It took us six days, but we eventually made it the 270 miles to Hao. We gave in and motored the last 17 miles, because it only took 3 1/2 hours. If we'd kept "sailing" it would have taken 12 to 20 hours to go that last little bit, and we'd had enough.
The pass was exciting. Despite there being no wind we could see standing waves in the middle of the channel. Not good. Again we had no idea what the tide was doing or when the best time to go through was, so we just went for it. Usually when we're approaching a pass that Garth's not sure about he says things like "Don't worry, it's not dangerous," "Look, there's plenty of room," and "We'll be fine." This time he was saying things like "Shut all the hatches," "Put in the washboards," "Be prepared to get really wet," and finally "Hold on tight." This was not promising. Usually as we head in he assures me that everything is under control. This time as we were pulled into the swirling mess of waves he said "I don't think we're going to make it through."
We got swept up in the waves and I turned around to see that we were completely surrounded by walls of water. We were being pushed through the pass by the waves behind us but our progress was being hampered by the swirling mess of currents in front of us. I'm glad Garth knew what he was doing, because I saw no way for us to safely turn around. He again assured me that if it all went wrong it would still be safe, just not dry. My job was to focus on a point on the shore in order to confirm that we were still moving forward. We slowly made our way through at under 1 knot, until we were through the worst of it and the land slowly started moving past at a normal speed. Phew!
The atoll of Hao used to be a big navy base, so there's a lot of disused navy things everywhere. Which is fabulous, because there was a big concrete dock just lying around not being used, waiting for us to tie up to for free. There was already another boat there with an adorable little kid and a lovely couple onboard. They helped us tie up then had us over for appetizers, which became our dinner. After such an unexpectedly long passage there was no way we were cooking. Amilee and Dejay were visiting from Raiatea for a few months so Amilee could fill in as a teacher on Hao. They were wonderful company, filling us with wine and food. They even sent us home with a giant pamplmouse from their garden in Raiatea, which was delicious. Neither of us ever feels like socialising immediately after a passage, but we had such a nice time with these friendly people. We don't meet people very often and it's always nice to be in good company.
Dejay filled us in on his own run through the pass, which was similar to ours. He strapped himself in and wrapped up in a life jacket as he got close to the reef and expected the worst. He had more trouble than we did, as he was afraid of the engine overheating from running it so hard for so long to get through the current. I'm so grateful that ours is new and tough. Their boat made me ridiculously jealous though - it's the same length as ours except it's 1m wider, which made it feel twice as roomy as our racey little thing.
Because we had a dock right next to us, we took out the bikes for some on-land exploration. Boy do they make life easier! It was wonderful being on the dock and we could ride along the sea wall straight off the boat, eventually connecting with a road. The concrete roads are all flat and empty which was perfect for bike riding. In fact we didn't see many cars in town at all, just pushbikes. When we were riding along we saw a little boy playing with his tricycle outside his house. He left the bike on its side in the middle of the road to go inside and play with his dog before returning a few minutes later. Nobody cared. The streets were busy, but everybody just went around. There's not many places where you can leave a bike in the middle of the road on its own knowing it will be okay.
It was a bit strange biking along the Motu. It's the narrowest one we've been on, with a beach on one side of us and houses along the waterfront on the other. It's crazy to think that you could cross a whole island just by crossing the road.
We left early to get fresh baguettes at the recommendation of our neighbours. We went past countless people heading back the way we'd come from, all carrying fresh bread. So we knew we were going the right way. We went to the wrong shop at first, where my broken French was useless (which is frustrating because I know the word for bread!) We were eventually pointed towards another shop which had people lined up out the door. That was the one! We had to wait in line for ages for more bread to come over in a big bin, straight from the oven. It was distributed quickly amongst the waiting crowd and we all walked out with more than we could carry, leaving the bin empty again. This was the best bread we've found in all of French Polynesia. It was soft and fluffy inside, light and crisp on the outside. I wished I'd taken more than 4 after we devoured a whole one on the way home.
The centre of town, taken from outside the post office
Sunset from Hao
We planned on staying in Hao for a few days, resting up and then taking off again to the Gambier. We stayed one day. This obviously made me unhappy. But Garth was adamant that we wouldn't have a good weather window for another week, so away we went. We made good speed for about half a day before the wind died off and we were left bobbing along at 1 - 2 knots. So much for our weather window. We had even gone to shore to get internet, downloaded grib files on the tablet which we transferred onto the laptop, which we needed to run the engine to charge in order to get the most accurate forecast possible. We should know by now that the weather forecasts for French Polynesia are never going to be right.
So we're taking another week to go another 300 miles. We've spent the past three weeks sailing almost nonstop. While incredibly boring it's at least slightly promising that we haven't gone crazy, because if we'd gone at a normal speed and in the right direction we'd be a lot closer to Panama than French Pol by now. At least we've been eating like kings on this passage. We're hardly moving and the seas are calm, so over the last few days we've made focaccia, chocolate pudding and a cold noodle salad (salads are usually the hardest because chopping up little bits and pieces is impossible when the boat is all over the place). So the food situation is good, even though the sailing situation is not going well.
More sunsets on the way to the Gambiers
Xxx Monique
More pictures!
The pass was exciting. Despite there being no wind we could see standing waves in the middle of the channel. Not good. Again we had no idea what the tide was doing or when the best time to go through was, so we just went for it. Usually when we're approaching a pass that Garth's not sure about he says things like "Don't worry, it's not dangerous," "Look, there's plenty of room," and "We'll be fine." This time he was saying things like "Shut all the hatches," "Put in the washboards," "Be prepared to get really wet," and finally "Hold on tight." This was not promising. Usually as we head in he assures me that everything is under control. This time as we were pulled into the swirling mess of waves he said "I don't think we're going to make it through."
We got swept up in the waves and I turned around to see that we were completely surrounded by walls of water. We were being pushed through the pass by the waves behind us but our progress was being hampered by the swirling mess of currents in front of us. I'm glad Garth knew what he was doing, because I saw no way for us to safely turn around. He again assured me that if it all went wrong it would still be safe, just not dry. My job was to focus on a point on the shore in order to confirm that we were still moving forward. We slowly made our way through at under 1 knot, until we were through the worst of it and the land slowly started moving past at a normal speed. Phew!
The atoll of Hao used to be a big navy base, so there's a lot of disused navy things everywhere. Which is fabulous, because there was a big concrete dock just lying around not being used, waiting for us to tie up to for free. There was already another boat there with an adorable little kid and a lovely couple onboard. They helped us tie up then had us over for appetizers, which became our dinner. After such an unexpectedly long passage there was no way we were cooking. Amilee and Dejay were visiting from Raiatea for a few months so Amilee could fill in as a teacher on Hao. They were wonderful company, filling us with wine and food. They even sent us home with a giant pamplmouse from their garden in Raiatea, which was delicious. Neither of us ever feels like socialising immediately after a passage, but we had such a nice time with these friendly people. We don't meet people very often and it's always nice to be in good company.
Dejay filled us in on his own run through the pass, which was similar to ours. He strapped himself in and wrapped up in a life jacket as he got close to the reef and expected the worst. He had more trouble than we did, as he was afraid of the engine overheating from running it so hard for so long to get through the current. I'm so grateful that ours is new and tough. Their boat made me ridiculously jealous though - it's the same length as ours except it's 1m wider, which made it feel twice as roomy as our racey little thing.
Because we had a dock right next to us, we took out the bikes for some on-land exploration. Boy do they make life easier! It was wonderful being on the dock and we could ride along the sea wall straight off the boat, eventually connecting with a road. The concrete roads are all flat and empty which was perfect for bike riding. In fact we didn't see many cars in town at all, just pushbikes. When we were riding along we saw a little boy playing with his tricycle outside his house. He left the bike on its side in the middle of the road to go inside and play with his dog before returning a few minutes later. Nobody cared. The streets were busy, but everybody just went around. There's not many places where you can leave a bike in the middle of the road on its own knowing it will be okay.
It was a bit strange biking along the Motu. It's the narrowest one we've been on, with a beach on one side of us and houses along the waterfront on the other. It's crazy to think that you could cross a whole island just by crossing the road.
We left early to get fresh baguettes at the recommendation of our neighbours. We went past countless people heading back the way we'd come from, all carrying fresh bread. So we knew we were going the right way. We went to the wrong shop at first, where my broken French was useless (which is frustrating because I know the word for bread!) We were eventually pointed towards another shop which had people lined up out the door. That was the one! We had to wait in line for ages for more bread to come over in a big bin, straight from the oven. It was distributed quickly amongst the waiting crowd and we all walked out with more than we could carry, leaving the bin empty again. This was the best bread we've found in all of French Polynesia. It was soft and fluffy inside, light and crisp on the outside. I wished I'd taken more than 4 after we devoured a whole one on the way home.
We planned on staying in Hao for a few days, resting up and then taking off again to the Gambier. We stayed one day. This obviously made me unhappy. But Garth was adamant that we wouldn't have a good weather window for another week, so away we went. We made good speed for about half a day before the wind died off and we were left bobbing along at 1 - 2 knots. So much for our weather window. We had even gone to shore to get internet, downloaded grib files on the tablet which we transferred onto the laptop, which we needed to run the engine to charge in order to get the most accurate forecast possible. We should know by now that the weather forecasts for French Polynesia are never going to be right.
So we're taking another week to go another 300 miles. We've spent the past three weeks sailing almost nonstop. While incredibly boring it's at least slightly promising that we haven't gone crazy, because if we'd gone at a normal speed and in the right direction we'd be a lot closer to Panama than French Pol by now. At least we've been eating like kings on this passage. We're hardly moving and the seas are calm, so over the last few days we've made focaccia, chocolate pudding and a cold noodle salad (salads are usually the hardest because chopping up little bits and pieces is impossible when the boat is all over the place). So the food situation is good, even though the sailing situation is not going well.
Xxx Monique
More pictures!
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