Chapter 149: We Made It!!!

After 4200 nautical miles and 33 days, we have arrived at Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. Kim and I are still processing everything (and recovering), but I have a few thoughts right up front: first, it was long. That’s obvious, but you are probably thinking “oh, they must be exhausted from the constant watch-standing, etc.” But that’s not really it. Sleep-wise, yes, we’re tired, but it’s not like we were at the end of our rope. We were handling it pretty well. It wasn’t even not being on land for 33 days. That was not really a problem. And we were eating well, thanks to Kim’s excellent meal-planning and provisioning. It was more about the conditions. The winds were VERY light. We had 8-10 knots of wind most days. Some days less than that. We rarely had winds above 15 knots and never above 20. Now, had we been battling 20-25 knot winds for days on end, we might be telling a different story. On the other hand, had that been the case, the trip would have taken more like 23-24 days rather than 33. In any case, I found it frustrating. My goal was to be able to say “we sailed across an ocean”. Instead, I feel like we motored and drifted across the ocean. I know, I know: that’s dumb. But there it is. Mother Nature just didn’t want to cooperate. And in a final twist of the knife, after 32 days at sea, we arrived at dusk. Entering an unfamiliar harbor in the dark is a no-no, so we had to heave-to and drift overnight until we could come into the anchorage in morning’s light. Ah well.

After anchoring, we got the dinghy into the water and went ashore to check in. That was very smooth, as we used an agent to handle the details. The next day, we moved into the small harbor anchorage because it was EXTREMELY rolly outside where we first dropped the hook. Not good for sleeping. We also made a run to the grocery store. We got lucky because the supply ship showed up when we did, so there was a good selection of produce. Having said that, it’s a small island so the overall selection of items was pretty limited. The next day was work, work, work. We refueled Meraviglia, which took 372 liters of diesel (that’s what we used on our crossing). We also changed the oil, oil filter, and fuel filter. We fixed our windvane autopilot, Maverick. We discovered after we arrived that one of the struts holding it to the transom had come off on one end. Fortunately, a new bolt is all that was required. That night, another cargo ship came in. Unfortunately, we were “oh so close” to the pier, so it was a very tight squeeze. Happily, we didn’t have to move but we were told to move before the ship departed the next day (Saturday). Fortunately, we were planning to leave anyway.

Anyway, we’re here in French Poly. Hiva Oa is stunning. The topography is fantastic. On the other hand, there’s not much there. And the anchorage is pretty rolly. So, actually, as you are reading this we are already somewhere else: Fatu Hiva. It was a day sail to an iconic island-hope it lives up to it’s hype. Thirty-three days at sea and then less that 72 hours at anchor before we’re off again. What a life!
Some other random musings:
It’s really amazing to me how much wear and tear there is on the boat. We didn’t have any major failures, but there were a LOT of little things:

• Our sails took a beating even though the winds were light. They were older and not in great shape to start with, but the crossing didn’t do them any favors. We need to replace our mainsail in Tahiti. The fabric is so sun-damaged that it tears if you look at it funny.
• One of the battens is now evidently at the bottom of the ocean-I have no idea when that happened. The genoa is also kind of a wreck, but we’re going to do a fuller inspection before we decide on repair vs. replace for that one. The mainsail cover is also trashed-the zipper ripped out as did several grommets.
• Running rigging really takes a hit as well. We had two halyards chafe through. And we had a failure of the shackle attaching the genoa halyard to the furler. We had chafing of our genoa sheets, but not severe.
• We also lost our radar on the last day. Not sure what’s up with that. It’s getting power but not returning any signal. Could be a bad data cable or a problem with the antenna. That’s gonna be another trip up the mast to try and diagnose.

Finally, I was shocked at the condition of our hull. It is covered in gooseneck barnacles and general nastiness. We had it cleaned right before we left and I would never have guessed that a month in the Pacific, while in motion, would have allowed that much growth to happen. Guess I’ll be spending a lot of time in the water cleaning.

Overall, despite the disappointment over the general lack of wind, Kim and I feel pretty good about being here. And, truly, we’re only halfway across the Pacific, so we’ve got a long way still to go, though those passages from island to island are much shorter. We’ll let you know how it goes!
If you want to see what a typical day was like during our passage, you can check out our latest YouTube video here.
Until next week…