Ocean Echo 1: 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Moorea, Tahiti to Nuku Hiva, Marquesas - 2012

Dear friends.

First I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the best in New Year 2013.
I am sending you Christmas greetings from Nuku Hiva island in Marquesas.

It has been about 1000 NM (nautical miles) of uphill battle last few weeks, which started at Bora Bora. Sailing against the wind is not much fun. Most important was to wait for weather window with lighter winds. Tuamotus to Marquesas was the longest passage, which required 10-12 days of light winds. Lighter winds means lower pressure weather, which produces more squalls. I did have a plenty of squalls on this trip. Some of them reached 30-40 kts (knots) velocity in a few (3-5) minutes time at night. It is a quick wakeup call, when they come. Heavy squalls are visible on radar and I had to use it for couple of nights, when there were too many squalls around. I ended up heaving to on some of the squalls, because they were too fast, too much. Keeping the boat speed down was important to prevent slamming on top of the waves, when the bow comes out of the water. I love my windwane. It does steer uphill quite well even in lighter winds. They do not work too well usually in these conditions. I did some modifications to it along the way and it sure pays off handsomely.
I have made it to Nuku Hiva a day before stronger N, NE winds have developed, which would be a problem. A few days later tropical depression have developed over the Cook islands, influencing Bora Bora, Tahiti and Tuamotus with 40-50 kts NW winds. An other system will bring a cyclone to Fiji in a few days. I am actually glad to be here in Marquesas. Will see, what the cyclone season does to Marquesas islands.
They say - gentlemen do not sail into the wind. Reality is little different now days. It was not too bad in lighter winds.
Most of cruising sailboats are gone now, so anchorages are more quiet. Only French and European boats are cruising these areas now. Some of French boats have been here for many years and they have a good local knowledge about the seasons and cruising areas.
Rules have changed for French Polynesia in 2009, allowing French boats to stay 2 years. This made all of marinas, buoys, ship yards quite occupied. It is becoming difficult to use or get some of these facilities now days. All other boats can stay 1 year. Lot of cruisers leave the boats around Tahiti on paid (certified) buoys and fly out for cyclone season. Similar to storage yards in Mexico.
I have sailed from Bora Bora to Raiatea, Moorea, Tahiti, Tuamotus and Marquesas. Having a few days stop in each area to wait for weather window. I was planning to stay in Tuamotus little longer, but weather opportunity came up, so I had to leave. It is not easy to get 10-12 days of lighter winds. I hope to stop in Tuamotus again in April on my way West. Clear water, corals and the sea life are the main attraction of these Atolls. Fakarava South Pass is very popular diving area. Several dive shops have established small operations there. It is quite charming and interesting location, highly recommended for diving holiday.
I am planning to stay in Marquesas for 4 months. I have many projects on the boat, which need to be done. There are some local anchorages, which I have not visited yet.

I wish you all Happy Holidays and a lot of Quality Time.

Maintaining this blog could by complicated time to time, because Internet signal/connection for uploading pictures, will not be as good/fast as it is in large cities/communities. Please, excuse my poor writing skills and grammar. Google translate does good job converting text to other languages.
I hope, that you will find something interesting in this blog – enjoy.

Jara (JJ) Holcman s.v. Ocean Echo 1

Christmas Tree - Tahanea Atoll - coral head

Moorea Island

Tahanea Atoll - sunset with the squall

Tuamotus, Fakarava Atoll - corals

Tuamotus, Fakarava Atoll - Moray Eel

Fakarava Atoll, South Pass - reef sharks

Tuamotus, Fakarava Atoll - reef sharks

Tuamotus, Fakarava Atoll - coral heads

Tuamotus, Tahanea Atoll - Eagle Ray

Tuamotus, Tahanea Atoll - coral reef

Tahanea Atoll - beach (zoom in)

Tahanea pass - blacktip shark

Tahanea Atoll

Tahanea Atoll - an other squally sunset

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Bora Bora, Raiatea Islands - 2012

Dear friends

I am anchored at Moorea Island again, working my way back to Tahiti, Tuamotus and Marquesas. It is and will be difficult sailing against prevailing winds. Cyclone season is approaching, so it is the time to move to safer area. Marquesas Islands do not usually get cyclones, since they are in the path of colder Peru current. Sea temperature above 28 C has a lot to do with cyclonic activity anywhere on the Earth.
Moorea Island is very beautiful and quiet, compare to nearby Tahiti Island. I have visited botanical gardens there, which was quite interesting. Hike to Belvedere lookout offers nice view of Cook's and Opunohu bays, which are 2 largest bays on Moorea.
Sail to Huahine Island was an overnighter in light winds. Huahine is a smaller island quite popular among cruisers and charter boats. It has a very convenient grocery store near the shore and nice white beach at anchorage area. I had a lot of problems to hold on with my anchor here, because the strong current and higher winds. Re-anchoring 2 times at night in strong wind and deep water is not much fun in small area. This made me finally decide to modify my SS - CQR/plow anchor. I ended up cutting it apart while anchored in Bora Bora and fabricating/welding (on the boat) new SS scoop anchor (from leftover SS material), similar to Rocna/Supreme style. It can be very stressful not trusting your own main anchor in far out places!!
Sail to Bora Bora from Huahine was in full Moon night. Bora Bora mountains appeared in Moon light after midnight, which was quite need. Bora Bora is popular and busy holiday island with many seados/jet skis, tour boats, cruise ships and helicopter. Biggest draw on this island is the quality - color of the clear sea water. Very nice shades of blue and green with many white beaches. There are some nice sheltered anchorages at Bora Bora.
I have seen too many "broken dreams" (closed down, rotting away) on these islands. Many resorts, pearl farms, pearl shops, etc. abandoned. Bora Bora has a lot of them.
Humpback whales kept me a company, when I was motoring away from Bora Bora. They put on a fantastic wild show, just like a dolphins. Two adult and two young whales spent about 30-40 minutes breaching, spy hopping, tail flapping and fin slapping around the boat. They did not want to leave the boat, even when I was trying to steer away. People actually snorkel and dive around them in South Pacific waters. They come up from colder regions like N. Zealand for the winter months.
Raiatea and Tahaa were my last stop in Northern Society Islands, before heading back to Moorea and Tahiti. Wind funneling between these two islands can be quite strong, which does affect anchoring in local deep water anchorages. Main town of Uturoa has a bit of Papeete touch with the harbor park and cruise ship terminal. Raitea Island has 2 marinas and boatyards, which are fully occupied by local boats and charter boats. Raiatea Island is a center of charter business in French Polynesia, since Bora Bora and Huahine are only a few hours sail away.
I had to wait for lighter winds (time my trip) to be able to sail back to Moorea Island. It was not much fun beating into the wind in exact opposite direction of my route (on the nose).
I have to admit, that French Polynesia has been good to me so far. It is very beautiful everywhere around here. Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society Islands are all unique and special with their own character. People have been nice and helpful.

Maintaining this blog could by complicated time to time, because Internet signal/connection for uploading pictures, will not be as good/fast as it is in large cities/communities. Please, excuse my poor writing skills and grammar. Google translate does good job converting text to other languages.
I hope, that you will find something interesting in this blog – enjoy.

Jara (JJ) Holcman s.v. Ocean Echo 1

Humpback whales

Humpback whales (zoom in)

Departing Tahiti

Moorea

Moorea - resort

Moorea - wall of the building

Moorea - view from Cooks's Bay

Huahine - anchorage

Huahine - passenger ferry to Raiatea

Huahine

Bora Bora - harbor

Bora B. - pearl store and farm

Bora Bora

Bora B. - yacht club

Raiatea - supply ship

Raiatea - park and cruise ship terminal

Raiatea - protestant church

Arriving back to Moorea

Sunset with the kayaker

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Marquesas, Tuamotu and Tahiti Islands - 2012

Dear friends

I am writing these lines from Papeete the largest city of French Polynesia on Tahiti Island. Last few weeks have been full of surprises and hick ups.
Hakaui valley was a most beautiful place on Nuku Hiva island. Two hours hike to the waterfalls via deep canyon/valley was incredible. It is accessible by boat only from Daniel's Bay.
It is a short sail from Nuku Hiva to Ua Pou island in Marquesas. Someone told me, that Ua Pou was the second best after Bay of Virgins and I agree on that. The mountain towers - spires on Ua Pou are magnificent. My first stop was at Vaiehu Bay. There was supposed to be short trail to next bay and the village, not really. I got lost in dense bush with only wild horses and wild cows around. I ended up returning to "home" bay. Hakahetau B. had quite enjoyable short hike to water cascades with tropical trees and flowers along the trail. View of mountain pyramids - spires was awesome. Hakahau B. is a main settlement of Ua Pou with nice church and some small stores.
Passage from Ua Pou to Raroia atoll in Tuamotu Archipelago was OK except last 80 nm. The wind shift required some hard beating into the wind. This was my first atoll to visit. The wind was forecasted to shift from South-SE, which made me to relocate from village area to East corner of atoll. It was a beautiful spot with nobody around. Clear water, and wild beaches. Navigating in these atolls can be difficult, because there are many coral head islets - carenas. They reach from 20/30 meter - 60/90 feet depth up to almost surface. They are submerged bellow sea level and can be seen only in good light. Sun needs to be above or behind the boat. If the sun is ahead of the boat sea surface becomes large silver mirror. Google Earth was a big help for navigating in these atolls. It shows most of carenas quite well, which made it possible to sail in atolls. Also, saving GPS track to any location is important for the reason of tracking back at bad light or at night.
Makemo atoll seem to have best provisioned store in central Tuamotus. I have enjoyed snorkeling at NW pass and outside in open ocean, when conditions were good. Beautiful corals every where and large fish, including many reef sharks.
Tahanea atoll has no settlement and anchorage is very nice. I have seen large/giant Manta rays and Eagle rays while drift snorkeling NE pass. Learning how to get in and out of the kayak quietly in open water rewards me with some nice sea life encounters. The sharks take a lot of fish from my fishing line. Watching them eating fish heads and leftovers after fish cleaning is a wild show.
Fakarava is a second largest atoll of Tuamotu Archipelago at 35 miles - 70 km length. It was busy there with many cruising sailboats around. Fakarava is well-known for diving in SE and NW passes. Water was not so clear, when I was there. An other SE wind shift was coming up, so I have decided to move to Toau atoll, which had nice shelter in South corner. This SE blow lasted 10 days, main pass turned out to be quite nasty to transit due to steep 5 m - 15 foot waves. Anse Amyot at NW side of Toau atoll is a popular spot among cruisers. It is a small bay inside the reef. Local families have installed several mooring buoys there, which cost about $5 a night to use. There is no anchoring allowed anymore. This was my last atoll to visit for now.
Passage to Tahiti took 2 days and it was interesting to be arriving at famous island. Some urgent repairs of boat equipment made me to stay around Venus Point bay for about 5 weeks. I have learned a good trick on welding without welding machine. Connecting 3 car batteries in series produces 38 VDC, which is enough for nice smooth welding arc.
City of Papeete on Tahiti island is a capital of French Polynesia and it has a few interesting places around downtown. Bougainville Park, The Presidente Palace, government buildings, ferry terminal, Chinese Temple. There is a lot to do outside the city. Tahiti has a beautiful mountains, nice parks with good hiking trails and many water falls. Mount Orohena is 2241 m - 6 700 feet high.
Next islands I plan to visit in this area are Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora - depending on the weather factors. I am planning on sailing back to Tuamotus and Marquesas for the cyclone season.

Maintaining this blog could by complicated time to time, because Internet signal/connection for uploading pictures, will not be as good/fast as it is in large cities/communities. Please, excuse my poor writing skills and grammar. Google translate does good job converting text to other languages.
I hope, that you will find something interesting in this blog – enjoy.

Jara (JJ) Holcman s.v. Ocean Echo 1