If there are absolute certainties in life, it has been said, they are death and taxes. Fortunately, I am back in Kuala Lumpur to deal only with the latter, unpalatable as that may be…. There has been no decent internet connection since we left the Galapagos, not that the ones at the Galapagos were that great. Connection in French Polynesia was by way of a prepaid card at the usurious rate of about US$10 per hour – the critical factor though was that connectivity generally lasted only about 10 minutes before being lost. That made it just about impossible to post any blog entries, especially with photos. Now that I have rendered my excuses for the long silence on the Skylark blog, here are a series of updates since the Galapagos in three separate posts (that’s to let you catch your breath in between).
Sunday, March 7 -- Into the big, wild Pacific – Leg 4 Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, French Polynesia
We’d been at the rolling, rocky anchorage at Puerto Ayora since February 26. The impact of Tsunami in the early hours of February 27 in the port was captured in a video clip posted on Youtube. Watch it if you want a sense of the forces at play (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7_ZMgeIU6E&feature=related). In retrospect, leaving the harbor was a necessity. The resultant turbulence caused some damage to boats that remained from the wild swinging and dragging of anchors. At least with the majority of the boats out at sea, there was much more room for all that movement, absent which, a great deal more damage would have resulted. Two unfortunate WARC yachts, Dreamcatcher and Ronja got tangled when an anchor apparently dragged and suffered some damage, mostly to their topsides.
The restart of the Rally was a welcome relief from the bouncing harbor, badly handled water taxis (dangerous to board and get off), and the oily water that fouled waterlines and anchor rodes. Skylark had quite a few marks on her hull from poorly fendered water taxis and a small gel coat gouge caused by a careless driver. We had trouble freeing our stern anchor which was buried deep in the sandy bottom but after a struggle using muscle power and ultimately a powered winch, it was freed – only after bending the anchor’s shank. We were finally able to get under way to the Rally start line area some 10 minutes before the noon starting gun. It took a while to get to the line and Skylark was second last off the line. However, the excellent bottom cleaning by Francois (using scuba gear) gave us some extra speed and we were soon a little ahead of middle of the pack boats. After the half day of fair sailing from the start, the first night was a frustrating affair -- the wind died and we were making under 2 knots. The engine was started and run time carefully recorded for the declaration to Rally Control on completion of the leg. Some 8 hours under engine and the wind finally re-appeared much to our relief. Despite the swell, the winds from the port beam gave a comfortable ride. This was to be the longest leg of the Rally – approximately 2980 nautical miles or some 3427 statute miles. We estimated time at sea of between 18 to 20 days. Ed thoughtfully quoted from a book he was reading that said something about men turning on each other after long periods of being confined to “the prison that was their ship…” I considered taking away the rigging knife that Francois carries with him to peel apples.
The refrigerator and freezers were full. Francois was denied access to his fishing rod. Finally, on March 14, he set I fishing line and very shortly thereafter, landed a large Albacore Tuna which we estimated to be around 25 lbs.
Action shot of Skylark's crew landing a fish...
Francois smiles with large Wahoo (perhaps the fish wasn't really smiling)
The winds were consistent for the first 10 days and we routinely made 180 plus miles each day. On March 12, Skylark broke the 200 miles over a 24 hour period barrier for the first time ever – 201 nautical miles, an average speed of 8.4 miles an hour. The use of the 1000 square foot gennaker in place of the regular genoa foresail provided some advantage. As the days progressed, the famous swells of the Pacific were ever present. These are large swells of up to almost 4 meters high. Some came at Skylark from 2 or 3 directions, which made for a rocky ride. Looking out over the stern, we saw nothing but a wall of water coming at us but Skylark’s stern would lift as she crested the wave and the boat would bob around like a cork – both exhilarating and frightening at the same time. It was something we got used to. Compared to the waves in the Atlantic, the Pacific swells with their long periods were infinitely preferable.
The tedium of the passage is best captured in the following photos:
Ed apparently hard at work in the saloon
Francois apparently hard at work on the aft deck...
Only ship encountered on passage -- enroute Chile to Japan
March 17 – 18, the winds were shifting from southerly to a more easterly direction. We were in for a lot of downwind sailing in large ocean swells which is always a difficult point of sail. The pole was set. We got better at it with each succeeding set. On March 18, it took a mere 12 minutes from the time we furled then genoa to re-setting it with the pole. Sounds simple but the large, heavy pole has a number of control lines (foreguy, afterguy, two downhauls and a topping lift) that must be set in place on a rolling deck. Everyone is harnessed and attached by safety tethers to the jackstays on deck when performing the manoeuvre.
Skylark's downwind rig -- note genoa pole
Managing the boat’s power and water requirements are key on long passages. We found that running a refrigerator, 2 deep freezers, a plethora of navionics, autopilot, sail controls, radios, AIS and such, made careful monitoring of battery capacity and the draw on current absolutely essential to maintaining the operating systems and the boat’s creature comforts. We have a house battery bank with a total capacity of 640 amp hours. The current draw is 14 -15 amps with navnet, autopilot, fridge, freezers, radios, lights and electric flushing toilets. We have devised a strategy of shutting down the freezers when things inside are frozen hard, which reduces the draw to a manageable 7 – 8 amps, requiring about one and a half hours of battery charging every 6 to 7 hours. Skylark’s trusty desalinator was run regularly to keep the boat’s fresh water tank at near capacity (1000 litres) given the requirements for showers, toilet flushing, clothes washer, the galley. At times, we used the high pressure fresh water system for cleaning on the outside. The windshields of the hard dodger became regularly encrusted with salt from the ocean spray.
A highlight on days after a particularly rough night at sea was to gather the squid and flying fish that landed on deck. These creatures apparently do not see too well are in rough seas and often collide with objects in their way, such as sailboats. They were relatively fresh in the morning with the cool temperatures of the night before. These were fried with a dash of salt and served up as “ pescadito frito” – a delectable snack. Each time, we felt they were like manna from heaven, delicious and delivered on deck! Now, was it two fishes and five loaves or two loaves and five fishes that we’d read about in Christ’s feeding of the multitudes…?
On day 18 (March 25), we had Hiva Oa in sight on the horizon. As we got closer, the island was indeed an impressive sight, steep craggy volcanic peaks dipping dramatically into the sea. Hiva Oa is the second largest island in the Marquesas archipelago – popularly mispronounced by WARC participants something along the lines of “heave ‘er over…”
Landfall Hiva Oa
Hiva Oa -- mountains meet the ocean
We approached the coast cautiously and crept into Baie Taahuku which has a breakwater protecting the main port wharf. The finish line for this leg was crossed at 1422hrs Galapagos time, making for a total elapsed time of 18 days, 2 hours and 22 minutes for the 2980 nautical mile passage. The harbor was already crowded with WARC and non-WARC boats many of whom had deployed stern anchors, making spacing at the anchorage quite restrictive. We squeezed into the harbor on the west side of the bay near Voyageur and reported in to Rally Control.
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