Hello to everyone! Wishing you all a very happy new year and let’s hope 2025 is another great year.
We have been busy since I last posted. We have spent some time exploring more of this wonderful country and we have welcomed family on to the boat for Christmas.
Last time we left you, we had just come back from an amazing week in the Coromandel Peninsula. We decided that we would take a trip North up to the Bay of Islands the next week, however the weather had other ideas. Instead, we stayed for a couple of rainy nights with our friends, Donna and Mark on Coral Moon in Opua Marina and then headed back to Whangarei.
The week after, we needed to head down to Auckland. For one, we had to attend an interview at the US Embassy to apply for a B2 visa to enter the US by boat. And secondly, we had to collect our youngest son Vinnie and Ailsa’s mum Judith from the Airport when they arrived in New Zealand to stay for Christmas.
We had two days before they arrived to take a look around the city. It’s a great place. We were impressed with the buildings and the city layout with the views over the harbour. We took the chance to visit the sky tower and have a drink in the bar, 50 stories up with an amazing view of the city and the surrounding area.
I’m also glad to say that we passed the interview at the US embassy and got our B2 visa. This means that we can now go through with our plans to visit the US. More on that later.
Here’s a short video of some of the stuff we saw in Auckland, mostly from the top of the Sky Tower.
After a couple of days, we headed to the airport to meet the family arriving for the UK. It was an emotional reunion!
We hired a house for a few days to allow Vinnie and Judith to beat the jetlag and acclimatise to New Zealand life and we took the chance to show them a bit of Auckland including another visit to the Sky Bar! Vinnie also had the chance to meet up with his old college friend Tom who is working and living in Auckland.
After a few days we headed back to the boat, did some shopping and got things ready just in time for Christmas dinner! Tom drove up and joined us too. It was a lovely couple of days and of course, we all ate and drank far too much, as well as playing the usual ferocious card games.
We have day trips out between Christmas and New Year. The weather here has been fabulous blue sky and about 25 degrees.
We took a drive up the coast from Whangarei to the Bay of Islands and the town of Russell with lots of stops on the way to take in the views and the beautiful coves and beaches.
Vinnie and I walked up to the Whangarei Falls where we were picked up by Ailsa and Judith.
We took a drive to the Waipu caves. We didn’t manage to get far into the caves as we were totally unprepared with our footwear, but we did do the spectacular walk that features in the video above.
Today on New Years Eve we visited the Waipu Scottish Highland Games! Waipu was settled by the Scottish in the 1800’s and this was the 152nd Highland games including lots of bagpipes, tossing the caber, dancing and throwing the hammer. All good fun and in true Scottish tradition, there was lots of rain showers (Scottish mist) but no midges!
And finally, here’s some thoughts about our plans for 2025. it looks like we are going to stay in New Zealand until around April or May and then we shall be heading back to the UK for a couple of months to sell our house. We shall return to New Zealand again around August time and get Azimuth ready to sail back up North. The plans at the moment are to head to Fiji and then spend the end of the year (cyclone season) in Micronesia in the islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. 2026 will see us head up to Japan and beyond!
We hope you all had a great festive season, and we look forward to telling you more about New Zealand in the next post.
Hi to everyone. We have been having a lovely time in New Zealand since we last checked in. The people we meet and the more places we visit, the more we like this country.
Having a car again is a bizarre experience after nearly 3 years without one. We had forgotten the ease of jumping in your car and just nipping to the shops, or going on a day adventure. No need to work out the local buses or haggling for a taxi, or praying that your dinghy engine doesn’t conk out!
That said then, we have been out for quite a few day trips in the local area and to experience some of the amazing scenery that Whangarei and its surrounds has to offer.
Last time, we visited Bream Head, and I left you with a video of that walk on my previous post. Well, a few days later we decided to head back to the same area and attempt to summit Mount Manaia, an imposing lump of rock with many pinnacles that rise menacingly from its head. The weather was superb again as we set off from the carpark at the foot of the mountain. I shot this video which gives you a taste of this walk. A steep but very well-maintained path guides you to the top where we stopped for lunch with a view to die for.
It was hard going with a lot of steps to climb, but we are starting to get our land legs back and this was definitely helping improve our general fitness!
Walking up Mount Manaia
We were pleased to be invited a few days later to go on another walk with some fellow cruisers, Andy and Julie who we met when we were checking in to NZ. Their boat is moored in Whangarei town basin, so we met up with them in town and set off towards Whangarei Falls. it was another hot day, and the walk wound up a steep sided river valley with a stop at a small park called the Alan Reid Memorial Park. This was a little enclave with a spectacular walkway in the trees and a waterfall.
Eventually we made our way to the pretty Whangarei falls that cascade over a basalt cliff studded with columns, into a large plunge pool.
It was a lovely walk and fun to share with Andy and Julie
Now the legs are starting to loosen up a bit! We took advantage of the great weather and this time at the advice of the marina manager, Blair, we drove about 60 kms South of Whangarei to Mangawhai Head where we walked along the spectacular beach and then up along a cliff walk.
The video below gives you a sense of scale of the beach, and the vistas of the area.
On the way home we stopped off for Pizza and beer at a local brewery. The beer in NZ is great!!
The best we are saving for last in this post. Since about October, I had been in touch with a sail broker in New Zealand and had reserved 2 second hand sails for Azimuth. We needed to go and pick these up. The sail broker lives in an area of New Zealand known as the Coromandel Peninsula, a strip of mountainous terrain that sticks up of the East side of North Island, not far from Auckland. Our travel guide describes it as a beautiful place to visit, so we thought why not make a road trip of it?
The weather looked great last week, so we prepared everything as best we could. Bought a few camping supplies, loaded up the car and headed off South from Whangarei. The roads are very easy in North Island and the traffic was light and it took about 3 hours to get to the town of Thames at the bottom of the peninsula.
This place had some history. It felt a bit like a wild west town and with good reason. In the 1860’s the town was the focus of a gold rush with discoveries of gold packed quartz veins all around the area. At its peak there were some 120 bars and hotels along the main street of the town all catering to thirsty gold seekers.
We arrived around lunchtime and stopped at a cafe. We had a walk around the town.
Then we headed to our first campsite of the trip just outside of town up the Kauaeranga valley, called “Shag Stream”!?!
We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Very pretty spot.
The next morning, we headed to Thames and visited a gold mining museum where we got to go on a tour of the underground workings and see the gold processing plant which was originally driven by a water wheel. The plant had been lovingly restored and was in full working order.
I videoed the tour here for those of you that are interested. It was a fascinating insight into the mining history of the area.
We also got to pan for gold! Although I don’t think there was much to find. Ailsa claims she was successful. I will let you decide in the pictures below:
After the tour we took a drive up the west coast of the peninsula towards Coromandel Town. We had many stops along the way just to take in the amazing views
The road is pretty crazy. It hugs the cliffs and occasionally is diverted in land up steep ravines. Beautiful place!
We stopped at Coromandel town for lunch and then headed to a nearby holiday park where we had booked a glamping pod for the night right on the beach. It was an idyllic spot and again we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
I put together this short video of the trip up the peninsula.
The next morning, we really headed off into the wilds, the far North of the peninsula.
About 10 miles north of Coromandel Town, the tarmac road stopped, and the gravel road started which was to take us the next 30 kilometres to the top of the peninsula. This road was even more spectacular and hair raising that the last. Eventually we came to a small car park where we planned to walk out along the top of the peninsula to Muriwai. You couldn’t have asked for a bluer sky with views of the sea, the farmland and the rugged peaks to die for.
Another 10 kilometres further along an even more tortuous road brought us to our home for the night at Fletcher Bay. Again, virtually empty, we had our pick of wonderful camping spots not far from the beach and surrounded by steep hills.
I woke up really early the next morning to the sound of bird song, so I climbed up the hill and sat and watched the sunrise.
We took a slow drive South again, this time down the East side of the Peninsula. This featured more crazy roads in the North and then sweeping beaches and more touristy towns. We stopped for the night in a lodge next to a place called Hot Water Beach. Reputedly, a hot spring rises at the beach and in one particular spot, you can dig a hole and bath in the warm water. Well, this had been “touristed” to death. We found the beach which was vast, and it was obvious where the spring was located as it was packed with confused looking people with spades all digging holes. I walked down for a look and even tried stepping in some of the abandoned holes, but the water temperature was tepid at best!
We left fairly quickly and chilled out at the lodge. It was located right next to a brewery which unfortunately was closed for the night! Damn!
The next morning, we went to get our sails. We were warmly welcomed by Dave and Tracey on their 25-acre farmstead nestled in the foothills. A stunning place. We spent at least 2 hours chatting about our cruising adventures drinking tea on their veranda! We left with the car stuffed with two new sails and bags of fruit that they picked for us.
For our last night we headed South to the town of Waihi. Another mining town. This was the first-place gold was discovered in NZ back in 1863. The “Martha” quartz vein was found to be very rich in gold. It was mined extensively underground and then in 1980, the mining company somehow got the permission to dig a huge open pit right next to the town centre. You can literally step off the main street up a bank and you are faced with a huge hole in the ground which is now collapsing on one side.
We took a look at the gold mining museum but unfortunately just missed out on doing the mine tour. There is still a working underground mine at the bottom of the pit.
Just out of Waihi, the road enters Karangahake Gorge which was to be our final camping spot of the trip. We pitched the tent not far from the gorge next to the river at a place called Dickies Flats.
Being a friday night it was busier at this site. Then we realised the next morning why: A marathon running event was starting from this location and about 500 people descended on the area. We made a quick getaway and headed to the Gorge visitors centre where there are a number of historical walks. The gorge is littered with old gold mine workings and processing plants. The old machinery lies abandoned in the most beautiful of settings of the steep sided gorge. To get access to the mines, the old timers had to cut pathways and tunnels into the steep rockfaces of the gorge and we got to explore this fascinating area.
What an amazing trip!
Join us next time as we head further North from Whangarei whilst we wait for family to arrive for Xmas!
Hi everyone! Last time we left you we were enjoying life at anchor in Tonga and sampling the delights of playing gigs again. This time we sail from Tonga to New Zealand and get settled into the life of Land lubbers!
The sail from Tonga to New Zealand has a fearsome reputation amongst sailors. Its perhaps because most cruisers like to stick close to the equator where there is generally nice easy trade wind sailing. Once you go 30 degrees North or South of the Equator you are into the area of weather described as the variables. Thats the kind of weather that hits the UK and whilst settled in summer and characterised by high pressure systems, as we all know in the winter those variables produce a string of depressions bringing rain and often strong winds.
The North Island of New Zealand lies about 35 degrees South of the Equator, so the passage from Tonga transitions from trade wind sailing into variables sailing. At this time of year, springtime for New Zealand, the weather generally flips between high pressure systems and nasty depressions that roll through from the west every 8 days or so. The trick is to time your passage to pass through the region in between those nasty depressions.
Thats the principle any way, the reality for us was somewhat different.
First though we had to check out of Tonga and renegotiate the horrendous customs dock!
Everyone in the anchorage had been watching the weather, and most people generally agreed that now was a good time to set off. So, the customs dock was busy. We decided to walk down to the dock first and assess the situation. Our friends Mark and Donna had somehow managed to avoid going to the customs dock the day before and checked out anyway, so we thought we would try that on. The customs lady was having none of it! She told us to bring Azimuth to the already crowded dock and only then would she check us out.
So, we returned to Azimuth paying our mooring fees on the way and slipped our lines from our trusty buoy we had been tied to for the last month. Thankfully there was no anchor to pull up by hand. We approached the dock and hoped to raft up alongside another boat already there. They wouldn’t answer their radio, so we were forced to go alongside the commercial dock where another boat was already moored. Its horrendous! Metal and concrete in a state of disrepair and huge rubber bumpers that are falling off. All designed to wreck the gelcoat on the side of your yacht. In the end we managed to get slowly in place, and the wind blew us on. We have some nice rubber marks on the side of the boat now that we need to polish out … oh well.
Customs were sorted and we managed to get off the dock and motor out of the harbour. Sails went up and we slowly sailed out of Tonga.
As we left the refuge of land, the swell picked up, and soon we were sailing along at 7 knots on a beam reach even with a couple of reefs in the main and our tiny jib, which we have nicknamed the handkerchief.
On that first day we covered 175 miles. A great pace and things looked good for an easy passage. The next 24 hours we slowed a little and covered 157 miles and then 132 miles the next day. it was easy sailing; the only mishap was one of our reefing lines snapped (first reef)
By now we were not far from a place called Minerva Reef. This is a possible stopping off point where you can sit and wait for better weather if it looks bad on the approach to New Zealand (there is about 800 miles to go). For us, we thought we would carry on. We didn’t want to drop the anchor because of the hassle of getting the thing back up. And anyway, the weather forecast was okay.
A depression was due to pass between us and New Zealand in a couple of days, but it was much further South of our position and potentially we could ride the back of it into New Zealand. It looked good on paper, so we started to head West to be in a good position to catch the wind when it arrived.
Over the next couple of days, the wind pretty much died! We were still sailing though with a full main and both the stay sail and handkerchief out we were bobbing along at between 2.5 and 4 knots on a lovely flat sea. Really nice sailing as it happens!
We were checking the weather every day, and it was changing radically every day. The passed through faster than predicted, this was followed by huge high-pressure system which we eventually found ourselves right in the middle of! No wind. Most people would turn on the engine at this point. However, we didn’t have enough diesel on board to motor any significant distance. We just had enough to maybe motor 100 miles. It was hard to tell from the tank gauges that were mostly pointing to empty. So, we dropped the sails that night and went to bed whilst we drifted on a flat sea.
The next few days were much of the same. We had at least 250 miles to sail South to get through the high system. Occasionally thew wind would start to blow up to 10 knots. We would put all the sails up and bob along at about 2.5 to 3 knots. It was lovely sailing, and there was no stress. The long-range forecast didn’t predict any depressions on the way, in fact it looked like 3 high pressure systems would all converge on our position.
At some point we crossed the international date line proper, a longitude of 180 degrees halfway round the planet from the UK! We celebrated that little milestone
We did have one day of crazy sailing. The wind picked up to 25 knots as a front passed across our location. Great wind we thought, but it was on the nose! Coming from the South where we wanted to go. We were hard on the wind, and I noticed that the handkerchief had ripped. So, we had to get it down and spent a few hours resewing it. Only a little tear in a seam.
In the end it took is 19 days to complete the sail! During that time, we saw all kinds of amazing sunsets. The highlight was a visit by a whale, whilst we sat with our sails down. It was a moment that made the whole trip worthwhile and our closest ever encounter with a whale.
Eventually we sighted land!
We had another very slow sail down the side of New Zealand and overnight we entered the Whangarei River and pulled into Marsden Cove Marina to the customs dock early the next morning.
It took a while for the customs guys to turn up. And whilst we waited three other boats turned up, meaning there were 5 boats in total squeezed in to the tiny Q dock. We were all checked in by lunchtime, so we visited the fuel dock to take on diesel and then motored up the river to our new home for the next few months at Port Nikau Marina
It feels weird to be in a marina! We haven’t been in one since we left the UK 2 and half years ago. You can just step out of your boat straight on to dry land!
We have been here just over a week and so far, we are loving what we have seen. Everyone is incredibly friendly and helpful. We have been welcomed into the community. So far, we have managed to buy a car, go to the cruiser’s meetups, pull the old anchor windlass out of the boat and hopefully source the new parts we need to fix it. As well as dispose of the old ripped genoa :-(.
We have driven about 30 minutes out of town to the beautiful Whangarei Heads and had a lovely walk. Check out the video below taken with our new 360 degree camera!!
Join us next time as we start to explore New Zealand, this time by land in the new (to us!) car.
Last time we left you we were enjoying ourselves in Niue . This time we tell you what we have been up to in the last month, our travels to and our exploration of the Vava’u islands in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Our time in Niue was coming to an end. Our hand was some what forced, the sea forecast for the next couple of days had big swells coming from the South West straight in to the anchorage. We had a very uncomfortable night onboard Azimuth, with the boat rolling from side to side, and that was before the worst of it had arrived. It was also getting very difficult to land our trusty canoe on the shore and even more difficult to launch it again. We had a canoe fail moment not dissimilar to the the last time, although this time it was Ailsa that was take a full dunking rather than me!
So we got Azimuth ready for her next sail. This time we hoped it would be uneventful!
Infact, it was a lovely uneventful sail. About 48 hours to get to the island group of Vava’u in the Tonga. We had the rather strange experience of crossing the international date line, another first for us. Whilst the time did not changed, somehow we lost an entire day, so we arrived three days after leaving Niue even though we had only been at sea for two.
Land came in to view late morning, and we sailed down the western side of Vava’u during the afternoon and then motored the last 5 miles in to the port of Nieafu weaving in between beautiful forested islands and in to the narrow entrance of the superb anchorage. The anchorage is effectively a tidal lagoon that is surrounded on all sides by tree lined hills with only one narrow entrance.
First we had to check in to Tonga. You are required to pull up to the fishermans wharf and fly your Q flag and wait for the customs officials to board the vessel, insect it and do the required paperwork. This dock has a pretty poor reputation as being badly maintained. Its old broken concrete will put a nasty dent in your boat if your not careful. There is a sunken wreck at one end of the dock and the other end has a shallow sand bank to catch you out too!
When we arrived, there was no room at the dock at all. The last space was taken by a yacht we had met before and the rest of the short dock had small fishing boats parked along side. We tried to call customs to get some advice as to where we should berth, but no one answered the radio. Eventually another friendly local came on the radio and tried to help. In the end we shouted to the fisherman in their boats who were busy sinking several beers and asked them if we could raft up? They were very friendly and helpful and they took our lines and got Azimuth berthed across two of their boats.
The customs guy turned up with a huge pile of forms that I had to fill in. However, it was Saturday afternoon and he was due to knock off in 20 minutes. Another boat arrived just after us too, so he told me to pretty much just sign the forms and fill out the minimal amount of stuff and he said he would fill out the rest later. We were done in 15 minutes. This is in contrast to many other peoples experiences where the average checkin time was about 3 hours!
So we the stamps in our passports, we pulled of the dock and headed to the anchorage. It was packed full of boats! Unknown to us, it was the start of a week long blue water sailing festival. We managed to get the very last buoy luckily for us after being kicked off another buoy by one of the local boats. It would have been very difficult for us to anchor here with the depth in the lagoon being about 30 to 40 metres and our anchor windlass now not working at all.
It is a lovely anchorage if not a little noisy at night. We have the local start dogs howling in the early evening, then the enormous fruit bats take to the skies at dusk and start squabbling and squawking. Finally the cockerels start their chorus in the early dawn. You definitely feel close to nature here!
The port town is lovely. It has a very laid back feel to the place. There is a great fruit and vegetable market that is open all day everyday except Sunday. The high street is a line of primitive shops run almost exclusively by Chinese families and all of them sell the same stuff presumably because they are all supplied by the same boats trading with the island. There is a great cruisers community here too and there are plenty of restaurants and bars to hang out in meet up with people. It is also a much cheaper place than the crazy prices we have had to pay in French Polynesia, presumably because it is closer to New Zealand and well supplied.
Our first week in Tonga was a little slow. It took us a couple of days to recover from the sail, and then Ailsa was struck down by a bug and felt lousy for a week. I spent the time catching up on a couple of boat jobs.
One day we had a knock on the door, and we were delighted to see our friends Knut and Sunni from La Kahina who we had met in Suwarrow in the Cook Islands and had a night of jamming with Knut on Banjo and me on Guitar. We decided we should make some plans to meet up again for a rematch. Knut and Sunni had been joined on board by Knuts brother Michael and his girlfriend Antonia as well as their cousin Ruben.
A few nights later we had our first chance to meet up and play some music at a local bar called the Kraken. It was great fun to play with these guys!
Later that week, we took a walk to the local national park which resides on the highest point on the island. We had some great views of the island and out over the town and anchorage
It seems word had got out about our first little gig. That weekend we got an invite to a party at a locals house with instructions to bring the guitars. We had a great afternoon. Our hosts were Axel and Yorik who owned a dive business on the island. They cooked for us all and we picked coconuts from their garden and drank the coconut water. Then it was time for a few beers and another impromptu gig!
Whilst we had been enjoying the party, our son Caleb had been hard at work. He has been in Gibraltar for the last three months studying and sailing to prepare for his commercial yacht master offshore exam. He passed! Well done mate, a great achievement!
After a couple of weeks in Tonga, it was great to have our good friends Donna and Mark arrive on Coral Moon! We hadn’t seen them since our few days together in Raraka, and we had both sailed many miles through the society islands and the cook islands since then . A lot to catch up on!
The anchorage here has a floating bar that is run by a fun Canadian couple. I think Donna and Ailsa may have had one drink too many when they decided they needed to experience the over water trampoline that is attached to the bar … luckily I was there to capture the moment on video, so I can share it with you here! Such grace and beauty!
Yep, our stay has been a lot of fun here in Tonga. Probably the highlight though was another invite to play our third gig . This time we played at a local restaurant called the Humpback Bar. The bar already had their own house band, playing traditional Tongan music on guitars. The gig was described to us the battle of the bands? Trad Irish versus Trad Tongan?! Should be fun right?
We were collected by a minibus that evening and we headed to the venue with all our instruments in tow. When we arrived the house band was already there and set up. They invited us to join them in a traditional Tongan drink called Cava. Its made from the root of a pepper plant. Its not alcoholic but has some other drug like qualities when enough is consumed. Quite bizzare to drink as it makes your mouth tingle with the pepper content.
These guys were very talented musicians! And also they were very good at close harmony singing. We clearly had our work cut out in the battle of the bands! We setup on the other side of the room, and throughout the whole night we took turns playing a song each. The place was packed to the rafters!
At the end of the night we were able to join the two bands together and we played along to some of their traditional songs and they explained the meaning of them to us too. It was a great musical experience!
Join us next time as we wait for a weather window in Tonga and then make the 1200 mile sail to Whangerai in New Zealand for the next part of our world adventure.
Hi to everyone again. Last time we left you we had just arrived at the island of Niue after a difficult sail. Arriving at Niue was a lovely experience. The seas died and the welcome of the radio from the islands 24 hour a day coastguard channel was warm and freindly.
We pulled up to the port of Alofi early in the morning having timed our arrival for first light. There is no anchorage here as the bay is deep and the bottom is coral and rock. However, Niue Yacht Club has installed 15 moorings for visiting yachts and we picked one of those up when we arrived and breathed a big sigh of relief!
We were called up on the radio an hour or so later where we were informed that customs would meet us at the dock to check us in to the country. So we headed out to the dock to meet them. Sure enough, a lovely woman met us in her car and offered us a lift to the customs office about 100m away! We have never had a welcome like this we thought?! 10 minutes later and a couple of forms filled in as well as the offer of chocolate orange biscuits we were checked in to the country!
Niue Anchorage
And what a gem Niue is. We could only stay for one week until the swell in the anchorage meant we needed to leave. Its a difficult place for boats as the anchorage is open to the sea and there is very little shelter. However, in the week were there, we saw a lot and loved it! We hired a car for two days for the very reasonable price of £30 a day. We ate out pretty much everyday, simply because we could! Last time we had eaten out in a restaurant was back in Tahiti, almost two months ago!
So before we take you on a tour of this fascinating place, let me first tell you a few interesting facts.
Niue is one of the worlds smallest independent countries. Its independent but in the past was a protectorate of New Zealand. Its has a population of about 1000 people. As with other parts of the pacific, people have been steadily leaving over the last few decades and heading to places like New Zealand and Australia.
The geology of the island is really interesting. Niue is an old and inactive volcano that rose above the sea before it died. As its soft cone eroded by weather and waves, it also shrank as its core cooled. During this slow process, a coral reef formed on its top, the Mutalau Reef, named after the island’s present highest point. The reef kept up with the sinking rate of the volcano, laying down a coral cap of possibly 70 + 130m = 200m. The diagram below aims to visualise what happened.
So you have this fossilised reef that sticks out of the sea today up to 70m at its highest point. Because its in the tropics, the limestone weathers in to sharp razor edges by solution leaving fantastic landscape pitted with caves and chasms.
Right enough of that, lets take you on a tour to some of the places we visitied!
There are only a few roads on the island, and most of them are full of potholes apart from the ones that have been freshly tarmacked courtesy of China Aid (there were signs everywhere). We wonder what kind of deal the island had to do to get their hands on the that money?
First stop the scenic out look of Ana’ana Point, where you climb down some jagged rocks and look over the cliff edge at blowholes and the reef below
Our next stop along the south coast was at Matavai Scenic Resort, where we stopped for tea. A very pretty hotel full of Kiwis on holiday.
After a stop for lunch we headed to the first of three different chasms that we visited. A rather steep road dropped us down the side of a steep cliff to a small clearing in the rain forest where we parked up and headed in to the forest along a well maintained path that cut through the limestone boulders. It was not long until we reached Anapala chasm which was a very narrow cleft that cut in to the rock with steps leading down in to the darkness.
Its difficult to catch this dramatic place on camera. At the bottom of the chasm, it was almost dark except for the sunlight filtering through from the narrow top. The chasm was full of fresh water, so I took a swim along its length . It was quite unnerving! The water was fresh and crystal clear and where the shafts of light shone, you could see down to the bottom, many metres below. A very cool place!
A 30 minute drive further up the coast delivered us to Togo Chasm. We parked in another forest clearing and this time took a longer walk through the ancient woodland. It felt like walking through Fangorn Forest our of the lord of the rings!
Just next to the path were many huge spiders webs with some very evil looking spiders sitting in wait.
The path eventually broke through the forest and out to a huge vista of the sea and some amazing rook formations. The path cut through pinnacles of razor sharp limestone and came to dramtic cliff edges.
We met another family of Americans who were busy looking out to sea. We joined them and watched with joy, three humpback whales cavorting a 100 metres off shore!
The path lead down towards the chasm itself, where we had to climb down a long ladder to gain access to a weird oasis at the bottom. We sat and had a drink and then explored this fascinating place with a cave that lead to the sea.
The next day we continued our island tour. We headed to the North of the island and explored the caves of Tauei Fupiu Fort.
These caves were high up on the sides of cliffs showing that sea level at one time must have been a lot higher. Inside the caves were many stalagmites and stalactites.
Our next stop was Matapa Chasm, where a short walk took us down to the sea and a narrow protected gully with beautiful clear water.
I couldn’t resist the chance of a swim when we arrived further down the coast at Limu Pools. These pools were nestled in the cliffs and protected from the out sea by the reef. It was a very refreshing swim in the heat of the day
And finally as we headed back to Alofi and the anchorage we stopped to sea the place where Captain Cook was reputed to have landed when he claimed the island in the 1700’s much to the disgust of the native people i’m sure. Well at lease no other white person was to return to hassle the Niuean’s for another 80 years.
Of course no tour would be complete without a stop at this very convincing giant coconut crab which is mentioned in the 101 things to see in Niue guide!
Hopefully you will agree, this place really is a little gem in the pacific? Crystal clear water (great snorkelling), humpback whales and I haven’t even mentioned how lovely the people were. We could have happily stayed longer, but the sea had other plans.
Join us next time as we sail to the islands of Vava’u in the Kingdom of Tonga!
Hi again! Last time we left you, we were just getting ready to depart from Penrhyn. Our next destination was planned to be Niue, one of the worlds smallest countries, a small island about 1000 miles south west of Penrhyn. Originally we had planned to sail to Suwarrow, another Cook Island and a national park that is directly on course to Niue. Unfortunately we had been told by customs that Suwarrow was closed to visiting yachts.
We woke to a perfect sunny day with a light breeze. Getting the anchor up this time was not too difficult. We were anchored in sand in about 6 metres of crystal clear water, and it took me about 20 minutes to hand crank the anchor up. Its a good work out that is for sure!
Engine on, we motored out of the shallows
We unfurled the Genoa and took a nice slow sail across the atoll dodging the coral bommies.
Then we motored through the pass out in to the open ocean. Farewell Penrhyn, hope to see you again some day!
We got the main up and headed on our course to Niue. Initially the sailing was easy, we were in the lee of the atoll and the sea state was flat and the wind was blowing a pleasant Force 4 at about 120 degrees apparent. As the hours went by, the sea state started to build and so did the wind. The forecast was for 17 knots with gusts to 22. However, as night approached the wind settled at about an average of 22knots with gusts to 30. We had two reefs in the main and the Genoa and we were making fast progress. The wind was now on the beam and the seas just behind the beam and we were surfing at between 8 and 10 knots. This went on for the next 36 hours. Then the wind started to drop a bit, and sea conditions started to settle.
It was early morning when I was on watch, I noticed our speed had dropped and we had started to roll from side to side. I looked up at the main sail to see that it was ripped right across the middle!! Oh no!
We had ripped our mainsail before on a passage between Trinidad and Curacao. That had been in a really crazy squall. This time, it seems to have happened in fairly normal trade wind conditions. What todo? Well first thing was to drop the main to avoid any more damage. At this point we were 80 miles from Suwarrow. Without a mainsail, the rolling onboard Azimuth was horrible. We were still sailing fast though. However, we still had 600 miles to go to reach Niue. I didn’t fancy that without a mainsail. So we made a decision to try and stop at Suwarrow where hopefully we could repair the main and continue our journey to Niue. Suwarrow is manned by two rangers, and even though Suwarrow was closed to yachts, I hope they would grant us a port of refuge to make our repairs.
We furled in the Genoa to try and slow down so that we would reach Suwarrow at first light the next day where we needed the light to negotiate the narrow pass in to the Atoll. Now with the boat slowed down, the rolling was even worst! I felt pretty rubbish. Thankfully Ailsa felt better and was able to take on more of the watch.
The next morning we did arrive outside the Atoll at first light. I called up the Rangers on VHF 16 and they very kindly gave us permission to enter the Atoll. We stowed the sails and motored in to the pass. There was a strong current against us of about 4 knots, but as with other atoll pass transits we had done, it was short lived, and the sea state was easy. Soon enough we were in to the calm waters of another lagoon and with relief we dropped the hook in the only anchorage just off the rangers huts.
Its a stunning anchorage, and the immediate thing that hit us was the noise of the birds that were smarming like a whirlwind over the far end of the island.
When we were settled, the rangers came out to visit us on the boat. They were two guys, very quietly spoken and very friendly. We explained our situation and asked for refuge to fix the sail and they said no problem. We showed them the paperwork we had for leaving Penrhyn, and they explained that all we needed to do was pay an anchoring fee and we could stay until we had made our repairs. Phew! They couldn’t have been nicer or more understanding.
We spent the rest of the day recovering from the trip and then the next morning set about getting the main sail off. We were nervous as to the extent of the damage. We initially thought the the sail had properly ripped. However, as we revealed the area of damage it became apparent it was a seam that had parted and we felt hopeful it could be sewn back together by hand using the same stitching holes. We both thought that the sail had just failed in the same place it had already been repaired in Curacao.
So we managed to get the sail off and using various halyards we got it in to the cockpit and then in to the saloon which became our “sewing emporium”!
When we unrolled the sail and found the damaged area, we noticed it wasn’t the seam that had failed before, but a different seam, this one much longer! The seam was 4 metres in length and entirely parted with rips in the luff and the leach too. Also the luff rope had snapped further down the sail and was hanging out through a tear. We did the maths. The seam was 4m and triple stitched in a zigzag machine stitch. We realised that to hand stitch the same holes we would need to do two passes on each of the three lines. So, that was 3x4x2 = 24 metres of sewing, plus the other repairs! Ouch!
The damaged seam.
There was nothing else for it. We removed all the old broken threads. I started sewing at one end of the seam and Ailsa started at the other. We put the stereo on to listen to some tunes and settled in. By the end of the day we had only done about half a metre! Our fingers were red raw, and our backs were aching from being stooped over!!
It would take us 6 days to finish the job!
On day three another boat called La Kahina turned up. They were on there way to Western Samoa and were seeking refuge from the weather for a couple of days. They were a lovely couple called Cnut and Suni and they came over to say hello. Cnut works as an officer in the merchant navy onboard a cable laying ship for 6 months of the year and for the other 6 months, he sails La Kahina, a steel hulled ketch. Although he is American, his family have lived in Ireland for most of his life and that was where they had bought the boat. So we instantly hit it off with stories of Ireland and how we had come to buy Azimuth in Kinsale. It also turned out that Cnut was a very proficient banjo player. So after a couple of glasses of wine he went and fetched his banjo and we had a jam session! Ailsa took this video snippet. You cant see much but you can hear the playing!
It never ceases to amaze me of the situations you find yourself in, and the people you meet as you sail round this planet, and this was one of those special moments in time where you cross paths with random people with a shared love for music.
It gave us a much needed boost to carry on with the repairs too. We had realised that we were very low on sewing thread, so before they left La Kahina gave us some thread from their supplies. Thanks guys!
La Kahina setting off from Suwarrow
The sewing continued for 6 days in total. We had to ask the rangers for an extension, as we had originally estimated the repair would take 3 days, but they were fine with it.
With some relief then, we finished the work. It looked pretty professional. The next day no wind was forecast, so we had a good opportunity to put the sail back on.
The next day was windless and hot. We set to work. Now, our main sail is battened. It has long fibreglass batons that slide in to pockets horizontally across the sail. These battens provide rigidity to the sail and allow a better shape when its raised in the wind. The sail fixes to the boom using a bolt rope that slides in to a track along the top of the boom and is held at either end by shackles. The luff of the sail attaches to track cars that slide up and down a track on the mast. You work your way up from the bottom of the sail. The longest batten goes in first. This is about 6 metres long. Its the trickiest one to get in. We both were on the coach roof pulling the sail up. To get this long batten in to its pocket, I have to literally hang it off the back of the boat, resting it on the solar panels on top of the cockpit bimini. The battens are flexible and this longest one drooped down over the back. At the moment we were trying to get the batten in to its pocket, the wind picked up and started to pull the sail away. In my haste to grab the sail, I inadvertently let go of the batten. To my horror, I watched it slither off the solar panels and slide in to the water behind Azimuth with a very unsatisfying splash!
I could have cried!!! Infact I think I nearly was in tears. I just couldn’t quite believe what had happened! Over the next minute I issued a string of expletives that would have made your mother blush as I admonished myself for being so f***in stupid!!!! What the hell were we going to do now????
I knew the water was deep at the back of Azimuth, about 11m. Could I dive down and retrieve the batten? Thankfully the water was crystal clear. Once I had calmed down a few minutes later, we set about getting our snorkelling gear on to go and take a look. I was putting my mask on, and to add to my grief, at that moment the strap chooses to break!! Out with my old mask!
We swam out and there on the bottom was the batten draped over a coral bommie about 15m behind Azimuth. It was way too deep for me to dive for sure and even with my hookah diving equipment, I didn’t think I would have enough pipe length to reach it. So we started looking around to see what we could use to try and hook the batten and lift it.
We have a fishing lure on some strong line, and the lure has two big hooks. We attached some large fishing weights to the lure to weigh it down and then we swam out. Ailsa held the line reel whilst I dangled the lure. Within a couple of minutes I managed to hook the batten near its middle!. I started to gently lift it . It got about 5 metres off the bottom before it started to slip down the hook. I watched in horror as the hook slid off the batten end and dropped back to the bottom again!
I remembered then that one end of the batten had a plastic cap on the end to protect the pocket it sits in the sail. On my second attempt, I managed to get the hook to slide towards this cap. It held! I very slowly and gently lifted the whole thing until with an amazing feeling of relief I reached down and grabbed the batten in my hand! We got the thing back on the boat. I was shaking with the adrenaline! I had gone from complete despair to utter elation in the space of about 30 minutes. I’m convinced only sailing can put you in these crazy situations!
That batten was fitted back in to the sail without issue and with a lot of care and attention! The rest of the sail installation went fine too and we breathed a large sigh of relief that the job was complete and we were now ready to complete our journey to Niue. One thing we hadn’t noticed was that we had been outside now for several hours and we were both really sunburnt!
The next day we checked the weather and it looked good to get to Niue. We checked out of Suwarrow with the Rangers and set to getting the anchor up. I had dived the anchor a couple of times and I knew that the chain was wrapped around a couple of bommies. So we came up with a plan of how I would wind the chain by hand whilst Ailsa manoeuvred Azimuth. We had our agreed hand signals!
The wind dropped, so I went to make a start. It was heavy going with the chain getting stuck and then freeing itself slowly. The skies started to darken too and the wind freshen, and I could see a squall on the way! Just as I finally got the anchor on board the skies opened and the wind shot up to 30 knots as we got hit by a full on squall. We both looked like drowned rats!
Not a great start! When the wind died down a bit, I managed to get the mainsail up and we headed out through the pass and in to some big seas.
It was plain but boisterous sailing after that. We had three reefs in the main and two in the genoa and we were still razzing along at 8 to 9 knots.
All was looking good though to get to Niue?
About 30 hours from Niue, I came on watch at 1am to take my shift. There was a bang at the back of the boat like a gunshot quickly followed by a “no rudder response” alarm. We get those quite a lot. It generally means the autopilot has had enough usually due to a large wave and has switched itself off. All you need to do is reengage the pilot and continue on your way. This time that didn’t work? We tried the old IT trick off turning it off and turning it back on again… no joy!
So I took the wheel and settled in to hand steer for a bit. The wind was pretty strong, gusting up to 30 knots, but we had three reefs in the main and the Genoa was well reefed in. After 4 hours I was calling on Ailsa to take over. I was bushed, and also I wanted to climb under the cockpit and see if I could find a problem with the autopilot. We were in the process of handing over when I noticed flapping sail up front caught in the navigation lights. I asked Ailsa to take a look, but because it was dark she couldn’t see anything. She put the deck lights on and to our horror, there was a huge tear in the Genoa! A great big strip of sail was now flapping in the wind and had torn down to where the sailed was furled. Ailsa took the wheel whilst I tried to get the rest of the sail furled away. It was hard going, as the flap that had ripped was getting wrapped and stuck on the inner forestay. I overdid it with the winch and the control line pulled out of the roller furler. The next thing I watched with horror as the Genoa unfurled itself and then proceeded to shred itself to bits! One huge rip up the whole length of the sail, and various parts in complete taters. A complete right off!
The only option I had now was to try and drop the sail. Ailsa was hand steering, so she couldn’t help me, so I went to the mast and it took me about 30 minutes to free the halyard from the complicated track we have on Azimuth. I had to try and take the load off the rope by hitching a second rope to our spinnaker winch and that allowed me to free the knot that was holding the genoa halyard in place. All the while the Genoa was making a terrible racket and further destroying itself!
Eventually even with the boat rolling all over the place I managed to get the halyard free. I then had to get to the bow and try and pull down the sail from its track. It was hard going, because it was full of wind, it did not want to drop. So I got Ailsa to sail more upwind to take some pressure off the sail. That did the trick and eventually I managed to get the sail to drop. However, I couldn’t control it on my own and the sail fell in to the water still attached to the roller furler and the sheets. It then proceeded to sink under the boat!
I was pretty tired by this point, and the sun had started to come up which always gives a new perspective on a problem. I tried to use a winch to pull the sheets out of the water and hopefully the sail with it, but the load was too high. I needed help, and the only way that would happen was if I could get the autopilot working again. Once I realised this, I set to it.
The autopilot is under the cockpit sole and to get to it you have to climb in to one of the lazerette lockers and through a hatch. So, with the boat still rolling around, I managed to empty one of the lockers enough so I could get to the hatch, remove it, and climb inside with some tools. What I found was not too shocking. The autopilot was held in place by 4, 5 inch long, 1/2 inch diameter bolts. Two of the nuts on two of the bolts had worked themselves loose, and the bolts had dropped free. Another of the bolts had sheared clean off!
That’s a half inch bolt! Designed to take a lot of load. That left just one bolt in place and that meant that the pilot ram that controls the rudder could no longer work correctly. I had another bolt in my spares, so I fitted the three missing bolts and tightened them to within an inch of their lives. Ailsa was able to engage the autopilot and it worked!
Phew! It was now about 9 in the morning by this time, but at least we had a working autopilot again, and now we could both address the issue of the sail in the water.
It took us another two hours to get the sail out by using the sheet lines back to the reef winch on the mast, I was able to coax the sail out of the water and take some of the water pressure of it. Then both of us sat on the deck and hauled the sail over the guard rail. It was exhausting work, but eventually we had the thing on deck and lashed down.
I think pretty much collapsed after that! We got the staysail out and continued on to Niue where we arrived early the next day, very relieved to have arrived and for that sail to be over!
Not sure we could make that story up…. just a string of bad luck all packed in to one nightmare sail. Still it was a learning experience, and actually when you look at it a confidence booster that we managed to cope.
Now we are going to have to get a new sail once we get to New Zealand. We were quoted for a new Genoa in Martinique. An eye watering 18000 Euros! So if anyone wants to make a donation to the Azimuth sailing fund, all monies gratefully received! ….. I jest! We will be looking for a second hand option when we reach New Zealand. Fingers crossed.
We will tell you more about Niue next time! So far we are loving it! All the best for now.
Last time we left you we had arrived in the beautiful atoll of Penrhyn in the Cook Islands., known locally as Tongareva. We had been welcomed with open arms by the people in the village where we were anchored. Well it certainly is paradise, so we thought we would tell you a little more about our time here. We have definitely decided we want to live here. If only that was possible!
I cant say that we have done a lot since we last posted. Its a very simple and laid back life in the atoll. People spend their days fishing, collecting and processing coconuts, maintaining their homes, and doing traditional crafts such as hat and jewellery making.
We had some pretty horrible weather come through for a few days which meant it was difficult to get to shore. Even so, we still got visited by various people and more often than not, we were given freshly caught fish to eat. Its a good job, because our fishing skills are still not very impressive!
When the weather calmed down, Rio and Kura dropped by one morning and invited us to visit their little getaway retreat which they had built on one of the neighbouring motu islands, just near one of the atoll passes. We jumped at the opportunity and had a fantastic day visiting with them.
I wish we had a getaway like this! It was a simple hut on the coral beach with enough space to sleep their extended family and friends. Such an idyllic spot, and they have the whole place to themselves. There are some other deserted buildings on the motu nearby but they are in the process of being reclaimed by the sea. Kura explained that one of those buildings belonged to her father, and that was why shje wanted to build nearby.
We spent the day exploring the motu. I went snorkelling in the pass. Kura cooked us a delicious lunch of fried fish and coconut pancakes. And Rio took us on a short boat trip to go and see the site of an American radio base now overgrown in the jungle. The Americans arrived in mass during the second world war. They built the airstrip in the atoll and part that we visited was a radio tower installation that covered the local pacific. Listening our for the Japanese. All that was left was the concrete plinths of the buildings, but it was interesting to see.
I shot this video of some of the days events:
We had several residents around the boat having been here at anchor for a few weeks. They were always waiting for food scraps from the boat. I guess you call these guys our pets? They never bothered me when I went swimming off the back of the boat.
We have had several meals with Rio and Kura, so we decided to invite them and their family to the boat for tea. I cooked a chicken Thai curry which was an instant hit. I did a pile of rice and potatoes to go with it as well as frying up some fish. Ailsa cooked a chocolate cake for pudding. The whole lot got eaten up. These guys love to eat! It was a real joy to be able to return the favour and we had a really fun evening with then on board Azimuth.
Pretty much every other day we would take a trip to shore and go for a walk as well as chat to the villagers. We found a hut on stilts over the water on the beach a little way from the village that became a favourite hangout. You could sit and watch the fish swim underneath and get out of the hot sun.
Even though the island is small, there is still a nice walk to the end, where there is a pass in the atoll. The current flows incredibly strong through the pass. It really is a magical place.
I plucked up the courage and went snorkelling in the pass, dragging my canoe with me. The bottom was rocky and full of fish, turtles and sharks. Really exhilerating!
We visited Rio and Kuras house when ever we were passing by to say hello. I had another go at fixing their water pump, but with no luck. Still I think it worked better than it had before I started! We would always stop and see the pet nurse sharks too.
Our time was almost up. You are only allowed 31 days stay in the cook islands so we started to look at the weather forecast for the next week to make the 1000 or so mile passage to get to our next destination of Niue.
During this time, another boat turned up in the anchorage. A catamaran called Barbarella with Rolf and Nora on board. Rio and Kura invited them and us to dinner at their house that night. Another great meal was had!
That’s Nora and Ralph holding the yacht guest books which we all signed that night. It is an amazing record of all the boats that have visited in the last 40 years.
The next day we hitched a lift on the village boat to the other side of the Atoll to Omoka where we needed to check out of the cook islands. This time we didn’t want to take Azimuth over there to the anchorage . As you know from the last post, the anchor windlass is truly caput. I didn’t want to raise the anchor by hand on a lee shore again. Barbarella were checking out too, they only stayed for a couple of days. So, after the customs and immigration were sorted we joined them to go and visit the local craft centre in Omoka.
Shortly after that we said our farewells and then we went for a walk around the village and came across the wreck of a plane that we had been told about. Apparently it has been there for 80 years!
We took the village boat back to Azimuth later that afternoon. It was with a heavy heart that we said our goodbyes to everyone and then headed back to the boat.
The next morning we pulled up the anchor by hand . It took about 20 minutes and wasn’t too difficult and then set off on the long sail to Niue. Join us next time then when we tell you about the journey.
Hi again! Last time we left you we had just left Tahiti and were sailing to the Society Island of Huahine to hide out for a few days whilst we waited for a weather window to continue our journey on to the Cook Islands.
Well Huahine was a little gem and well worth the visit! It was an overnight sail to get there from Tahiti and we arrived at abut 9am the next morning to be greeted by a really spectacular pass and anchorage behind the reef.
We dropped the hook in crystal clear water in to white sand
We got to enjoy this island for a few days until that weather window arrived. We got a visit from some fellow cruisers from Seattle in the USA and made some new friends.
We decided one day to take a walk up to a local view point about 400m up a hill. It was a lovely walk on an easy path through a pine forest which lead to a spectacular view point.
We waited a few days for some heavy winds and sea to die down and then then a five day window appeared that looked good for the sail to the Atoll of Penrhyn in the Northern Cook Islands about 650 miles North West of Huahine.
It did take us the full 5 days to get there. It was a downwind sail for the whole way but the sea state was not very kind and we had a couple of very rolly days, as well as some nasty squalls to contend with. This is the pacific sailing we have come to expect. Often the conditions are lovely, but storms far to the South of us can throw out huge swell which interact with the local wind waves and make the sea surface confused and not very comfortable. Still the sunsets and sunrises were magical as ever. On the last night we had to slow Azimuth right down to avoid arriving at Penrhyn in the dark, so, we got to sea the sunrise over the atoll.
We timed arrival well, and entered the pass in to the atoll at about 8:30am that morning. This was an easy pass in comparison to Raraka’s pass, nice and wide and well charted (for once!) The chart even detailed a tortuous route through the coral bommies to get to the village of Omaka where we needed to check in to the Cook Islands. The anchorage wasn’t the best, it being a lee shore, and the waves had some fetch over the atoll, but we didn’t have a choice as we needed to check in here. That decision was to be significant later!
There was also another sailboat there too! We had thought we would have the place to ourselves. Penrhyn (local name Tongareva) is very remote and not on the main cruisers route. It is the most Northern of the Cook Islands and is some 750 miles north of the main Island of Rarotonga. There is very little around the island other than the uninhabited line island atolls. It certainly felt remote, we hadn’t seen another boat for the whole of the 5 day crossing from French Polynesia. Penrhyn gets about 15 boats visiting a year. It turns out the other boat (Coho) that was at anchor had been in Penrhyn for a month and was actually leaving that day.
We put up the Q flag and waited for customs to visit the boat from shore. 30 minutes after we arrived, we got a radio call from customs to tell us they were on the way. A small launch came out and the customs and health official came onboard. These guys could not have been nicer! We had a chat about the sail and the island and I filled out the paperwork. As you know if you read the last post, our checkout of Tahiti had not gone very smoothly, and we were a little concerned that we didn’t have the right paperwork. Our good friends Donna and Mark had sent us a copy of their French Polynesia exit paperwork, so using the power of photoshop, I had created a convincing looking Zarpe for Azimuth! This was examined and not even questioned by the customs official! They also didn’t notice or were not bothered that we didn’t have exit stamps from French Polynesia in our passports either. Infact the guys were very relaxed and welcoming to us.
A couple of hours later we headed to shore to pick up our documents and pay our customs fees. We didn’t really know where we were going, but everyone we met stopped for a chat or to say hello and welcome us. We found what we thought was the customs office, but it turned out to be the office of the mayor! He welcomed us in and sat us down for a chat and introduced us to a load of other people. We were in there for about an hour, talking about the history of the island and the people, and now we are on first name terms with the mayor, Puna! What an introduction to Penrhyn!
We did eventually find the customs guy and had another chat with him before paying the fees and headed back to the boat with more stops for chats with the local children.
We paddled our trusty canoe through the swell back to the boat and got Azimuth ready to go. We needed to motor across the lagoon in good light to the other side where the best anchorage was waiting for us off the village of Te Tautua. Ailsa went to pull up the anchor and everything was going fine until it stopped, and then made a very disconcerting grinding noise. Oh no, I thought, here we go again. I went to have a look, and yes the sound was awful, and the windlass wasn’t moving anymore. Ailsa went back to the helm and I did battle with getting the anchor up by hand for the next half an hour! It was quite scary, because the sea was rough and the wind was strongly blowing us on to the shore. It was difficult for Ailsa to control the boat and stop her drifting whilst I swore a lot and eventually managed to get the anchor up. What a nightmare!
We both calmed down for the motor across the lagoon which was littered with bommies, the most we have ever seen.
Not an easy route to get across, but it went ok, and 2 hours later we dropped our anchor in a beautiful flat anchorage in front of the village.
That is where we have been ever since and where we are as I write this.
The next morning we got a visit from a boat and a chap called Rio. He was on his way to the other village but wanted to invite us for dinner at his house that night!
We canoed over that evening, and had a wonderful meal with Rio, his wife Kura and the rest of his family. They are all lovely people. Rio used to be the mayor of Penrhyn a few years ago and has been telling us in the great detail all the history of the island and the issues that face the islanders today.
When we arrived for dinner we pulled up at their dock dock / beach with the sea full of sharks! Rio then proceeded to show us their “pet” nurse sharks and was teasing them with a fish head on a line for about 10 minutes whilst we watched in fascination. He even had us get in the water and stroke their heads! A very unnerving experience! He assured us it was safe. Apparently the kids swim and play with them everyday!
Eventually one of the sharks managed to get hold of the fish head and a battle ensued between about three of them for the prize.
It was a lovely dinner. We were made to feel very welcome. Rio claimed that we were now part of his extended family! We were also told we had to attend church on Sunday as the islanders all do.
So here’s a quick run down of the history of Penrhyn. The island got its “western” name from a ship that sank here called the “Lady Penrhyn”. Its crew was stranded here for over a year. The native name for the Island is Tongareva which means “journey south”. At one time the atoll had a population of over 1000 people. Before the arrival of missionaries in the 1800’s each motu island in the atoll had its own tribe, and Rio has told us a number of stories from these times. They were a fearsome bunch and did not welcome visitors, resorting to cannibalism. The first missionaries had a very hard time reaching out to the islanders, and were actually saved from being killed and eaten by one local woman who has entered in to local folklore and songs. A church was established and life started to slowly change.
Fast forward today, and island life is radically different. Now the population is less than 150, and the people are struggling to stay. A supply ship visits the island once every three months. The price of goods is extremely expensive and everything has to be ordered in. With not many jobs, it has been difficult for people to be able to afford to live, and there has been a gradual migration to either New Zealand or the other cook islands like Rarotonga. Infact the whole population of the Cook Islands in 15000, there are more islanders now living in New Zealand. Rio fears his is the last generation that will live the islands. He is not standing on his laurels. He is standing for election as mayor this year and hopes to make many changes to the local economy and supply and turn the exodus around. We wish him and all the islanders the best of luck. This place is paradise, and people should be able to carrying on living here.
The next night we were invited to a birthday party celebration at Rio and Kura’s house. It was Tee’s birthday, Kura’s brother. What a another lovely night! It was a feast of food. We got to meet many of the other 30 inhabitants in the village. Tee is in the first picture below on the left sitting next to Rio.
The following Sunday we did go to the church service where we were welcomed by the whole community. Its been a long time since Ailsa and I have stepped in to a church, as we are not religious. This however was a special experience. The singing was something to behold with full falsetto singing from the whole congregation. They did not hold back either, being very vocal and even the children joining in all the parts. The service was in the local dialect, so we couldn’t understand it, but it didn’t matter as we just enjoyed the atmosphere.
One day last week we took the canoe out to explore a close by island. Its paradise for sure here!
The people have all been so kind and welcoming, particularly Rio, Kura and their family. I was keen to try and give something back, so jumped at the opportunity to help Rio fix his fresh water pump (still ongoing), and one of his outboard engines.. I also fixed the villages broken compressor and have been booked in to fix one of the other villages broken outboards! Handy man Dom!
I leave you for now with some pics from Rio and Kura’s back yard. Such a lovely place. There is a great photo of Kura working on making a hat from dried and died coconut leaves. I cant see us leaving here for a while, its too nice!
Last time we left you, we were tucked up in Raraka Atoll in the Tuamotus Archipelago in French Polynesia. This time we show you more of Raraka Atoll and then we sail to Tahiti for our last 10 days in French Polynesia (well officially!).
We continued to spend our time enjoying Raraka. I went out pretty much everyday for long walks along the beach, the outer reef, and exploring the coconut groves.
Further down the atoll I came across another very narrow pass in the reef to the lagoon. The water there was like a small stream flowing in to the lagoon.
I took a few short videos of different things in the atoll. One afternoon, we were visited by a huge shoal of tiny fish being chased by large barracudas and swarms of birds flying over the top.
We had lots more swims at the beach
And on one of my walks I followed this shoal of fish down the beach just swimming in the shallows.
Having been in Raraka on our own for three weeks, our friends Donna and Mark on Coral Moon came to join us. It was a lovely reunion, as they had been stuck in Raroia for the three weeks that the weather had been blowing hard. The day after they arrived, the wind dropped and we had complete calm in the anchorage again.
We spent a couple of evenings on the beach and cooked on an open fire. Such a special place to enjoy with good friends!
When we arrived on the beach in early evening, the place was covered in hermit crabs. Donna took this video of a few that we set up to have a race!
Donna and Mark have a drone, and they flew it from the beach one day. Here are some shots of the two boats at anchor and aerial views of the atoll. It gives you a better overall feel of where we were. We love that shot of the two boats at anchor with the shadow on the sand underneath them!
I spent a couple of days scraping the barnacles that had accumulated on Azimuths bottom since we left Panama. I took this short video to show you how clear the water was under the boat in the anchorage
All good things come to an end. It was with a heavy heart that we prepared to set sail to Tahiti for our last few days in French Polynesia. When it came time to pull up the anchor it seemed Raraka didn’t want us to leave either, the anchor windlass was completely seized up! We could hear the hydraulic motor trying to turn, but the windlass remained stationary. Thankfully the wind was very light, and we were only anchored in 4m of water, so I managed to wind in most of the chain by hand, and then did the final 5 metres with a rope back to the big winch in the cockpit. Not fun! And also worrying, as we totally rely on the windlass, especially as we never go to marinas.
With very light winds, we sailed back along our previous track through the atoll and a couple of hours later we reached the pass. We motored through the pass without any issues. The flow was very strong though, and the standing waves threw Azimuth about a bit as we hit 11knots with the strong current. Its only a few hundred metres though and you reach deep ocean on the outside of the reef. There was no wind, so we motored for an hour around the North end of Raraka and then the wind kicked in blowing quite strongly from the South (not as forecast!) and we took a close hold down to the south of Fakarava atoll as the sun set and then a bean reach out in to the channel between the Tuamotus and Tahiti. It was a very pleasant sail overnight towards Tahiti, and as the sun came up, we could see Tahiti in the distance as we approached it from the North.
We dropped the hook just off the beach at Venus Point. It was a little rough, and we could have gone round the corner to the anchorage at Papette with all the other cruising boats, but I wanted a relatively shallow and quiet anchorage where I would be able to work on the windlass and see if I could repair it.
As it turned out, Venus Point is actually where Captain Cook and his crew anchored when they first discovered Tahiti in the 1700’s. It is also the same place where the infamous ship The Bounty landed too before the mutiny. Nowadays, the black sand beach is a very popular spot with the locals for swimming and water sports. Its a very vibrant spot.
It took me two days, but I managed to fix the windlass! The culprit was the gearbox. I have already had problems with that that involved a complex repair in Martinique where I had to build a frame around the gearbox after its mountings sheared and completely corroded away. This time I had to remove some 25 year old bolts and get the lid off the box itself. What I found inside (see picture!( was pretty shocking and I am amazed the thing had worked for so long. The box was full of mud, gunk and solidified grease! I couldn’t actually see any gears. So I set to trying to free up the mechanism. It was a slow process digging out the crud with a pick and small screw driver. I think I removed at least half a kilo of mud! Eventually I found the gears, and it started to look more promising. Once I had dug out the main gear which didn’t look worn and could see the worm gear attached to the motor, I decided to give the thing another go. It worked!!!! I was a happy man. Still it took another half a day to continue to dig out more crud which was speeded up by running the unit to force more crud out of the gears. I used the air compressor to blow out all of the last little bits too. It was about as clean as I could get it, so I filled the entire box with fresh grease and refitted the lid. The seal on the top of the shaft was completely perished, that was what had allowed all that dirt in to the box, so I used some neoprene from an old wetsuit to make a new makeshift seal and then covered the rest of the box with plastic sheet to keep it dry and clean. Putting the whole thing back together, it now seems to run a lot better than it used to!
That was a big relief to get that running again. I felt a bit worse for the wear after two days stuck in the anchor locker! Really it needs a new gearbox, something we will look in to when we reach New Zealand later in the year.
So, now we had some time to enjoy Tahiti and also to restock the boat for our next leg of the journey. First we went to shore and took at look at Venus point and went to our first restaurant in over a month.
That afternoon we found the local supermarkets about a mile away. We did our first large shop and lugged it in the heat back to the beach and then the half mile canoe ride back to the boat. We were both exhausted!
The next day we negotiated our first Tahiti bus ride in to the capital town of Papette, about 8 miles down the coast. We had a nice wander around the town and stopped for lunch at another restaurant. Papette wasn’t very inspiring, although the market was very vibrant. In typical French fashion, it being a Saturday, all the shops shut after lunch and the place became a ghost town!
A couple of days later we headed back to Papette and hired a car so we could complete our shopping trips and also go for a drive around the island. We headed back to the supermarket and did the first of two enormous shops! Back to the beach and two canoe trips back to the boat again we collapsed exhausted!
We headed out the next day for our tour of the island. It was a great day . Our first stop was at a spectacular waterfall about 300 feet tall.
Next stop was a bizarre blowhole on the coast. The sea rushes in to a cave and forces air and spray out of a small hole in the cliff through an ancient lava pipe.
We stopped at more waterfalls and saw some very cool rock carvings
Then we headed to a very nice restaurant with an ocean view. We weren’t so bothered about the view as we have that everyday from Azimuth! However the food was amazing. I had this carpaccio of tuna with ginger. it was delicious
Finally we headed down to the South of the Island where we were bizarrely stopped at three separate check points by the police asking where we were going? We said we were just tourists on a tour of the island by car. They let us through each time. Eventually we got to a small town and were directed in to a car park by an official with signs of Paris 2024 Olympics everywhere?! We had inadvertently arrived at the location for the Paris 2024 Olympics surfing village. It was being setup in time for the starting ceremony (in two days time). So we went for a wander and a drink.
The next day we did another shop and trawl back to the boat. That completed the provisioning. We then headed back to Papette to start the checkout process. This was complex. Two days previously I had emailed the port authorities to request our international clearance. You have to give them 72 hours notice. This day, the day before our departure we had to head back to Papette and locate the customs building and complete a customs declaration. That went smoothly.
Finally, on the day of our departure we drove all the way to the airport to attend immigration. We were shown to the right place by a nice policeman and then we sat and waited for the chief officer to come and process our passports etc. What an arsehole he turned out to be! He talked in fast French with us struggling to understand him. Then he took our paperwork away and came back a minute later and told us we did not have the correct port authority. I tried to explain that I had emailed the port requesting that 72 hours ago, and had a reply to say it was okay. He did not like that answer, and then processed to tells us to go away and come back in two hours because it was his lunchtime. The time at this point was 11 30! We explained that we had to return our car back to the rental place at that time. The rental place was 4 miles away and it meant we would have to drop the car off and return by expensive taxi back to the airport. He then just started ranting at us is French and told us to leave!
We decided we were not happy with this. So we decided just to leave Tahiti without completing the immigration. Hopefully this will not bite us in the future! We want to come back to French Polynesia at some point. We have never met a worse official than this guy. Totally unreasonable, especially as we had done everything correctly. We have also never seen such a poor system for checking out of a country. Three government institutions are involved and no one seems to talk to anyone else.
After leaving the airport we dropped the car off and caught the bus back to Venus point where we went to the restaurant had lunch and calmed down with a cold beer. Heading back to the boat we lifted the anchor (with a working windlass!) and sailed off away from Tahiti.
Overall we enjoyed Tahiti. It was a lot of hard work with repairs and shopping. The tour around the island was great, but the checking out process was a complete nightmare! Currently we are hiding out in another of the society islands waiting for a weather window to sail to the cook Islands. More on that next time!
Hi to everyone. Last time we left you we were in Makemo Atoll enjoying the peace and tranquillity.
Time for me to catch up with some videos that I took over the last month or so. My laptop has been playing up recently, and it takes ages for it to process the videos. Also, I think the camera is on the blink too! Oh well, we have put these things on the list for when we get to civilisation in New Zealand, we can purchase some new stuff to keep us going. The salt atmosphere on the boat after 2 years is wrecking many electronic things on board. And yes we have now been sailing for two years!!
Here’s a video we took in Raroia Atoll at a cruisers hangout called the twin palms yacht club
You may remember that we stopped in a beautiful anchorage in Raroia called the Kon-Tiki anchorage where the Kon-Tiki crashed in 1947. Here is a video we took of the memorial at the island where they crashed.
I took this video as we sailed through the Makemo Atoll
And here is another video of our snorkelling adventures in Makemo. See if you can spot the sharks!
So Since last time, we sailed overnight to another close by Atoll called Raraka. This move was instigated by incoming inclement weather and the need for somewhere to shelter from some really strong winds. We planned to meet up with Coral Moon and ride out the blow.
Now Raraka is a little off the beaten cruiser path. The guide book describes the pass as very narrow and shallow and difficult to navigate. However, we thought we would give it a go. There is another Atoll within 20 miles of the entrance to this one had things not worked out.
We had a beautiful overnight sail, with light winds just forward of the beam, and flat seas, and we arrived at the entrance to the atoll at about 0630, when the light was good for the entrance. I approached with caution. There was clearly a large current flowing out of the channel and some standing waves too. There was very little wind though and so we sneaked in down the side and then motored hard in to the centre of the channel. It was a bumpy ride and we had about 5 knots against us. It only lasted a few minutes though, and soon the water smoothed out, and looked alarmingly shallow! It was crystal clear, and we could see all the coral on the bottom of the pass. Our trusty depth gauge refused to work as normal, but the charts said I still had 1.5m under the keel, and we quickly got in to deeper water. Phew!
With the pass negotiated, we headed across the inner lagoon on a straight line towards the anchorage. This lagoon is totally uncharted, so we relied on keeping an eye out for bommies as well as using the google earth satellite map. The wind was light and we speeded along at about 2 knots on a perfectly flat sea! That gave time for Ailsa to watch Scotland get kicked out of the Euros before we arrived at the anchorage! Starlink is mad… how we can watch a football match live whilst sailing across one of the most remote atolls in the world is beyond me!
It took several hours to arrive at the anchorage, and we were a little dismayed to see three catamarans already at anchor! But this place was incredibly beautiful and we dropped our hook with fender floats on our chain in probably the clearest water we have ever seen.
Almost straight away, we got a visit from one of the cats, welcoming us in. The three boats were travelling together and they were surprised to see another boat arriving. They each had kids onboard and the next day one if the kids celebrated their ninth birthday with a treasure hunt on the beach. Not a bad place to spend your birthday we thought. The day after that, they all departed early in the morning, so we awoke having the whole place to ourselves! Its been like that ever since, for about the last two weeks!
Hang on, you say, I thought Coral Moon was going to join you? Well unfortunately that didn’t work out. The bad weather arrived too soon, and they were stuck in Raroia.
The day after we arrived, we had a another of those magical days where the wind died completely, and the sea in the anchorage became like the glass again. We pottered about in the canoe, went swimming, chatted with the other cruisers and then headed back to the boat. I went for a siesta to sleep off the effects of the overnighter sail and Ailsa sat on deck and watched a huge Manta Ray swim past the boat!
The sunsets and sunrises here are something else. Difficult to capture on camera but we had a go
I wish we could take pictures of the night sky here too. On clear nights the milky way is plastered across the sky and there is zero light pollution.
The wind did eventually pick up and its been blowing strongly for over a week now. Looks like it might settle down again in a few days. However, this is a lovey sheltered spot. We have dodged the worst of it, and the strong breeze keeps the boat nice and cool. Its difficult to remember sometimes that we are currently in the middle of winter. It does get cooler at night and we have even started sleeping under a sheet again.
We have been taking the canoe out to explore all the nooks and cranny’s along the coast
We have been jumping out of the canoe and snorkelling
With the strong winds, the seas outside the Atoll have been progressively growing. We have taken many walks to the outer reef to the watch the waves smashing in. Its exhilarating, and we get well and truly blasted by the strong winds and sea spray.
A short walk later and we are back to the beach and in the wind shadow of the coconut palms we can swim in the crystal clear water in beautifully calm sea. It really is an idyllic place, our own slice of paradise.
We have to move on at some point, but right now we are happy just to enjoy the location and soak it all up!
