Galapagos to Marquesas –21 May 2024 – Day 19- Nearly There !

We finished our shift after supper on the 20th and we were motoring due to the lack of wind. As I finished the blog the wind came from nowhere and I thought we can sail so we put up the sails and were able to head straight for the Marquesas and at a good speed. This was not forecast but welcome rather than having to motor all the way.

We were still sailing when Charles and I came on at 11.00am but we were way off course as the wind had come round to 020-040 and was sending us southwest. We decided that if we wanted to arrive at dawn on the 22nd then we needed to get on and in the right direction.  We therefore took down the sails and motored. This was quite rolly as the sails give some stability with the swell, but you do not get that with motoring and roll with the swell. We had under 300 nm to go. Betty the Poop was still there on the dinghy having a rest but having to balance with the swell. We went off watch and went to bed with the engine pushing us along well.

We came on watch at 8.00am and we were still motoring and had just over 200nm to go. I downloaded the weather and the wind was supposed to fill in (get stronger). Keith made his usual egg on toast and we set about our daily checks. Betty the Poop had gone but we now had one other Boobie on the prodder at the front. It can poop there straight into the sea, so we were not bothered. As the morning went on the wind filled in and also came round 100 degrees to about 120 degrees. This was a beam reach (wind on the beam (side) and this is often one of the fastest point of sailing) and we were soon zooming along about 7-8 kts and directly at Nuku Hiva. The wind increased and so did our speed and this was great, fast and flat sailing and a welcome break from the roll of motoring. We needed to judge our speed so that we arrived in the light and at the right time.

During our watch we had a few more boobies land on the front who needed a rest it appeared. I got out the courtesy flags – French flag, French Polynesia flag and the Q flag (yellow). When you arrive at a new country you have to fly the flag of that country. As French Polynesia is part of France, custom requires us to fly the French flag above the French Polynesia flag. The Q flag is required to show that you have not checked in. Once you have checked in you can take down the Q flag. I therefore put up all three flags in preparation for our arrival.  I also checked the documentation required to check in with crew lists etc which we will need tomorrow.

We went off watch and Mark and Joyce took over. By this time we were going too fast and had to slow down, so reefs went in the main and then they changed the genoa (large front sail) for the staysail (smaller front sail) and during the afternoon various adjustments were made to match the speed with the distance we needed to travel. We had a light lunch and Mark made some curried tuna paste which was delicious. I managed to grab some rest as we will be up quite a bit of the night to arrive at dawn.

I also ran the generator and made some water as I want to arrive with two full tanks. The batteries had been charged with the engine. Others rested, chatted and read and we were then with just under a 100nm to go. The daily run to 12.00noon was only 152 as we had very light wind conditions for some time in the night. There was quite a bit of cloud today and it felt like a change in weather. There was rain around and we could see it in the distance, but we did not really have any ourselves. We have had two boobies on the front all afternoon but no sign of Betty the Poop today.  We also lost a number of fish who come on our line and then somehow manage to escape.

The Marquesas and French Polynesia  

Although I have written about this before just to remind you we are headed for the Marquesas Islands – which is in French Polynesia which is part of France. French Polynesia has 3 sets of islands within it – The Marquesas, the Tuamotus and The Society Islands.

The Marquesas are the most northern of these islands and they have their own distinctive setting and style. They have a NW/SE orientation and there are 10 islands and numerous rocks which covers an area of some 1,418 sq. miles. The northern group of islands consist of Motu One, Hatutu, Eiao, Ua Huka, Ua Pou and Nuku Hiva – the largest which is where we will headfirst and where we will need to check into French Polynesia. The southern group are Fatu Hiva, Mohotani  Hiva Ova and Tahuta.  These islands are high volcanic islands with steep black cliffs and coasts and many idented valleys. Their sharp outlines are generally visible from about 20 nm.

The total population is about 6,000 in the Marquesas and they are descendants of proud and warlike Polynesian tribes that once numbered about 100,000 when Captain Cook visited the islands in the 18th century. The indigenous population was decimated by western contact and diseases brought from Great Britain and Europe. The islands lie in the trade winds which are predominantly northeasterly 80% of the year but swing east and southeast in the rainy season. The wind can be disturbed in the vicinity of these high, steep islands causing frequent squalls and thunderstorms.

I will not talk about them much now but after the Marquesas we will proceed to the Tuamotus which are a group of 78  islands and all but two are coral atolls where they are basically round coral reefs with no volcanic cone and The Society Islands are a combination of both in that they have a volcanic cone and a coral reef around them.

I will explain more. The Pacific Ocean has most of the active volcanoes on Earth. Plates pushing against each other creates earthquakes and volcanoes and that is how the Pacific islands have been formed. The creation of coral atolls was explained by Charles Darwin. The progression from high volcanic islands (like the Marquesas) through barrier reef islands is a sequence of gradual subsidence.

Relatively young volcanic islands like the Marquesas are steep to. Over time, in a tropical sea, coral starts to grow as a fringing reef around the edges of the island and the island begins to sink. Because of their general conical shape, the islands become smaller as they sink, but the fringing coral builds upwards on itself. The outer part of the fringing reef continues to grow and remains near sea level, while the inner part of the reef dies off because conditions are less favourable for coral growth. This combination of sinking island and growing reef creates islands with a barrier reef like The Society Islands. Over a very long period of time, subsidence eventually carries the old volcanic cone below the ocean surface, but the fringing reef remains. At this point the islands become atolls like the Tuamotus. I should therefore see this explanation whilst visiting all three sets of islands.  

We continued sailing and the sun went down and the wind was beginning to decline and is not likely to be enough to allow us to sail fast enough all the way to arrive at dawn. However, we saw some menacing rain clouds around us and it looked like we would be hit by some of these. We put on the radar and soon had 4 rain clouds we were following as targets on the radar around us. The wind strength increased so we reefed down (reduced sail) in preparation for some strong wind under these clouds. Although we had some spots of rain they all seemed to luckily pass behind us and the wind then declined again and we were not sailing fast enough.

Mark cooked pasta with a sardine sauce from the boat cookbook which was enjoyable as our last supper of this passage. He and others have made so many. Once done we took down the sails and we will probably have to motor the last 70 odd miles under motor. We will pass an island call Ua Pou to port on our way to Nuku Hiva and according to the chart there are no lights on it so we may not see it in the dark unless the moon comes out but at present it is behind cloud. We are excited to be so close and we have one more last night to get there.

Picture of the day is the approach on our chart plotter of the Marquesas.

Crewing Opportunity

We will arrive in the Marquesas in French Polynesia about 22 May 2024 and we will then move through to the Tuamotu’s before getting to Tahiti about the end of July 2024. There may be some space on Stormbird during this period should any sailor/reader be interested in joining for this period or part of it in what must be one of the most distant and beautiful places in the world.

Year Two

In addition, in year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and probably across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town and I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we head off to the Marquesas and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk