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Galapagos to Tahiti -- 8. June 2007

While in the Galapagos Islands DHARMA BUM III regularly got invaded by sea lions.  Aurora Ulani never got enough of them, but her parents viewed the invasion in a slightly different manner.  Some of them grow to gigantic proportions and their teeth are impressive.  When you are trying to chase one away from the cockpit table with a broomstick, it does not take a major feat of imagination to see the roles reversed.  Especially if it is an enraged bull that keeps bellowing at you.  Also they exude quite a formidable stench and leave the remains of their dinners all over the place.  Up to seven of these animals were on board at the same time and sleep often became elusive.  Still, it was all in all an unforgettable experience. 

 

The marine iguanas did indeed look like prehistoric monsters while the boobies went dive-bombing right next to our hulls.  The water wasn't exactly warm, so we didn't do all that much swimming and snorkeling.  I didn't have the time anyway.  Between walks to the harbor master, immigration, the electrician, FedEx and so on, there was pretty much no time at all.  Since everybody seems to find all kinds of excuses to obtain a visa extension, the officials didn't quite believe that my auto-pilot really was broken.  Finally I had to physically remove it in order to present it to them.  Meanwhile the new one was stuck with customs in Guayaquil and only after I had paid around US$ 400 in import duty was it released.  After "only" 20 days I could finally take it on board. 

 

That turned out a very good thing, as the repaired one lasted exactly 19 hours.  Boy, were we glad that I had dug deep into my pockets to have that new linear drive flown in!

 

The trip itself proved to be an extension of our "doldrums sailing" which got us to the Galapagos in the first place.  Except for one occasion we had very light winds or no wind at all, so that the passage was very slow.  And very comfortable.  We like it that way.  In fact, this kind of sailing is exactly what we like best. 

 

Atuona in Hiva Oa had changed quite a bit since our last visit.  A breakwater divides the bay in half, there is a dredging operation going on and while we were the only boat on Valentines' Day in 1995, there were so many of them there, that it was impossible to find a safe place to anchor.  The night before a heavy swell had stood into the bay and several boats got in serious trouble, losing their anchors, hitting bottom and one seriously damaging the steering.  Also, because Easter Weekend had just begun, the gendarme told us to wait until Tuesday before we could do the paperwork.  I told him that we'd be back on Tuesday, but had no intention of risking our boat in the meantime.  Instead we went to Hana Moe Noa in Tahuata, which was one of our favorite spots from the last trip. 

 

Alas, even here the avalanche of boats was relentless.  Apart from that, the place was as we remembered it, but after we had sewn up our sails, we went on to see our friends in Vaitahu.  As the new breed of "cruisers" apparently has very little interest in meeting anybody except other "cruisers", there were almost no boats in front of the village.  (One "cruiser" said to us: "Vaitahu?  The village?  What for???")  Right up our alley.  And our friends Koki, Titi & Teaiki were absolutely delighted that we had come back and kind of adopted us right away into their families.  In fact, it was even better than on the last trip!  Aurora Ulani played with their children, we went up to the mountains together to harvest pistachios, helped making sun-dried bananas and watched how the Noni-leaves were dried.  We went on a mammoth picnics together and when we finally had to say good-bye, we asked ourselves if we weren't making a big mistake in leaving. 

 

Our friends showered us with bananas, pomelos, limes, oranges, cucumbers, guavas, coconuts, a gigantic piece of Emmental cheese, dried bananas, shell necklaces and recordings of Polynesian music.  Whenever we protested that we simply couldn't eat that much (Polynesians manage to consume astonishing amounts of food in short order), they simply ignored us and told us that it would be rotting on the ground there.  Said Koki:  "And if you really can't manage, sun-dry what you can and give the rest to the poor guys in the Tuamotus.  They only have coconuts, fish and fafaru (fermented fish) over there."

 

So sad to leave such a wonderful place...

 

Our voyage to Takaroa was just as peaceful as the ones before and before we had even made fast to the pier, we had verified that our friend Pita was still living on the island.  I hitchhiked out to his pearl-farm right away and had the joy to watch the surprise and the delights on Pita's face.  He just couldn't believe that we really had come back.  And just like our friends in Tahuata, so it was on
Takaroa.  In all those years, Pita had made friends with exactly one other boat.  There wasn't a single boat to be seen inside the lagoon. 

 

One of the reasons for that we found out the next day when we went through the narrow pass and towards Pita's pearl farm.  Almost all of the surface of the lagoon was covered with buoys, some above and many others under water.  What's more, they were connected with ropes in all directions and if there were no buoys, there were sure to be coral-heads.  Further in things got so thick, that we didn't dare to explore without a local guide. 

 

Pita repeated the astonishing feat of walking with our anchor all over the bottom, but this time he decided to put it right into his "house reef" and then anchor the four corners of DHARMA BUM III to coral heads.  We were uncomfortably close and normally I would not have risked it.  But Pita assured us that we would be safe and also it meant that we had our own private dock and house just a few meters away.  From then on we spent almost all the time together with Pita and his new girlfriend Lucie.  The welcome of these true Polynesians was almost overwhelming.  Nowhere else on this planet have we even come close to this kind of hospitality and generosity. 

 

Unfortunately all was not well with Takaroa itself.  Alcoholism and drug-abuse were on the rise, necessary work wasn't being done and the whole island seemed to be on a slow slide downhill.  While in Tahuata, the influence of the catholic church seemed to have a stabilizing effect, here on Takaroa the waning influence of the Mormon church made itself felt in many ways.  Almost every house and hut boasted a satellite dish and the populace attacked the store of Hinano Beers which came by ship until on the whole island there was no more beer to be had.  Flights to Papeete had increased to three times per week and many people went to Tahiti quite often.  Not so in the Marquesas.  In Tahuata the situation seemed to be improving from 12 years ago, but the Tahiti Black Pearl boom - while bringing in lots of cash when it lasted - had destroyed something vital on Takaroa. 

 

Lucky Luke was still very much alive, and so was his friend Merere, but while they had been playing music on a variety of instruments before, these days all the young guys were listening to imported music on their laser discs and MP3-players.  While people in Tahuata seemed to be happy and content, they appeared hopeless and resigned to their fate in Takaroa.  The young women left in droves, while the young men had to go somewhere else to find wives.  Pita's wife had gone to New Caledonia, his parents were in Papeete and all his old friends and cousins were gone as well.  On the other hand, about 130 Chinese were working on the pearl farms.  They commuted by power-boat from the village every day and had almost no contact with the Polynesians.  A few of them married and therefore managed to stay for good. 

 

Again the time had come to say goodbye.  Pita and Lucie were even more sad to see us go, which may have had something to do with little Aurora Ulani.  I forgot to mention that there were very few children out there at the pearl farm, as both Pita and Lucie's children are grown up and live elsewhere.  Pita und Lucie told us that we couldn't go for a couple more days.  The reason became clear a couple of days later when they gave us a magnificent piece of art as a going-away present.  Made of black pearls, different shells, sun-bleached and varnished gnarled roots they had made a tree covered with flowers in many colors and shapes.  As if this weren't enough, they gave us a whole box full of pearls to make all kinds of jewelry for Aurora Ulani and Liping.  They absolutely wouldn't take "no" for an answer.  What can we ever offer our Polynesian friends that even comes close? 

 

What for?  For meeting people like Koki, Titi, Teaiki, Pita and Lucie, that's what for.  So far, the privilege of spending time with them was definitely the highlight of our voyage on DHARMA BUM III. 

 

Going out through the pass was a scary affair, although I had studied the tide-tables as well as the pass itself with my own eyes.  The current was so strong that we couldn't have made it on our old boat.  We needed all the power that our two 40 HP Volvo diesels could deliver and it felt as if we were navigating in a fast-flowing river. 

 

The weather spoiled us again and we thought that the name Pacific was the only appropriate one for this ocean.  We are confirmed "doldrums sailors" by now and if there is no wind at all for days or weeks on end, it doesn't bother us one bit.  No engine for us, but peace and quiet on our floating island with our family, good food, good drinks and good books. 

 

~~~~~

 

Coming into Papeete harbor, I thought that I had taken the wrong entrance.  It had changed so much that I was completely disoriented.  Almost no sailboats, gone was the old anchoring area and instead all we could see was a concrete pier with running water and electricity as well as guards patrolling the area.  It was too late to go elsewhere and so we slipped into a spot, although it was far from ideal.  The holding ground is not exactly good and if a swell stands into the harbor it is all to easy to smash with the stern into the concrete pier. 

 

Of course that is exactly what happened and we had to bring out our second anchor by dinghy.  And, naturally, it was a public holiday again.  To make things more interesting, everybody was on strike.  I had just decided that it was time to leave, when I found out that a short circuit (Caribbean workmanship yet again) had completely discharged and probably destroyed my two big starter batteries.  We were stuck in a very expensive and noisy place. 

 

Fortunately an old friend came to the rescue.  Christian Lausan (Hakka-Chinese of many generations in Tahiti) of Yune Tung took both batteries back to his shop and over the next three or four days managed to revive them.  Meanwhile the strike had ended and they had doubled the marina fees.  Retroactively since the fist of June!  That really got my hackles up, as there was no service whatsoever and we couldn't even use the electricity.  At 70 bucks per night this was simply unacceptable and I cleared out right away. 

 

I almost ran all the way to Christians office to pick up my batteries and reconnected them.  A little while later both of my engines were running, not without giving me fright of a different kind first.  A friend threw off our lines, we reeled in the anchor chain and - everything stopped.  We couldn't pick up the anchor!  Time was running as daylight was fading and it still took us an hour.  Finally we found out that a big luxury swan had somehow managed to entangle their monstrous anchor with ours. 

 

When we finally made contact with the airport on the VHF radio, the sun was already very low in the sky.  I had checked the route on our chart-plotter and Liping stood in the bow wearing her Polaroid sunglasses.  Near Motu One things got confusing, as it was impossible to tell which markers belonged to the main pass and which to our route past the airport.  Then there were yellow markers all over which didn't show up on my chart at all.  And in the middle of our route loomed a big sign, which we couldn't read as it was facing the other way. 

 

I didn't feel good rushing into this with more then seven knots and reduced speed.  I had just done that, when Liping shouted "Stop!!!" which was fallowed immediately by a shudder, a crashing sound, a tearing sound, then silence than stand-still.  We had hit the coral-reef, while seconds earlier the water had been more than twenty meters deep.  I feared for the worst, as our mass of almost ten tons had rammed itself into the razor-edged jaws of the coral. 

 

Still, I threw the engines into reverse and applied more and more power.  Achingly slow and with more horrible crunching sounds from below we made our way backwards, inch by inch.  First one side came free and we were sideways to the reef, then the other side came free as well.  We had no time to lose, as the airport was waiting for us to clear the flight path and so we went on with thudding hearts.  I just couldn't believe it. I had sworn to myself that this would *never* happen to me, which is why Liping was standing in the bow.  I was not going to simply rely on my instruments, especially here where the charts often differed from the GPS positions.  Alas...  If I had trusted the instruments, I would have been better off. 

 

The sun was setting when we anchored and then re-anchored right next to the reef.  Brown oil seemed to spill out of our starboard engine directly into the water.  I felt like throwing up.  Would we have to get hauled in super-expensive Tahiti and perhaps even have to spend a lengthy period in the yard?  Since the DRCL had already refused a visa-extension for any Taiwanese passport, would Liping then have to spend even more money because she had to fly away?  My mind was racing and none of the scenarios looked in the least promising.  If only the damage was minimal - but that was highly unlikely. 

 

~~~~~

 

Imagine my surprise when I found out that apart from a little hole and some nasty scratches there was pretty much no damage to our boat.  What's more, the oil obviously didn't come from DHARMA BUM III, but must have been in the water already.  While something would have to be done to fix the damage, we had been tremendously lucky to escape relatively unscathed. 

 

~~~~~

 

Right now we are anchored on the inner side of the outer reef near the Marina Taina.  There is a dinghy dock and we can get water.  A big Carrefour supermarket is in walking distance and "le truck" to Papeete stops there as well.  Our outboard engine, which had not been in use since Panama, started almost immediately and after I cleaned the spark-plugs, it runs just as reliably as always.  Christian has proudly told us how he once steered the great racing-trimaran GERONIMO of Olivier de Kersauson.  He has invited us into his magnificent home and will charge and check our remaining batteries.  We talked with Jimmy Ly again, who has published quite a few books on Chinese culture by now and we spent time with Ms Wang, who came here from Taiwan a very long time ago.  We ate at the "Roulottes" night-market and were remarkably successful in getting spare parts and material. 

 

Our route from here will be not only determined by the cyclone season, but also by Liping's visa-situation and the availability of German embassies or consulates.  I need a new passport and I have to apply for it in person.  Unless I want to go through this procedure every six months, that means I will have to stay in one place for at least two months for the whole procedure.  Either this means that we can't visit as many islands as we had hoped or it means that we will have to spend the cyclone-season in a place where we didn't intend to go.  It is not easy to fit all of this (visa, passport, weather, boat-needs) together perfectly.  We will explore possibilities in New Zealand, Kiribati and a few other places before we make a final decision.