Sailing west of Tahuata was not a pleasure at all !

I expected a strong wind effect at Cape Tehopeotekeho, the most southern corner of Tahuata, and put and reefed the genoa by 25 %.

This was good because the wind went up to 23 KN.

From that point on, the distance to the island increased steadily but the turbulences at the lee side of the island were incredibly strong. Wind shifts, no wind, strong wind….

At the end we put all sails down and just motored. In between some desperate attempts to sail until I finally gave up. I didn’t like the wind game anymore: “Wind up, sail up, wind down, sail down…”

I don’t know if it was Mr Wind-ows or the monkey with the tin tool who had there fun with us.

We motored in NW direction towards our final WPT outside of Taiohae Bay, Nuku-Hiva.

I just looked N to see if there is more wind at the western end of the Canal du Bordelais, and there was the wind I was looking for. Pretty suddenly we got solid 5 Bft with peaks of 6 Bft. We set sails. Main with reef 1 and genoa again reduced by 25 % to be on the safe side. MaRe loves this wind and she runs with more than 7 and sometimes more than 9 KN towards her destination.

If possible I’ll keep the configuration until it’s getting dark. Then we’ll put on MaRe’s pyjamas for a safe sailing during the night.

I’ll now catch up with my narration and write here about 3 days.

Saturday

After having been at land on Friday with the still high swell in harbor, we spent the day on board. Dennis & Jacque brought in the morning the fish they promised us the day before. A tuna of just above 50 cm. The first price was a bit on the high side but the negotiated price was fine.

I had to eviscerate it. Peeling off the skin is still something I need more experience. (To get this experience I’m trawling a line to catch a fish, but the boat speed of high 6 to more than 8 KN and in longer blow she even reached the 10.6 KN, is too high, thus I don’t expect to catch something.)

Sunday

Bread baking day. I forgot the evening before to prepare the first stage of the dough. Woke up at 0420 and recognized what I forgot. Thus, I got up and worked for about 20 min and the shortly kneaded water & floor mixture could work while I slept again.

At 0800 I worked on the next phase of kneading the first phase dough with sourdough, salt, a bit of yeast and about 160 ml of Salad Topper. Salad Topper is a mixture of all kinds of seeds with a few cranberries inside. I bought it for mixing it into my muesli. But now I put some into the bread dough. An experiment which turned out pretty good.

In between the proofing times of the dough, I wrote messages, did small boat jobs and eviscerated 3 more fishes.

The young guys, and especially the lady of the Danish crew of the mono hull in front of us, are very actively doing spear fishing. They brought us 3 small tuna. A very special species of tuna about 30 cm long and a black dot at is sides. I was thinking that this fish wants to spear fished with its target mark at its side.

I also prepared a 30 m long line enabling me to position the dinghy between land and buoy or stern anchor freely. With this, I don’t need to swim to get back to the dinghy but can pull the dinghy to me.

Monday

We went back on land to walk up to the top of the 300 – 400 m high cliffs at the southern side of the bay. I did this walk already in August with my OBM.

We walked for quite a while when a car came up the hill on its way to Omoa. The 15 km long concrete and dirt road connects the villages of Hanavave and Omoa. We tried to hitch hike and were lucky. The driver gave us a lift. He first thought we wanted to go to Omoa. I explained that we want to go up the hill, to have a good view down into the bay. When he mentioned the “bulldozer point” I knew he knows where we want to. I remember the rusting bulldozer from my ascent with my OBM.

The bulldozer, was used to build the road and I assume it was paid by the French tax prayers. As there was no owner of it, it was just parked beside the road with wishes for a happy rusting. Machines rusting like this I saw several times on island I visited in French Polynesia. No private owner thus happy rusting.

The view was like last time spectacular. Last time there were only 2 boats in the bay, MaRe and Anixi of Nora & Hacko. This time about 10. By far most of them catamarans.

On the way back we were lucky again and got a lift into Hanavave village.

Back on MaRe, I did some preparations for our departure next morning.

For dinner we had the 3 small tuna and Inges special fried potatoes. Excellent.

With this long catching up, I caught up with my narrations and the following ones are up-to-date.

As assumed the wind sneaked around the nothern corner of Fatu-Hiva.

We have 4 – 5 Bft wind from E, having reef 1 in the main, the genoa is fully out, MaRe sails with around 7 KN on course using track mode. (The autopilot steers to the next WPT.)

The wind waves are still of level 2, meaning between 10 and 50 cm. The primary swell is running towards MaRe from about STB 150 deg and is around a meter high but only about 50 m long. The longer it is, the more smooth the sailing will be. However, there is also a secondary swell from a more southern direction, which makes the sea a bit choppy and in turn, the choppy sea rocks MaRe.

Today, the sky is almost cloudless, less than a 1/8, meaning less than 1/8 of the sky is covered with clouds.

The wind is warm but not hot.

It’s simply nice sailing!

All I’m missing is a chocolate chips cookie the skipper of MaRe is supposed to bake. “Lazy bum, bake cookies!”

A quarter to 0600 we lifted the hook.

It was a bit tricky because a monohull with nice Danish people where pretty close to our chain. Needed to prepare the fender for a last minute action to protect our boats.

Luckily, we did not come closer than 2 m and the wind didn’t change in the wrong direction.

With the anchor up we took course to the WPT BayOfVirginsCenterOut, a WPT I placed to get out of the lee effect of Fatu-Hiva and gain from the jet effect of the valley of Hanavave village..

As the wind is very weak, I made a shortcut and we’re motoring on course to Taiohae, Nuku-Hiva waiting for the wind to get a little bit stronger.

It feels as if it will be sneaking around the nothern corner of Fatu-Hiva…

On the 240210 the swell was down a bit but there were still 1m waves passing the entrance to the tiny harbor. I decided to try to go inside the harbor. I pumped up the dinghy it bit more. It was challenge in the rocking & rolling little rubber boat.

On top of the swell in the harbor we had the challenge that the Aranui 5 supply ship arrived the same day. The Aranui 5 drops the anchor just outside the bay. Goods are transported into the tiny harbor with special transfer boats each equipped with two 250 HP outboard engines.

It’s also important to know how these boats dock. From a bollard at the stern they have a pretty strong line to a bollard at land and about 5 m behind the stern. Then they use the 2 x 250 HP to push the boat forward to the wall. Now the wash of the 2 propellers goes fully into the tiny harbor and makes a “nice” and strong circular current in the tiny harbor. All small boats, be it the dinghies of the yachts or the sturdy aluminum made boats of the local people, love the rock ‘n roll to which they are “invited” to not say “forced”.

In such a situation yachties are yachties, helping each other to tie up or untie their dinghies.

So we got the T/T MaRe, the Tender To MaRe, tight up securely.

We walked into the village, for me it’s the third time, for Inge the first.

It’s interesting to see the different perceptions we have. She sees things through her German-Swiss glasses where I am seeing them strongly influenced by many years in Asia and almost 2 1/2 years living on MaRe and having sailed all the way from Europe through the Caribbean to here.

I wanted to go up the hills to the north of village to see if we can get above the tree line for view over the village. The tree line, is not very high. The walk was interesting especially when the trees left and right became more jungle like.

It was hot, very hot. Maybe this was an important part of the decision not to walk in until we are above the tree line but stop before.

When we were back in the village and passed the small grocery store, I saw a local lady just sitting down in front of the store, as if she will wait until the store opens again. I asked if she waits for the shop to open again and she confirmed. A quick look at my watch and I saw that the shop opens in 10 min. This because normally the shop opens at 1430 for the “afternoon session”.

“Inge shall we wait for 10 min?” “Yes, let’s wait!” So we sat down on the low wall just beside the lady and started waiting.

At 0300 a small truck with 3 young men came and they brought replenishment for the shop. Directly from the transfer boat of the Aranui 5. After a while one told us the shop only opens at 1500 or 1600. He also was very friendly and gave us a 1 l container of cold pineapple juice.

As the other waiting lady kept waiting we decided to wait as well. More ladies came waiting for the shop to open. We had short conversations with them using my 7 words of French. Therefore, I was sure that they all waited for the shop to open. (Please note that my French improved from 3 words to 7 words.)

Slowly the pointers of my watch crawled towards 1600 and kept crawling. Then, somewhat past 1600. The shop opened and we could get the things we needed.

Back into the tiny harbor we saw our tender powerfully swinging in the swell rolling in. It survived the the wash of the propellers of the transfer boats.

How to get into the tender being at safe distance from from the wave breaking wall of big stones?

Undress and swim. Fortunately the water and the air is pretty warm.

About 10 min later we arrived back at MaRe. An adventures day came to its end with another excellent dinner made by Inge.

This was on 240209.

Due to several strong low pressure systems about 500 – 600 NM south of us, the wind direction is strongly influenced here. Instead of very constant winds from around E, the main wind direction is N.

Here, in the Bay of Virgins, the wind is additionally influenced by the about 300 – 400 high mountains surrounding the bay. Still I can’t understand that the wind in the bay changes especially during the day permanently. This means within sometimes 5 min the wind can change 180 deg.

Last night I supervized my anchor pro alarm until midnight to optimize the settings.

Already that time the waves in the bay made MaRe rocking strongly. In the morning it’s was the same, and now in the afternoon, it’s still the same.

A small ferry boat, which connects the southern Marquesian islands came into the bay, went towards the tiny harbor but did not go in as it fits normally. The captain decided to stay out and have the passenger transfer made with very sturdy built tender. With such a boat there is no problem when it gets washed to the wall. It will always survive.

It started already just before midnight that my anchor pro alarm woke me up because MaRe was outside the allowed swing circles perimeter. This does not necessarily mean that the anchor slips but can be caused by a difference between the real anchor position and the anchor position entered in the anchor alarm app.

The only way to get the position of the anchor really good is when someone stands at the bow with the tablet PC and taps the “Current position” button.

All other ways can have larger position errors.

Normally, I put the anchor position in, when I’m pulling back to test if the anchor holds firmly. I know approx. the distance to the anchor and the bearing I read from the compass. I’m aware that there are 2 errors involved. Yesterday it seems these errors were, in sum, simply too big.

I had to pay for that by getting up at midnight when I just had a first nice dream.

I checked outside MaRe’s position towards the shore line and the position of another cat at anchor in the bay relative to MaRe’s position. That looked all fine.

Next I looked at the chain. The anchor chain was not even under real tension. The anchor bridle was almost only being pulled down vertically by the weight of the chain. No strong horizontal pulling force on the chain and bridle at all.

Then I checked MaRe’s position at the chartplotter. This looked fine as well. All measuring points I put in showed normal values.

Now I had to draw the conclusion that the entry of the anchor position in the anchor alarm app must be too big. Based on observations I made I changed the anchor position in the app.

Lucky me. The situation in the anchor alarm app improved. I could identify a good matching position for E, ESE, and ENE winds, which were blowing all night.

For winds, which would blow MaRe towards the shore I kept a much smaller perimeter radius, thus I am staying in the safe side by getting early alarms.

Curious to see the situation when the wind pushed MaRe around NE directions.

Currently the wind weakened and changed a bit directions, but rather instable directions.

I’ll see during the day what happens.

Yesterday, we were forced to still stay on board sre to high swell.

This morning the swell was down, thus after breakfast we dinghied into the tiny harbor. It’s swell was sufficiently low to dock the dingy with a stern anchor.

We walked all the way through the village’s main road until we reached the it’s ends changing to dirt road leading into the jungle.

The gardens around the houses are pretty well maintained and full of fruit trees. Pampelmouse ( shaddocks), limes, papaya, breadfruit and few other which I don’t know. Unfortunately there was no chance to talk to someone and ask for few fruits. We walked too fast.

The people are very friendly and often greet first although I try, as a guest in the village, to always greet first. Either with the Polynesia “kaoha” or the simple French “Bonjour”.

Unfortunately Inge wanted to buy some food and we needed to return after reaching the jungle to go back to get the last minutes during which the shop was open.
Inge was bit surprised that the shop didn’t have any fresh fruits or vegetables beside garlic.

In front of the shop, a few ladies were sitting and chatting. The usual pattern in these villages. When I sat down on the same wall next to the ladies, one asked me if we want to see tapas. Here in Polynesia painting Polynesian patterns on sheets of tapa is a traditional art. I saw already many and bought some with my OBM in August. Inge was not interested, thus I had to decline the offer.

For local people art work is one of the few things which can bring them an income. Today I learned that tomorrow the “Paul Gauguin” cruise ship arrives. This means the village is flooded for a day with tourist. Like all cruise ships, they don’t leave much money at places where they stop over.

After being back on MaRe for a while, a local boat came and asked if we want fish. They, Jacque and Fabian, came the about 5 – 6 NM from Hanavave, the village at the Bay of Virgins, with plenty of fish and tried to sell them to the boats in the bay. We took two, same fish as last time and about the same size. They didn’t want money but asked for beer. As they didn’t ask for strong liquors, I agreed.

The fishes we got are, if I’m not mistaken, sea brasses; they taste excellent.

Tomorrow we plan to sail back into the Bay of Virgins.

After having been nailed to Tahauku Bay for a while by technical reasons, we are now nailed to the Omoa Bay by the swell of 1.5 – 2.5 m.

With a swell of this height, the tiny little small boat harbors of Omoa as well as of Hanavave, about 5 NM north of Omoa, still have a swell of about 0.5 – 1 m. I could verify this with local people in their solid rigid aluminum built boats passing by.

With such a swell in harbor it’s not possible to land with MaRe’s dinghy; at least I would not dare under normal circumstances. Thus, we are locked to MaRe and dance with her Rock ‘n Roll instead of being able to explore the village of Omoa, walk up one of the surrounding hills, and try to see the bird protection station.

Here is search results link

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bird protection project Fatu-Hiva Omoa&ko=-1&ia=web

followed by one specific article from Auckland Zoo

https://www.aucklandzoo.co.nz/news/auckland-zoo-and-the-polynesian-ornithological-society-team-up-to-save-rare-bird-from-extinction.

The swell will only go down when the wind changes back to the normal SE trade wind pattern, meaning blowing typically between ENE and ESE. This will still take a few days.

Today we got the chance to watch the supply of the village from sea.

One of these rigidly built boats came closer to us and ask if we see already the Taporo 9 supply ship on our radar. I was surprised by the question but it seems they don’t have a direct communication line.

I checked radar and got even the AIS Signal of the Taporo 9 on my screen. She was 10 NM away from us and running with 9.5 KN

Shortly later, several of these, in French Polynesia often used aluminum boats, came out of the tiny harbor to be tied up at mooring buoys in the outer area of the bay. They made space for the landing ship of the Taporo 9.

Then the Taporo 9 came and dropped her anchor pretty outside of the bay. They let a transfer vessel into the water and shuttled load by load into the tiny harbor with a special docking place for transfer vessels. With this, all goods needed in Omoa are brought ashore.

Because there came a few boats from N into Omoa Bay, which had fuel barrels on board, I assume that the Taporo 9 doesn’t stop at Hanavave because the swell it’s too high even for the strong transfer boat.

Today, already since the early morning hours, MaRe is dancing rock ‘n roll. Or better: she is danced rock ‘n roll by swell, wind and I assume a current in the bay is involved as well.

In the early hours of today, my anchor alarm woke me up 3 – 4 times. We got 4 Bft, thus MaRe wanted to use all her chain. Additionally the logged anchor position is not necessarily the real anchor position. Therefore, the alarm free radius entered in the anchor watch needs to extended carefully by watching the real position. This I needed to do in the early morning hours of approx. 0200 – 0400.

The Catamaran “Seacats” left early this morning. Wonder where we see them again.

SY Margot, who came in yesterday changed anchor position 2 times. Then a catamaran and monohull are in the bay as well. I refer to the bay as ‘full’ under the current sea conditions.

Bread dough is proofing and in about 3 h we will have freshly backed bread.