Adagio’s Voyage

We ended up on the west side of the island of Taravai in a bay called Anganui. It was a beautiful, uninhabited part of the island that made us really feel like we away from the rest of the world. Of course, we really were. The Gambiers are really remote, and without cell phone and wifi access, we felt pretty disconnected.

We were enjoying our time sharing the bay with Marcus, Diana and their guests on Allora. We even had “movie night” aboard Allora where they set up a projector and screen outside on their boat on a calm evening that really felt special. The next day, we all went diving outside on the reef where we had a spectacular scene of reef fish, pelagics, sharks and unique coral formations. I even spotted a few fish I hadn’t seen before.

Soon Allora left as they had to get their guests off to the airport, and we were left alone in the bay. We remarked that it was the first time we could remember having an anchorage to ourselves since we were in the Perlas Islands in Panama. Little did we know that we would be all alone for the next two weeks!

Shortly after Allora left, the winds picked up from the southeast. As we were on the west side of Taravai, we were pretty protected with just the occasional gusts making their way over the hills on the island into our little bay. We started watching the weather forecast as we saw the winds were blowing in the 25-35 knot range, so we decided to stay put. Our weather forecasters informed us that there was a convergence zone sitting over south French Polynesia, right where we were. This meant that the lows and troughs that come up from New Zealand essentially stall out and hang around one area. In addition to the strong winds, we had days of squalls and drizzly rain that had us cooped up in the boat.

We kept waiting for the weather to change, but every day the forecast was just more of the same. We were stuck. When the sun finally broke through the clouds, we would go ashore to pick coconuts or paddle around the bay. Mike also tried his hand a fly fishing several days while I read several books. There were a couple of days we got a little stir crazy, but then we just had to laugh about it and told each other that there were definitely worse places to be stuck than this beautiful little paradise.

The wind finally died down enough for us to leave our protected anchorage and head back to the village at Rikitea. We knew the supply ship was coming in, and we needed to get there in advance of the ship arriving. It had been a month since we’d gotten any supplies. And, this was going to be our last shot to pick up some gas and diesel before we would be leaving the Gambiers. We had taken on some diesel when the previous supply ship came in, but not enough to fill our tanks. We were also almost out of gasoline, which we use to power our dinghy, generator and scuba compressor.

There is no gas station in the Gambiers, so if you want fuel you have to get it from the ship. They only sell it in 200 liter drums (about 50 gallons). If you need less than an entire drum, then you have to make some deals with other boats to go in on a barrel together. This makes for a very interesting situation in the anchorage. Right as the ship is pulling in, you can see everyone out in the dinghies either rushing to the ship to purchase a barrel (which is a limited supply) or going from boat to boat to figure out how to split a barrel with other boats. It is a bit comical, and stressful, especially when there are sometimes language barriers.

Once you’ve got your barrel and a plan to share the fuel, you have to take your jerry jugs to shore in the dinghy. You use a hand crank pump to pump the fuel into your jugs, then ferry them back to the boat to put in your tanks, and then repeat the process until you’ve got all your fuel. I think it took us most of the day to get this accomplished.

Fuel was our first priority, but we were down to canned and dried goods, so we needed some more food. The magazins (small stores) get their orders at different times depending on how they come off the ship and get trekked out to each store. Then, the store has to decide how they are going to stock the new food. So, each store will open and close and put out the fresh food at different times. When the fresh produce does come out, it is like vultures appear. At one point I had just purchased a bunch of goods when the store decided to put out a box of fresh pears. Everyone dove into the box grabbing the pears, including me. By the time I got back and line and purchased the pears, the entire box was empty.

Once we were full up on food and fuel, we were ready to leave Rikitea and check out another part of the Gambiers. But, more on that next time…

~katie

We left Rikitea on Mangareva and headed over to the next island south called Taravai. We were feeling pretty grateful that another boat had given us their tracks around the Gambiers to import into our navigation software when we had to traverse over a shallow patch of coral in order to get into the anchorage. I’m not sure we would have trusted there was enough depth to avoid hitting it if we hadn’t had that clear path to follow. But, we ended up in a beautiful anchorage in time for the weekly Sunday barbeque.

Herve and Valerie have a home in the bay on the water and invite all the visiting boats to their home on Sundays during the summer. Their modest home has the most incredible view and is surrounded by gardens and fruit trees. On this Sunday there were boats from the US, France, New Zealand and Austria. Everyone brought some meat to throw on the open pit BBQ as well as a potluck dish to share, which included rice, potatoes, papaya salad, pasta salad, squash, etc. and tons of desserts.

There aren’t many people who live on Taravai. Herve and Valerie enjoy opening up their home to make new friends from all over the world. And, they love having boats with kids join so that their son has some new friends to play with. The day was filled with lots of laughter and games. There were many petanque games (French version of bocce ball) and lots of volleyball. We were very humbled by their warmth and generosity and looked forward to returning the next Sunday.

At the south end of Taravai, we met another couple living in their own remote paradise. We took the dinghy to the only home in the southern bay to meet Eduard and Denise. Eduard had just returned from spearfishing with a Frenchman named Pierre and showed us their catch. They had speared these beautiful surgeonfish that were black with unique orange and yellow markings on them. I later looked them up in my fish guide to find out they were called Orangespine Unicornfish.

As Eduard and Pierre were cleaning the fish, we walked up to the house to meet our friend Diana who was speaking with Denise. I was glad Diana was there to introduce us (and her French is better than mine), because it feels a bit awkward to walk up to someone’s house across their property without an invitation. But, Denise was very happy to meet us and give us kisses hello. We were also greeted by her puppy Roxy who was a little white fluff ball and couldn’t have been more than a couple of months old.

Cruisers regularly visit Denise and Eduard to do some “shopping” as they have more than a garden. I would call it an orchard if it looked like some kind of organized planting. But, really you just walk behind their home into a forest of banana stalks, lime trees, orange trees, papaya trees, breadfruit trees, etc. She also grows lots of herbs. We walked around pointing at what we would like, and she picked the ripe fruits for us which we quickly piled into our bags. Eduard came around and cut off a huge stalk of green bananas for us to hang in our cockpit while they ripen. Finally, Denise cut some fresh basil, mint and green onions and tied them in a bouquet for us. It was the best grocery shopping we have done here!

We actually had a few days of projected calm weather, so we headed across the lagoon to a small motu called Kouaku with our friends on Kini Popo. Getting there was a bit of a challenge as we had to navigate through the pearl farms. In order to develop the pearls, they hang lines or racks with the live oysters underwater suspended by buoys at the surface. We’ve been told that the oysters have to hang at 80% of the water column, so the depth of the where the oysters hang depends on how deep the water is in that spot. When navigating through the area, all we can see are the buoys at the surface, and sometimes the buoys get submerged just below the surface. The oyster lines are usually strung between two buoys, but from the surface it is impossible to tell which two buoys! So, I was up on the bow trying to navigate while Mike was at the helm. If I could see lines or submerged buoys I would yell back to him. Most of the lines were deep enough to go over. We would put the boat in neutral just in case and coast over them, but one set was definitely too shallow, and I had to yell to Mike to turn the boat quickly to starboard to go around the raised buoy which was several hundred feet away.

Once we got to the anchorage, we then had to be on the lookout for reefs and bommies. This area of the lagoon is uncharted, but we knew other boats had been there. We navigated our way through the coral reefs, found a sandy spot and dropped anchor. We had to float our chain to avoid getting caught on anything below. And, as soon as we were set, we jumped in with our masks to swim a 360 degree circle around the boat to make sure we had swing room over the coral. We dropped the anchor in 30 feet of sand, but there were coral heads that reached just 8 feet below the surface (enough for us to swing over).

We had a fun couple of days exploring the small island and snorkeling the reef outside the lagoon. We had noticed a couple on the island, who we don’t think permanently live there but were certainly camping out for a few days fishing and playing on the beach. We’re always curious about what fish the locals eat due to the ciguatera issue (dangerous fish toxin I’ve mentioned before). The locals always seem to know which fish on which reefs are safe to eat. So, when the couple came by our boat one afternoon we were pleasantly surprised to have them give us a fish they had just caught. They had quite a few of them in their boat and were genuinely happy to share their bounty without any requests in return. We didn’t get to talk to them much as they were trying to get back before sunset, but we were very excited to try out the fish. It was some sort of snapper or emperor. I couldn’t identify the exact species in our book, but I just decided to call it ceviche.

We took the ceviche over to Kini Popo for a feast that night with the lamb chops Dan put on the grill. It was a bittersweet evening as we said goodbye to Dan and Staci. They left the next morning for the Marquesas. The Marquesas would be Dan’s jumping off point for the long passage up to Hawaii and then the Pacific Northwest. It’s been a fun last two years hanging out with Kini Popo, but our paths now go separate ways…his back to the States and ours to New Zealand.

~katie

Trying to time the weather to make a seven day passage is a bit challenging. In this case, we were heading from Tahiti to the Gambiers on a southeast course. The usual trade winds are easterly, so we needed to find a forecast with some northerly component to it and a bit lighter so that we would not be bashing our brains out going directly into the wind and swell. But, we needed some wind to sail as we don’t carry enough fuel to motor for seven days.

It looked like a decent opportunity was coming up, and we didn’t want to be stuck in Tahiti another week or two waiting for another weather window. So, we motored away from the dock with our friends on Kini Popo just behind us and headed out. The first two of days had us heading into a bigger swell than we would have liked. Our boat doesn’t ride up and over a head on swell, but tends to hobby horse plowing the bow into the waves and then popping up over the other side and slamming down into the trough. Not a fun sail.

The second day was full of squalls. I swear they always happen on my watch. At one point I was watching an oncoming squall with no real way to avoid it. I put on my rain jacket to wait for the onslaught of rain. But, before the rain even got there we were hit with what felt like a wall of wind. The wind had only been in the 10-12 kt range and we had a lot of sail out. All of the sudden we had 35 kts on the beam which heeled us quickly and dramatically. Mike jumped up from down below and I grabbed the helm. The hydrovane had been steering us but couldn’t handle the sudden change of wind. Mike quickly furled in the jib and let out the main to depower it. I steered us downwind to wait out the squall as the rain started pounding down on us.

By day three the conditions were finally in our favor. We had light but steady wind and the sea state had improved quite a lot. The next four days seemed to fly by as we enjoyed mostly good sailing weather. There were some still conditions where we had to motor if we didn’t want to prolong the passage by bobbing around for hours without any wind. We had pleasant nights with skies full of stars. It was a new moon when we left, so the stars were our only light. I love laying down staring up at the constellations and looking for a shooting star or two. But, the best is when we get some phosphorescence in the water which makes it look like the stars are both above and below you.

We did have one funny experience when we passed the atoll of Mururoa. This is a restricted atoll where the French did their nuclear testing. It is off limits to civilian boats but is apparently staffed with French military. The guy on duty one night must have gotten a bit suspicious of us sailing a couple of miles offshore, because he hailed us on the VHF asking who we were and did we know we were in French territory (picture the guy saying this is a heavily French accent).

We arrived in Rikitea on the island of Managareva on Saturday afternoon. We had been checking in twice daily on the SSB with our position report, so several of the boats in the anchorage knew we were arriving. As we started looking for a spot to drop the anchor, the boats that saw us approaching started blaring horns and shouting hellos waving us in. It was quite the welcome! So, with that in mind, that everyone was watching us, it was quite comical that we had trouble getting our anchor down.

Those first couple of days that we had bashed into the swell jumbled up our anchor chain so bad that that it wouldn’t come off the windlass. Mike had to crawl into the anchor locker to untangle it while I drove the boat around doing donuts outside the anchorage for a few minutes. I’m sure we were the entertainment for the whole anchorage that afternoon.

We were happy to have arrived at our destination, but we quickly discovered a problem. Our watermaker wasn’t working. We were able to diagnose the problem and determined we needed a new membrane. Of course this couldn’t have happened in Tahiti where it would have been easy to find one! So, we spend a few days making calls and figuring out how to purchase and arrange for a new membrane to be shipped to us in Rikitea. There is no FedEx or UPS service in French Polynesia, but you can send things freight via Air Tahiti.

While we were busy trying to sort all of this out (not easy with limited phone and internet service), we started looking at the weather forecast. There was a pretty sizable storm that was going to be approaching the area in a few days. While we were stuck in Rikitea, several of our friends had ventured out to other anchorages around the Gambiers. But, Rikitea was definitely the most protected anchorage from the northwest winds that were going to hit us. As the storm was predicted to get closer, more and more boats started filling up the anchorage. What was maybe 12 boats when we arrived soon swelled to 32 boats and was getting crowded. We were sending messages to our friends who were anchored elsewhere to tell them the status of the Rikitea anchorage. They were understandably concerned with how crowded it was, as there is always a chance another boat will drag or swing into you when anchored in such close quarters. So, five boats, including three of our friends, chose to ride out the storm anchored off Taravai about five miles away.

When the storm finally arrived, I was glad we were in the position we were in. The wind was gusty and swirled around the anchorage but wasn’t too bad. The boats were swinging all around, so we just had to make sure we didn’t swing into anyone. Several boats had to reanchor to get away from hitting another boat. One boat even tied up to the commercial wharf. We were close to shore and mostly protected from the wind, but those farther out near the reef weren’t as protected. One boat went up on the reef outside Rikitea but wasn’t damaged.

Over in Taravai, they were not so lucky. We could hear them on the VHF and felt a bit helpless to assist. They saw over 50 kts of wind funneling into their anchorage. One boat dragged and ended up on a reef (luckily not too much damage). Our friend Dan on Kini Popo severely damaged his dinghy and ripped his dodger. Not a fun experience for any of them. The storm lasted for several days before letting up. With so many boats in the area, we were glad no one had any serious damage.

So, our introduction to the Gambiers was a bit of a let down with a major storm and a broken watermaker. But, soon enough we had our new membrane and better weather. We were happy to leave Rikitea after a couple of weeks of feeling stuck there to explore the rest of the Gambiers.

~katie

When I left off we had just returned from our visit to the States and were working hard to get the boat ready to leave for the Gambiers. The Gambiers is one of the more remote archipelagos in French Polynesia. Almost 900 miles southeast of Tahiti, it’s location makes it outside the usual paths of any cyclones that may occur in the South Pacific in the summer time. That makes it a great place to spend a couple of months during the summer. And, it is one of the places in French Polynesia we had not yet been to.

Due to the remoteness of the islands in the Gambiers, supplies are a bit limited. There are only about 500 people that live in the archipelago, with most of them living on the main island of Mangareava and the village of Rikitea. The Gambiers have an interesting history. There was a unique culture here at one time, but it was destroyed by the Catholic missionaries who enslaved the people and caused the deaths of thousands. Some of the original churches erected in the early 1800’s still stand on the islands as a reminder of this history.

Unfortunately, the French didn’t do much better in more recent history. Several atolls only a couple hundred miles from the Gambiers served as nuclear testing grounds through the mid-1990’s. The locals will tell you of the destruction of their agriculture and the extremely high cancer rate that occurred here.

Today, the small remaining population in the Gambiers mostly work in the pearl farm industry or are mainly subsistence based on the outlying islands. There are supply ships that arrive twice a month to deliver goods and take back pearls and oyster shells. There are also flights that arrive twice a week that keep the Gambiers connected to Tahiti. With such a small population and only periodic supplies, you can imagine that provisions would be limited and more expensive. So, in order to get ready to leave, we needed to make some serious grocery runs in Papeete.

Papeete (the main city in Tahiti) has the only large grocery stores in French Polynesia. Food is hit or miss in price. Some things are reasonable, but others are quite expensive. There is a lot of imported food from France, the US, Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, all of the frozen chicken we have found has come from the US. But, you can get duck breasts from France and lamb chops from New Zealand. Produce is sometimes locally grown and sometimes imported. The local stuff is much cheaper. If you want oranges from Florida, its going to cost you.

Our friend Dan on Kini Popo and his new crew Staci were also preparing for the passage to the Gambiers. So, we rented a car together to make several runs back and forth to the Carrefour (grocery store) and the marina. I always think the locals must think we’re crazy when we have a grocery cart piled so full of food that we can barely push it. After putting some damage on our credit cards and stuffing every available compartment on the boat and topping off the freezer, we felt pretty good about our supplies. But, there was still one thing we were missing.

Booze is incredibly expensive in French Polynesia. Think 3-4 times what you would pay in the States. Aside from Hinano, the local beer, and one local Tahitian rum, everything is imported. You can find lots of French wines, but any other liquor is imported and a ridiculous price. Cruisers are a social bunch, and every time you pull into a new anchorage someone will invite you over for sundowners which then gets reciprocated and then another boat invites you over…You get the picture. And, we like our cocktails out in the cockpit enjoying a beautiful sunset with a palm tree lined island next door. So, to not purchase some alcohol was not really in the plans.

Our friend Marcus gave us a tip that there was a guy in Tahiti that made bootleg rum at a reasonable price. He found the phone number for us, and Mike and Dan immediately called the guy. I think there was something about the fact that they were doing something illicit, that a guy had a homemade still concocting a secret rum, that made this seem like an exciting thing to do. The next thing I knew, Mike and Dan were each emptying and consolidating old liquor bottles. Then, they ran off to make a cash deal in the parking lot of the post office!

They both came back laughing with a ten liter water jug full of rum. They had to return the jug, which was the reason for the empty liquor bottles. The two of them sat on the dock at the marina with a funnel filling up all the bottles as various people came traipsing down the dock to check out the action. They filled up the last bottle as the sun was setting, and it was time to try out the goods. The rum seller had given them a bottle of vanilla syrup and explained that the way to drink the rum was a little ice, a shot of rum, a splash of vanilla syrup and a squeeze of lime. It was similar to what the French call ‘ti punch. And, it was delicious. After several rums with a few other sailors we attracted on the docks, we returned our full bottles to our boat and to get some rest for the seven day passage to the Gambiers.

p.s. We are now in the Gambiers with zero internet or phone service other than the sat phone. What little phone/internet there was here has been down for weeks. So, its going to be a while until I have any photos I can share. But, I’ll work on getting up more text updates about our time here in the Gambiers.

-Katie