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<![CDATA[Blue Sky's Voyage - News Feed]]> /bluesky/index.rss Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:23:18 UTC The Final Blue Sky Blog /bluesky/posts/2010/7/21/186-the-final-blue-sky-blog-

Hello Once Again Friends "17:35.2S 149:36.9W"

We did say 'out' after the last blog, but we had a farewell dock party last night which was so spectacular that we thought you'd want to know.

Here we are being entertained by one of the young ladies with fire poi (the flames are difficult to picture clearly but are the flash above the sail cover)

Jugs of rum punch and surplus stocks various odd spirits were laid out and the revelry continued until the early hours, with spontaneous entertainments and music from other cruisers. We did manage to get security called by using Jim's military issue water bomb catapult, but a quick word from a fluent french speaker fixed that little problem and we carried on regardless. Here's Jim taking aim...

A few cruisers were strangely slow to start the day this morning, but other than a few brain cells, no permanent injuries were sustained.

Summed up this morning by 'absolutely brilliant' and 'the best dock party ever' and a fitting finish to our glorious cruise on Blue Sky.

Next stop: Heathrow on Friday morning then Greenwich for a while then Cornwall.

Best Wishes and definitely OUT this time.

George and Michael

xxx

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:23:18 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/7/21/186-the-final-blue-sky-blog- (@author) Finishing on a High Note /bluesky/posts/2010/7/16/185-finishing-on-a-high-note

Hello Friends "17:35.2S 149:36.9W"

Correction : Greg was of course photographed in the last blog with the very lovely Miss Huahine, not Miss Tahiti. Thanks to eagle-eyed blog readers for keeping us on our toes!

So, what's the big news?

As you probably know by now, Blue Sky has been put up for sale in Australia and we were planning to head west to Brisbane, maybe selling before we made it to Aus, maybe not. In fact our Panama Canal buddies on 'Tumshi' also had their catamaran for sale for a year and recently found a buyer here in Tahiti.

So when we reported in 'Bali Hai Moonrise' on 28 June that we'd met up with Tumshi, it wasn't for purely social reasons as apparently Friedl and Angelika have had their eyes on Blue Sky for some time.

So we quickly agreed a deal and the last two weeks have been spent arranging the practicalities. We'd hoped to sail a little further west but in this market, a buyer cannot be trifled with. So we sold Blue Sky in a few weeks, rather than the few years it usually takes to sell a boat.

We've sailed 26,000 miles and had all sorts of adventures, so it's good to be finishing on a high note, having enjoyed a fantastic Pacific Crossing with Alex and Simon and the warm hospitality and amazing sights of French Polynesia.

So it's back to Blighty for George and Michael and the task of setting up a shore-base, or as landlubbers would have it, buying a home. There will be a 'Blue Sky 2' in the future and meanwhile we may charter a bit just to keep our hands in.

Here's Blue Sky a couple of years ago at the regatta in Carriacou.

We look forward to catching up with friends and family in the UK - and we give our apologies to our friends in Australia !

Best Wishes and OUT

from George, Michael and Greg

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:06:48 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/7/16/185-finishing-on-a-high-note (@author) Moorea & Tahiti /bluesky/posts/2010/7/10/184-moorea-tahiti

Hello Friends "17:35.2S 149:36.9W"

We had a brisk sail back to Moorea from Rangiroa - 25 knots on the beam for most of the run and a rather tedious sea to contend with, especially when the tide was against it, but fast certainly. After getting little sleep on the overnight passage, the anchorage in Moorea - deep in an inlet - was blissfully peaceful.

Here's an early morning photo of the morning sun just starting to kiss the Moorea mountains. I was watching this and thinking that the view was incredible, but made more so by the fact that we've sailed 26,000 miles and nearly half way around the world to see it.

Even Greg got up early to go bicycling and take a look around. The bay where Blue Sky is anchored is by his left shoulder:

Our next stop was the ray 'feeding station' on the NW corner of Moorea. This is an area of shallow water with a sandy seabed and a few mooring buoys. The tourist boats come here and feed the stingrays with small fish etc and in consequence it's packed with rays who want to play and be fed. This is an amazing and sometimes intense experience as the rays get very excited and leap up at you like over-enthusiastic labradors. Along with the rays there are quite a few regular tropical fish and the inevitable sharks and remoras.

These are the stingrays, not stinging today !

And here's one of the sharks which were hanging around the edges of the party. The sharks were particularly numerous on the edge of a steep bank into deep water, but they didn't seem at all aggressive and Greg was observed chasing a shark with a piece of bread in the hope of getting a better photo ! The larger sharks were over 2 metres long and they'd swim right up to you...

This is definitely an experience worth travelling a long way for - a 3 rosette tourist site in our view.

Anyway, we're now back in Tahiti in the marina, a little earlier than planned, but you'll have to wait until the next blog to find out why we're back so soon...

Last night Greg went out to town to see some entertainment as it's the start of the Heiva festival here in Papeete. We picture him getting a traditional Polynesian welcome from the very lovely Miss Tahiti.

That's it for now - check back soon for the next surprise blog.

best wishes

George, Michael and Greg

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:30:47 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/7/10/184-moorea-tahiti (@author) Rangiroa /bluesky/posts/2010/7/3/183-rangiroa

Hello Friends "14:58.0S 147:38.4W"

We've been exploring Rangiroa - or at least the bit around the larger pass into the atoll. Depending on how far you zoom into the googlemap you can see that we're tucked into a sheltered corner of the atoll, just to the west of Passe de Tiputa, Tiputa being the very friendly village on the other side of the pass.

The principal attraction here is the snorkelling - both in shallow water inside the lagoon and also drifting with the current in the pass.

Just in the lee of a small sandbank inside the pass is an area the locals call "the Aquarium" which is a great area to see the tropical fish. To some extent the fish congregate when a boat arrives as they are accustomed to being fed by the dive boats with tourists.

Here's a few underwater photos courtesy of Greg's underwater Lumix camera.

these little fellas are everywhere around the dinghy when you pick up the mooring and are very tame

and the clams - maybe the size of your hand - are brilliant blue or purple

this one we called a unicorn fish, but we don't know what it really is

and these bright little chaps are everywhere and swim right up to you as well - we saw them in the fish counter at Carrefour in Papeete

and you may be thinking that all this looks good fun - so did Greg

We also did a drift snorkel in the pass, which is amazingly deep and has very steep sides. You get dropped off as far to seaward as you dare (it's rough) and drift back inside close to the steep coral walls. This wasn't quite so good as the water was a bit turbid with the swell crashing on to the reef outside and washing bits in with the tide.

But we did see a full size shark swimming past below us, fortunately occupied with other matters as well as huge shoals of fish close to the wall. We also saw what we subsequently identified as a stonefish - terribly poisonous of course - which looked very odd and which Michael poked with the tip of his long fins. At least we know what to avoid in future. I'll leave you to google a picture of a stonefish as we didn't have the camera with us.

Tomorrow we hope to sail across the lagoon to inspect 'the Blue Lagoon' which is a pool inside the thickness of the atoll perimeter on the SW side. Again, I think you can see this on googlemaps.

Other than this, there's not too much to report. The weather has not been entirely to our liking though the fresh winds keep it cool and the bugs away; however the occasional squalls are rather irritating !

Best wishes from Rangiroa

George, Michael and Greg

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:22:14 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/7/3/183-rangiroa (@author) Bali Hai Moonrise /bluesky/posts/2010/6/28/182-bali-hai-moonrise

Hello Friends "17:29.2S 149:52.7W"

It seems ages since the last blog and sure enough, it's 5 weeks ago. So what's been happening to Blue Sky whilst the blog readers complaints have been arriving?

Michael flew back to the UK for 2 weeks and did some catching up with the family. After he booked the ticket, the plotter went on the blink so he took that back to Raymarine's head office to get it fixed while in the UK. The Raymarine people were gloriously efficient and the plotter is now fine and has a year's warranty!

His return flight was more interesting, as the Tahitians - including the firemen at the airport in Papeete - had staged a strike, apparently for "better political and economic stability". One wonders why they didn't ask for nicer weather and free beer whilst they were listing their troubles... Anyway the upshot of a handful of people holding the island to ransom was that about 5,000 tourists were stuck on Tahiti and Michael spent a couple of nights in LA before getting back to Blue Sky.

So far as we're aware, no progress has been made on achieving anything in the political or economic line, though presumably 5,000 tourists now have rather worse memories of Tahiti than would otherwise have been the case, so that's probably made some difference to the economic prospects, though not in the desired direction.

Whilst Michael was away, George supervised the completion of repairs to the sails and deck canvas, so everything is looking a bit tidier. We also welcomed Greg from Chicago, our latest crewmember and then spent several more days on the dock as a 'Maramu' went through. The Maramu is a regular strong wind - I guess a bit like the Mistral in Southern France, though the Maramu comes from the south.

Eventually the weather cooperated and we sailed very gently across to Moorea, a voyage of all of 15 miles, but a suitable start for Greg who is being introduced to the joys of sailing.

Moorea has better anchoring inside the reef and we found a comfortable spot right away, though it turned out to have a touch of road noise. Here's the view in the evening light across towards the Bali Hai hotel where 'South Pacific' was filmed many years ago.

We met up with our Panama Canal buddies 'Tumshi' again and moved to the next bay west which was quieter and equally beautiful. Some snorkelling was managed and a fair bit of hammock time was clocked up.

Since Greg is only with us until late July and since the weather forecast was perfect, we sailed over the weekend up to Rangiroa in the Tuamotus, a touch over 200 miles in 28 hours of glorious sailing. We didn't make Greg do a solo night watch, but we did wake him up at 0230 so he could have the full experience of coming on watch in the middle of the night!

So we're now somewhat distant from the dot on the google map, but we'll do a blog about Rangiroa in the next few days and get the dot in the right place.

Best Wishes from Rangiroa

George, Michael and Greg

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:01:56 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/6/28/182-bali-hai-moonrise (@author) Tahiti /bluesky/posts/2010/5/23/181-tahiti

Hello Friends "17:35.2S 149:36.9W"

We made it to Tahiti OK but with irritatingly little wind so we had to actually motor most of the way from Toau - all 240 miles of it - and arrived in rather overcast and damp weather. Not exactly what the holiday brochures promise of the South Pacific.

We're in the Marina Taina which is handy for shopping and has been handy for Simon and Tyson* to wander on and off for entertainment purposes. Here's the view of Blue Sky this morning up to the volcano, with unusually clear weather for once:

We are sad to have said goodbye - or at least au revoir - to Simon who is now in Paris, checking out the City of Light before wandering north to Sweden. I know I'm going to get hate mail for this, but Simon is the new best ever Blue Sky crew, partly because he's an experienced skipper himself and partly because he's just an extremely nice guy. He has skippering commitments in the Med in July and is available after that.

Here's a typical afternoon pic on the foredeck with the Blue Sky guitar, though it's not typical to be surrounded by the drying laundry...

Lady blog readers are invited to contact through the website for Simon's email address.

As we were in the marina and one sees everyone walk by on the dock, we bumped into the US crew of 'Enchantress' who we'd seen in Fatu Hiva and Fakarava. It turned out that one of their number, *Tyson, was jumping ship but did not fly out from Tahiti until the end of the month and further, had nowhere to stay. So Tyson has joined us on a temporary basis and was also wingman for Simon for checking out the bars and clubs of Papeete.

Lots of photos in this blog (posted by WiFi) and we couldn't resist this one of Simon making sure Tyson is clean before coming on board.

We've checked out town, the market and the entertainments. Shortly after we arrived there was a visit by a fleet of traditional (though new) boats from other Polynesian islands, together with dancing.

We might take time to comment on pricing in Tahiti as it's a truly weird place.

- The bus to town is fairly priced at CFP 200 - about GBP1-50 - OK no problem.

- At a roadside stall, a locally grown ordinary melon is CFP 1000 - GBP 7= or about three times what you'd pay for one that was imported to England and available in a supermarket there.

- A can of local beer in happy hour, no less, will set you back CFP 500 or about GBP 3-50. Fortunately we're still on excellent Costa Rican beer at $1 a can.

- A trolley of ordinary goods in Carrefour, excluding meat or alcohol or anything fancy, kills at least GBP 400 amazingly.

In fact Tahiti is quite insanely priced and it defies all normal economics as the whole place is shutting down without any lowering of prices. Both Club Meds have closed, the Moorea one even says 'former club med' on googlemaps and the Bora Bora Club Med says 'closed' on their website. Hotels are closing every week in fact and tourism has virtually disappeared. Downtown Papeete is mainly closed with numerous locked up hotels and shops. The Black Pearl business is in crisis and good bargains are to be had for those in the market for such things. Air Tahiti Nui which runs a fleet of A340s and relies largely on tourism must be suffering terribly.

Apparently price bargaining is 'not traditional' in Polynesia, but you'd have thought that some of the traders might have cottoned on to reality.

We hear that Fonctionnaires shipped out from France are paid 3 times their French salaries, one presumes in an attempt to feed money into the islands from the top down. But since Carrefour has a number of first growth clarets on the shelves at truly huge prices, we wonder what this extra money is actually spent on. Certainly lots seems to be spent on Japanese / SE Asian 4x4s which seems a good way of exporting money from Europe. As usual, the public areas of Papeete have been extravagantly refurbished with lots of money presumably from Paris or Brussels, but the private areas of town are distinctly run down and tatty.

Anyway, enough of that, let's dwell on some of the good sights here - the Polynesian dancing which we saw near the traditional boats.

- and the market in Papeete where the prices on different stalls are all exactly the same and appear to have been set by a Fonctionnaire rather than anything approaching market forces. George and Tyson in foreground..

That's about it for Tahiti as we've just sat on the dock and done some shopping. STOP PRESS news is that Michael plans to fly back to the UK for a couple of weeks (provided Air Tahiti Nui doesn't go bust meanwhile!) At least we have moderate internet service here, which is welcome after the remoteness of the Marquesas and Tuamotus and useful in current market conditions.

And we hear you're enjoying good weather in the UK, if not in Australia.

So Au Revoir from Simon

and Best Wishes from George & Michael

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sun, 23 May 2010 21:40:14 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/5/23/181-tahiti (@author) Toau /bluesky/posts/2010/5/10/180-toau

Dear Friends “15:56.2S 145:53.1W”

After posting the last blog with a little WiFi from a hotel and briefly checking The Election Results (!) we decided to have a look at the next atoll Toau. You pronounce all the letters – like Toe-ah-ooh (a bit like the skipper after he’s accidentally kicked one of the deck fittings … again).

The entrance pass to Toau has a health warning in one of our Pilot books “the pass into this lagoon is notorious and is considered dangerous by the locals ... very ugly high steep seas trying to broach the yacht and capsize it… etc”. So we were slightly apprehensive and timed our passage to arrive a good hour before high water so that we could watch and wait for the right moment to enter. Since the distance from Fakarava to Toau is only 14 miles (less than 2 hours) this means leaving the Fakarava pass at the wrong time on a strong inflowing current.

So we charged out of Fakarava in a fresh beam wind under a fair press of sail into the waves of turbulence. Since the waves were short, though not large, a fair bit of air must have got under Blue Sky as we got up on a wave and surfed for a while, with the speed getting up to more than 11 knots – great fun and certainly not a problem – and of course our speed easily overcame the inflowing current!

Our arrival at Toau showed a pass that had little turbulence despite the warnings, as the remaining inflowing current was in the same direction as the wind and swell. So we sailed in at modest speed and though the seabed looked alarmingly close, it was still more than 8 metres down, just in very clear water.

Our anchorage in the lee of the fringing islands was well protected and the following morning we went for a stroll and greeted a group of local copra collectors.

[Copra, the dried white coconut flesh, seems a big business both here in the Tuamotus and in the Marquesas. It’s collected periodically by boats from Tahiti where it’s used in cosmetics, soap and massage oil. – Ed.]

In the hospitable fashion of Polynesians, after handshakes and exchange of names, we were immediately offered a fresh coconut to drink while we chatted. Shortly afterwards we were asked if we’d like some fish and having established that we had goods to barter, we drove off in the local pirogue (a very new 10m boat with 200hp Yamaha V6!) dodging coral heads at speed, to the next encampment so that their cousins could join the expedition.

At this point I’ll hand over to Simon, to continue the tale:

We stopped to fetch our masks and fins from Blue Sky before we motored off to the north side of the pass where we dropped the anchor. George and I threw ourselves overboard to watch the guys dive down holding their spear guns in front. There was quite a big swell washing round from the pass and the sharks were definitely bigger than in Fakarava. They got two Parrot fish after just a few minutes and then we were called back to the boat. They told us that the sharks were too aggressive…

The guys with some of the catch...

and the keep box being towed

We changed location and this time one of the guys pointed at a harpoon and asked me if I could handle it, at least that’s what I think he did. It looked like something 007 could have used in the 80’s but far bigger than the little toy I’ve played with in the Med. I jumped off the boat on the other side so I could have a few seconds to examine it. I unwrapped the string and could just about arm the gun to the maximum level by using all my strength. [pulling back the very strong elastic over the trigger clip – Ed]

The guys were now all on my side of the boat and started pointing down and encouraged me to dive. I could see it now, another Parrot fish almost 10 metres down and they were all waiting for me to get it. I took a big breath and started swimming down but the gun made it clumsy and as my mask fogged, I realized that I had forgotten to spit in it. Not a good start for Simon but I knew that they were all watching me and George was in the boat above like a proud father on the sidelines of a ball game and I didn’t want to let him down. I could see the fish busy eating coral not knowing what was about to happen; I had the smallest gun and knew that I had to get really close to make it. I approached from above and used both my hands to steady the gun. I held my breath (literally) and took my time waiting for it to turn around and reveal itself, and when it did, I shot. I have never seen a fish swim backwards so my aim was almost in line with its head but the spear went straight through its body, a perfect lucky shot. I looked up in relief and could see 4 boys doing goal gestures mixed with screams and bubbles.

Then I realized that I had at least 8 metres to rise before fresh air and I had almost none left! I hurried up towing the line behind me and when my lungs were about to explode and I still had some distance to go, I stopped: something was pulling me down. I knew it before I saw it, a shark was chewing on my prey and by the size of it I knew I would be next. By now it felt like I had swallowed way too much hot sauce and stars were dancing in my eyes.

My friends came to my rescue and I finally got up to the surface again. The shark disappeared with half of my catch but I was grateful. After recovering my breath I made thumbs up to George and kept on hunting in shallower water. I got another 3 Parrot fish in the basket and one that slipped away. All together we caught almost 15 fish of different sorts such as Red snapper, Parrot fish, French angel fish and something else. What a great experience, spontaneous adventures with locals are the best! George is filleting our part of the catch while Michael is feeding the sharks with fish heads from the stern. I need to calm down and write to granny telling her that I survived.

Very tasty it was too - fillets lightly floured and fried.

We were going to have another adventure tonight - "Simon and the Coconut Crabs" - as the locals were going to take us on a night time crabbing expedition. But unfortunately the wind is getting a bit peculiar in a few days and we think we're better off getting to Tahiti before it kicks off.

So next blog from Tahiti.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Mon, 10 May 2010 23:35:25 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/5/10/180-toau (@author) Fakarava /bluesky/posts/2010/5/7/179-fakarava

Hello Friends "16:06.6S 145:36.5W"

When we decided to have a look at the next atoll, there was just no wind at all other than a light waft, so unusually, we motored out of the Kauehi lagoon and across the 30 miles or so to Fakarava.

Fakarava is a little more developed than Kauehi, but not much. The village did have a moderate shop with some fresh produce available and a good supply of chocolate biscuits, even some tonic water for the G&T's: luxury!

There was also a boulangerie that achieved a passable attempt at a baguette and croissants etc., just off camera below, from our anchorage. A pleasant enough short dinghy ride to get the breakfast, just use a little care with the coral heads and tie up to a stone off the church.

After a couple of nights here we headed across the lagoon 25 miles to the other pass at the SE end. The central part of the lagoon is surveyed over a mile wide channel and due to the orientation of Fakarava to the winds, we had a great sail across in the protected flat water.

We were promised good snorkelling here in the pass and we were not disappointed. George nobly stayed in the dinghy while Simon & Michael drift snorkelled in the current in the pass.

This is the best snorkelling so far in 4 years sailing, true the coral was unexceptional, with no soft coral like the waving green and purple fronds in the Caribbean, but the fish were superb. Every colour imaginable and a few colours that you'd not imagined. And in great shoals that you swim through as the fish part a metre away from you.Plenty of parrot fish, mainly in bright turquoise but also some odd ones in gold and orange. Napoleon fish, like huge mutant parrot fish, wandering about slowly in small shoals, though putting on a surprising turn of speed if approached too enthusiastically.

Dark green moray eels, sliding into their coral head homes and glaring out at you, looking thoroughly dangerous and evil. Angel fish in various colours and small 'tropical fish tank' specimens in huge shoals in golds, purples and turquoises.

And around all this, circling sharks, cruising around like mob enforcers, not actually doing anything but just cruising through looking tough. The sharks are black tipped reef sharks and provided that you don't hassle them too much they leave you alone: handy really. Michael decided to swim after one and it turned round and gave what I thought was an incredulous look, as if to say "are you totally stupid? you do know I'm a shark, OK?".

Sadly our underwater camera is no longer waterproof so we cannot bring you our own pics of the Passe Tumakohua. We're trying to get another u/w camera, or a housing for the Lumix, so we could always come back here.

That evening, as the sun was gently lowering itself into the azure evening sea, a local pirogue came up and invited us for drinks ashore. we grabbed a few cans and a bottle and off we went to Motu Aito. Or to be specific "Motu Aito Paradise" as you can see on www.fakarava.org . This is the view of Motu Aito from the masthead...

...which shows the deep blue sea outside the reef and the shallow lagoon with dark coral heads inside. Motu Aito is the red roof and the main buildings are in the trees to the L.

We had a very convivial evening with Manihi, the proprietor and a couple of friends from the village in the pass. Manihi's wife was in LA on a short visit to their daughter. As we sat and talked, tropical fish swam in the shallow dock next to us and sharks flicked by in the shallows, just to keep the fish on edge. The sharks know that food scraps are often available, so if the light are on, you get a free show.

The following day George and Simon gave Manihi a hand with some roof works while Michael re-built his laptop... again.

Next day, a number of boats arrived and our solitude was broken by part of the Blue Water Rally fleet and a few other boats too. Undaunted, Manihi said "invite them all ! just tell them to bring something to drink". So we organised pretty much the whole fleet to come ashore with drinks and snacks and a grand evening was enjoyed by all.

This morning, the Rally fleet decided to head up to Fakarava village where we were planning to go anyway. There was a good free breeze (not too close to the direction we were going) and, being sporting, we let the other boats get a half hour head start.

We should have been more generous. With a great sailing breeze (well it did get up a bit at one point) we were making great speed and some of the Rally boats were even motoring and wasting the glorious wind !! We followed our track from the previous sail and cut through all the other boats and left them half an hour behind us.

But the Blue Skies do love sailing.

As I write, the election results are coming in, though of greater significance is the fact that we're celebrating 4 years at sea. The fridge has been stocked.

We'll leave you with another masthead pic of the southern anchorage:

Even the snorkelling amongst these coral heads was pretty good.

That's all for now.

Best Wishes,

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Fri, 07 May 2010 03:39:23 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/5/7/179-fakarava (@author) Kauehi /bluesky/posts/2010/4/26/178-kauehi

Hello Friends "15:49.4S 145:07.1W"

We had an interesting passage south west from Fatu Hiva: anything from 7 to 45 knots of wind and all sorts of odd sea conditions. On the last night, right at the end of Michael's watch, a couple of spots of rain were followed only seconds later by the wind accelerating from 15 to 40 knots in less than 15 seconds, leaving us no time to reduce sail. We rounded up predictably, tacked involuntarily and lay hove to, with rather too much sail, until the squall passed and we could continue on our way.

On the last morning, Michael noticed that the towgen had ceased to spin and (rather pessimistically) assumed that the tow rope had frayed through and fallen into the deep. In fact on hauling it in we found that a shark (we presume) had taken a fancy to the white spinning blades and bitten them off. Fortunately the solid stainless shaft is robust enough for sharks and as we were unusually using the larger blades, so we were able to fit the smaller normal blades and carry on.

The bitten blades are supposed to be 50% bigger than the ones fitted...

Anyway, we made it to the Tuamotus OK, though we went into Kauehi as we were a little later than expected and decided to enter our first atoll in good light at noon. Despite the various dire warnings about entering the passes -

- oops ! I need to explain all this don't I ?

Quick Note on Atolls...

The accepted theory is that atolls are the remains of sunken volcanoes which had a fringing barrier reef. So you start with a volcano - like the Marquesas; it acquires a coral reef and then looks a bit like Tahiti; then the volcano sinks under its own weight and the coral grows fast enough to stay near the surface where the polyps can grow OK. The coral keeps growing to the surface as the land sinks and thus the outer sides of the atoll are very steep - more or less a vertical wall. The inside lagoon grows coral too but typically they seem to have modest depth of 30 metres or so.

Many of the lagoons have passes in through the reef, some navigable by yachts. But as the tide sloshes in and out of the lagoon (Kauehi is about 10 miles across) through a narrow pass (Kauehi - about 300m wide by less than 10m deep) then the currents in the pass can be substantial and cause overfalls and standing waves, dangerous to small craft, so you're supposed to enter at slack low water.

OK, I hope Atolls 101 helped. So after a voyage of more than 500 miles, you're supposed to time your arrival to the hour at slack low water. Mmmm , tricky.

So we sailed slowly past the entrance to Kauehi and looked at the waves with the binos - there were some modest waves as the strong inflowing current on the rising tide was met by 15-20 knots winds across the lagoon causing predictable turbulence. But Blue Sky is a substantial craft and we've been in severe conditions in Biscay and the Mona Passage, so having carefully checked, we motored in. A couple of the larger waves did wet the foredeck and a couple of spots of spray actually hit the skippers sunglasses, but otherwise all OK. It's also an area that has been carefully surveyed and we were using about 5 different data sources to cross check details. Once through the waves, we reset the genoa and sailed 9 miles at high speed across the flat water of the lagoon to the village, just in time for lunch.

Here's the view of Kauehi from Blue Sky:

The village - or Kauehi City as they seem to rather grandly refer to it - is a neat collection of homes along the beach. There are a couple of small shops, one of which did sell ice cream, so everything the cruising sailor needs.

Here's George & Michael in the main street (well, the only street):

Amazingly the locals had found the need to build speed bumps on this road - goodness knows why as there can't be more than a handful of cars around. The population is so small that if anyone were going a little fast, surely it would be obvious who and the Mayor could just pop round and have a quiet word?

So after a stroll and ice cream, we repaired to Blue Sky for a swim and lunch, normal procedure really.

We leave you with this image of a pig's life in Kauehi (actually a very friendly pig) Blue Sky on horizon :

That's it for this episode of the Blue Sky blog, next stop Fakarava.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:50:33 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/26/178-kauehi (@author) On Passage /bluesky/posts/2010/4/22/177-on-passage

Hi All "13:53.S 142:47W"

Just a quick note to provide a position fix on our passage south west to the Tuamotus.

As I write, we've logged 312 miles in varying conditions, often fairly frisky and quick and have another 214 miles to go to Fakarava. This assumes that we make it in time for slack water at the pass into the lagoon, otherwise we'll divert to Kauehi which would save us about 3 hours.

Anyway, coral atolls, lagoons and passes will all be explained in a blog soon.

All well on board and looking forward to a rest in the flat water in the lagoon.

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:45:27 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/22/177-on-passage (@author) Fatu Hiva /bluesky/posts/2010/4/20/176-fatu-hiva

Hello Friends "10:27.86S 138:40.11W"

Fatu Hiva is a little off the beaten track, with no transport connections for 'tourists' but as the most easterly Marquesan island, it is the traditional first stop for trans-pacific yachts - not including Blue Sky of course.

The island appears not to be of interest to the 'white French' with no representation apparent. One is supposed to present one's compliments to the local cop on arrival, but all he wants is for you to write your name & number in his little book. If you've not checked in officially at Hiva Oa or Nuku Hiva then a bottle of wine or rum fixes the problem. As we were properly checked, he was a little short with us - no perks!

Here we are - Michael writing in the book in his 'office' (tailgate of cop's pickup) while George entertains the Ladies.

The village of Hanavave is tucked into a little flat land between soaring volcanic cliffs and spires and everywhere there are fruit trees dripping with fruit, hibiscus abundant in number and colours and everywhere the most spectacular views.

This is the main street, if you like, looking back towards the Willies, from the opposite side to the last photo in the last blog.

Our expeditions have included -

Dinner with the locals - an enterprising family provide communal dinner for the yachties for CFP 1700 a head. We shared a lively and convivial dinner with the crews of two other British boats and one wonders what the locals thought of our consumption of refreshments (about a wine box per head!).

The following day Simon & Michael trekked to a waterfall which falls off the crater rim and though pleasant enough it's difficult to get an interesting picture of a waterfall here as you can't get back far enough to give the thing scale. Anyway a good time was had and Simon and a German friend Lisa swam in the pool at the foot of the fall.

There are 2 principal villages in Fatu Hiva - Hanavave where we are now and Omoa in the SW corner. The distance between the two is about 3 miles as the tropic bird flies, but since the road rises to 800m as it climbs up the crater wall, the typical walking time is 4 to 5 hours. Michael and Simon had arranged to walk to Omoa and take Sunday lunch with the locals, before getting a lift back. But unfortunately as Sunday morning arrived, Simon was unwell and Michael trekked out alone.

The dirt road rises almost impossibly in wriggles up the crater wall. No crash barriers of course and one wonders why they went to the considerable trouble of building it at all as it's much easier to nip around by sea. It does present spectacular views of the western wall of the crater which makes up most of Fatu Hiva.

Here's a view from fairly high up on the W side, looking E towards the crater wall - very much like the approach to Mordor !

The white dot just below the ridge near the lowest point is a hole all the way through - it looked big enough to get a bus through. Given the extreme slope the island presents to the trade winds, the windward side and peaks are very frequently cloud covered.

The village of Omoa was similar, but there's a little more space on the flood plain of the stream down from the highest point. Michael completed the walk in 3 hours 15 mins and is happy to admit that it nearly killed him or at least the walk and the fact that the food in Omoa seems to have disagreed with him too.

When we're all recovered, we'll head down to the Tuamotus just under 500 miles away. We're still not sure exactly which one we're aiming for as it's important to arrive around lunchtime to get slack water at the entrance to the passes into the lagoons. As we get closer, we'll adjust our target to find a suitable lunchtime ETA.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves again. Here's a final shot of the Bay of Virgins...etc. from Michael's walk. Blue Sky in the middle of the group this time after we re-anchored.

Next blog on passage SW.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candin-pass.org

]]> Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:24:16 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/20/176-fatu-hiva (@author) Tahuata /bluesky/posts/2010/4/17/175-tahuata

Hello Friends "9:54.5S 139:06.3W"

We found a good anchorage at the NW corner of Tahuata - proper good holding in sand and good clear water for swimming and snorkelling. Oh, and of course the traditional golden sand beach fringed with coconut palms...

For quite a lot of the time we must admit that we just chilled out here, reading, swimming and a certain amount of quality hammock time. We did venture south to look at the other two bays, though the island is generally so precipitous (as are most of the Marquesas) that the other two anchorages were rather small affairs, with deep water a few metres off the bow and the beach just behind you - not much room for error.

So Michael stayed on board in Vaitapu, the 'capital' while George and Simon had a wander around and did a spot of shopping. (They purchased the first potatoes we've found since crossing.) Then we motored down another mile for lunch and to look at the other bay with a similarly marginal anchorage. This time George stayed on board while Michael & Simon went exploring at Hapatoni. This turned out to be a very gentle unspoilt corner, with the local guys swimming in the dock with the kids and the local girls enjoying what appeared to be a game of bingo on the grass nearby. Not much else seemed to be going on at all.

Here's the seafront at Hapatoni:

We repaired to our original bay (top photo) for a safe anchorage for the night and were then joined, quite suddenly by a number of other boats. So it became too busy and we decided to head on to Fatu Hiva.

Early in the morning we made our start (well we just about got the hook up before 0900) and sailed all the way in excellent conditions. Making the most of the good breeze we beat up between Tahuata and Hiva Oa on starboard tack and went about just before Hiva Oa got uncomfortably close and carried on the whole way to Fatu Hiva on port tack, leaving the rocky lee shore of Tahuata just a safe distance to starboard.

Here's a photo which shows just how unfriendly theses shores are to a boat without sufficiently careful navigation arrangements.

The Baie des Vierges anchorage at Fatu Hiva is a very tight affair with a seabed like a ski slope, but rather cheekily we moved up to the front of the fleet and managed to get comfortable right under the famous rock pinnacles.

The 'Bay of Virgins' (Baie des Vierges) is believed to be a corruption of the original 'Baie des Verges' - or 'Bay of The Phalli' which the missionaries found too, er, direct. You can judge the rocky spires for yourself. Here we are yesterday afternoon, with the evening light helping the photo: glorious.

But we're getting carried away to the next blog already: what we can say is that we have a number of adventures already planned so hopefully another blog in a few days will report in full.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:39:59 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/17/175-tahuata (@author) Ua Pou /bluesky/posts/2010/4/11/174-ua-pou

Hello Friends "9:23.8S 140:07.7W"

We stayed for 4 weeks in Nuku Hiva, despite the fact that we have to rush across the South Pacific in the next 7 months to get to New Zealand before the Cyclone Season starts. It was a very special island and we'll remember it well.

We checked out with the Gendarmes and on Easter Monday we enjoyed a brisk sail south to Ua Pou, just 26 miles away. We knew that the harbour where one checks in to Ua Pou was rather exposed to the E swells and were not sure how we would be able to anchor safely. Our fears were confirmed when we arrived and saw that most of the bay was taken up with dredging barges and their tug and the other sailing boats there were Med-moored to the inside of a rough breakwater with long stern lines to lampposts, bushes, rocks - anything.

This is the sort of situation would have troubled us a few years ago, but fortunately we had enough crew for Michael to steer, George to drop the anchor as we reversed back to the breakwater boulders and Simon to jump off and swim ashore with a stern line in his teeth [slight poetic exaggeration here - Ed.] shin up the breakwater and attach it to a lamppost so Michael could winch it in sharpish and keep us off the other craft on each side. All managed swiftly, to the obvious disappointment of those waiting for the crash on the other boats: fortunately we had 3 on board to make the manoeuvre easy.

We'd overtaken Tumshi [OK, so their mainsail had an issue...] and they were able to lie against us while Simon fixed their stern lines to bushes and a rock. We were rewarded by an excellent spaghetti bolognese prepared by Angelica that evening and bananas flambé from George.

All in, a most appalling harbour, compounded by the wind blowing dust and grit off the top of the breakwater all over the boats. Sadly the Gendarmes weren't home on Tuesday morning and an enquiry as to whether Michael would like to come back later met with a response along the lines of "We're going - now - do you want the details or not?"

But to be fair, we should point out that the locals are very friendly here. As we stepped ashore, we were accosted by one of them in his 4x4, who started conversation and insisted on providing slices of watermelon for us.

Ua Pou is spectacular with rock spires like the dolomites [like Mordor - G], though as you can see it was a touch overcast - in fact the top spire is almost always cloud-topped.

As soon as Michael returned from the Gendarmerie, we left the "dock" asap and sailed around the W side of the island with Tumshi. Since the winds had been blowing fairly well, there was a large swell and only a singe adequate anchorage (on the whole island) in a small deserted bay. Fortunately it was empty and Blue Sky anchored bow & stern with Tumshi following nearby.

Whilst lunching, we noticed a tree with lots of dots on it - bino's revealed a laden mango - a shore expedition followed as Simon drove the tender and George & Michael leapt off the bow on to rocks at the top of the wave, it being far too rough for a beach landing. The mango tree was neighbour to many lime trees and all were clearly abandoned and surrounded by rotting fruit. We soon had 2 large bags full of windfall mangoes and lots of fresh limes, vital ingredients for Blue Sky mango chutney, another favourite.

Quite a peaceful place - you could see and hear the mangoes falling off the tree as the goats trouped off the hill down to the stream to drink.

We bid farewell and bon voyage to Friedl and Angelica on Tumshi who are off to the Tuamotus and then Tahiti to receive their new mainsail.

Simon decided on another of his 'little adventures' and decided to go exploring the ridges - his camp is marked above and you can see the view from there at the end of this blog.

We stayed in this bay for 4 nights and decided it was time to move on. Sadly the beach in the next bay - with a village and friendly locals - was impossible to land on safely with the swell and breakers, so we continued on to the next island, Tahuata.

By now the open sea swell had flattened and we had an adequate journey with a variety of winds and a touch of motoring to get upwind to Tahuata, where we are now (despite the position fix at Ua Pou). We arrived at 02:30 and despite little sleep, here I am preparing your blog before breakfast...

But Tahuata is another story (we now have the bay to ourselves with a perfect white sand beach etc...)

Here's the final view from Ua Pou - Camp Simon (camera in a tree) Blue Sky the dot at foot of bay . Just as well Simon climbed up to catch the shot!

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:43:08 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/11/174-ua-pou (@author) Goat Hunt /bluesky/posts/2010/4/3/173-goat-hunt

Hello Friends "8:56.6S 140:09.8W"

this is the other half of today's double blog for: we suggest that you read the one about the Hakahui Waterfall first

Goat Hunting

As we were saying... we invited Mahi and Marie back to Blue Sky for a look around. Over the course of a most pleasant hour we leaned that Mahi could play the guitar: here he is playing a song from Ua Pou which sounded like a love song, but may have just been love for the island.

In the course of conversation, there were some discreet mutterings between them in Marquesan and Mahi then asked "would you like to join us for a goat hunt tomorrow, on the mountain?"

"You mean up THERE" we responded, looking aghast at the precipice on the other side of the bay.

"Sure, there's a good path, I'll guide you, and we can all have a BBQ together afterwards."

So as you've already figured out from the title of the blog, we couldn't possibly decline.

At 0530 the next morning, the skipper put the kettle on and woke the sleepy crew. We took plenty of water and little else and picked up Friedl from 'Tumshi' to join us. Mahi was ready for us when we arrived at his home and at 0700, we set off, joined by Marie's cousin Alexander.

This is the view of the mountain with our route indicated (sorry, couldn't remember how to get an arrow on photoshop). The low land to the R of Blue Sky is a promontory between the two bays.

The 'path' didn't exist of course and we climbed up over rocks of varying sizes through the dry scrub. We even started out with Mahi bringing one of his tame goats with us but it lost interest about half way up and we couldn't wait for it to catch up.

Some parts of the path were rather steep...

But we managed and took about an hour and a half to get to the top, aided by a light rain, whipped into a stimulating spray by the gale at the top...

Here is our intrepid guide, pausing for us to catch up. Yes, he is always grinning: he seems to enjoy life.

At the top, we were asked to hang on while Mahi went alone to stalk the goats. understandably the chatter of a lots of boaters would necessitate a very long range sniper rifle to get a clean shot. But not long afterwards, a shot rang out, Alex strode off purposefully to retrieve the kill and the beast was prepared in traditional fashion.

We have a number of photos of the preparation, most of which are a bit graphic for this blog, but if you really want details, email! In this photo, the goat is being strung up to be skinned and gutted. It's surprising what a large proportion of the goat is guts - it must be more than half the weight of the beast.

Since there were 6 of us on the hill, with plenty of spare carrying capacity, they went off to find goat number 2 whilst the rest of us looked at the view from the peaks a little further along the ridge. Blue Sky is the barely visible dot at the back of the bay in the flat water, with bow & stern anchors to keep the bow into the slight swell wrapping around the corner.

You can see what a great anchorage this is - the sea is as rough as it's been since we arrived and this is a sheltered corner.

After the second goat was prepared and we rearranged our packs to carry down the goats, we headed very carefully down the slope, knowing that if we tripped and fell, we were not likely to stop for some time.

The main problem, apart from steepness, was the loose rocks which were a hazard in particular to those leading the way down.

Amazingly we made it back to sea level without unpleasant incident and apart from legs which felt they'd been left in a gym too long, we were fine. After refreshments quickly provided by Marie, we returned to Blue Sky for a rest before our BBQ appointment later that afternoon.

Two other boats joined the party on the beach in front of Mahi and Marie's home and BBQ'd goat and goat stewed in coconut milk were enjoyed by all and followed by three delicious cakes prepared by Angelica on'Tumshi' - all washed down with some liquid refreshment provided by Blue Sky. Conversation and merriment continued until the moon rose high in the clear night sky.

One of the most memorable and special days since we left Plymouth nearly four years ago.

So many stories to tell and so little time to sit at the laptop writing. We've not even reported on Simon's mission to climb all the peaks on the east side of the Baie de Taiohae, but here's a photo of his camp for the night which paints and idyllic picture of sleeping out. We can reveal however that it rained later in the night - ouch!

So a sunset photo to finish - Simon's hammock camp, looking over Baie de Taiohae towards the cliffs we climbed yesterday in the far distance over Simon's head.

That's all for now folks.

We've enjoyed Nuku Hiva now for four weeks, we really must get to another island for some new stories.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:10:15 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/3/173-goat-hunt (@author) Cascade d'Hakahui /bluesky/posts/2010/4/3/172-cascade-d-hakahui

Hello Friends "8:56.6S 140:09.8W"

we have another double blog for today: one for our return trip up to the Hakahui Waterfall and the Hakahui valley and another for our Intrepid Goat Hunting expedition

The Cascade d'Hakahui

[just a fun picture of a tropicbird, caught on the wing under the huge cliffs of the gorge at Hakahui]

We had a very quick dash to see the Hakahui valley before Alex flew back, but too fast to do it justice, so, joined by our friends on 'Tumshi', we have made a return visit and now bring you the full story as promised.

The Hakahui valley is at the SW corner of Nuku Hiva and is the inside edge of the outer rim of the volcanic crater. The landscape is some of the most spectacular we've seen - anywhere. If you look at the landscapes in both this and the Goat Hunt blog, you'll get a feel for the area.

We decided to make our return visit a full day trip complete with picnic. Even the dinghy landing is exceptionally good here - so long as it's not low water springs, you can (just) take the dinghy up a stream and into a sheltered lagoon behind the beach and tie up to a coconut palm. Leave the kill-cord in the engine, lock nothing and leave your stuff in the dinghy - it will all be there when you return.

Eight families live in the valley and take great pride in their husbandry of their home. The path along the stream is an old processional route from centuries ago and is now edged with croton and ornamental plants by the homes.

The whole area is open including the homes, no locks or windows necessary. The gardens are full of the large, sweet grapefruit grown here, mangoes, papaya, bananas etc. etc. Ducks and pigs are reared and there are goats to be hunted too (but that's another blog).

The walk up to the fall is supposed to take two and a half hours and we managed it in one with Alex: this time we took it more gently and enjoyed the views. As you get closer to the waterfall you can't see in properly, so you wonder where the path is headed. This pic gives you some idea of the steepness of the sides: there's a notice about danger from falling rocks, but if anything larger than a grain of grit fell, you'd be in trouble as it would have achieved terminal velocity by the time it hit you.

Below is the view from the head of the gorge, looking directly up. [the contrast has been much reduced so you see details on the cliffs, but the reality is that you're in a pit looking up at the sky a long way away.]

As it's the dry season in Nuku Hiva at the moment, there was no water in the top part of the fall - the 3rd highest in the world. But by the miracles of the internet, here's a borrowed photo of what it would have looked like on the walk in:

There are pools at the base of the fall (swimming forbidden for safety against falling rocks) so of course we went swimming and enjoyed the cool water, skipper in middle of pic. There are large eels or lungfish in the pools and Simon felt something large against his leg whilst swimming in the inner pool (under the fall, below) and swam out again very quickly...

Oblivious to danger from rocks, we picnicked well by the side of the pool: one rock missed us and fell into the pool as we were eating...

Here's the view out to sunlight again.

There are mango and other fruit trees in the forest (a long way from the homes) along the track so we harvested a few green ones for George to make another batch of mango chutney - one thing lacking in the French groceries here. We were wondering how to persuade them to fall, but Simon shinned up the tree quickly and out on to a rather thin looking branch to knock them down for George to catch.

As we came back to the dinghy, Marie, who lives with Mahi and their son in the home nearest the beach, called to us to ask if we needed any fruit, but tired after our walk, we arranged to come and visit the following morning.

Here's the walk out along Hakahui's "main street"...

The following day we visited Mahi and Marie for coffee and were presented with another fifty or so bananas together with grapefruit and papaya. Just Marquesan hospitality - fortunately we found a few things on Blue Sky to offer in return. We invited them back to have a look at Blue Sky later on and .... but we're getting into the next blog already.

so check out the 'Goat Hunt' blog next.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:07:45 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/4/3/172-cascade-d-hakahui (@author) Island Exploring /bluesky/posts/2010/3/27/171-island-exploring

Hello Friends "8:55.1S 140:05.9W"

Well, stung by criticism of no blogs for ten days and atrocious punctuation, here we go with another update.

The partying that I had to rush off to after writing the last blog was in fact Alex's leaving party. After 4 months on Blue Sky, his girlfriend Nicole was getting to the point of desperation at the prospect of further loneliness while Alex was enjoying French Polynesia, so home he flew. The secret was that his homecoming was a surprise for Nicole, which apparently went down well!

Since Alex's departure, we've been exploring gently and not overdoing it...

We rented a 4x4 - the only suitable vehicle for Nuku Hiva - and went exploring the highest ridge of the island. The mountains around the bay at Taiohae are the inner edge of the crater, the centre of the old volcano being not far from where we're anchored (don't worry, it's been cold for a very long time). The outer concentric edge of the crater includes the highest point of the island and between the two ridges there is a high plateau - the Toovi Plateau - where wild horses roam and cattle are raised. You can probably see a bit of this on Googleearth but unfortunately there are a few clouds in the way...

This is the view from the top of the ridge, not far from the highest point, where the road to the airport winds up the crater wall and over the top.

Note the hairpin bends on the airport road and the pine forests, which appear to have been planted a long time ago; also the area of almost level grassland where cattle are raised. The hills surrounding the bay where we're anchored are at the right edge of the horizon.

One of the nice things about driving up here is that it's cool as the altitude is about 1100m, a pleasant change from sea level stickiness.

We went for some actual exercise on a dirt track which we think may have been the old road, along the west side of the ridge - here's the view looking west over the 'terre deserte' showing the classic volcanic slope down to the sea, sharply eroded by the river.

The path followed around the contour quite well so would have been great for mountain bikes. We met some wild horses, the leader of which was sufficiently confident to allow us to touch him when we caught up with them.

Our 4x4 - a Mahindra - came equipped with a garden bench in the back which made a convenient picnic site under the canvas cover as a little shade was much needed.

Last Wednesday, our Panama Canal buddies, Tumshi arrived after a 20 day passage from the Galapagos. Since then we've showed them our favourite walk along the east side of the bay and yesterday we decided to rent another 4x4 for an extended joint tour around the island.

Here's a photo from Baie d'Hatiheu where we had lunch on the last tour - it's just a phone box and on the right you can just see that it has a phone book. The phone book isn't tied down and it's not been graffitied or damaged, come to think of it neither has the phone box. Nuku Hiva is the first place where we've left the boat open, not bothering to lock it and never considered locking the tender - no one does here as it's unnecessary.

This pic is looking north and from here we drove west on a dirt road along the north coast to the NW corner. The slightly arduous drive was rewarded by spectacular views, though George is squinting in the bright sunlight.

The road snaked down into each bay and up again over each ridge as we skirted past the highest point of Nuku Hiva. This is the view looking up to the top and the fantastic precipices - the top, in wisps of cloud, is about 1000m higher than the camera.

As it was Angelica's birthday yesterday, we all repaired to Tumshi for birthday supper together afterwards.

We've enjoyed Nuku Hiva for three weeks already and we're nearly ready to move on to another island. But first we'll return to 'Daniel's Bay' at the SW corner to get some better photographs of that spectaular area for the next blog.

Here's a couple of photos of sundry wildlife on the tops - one of the very common butterflies which eventually came into focus and a curious mutant rocket pine tree on the Toovi plateau (showing the road on the R for scale).

That's about it for this blog, G&M did manage to get up in time for the early market this morning (0600) which seems a tradition here, though there's not much more produce than on weekdays. In a day or two we'll head out and hopefully we'll manage to decide which island to head for next.

We hope life's good wherever you are.

Best Wishes

George, Michael and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:41:24 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/3/27/171-island-exploring (@author) The Land of Men /bluesky/posts/2010/3/18/170-the-land-of-men

Hello Friends "8:55.1S 140:05.9W"

[note - there are 2 blogs of todays' date - in no particular order]

Sorry for the slow blogs: we've been relaxing since our arrival here and since then we've been adventuring so too busy to blog, or at least too tired when we returned to the boat.

The Marquesas are 'Te Henua Enana", meaning ' The Land of Men'; maybe because the landscape is very mountainous and dramatic. Perhaps as the warriors came from here? Maybe a photo from the front will clarify the environment.

This is a 'Tiki', one of very many around the island and this happy looking chap is holding a traditional war club in his left hand and the head of one of his unfortunate victims in his right. Observant readers will note that the fine anatomical details are entirely usual for Marquesan sculpture, old and new.

When Simon and the skipper walked along the beachfront on the first day, we found that the act of walking was quite a strain - our legs had given up after a month at sea. Since then we've taken a few walks and been progressively more adventurous, so are now more or less returned to normal function.

Last Friday we took a walk along the east side of the bay, along a carefull prepared and spledid path which had no signs at all. Fortunately Richard (see below) had explained how to find the start. Here we are in the light brush...

As the path continued we were faced with a sheer rock face dropping down to the sea, but the path zig-zagged up to a col before the precipice and the locals has throughfully erected a small shelter to provide a comfortable rest. The cabin boys, ever adventurous, decided they had to climb right to the end of the cliff along a knife-edge of rock... their position is marked by the arrow.

You can see the steep back of the bay which is the inner edge of a caldera of which this bay is the centre. Blue Sky is about on the right hand edge of the pic.

After this warm-up, the weekend was dedicated to the Cabin Boys' epic climb, the subject of a separate blog.

On Monday, we took an island tour with Richard, a Marquesan who has been guiding for many years. We had been intending to tour with him on Friday, but he'd wrenched his ankle playing sports and was unable to drive - hence the advice for the walk above.

We spent the day seeing amazing landscapes on crazy roads, having an excellent lunch and inspecting ancient meeting sites, with many stone carved tikis and other artifacts.

Here's a few pics to give the feel of the day...

The view from footpath at the col into Baie d'Anaho in the NE of the island (no roads here)

The view from the beach at Baie d'Hatiheu just in front of the restaurant where we ate an excellent lunch...

and the tree which is at the centre of an area of meeting place and which was originally hung with countless skulls of the victims of the Marquesans before missionaries took offence at the skulls and the cannibalism. This thing might have been the inspiration for the 'home tree' in Avatar for those who've been to the movies lately.

This is one of the 'walking trees' which are raised up on high roots and effectively migrate over time. Alex gives scale to the view.

There is a festival of the Marquesas every 4 years or so (next in December 2011) where Polynesian peoples meet for a traditional gathering. This view is another meeting site which was restored for the last meeting. Again the carvings are detailed.

Anyway, we have partying to do tonight, for reasons which will be revealed in next week's blog, so the skipper must join the fun.

Just as a teaser for the next blog, yesterday we visited a place at the SW corner of the island yesterday which was once of the most spectacular areas we've ever seen, home to the world's 3rd highest waterfall and some of the nicest people you could wish to meet, all in a garden of Eden setting. Until the next blog then...

Best Wishes

George, Michael, Alex and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:53:44 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/3/18/170-the-land-of-men (@author) Cabin Boy Special blog /bluesky/posts/2010/3/18/169-cabin-boy-special-blog

Hi All "8:55.1S 140:05.9W"

[note - there are 2 blogs of todays' date - in no particular order]

During the ocean crossing, Simon and I could not stop talking about our primal desire to conquer nature and so after a month at sea we dropped anchor, hit the rum, and conjured up a plan that some would call a little ambitious, others down-right crazy, to a couple of land-hungry (and very intoxicated) cabin boys, nothing could be more perfect. We will climb the mountain.

The next day Simon and I prepared our expedition bags with the following:

- 1 liter red wine

- 1 half pouch of dried mango

- 1 package of Chorizo sausages

- 6 liters of water

- 2 hammocks

- 1 water purification system

- 20 feet of rope

- 1 tin Pork and Beans

-and the basics like matches, knives, and some cheesy literature that doubled as toilet roll (this wasn’t a tea and crumpets sort of excursion). We thought we were all set for adventure, little did we know that our rations and supplies could hardly preserve life atop the inhospitable Marquesan mountaintops.

Our goal was to climb the mountain without the aid of any roads or paths, we wanted to pave the way through thick, bug-infested jungle the way that the explorers of old would have done.

After the first steps on shore the sweat started to trickle down our backs, it was 0930 and the sun was quickly heating up the island. Simon and I realized quickly that the mission wasn’t going to be an easy one but there was something driving us, something instinctual and masculine that forced us higher and higher through the village until we met our first major feat.

1015:

Past the outskirts of the village, at the base of the mountain we reached a 10 meter wall of stone that rose vertically into the upper canopy of a now virgin jungle. To most this would have seemed a depressing fate however the BlueSky cabin boys were eager and quickly fashioned a plan.

“Let’s tie some ropes and hoist our bags up the face” I shouted with excitement.

“Yea I’ll start climbing up, pass that line to me” Simon responded equally enthused.

And as our packs slithered up the rock wall my “inner man” roared with satisfaction. Our adventure had begun.

1030:

Still energized by our first triumph over nature we trotted through the untainted wilderness with great agility.

“How bad-ass is this” I croaked between pants while whipping the sweat from my brow.

“Yea this is really great” my little Swedish friend replied.

Moments later our joy vanished as we looked up from the base of the waterfall only to find an overwhelmingly shocking obstacle; if the first rock wall was a rubber ducky then this was the Titanic. For a few moments Simon and I stood motionless, silent, gazing up at an impossible near vertical rock face littered with jagged rocks, scorpion holes, loose vegetation and prickly vines. Without words the ropes were out and bags were being tied together as I pushed up the Cliffside and after a many hours, torrents of sweat and a handful of near-death experiences we reached the next phase of our journey.

After a rigorous journey up the cliff we started heading towards were we thought the waterfall might be and some time later we started to actually hear the sound of flowing water. Victory! (or so we thought).

The sound of tricking perfection was up ahead but the route there was far from the yellow-brick road that we were hoping for. A muddy 60 degree slope led down into the forest below and to us it seemed the only way we could get down. We decided that we would just slide down on our bottoms, this, however, was not a good idea. From the word “go” we were sliding uncontrollably into the abyss snagging razor grass and disrupting creepy-crawlies the whole way down. Five minutes of horrible pain and anguish later landed us next to an idyllic little stream. Because of necessity more than choice we chose the stream as a lunch stop and a space to clean the blood and thorns from our wounds.

There was no way that we were going to go back up the hell-hole from whence we came and so once the swarm of mosquitoes started to muster we set off up the river bed. Our natural path quickly led us to another ridiculous overhang and after a few moments of potty-mouth banter we chose to go up the right side of the cliff, little did we know that this would later lead us to the most demanding part of our adventure, The Devil’s Fanny.

Slowly we made our way through the jungle, up and up over ledges, through thick bush and bamboo forests. It was at this point that we realized that a handful of dried mango was hardly appropriate for sustaining adventurers posed with such a challenge. We crawled along, and when I say “crawled” I don’t mean that the going was only slow but that we were actually on our hands and knees chopping through near-impenetrable vegetation.

1530:

We have reached the ridge! And the view is incredible. From here it looks like a nice little goat path the whole way to the top. At this point spirits could not be more high.

1545:

What was a once a perfect little goat path has turned into the most treacherous path ever designed, in front of us lies a massive rock wall that overhangs and to either side of it there are drop offs of over a thousand feet. At the base of this rock are the remnants of a poorly constructed ladder that surely led its builders to some horrible fate.

Simon and I decided that at this point we could not be stopped, we had covered so much ground and climbed up many places were a descent would not be possible, no, we had to press on.

Simon scouted around the corner and soon vanished behind the rock, I knew that if just one rock slipped that he would fall hundreds of feet before even hitting another object. I sat perched on a fallen palm and waited for the scream.

After about an hour Simon emerged from the top of the rock and we hoisted the bags up.

What Simon said is far from being suitable for such a respectable blog but he basically said how getting up was the most difficult, dangerous, and stupid thing he had ever done in his life (We subsequently named this place the Devils Fanny). I was next and I was not excited. My sense of adventure had vanished and my “inner man” had transformed into “inner boy”, that boy wanted a cold beer and a massage, instead he was being asked to scale the tropical Everest.

I won’t go into detail about my trip around the “fanny” but I will tell you that it involved tears, sweat, and blood.

[Editor’s note: this is the “ridge” (in shade) and the Devil’s ahem is the step at the top right. It is true that there was a sheer drop straight down both sides of the ‘ridge’]

The sun was setting and the terrain was as unforgiving as ever, we needed to find water and set up camp.

1745:

We triumphantly dragged ourselves into camp and set up the hammocks. A fire was lit and in what seemed like no time we were sipping wine and eating chorizo. After eight hours of hell we had finally happiness, it seemed that what we were looking for all along was some red wine and sausages

The night did not end as the fire went out thought, after about an hour of tossing and turning we rose from our hammocks cold and exhausted. The location of the fire ended up changing three times, our hammocks were repositioned four times and the mosquitoes never slowed their attack.

Red eyed and trembling we set off the next day having only slept a couple of hours, we had to get out of the jungle at whatever cost.

Our food supply had disappeared, water was scarce, every part of our body had been ravaged by an unforgiving jungle and our spirits could not have been lower.

This is the moment were we did not think that we would ever find our way out of the forest.

Hope came at 1000 on Day 2 when we climbed to the top of a ridge and spotted a fence; from there the need to survive energized our torn bodies. Faster and faster we pushed up the cliff and through the forest. Adrenaline pumped though my veins and I could no longer feel the razor grass ripping at my sides, I didn’t care that my arms were bleeding or that my stomach was empty, fatigue was gone and I was now a machine built for one thing, to survive.

1130:

VICTORY!

We emerged from the jungle overjoyed and barbaric, the noise we made must have been heard from even the village below. After yelling and celebrating for about 2 minutes we realized that we were being watched, a group of Marquesans were sitting on a bench in a viewing terrace staring at us. We ended up approaching the bewildered onlookers and told them of our adventure, they of course thought that we were totally insane. We chatted for a good 20 minutes but Simon and I were in no rush, there were people, there was a road, and we weren’t going to die anymore.

The Locals we met at the viewing platform could not believe what we had done and it was only because that they had seen us climb over the cliff before their eyes that they actually took what we said for truth. The guys proclaimed that Simon and I were now honorary Marquesans and with a fist to the chest he showed us his appreciation, it was a gratifying moment, so much so that it made his next move seem a little odd. I noticed that he had a vehicle and I motioned to the road, he told me that it led down to the village and it only look a couple of hours to walk, the guy wasn’t getting my message and promptly the two men walked off and drove down the road in their empty pickup leaving Simon and I to fend for ourselves once again, so much for Marquesan hospitality.

Simon and I started walking and we agreed that nothing on this road could be as horrible as what we had experienced and for once we were right. We flagged down a taxi about 45 minutes later and returned to the safety of Blue Sky were we immediately cracked some ice cold beers and rested before George served lunch.

The epic quality of the adventure can’t quite be put into words but it has somehow founded in me a new appreciation for what George and Michael do for cabin boys around the world.

Alex

[Editor's note: in the photo below, Blue Sky is in the bottom right of pic., the waterfalls are the valley in the middle, the ridge is on the right and the viewing platform which the boys climbed to is at the top lowest point of horizon. These mountains are the inner edge of the caldera which forms most of Nuku Hiva.]

]]> Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:50:09 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/3/18/169-cabin-boy-special-blog (@author) LANDFALL - NUKU HIVA /bluesky/posts/2010/3/7/168-landfall-nuku-hiva

Hello Everybody "8:55.1N 140:05.9W"

Thanks for waiting - you've been patient (we hope) while we were our of satellite coverage. We're now far enough west to get the necessary beam on the Pacific Ocean satellite and we hope to get some WiFi whilst in French Polynesia.

When we warned you about communications, we'd enjoyed good wind for almost a week and were covering a steady 180 -190 miles a day. Since then we've had rather light wind and very much from astern, which as the yachties will know, is not a happy sailing condition. So we've been gybing our way to the islands in light winds for the last 600 miles or so.

[For those blog readers not of a nautical persuasion, sailing dead downwind is almost as difficult as attempting to sail directly into the wind. The boat rolls and the apparent wind is reduced by your speed. It's much better to put the true wind 30 degrees or so on the quarter. Then the speed of the boat brings the apparent wind up further and you get better boat speed and a more comfortable motion with a steady press on the sails. It's also less time to
your destination, despite the greater distance.]

Our careful work - or to be specific the work of Alex and Simon - in careening the hull before we left Costa Rica, has been much appreciated as Blue Sky has slipped along well at 6 knot speeds in only 10 knots apparent at about 120 deg. Shortly after the last blog we put the sky blue spinnaker up and it's been up day and night since.

Alex was the first to spy land as the sun rose this morning - Ua Huka glowering at us out of the wreathing clouds. Unfortunately the winds have been really, really light since then and with only 20 miles to go, we reluctantly started the engine. We did wait a couple of hours for the wind to return, but were rewarded with only uncontrolled roll and flogging sails. Anyway, the engine will allow us to arrive comfortably in mid afternoon.

This is the south east tip of Nuku Hiva...

Our crossing took 27 days and 8 hours, covered about 3,850 miles over the sea bed
and about 3,650 miles through the water, with the benefit of some good favourable
currents. We used something over 30 imperial gallons of diesel - which is about half
our supply, including 4 jerry cans. We must confess that we started out, knowingly,
with only half full water tanks, such is our faith in the watermaker and power systems
and the tanks are now full despite free water usage and daily showers.

Here's our anchorage in Baie de Taiohae

It's just possible that we'll take a glass or two this evening to celebrate our journey,
so don't email too early on Sunday morning ! We'll catch up on email replies over the next couple of days.

Best Wishes

George, Michael, Alex and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:07:00 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/3/7/168-landfall-nuku-hiva (@author) Satellite Report /bluesky/posts/2010/3/1/167-satellite-report

Hello Friends "5:0S 127:54W"

All continues to be well on board though the wind is a touch light and a touch too far from the east: a little more south in it would help. We have 750 miles to go to Nuku Hiva.

We are experiencing increasing difficulty in getting a satellite signal - we believe as we are between the Atlantic West and Pacific satellites - so it will be surprising if we are able to post this blog.

Don't expect another blog before we arrive - all being well we should be able to post something on Saturday or Sunday.

Best Wishes

George, Michael, Alex and Simon

www.candlin-pass.org

]]> Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:36:02 UTC /bluesky/posts/2010/3/1/167-satellite-report (@author)