Good Bye Baguettes 11.41.6 S 141.25.2 W
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Tue 2 Jul 2013 07:18
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After spending a great day with Felice we where
tired of the swell in the bay and left Hiva Oa saturday morning.
The last thing we got from there where 2 fresh
baguettes that Maria from Felice got for us, she came by in their dinghy and
made a "delivery"
Leaving the bay was really messy, a lot of steep
waves trying to throw us back into the anchorage. But our Volvo Penta kept
working against it and finally we where out in the channel between Hiva Oa and
Tahuata, we could go with the wind and the waves and it sure was more than
enought.
In Tahuata we anchored in the same bay as before
and in the late afternoon Windarra showed up.
The kids where totally crazy on both
boats.
We had prepared pie and had the whole
family over for a meal and a lot of stories. Wonderful to see them
again!
Then the kids wanted to sleep in each others boats
etc, and it all ended up being all kids on Windarra. So Ellinor and I had a very
rare night on our own, with a slow breakfast, morning swim etc.
Then we where treated with american pancakes on
board Windarra and in the afternoon we had a short birthday party for
Erika.
We had prepared some games to be played on the
beach, but the swell breaking was more fun....
At 19.30 we lifted our anchor and started our
journey towards Tuamutos.
The reason we left was a good weather window and we
left late so we can get there in day light.
The Tuamutos used to be called the Dangerous
Archipellago and if you read old sailing books there will be tales about sailors
hearing breaking waves in the middle of the night, because they where close to
reefs and not knowing where they where!
The reason they used to be so hard to navigate was
that there is absolutely nothing higher that a palm tree there.
These lagoons are remains of vulcanic islands (like
the Marquesas) that slowly have sunken back into the ocean.
Thus creating this classic sand island surrounded
by a ring of coral.
These lagoons we are approaching are not small
rings, the bigest are small seas in themselves.
Well today the risk of going there is considered
very small thanks to GPS but you still have to use eyeball navigation inside the
lagoons as they are not very well chartered.
The biggest "drama" nowadays is to get into the
lagoons in the right time. Since the tide will fill and empty this enormous pool
of water you have to watch out the currents created in the entrances. Actually
most of the passages can only be made in slack water, wich means you have to
time that or wait.
Today it was Erikas birthday (9years old!) and it
started with an anticlimax. Erika has been looking forward to being celebrated
in the morning in her bed. As she is a control freak she has been checking with
us in various subtile ways on what is going to happen.
At the same time as we left Marquesas a very nasty
sea has been our companion, steep 3 meter waves from the side has made life on
board more or less miserable. And Erika who is never seasick needed a pill last
night.
So when we came in this morning with cake, nine
candles, warm chockolade and a song she simply did not wake up!
So we had to just put her gifts beside her and let
her sleep on. We got her to blow the candles then she turned around and fell
asleep again. So later when she came up, she was wondering why we just left the
gifts on her bed etc....
But she was happy and have been busy with all her
small kits where you mde bracelets etc all day.
This sea has really put us off, Im not feeling to
well wich seemes to be the case on a lot of boats, something with the stomach.
And it does not get better when the waves move us very fast up and down, a very
unusual experience on the big ocean.
But we are using a weather window where we are
sailing on the edge of a front with stronger winds to our east. So we are
getting the swell from there.But tomorrow it should decrease quite a bit. Look
forward to that.
Tonight Ellinor made an effort to treat Erika for
her birthday so she made pancakes. But the bowl of batter fell and we had it all
over the galley, it was pouring behind the oven into the compartments etc. So a
big sanitation has to be made and it was the first time I heard Ellinor swear
more than once (I think I have heard her swear 4 times in all these 13 years
I've known her). Pancake mixture is really a mess to clean! And I can assure
you, the boat does not stop rolling because you are cleaning!
This time the passage should be short, about three
days, it is 400nM between the groups of islands.
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