Marquesas –Nuku Hiva – 13 June 2024
Keith and Fiona are leaving today and we wanted to give them a good breakfast. We had bacon but no eggs or bread. Andy and I went ashore at about 6.45am and the vegetable displays were starting to open. There were quite a lot of people about. The first supermarket was open and we got a couple of baguettes but no eggs. We went to the second supermarket, but it was closed. The bakery had no eggs nor did the snack bar behind it. We tried 3 other snack bars bit no one had any eggs and all said tomorrow. We had tried our best. We headed back with what we had.
We therefore had bacon and baguette rolls with dried banana we had got in Baie D’Anaho. We also had some baguette and apricot jam with coffee. Thank goodness they were happy with their breakfast. After breakfast Joyce, Andy and I went through our provisioning and worked out what we had and what we needed to get so we made a list. We took Keith and Fiona ashore who deposited themselves in the Snack Bar. Joyce, Andy and I got some fruit and vegetables that we did not think we could get tomorrow. We then headed off to the supermarkets and said goodbye to Keith and Fiona. It is very sad to see them go as they had been great crew members and we hope that they will return again. We wish them a safe trip home.
We stocked up with all sorts of stuff at both supermarkets but there were no eggs. We asked about this and managed to reserve a lot of eggs and some bread. We also managed to persuade the supermarket to run us back to the pier with all the stuff. We came back to Stormbird heavily laden and there will be more tomorrow. We stashed everything away and then had a light lunch of bread, meats and cheese.
The likelihood is that we will not be able to provision for about 6 weeks until we get to Tahiti. There we need to get what we can now. The difficulty is without the freezer we cannot keep meats etc for more than perhaps 4-5 days. We need to ensure we can catch some fish bit we have asked here – there seem to be no fishing shops!!
After lunch we started to look again at the Tuamotus which are coral atolls. 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.
The issue with the Tuamotus is that they are literally coral atolls in the middle of the ocean which are not easy to see and radar only helps a bit as most of the atoll is below the sea. These are a group of 78 islands with all but two being coral atolls and they extend 1,000nm in a Northwest to Southeast direction. In contrast to the Marquesas the atolls have little greenery except for palm trees and short grass. Their low-lying character makes them only visible within about 8 nm. The Atolls and motus (islets) are typically clustered on the North and Northwest side whilst the southern sides are often bare and awash coral reefs. This can be dangerous since even in daylight the reef cannot be seen close to and the wind often masks the sound of the breakers. There are a number of yachts lost in these areas. There were testing of nuclear weapons in the southeastern parts of the Tuamotus which only ended in 1996 and those islands are understandably banned from visiting.
The atolls have lagoons which have passes into them and it is possible to navigate into the larger lagoons but usually at slack water (i.e. when the water is not trying to come into or out of the lagoon). These passes can be quite narrow and so working out when slack water is for each Atoll is not a simple exercise. We had therefore done quite a lot of research and I had identified about 5-6 which we may try and visit. Calculating slack water depends on a range of factors namely moonrise and moonset, strength of wind and over how many days, wave height, atmospheric conditions etc. The books suggest we use a number of websites and sources to try and work out High Water and Low Water at the atolls and then at the end of the day it is down to how it visually looks. The idea is that slack should be about HW or LW or an hour or two either side. You may expect when entering the passes to have 3-6 kts against you so having a good engine should help. It is very much a bit hit and miss bit you need to get it right as hitting the reef or coral could be disastrous. The advice is to calculate the HW and LW as best you can. Get there a couple of hours early and watch the passes and how the wave conditions and current look. Watch other boats and see what the fishing boats are doing. It is better to go in when there is a slight ebb (i.e.. it is coming out) so you have some steerage against the current. This all seems a bit daunting hence why we are looking at it very carefully.
Once inside the pass you then have to be careful of the coral and depths and what are called coral bommies – pillars essentially and you can only really judge this from visually looking into the water with ideally the sun behind you. Some send crew halfway up the mast to get a better view. We looked at all the material and thought that we should try Ahe – which is one of the nearest Atolls and has a safe anchorage inside. This is about 500nm away and will take us just over 3 days and so we need to leave giving ourselves plenty of margin as if we miss the timing we may have to wait another 24 hours before we can attempt again which would not be good.
After discussing this and doing our research I feel a lot more confident about the exercise so we will see how it goes.
The maintenance man came to look at the generator. The upshot of which is that he thinks the heat exchanger (where the fresh water and saltwater flow side by side) has failed and the coolant from the fresh water is escaping slowly into the salt water. This will mean a new heat exchanger, but I probably will not be able to get another until Tahiti. I will therefore have to ensure I have enough coolant until we get there.
We chilled the three of us left- Joyce, Andy and I and had an evening drink. We then had cassoulet with sausages for supper with salad and bread and a bit of red wine. It had been a good productive day, but we have more to do tomorrow.
Crewing Opportunity
We are about to leave the Marquesas in French Polynesia and depart for 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 move through French Polynesia and beyond.