How Strange Are We?

I'm sure that many of you have already come to your own conclusions on this point. But, I want to make it clear… we are very strange, at least within the South Pacific cruising community. Looking at Columbine at anchor, surrounded by all the other cruising boats, one Sesame Street song floats into my mind, "One of these things is not like the others…" It wouldn't require hard observation to figure out which boat was different. In the words of one Marquesan Frenchman, Columbine is "Trés traditional!" In other words, we do things the hard way.

For example, we have yet to see one other boat with varnished wood masts. Most masts are lightweight aluminum, or at least painted.

Also, the headsails that fly on the front of our boat are "hank-on," meaning that if we want to put more or less sail up, we have to physically remove and replace the sail with another one. Only one other boat that we saw still used that system - that was Kayak, from Seattle. All of the other boats use a roller furling system, which works kind of like a vertical paper towel rack - just pull out as much sail as you want when you want it.

To get to shore, we row our hard fiberglass dinghy, which also can be rigged with a sail. That was such an oddity, people used to line up on the wharf just watching me row by. Some cruisers felt sorry for me, and would offer to tow me back to Columbine with their motorized inflatable dinghies. Those are only easier when the motor works. But, you don't have to bring your own fenders with you when you socialize on someone else's boat! The only other cruisers we saw with hard dinghies were also from the U.S.

The list goes on, and even if you didn't clue into these somewhat more subtle differences, just the shape of Columbine would be a major tip off. She is a double-ended design ("pointy at both ends") with low sides and a narrow beam (width). She looks so old-fashioned, most people assume her hull is made of wood instead of fiberglass. Apparently, cruising this style of boat is a dead give-away that we are from the States, most likely the Pacific Northwest.

So, what do most cruisers sail now? Well, I'd say that at least half of the boats were large catamarans, offering more interior space than most apartments. These are faster than an equally-sized monohull, with a shallower draft (depth), and a more horizontal position while sailing. These boats are also close to half a million dollars brand new.

The modern cruising monohull is also wider with tall sides to maximize interior space. Most are steered with a shiny stainless steel wheel instead of the varnished wooden tiller Columbine has. The transom is flat, and often low to the water with built-in steps. We got to visit some of these boats while socializing with the other cruisers. Standing on the decks, I imagine I had the same feeling I would have if I were sitting in the cab of a semi when I was used to driving a Volkswagen Bug.

I have to say, it's been a lot of fun interacting with so many other boaters, and learning about their boats. The vast majority of my boating experience has been on Columbine, so I am always fascinated when I find out other people do it differently. Sometimes, we think others do things better, and we figure out a way to make that happen on Columbine. Other times… well, maybe we're just strange and old-fashioned - we revel in accomplishing things the "hard way." We are Americans, recently from the Pacific Northwest, and I guess it shows.

We now have just over 4,000 miles to go before we're back! Our current position is 04° 05.5'S; 148° 09.9'W, and sailing at a slow 3 knots NNE.

Simple Update

I have many topics that I want to put up here, but right now, with the weather so nice all day, I don't want to sit inside and type on the computer. Instead I sit outside with Cynthia, talking, laughing, playing the guitar (it's nice enough now to take it outside), and soaking up the sun. She says she has some topics to post as well, and will put one up tomorrow.

Today was a perfect day onboard. The wind decreased to a fast but comfortable level, in the right direction, the seas are flatter, and it was warm and sunny. What more could we ask for? Nemo also sensed it, and spent the day sleeping on his back with his legs in the air.

We did have one incident today that I'll put in here. We nearly lost our anemometer (the wind instrument at the top of the mast) today. As we were outside chatting I happened to notice a large frigate bird, wingspan at least three feet, hovering near the top of the mast. He was probably getting some updrafts off the sail, and he was soaring so effortlessly he looked like he was resting. All at once the boat shifted and the mast swung straight toward him. It came so fast it startled him and he immediately veered off, putting his feet out to push off if it was going to hit him. From deck level it looked like he hit the anemometer, but it still works so he must have just missed it. While not critical, it is really useful to have so I'm glad it's still working.

Our current position, as of 6:15pm local time, was 06deg 02.9S, 148deg 21.3W. Wind was ESE at 9-12kts, seas 2-3ft. Our speed over ground was 5kts on a course of 020T.

Hard on the Wind in the South Pacific

At the advice of our weather router, Rick aka WeatherGuy, we are trying to sail as far East as possible before our equator crossing. This is increasing the mileage we have to travel (he wants us 240nm East of where we were going to cross) and slowing us down some. But I suppose it will be made up for on the other side. By the way, there are no "red flags" weatherwise for this passage, which is great. Our challenge to him was to get us to Seattle without having to sail in sustained winds greater than 30kts. Let's see how well he does.

The weather has been fantastic the past two days - sunny and warm, and no more squalls. Yea! That, combined with the still perfectly functioning windvane steering gear, has left loads of time fir Cindy and I to just hang out in the cockpit and talk and enjoy the weather, while Nemo sleeps comfortably below. We are both now pretty salt-encrusted from the continuous fine spray of seawater coming over the windward side into the cockpit. We both also have a bit of sunburn as well.

We are currently sailing under single-reefed mains'l, working jib, and stays'l. We are maintaining about 5.5kts average speed, trying to maintain a course of 027T. Our position as of 1912 local time tonight is 07deg 46.7S, 148deg 44.8W.

A Near Science Experience

We've decided to name our windvane after Nemo, our cat. They both move about the same amount, and until now they have been nearly equally productive members of the crew. Lately, Nemo has been taking over the steering for us full time, and that has been incredible. He still doesn't move much, but just a little twitch and he steers us around the squalls and then back on course - north-northeast. We are trying for an equator crossing close to 145 degrees west, as per the advice of our weather router. The more east we make now, the easier our lives will be once we are north of the doldrums and hit the northeast trades.

Last night, we had to reduce sail because we saw many squalls with strong gusty breezes, so we hadn't made as much headway as we would have liked. Tonight, we have been sailing with the two headsails in >20 knots of wind, and making good time. At about sundown, we were sitting in the cockpit, enjoying Nemo's company as he deftly maneuvered Columbine around the waves. All of a sudden, I noticed a tall antenna and a bright yellow buoy approaching off the starboard bow! It looked like the kind of stuff my physical oceanography friends would have put in the ocean, cluttered with gear that measures water characteristics like temperature, current speed, and depth. "Look, Glenn! Science!" It's a big ocean, but a small world, I guess. Nemo steered us well clear of that floating obstruction.

Our current position is 9 deg 29.9' S; 149 deg 13.0' W.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Yesterday (Friday) my Dad turned 84. Hopefully my less wayward sisters did, or are planning to do, something nice for him. All I can do is wish him a long-distance Happy Birthday!

We have purposely slowed down for a bit. We had been driving Columbine pretty hard, maintaining 6kts or better day after day. Now we are tired, and tired of the constant deluge of water in the cockpit and running down the decks that this kind of driving brings, not to mention the "Chinese Fire Drills" we go through every time a squall hits, which has been frequent. Tonight we will let her jog along at 2-2.5kts while we rest up.

Out current position as of 2150 local time is 10deg 37.5S 149deg 23.1W. Our heading is still due North.

Just the Facts

I was going to do a longer post tonight, but conditions are bumpy and I'm a bit queasy. I'll try to post more tomorrow.

Last night and this morning we went through squall after squall, with high winds and lumpy seas. The windvane steered perfectly through it all. Around noon the stormy weather ended and it has been beautiful since. We still have higher wind (~20kts) so we have less sail up, but we are maintaining 5-6kts boat speed.

Our current position as of 6pm local time is 12deg 57.8S, 149deg 20.1W.

Position Update, Day 2

At 0130 this morning the wind filled in as predicted, and we turned off the engine. We went through a bunch of squalls as a front moved through, but now we are in perfect Easterly trade winds, mostly 15-20 kts. We got the Monitor windvane working correctly, finally, and we are now blasting North at 6-7 kts. Remember yesterday I stated that we would hit our next waypoint in 4-5 days? Our electronics now predict we will be there in two days, the equator in a week, and Hawaii in two weeks. This is all depending on the wind holding, and the GRIB prediction is for it to hold for at least the next couple days. Life is good onboard!

Our position as of 6:30pm local time was 14deg 57.1S, 149deg 14.2W. Speed is 6-7 kts, course due North.

Columbine At Sea!

Columbine is again at sea! Departure from the marina went smoothly with the help of the marina staff. Columbine does not handle well in close quarters, ane that marina was very tight. We also transited the south pass without a hitch. That was really cool. We had reefs nearby on both sides, and curling breakers loaded with surfers. It was a really cool experience, rendered safe by electronic navigation and many navigation buoys.

At dusk we passed Tetiaroa Atoll. This island is the private property of the actor Marlon Brando, and is also a bird sanctuary. The next land we will be even remotely close to is Kararaine Atoll, which is part of the Line Islands group. We won't be passing it until four or five days, and won't pass close enough to even see it.

Today's sailing hasn't really even been sailing - the wind has been so light we have been motoring all day. Hopefully it will pick up so we can speed up a bit.

The Eastern hirizon is completely clear, so we won't have to deal with any squalls anytime soon. In all it has been a beautiful and peaceful journey so far.

Our current position as of 5:30pm local time is 16d 56.3m S, 149d 28.1m W. We are traveling due north at about 4.5kt average speed over ground.

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In Tahiti, and Ready for Sea

Columbine moored “Tahiti style” in Papeete.

Columbine is once again ready for sea. This time for a really long passage. We now have onboard more fuel than we have ever carried, as well as full kerosene containers, propane, and are at capacity on water. We have taken on additional food, and have replaced the house batteries. We now also have spare line, which we desperately needed on the San Diego to Marqueses passage.

We will be communicating with another boat that will be doing the same leg from Tahiti to Hawaii. They will be starting a week later than us but are faster, so we will probably arrive at about the same time. Except we won’t be stopping there.

Tahiti was "built for superyachts."  Here are some of our neighbors...

 We will be taking advantage of a weather routing service, which will alert us to potential weather conditions long before they can become a problem. We also have Grib files and Fleet files available through the SSB radio and modem. These files offer predictions of wind and sea state as well as overall barometric pressure surface analyses. Between all these, we should be able to avoid anything really nasty.

Replacement of the house battery bank was one of those fortuitous events that makes me believe that this is what we are supposed to be doing. Our batteries had been going bad for the entire trip. They finally died completely last week, and we have had to run the engine multiple times daily just to operate our normal equipment – refrigerator, electronics, etc. That was burning a lot of fuel, so we decided to get some new batteries for the trip to Seattle. We looked at all the marine stores, but they didn’t have much. So we decided to just buy some car batteries from the local gas station. They would not be ideal, because they are not designed for this type of use, but are readily available. And they are really expensive here.

Yesterday, I spotted a truck driving down the dock with a battery logo on its side. I decided to go see what he was delivering. Turns out he had a load of 6V deep cycle batteries for another boat. Just what we needed! Long story short, last night he delivered a load of batteries to us at the dock, and this morning I installed them. Now we have the battery power we should have. There will be no problem running our navigation electronics all night long (we had been just switching them on periodically) and we can run the SSB radio to email family and friends and to post blogs.

We will be sailing a bit slowly at the start. We are so loaded down with fuel, provisions, etc., that our waterline has dropped a full two inches. We have gotten several comments from people who thought Columbine was sinking! It may turn out that we have more than is necessary, but that is much better than not having enough to make it should the trip take longer than anticipated.

Cynthia with our additional food stores, including 40 cans of tuna for Nemo, and over 12 dozen eggs!  Notice the old batteries to the right, waiting to be discarded.

In all, I don’t think we could be any better prepared for this passage. There will likely be some uncomfortable spots, but nothing that would endanger the boat or crew. We are really looking forward to putting this stage of the cruise behind us, so we can start preparing for the next. Columbine has a lot of sea miles left in her, and we do as well. Stay tuned!

Sorry

I just got back from my final walk around the marina in Papeete, Tahiti. It was gray and raining, which was appropriate for my mood. I was contemplating how to apologize to all the people who were reading this blog, looking to me for inspiration, living vicariously through our travels. In the end, all I can do is to just say I’m sorry for letting you down. I’m sorry for both the content and tone of several of my posts. They were clearly inappropriate, and should never have been posted.

On the other hand, they demonstrate a very real aspect of cruising that you will not find in any of the books. It’s not all spectacular sunsets and glistening beaches. Cruising is sometimes hard. Sometimes uncomfortable. Often stressful. To do it successfully, without falling apart like I did, you have to have solid and healthy ways of dealing with this stress. My techniques were found somewhat lacking in the end.

Cynthia and I are both exceptionally strong and motivated. We both want to work to put this completely behind us and to continue this journey. After our stay in Seattle, you can expect another journey to begin; next time we will both be better prepared to handle whatever comes along.

Please continue to read our blog. For this next passage, which could be up to two months long, nonstop from Tahiti to Seattle, our goal is to post a blog every day. It should be interesting reading.

New Directions

After a week of extreme changes, this is an important update in the Glenn & Cynthia/Columbine world. First off, Cynthia and I are together again on Columbine. Everyone who knew us knew we couldn’t stay apart for too long. But our plans have changed drastically, several times. Initially when we arrived here we were anchored near Marina Taina. After resolving our issues from the last week, we moved Columbine into the Marina and arranged for long-term storage. This was so that we could fly back to Seattle, get ourselves fully in sync again, then come back and continue our cruise. In fact, we have those airline tickets in our possession right now.

The problems with this plan were in the details. For one, the boat would severely suffer from sitting in the tropical sun for six months or more until we could get back to continue on. For another the cost here is exorbitant. I don’t think we could have afforded to come back to continue cruising; my most realistic guess was that in six months we would be putting her up on the market for a fraction of her value, and just walking away from all personal possessions left onboard. Yet another problem was Nemo, the cat. As long as he remains onboard our boat, French Polynesia is fine with us having him here. But he cannot be landed here. This poses a problem when sailing in and then flying out. It’s really hard to get him to the airport without taking him ashore. Their solution is to first send a vet to the boat to examine him, and then send a customs agent out. The customs agent must witness us putting him into his carrier. He would then follow us in the taxi all the way to the airport, right up to when we checked in. This whole procedure is to ensure that Nemo did not contact French soil. Don’t let that cat out of the bag!!!

After a lot of discussion, we have finally decided to leave here on Tuesday (which we have to do because of our visa), and sail Columbine directly back to Seattle. This is a 5600nm passage (1.5 – 2 months sailing time), passing through the hurricane belt during hurricane season. Surprisingly, the route planning guides state that this is the right time of year to do this passage. To keep us out of big trouble, we will be using a weather routing service to monitor the North Pacific weather and to recommend a safe path. But we must arrive in Seattle before November to avoid the onset of severe winter storms that begin about then.

This may not be an easy passage to make, but we are convinced that it is our best option right now. While we are on passage, we will be updating our blog daily so everyone can see where we are (I think we will be much better at keeping up with it this time).

Since we had already partially stripped Columbine for storage, as soon as we made this decision this morning we began reassembling in preparation for going to sea. Tomorrow (Monday) morning we get our final exit papers from our yacht agent. We then need to finish provisioning for this much longer passage. We also need to buy some new batteries for the boat, since ours have now failed completely. We have all diesel tanks full already, but we will now fill all available portable containers to give us an extra margin of fuel.

I will post another blog Tuesday confirming our readiness for sea, and then will begin our daily position and status reports. Wish us luck.

Importance Pt 2

This is an addendum to the previous post about what is important in life.
People spend their entire lives working to get stuff. Any stuff. Whatever stuff that is currently desirable. It can be things, like big screen TVs, computers, books, whatever. It can also be more nebulous things, like travel, spas, again whatever. Or it can be excesses of otherwise good things, like eating out all the time, or drinking in bars a lot. The common denominator is that people work a lot to get all these things that really don't matter. They are generally pretty fun or comfortable or exciting, but how amazing would life be if everyone spent it more focused on what really matters?
Some cultures foster this very thing. I'm thinking Italian, but many others as well. With Italians, family is everything. From birth till death, the family is the one thing that is constant. Solid. Dependable.
I think that Americans have lost that entirely, and have instead shifted their focus to getting "stuff", as described above. I used to pride myself by claiming to not be interested in the acquisition of "stuff", but on reflection I find that I am as guilty as everyone else. My stuff just happens to be travel to far-off places, and the bits of hardware that allow me to do that safely. But it's just the same as going to WalMart and buying the biggest TV they sell.
I'm not trying to justify my behavior by claiming that it is because of "American Culture" that I chose my path. Because, I "chose" my path. I did it.
Now I want to do something completely different. However I get there, I now want to refocus on friends, family. Things that really matter.

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What is really important?

What is really important in life? I have been contemplating this question today, and have surprised myself with my answers. What is important? It's not my boat, this voyage,it's not the things I have, it's not a job or money. What is important is relationships. Friends. Family.
I have totally blown it with Cynthia. She is the most important person in my life, and I treated badly. I am really sorry about that, and hope that someday she can forgive me. But I have also blown it with my own family. I rarely call and almost never visit. I'm sorry, to all of you. Can I start again, and this time pay attention to what is really important?
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Update from Papeete

I have to apologize again a bit. I wrote most of this blog the day after we arrived in Papeete, Tahiti, but never posted it. Then, two weeks later, I updated it, but still never posted it. Now I am finally posting it, but if some of the wording seems weird and/or disjointed, it’s because of the roundabout way it was done.

Columbine arrived in Papeete (pronounced pop-ee-ay’-tay) Tahiti on Wednesday, July 27, after a wonderful two-day passage from Fakarava. The winds were perfect and we had that better line that we were hoping for when we sailed back to Fakarava instead of going direct from Tahanea. Here is a view of Tahiti Nui from several miles out.

The final few hours of the passage we were dogged and threatened by several squalls, but fortunately none hit us. Here is what one looked like from the boat.

Anyway, we anchored in front of the Tahiti Yacht Club about 2:30 pm and dropped in the dinghy and went ashore. We walked in to Papeete, a few miles away, just to see what was around. We found a big city with lots of noise, graffiti, etc. But we also found stores, something we hadn’t seen for months. Thus far in our travels, the only stores we found were tiny grocery stores, smaller than the size of a 7-Eleven in the US, and with less stock. Here we have mega grocery stores, ACE Hardware, real marine stores, etc. I have even been able to get replacement parts for my electric guitar!

Thursday we had to move to another anchorage because we found out that it was forbidden to anchor where we were. So we moved to the main cruisers anchorage south of the airport. There are probably two hundred boats in this anchorage, many that we knew from the Marquises and Tuomotus. There was also a 30+ knot wind blowing while we were anchoring, which made it a real chore in this congested anchorage. But we got settled in and it is quite nice here. We are near Marina Taina, and have use of all their facilities – laundry, water, fuel dock, restaurants, and Wi-Fi. Sounds awesome, but there are some catches. The laundry is too expensive for us to use, so we (spelled Cynthia) still do it by hand on the boat. But laundry water is easily obtained right at the dinghy dock, making that chore much easier. The restaurants are also much too expensive for us, and the Wi-Fi is spotty. But it’s really pretty here. Here is a view of the anchorage with the island of Moorea in silhouette.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but there is a fringing reef just outside the faraway boats. The waves crashing on the reef can be quite impressive, huge, curling breakers. One of our neighbors said that when they were going through the pass they looked to the side, and not 50 feet away was a surfer fully enclosed in a curling wave, while their sailboat was in relatively calm water. How cool is that?

We learned one bit of horrible news on our arrival here. Some of our friends, from Seattle, lost their boat on the reefs in the Tuomotus. Navigation issue. This kind of thing really drives home to us to be extra careful, always. We do not want to end up flying back to Seattle with nothing to our name, to have to start all over again. We also learned of a guy who came in as crew on a boat, and decided to go out hiking for a couple days by himself (the mountains here are very inviting). After ten days missing we all assumed the worst, but then he was found, rescued, and has joined another boat.

Marina Taina is too far from town to walk in, but there is good bus service, and a mega grocery store nearby. Several times we have taken the bus in to Papeete to shop. The main market is amazing, like the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Here is a view of some of the vegetable vendors.

They also have large sections of fresh fish and local crafts, mostly seashell- and pearl-based. It’s so nice to have easy access to fresh vegetables again.

Our original plan was to stay here about a week, then move on to Moorea. We only wanted to stay here long enough to buy the things we have been really lacking, like several tools, some replacement lines, etc. We have now been here over two weeks, and are itching to leave. We processed our exit paperwork on 8/8, so we should be good to leave on Wednesday. Tomorrow we will go back to Papeete to do final shopping, then Wednesday morning we will refill our fuel tanks and head out. 

Update: I (Glenn) have been really sick for the past week, so we didn’t leave when planned. We now plan to leave tomorrow morning (8/15). We must do our final checkout from French Polynesia on or before 8/23 to avoid trouble, so we are now really limited in where we can go and how long we can stay. We will stay a couple days in Moorea and visit the marine lab there, then head to Bora Bora for a couple days before our final checkout.

From Bora Bora we will go to the Cook Islands briefly, then to the Samoas before heading up to the Marshall Islands for the South Pacific cyclone season. Our current plan is to then return south and spend the entire next season in Fiji and Tonga. Stay tuned.