’ll remember the color of their lazy bag…

I also learned how to rasp coconuts into flakes. All what’s needed is a coconuts rasp for about a Euro or two, a board of 10 mm x 25 cm x 40 cm, and 2 screws. Next shop and I will look for such coconut rasp because it is a local tool. The rest I have on board.

We had a good time with all these people at beach.

We also had some not invited guests coming in larger numbers: Flies. Since my childhood days at the country side in Germany I don’t recall having seen so many flies on the food at the table. They come and when the food is gone they go. Here the environment is still a healthy one with lot’s of insects.

At the end when we went back to our dinghy, I saw that the anchor slipped. My anchor is good when there are stones or thick mud, but not at a sandy beach. I need to get another anchor for sand.

Being back on MaRe, we concluded the day was relaxed and interesting.

For dinner, Inge made rice and a meat and vegetable dish, which I would call a spicy goulash. Tasted great.

Yesterday we sailed from the Taiohae Bay around the eastern corner of Nuku-Hiva into the Anaho Bay at the NE corner of Nuku-Hiva.

The route can be very roughly described as 1/3 heading E, 1/3 heading N and 1/3 heading W.

Winds were forecasted with ENE and E. This means we can have winds fluctuating between ENE and E with a good chance of fluctuations down to ESE.

On the leg E we had once for maybe 30 min an ESE wind, which forced is to tack twice. First to get a course with making more way to E in northerly direction but then the wind shifted back to E and ENE and we needed to tack again. This time wind stayed more stable from ENE and E, thus we could sail a longer leg in south-easterly direction and still making a good way to E.

The weather was nice. The wind speed good. Thus MaRe kept running. For very longer periods she ran with a STW of high 7 to high 8 KN. As a peak speed I saw 9.6 KN. Not bad.

When the SE cape of Nuku-Hiva had a bearing from MaRe of N, we tacked again.

On the way towards the cape another boat came from roughly SE looking at the AIS screen and the bearing I saw that we will bump into each other. I had the right of way thus I kept course as needed. No signs of a course change from the other boat. The early one changes course the smaller the needed course change is.

I grabbed the VHF and called boat on CH16, the emergency channel every sailor should watch. From the AIS data I could see the boats name and nationality. No reply. I’m my mind I had already my escape manoeuvre prepared.
As a last resort I pushed the button of my horn (Thanks Heinz für getting me years ago the wonderful loud truck horn!)
No reaction. Not even a sign of someone being on board.

Then I pinched MaRe, meaning going with her as high as possible into the wind to pass behind the other boat. Being as close as roughly 50 m I saw a man pulling in his trawling line, which I could see snapping. This released a shudder in my brain. If I got his fishing line with my propeller there is a chance that it will get into the shaft sealing and destroys it. In the bay I’ll have a look. It appeared to me that the skipper was completely unaware of the situation in which both boats were or he was hoping that I solve his problem by changing my course despite the clearly define rules giving me the right of way.

We then got a good run to the E coast of Nuku-Hiva and along the coast line.

The coast line is an interesting mixture of craggy parts and and more smoothly declining parts. All are covered with green, which looked pleasant in the sunlight. The craggy parts I considered to be created when the volcanos exploded and the smoother parts as remains of lava flowing down towards the sea.

No settlement is along the E coast although there is one larger bay with even a bit of a sandy beach. I wonder why.

When we reached the NE corner, I step by step increased the AWA and sailing became very smooth.

I put the small jib down and then we gybed to make the final approach towards the Anaho Bay. Fortunately we pretty fast could change the course more that we could sail with an AWA of 120 deg PRT.
At 150 deg the main sail covers too much of the genoa and it will be flapping.

At the entrance of the bay we took the sails down and motored to the end of the bay where there were almost 10 boats in.

As the bay is pretty big and the anchorage area is also broad we quickly found a good spot to let the anchor go down at 16 m. With 40 m of chain out I made a first test and the anchor had a good hold. I gave more chain until I had between 75 and 80 m of chain out. Another holding test with the anchor bridle attached and pulling back with 1800 RPM, showed the anchor holds. We arrived. Engines off.

It was a nice sail of 36 NM logged. Very good weather and good winds.

We visited this cultural and archeological site, while we used the repaired dinghy for the first time.

It’s a walk of about 3.5 km from the dinghy dock.

When we reached the street, going up into the mountains to cross over to the other side of the island, we decided to hitch hike up to the point where we needed to continue on a dirt road.

Luckily we got a lift by a friendly guy who lives close the site. So he just dropped us at his home.

After another 10 min of walking we found the site.

The site is old but still looks pretty good maintained.

To get a sufficient large flat area, for dancing and other performances, a lot of very big stones were needed. What a hard labor it must have been to get such big stones to the site and then set them up to built was as needed. Additional a lot of soil was needed to fill up volume made by the stones. I estimated 3000 m3 meters.

The tribunes are covered with asymmetric roofs. Sides are open. On the front side, the roof is short and has about a 45 deg angle. At the back side the roof almost goes down to the ground and has an angle of about 70 deg. Covered are the roofs with palm tree leaves, the natural material. Several other buildings of the same type are scattered over the area. Their purpose I could not get but I thought about mythological figures and deities

I sat down at a stone of one of the tribunes to absorb what I see and feel. I imagined a group of maybe 50 people dancing to the rythm given by the drummers. I could see qthe soft and peaceful movements of the female dancers in a strong contrast to powerful dancing of the men. All male dances I saw so far reminded me to stimulation for fight and war.

Then I looked at several very old trees in the area. They were kept were they grew. The builders of the site respected these old trees. One is supposed to be 800 years old.

On the way back, I wanted to go down a dirt road not the concrete street we came. It was interesting to see how many houses are built pretty far away from the main part of village. Again, all properties are well maintained.

Then we saw suddenly, just bedside the street, a bigger box with 2 bags filled with mangos.
No price written on but I got the feeling that someone sells these very delicious fruits. Looking around we found the people living on the other side of the street to be the fruit sellers.

500 CPF (or XPF) about 5 Euros for 6 mangos looked alright. (Nevertheless I should have negotiated.)

Then we kept walking. Inge wanted to see what she can get in the grocery store. We ended up with 2 ice creams.

On the way back to the dinghy, Inge saw the Austrian sailors and when I looked at them I recognized Adrian & Dagmar from SV Kobel, walking with them. Last time we saw each other was in August (?) 2022 in Shelter Bay Marina. Such a small world.

Arriving at the dinghy dock I was happy to see that MaRe’s tender (or dinghy) was well inflated.

What a joy!

In the morning I got up early and inflated the dinghy. Then I use soap water spray… No bubbles were to be seen.

JOY!!!

After breakfast I prepared all to get the dinghy back to where it belongs; the sea.

I connected, via an additional line, the stern of the dinghy to the gennaker halyard. With the winch we lifted it up, high enough that it’s bow could be pushed over the reeling. Inge lowered the halyard and I kept pushing the dinghy outside into the water. Quickly, the dinghy was where it belongs to, in the sea.

The rest was routine work.

We waited until about 1600 before we took the dinghy to go ashore. For safety reasons in put the pump into the dinghy.

First we visited the 2 boats from where we got help and thanked the people. Then headed to the dinghy dock in the tiny harbor, mainly used by fishermen, cleaning and cutting there catch. Really nice big fishes of a huge variety.

Although, with the dinghy, all looked fine I had some nagging thoughts back in my mind.

When we came back from visiting the archeological site KOUEVA, MaRe’s dinghy was floating in the water like always.

WHAT A JOY!!!

After having worked Saturday and all Sunday on the repair of the dinghy, I went to bed hoping that now all is tight and I can use the dinghy until my new one arrives.

Early yesterday morning I got up, in very good mood. I inflated the dinghy, then took the soap water spray bottle and sprayed on the edges of the patches.

What follows can be described as a flow of repeating a 4-letter-word.

Frustration to the power of 10 x 10!

I wanted to go on land to ask the Marine Service guy if he knows where I can get the dinghy repaired.

But for doing this, I need someone who brings me at land by his dinghy.

First I called Ralf of SV Katinka. He did not answer. (Later it turned out he was under water cleaning Katinka’s hulls.)

Then I thought I’ll call the skipper of SY Pelagic Life. A few days ago I received a mail from a sailor who is currently in the Rairoa atoll, Tuamotus, saying the skipper of SV Pelagic Life, is Canadian and a nice guy. He saw my position on the PredictWind tracking site, being just beside SV Pelagic Life.

As I saw SV Pelagic Life on my AIS screen, I got her MMSI number. With this, a placed a DSC call on CH 72 and 16. No acknowledgement. Nobody on board.

On the other side of MaRe I saw a skipper just taking a shower. Once he finished, I just whistled him. I understood that I need help and don’t have dinghy. He wanted to come over.

Going back from the bow into the cockpit, a dinghy came straight to MaRe. It turned out it’s the skipper of SV Pelagic Life. He returned to his boat and saw my DSC call and came straight away over to us.

I just asked him to come on board when the skipper of the other boat arrived as well. I thanked him for coming over but it happened that I got a minute ago already help.

Dave, the skipper of Pelagic Life, is indeed a very nice and helping sailor. He is already well integrated in the sailor network here.

He knew already Kevin, the guy from Marine Service and messaged him if he knows someone who can fix a dinghy.
The answer came straight away: Gael the skipper of SV Mister Fizz, known as fixing all kind of boat problems. Dave contacted him as well and a while later he came and we looked at the dinghy. The main problem was that I don’t have the right bond. Gael has. We agreed that he comes back by 1600 and fixes the dinghy.

I removed in the meantime my patches and the remains of the bond I used.

At 1700 Gael came and 40 min later the work was done. Gael has a very special 2 component glue for dinghy repair. He used syringes to measure the right amount of each component.

After the dinghy was partially inflated, he pressed the layers together. Job done! I paid him

Now a time, nagging a bit on my nerves, started. Only in the morning I could inflate it normally.

During the night, through my bedroom hatch, I touched the dinghy and I got the impression that it is as inflated as we did it yesterday.

Hope grew!

The result of the repair was a partial success. Only 2 small leaks along the repaired seam remained.

As I expected that, I already clued and additional strip of tube along the side of leaking seam.

This morning I patch the line with the leak with an additional broader strip.

Now I hope it’s tight again. In about an hour I will inflate the tubes again and see…

Then, during breakfast, I looked at the empty peanut butter container and got the idea that this is the right thing to fix the worst design error of an external fuel tank for an outboard motor. The lid has a easy to turn screw to let air into the tank when the motor runs. However, the design is so bad that rain water could get in. A while ago I replaced the original sealing with a small o-ring I had. However, I knew that I need a better solution.

With the peanut butter container having the perfect diameter, I prepared a cap for the lid with rain safe openings for air. The cap is bonded onto the original lid with Sikaflex, a marine adhesive.

In few hours I will close the lid and when the external tank is back in the dinghy, I will observe it, to see if my design is as good as I think it is.

Inge, BTW, baked a banana cake this morning. We had too may ripe bananas on board.

Unfortunately the leak of the dinghy could not be closed. Thus during the day I had to apply a few patches more. Now, nighttime, the tube is not inflated to make sure the bond is cured bevor in inflate it tomorrow morning.

Inge and I vacuum packed pillows etc. Some linen related item are prepared for discussion with OBM when she is back next month.

Inge took a short swim today. I’m not, because I was too busy.

Towards the end of the day we ran the washing machine while charging the service batteries.

Inge took care of food and kitchen. I prepared the first phase, autolyze, of the dough for the bread I’ll baking tomorrow.

We talked for a while after dinner.

Then came the end of a busy Sunday.

We got up and decided to first have a breakfast before we go ashore for food shopping.

There was, after an little bit of rain during the night, a beautiful blue sky day.

After breakfast we lowered the dinghy into water. I added a bit of air to make it a bit faster because it’s s distance to the dinghy dock.

We got a good docking spot on the N side dinghy dock. I threw the anchor out to keep the dinghy away from the wall. I watched it and saw it stays nicely away.

We walked to the shop where Inge made reservation for bread the day before. She likes to eat the industrial made bread.

With the full load of what we need we walked back. At the small fruit and vegetable market close to the dinghy dock Inge wanted see what she can buy.

I saw Ralf sitting in the coffeeshop area with Austrian sailorsi know from Tahauku Bay, Hiva-Oa, thus I walked over to them. Inge also came and we talked for a while.

It was a good time we had.

When we arrived at the dinghy dock I saw already out of the distance that the stern part of MaRe’s dinghy lookes strange – the front part was hidden by by other dinghies.

When we finally arrived at the dinghy I saw that the front part has almost lost its air.

Shock!!!

I went back to Ralf and asked if he could help. He agreed as well as the Austrian sailors.

The plan was to put it on the sandy beach only about 10 – 15 m away and have a look to see if it can be fixed.

Ralf, who has the bigger dinghy brought Inge, me, and all purchased stuff to MaRe. There I took what’s needed to repair a dinghy and we went back to the beached dinghy.

Pretty quickly we found that a bonded seam was leaking. It’s the seam at the spot where we always step on when getting in and out of the dinghy.

One problem comes seldom alone. The clue in the repair kit was dried out although the tube was still originally sealed. As problems never come alone, it was already Saturday afternoon and all shops were closed.

The new plan was to bring the tender back to MaRe, put it on her bow and try to repair it. To bring it back Ralf wanted to pull the dinghy, while I kept pumping air into the leaking tube.

Dinghy back into the water and quickly through the – fortunately – very low surf. With the anchor I secured the dinghy from being blown back into the surf. In between always pumping air into the tube. With the outboard motor running, I pulled in the anchor and started my way home. Ralf caught up with me. So with one hand at the motor and the other hand on the pump I drove our injured dinghy.

When Ralf caught up, he took the bow line and towed me towards MaRe. It was quite a distance which felt much longer now. With Ralf towing, I could now use 2 hands to pump air into the damaged tube.

When we arrived at MaRe I first secured the outboard motor and took it out on MaRe. Then external tank and all the other things. By then a big part of the air was out.

Next I pull the flattening dinghy up at the PRT stern top top secure it. We connected the bow line to the genoa winch. Inge at the winch and I at the dinghy’s stern we got it up into the area of side deck and outer cushion.

After a sandwich break – thanks Inge for that especially today – we could move the dinghy along the side deck to the bow.

After a break I repaired it and in the evening I pumped up the front tubes.

What will be the result next morning?

The end of relaxed Saturday.

Fortunately I’m already in the process to order a new dinghy from a dealer in Tahiti…

At 0925 I decided the anchor holds, thus we are considered to at anchor.

The bay is full of boats, and we are anchored in the western part with our anchor down at a depth of 12 meters, with approximately 55 meters of chain paid out.

My second visit to Taiohae, the capital village of the Marquesas.

How will I see it this time the village?

,It’s my 2nd watch duty tonight from 0100 to 0400.

The decision to keep sailing only with genoa was good one. because the wind shifted and the genoa only covers a wider range of wind when sailing a broad reach course.

At about 12 KN of wind, we are running 5.8 KN STW. Not to bad.

As we sail using the wind vane mode of the auto pilot, I only have to watch the autopilot for windshift messages and make adjustments. Very exciting.

Behind me there are about 30 bananas ripening. Would like to eat one. However in the light of my torch it is impossible to distinguish between green and yellow ones. I was lucky I picked one which was sufficiently ripe.

Should make myself a pot of tea and maybe eat some bread to better stay awake.

Radar check. Nothing to be seen within 24 NM.

DTW, distance to WPT, is only 24 NM and the ETA is between 0800 – 0900. Perfect timing.

The temperature is pretty pleasant. The air feels fresh but not cold. Perfect.

The moon has long gone behind the horizon and so has Orion.

The loneliness of a night watch duty.

I love night sailing when the moon and stars are out. Today only the lying sickle of the waxing moon is to be seen. It creates still a nice moon river, flowing to MaRe from about 45 – 50 deg PRT.

In directions away from the moon, plenty of stars are to be seen; towards the moon, the moon creates too much light pollution. Therefore only few very bright stars are to be seen.

Just above me, I recognized right now the typical constellation of the belt of Orion.

The (southern) Crux is not be seen. We are too close to the equator. It is just behind the southern horizon.

The moon river makes wind and swell waves very well to be seen. The wind waves are low, less than 50 cm. However, we have a clearly to be seen main swell of about 1 1/2 m from ESE and weaker one from south.

MaRe doesn’t wear her normal pajamas but only top part, the genoa. I was thinking about setting the main sail,
However, MaRe would be too fast, in her full pajama, thus we would arrive before 0500 and that’s what we don’t want. So I kept her with only the genoa. At an AWA of 100 deg STB and an AWS of 17KN, she still ploughs with around 7 KN through the nightly sea.

Inge, who is off watch takes her “power nap” in the cockpit . When my watch ends at 2200, I expect to fall asleep before my head will reach the cushion.

ETA at Taiohae Bay will be currently 07:43. Let’s see what will happen through the night.