November 11th Hello Everyone, September 24th BULA!! Hello!! From Suva, Fiji What a difference a day makes, ok three days at sea. We had a great passage last week, a fast downhill run that saw us cover 437nm in 72 hours. On the second day Steve reeled in a nice big Mahi, 4 foot!!! He was so long that when Steve was filleting him while it laid on the cockpit floor his tail was spilling into the cabin!!! Guess you know what we’ve been eating these days? We arrived in front of the pass here in Suva just at day break, perfect timing to navigate the reefs and obstructions and try to identify/find the navigational beacons. Contrary to everything that we heard check in was a snap, enough paperwork and carbon paper to bury a small child, but that’s exactly what we expected. We are anchored out in the front of the Royal Suva Yacht Club, only a short 15 minute walk from downtown, and with a secure spot to leave the dingy. It is hard to believe that we are only a few hundred miles from our last port/country as things are so different here. August 23rd Vava’U-What a shock to the system! Not only has the landscape totally changed; gone are the low lying islands with a myriad of shoals and reefs to watch for, replaced with tall green, lush, rolling hills with lots of protected anchorage to tuck into. But the town is nothing like Steve remembers it from seven years ago. We came directly to Nieafu, the main town, to check in and restock and were greeted by a harbour full of boats, 50 at least, all on moorings!! For those of you who’ve been here the Mermaid (a “must see” watering hole) burnt down and so many buildings have gone up. A popular place with the ex-pats it seems many have made their home here and each one has opened a café cum restaurant/bar. Finding a beer isn’t hard, in fact you could bar hop down the water front in your dingy, but it also isn’t cheap. There is also Moorings/Sunsail Charter outfit here and the tourism industry is alive and well, with so many palangi (Tongan for white person) around the prices surely reflect what they are willing to pay. And with so many boats around there is lots of radio traffic, lots of gossip and lots of activities to take part in. We’ve seen a few familiar hulls around but haven’t found any new or old friends yet. After our month in Ha’apai searching for the perfect spot to duck out of the weather and never seeming to find it we treated ourselves to a mooring and have been enjoying hours of uninterrupted sleep the last few nights. Batteries charged, coffers stocked and the wind blowing we are going to try and get out of town and check out some of the surrounding anchorages later this week. The whales are still around and we’ve heard a couple secret spots where you can swim with them, so here’s hoping. I have posted some photos from Ha’apai with more to come in the next few days. We have internet on board, YIPEE!, so give us the news from your corner of the world or send us a few picture of what you’re up to lately! Hope all is well, hear from you soon, Love,
August 4th Hello from Ha’apai! Well, things have been anything but boring and predicable on board in the last few weeks. It seems that the settled winter weather is taking it’s sweet time getting to Tonga, instead we’ve had wave after wave of low pressure coming over from New Zealand, those roaring forties are screaming now, giving us northly and westerly winds. As a result we’ve been hopping around from island to island trying to find shelter from the predicted winds, only to find that the wind does not blow as predicted (who would have predicted that?!) and by this I mean it does 180 degrees opposite of three different sources predicted, leaving us not particularly protected at all. We’ve had a lot of sleepless nights in the last two weeks, sitting informal anchor watches, but that’s ok because we’ve had mostly overcast and drizzly days. On the upside, in all this moving about we’ve had some GREAT sailing, even with a reef tucked in we’ve been flying along at 7-8kts, and have seen more whales that you can count. We sailed up to the Lafuka group last Saturday and are tucked into a beautiful bay with a long sandy beach, protected by a couple reefs with a view of the volcanoes 20 miles away and whales that jump and play regularly near by. We slept and slept on Saturday night, flat and calm with no surprise coral beneath us to grind the anchor chain on. When we woke up Sunday it was sunny and beautiful, making it seem like we are in a tropical paradise again, and despite not catching any fish on our explorations around the area we had a fire and cooked on the beach anyway, it was a lovely day, finally!!! We have managed a couple snorkeling trips andI got a lovely Tonga fish/coral/shell book for my birthday so I can identify all the new things I have been seeing. With almost no people around the reefs are in pristine condition but the water is a little chilly, might have to dig out a wet suit to scrub the hull this week. The southerly winds are a bit cool (seasonal winds are east- southeast right now) which finds us looking for reasons to turn the oven on and warm up the boat a little in the evenings, and so Steve has been making some delicious ANZAC biscuits, yummy! We brought the dingy up to Pangai on Monday, the main town in Ha-apai, as the entrance to the harbour is riddle with coral and hazards and as it is only 4 miles from our lovely anchorage it was only an hour in the dingy, a chance to catch a fish. Somehow we managed to find everything we were looking for; flour, rice, eggs, veggies AND beer. What luck!!! Since we found provisions we can take advantage of our nice weather and stay out in the islands a little while longer before heading to Vava’u at the end of the month. We decided to make another trip up today taking advantage of the flat, calm weather and a chance for a few more vegetables. We will be out of touch for another few weeks but look forward to hearing from you soon, Love, June 22nd Hello From Tonga! June 9th Hey Guys!! May 7th We made it to Niue,it was a bit of a rough trip, the last two days we had near gale to gale force winds. Yesterday was a public holiday here so this morning we finished checking in, got some money at the bank and are now checking out "town". Have a fwe things to send you but internet is not all figured out yet, might be able to get it onboard not sure. Anyway, just wanted to let you know we are safe and sound in Niue. Hope all is well,
May 23 Hello Everyone, Well, here we are, finally counting down our last few hours in FP-seems like we've been here a while....8 months now! We have to hit the shop one last time, hoping there are some more veggies around and to return our beer bottles for the deposit then scrub the paddle wheel and prop, pull up the dingy and clean and deflat it so we can pack it away then we are ready to pull up anchor and head out. We decided this weekend to head directly to Niue. The atoll of Suvarrow is a marine park and offically closed until June 1st, it is also, sort of, in the wrong direction, and since diving is now prohibited and there are apparently tonnes of sharks (so much so that the Park Rangers insist on accompanying you snorkling with a spear gun to fend them off) and we've been to an atoll in the Cook's already, all signs point to get a move on and skip it. Besides, this will give us some more time in Niue, the smallest self governed country on earth! If all the reports are true the water is said to have 100ft of visability and is teaming with life, sounds alot like Coco's Island that we stopped at on the way to the Galapagos, and that was AMAZING! We are looking at 1100nm or so, 8-10 days at sea depending on the winds, which have been a bit light recently, so lets cross our fingers. I will be sending position reports to Thomas and have also activated our SPOT again, so hopefully within a few days that should be running and you can all follow us in real time on the website. Speaking of which I posted some new photos and a new "Letter From Kate" Tahiti Ink... so check it out if you have time. Sounds like we will have internet in Niue so I send an email through when we get ashore. Hope you all have a good week and those at home in Canada a good May two four day off, don't forget to have a Keith's for us! Hear from you soon, Love, May 12th The low clouds all but obscure the jagged line made between the mountain and the sky as the morning light slowly fills the horizon. There is jumble of noise, a cacophony if ever I had to define one. The sounds fall over one another, tumble across the water and through the hatch above my head, crashing down upon me. Dogs yelping, cocks crowing, the low rumble of heavy machinery, the drone of traffic, a flock of small birds perched in a tree somewhere singing together, the buzz of electricity, the whine of a motorcycle speeding down the highway and the occasional roar of a jet engine revving as another plane takes off from the airport just a few miles away. As I go about the cabin opening ports and propping up hatches more familiar sounds fill my ears; the surf breaking on the reef close by, wavelet lapping at the stern, an outboard zooming towards shore. This is our last morning in Tahiti . We thought yesterday was our last morning in Tahiti which makes this one a little special and I am glad I am up to enjoy it. This morning I am well rested and relaxed, we got all our work done yesterday (fueled, stowed the boat, made dinner for under way, did all the laundry our wallets said was possible in machines ashore( 800CFP a wash!!!) said goodbye to some friends ashore, paid our last outstanding bill and finished the last few boat projects) but decided at 3pm that it was too late to bother motoring the two hours up the channel and out the reef at Pape’ete; we’d be hoisting the sails at sunset. There was also some weather settling over Tahiti and the wind was dropping; why beat ourselves up for nothing, we don’t HAVE to leave or arrive on a certain date. So we came home from the last run to the grocery store and sat quietly in the cockpit watching the day end in another spectacular pink sunset over the island of Moorea just 12NM west of us. A VHF report from our friends on “Full House”, who left earlier that afternoon and hadn’t yet made it to Moorea, was that they had 3-5kts of wind and were ghosting along with the spinnaker up. We were happy we decided to stay. We will depart this afternoon, hopefully sailing out of the Pape’ete pass by no later than 3pm, heading to Huahine just 100NM away. The trip should take us 14-16 hours, so we should pull in just in time for breakfast on Friday. Huahine is our favorite island in the Society group, although we can’t quiet explain why, and so we want to stop for a few days to unwind before taking on the longer passages that will take up back to the Cook Islands then onto Nuie and Tonga. We are excited to be leaving, to be heading somewhere new; we’ve started to feel stagnant and aimless. But at the same time we’ve had a lot of fun in French Polynesia over the past 8 months, and comfort comes with the familiar. So we’ll enjoy a few more days of it, do the few last bits onboard that a calm quiet anchorage allows (send Steve up the mast and I’ll dive and clean the hull) then continue on to parts unknown, rejoining our adventure where we left of last year. I will send word when we plan to depart Huahine next week. Hope all is well with you, hear from you soon, Love, H&S April 21th What’s one more day…? That seemed to be our mantra two weekends ago in Moorea. I mean, who would want to leave a calm, beautiful anchorage right in front of a public beach park, especially when your next destination is the busy island of Tahiti? Eventually, after five days of finding excuses not to, thank goodness for light winds!, we pulled up anchor. But even this seemed like an omen to stay as we had problem with the anchor winch and I had to crank 35M up manually (I thanked Steve once more for installing the windlass back in San Diego and then again when he resolved the problem while in Tahiti) We were finally out of the pass and had 12 knots on the nose and fairly flat seas. We threw up all the rag and made good time to Papeete. Expecting Marina Taina and surrounding anchorage to be very busy as it is Puddle Jumper season (when people leave the America’s to sail the South Pacific as we did this time last year) we were surprised to find several mooring balls free, so we grabbed one. Hot on our heels was our Aussie friends on their boat “Full House” who were returning for a few days to stock up before heading to the Tuamotu, what luck they were planning happy hour drinks at the Dingy Bar ashore, it was a hot day sailing! But what we really came back here for is work so the next few days were spent walking around town getting prices and quotes and trying not to spend all our money in one day, easy to do in a place like this. A few projects have been moved to the “One Day” list; the undersized kitchen sink will have to stay that way when replacing it is 200-300 dollars, somehow we managed for the last three years I am sure we’ll live without it! But the BIG job, really the whole reason for returning to Tahiti, because we couldn’t get it done anywhere else, is finished. After 5 trips up the mast for Steve he successfully installed a removable inner forestay and running back stays, he reinforced the deck and fitted the sail and most importantly did under budget! So now all that’s left of our work here in Tahiti is buying some new line for the jib fuller and a few its and bits of hardware and fittings for a few small jobs left to complete. But we won’t be staying here in the city to do them. We decided to head back to Moorea for Easter long weekend and enjoy our quiet little anchorage, go fishing and swimming and have a BBQ on the beach; beats the rolly polly mooring field with 150 boats in it just off the channel and full of floating debris. We’ll have to come back to Tahiti to check out and finish provisioning but we’ve had enough for now. So one more run into town, a trip to the grocery store and a little cleaning up and we’ll be heading off tomorrow morning for a little R&R, or at least a little peace and quiet. Love, H&S
March 29th Hello Everyone (yawn!) March 11, 2011 All is OK onboard, no need to worry. We had ample warning for the tsunami and decided it best to up anchor and head to sea to wait out the possible wave. Thankfully we have nothing to report from our spot here in Huahine, Tahiti recorded a 40cm surge. For a full account check out Tsunami, Tsunami. We are here in Fare, Huahine for the next couple days trying to decided what our next move will be, we will let you know when we figure it out ourselves! Love, H&S
March 2, 2011 Hi Everyone!!, Hard to believe it March already, where does the time fly? We’ve just spent another month in French Polynesia, this one legally, which is good as we were boarded this morning by the Gendarme (police) who were doing random checks. Yes, apparently the Gods do like us and we dodged another bullet. Looks like we made a good decision on staying this far east for cyclone season, although it has been a busy one and a few have passed east of the date line, none have made any progress toward French Polynesia. Our friends who held up in Vanuatu have not been so fortunate, thankfully no major harm done to their boat. Another month or so and we will be in the clear to start heading west at our choosing. The winds are still strong out of the east, making our plans for heading NE still rather difficult. But, with hope and a little patience, we will wait out the weather and jump at the first signs of change, getting at least as far at the Tuamotus if not push for the Marquesas. At the moment we are in Bora Bora, collecting ourselves after a busy month island hopping with our friend Kim. We have a few projects on the list and a few more on the wish list, so we might spend some time in Raiatea and Tahiti ticking things off and getting the boat ready for another season of sailing. We have a few more days of good internet so I hope to get some photos up, for now I have included the latest (or maybe earliest) musing from my station here on Kate, hope you enjoy. Love to hear the latest new from “home”, hope everyone is well! Love, H&S
8 February 2011 Hello Everyone! We made it to Tahiti yesterday around lunch . 52 hours and 250nm to windward, just a hair over the 150nm straight line we plotted on the chart. As Steve aptly put it, “We were truckin’ just not getting anywhere”. But, besides it being a wet and bumpy ride with pleanty-o-wind we did not have much weather, that is to say we were not hit with squalls, rain and very gusty conditions. We found a nice spot to throw the anchor back at Marina Taina, just south of Papeete . There are fewer boats here this time, so although the docks are busy and there are lots of boats on moorings the anchorage is not nearly as congested as when were here in Sept, we have no neighbours. Our friend Kim arrives on Monday so we will spend the weekend cleaning up and getting the old girl ready for inspection. Today is a trip to the BIG grocery store to stock up for the next few weeks while she is onboard, other then that, we are just catching up on some sleep and making sure the boat is secure at anchor. I hope to post a few things this weekend as well. Stay in touch,
Love, H&S
Jan 21, 2011 Well, we made it to Bora Bora finally. The last of the Society Islands for us to visit, it has been pretty good so far, despite the rain. We had a great sail over, got a chance to test our new boom end that we just got fabricated in Raiatea and enjoyed a sunny day- one of the few we’ve had for a while. Our first night here was spent at a poorly chosen anchorage; on paper it looked a little more protected and by the time we threw the pick it was too late in the afternoon to go motoring around the snaking channels and coral heads to try and find something a little more sheltered (navigation in these lagoons is sometimes best done with the sun over head so you can readily see colour changes as the depth increases/ decreases). NO harm, just a rainy, blowing, bouncy night in the wind blown fetch that kept us up and checking out the ports. The weather this weekend is looking windy so for safeties sake and rather than spend another few restless nights at a 25-30M anchorage we decided to bite the bullet and took a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club for a few days. Sometimes it is just worth paying a little for piece of mind. We braved the impending rain and walked into town this morning, but didn’t manage to stay very dry. Thankfully it was wet enough to keep some of the cruise ship people at bay and we lucked out by finding a big bag of garden tomatoes in various states of ripeness among the stands littering the roadside. It is our first tomatoes since we left French Polynesia in November, they almost look too beautiful to eat….almost. Today was also haircut day onboard, I agreed to cut Steve’s hair if he cut mine. It turned out to be a very successful venture on both our parts, thank goodess!! I posted some new photos today, more to come soon. I hope to have a little more writing done this weekend if we get stuck inside as well. SO here we are in the “Pearl of the South Pacific” and settling in to what looks like a rather wet and windy weekend. Not to worry, the yacht club has a fairly well stocked book exchange so we have a new pile of literary gems to get through, not to mention a couple magazines that are only a few months only AND in English, a rare find in these parts. However, the bar and restaurant have been closed since the cyclone last year did some damage…no romantic dinner ashore for us. But since it is Friday night Steve is working on a loaf of bread and a pizza as I write this, so looking forward to a yummy dinner and a movie night on board. It also means we can turn on the oven and warm up the boat a little, sounds so strange seeing as we are in the South Pacific! Love, H&S Jan 5th, 2011 Holidays are over and we are back to business as usual. We sailed over to Raiatea on Monday, just a short 20NM hop, as we couldn’t get our propane tanks filled in Huahine and need to do a little work on the gooseneck at the yard here. Unfortunately the yard is closed until Jan 10th (too bad they didn’t post that on there website!) so we have a few days to kill. Never ones to sit still for too long we have both been busy, I hauled out my sewing machine yesterday and did a few project including finally attaching the middle section of our bimini/dodger together, previously held together with a clever arrangement of clips and pins, fine until it blew more than 15 kts then they went flying and you were affreid of losing an eye! So, now do we not only have shade but don’t have to put the board in every time it rains…and rains it does. The holidays were a little rained out but the clouds parted and we saw a few stars above the mast for midnight on New Years Eve, yes we managed to stay up!!!! But it is the rainy season now so daily squalls and down pours are the norm. Take the sun when it comes and hope that you picked a good day to do laundry, so far so good. Not that we should complain, Queensland is underwater, and at least we live on a boat. Looks like the wind is going to pick up for the next few days so we are heading across the lagoon to Tahaa for a little more shelter, this anchorage is prone to some bad fetch when the winds pick up. Things are pretty quiet here, seems this is holiday season for the locals, lots of families camped out on the motus (small islets that dot the reef surrounding the lagoon), and small boats putting around fully of people, so we might have lots of company in Tahaa, we’ll see. Heading back here beginning of next week and will let you know when we have plans to head off to the Marquesas. Weather looks good, no major activity in the pacific, just a few stationary lows that are kicking up the winds, hopefully they blow through and we get a nice easy, breezey ride up north, here’s hoping! Thanks for all the warm holiday emails, so nice to hear from everyone! Love,
December 20th Well, we made it to Huahine!!! We got in on Monday before dinner, found a nice spot to anchor, unpacked and inflated the dingy and headed to the store for a few necessities (bread and beer) before it closed, what luck!! The trip was good, considering it was a bash to windward. We managed to add a few extra hundred miles onto our estimated distance by tacking back and forth while trying to make it eastward. We had everything from 35kt squalls to nice steady fair winds to no wind and drifting, and all pack into a matter of hours, of course. So there was lots of sail adjustments, course corrections, winch cranking and strategizing to be done on watch and sleep to try catch up on down below while the boat crashed and banged into the sea. Strangely I was seasick for the first 24 hours. I knew that things were going to be bumpy so I extended my usual pre-passage routine to 48 hours (no caffine, booze or unusual foods and a couple good nights sleep) just to give my body an extra boost, but I guess I left my sea legs in the quiet little lagoon in Penrhyn. Thankfully I always keep a spare set onboard and after a few hot bowls of plain rice and soya sauce, made with love by Steve, and some coma like sleep (funny how easily you can fall asleep when just the act of being awake is vomit inducing) I came around. Steve actually did most of the cooking this time around, the boat was fairly heeled and bumping around and although I wasn’t throwing up anymore standing over a hot stove below deck didn’t really agree with me. So, we had a hot dinner every night even though the pickings were slim in the old pantry. 6 weeks without provisioning put a good dent in our stores and we will re stock before we head north again and the prices start to climb. As for now we are just enjoying a few days off, well besides shopping for veggies!! We are anchored at the main town of Fare for now but are heading south to Avea Bay later this week so we can have our Christmas day on a nice quite beach. We’ve decided to stay here for New Years but might come back to town and see what festivities are happening at the local sunset bar, we’ll see. I have put up our little Christmas tree, strung a few lights up and bought some garland on sale yesterday so the boat is looking very festive! We have been gorging on holiday treats and just food in general knowing that the store is just a dingy ride away and very well stocked, boy am I missing those very forgiving wooly sweaters this time of year. There are lots of holiday specials on at the super market, including beer at 3500 CPF instead of 4500!!! A nice surprise. We have one last pork loin vacuum packed in the freezer (the last of our Panama meat) and a couple special bottles of red I splurged on at the duty free in Tahiti so we decided have a nice little feast on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas in Australia (they are on the other side of the dateline) and a beach BBQ on Christmas afternoon to celebrate with the Canadians. Last year we had our friend Rick on his boat Evenstar moored next to us in Panama and had a lovely Christmas with him so this is first Christmas alone together. Although we are missing family and friends we are both happy to enjoy a quiet holiday, just the two of us, and start a few family traditions of our own. I will be spending a few hours trying to catch up today and tomorrow so I should have the site updated and some photos uploaded soon. Hope everyone is well and look forward to hearing from you soon, Love,
November 6th It is another nice day here in Raiatea, although it has been sprinkling all morning there is also a little wind, good for sailing. This last month has been a lot of fun exploring the laid back islands of Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea and Taaha, what a change from the busy Tahiti! We are just putting the final it’s and bits away and then it is time to up anchor and say good bye to French Polynesia for a while. We are heading to Penrhyn, Cook Islands this morning, approximately 600nm NW of here. The Cook Islands are a country unto itself but it is a protectorate of New Zealand (they give them lots of money). The speak local dialects of Polynesian, which is closer to New Zealand Maori, but the main language is English, they are taught it in school. So for the first time in almost two years we will be able communicate without hesitation, uncertainty or charades. It should be interesting. Penrhyn is a fairly remote atoll, population 600 and the supply ship only visits once a month, so I don’t think we’ll have internet access for a while, then again where there are tourists, hotels and power there is often and internet connection. But, I will be giving position reports to my brother Thomas who will be updating the website. Hope to hear from you all soon, Love,
Dec 9th, We are leaving Penrhyn and heading back to French Polynesia on Monday, can't leave on a Sunday, it is a day of rest and worship. Our plan is to head to the Marquisas for the rest of the cyclone season, well out of harms way. However, from here it is a direct 1200NM eastward, a bash to windward and hardly a fun ride. So we have decided that we will break it up into three legs; first 600NM to the SE back to Raiatea to re-provision and rest for a few days. Then onto Rangiroa in the Tuamotus, 250NM to the NE, before the final leg to Nuku Hiva which will be 400NM to the NE. The trades have been blowing a steady 15-20kts out of the east for the last three weeks, although they are dipping down to 10-15kts with the seas flattening to 2M or so, which is typical for this time of year. This means that for all of our passages we will have the wind forward of beam and so too the sea, it might be a little bumpy. But, at least for the first leg to Raiatea, we should be on a port tack so will won't have to try and sleep on the floor. We have been getting daily weather charts via our high frequency radio receiver and computer software, which we will continue to do, and there are no major storms or tropical weather to worry about. When we are back in FP we will have internet access on a more regular basis. We are not sure where we will end up for Christmas, it will depend on how long it takes us to get to Raiatea and what the weather looks like after we provision. But our holiday wishes do include a nice calm anchorage, a small beach for a BBQ, a cooler full of beer, and somewhere to swim (we haven't been in water here at all as the lagoon is FULL of sharks, 10-15 swimming around the boat daily). We certainly do not want to be at sea! We will be sending position updates via our sat phone to my brother while underway and will email when we arrive at Raiatea. Hope this finds everyone well in the holiday spirit, only 13 days until CHIRSTMAS!!! Love, H&S
LA NINA and the Coming Cyclone Season- Bob McDavit Weathergram Oct 24, 2010 First, a recap on our weather zones: The weather engine starts with energy from the sun. The warmest seas are near the equator and sun on them causes evaporation which rises to form the Intertropical convergence zone. Air rises as far as the tropopause and then travels pole-wards. In the southern hemisphere a lot of this air sinks around The second strongest cycle for seasonal weather is the ENSO =El Nino Southern Oscillation (there are others). When the seas along the equatorial Pacific Ocean are cooler than normal, as the are now, we call it a La Nina episode. The weather engine turns over more slowly. The peak upward motions in the Pacific occur over the Australian side rather than the Peru side. This has the impact of, in the Southern Hemisphere, encouraging the weather zones to go further south than normal. Already the "anticyclones of summer" are reaching northern NZ, and there are signs of an early start to the wet season in northern Australia. This also tugs the South Pacific Convergence zone SPCZ to the south and west. When we look at the sea surface temps, the Oceanic Nino Index (ONI) for Sep was -1.0 and when we look at the weather maps the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) was +2.5. Both these point to a La Nina that is already moderate to strong. The sub-surface temps in the central Pacific are cool as well, so the consensus is that this La Nina will continue through the coming South Pacific Cyclone centre. NIWA has been able to come up with 8 similar cyclone seasons: Nov 1970 to April 1971 or 70/71, also 71/72, 73/74,75/76, 88/89, 98/99, 99/00, and 07/08. Using these years as a guide, the forecast for the Nov 2010 to April 2011 season is for 9 to 12 named storms (9 is average). 3 are forecast to reach at least category 3, and 1 is forecast to reach at least category 4 (average winds near centre of 64 knots or more). The Coral Sea and surrounding places west of 180 have an elevated risk of Cyclone impact. Although there appears to be a reduced risk for places east of 180, all communities should remain alert and prepared. In the 8 similar seasons chosen there have been some cyclone impact in southwest parts of French Polynesia and in the Southern Cooks. During previous moderate to strong La Nina's, cyclones have been able to leave the tropics and cross the Tasman Sea onto southern NZ. Australian Bureau of Meteorology Summary: Tropical cyclone activity for the South Pacific is expected to be higher than average in the western region and lower than average in the eastern region. The coming tropical cyclone season is likely to have a higher than average number of tropical cyclones in the Western region a lower than average number of tropical cyclones in the Eastern region. The confidence in this forecast is higher for the Western region than for the Eastern region. For the Western region, the forecast chance that the total number of tropical cyclones will be higher than average is 79%. In terms of the total number of tropical cyclones for the coming season, the forecast range for the Western region is 7-8 tropical cyclones. This is 2-3 more than the long-term average value of 5 tropical cyclones. For the Eastern region, the forecast chance that the total number of tropical cyclones will be higher than average is 33%. In terms of the total number of tropical cyclones for the coming season, the forecast range for the Eastern region is 5-6 tropical cyclones (1-2 less than the average value of 7 tropical cyclones). However, as the computer model used to produce this forecast has relatively low skill in the Eastern region, this prediction should be used with some caution.
October 5th We finally left Tahiti yesterday morning after spending a whole weekend sequestered on the boat and waiting out rain and +30 kt winds. We sailed to Moorea, just 15NM to the west but had a lovely beam reach with a “calm” 15-20 knots of breeze and mostly clear blue skies, atleast we didn’t get rained on!!! We are happy to be out of the wind tunnel that was the Tahiti Yacht Club and away from the hustle and bustle of the BIG city, so are our wallets!! We went for a stroll down the road late yesterday afternoon, checked out the “town” and enjoyed the sounds of birds, the smell of green mountains and counting the obligatory mange dogs. We will be here, in Cook’s Bay, for a few days, possibly more, depending on how much we enjoy the calm waters, low winds and tranquil surrounds. We will let you know when we move. Hoping to go on a hike tomorrow and so will post some pictures soon. But, until then I updated the photos page the other day in Tahiti. Hope all is well, hear from you soon, Love, September 20th, Hello Everyone, Sorry to be a little slow on the updates but we’ve had some miserable weather and I have been suffering with a sinus cold for much of the last week, so laying pretty low. Yesterday we moved the boat to the Tahiti Yacht Club, 4nm NE of Papeete, and picked up a mooring. Our anchorage at the Taina Marina, 4nm W of Papeete, was much too crowded and very deep (20+ meters) and when we had a bit of a gale one night last week (sustained 35kts for a few hours with reports of 55kt gusts) and dragged a bit was a little worrisome. Not to mention when we noticed in the morning a boat that had ended up on its side on the reef, thankfully no one was hurt (as there was no one on board) and in a few days they righted it and it was again floating. SO we are securely fasten to the bottom and enjoying the prospect of free HOT showers and cheep laundry ashore ($8 for wash only was a little steep!). Our VISA runs out on the 28th so we have a busy week of running around and doing some restocking and small repairs. Hopefully the weather will clear as last week we were boat bound for a few days due to rain, not that we can complain sometimes it is nice to be forced to sit and read for the afternoon. Provision has been a snap, you can get everything here you want….as long as your pockets are deep enough. But, Steve has been enjoying some well priced NZ lamb and I lucked into a stock of natural peanut butter, so we are both happy. We will put in our order of duty free liquor before we go which means once again the “wine cellar” will be full and it won’t have broken the bank (shitty wine starts at 10-15 bucks here, and I hope you like it in a box), which is good news because I just opened the last bottle of red onboard from Panama. AND when we checked in with the agent (used to avoid the “equivalent to an airfare home” bond that we both would have had to post in order to enter the country) he had 6 slabs of Panamanian beer dropped for us by our friends on a boat named Savannah who are a little ahead of us. After we check out we will meander through the rest of the Society Islands on the way to Raratonga, Cook Islands. So we will have internet for a good while yet. All in all life to good, I am starting to shake my cold and this morning the sun is shinning and we are making power. Now it is time to put on the kettle and start the day. Hope all is well with everyone back “home”, love getting your emails. We will write again before we depart Tahiti and get some more photos posted soon. Love, H&S
Hey Everyone, After three FABULOUS weeks of sailing around the scarcely popluated Tuamotu Atolls we have arrived at the largest one, Rangiroa, which is a popular tourist destination and therefor has internet. I have spent a few hours updating and uplaoding (rather difficult after all this time to sit in front of a computer screen) and will be making a few more changes in the next few days. All is well onboard, we've finally had the picture book weather everyone imagines the South Pacific to have these last few weeks and are glad to be soaking up the sun again, the Marquesas was so overcast! The water is warm and full of fish, Steve landed a nice Mahi yesterday so it is fresh fish for dinner tonight. Now to venture into "town" and find some beer! Just wanted to let you all know things are good, hope all is well with you, more to come soon, Love, H&S
Ka’oha
Love, H&S
29 June Here is my latest update in "Log" format, a diary from our passage complete with our latest recipes, hope you enjoy! 21 Days at Sea- A Diary of a Pacific Crossing
5 June 2010
Well it is the day before departure, we´ve come to "town" for the last of our fresh veggies, which are slim pickings and a little less than fresh as the supply ship comes in tomorrow. We were able to find lots of under ripe tomatoes so we´ll have tomatoes for a few weeks and of course lots of bananas, passionfruit, plantains and carrots, it won´t be a bore at meal time I am sure. Yesterday was spent stowing and cooking, we are just about ready to go, if one can ever really be prepared to leave such a beautiful island. Our month in the Galapagos was fabulous, I hope you´ve been enjoying the pictures I have been posting of our tours and adventures. It is a long way to come but if every youhave the opportunity to do so then jump at it. The people are lovely, the food very good, the beer cheap and the surrounding breath taking. I also recommend watching the BBC series about the Galapagos. It is of course a little glammed up and they were able to shoot on the islands no one is allowed to visit, but the animals and landscape well represented. We are hoping to reach the Marquesas, 2970nm, in about 21 days.....we realistically know it could be more like 4 weeks and if it takes 5 weeks then we might just run out of br!! We are looking forward to catching up with some people we´ve met here and in Panama and hopefully Steve´s Aussie mate Simon who bought a boat and is sailing from Vancouver, BC (and is rumoured to be bring me some Keiths, finger´s crossed). We will be using our SPOT daily and probably using the track feature off and on but there is a black hole over French Polynesia where it will not work, we don´t know when it will drop out, if you don´t see an updated position it could just be this so please don´t worry. We will have the Iridium phone on and you can always text if you are wondering how we are doing, or just to say hello, remember if is free to send and recieve. We will try and update the site after we check into Hiva Oa and let you know we arrived, you can tell us who won the bet for days underway! We are off to have our last meal on dry land for a while, then home to finish packing up the dingy and another few meals to cook before we sit and relax for our last few hours in Ecuador. We will be in touch,
Love, H&S P.S. Here´s a couple of those penguins I keep talking about, they´ve been really active the last couple days, swimming and fishing around the boat all day, what a treat! 1 June We are currently in Isla Isabella, Galapagos where we´ve been exploring and enjoying the quiet island for the last two weeks. We´ve sharing anchorage on and off with four young Aussies on a cataman since Isla Coco´s and look forward to catching up with them again further down the tarck as they too are heading "home". Preparations are underway to raise anchor and start our passsage to the Marquesas later this week, but it will be hard to leave, infact we´ve already decided to stay just a few more days!! So far everything is going well, lots of fresh veggies and provisions ashore, especially the day after the supply ship arrives. Yep, things maybe a little more expensive here but when you sit onthe beach and watch the boys unload a barge that has pulled up onto the sand with a full load, everything carried by hand no matter how big or small, you certain appreicate why a can of beans costs an extra 50 cents. It is back breaking hard work and humbling to watch, we certain have it easy just being able to walk to the store and have everythhing you want on the shelf. We have a few more little jobs before we leave (remark the anchor chain, repair the leak in the dingy etc..) but Steve has been busy checking over the rig and all the gear and I have repaired the frayed stitching in the headsail UV cover so we are looking good. I will let you all know when we depart but we are look at Saturday, Thrusday is a little too soon and one should never leave port on a Friday!
Love, H&S
May 15th Hey Everyone!! Well, we are about to depart Santa Cruz for our last island destination in the Galapagos, Isla Isabella where we hope to spent atleast a week, possibly two. Isabella is less populated and one of the youngest islands out here, volcanos still rumble ashore! We are looking forward to a nicer anchorage, this rolling around and watching the tour boats come and go daily here is Santa Cruz is getting old. We are also really excited about getting back in the water and swimming with the Galapagos Penguins and Marine Iguanas. Finished up the major provisioning here in town this morning and so will just need another round of fresh veggies when we depart for the Marquesas. As there are tours and a few small hotels on Islabella we should have internet access, I hope to upload some more photos for you before we leave terra firma for a while. We will keep you posted!
Love, H&S
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