Archive for the ‘Voyages’ Category

Fixed it! (again)

In Helena, Voyages on 29/10/2010 at 06:13

We did it! Last Thursday we received the watermaker and installed it ourselves. This involved Rolf sitting in the engine room for 8 hours, Boukje handing screws, tools and drinks and the two of us using a hammer 🙂 to change some of the parts. But as I said: we did it, and it works perfectly! Now we can make 60 to 75 liters of drinking water an hour. It’s amazing.

The same day we were busy fixing the watermaker, Arent and Matty and their captain Mike arrived back in Raiatea (still waiting on repairs).  And because the wind was now coming from the north (just where we want to go), we had plenty of time on our hands. So we enjoyed some nice days catching up and being tourists on Raiatea with them.

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Under the ocean

In Voyages on 23/10/2010 at 02:29

The waters in French Polynesia are among the most pristine in the world. All islands here are amazingly steep with depths upto a few kilometers just in front of the coast. This means that the clean and clear water from the deep ocean surrounds these islands. Obviously this brings superb diving conditions and since we both enjoy diving, this is definitely a good thing. Read the rest of this entry »

Relaxing in Moorea and Huahine

In Helena, Voyages on 23/10/2010 at 01:36

We did indeed leave Tahiti the next day. Happy to finally be sailing again, we set course for a relaxed trip to Moorea. Moorea is a nice small island that lies about 20 miles west of Tahiti. We had been seeing it’s mountains in the distance for the last month. Now that we got there, it turned out to be as nice and peaceful as it had looked from busy Papeete. We anchored in quiet Cook’s Bay, went for a dinghy snorkeling trip around the north coast and hiked our way up the mountains towards a beautiful view of the coast.

After all that relaxing we set sail for Huahine. Or so we thought… Read the rest of this entry »

A month in Tahiti

In Helena, Voyages on 07/10/2010 at 19:49

This last month in Tahiti we’ve made use of all the time we had to wait for parts to arrive, by improving the boat and playing tourists. As we’ve not been keeping up the blog (sorry), here’s a short impression of our activities in the last month.

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Sailing again: the plan

In Voyages on 07/10/2010 at 11:15

Well, it seems today we will finally be able to leave Tahiti. The replacement for the new rotary drive is installed and working, the watermaker is fixed and someone is welding the reinforcement for the davits right now while I’m typing this post. In a few hours we’ll be on our way to Moorea, about 20 miles from here. Then we’ll go on to Raiatea, where we’ll be able to meet up with Mattie and Arent again as they are still there waiting for repairs. After that we want to go to the Northern Cooks and Samoa. When we get to Samoa we’ll decide where we’re going next; either to Tonga and on to New Zealand or to Tokelau, Tuvalu and up north to the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

 

Adventuring in Ahe

In Voyages on 25/08/2010 at 22:21

From Manihi we went to the neighboring atoll of Ahe. A pretty, smaller atoll, where you can almost see the other side of the lagoon. On this atoll there seem to be houses on almost each motu (the small islands that together form the ring of land around the lagoon). We anchored near the main village, which consist of one street from the lagoon to the ocean and three crossing streets. As you can image, there’s not much going on here. People are either hard at work on their motu’s somewhere else in the lagoon making copra (dried coconut for oil processing) or pearlfarming or just hanging around on the few available streetcorners.
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Our new Manihi family

In People, Voyages on 18/08/2010 at 20:38

As is the tradition with Helena, we have again accidentally ended up somewhere we didn’t plan to be And again it’s amazing and we’re having a great time with our new pearl farming family on a beautiful part of this atoll. We are considering starting our very own pearl farm on one of these motus. Isn’t that romantic? Read the rest of this entry »

Still on Manihi

In Voyages on 02/08/2010 at 23:30

We’re still on Manihi, a beautiful atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. We came here on an unscheduled stop since our complete steering system had systematically stopped working with first the primary autopilot, then the second, then the rudder and finally the steering cables. We came into this atoll with the help of Fernando (a local fisherman/baker/pearl farmer/watertaxi driver/leader of the Mormon church) who showed us the way while I was steering the ship with the emergence steering system, Arent was handling the throttle and Matty was on the lookout for coral heads.

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Pacific crossing

In Voyages on 19/07/2010 at 21:01

On Wednesday June 30th, we began the Pacific crossing. We are planning on a 1 month passage, but are hoping for 3 weeks on the ocean. The wind is looking great and the currents will be from behind, so we should make a good passage.

Sunday, July 18

We did it!!! Just crossed half the pacific in 18 days! We’ve dropped anchor 2 hours ago (16.00 local time or 01.00 UTC) in the bay of virgins or Baie Hanavave and it’s truly an amazing place to be. With breathtaking views of the mountain and beautiful rock formations all around us and the wind gushing through the valley. We did it and we did it well! The calm waters are already making us tired (probably something to do with the beers we had) but we’re gonna take the BBQ, food, champagne and beers to the beach anyway so we may fall asleep on the beach tonight. Read the rest of this entry »

Panama to Galapagos

In Voyages on 23/06/2010 at 07:58

Tuesday, June 22

We’re in sight of Galapagos!!! Today was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and a very large school of dolphins that were jumping out of the water, meters high up into the air. Great stuff!
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