Across The Big Blue!

After finishing our shopping and preparations, we departed La Paz on Tuesday 13 March. There were a number of sad good-byes, especially with Wendy, Bobby and Peanut. The first night we spent at Ballandra bay before moving down the coast to Los Muertos and then to Fraillies. We had a few days at Fraillies doing last minute preparations before heading to Cabo San Lucas. We arrived on the Sunday evening hoping to clear out and leave on the Monday but unfortunately, it was a public holiday! So we did more shopping thanks to Debbie and Don off Buenavista who took us for a last visit to Costco and the chance to top up the beer!

Tuesday morning we cleared out of Mexico which was very quick and fairly painless and then with great relief, set off on our crossing. Once we were out of the bay there was a good wind and we were happily sailing along at 6 to 7 knots. By 6pm the next day the wind had completely died and we had 3 very slow days covering only 30 miles on one of them! After feeling a little queezy on the first day, we soon settled back into passage life and our watches.

As we got further south, we started to pick up the NE trade winds and our speed improved. The winds were still fairly light so we only managed between 100 and 140 miles per day. All too quickly we were through the trades and into the doldrums. They were particularly far north so we were no where near the equator when we lost the wind. After that we had to sail whichever direction the wind would allow us to keep the boat moving. Once we were across the equator we had a few squalls but nothing serious and we were usually able to get a good bit of speed and distance from the higher winds. There was a good current with us the majority of the way which made our passage a little shorter. We were not that far from Hiva Oa before we picked up a consistent east wind to get us here.

For us it was a very uneventful passage, we never saw any wind higher than 25 knots and did not have to reduce sail once in the whole 2400 miles. Each morning we had a chat on the SSB with the few boats that had left when we did and they seemed to hit lots of squalls and 2 of them had some damage to sails and the boat. Every evening there was an SSB net where we would give our position and conditions so we were always in contact with other boats.

Highlights of the trip were a couple of encounters with big schools of dolphin, a sighting of a whale or mostly, his/her breath (very smelly!), a few wonderful starlight nights with the Milky Way spread across the sky and the joy of sailing downwind with 2 jibs!!

The fishing went from one extreme to another. We caught a number of small tuna which we threw back and then one morning the line screamed out. Mike looked behind to see a 10ft Malin leaping into the air trying to get the hook out of its mouth. It pulled all the line off the reel and it just pinged off. That was the end of our lure and 300ft of line! It all happened so quickly we did not even have time to slow the boat down! Our next fish was a tiny tuna, quite a contrast. We did manage to catch a good sized Dorado close to the Island. As we were trying to deal with it, we had torrential rain and some of the strongest winds of the trip!

We arrived in Atuona on Hiva Oa on Thursday 12 April, the crossing had taken 23 days and we sailed 2389 miles. The anchorage is very small and we have both a bow and a stern anchor out to keep the boat in place. The first few days we had to move the stern anchor a number of times to keep the boat away from the harbour wall. The second night just as we were going to bed there was a knock on the hull. Another cruiser had come to tell us our stern anchor was not holding and we were heading towards the wall and with our bow heading for another boat. We pulled in the line to discover we had lost the anchor! So, with help, we deployed another one and after ensuring it had set we went to bed. The following morning we trawled the bay to find our anchor which miraculously we did manage to recover.

The Island is incredibly green and very mountainous. As you walk along the road there are huge numbers of fruit trees. The town is about 2 miles walk from the anchorage so our legs are getting some exercise after not being used for 3 weeks!

Tomorrow we are going on a tour of the Island to see a few archaeological sites with 2 other boats then the following day we are moving on to the island of Fatu Hiva which is supposed to be even more beautiful.