The Storm Approaches

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