Chapter 150: April Fool!

Never sail on April Fools’ Day. That’s what we learned.
We spent three wonderful days at Fatu Hiva. It is truly a paradise. There is nothing much there. Only two villages, 600 inhabitants, and accessible only by boat. But the anchorage is absolutely stunning. It is the most gorgeous spot we’ve yet visited. We made the two mile hike up to a lovely waterfall, relaxed on the boat, and I took a stab at cleaning off the barnacles we accumulated crossing the Pacific. The we decided to move on to Nuku Hiva. On April 1. In retrospect…

The day didn’t start out great. We woke up to discover our anchor had dragged and we were considerably closer to the rocks than when we went to bed. That will get one’s attention quickly. We have an anchor alarm, but I screwed up (of course). I forgot to set the anchor alarm as an exception on my “Do Not Disturb” settings. So, as it was going off, we were blissfully asleep. On the plus side, we discovered it in time to swing into action and move the boat. Our original plan was to leave Fatu Hiva around 10. However, since we had to raise anchor at 6:30 to get away from the rocks, we decided we may as well just leave. So, after circling for about an hour getting everything ready, off we went northwest to Nuku Hiva-a 24 hour passage. It was a beautiful day for a sail: sunny, a lovely breeze. We were just settling in for a relaxing day of sailing when Kim spotted a small boat setting off flares- the signal for a vessel in distress. You know how when you are driving on the highway and you come across a car with the hood up, you ask yourself “should I stop?” Let’s face it, usually we don’t. That’s not a thing on the ocean. When there’s a vessel in distress, you stop. So we did. The men in the boat spoke only French, so communication was not strong. But we did figure out that their engine had broken down and they had no radio. They asked us for a tow to the nearest island, which was about 20 miles away. So tow we did. Kim did an amazing job maneuvering Meraviglia around while I picked up the tow rope with a boathook. We got the rope set up on a bridle to our two primary winches and off we went. After we issued a “Pan Pan” warning on VHF, someone on Fatu Hiva contacted us because they had a boat missing. But, again, language barrier, so I’m not sure exactly what they were saying. But we did give him our position. There’s no coast guard in French Polynesia, and let me tell you, we sure missed the USCG!

Anyway, after towing that boat through 3 foot seas for 4 hours, another boat appeared on the horizon! Help at last! They had clearly come to help deal with the disabled boat. They had us cast off our tow line, which we did, and they approached the disabled boat. We were busy getting Meraviglia squared away from the tow for a bit after that. But when we looked up after about 5 minutes, we saw a somewhat surprising sight! The second boat had taken the two men off the disabled boat and were running at high speed back to Fatu Hiva. And leaving the disabled boat adrift!
We were stunned. The boat had no radio or AIS, and it was miles from land, so there is no way they were going to find it again, especially since it was already late afternoon. And if they wanted to abandon her, why did they have us tow her? Why not just ask for a ride? So many questions. It was surreal.
In any case, we left the drifting boat and continued on.
We went into the night sailing and when I came on watch, Kim announced that our bow navigation lights were not working. Super! Brand new, too. Then, about halfway into my watch, the whisker pole broke. Yes, that whisker pole. The cursed whisker pole. That makes 4 times now. May need to look into a replacement…
However, come sunrise, Nuku Hiva was on the horizon. We got the sails down, turned on the engine and headed into the harbor. However, even though it was now April 2, clearly it was still April 1 somewhere, because there was one trick left. There were some significant waves as we approached harbor. And we left one of the saloon hatches open. Do you see where this is going? Large breaking wave over the cabin. Seawater pouring through the hatch. Standing water in the saloon, soaked cushions. Lots of swearing (more from Kim than from me, which is quite a rarity).
And then, we arrived-very tired, very stressed. Honestly, that 24 hours took more out of us than crossing the Pacific! But we were safe and free to explore Nuku Hiva.

Hopefully no one hits a disabled boat floating around out there…