Posted by Graham Cox
19 May 1980
I gazed in rapture at Papeete’s famous quay, where many of my heroes had tied their little ships stern-to, anchors out over the bow, at some stage in their voyaging careers. Tahiti is the lodestar of many voyagers’ dreams, even if they deny it later, with sufficient salt water under their keels to know better. Ever since the days of early explorers like Wallis, Bougainville and Cook, Tahiti has held a particular place in the imagination of Europeans.
From: Last Days of the Slocum Era, Volume One
After the early explorers came the legendary small-boat sailors that anyone who loves ocean voyaging reveres – Harry Pidgeon, Alain Gerbault, William Albert Robinson, Eric and Susan Hiscock, Bernard Moitessier, et al. They wrote glowing accounts of Papeete, which in those days was a quiet, sleepy, enchanting South Seas town. Of course it has changed now, the romantic inter-island schooners have long gone, there is a marina where yachts previously moored stern-to the famous shoreline, and the upscale buildings would not look out of place in any thriving metropolis. But it is still Tahiti, the ethereal spires of Moorea still haunt Papeete’s horizon, and the sailors still come. Most of the MGR skippers have since arrived, and they seem to be delighted with the place.
Jakub Ziemkiewicz sighted the unmistakable profile of Tahiti while still 50 miles from Papeete, on a clear morning at dawn. He has also read all the famous sailing books, and making landfall on Tahiti was his boyhood dream. Mont Orohena, the highest peak in French Polynesia, stands 7352ft (2241m) above the horizon. The squalls and calms of the first days had given way to beautiful weather. He was sailing under just his A5 (medium-sized asymmetrical spinnaker), but hoped maybe to pole out the jib to windward before long, as the wind was showing signs of moving aft of the beam. He posted that he was looking forward to an ice-cream, and hoping to get in before sunset. Later, in the heat of the afternoon when he was just 20 miles off, his thoughts had turned to cold beer.
Dan Turk sailed through the Tuamotu Archipelago partially by day and the rest by moonlight. He posted: ‘It’s simply an amazing place. I would have loved to spend some time hanging out in one of these atolls, but it would have added time onto my overall for this leg, and I was also a little concerned about entering and exiting an atoll pass with only my electric outboard motor. One has to be cautious of the tidal flow and currents in this area, and I have no local knowledge. Another time, maybe. Tonight, I continue on to Tahiti under my A5 and reefed mainsail, trying close the gap on my 3rd and 4th placed competitors. After spending so much time in the open ocean between Panama and the Marquesas, this gap of 17 miles between the two atolls made me a bit nervous.’
Dan called from Papeete to say he was thoroughly enjoying the marina, with showers nearby, stepping on and off the boat at a dock, good supplies to hand, and socialising with the other MGR entrants. He has little to do aboard LITTLE BEA, apart from reviewing his electrical system, with his batteries not receiving as much charge from the solar panels as they should.
That situation influenced his thoughts about stopping at places like the Tuamotu Atolls, despite their allure, due to the strong tidal flows there, and the need to negotiate coral passes in and out of the lagoons. He used 45% of his battery capacity just getting LITTLE BEA into Papeete, and was unsure if he would have been able to recharge his batteries adequately after exiting a Tuamotuan pass before reaching Papeete. Possibly this perspective might change if he manages to get his solar charging issues resolved, but he did feel that more solar power and battery capacity would be better.
While discussing the possibility of heavy weather enroute to Tonga, Dan mentioned that he’d run under bare poles at 4.5 knots for 3-4 hours on the way down from Hiva Oa, and would choose to do so again if the gale was fair and the seas did not build to dangerous heights. If the gale was forward of the beam, he might try initially to heave to under reefed mainsail. He carries a storm warp plus a Burke drogue with a short length of chain attached, which he will deploy if LITTLE BEA starts going too fast as he runs before the storm.
At 2000 UTC on 14 May, day 4 of the passage from the Marquesas to Tahiti, Adam was 290nm from Papeete, having averaged a steady 120nm per day. Over the following 24-48hrs, he carefully navigated through the cluster of atolls scattered across this part of the South Pacific. These low-lying coral reefs demand precise plotting and alert seamanship, and to add to the fun, Adam plotted his position on a large-scale paper chart, working from a series of sextant sights, in order to fulfil his obligations under the notice of race. Getting accurate sights from the deck of such a small yacht is a major challenge, but the conditions were ideal. His accuracy, compared to the GPS readings, varied from between5 nm to 40nm, good enough for ocean voyaging.
Apart from some moderate squalls, he had pleasant weather all the way, reaching and broad-reaching in 15 knots of wind, and with seas of around one metre, occasionally two metres. His South Atlantic windvane, which had its cracked bracket welded up in Hiva Oa, steered the boat without issue. Keri Harris gave him parts from his South Atlantic, though some did not fit as the model had changed. He also has a new bracket arriving from the manufacturer, so from here on he should have no issues with keeping the unit operational.
LITTLE WREN sailed through part of the Tuamotus in daylight, getting quite close to the land, which was something of a highlight. It was tempting to stop, though Adam also thinks that getting in and out of the atoll passes safely with the 580s’ small electric outboard motors might be a challenge. He used up a full battery getting out of the harbour at Hiva Oa, due to headwinds and a nasty swell, and it took 20 hours before he was able to recharge it. That means that one would be reliant on getting plenty of sunshine to recharge batteries during the Tuamotus layover. Of course, if the wind was steady, and you had the nerve of a Gerbault or Moitessier, you could sail in!
Weather and tides would also need to be cooperative to safely negotiate the pass. When COCONUT visited Ahe, the tidal stream in the pass was running at up to 2.4 knots during the peak of the flood and ebb, so transiting during slack water would be essential. Slack water can sometimes be compromised by large swells breaking into the lagoon over the windward reefs.
In the early hours (local time), Adam sailed into the port of Papeete after an impressive 800nm journey in less than 7 days from the Marquesas. A well-earned welcome awaited him, as his fellow sailors from the MGR gathered to greet him and celebrate his arrival.
There is not a lot of work required on LITTLE WREN. Apart from doing a deep clean while alongside the marina pontoon, with easy access to offload stuff, and plenty of fresh water available, he will make some adjustments to the windvane and tighten the forestay a little, in anticipation of possible headwinds on the next leg. Over the next few days, he will top up on food from the excellent, if expensive, supermarkets, ready for his departure for Tonga on Friday.
Christian Sauer has been busy working on ARGO as usual. Given that he was still building the boat in the last days before leaving Lagos, and continues to complete jobs in every port, not to mention issues with his sails, windvane and health, his perseverance is remarkable, and he is thrilled to have made it as far as Tahiti. He jokes that he could spend the next three months in Papeete working on the boat and still not be finished. However, he always manages to do the essential tasks to safely sail on the next stage of the voyage.
He has been less successful in finding an answer to his health issues, with his skin condition not improving much, despite continued antibiotic treatment. He had hoped to get blood tests done in Hiva Oa, then get the results in Papeete, but the clinic there declined to provide the service. He is still waiting for tests to be made in Papeete, which could determine the cause of his problem. However, he does not feel ill, and barring any information indicating that his condition is life-threatening, intends to sail for Fiji and try to resolve the issue there.
When he called, he had just come down from climbing the mast to inspect his spreaders, as he could hear noises coming from them during the passage down from the Marquesas. The problem seems to be just a tight fit, as the spreaders were strengthened in Antigua, and they are not sitting quite as snugly as before. He was able to lubricate them with lanolin.
He had a far more serious issue shortly after leaving port on this last stage, when the A5 dropped to the deck, leaving the halyard and swivel up the mast. After futilely trying to snare it with the halyard for the A3, he hoisted his jib to stabilise the boat, then climbed up to just above the spreaders with his boathook, managing to drag the halyard down. This is quite impressive, given that Christian is no flyweight! He weights in at around 100kg.
Apart from some heavy rain clouds early on that looked like they might bring squalls, causing Christian to reef ARGO early, the passage was otherwise pleasant and uneventful. He sailed most of the passage with the mainsail and A5, partially because the A3 needed some repairs and he did not want to do them at sea. Occasionally he changed down to the jib when the wind freshened.
He was hoping to lift ARGO out of the water in Papeete to repair the damage to the silicon sheath on the leading edge of the keel, and elsewhere on the hull, caused by hitting that large log a day or so out of Panama, but the boatyard did not want to lift the boat using the built-in sling points Christian fitted when building the boat. He cannot use conventional slings as they will also damage the sheath. Instead, he will scrub the hull and hope to lift it out in Fiji.
He will also have to wait until Fiji to sort out the cabling issues with his Starlink unit, since it was too expensive to get the items shipped into Papeete. He does hope to sort out his electrical issues before leaving, and has made contact with a local marine electrician. He had some tough times on the long leg down from Panama, with lots of overcast skies and flat batteries. He used up half his power getting out of the approaches to Balboa, then flattened them entirely when he went to the aid of LITTLE BEA. He was lucky to get a 50% charge in them during his brief stop in the Galapagos, but this was followed by 10 days of solid overcast.
He had to switch everything off, and at times was not sure if he could even run his GPS to obtain brief fixes. Since then, he has not managed to fully-charge his system. He feels confident in his ability to plot sextant sights of the sun, and plans to expand his knowledge to taking sights of the stars and planets, but feels that, with the wild motion of the boat at times, accuracy might not be that good in boisterous weather.
Amazingly, Christian still has 140L of water left from Panama, having left with 280L, plus plenty of food. He stresses that he is neither in racing or cruising mode, but rather adventure mode. Though later, when he gets closer to the end of the MGR, he might start focusing more on racing. Watch out for Christian when the fleet leaves Cape Town!
For now, he is content to be where he is, in mythical Tahiti. He wanted to thank Hedwig Denter, and all the other friends and supporters who helped him put ARGO together, and to get this far. He also wanted to say that it is more dangerous not to follow your dreams than to take the risk of attempting to fulfil them. If you dream of building a 580 and sailing the ocean, he says, you should just make a start, and you will find a way to do it if you are passionate enough.
Eric March made an excellent passage down from the Marquesas aboard SUNBEAR, taking 6 days and 16 hours. He averaged over 100 nm a day, with a couple of days of 130 nm, despite very challenging conditions, with endless squalls, some quite heavy, and a lot of rain, necessitating frequent sail changes. “It was all over the shop,” Eric said. Luckily, he does not need a lot of sleep and managed just fine. SUNBEAR is now moored about 8 miles south of Papeete, near the hotel where his wife and campaign manager, Brenda, is staying, while Eric enjoys some R&R ashore. He has just celebrated his 72nd birthday.
As usual, he did a lot of hand-steering, even though his self-steering gear works perfectly OK. He can push the boat harder when hand-steering, and is definitely in racing mode, though he is also having a huge amount of fun doing it. He loves SUNBEAR, and feels confident the boat can handle whatever comes his way. On the other hand, he is a veteran ocean racer, and knows you need to keep the boat intact, that you need to finish to win, so is always seeking that balance between going fast and conserving his gear. He feels that he is getting faster as he goes along and becomes more familiar with the boat’s needs. He also predicts that the fleet will continue to get faster, and to close up with each other as each leg progresses, so that towards the end of the circumnavigation they will be racing neck and neck.
SUNBEAR is therefore in excellent condition. There were a few barnacles on the transom in Hiva Oa, which he cleaned off, along with a lot of slime on the topsides, and he will get a diver to thoroughly clean the bottom before he leaves Tahiti. He plans to get the boat out of the water in Fiji and renew the antifouling paint. The only major problem was that his outboard motor would not start when he arrived off of Papeete, due to corrosion in the power cable, necessitating a tow down the lagoon to his marina berth.
Eric is not a fan of electric outboard motors, feeling that they are not reliable enough. He’d prefer a naturally-aspirated, petrol outboard motor. The boats are spritely, and can be sailed anywhere as long as you have breeze, but if the breeze stops when you are near a coral reef, especially if there is some swell and / or tidal stream present, things can go pear-shaped quickly. He feels, therefore, that he would not have been tempted to visit the Tuamotus if they had been offered as a discretionary stop.
SUNBEAR approached the finish line off Papeete at dawn, under double-reefed mainsail, with the big A3 set to leeward and the A7 poled out to starboard. A large, black squall was coming up astern, but he decided, uncharacteristically, to hang onto his canvas, just in case he ended up becalmed in the wake of the squall, as often happens. Things got pretty wild there for a while, and he says he won’t try that again. He had intended sailing into the lagoon, but Brenda had arranged a tow for him, and the support vessel came out through the pass and plucked him in.
His A7 and A5 kites are set on furlers, and are thus easy to manage, but after the furler on the A3 gave him trouble, he reverted to setting it flying, with a tack line that comes back to the cockpit. He leaves a turn of the halyard around a winch to slow the sail’s descent, fires that and the tack line simultaneously, and drags the sail into the cockpit under the boom. He can usually get it down without getting it wet. He says it is an excellent sail and one of his favourites.
Brenda has brought him a new stock of freeze-dried food, and he has also stocked up on high-protein food like sardines, etc, so he feels confident that he will eat well on the trip to Tonga. He is carrying 100L of water for the passage to Tonga and onward to Fiji, and it is all carefully secured against rough weather. He has also prepared his storm warp, and has a Burke drogue, in case it is needed. We had an interesting discussion about the best way to deploy the drogue. I feel it has to go over the stern, either on a bridle or off the windward quarter, while Eric thought that maybe it could go over the bow if the gale was on the nose, which it is bound to be somewhere between Tahiti and Cape Town. John Guzzwell tried that early on during TREKKA’s circumnavigation and it was hopeless. Watch this space!
Jasmine Harrison on NUMBATOU had a mixed passage between Ua Pou and Tahiti. Her mum reported that she had every type of weather and conditions after leaving Ua Pou, from zero wind in the lee of the island to big seas, torrential rain and lightning, which lasted hours. Then back to calmer seas and sailing with either the jib or pink spinnaker. That meant lots of sail changes and lots of hand steering.
Eventually, conditions settled enough to allow the Hydrovane to steer the boat at a steady 5 knots, but she had to keep an eye on things, as NUMBATOU kept wanting to head the wrong way. (Something reported by several entrants, due to the waves coming up under the windward chine and pushing the stern around, and possibly cross-setting currents.) Jasmine enjoyed the full moon, which lit everything up almost as bright as daylight, and seeing the sun in the sky at the same time, as well as stunning sunrises.
When she navigated through the Tuamotu atolls, she was tempted to stop and explore them, as she could clearly see the land, but that will have to wait for another adventure. She generally had good sailing conditions through the atolls, and managed 36 hours without a sail change. One night, she caught up to Captain Coconut – Mark Sinclair, who was waiting to head into Ahe Atoll aboard COCONUT, since he was not bound by the elapsed-time constraints of the MGR fleet. He had spotted Jasmine’s nav lights whilst out on deck and radioed her. It turned out they were pretty close, then the AIS alerts on both boats finally sounded at the same time. By Sunday morning, NUMBATOU was snugged up in Papeete, and COCONUT was back at sea, chasing Josh Kali on SKOOKUM towards the passage between Rangiroa and Arutua Atolls.
Although the wind dropped for her last 100 miles, Jasmine still managed to make it in during daylight, arriving at Papeete Marina on Saturday afternoon local time (now 11 hours behind UK time). The other MGR sailors were there to greet her, and even better news – she arrived in time for happy hour. After food and drink, sleep was her priority, having woken every 30 minutes to keep watch during the last night of sailing. Thanks to Jasmine’s mum for excellent reporting.
Gary Swindail, with his freshly-antifouled bottom aboard QUESTION II, was further astern, sailing at 4.5 knots, with approximately 600 miles to go to Papeete. He sent a brief message shortly after leaving Hiva Oa to say that the boat felt a lot more slippery through the water. He did not make his scheduled call on Monday, having got his days muddled up (we are on opposite sides of the date line) but called the following day (today my time).
By then, he was about 350 nm from Papeete, and hoping to arrive next Friday. The passage so far has been rough, with lumpy swells and strong squalls. For the first two days out of Hiva Oa, he had a solid 25 knots from the SE, so QUESTION 2 at least made plenty of miles. He had a big squall on Monday night, waking to find the boat heeling sharply and sails rattling. He rushed up on deck and hauled down the triple-reefed mainsail, which brought things back under control, leaving just a little of the jib unfurled to help with directional stability. Usually, if he sees a squall coming, he pulls all sail down and lets it pass.
The boat is handling everything well, though he has a squeak in one of his spreaders when the sail presses against it, the same as Christian does, and also because the reinforced spreaders do not sit as flush into their plastic housing as they used to. He also has an issue with one of his batteries that no longer accepts a full charge. He took his batteries ashore to recharge them in Hiva Oa, but one would not take a charge much above 40% and is now very low again. The solar panels did increase the charge again after he departed, but once again not more than 40%, despite showing a voltage reading of 13.4. This can be particularly frustrating when his Starlink unit sometimes takes 45 minutes to establish a connection, sucking up power all the time.
He is still finding long solo passages to be a bit like Groundhog Day, same, same, same, every day, both a bit boring and lonely, something that he had not expected. He does a bit of hand-steering to relieve the monotony, and sometimes has fun surfing along on the wave crests, but is not sure if his enthusiasm will carry him past Fiji, or if he will return from the MGR and head back to Australia. Besides the solitude, there are the usual pressures of family obligations and financial constraints.
He found the Marquesas Islands a bit limiting socially, although visually stunning, and is keen to arrive in Tahiti. He has two friends flying in soon after he arrives. Although they are going on to Huahine the following day, he is looking forward to spending time with them. In the meantime, he makes the most of it, and after his call was planning to make curried sausages for dinner, his all-time favourite meal.
Ertan was also looking forward to arriving in Tahiti, as he found the anchorages in the Marquesas too uncomfortable, and he also prefers city life when ashore. Paradoxically, he seems quite content when TREKKA is trundling along in the tradewinds. He had been thinking of going to stay in a hotel when he arrived in Papeete, but found there was no need to, saying, “After two months of living on the boat, this is the first time we’ve got civilization, where we’ve got fresh water, nice showers, shops nearby, nice walks ashore. It’s like paradise, you know, it’s like heaven here.”
He borrowed an angle grinder from Christian (who carries plenty of tools, as he is still building ARGO as he proceeds from port to port!), and cut off his broken main hatch. He was planning the fit the new one the next day. Other than that, TREKKA is in good condition and ready for the next stage to Tonga. He has sent his A3 off for repairs, as he has been sticking patches on it for a while, and decided to take the opportunity to get a proper repair done. It is an old sail, left over from Don McIntyre’s 2021 Transatlantic campaign, so it has done a lot of miles now. He is also hoping to get a replacement tiller pilot delivered before he leaves, having lost the original one overboard, when TREKKA flung the unsecured unit into the sea. Then it is just a case of stocking up with provisions and chilling out at the local bars and restaurants before he leaves.
He left Ua Pou alongside Mark Sinclair on COCONUT in scrappy weather, thankful to escape that rolly anchorage. A fierce squall soon had him sailing at 4 knots under bare poles for several hours, with the Hydrovane steering. Later, as it eased, he rolled out some of the jib. From then on, the weather improved, and he had a very pleasant passage, sailing under double-reefed main and jib most of the time. COCONUT, being 34ft LOA, gained 15 miles on TREKKA during the strong winds at the start, but caught up a bit once the wind eased.
Later, Mark Sinclair hove-to under mainsail only, and filmed TREKKA sailing by, which was a stirring sight. The video can be viewed on the MGR Facebook page. Mark later did the same for Josh Kali on SKOOKUM. Seeing these little boats forging along in the tradewinds, doing what they were designed to do, removes any doubt that they fill their design brief – to produce a seaworthy, relatively cheap, and easy to build miniature ocean voyager.
As he always does, Ertan came in through the pass in to Papeete Harbour around 0900, having slowed down during the night to make his approaches at dawn. He is a cautious seaman, preferring the safety of a daytime approach over gaining a few hours on the leaderboard. I can just see the smile he would have had on his face.
Keri Harris failed to call this week, being too busy with an active social life. We exchanged messages today, as he was clearing out of Customs for his passage to Tonga, and he promised to call as soon as he had completed the formalities, but I can only assume that the sybaritic pleasure of Tahiti won the competition for his attention! If he is not careful, he’ll be buying a mattress to sleep on soon!
I also had promises of phone calls from John Blenkinsop that failed to materialise. In his text message, he said he had failed to make contact the previous week, as scheduled, because DELJA 99 and DELJA 100 were sailing in very strong winds, with squalls in excess of 60 knots. At the moment, they are about 700 nm from Hiva Oa, and still sailing about 150 metres apart. They have stuck together all the way from Panama, almost always in visual contact, or within VHF range, quite a remarkable feat.
