Posted by Graham Cox
Stories about the South Sea Islands are the stuff of legend in Western culture. James Cook, Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, and more recently, 20th century sailors from Alain Gerbault to Bernard Moitessier, have woven tales of enchantment that have enticed generations of travellers to follow in their wakes. These followers didn’t always find what they were looking for, but that’s another story.
For the MGR skippers, this has been the week when they transitioned from dreaming about the South Seas to joining that select band of sailors who have experienced these islands and archipelagos for themselves. From the stories and photos that are emerging, it would appear that although much has changed (cheeseburgers in paradise, to steal a line from Jimmy Buffet), much remains the same – warm hospitality from the locals, stunning scenery, rolly anchorages, dodgy dinghy landings, and limited facilities.
Dan Turner, who arrived in Hiva Oa several hours after Renaud, wasted little time in getting ashore and sampling the local food and, most importantly, cold beer. Both he and Renaud paddled ashore in their questionable inflatable dinghies without capsizing and went off to sample the local cuisine. After a couple of days, both skippers decided to leave Hiva Oa and make their way down to Baie Hanamoenoa, on Tahuata Island, just to the south of Hiva Oa.
Dan reported: ‘Anchored in calm, turquoise water, with white sand and palm trees on the beach. A friendly French group offered Renaud and I some tuna, so we had sashimi and salad for lunch, and now I am about to go snorkelling, as there are apparently plenty of manta rays here. Amazing place!’
Later, he wrote: ‘I’ve been exploring the land and waters of Tahuata. This morning, I went for a swim to check the hull (which did not have a single barnacle) and had sharks and a manta ray beneath me. Renaud, Mike (who is following the MGR around the world in his Rustler 36), and I then went and visited the local village of Vaitahu, and were welcomed for lunch by a local family, who later sent us on our way with bread, bananas and mangos! Now I am preparing the boat to head to Nuku Hiva, approximately 85NM away, to spend a couple of days, before heading down to the island of Ua-Pou, from where I intend to restart the race.’
Keri Harris, on ORIGAMI, was the next to arrive, followed by Pilar Pasanau on PETER PUNK, with Dan Turk on LITTLE BEA hot on her heels. CanaDan posted: ‘1st day on the island of Hiva Oa, Marquesas went smoothly! Signed into the country at customs this morning with the help of the agents from Tahiti Crew. What an easy process here compared to other countries like Panama. Had a great lunch with Pilar Pasanau – Navegant Solitària, at roadside restaurant that all of the locals were eating at too ! Wanted to go to market but they close from 12 to 2 every day. What an incredible island so far!
‘I met up with some fellow Canadians this afternoon! Jane and Jan were great hosts, with beer and snacks aboard their beautiful 45ft sailboat. They sailed here from a neighbouring island especially just to meet me, because they had heard about the Race and that a Canadian was entered. Jan has offered to construct a sunshade for LITTLE BEA, as he has materials onboard along with an industrial sewing machine! Today is laundry day, then the market for some fresh fruit and provisioning for the next part of Leg 2, then tidy the boat.’
Over the following days, the majority of the fleet arrived in Hiva Oa, including Adam Waugh on LITTLE WREN, who will be busy securing his damaged windvane while taking the time to sample local brews and watch the football back home.
Jakub Ziemkiewicz was a bit late for the Easter bunny, but is still on the hunt for chocolate bars under the palm trees, to restock BIBI for the next stage to Tahiti. He wrote: ‘Another beautiful spot, after 37 days of struggle on a 5.8 m boat, being thrown up, down, and sideways, in extreme hot weather, falls of rain, calms and strong winds.’ You only had to take one look at his face in photos and videos to see that he thought the price more than justified.
Eric Marsh, on SUNBEAR, also looked very pleased to get in – he has been dreaming of fresh food and good company for some days. Christian Sauer, on ARGO, was also delighted to arrive. He needs more medical treatment for his skin condition, plus hopes to take a look at his windvane, which is slipping when he engages the course control clamp. Luckily, he has a spare.
Jasmine Harrison came in just a little after her birthday, but had no intention of allowing that minor inconvenience to dampen the party. In photos taken of her on arrival during the night, she can be seen ecstatically holding a bowl of food in one hand and a drink in the other, immediately transformed from solo ocean voyager into party animal.
Her mother posted: ‘Jasmine arrived safely in Hiva-Oa at 10:30pm local time. She spotted the island in daylight but still had about 3 hours sailing in the pitch black, navigating along the coast to get safely into the anchorage. She was greeted by Mini Globe Race sailors who supplied chocolate birthday cake, bread and beer.
‘Under race rules she has to stay in the Marquesas for 8 days but can go and explore other islands. She can then set off to Tahiti from any one of the 3 official customs entry/exit points. For now, it’s sleep, sign into the country, eat a proper meal, grab some fresh supplies, check the boat over, and explore Hiva-Oa.
Three weeks behind the rest of the fleet, though making some roads into the deficit, John ‘Blinky’ Blenkinsop and his father, Mike, known to all as Popeye, are bringing up the rear. In a phone call to this scribe, John reported that they had been lucky in the doldrums, never once being completely becalmed – the lightest winds they saw were 5 knots, and that only for half of one night.
The biggest challenge was a series of thunderstorms that John says were a bit daunting. He has replaced the wire on his guardrails with rope, so attached a bit of the wire, padded to protect DELJA 100’s beautiful paintwork, to a chainplate, and trailed it in the sea. He got the idea from Keri Harris, who does the same thing in lightning storms.
Because they now have Starlink, they were able to monitor the currents carefully and use them to their advantage, even though they were sailing into light headwinds for several days. Now they are well south of the Galapagos and making good time, averaging between 4-5 knots towards the Marquesas. They are currently sailing on the southern edge of a west-setting current, which is giving them a 1-1.5 knot boost in speed.
One remarkable feature of their passage is that they are sailing side by side, often close enough to have water balloon fights, but otherwise via VHF radio. They keep their AIS units switched on, though when they switch the GPS Chart-plotter off to conserve power, John says, they don’t get alerted when they are getting too close. John switches his chartplotter on every hour through the night and checks the situation. If the boats get a bit too close, John calls Mike on VHF radio and they diverge a little. They leave their VHFs on all the time, and call each other around 20 times a day for a chat.
At the time of his call, John said that he was sailing in 15-knot winds on a broad reach, under double-reefed mainsail and A7. At one stage, he had three reefs in the mainsail. He said that the boat will sometimes round up in gusts if pressed too hard. He has not hand-steered the boat once since leaving Panama. After some discussion abut rig balance, John decided he would try furling the mainsail, poling out the jib to windward, and setting the A7 to leeward, to see if that would hold the boat’s nose down more successfully.
They are not in much of a hurry, though. Popeye is definitely in cruise mode, and John wants to stay with him for the Pacific crossing. Another reason for taking it easy is that Mike slipped the other day when exiting the cabin of DELJA 99, after standing on his wet, slippery liferaft container, falling and bruising his ribs. He is not seriously injured, but taking it easy seems like a good idea for now.
Although they would like to see the rest of the fleet again, the South Seas Islands are also alluring, and they might just chill a bit and spend more time in their various landfalls. Mike will probably sail DELJA 99 to Cairns after Fiji, while John is as yet undecided about DELJA 100’s ultimate destination.
When Christian Sauer called from Atuona, on the island of Hiva Oa, this week, he said that he was melting in ARGO’s cabin. It has been raining a lot and the humidity is very high. Although the people are very friendly and the island looks beautiful, he has not yet seen much of the place. He has made two visits to the hospital and been given more antibiotics for his skin condition, which worsened dramatically a couple of days before landfall. There are no medical laboratories on the island, so blood tests have been sent to Tahiti, meaning it is not possible to properly diagnose his condition as yet. If his condition does not deteriorate over the next few days, he will sail to Tahiti and get the results there.
He will also need to slip ARGO in Tahiti, as the keel is rusting where the silicon shield was damaged by colliding with a log early in the passage. The shield is also damaged elsewhere. He has not yet had time to work on his original Windpilot self-steering unit, which began slipping enroute, allowing the boat to round up. Luckily, the spare unit he had aboard has been working well. He now thinks that the troubles he had in the Atlantic, which he attributed at the time to not knowing how to use the unit, were actually a result of this defect.
ARGO also has electrical problems. He arrived in the Galapagos with flat batteries, and managed to charge them to 50% while there, but has never been able to get them back to full charge since. Part of the problem may be that every afternoon the sun is behind the sails and the solar panels are in the shade. He has been investigating whether he might also have wiring problems, or damaged batteries, and a friend on another yacht is going to help him diagnose the issue.
He is hoping to leave Hiva Oa in a day or two and have a look at some of the other islands before heading to Tahiti. Apart from electrical issues, and a few sail repairs, ARGO is in good condition. Despite his issues, he thoroughly enjoyed the long passage from Panama, and is looking forward to getting back to sea.
He mentioned that having Starlink is a mixed blessing. It is great to talk to family and friends, but in some ways, it interrupts the rhythm of deep-sea sailing. He sometimes feels like he would like to go deeper into solitude, like Moitessier on The Long Way. We joked that perhaps he should think about entering the Golden Globe Race (GGR) next!
Adam Waugh has been thoroughly enjoying his time on Hiva Oa, exploring the island. He stayed ashore for a couple of days on arrival to enjoy a bit of comfort and is now focussing on getting LITTLE WREN sorted out before taking off to explore other islands.
His major task is to make a better repair to his South Atlantic windvane’s cracked bracket. He jury-rigged it with a couple of hose-clamps but did not realise how much play there still was in the unit – the servo blade or paddle was about 20° from vertical, and he felt he could not risk tightening the hose clamps further. He hopes to get it welded by a local shop in Atuona, which should get him to Tahiti, where the manufacturers are sending him a strengthened replacement part. It is worth noting that the maker of the South Atlantic windvanes has been very supportive, and more than willing to rectify design faults where identified.
Looking back on the passage from Panama, Adam said there were only two bad times, the first when he lost ground in the doldrums, having to cross the equator twice, and the second when he discovered the damage to the windvane. He’d already burned out his electric autopilot, so was worried that, if the windvane failed, he would be face with around 3000 miles of hand-steering. It is worth noting here that, faced with a similar situation several years ago, Shirley Carter took 81 days to sail from Panama to Mangareva on SPEEDWELL OF HONG KONG.
Despite not being physically weary on arrival, he says that mentally he was more than ready to take a break. He’d thoroughly enjoyed the wildlife he encountered, especially in the doldrums, where clear water and smooth seas enhanced visibility, but later it got very dull, with grey skies, and the wildlife either disappeared or wasn’t visible. He compensated by eating up all the tastiest food items aboard, which then left him with less-appealing fare for the rest of the passage.
Water was not a problem, as he caught some in the doldrums, though he used up a bit of it near the end of the passage, having showers etc. He has about 40-50L left, and plans to buy some more here, since it is possible that light winds on the way to Tahiti might stretch the passage out to more than the optimal seven days.
Getting the water, and other heavy items, aboard will pose a challenge, as his inflatable kayak is not the most stable or capable of carrying loads. He hasn’t fallen in yet, but fears it might just be a matter of time, and hopes he has nothing essential on him when it does. At least it is easy to get lifts here, as the town is quite a long walk from harbour, and there is no public transport.
This long passage, combined with lessons learned during rough weather after leaving Lanzarote, has given him confidence that he will know how to handle the boat during whatever lies ahead, including getting plenty of rest before bad weather strikes, and what sail combinations work best in different conditions.
For the last passage, he found that poling the jib out to windward and carrying the A5 to leeward, set without a pole, worked best. He found that poling out the A7 to windward (instead of the jib) actually slowed the boat, as it was less stable, given that his pole is quite short, and the sail sometimes backwinded. Plus, it did not direct wind into the A5 as effectively as the jib. Also, if the wind did suddenly increase, he preferred not to have two large sails hoisted at the same time.
Once LITTLE WREN hit the tradewinds, Adam rarely used the mainsail. Not only did the headsail rig help the boat to self-steer off the wind better, but he’d managed to lose both of his reefing lines inside the boom when a bowline came undone and he pulled the line out. He has since re-rigged them, as the leg down to Tahti is likely to entail some reaching courses.
One thing is for sure, LITTLE WREN is a long way away from that shed in Northumberland where she was built, and where that little bird she was named after used to come and visit daily. Adam misses her, and things like frost on the grass, or looking at dark rain clouds looming (I don’t think he was joking!), but he is enjoying the adventure, and being able to highlight the work of the Ella Dawson Foundation.
Dan Turk arrived in Atuona Bay at night, which was something of a challenge, as he worked his way into a bay crowded with anchored yachts behind the breakwater. He also got off LITTLE BEA for some R&R, checking into the same hotel as Adam, though he is back on the boat now and preparing to leave for Ua-Pou Island, where he will clear out for Tahiti.
He has also been enjoying exploring Hiva Oa. ‘Last night, four of us went to a little festival, with traditional music and singing, and traditional food. It was really, really good.’ He said the anchorage was subject to a bit of swell, though it was no worse that when they were bouncing up against the wall in Lanzarote. The 580s are tucked well into the bay, clear of the turning circle for the inter-island freighter.
He said the weather had been very stable for the last few weeks of the passage, with just an occasional cross-swell that made holding the course more of a challenge. For a while, in the middle of the passage, he became very relaxed and almost forgot about racing. He’d come on deck in the morning, revelling in the beauty of the day, and just kick back and enjoy himself.
Towards the end, he began to push harder again, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not catch his good friend, Pilar Pasanau on PETER PUNK, whose racing skills he deeply admires. They have had a friendly rivalry that goes all the way back to their arrival in Lanzarote, where they were racing each other to see who could get in first. Pilar beat him by half an hour.
Pilar, who is currently holding onto 4th place in this leg, is in Ua-Pou now, from where she will clear out for Tahiti. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to record anything of her voyage, as she seems to have difficulty with her communication equipment, and when she does briefly make contact, she only speaks in Spanish.
Ertan Beskardes has enjoyed his time on Hiva Oa, but says that he is just waiting for his mandatory eight-day stopover to conclude to that he can go on his way. Admitting with a chuckle that he is more of a city boy, he said it is all very lovely but tropical islands are all the same, and he doesn’t know how anyone could live there permanently. Paul Gauguin obviously didn’t agree, but ‘viva la différence’.
He in anchored quite close in, with a stern line to the shore, and swims back and forth since he does not have a dinghy, carrying his clothes in a dry-bag. He also jumps overboard to cool off several times a day, and mentioned having a delightful swim at dawn that day. Atuona Bay is renowned for its large sharks, especially since local fishermen clean their catch on the foreshore, but Ertan just laughed when asked if he was afraid of being eaten.
On the first occasion he swam ashore, he forgot to take his shoes, and had to walk barefoot. It is a long way into town, but luckily, he was soon offered a lift. He says the locals are delightful and he was always offered lifts back and forth. As he says, no matter how beautiful a place it, in the end it is the people who make a place special. He then rented a car to make life easier, and to see something of the island. On the day he called, he had been exploring with Jakub from BIBI, and mentioned they’d harvested some coconuts and grapefruit for the passage ahead.
Although Ertan had envisaged moving ashore into a hotel while here, he decided to stay on the boat, because he was not comfortable with leaving it unattended in this anchorage. It has been raining a lot, and although not extremely hot, it has been very humid, especially with the hatches closed. He is hoping that he might be able to moor TREKKA in the marina at Tahiti, and have a decent break there.
TREKKA is in good shape, apart from a small electrical problem, which his neighbour, Johan, a French sailor from Madagascar, is going to fix for him. Ertan says he has been lucky to have a such a good neighbour, and that before he hired a car, they took him wherever he needed to go. There is no way to get around this island other than with private transport. In earlier times, locals, and visitors if they were capable, rode horses bareback over the mountains.
He has not seen much of the other entrants, as, apart from Jakub and Keri, they were all staying ashore and doing their own thing. He is keeping in touch with Mark Sinclair, who is in Nuka Hiva, repairing COCONUT’s electrical issues. If Mark gets that sorted in time, they plan to sail south to Fatu Hiva together, the most southern of the ports that you can clear in and out of, then depart for Tahiti from there.
Eric Marsh has been in Hiva Oa a few days now but has not done much exploring yet, being happy to just have a rest in a nearby motel. SUNBEAR is in good shape and does not need any work, apart from taking his batteries ashore to give them a bit of a charge. Like Christian, he mentioned that it was hard to keep a charge in them because they were so often shaded by the sails in the afternoons, as the fleet chases the setting sun towards the western horizon. He also mentioned that having Starlink on board put a considerable load on the electrical system, though it was nice to talk to his wife, Brenda, regularly.
He manages his power consumption by switching all systems off during the day and reverting to manual navigation. This allows him to run his navigation lights and AIS at night while he sleeps, though he says he never sighted a single ship, or any other sign of humanity, for five weeks out there, finally seeing just one tanker when 300 miles out from Hiva Oa, which, he says was quite a thrill. Despite talking to Brenda regularly, he was beginning to find the ocean a bit lonely. He had a nip of rum each evening, which gave him something to look forward to.
Keeping busy helped. Each evening he checked the weather and planned his strategy for the hours ahead, plus handling the gear and checking everything kept him on his feet, fit and healthy. He does a bit of hand-steering, both to keep the boat moving faster and to keep him active. As a veteran ocean racer, he is always watching the numbers, trying to keep the boat moving well. He says he can do this just as effectively while lying in his bunk, but thinks that doing so for too long is unhealthy. Steering the boat also requires concentration, which keeps the mind occupied.
He tends not to push the boat too hard, not wanting to break things, and is more concerned about making a safe passage than winning. He seldom used the mainsail now that the wind is so far aft. In lighter winds, he will use the A5 and A3 poled out, though finds that with the South Atlantic windvane’s servo-pendulum system, the boat tends to wander a bit, and he feels he has to reduce sail sooner than boats that have Hydrovanes, where the windvane turns the rudder directly. He progressively reduces sail to the A7 and the A5, then to the working jib and the A7. As long as he slows the boat a bit, the South Atlantic windvane steers the boat well, and he is more than happy with it.
There is still 100L of water aboard SUNBEAR, more than enough to get to Tahiti, as Eric caught 35L in the doldrums during rains squalls. He was really looking forward to some fresh food when he arrived, though says that there is plenty of long-life food on board, and because he provisioned for this leg with greater variety than on previous passages, his diet has not been an issue, apart from craving something fresh.
Keri Harris was busy fitting an Aries windvane to ORIGAMI at the time of his call. He bought it from another cruising yacht in the anchorage that was changing to a Hydrovane. He was quite happy with his South Atlantic unit, especially after spending quite some time and money rebuilding it in Antigua, but felt that it put him at a distinct disadvantage compared to boats with Hydrovanes on this leg, especially, he felt, those with their units linked to their rudders.
Many of us watching the YB tracker thought that Keri was tacking downwind, given the regular changes in course it showed, but he says the issue was that the South Atlantic unit did not allow him to drive as hard downwind as the other units. It always wanted to round up a bit and sail high, unless he slowed the boat down. This was compounded by diurnal shifts in the wind of up to 15°, which required gybing the boat to try and stay as close to a downwind course possible.
ORIGAMI’s performance might also have been affected by sailing west at a higher latitude than the other frontrunners in the fleet. Judging by the data displayed on Windy, he seemed to be sailing in lighter winds, and certainly had less help from the west-setting ocean currents. He said he could frequently see more cloud areas to his north.
He tried various sail combinations, including A3 and mainsail if the wind shifted to the quarter. When the main started blanketing the A3, he’d drop it and sail with the A5 poled out to windward and the A3 to leeward. With the wind about 5-10° off of a dead run, the windvane could handle it, though the course oscillations meant that ORIGAMI came close to gybing on occasion. Luckily, that configuration is quite forgiving.
He was still doing a lot of hand-steering, but of course he needed to rest, which was when he had to set the boat up for the windvane. The sun was very intense, so between midday and around 1400 each day local time, he would go down below and rest, have something to eat, etc. Then he would helm for the afternoon, catch a little sleep around sunset, and then go back up until midnight. After that, he’d sleep for a few hours. He’d go on deck again around sunrise and get back into steering. This was a tough regime, but it saw ORIGAMI claw back from a 12-hour delay at the start into 3rd position.
He still has about 60L of water left. Usually, he jettisons some when he gets close to his destination, but this time kept it, being aware that water in this location might be an issue. He does not want to buy bottled water – he says his environmentalist daughter would not approve – and agrees with her that disposable plastic containers constitute a major hazard. Although there is not much litter around the harbour foreshores, which is refreshing, he has been picking it up from the roadside on his daily walks and disposing of it in local garbage bins.
He still has enough freeze-dried food to take him around the world, though says he is ill-disciplined (I am not sure whether to believe him) and that he has eaten most of the items he likes already. He will restock with a New Zealand line of food he likes when he gets to Thursday Island. In the meantime, he is stocking up on fresh fruit for the passage to Tahiti.
He planned to sail down to Baie Hanamoenoa, on Tahuata Island, to clean the bottom in clearer water, change his spreaders and reset the rig, before heading up to Ua-Pou. He has since done so, and is currently enroute to Ua-Pou.
With Josh Kali and SKOOKUM now tucked up in Hiva Oa, Gary Swindail, aboard QUESTION 2, is the only skipper who has not yet completed the passage from Panama (apart from John and Popeye).
There has been some speculation about the state of QUESTION 2’s bottom, since Gary has been sailing slower in recent weeks. He notes that he was managing over 120 miles a day when he first found the tradewinds, but that his average has since dropped off to around 100. He scraped a lot of barnacles off in the doldrums, and has since attempted to scrape what he can reach from the deck. He has booked the slipway in Atuona, where he plans to antifoul the boat.
Apart from the barnacles, QUESTION 2 also has a 150mm tear in the mainsail, after Gary tried to hoist it with untying all the reef points. One of them tore the sail where it passed through a reefing grommet. He has patched it with self-adhesive Dacron repair tape, and will give it to a sailmaker to do a proper job when he arrives in Hiva Oa.
The tradewinds have been consistent, thankfully, sometimes easing off a bit, but always returning fresh. At times there has been quite a bit of swell. When asked what he had learned about the boat so far, he said he’d learned it bounces around a lot!
He is still learning how to get the best out of QUESTION 2, and is occasionally puzzled, as he was on the morning of his call, when the Hydrovane just stopped working, for reasons he could not understand, and he had to take over the steering. He has been experimenting with sail combinations, and finds that setting the A7 opposite the A5 often works well downwind, or a bit of mainsail combined with the A7 when the wind is on the quarter.
Like other skippers, he has discovered how weight-sensitive the 580s are, and how the boat often rounds up when he goes below, especially with the wind on the quarter. The boat copes better with him moving around if it going dead downwind with the jib poled out to windward.
Apart from struggling to keep a charge in his batteries, not helped by wiring issues in one of his solar panels, and a squeak in one of his spreaders when the sail presses against it, QUESTION 2 is standing up well, and he feels very confident in the boat.
He has eaten a lot of the army rations that were given to him shortly before leaving Antigua – noting that they are very good – but still has some freeze-dried food, sardines, baked beans, etc, left. He has about 60L of water left from the 180L he started with. If he rations it carefully, he might have enough left to get to Tahiti, or will otherwise buy more before leaving the Marquesas.
To his surprise, he has been struggling a bit with the isolation, despite regular chats with family and friends via Starlink. It isn’t the same, he notes, as seeing people face to face. He notes: ‘It’s just like every day is the same, you wake up, you do the same thing. Just whether it’s windy or not windy or rainy or sunny or… But anyway, it’s an experience mate, that’s for sure, definitely.’
He is looking forward to getting to Fiji, where he will fly home briefly before his wife joins him in the islands before the start of Leg 3. He may not stop in Tonga, just pass through the gate, in order to maximise his time in Fiji. (He says that Don has indicated that this is going to be permitted for entrants who are not averaging 120 miles a day.)
As this article was being wrapped up, the next stage of Leg 2 was getting underway, with Renaud taking off from Ua-Pou for Tahiti. If CAPUCINETTE’s course is anything to go by, it looks like he has decided to bypass the Tuamotu Archipelago, heading to the north of Rangiroa atoll, before reaching SW towards Papeete. He is sailing at around 6 knots, steering a perfectly-straight course, as he usually does. So far, at least, unlinking his rudder and the Hydrovane does not appear to have affected his stellar performance.
Graham Cox is the MGR’s official reporter and author of the acclaimed sailing memoir, Last Days of the Slocum Era.
If you would like to read Tom Cunliffe’s review of this work in Yachting World magazine, which includes an excerpt from the book, please click on the following link: https://www.yachtingworld.com/specials/great-seamanship-last-days-of-the-slocum-era-156726
