Gif Hammar in the South Pacific

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Notes: http://www.sv-phoenix.com/tripnotes.php

UPDATE 4/22/08

Special Dispatch # 3 for PYC

 PHOENIX has passed the halfway point from New Zealand to New Caledonia. We're motorsailing at the moment as the wind is hovering around 5 knots. It's quite a change from the heavy winds and seas when we left Opua on Sunday. The trip to and from New Zealand is the most challenging for most circumnavigators and we got our fair share on both passages. I'm not naive enough to think that we won't have challenges on future passages, though.

 Since our last update, we have sailed up along the east coast of North Island and explored Great Mercury Island and Great Barrier Island. We really enjoyed getting out and hiking around on the different islands. I'm surprised by how few of the other cruisers in our "class" strayed much further south than Whangarei. Getting out and meeting the local people has been the most rewarding part of the trip. You don't really get a sense of the country until you spend a lot of time with the people who live there. On the other hand, you never know who will turn up and knock on the hull.

 The morning we pulled in to Tauranga after the trip up from Wellington, we got a knock on the hull and there was Piet Hanraets, who raced with us on PHOENIX as well as EXUBERANT and MENTAL FLOSS. His mother lives five minutes from the marina that we were in. Within an hour of pulling in to Opua, Sandra and Wally from PYC showed up. They are visiting BAHATI, a Maine boat, and waiting for the transit up to Vanuatu. We first met BAHATI after we had completed our Panama Canal transit. It's a small world.

 The offshore islands in New Zealand are great places to visit. Many of them have significant areas set aside as parks or nature reserves. In spite of its detractors, DoC (Department or Conservation) has done a pretty good job of keeping trails marked and passable. There are trails on nearly every island. Some islands you can't go on, but DoC probably has trails on them, too. Motuara Island in Queen Charlotte Sound is a nature reserve and one of the few areas in New Zealand that doesn't have rodents.

They made a concerted effort to get rid of them so that several species of native birds could be reintroduced. They have nesting boxes for the blue penguins and we were able to see two chicks in one of the boxes. Motuara also has saddlebacks, an endangered bird that has dull orange patches on its wings that resemble saddlebags (hence the name), and kiwis. We couldn't see the kiwis because they're nocturnal and you can't be on the island after dark.

 Great Mercury Island was quite different. Roughly half of it was set aside for farming, or more accurately, grazing for sheep and cattle. The other half was tree farms. Visitors were welcome to freely access the fields and beaches, but were prohibited from going into the forest. Some of the natural forest area was on extremely steep grades and you wouldn't want to be there anyway. The other areas were tree farms where the local pine trees were planted. As we walked around the island, we met with one of the locals who gave us permission to go into the Forbidden Forest. The forested area was in stark contrast to the open pastures and it was nice to follow the path less trod (and not have to keep a constant eye out for animal droppings). There were only three other cruising boats in the cove, but we were far enough apart that it felt like we were the only ones there.

 Great Barrier Island had been a hot spot for kauri harvesting in the late 1800's and early 1900's. By 1940, nearly all of the big kauris had been logged and the industry shut down. Kauri trees are extremely big in diameter and tall. The largest one on record is 17m across, I believe. The grow to be thousands of years old and have a very straight trunk. In those ways, they are like the redwoods in the US, except that the kauri is a hardwood. It's very strong and rot resistant, which makes it a good wood for building boats and houses. Fortunately the trees are now protected and there is an active planting program in progress. One trail we hiked took us past two remaining kauri dams (of seven) on the way to the highest peak on the island. The views from the summit were great, in spite of the heavy cloud cover.

 Next stop for us is New Caledonia, then Vanuatu, two fairly small island nations on the western edge of the South Pacific Ocean. As you get ready for the summer cruises, take advantage of your ability to visit islands, even if they are close to home. Go ashore. Visit with the people who live there. You won't be disappointed.

Special Dispatch #2 for PYC

Patty and I left Portsmouth, NH on 15 Oct 2006 and arrived in Annapolis, MD on 28 Oct. It's hard to imagine that we have been away from New Hampshire for over a year now. We made intermediate stops in Marblehead, MA; Onset, MA; Block Island, RI; and New London, CT. All of the anchorages were quite empty and people were closing things up, just like our club. We had some pretty good winds (15-35 kts) and some excitement when we passed a tug and tow approaching the Bay Bridge on the way into Annapolis.
The night watches were very cold and we had frost on deck in New London. We waited for the house to sell and waited, and waited, and waited. It finally closed on 23 Feb, thanks in large part to Judy Wright.

We stayed in Annapolis until 4 April helping Patty's parents. Since we were late leaving, we planned to sail direct from Annapolis to Panama. A huge low off of Cape Hatteras (featuring 50-55 knot winds and 15-20 foot seas) forced us to divert to Norfolk for Easter. The Saturday before Easter, we awoke to light snow and howling winds - temperatures were record lows. We left Norfolk on Easter Sunday with 25 kt northwesterlies, which eased off to the teens as we crossed the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream
crossing was really calm and it was great to make it into the warmer air and water. We made pretty good time to Panama via Cape Hatteras, Cat Island Passage, the Windward Passage, and Navassa Island. Just south of Navassa, the wind really slowed down and we motored quite a lot until we were about 200 NM out of Panama, then it really kicked in again. We arrived in Panama on 23 Apr and took a side trip to the San Blas while awaiting our Canal transit. The San Blas Islands, particularly those that are
uninhabited, are really a great place to visit. We really started to get into the cruising mode in Panama. We met a number of people who sailed west with us and we met later down the track.

Andrea joined us on 3 May, we picked up two more crew and headed through the Canal on 6 May, finishing up on 7 May. That was an impressive trip. I had gone through the Canal twice on big ships, but that doesn't compare to doing it in your own boat. On 6 May, we went through the northern set of locks with two other boats. PHOENIX was the middle of the raft so our line handlers didn't have to work too hard, except to supervise the line handlers on the other boats. The night of 6 May was spent on Gatun
Lake. The crew was up early on 7 May waiting for the transit advisor and we arrived at the first of the southern locks around noon. This time, we locked through in two groups of two. The Canal was astern of us around 1400. We spent another week in Amador waiting for our visas for French Polynesia. We left on 11 May bound for the Marquesas. Two days out of the Galapagos, we ran out of propane and pulled in there to get our propane tanks filled. We also spent some time seeing the sights and getting
more supplies.

On 25 May, we left the Galapagos. We could have spent a couple of weeks there, and some of the people we met did, but there were other places we had to go, too. The transit to the Marquesas was long, or at least it seemed that way to us. It took us 17 days and 20 hours or so, but we had slow days (126 NM) and fast days (227 NM). About 200 NM from the Galapagos, we ran over a long line and had the panga rush up to us to help us get free. They were really happy that we stopped and waved us on our way
after they had cut the line. That was one of the slow days. On one of the fast days, we hit 18.5 knots surfing down a big wave in 25 knots of wind. That was really exciting! The first stop was Fatu Hiva on 12 Jun, a really stunning island, particularly after seeing nothing but water for almost three weeks. Next on the agenda was Hiva Oa where we picked up Patty's sister and her husband. From Hiva Oa, we went to Ua Huka, then on to Nuku Hiva. The best waterfall was in Fatu Hiva and the grapefruits
in the Marquesas are absolutely huge. The islanders on Ua Huka were the nicest we met in the Marquesas. Driving the mountain roads on Hiva Oa and Nuku Hiva was quite an experience.

We left for the Tuamotus on 28 Jun and spent the next 10 days diving and visiting islanders. In Apataki, we spent three very relaxing days with Assam and his extended family. They farm the black pearls for which the Tuamotus are famous. All of the sailing guides talk about strong currents in the passes for the atolls, but it wasn't any worse than a strong south wind against a regular ebb tide on the Piscataqua. From there, we went to Rangiroa for some excellent diving. Sadly, we had to move on to
the Society Islands. Twenty eight hours after leaving Rangiroa, we tied up at the Quai des Yachts in Papeete. We officially cleared in and out, then headed for Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora-Bora. The islands and fringing reefs were stunning, but also very busy. The Societies are the most developed for tourism, but you can still find locals who are willing to talk with you and show you "their" island.

Next stop was the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. It was quite a change in climate (cooler) as well as life style. The dance and drum competitions were outstanding - we wish we had been able to see more. This was the first time we didn't anchor out since 6 Apr and it was nice to be close to the other cruisers. Besides real supermarkets, the local market was close at hand and had good prices. We also hiked across the island on a trail that went across a knife edge ridge (very impressive).

After a week, it was time to move on and we headed to Niue. We had a great time there, too. The Niue Yacht Club had just reopened and the locals were proud to show that they had overcome the cyclone in Jan 2004. Another important feature of the yacht club was the ice cream stand that was part of the galley. There was a crane on the pier for lifting the dinghies out of the water so they wouldn't get damaged in the surge. That was the only place to do that so far on our trip. The limestone caves and
arches were immense and exciting to dive into.

Tonga was a three day sail from Niue. We started out in Tongatapu, in the south, so we could get mail and Andrea's camera. We spent a few days at 'Atata diving the reefs to the west and saw some really great coral. After a week or so, we moved north to Ha'apai and spent time in some of the least populated cruising grounds in the world. Cruising was very nice, the diving was better and the whales were the best. The humpbacks were breaching, spy hopping and pec and tail slapping the entire time we
were there. When people talk about uninhabited South Pacific islands with palm trees, wide sand beaches and warm, clear water, this is the area they had in mind. After 10 days, it was time to move north to Vava'u and meet up with some of the people we had met at earlier islands. Vava'u is a more compact cruising area: you can reach any anchorage from any other anchorage in less than four hours. You tend to relax and spend time enjoying the reefs and scenery. There was a lot of time for community
meals and socializing on the beach. After almost six weeks (!!!), it was time to move on to Fiji.

After spending four months on islands that had at most 10,000 people, coming to Fiji was quite a change. Tonga has a population a bit over 100,000 for the entire chain while Fiji has over 775,000 inhabitants. The vast difference in the number of people was quite a shock. We did our thing in the city and headed out to the Yasawa Group where there aren't as many people. Almost every island has at least one village on it and local custom dictates that you visit the village chief and give him a present
(usually a half kilo of kava roots) and he allows you to visit the village and basically relax. Diving wasn't quite as good as Tonga, but the water was warmer and there were more fish. The Yasawas are a great flat water cruising ground. Anchorages are usually a few hours apart and the islands are quite stunning. We'll head to New Zealand around the end of the month.