still in Nuku Hiva

It's 10Pm local time, Monday night here. We wouldn't have wanted this engine project to be TOO easy! Okay, I lie, we wanted the repairs to be easy, but we knew they wouldn't be. Finally got the engine running today and oil cooler is working. But there were some other issues, so we need to wait another 24 hours for some gaskets to seal. If all seems good tomorrow at noon, then we will take off for the Tuamotu Islands, 500 miles southwest.

Dan, one of the most patient people I know on earth, exhibited a super human caliber of patience today while taking the engine apart again (and again and again), all while holding what would surely be a challenging pose for even a yoga expert, upside down, in the heat, with sweat just pouring off him, for hours.

The saying does go that sailboat "cruising is really just working on your boat in exotic places!"


View of a manta ray from aloft, while inspecting the rig.

still working!

Using Rylin's pink compact to see behind the engine.

It's 0915 local time, Sunday morning. Afer 15 hours of soaking and prying, and soaking and prying, Dan finally got the threaded bolts off the old cooler and is now installing the new one. We will need to wait 24 hours to start the engine, but hopefully (I guess I use that word a lot!) we will have it up and running tomorrow.

To make us more patient in our waiting game, last night we went to the the local community center to watch (in French), "A Night at the Museum," and "Coast Guard." Unfortunately Kevin Costner's acting does not improve at all in French, BUT it was really fun to "go out," surrounded by beautiful local children whose parents all brought little sleeping mats for them. By midnight, we were stepping over hundreds of sleeping children strewn about on the floor.

real time

Disappointingly, the Volvo place (Helmut Marine) neglected to send 2 crucial parts to the oil cooler, despite us going OVER and OVER the parts list with them and begging them on the Sat phone NOT TO FORGET ANY PARTS, telling them we were in the middle of the ocean with no engine!! So we are trying to cannablize the parts from the old cooler. We will need to leave it soaking overnight in WD40, as it is completely seized. We are very hopeful though!!!!!!!

the old oil cooler and the new

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pics

I have finally weaved photos throughout the text dating back to April 4. Will try for video next!

Confetti in Taiohae Bay

Confetti anchored well away from everyone else, since we had to drop the hook under sail.

view

Dave Lee enjoyed the AC of a hotel room while Rylin and Schimy went hiking in the rain. And then Dan and I did the same the next night (got a hotel, no hiking in the rain!). Now that R&S are back the sun is out!

You can see Confetti in the background from the hotel. Fresh water shower so nice!

The taxi driver delivers packages from the plane in about an hour and we will know today's verdict...

not yet...

We are working hard on our patience skills. Package did not make the plane from Papeete yesterday. In fact, no one really knows exactly where it is, including FedEx. But Henri assures us it probably just got bumped for some frozen goods, and is at the Papeete airport. All we can do is wait! (as our batteries struggle on this cloudy island...). Hopefully today!

Int'l shipment release

We are so excited about customs relasing our package that I am pasting its FedEx route below. (Stop reading right now if you actually have important thingtoaccomplish today). Hopefully our oil cooler is on a plane to our little island right this very second! Dan is warming up his mechanic outfit... (still working on pics).

Apr 26, 2007 1:08 PM
Int'l shipment release
PAPEETE, TAHITI PF
Apr 25, 2007 3:00 PM
Clearance in progress
PAPEETE, TAHITI PF
Apr 24, 2007 3:00 PM
Clearance in progress
PAPEETE, TAHITI PF
Apr 23, 2007 3:26 PM
Clearance in progress
PAPEETE, TAHITI PF
Shipment exception
PAPEETE, TAHITI PF
Improper or missing international paperwork, contact Customer Service
Apr 20, 2007 6:00 AM
In transit
AUCKLAND NZ
Package available for clearance
Apr 18, 2007 10:08 AM
In transit
HONOLULU, HI 5:34 AM
Departed FedEx location
LOS ANGELES, CA 3:45 AM
Arrived at FedEx location
LOS ANGELES, CA 2:26 AM
Departed FedEx location
OAKLAND, CA
Apr 17, 2007 10:58 PM
Departed FedEx location
OAKLAND, CA 8:06 PM
Left origin
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2:40 PM
Picked up
SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Good morning from Taihoe Bay. Our time zone here is UTC (Zulu) minus 9-1/2 hours. We are not sure why that half hour is so important to the Marquesans, but it does make for interesting conversions from other time zones. Good news is that our engine part is in Papeete, Tahiti. Bad news is that it is stuck in customs. We are playing a faxing-of-documents game with customs, with the help of our friend Henri (On-ree) who runs the beautiful Pearl Lodge Hotel on the hill above us. He is incredibly helpful, and the view from the hotel veranda is quite nice with a Pina Colada in hand as we wait for Henri to make calls to Papeete on our behalf. Hopefully the part will clear today and arrive tomorrow or Friday.

Schimy, Rylin and Dave went off on an island jeep tour yesterday. On request, Schimy and Rylin were dropped off at the top of the island, intending to take a few days to walk (and camp) their way back to the boat. We were thinking of them early this morning as it rained 2 inches in an hour. But at least they have plenty of fresh water!

Confetti is officially cleared into the country after a complicated and somewhat confusing trip to the Gendarmerie. Dan and I had to post a $3000- bond to stay in French Polynesia, and almost had to post another $4500 for the crew. Thankfully Dave had befriended Anne (On), the local laundress and clothing merchant, who took it upon herself to contact the Gendarmerie head office in Papeete and have them convince (through faxes) the local office that the crew’s plane tickets were sufficient proof that they would leave the country. So if you have diplomatic issues in the Marquesas, apparently the laundry lady is the person to talk to.

The French government does not want people arriving here and then living on the 80-degree islands for free. Every local we have met, though, has been incredibly friendly and nice to us, and has usually gone out of their way to be helpful. The local population of this island is 2500, with 2000 people living right here in Taiohoe Bay.

I am still working on uploading pictures over this slow connection, and hopefully will have them up tomorrow.

We are here! Taiohoe Bay on Nuka Hiva island. We’ve anchored, stood on solid ground with wobbly sea legs, and, most impressively, slept 8 hours in a row! (Well almost – we had to get up and close hatches against two late night downpours.) We sighted land the night before last and shortened sail to slow down so that we would arrive at dawn. Ironically, the moment we did so, a squall arrived and Confetti continued to rocket merrily along at seven knots with only a triple-reefed mainsail (!) and no headsail.

At first light we headed into the bay and tacked upwind against an ebb current. The anchoring went smoothly but I have to admit Dan and I breathed some pretty big sighs of relief, and I felt my heart rate drop quite a bit, when that hook went down! Later on shore some Norwegian cruisers we met told us they thought we were, "Quite sporting to sail onto anchor!" Little did they know we had no choice. Thankfully our racing experience has contributed greatly to handling boats without engines.

We took the crew out for dinner last night and very much enjoyed sitting at a table with people delivering things to us and no one having to stand watch! We are all still a little “spacey” from being at sea so long, but very much enjoying the lush, green scenery of the island, with 4000-feet peaks surrounding our bay.

The trip definitely became more of an adventure after the engine died, but really very little changed. We had a few frustrating days of light wind, but mostly the boat moved along beautifully the whole time and we beat most cruisers’ passage time from Baja (again not that we’re competitive!). The total was just under 18 days (19 from LaPaz) for the 2605-mile “puddle jump,” with a 6-knot average and only 55 miles of motoring. The equatorial weather was quite cloudy, so it was a challenge to keep the batteries (5 deep-cycle, gel-cell – 4 house, 1 engine) charged, but they did the job and we were still able to make plenty of water with the watermaker.

Today, armed with only confidence and a French vocabulary of four words—oui, non, merci, and bon jour--Dave Lee hit shore and immediately became our social director. At this very moment he’s arranging excursions to explore the interior of the island tomorrow.

We look forward to meeting our new oil cooler (guaranteed to arrive Wednesday by FedEx, currently expected Thursday). If all goes well (please keep your fingers crossed!), we’ll fix the engine and depart within a week for the Tuomotu Islands.

Thanks so much to everyone for following along on our journey, and to our weather gurus for sending us toward good wind (which was really important in the end!), and to Matt for translating the cryptic sat phone text messages for the blog this past week. Since we, conveniently(!), have wireless internet right here in the anchorage we will upload photos from the passage asap. All our best from S/V Confetti!

Anchored in Taiohae bay!

We are anchored in Taiohae bay!
The anchor went down at 8:15 AM local time (17:45 UTC).
It was a night of heavy squalls, so we're tired. But all is well.
We're having breakfast, then we'll hit terra firma.

Land Ho!

LAND HO!

Land in sight at 1700 local time.
There's a beautiful sunset with a rainbow behind us.
We're slowing down as to make a dawn arrival. We've currently got a 10 knot breeze.
And Dan is cooking us all dinner.

Almost there

1700UTC
S08
W138 39

We did 180 NM yesterday, moving at 8 Kts. We only have 100 NM to go!
We will stand off until 1st light, then hope for good wind to sail into Taiohae bay.
We'll anchor in the bay Sunday, and then we'll clear customs and immigration on Monday.

Moving along

S 05 37
W 136 28

We're cruising along with good 10+ Kt wind. At this pace we'll be to
the island of Nuku Hiva by late Saturday or Sunday.
The engine parts are being sent to a hotel on Nuku Hiva. If they make
it through customs without serious delay, we'll be able to start repair
early next week.

Swimming at 11,000 ft depth

S 02 00
W 134 15

Wind is 3-6kt NE. We're cruising at 4 knots, wing and wing.

The wind was very light this morning, so we all went swimming. The depth is 11,000 ft here and clear! You can almost see to the bottom.

Just crossed the equator

April 17, 2007 - just crossed the equator! Beautiful sunset. We poured
some Tequila overboard for Neptune then we all did a few shots
ourselves. And then we got back to our Hearts game.

do u want the good news or the bad news 1st?

0700 UTC
N02 09
W135 o5
Well, the bad news is that the engine is out of commission for the duration of our passage. Two nights ago our oil cooler ruptured as we motored in calm weather, using the fuel we had budgeted to make it through the doldrums. The good news, though, is that we have decent breeze & should cross the equator tomorrow night. More good news is that we have ordered a new oil cooler that is being shipped DHL to Papeete & then to Nuka Hiva, Marquesas, where we are altering course. We will rely on only sails
to get there, & have turned off unessential electronics, since we now only have our solar panels for charging the batteries. We are trying to eat up what is in the fridge so we can turn it off! This will be my last email over the HAM radio. Until we arrive I will send short text messages over the SAT phone to be relayed to blog. The best news of all though, is that our crew is amazing & everyone on board has a great attitude (like when we bobbed around in the dark last night for hours going backward),
a high tolerance for adversity (it is almost too hot to sleep & cooking in the galley is like cooking in a sauna), and a terrific sense of adventure (we rode a 40-knot squall today for hours!) It's midnight local time now & Confetti is sailing along at 6kts. in a lovely 10kt. E wind, the temperature down below has cooled down some, the southern cross is perfectly framed in our spreaders, and dolphins are carving phosphorescence trails under the hull. All is well aboard S/V Confetti!

smooth spinnaker sailing

ITCZ

N04 53
W130 58
The wx is changing, after a week of NE trade winds. We may be getting close to the ITCZ (aka "doldrums") where N & S hemisphere wx meet with lots of clouds, moisture & variable wind, sometimes mixed with squalls. We are hoping to find a longitude to cross equator with wind, & are currently shooting for W133. Wind was from all directions today. Temp on board was well over 100-degrees down below today & impossible to rest, but afternoon rain has cooled it right off!

wind NE 18-22kts.

N06 12
W130 05
0330 UTC
Still heading SW wing & wing in 22kts breeze. All is great aboard but this typer is T-I-R-E-D so will keep short. We've come 1580nm in 9.5 days & have 1110 to go, which means our average speed has been 7kts, & average daily run has been 166nm. We are very pleased with these numbers! Forgot to mention last night, in case anyone wondered at the prudence of being on watch alone at night, that when we are in cockpit or on deck at night & in heavy wx we are clipped in with our harnesses. It's a dark night
tonight and we are surfing down the waves at over 10kts. All our best from the middle of the ocean!

the "reading room"

hoisting the storm jib

0500 UTC
N07 40
W127 51
NE15-20kt. wind, double-reefed main, poled out jib, flying at 8-9 kts.

half-way!

Today marked half-way! The days are flying by, encapsulated on our little boat & structured by our watch system. We stand watches alone, although during the day the cockpit usually has at least 2 or 3 people in it, reading or playing games, or just enjoying the view! Night watches are wonderfully solitary. Our schedule is: 0700-1000, 1000-1400, 1400-1800, 1800-2100, 2100-2300, 2300-0100, 0100-0300, 0300-0500, 0500-0700. One person rotates out of the schedule every day to become the "steward," who
does all the day's cooking & cleaning, but doesn't have to stand any watches & *hypothetically* gets a full night's sleep. Everyone stands 2 watches per 24 hrs (1 person 3) that advance every day so no one is standing the same watch every night.

Today the water-maker stopped working, so I gave Dan a break from his usual trouble-shooting responsibilities & spent a few hours in what we call, "the hole," a deep, dark locker accessed only from the cockpit that is incredibly hot at any latitude, but stifling at 7N. A successful mission it was, though, to the hole, & we were off water rations within a couple hours, allowed once again our fresh water rinses in the cockpit after our salt-water hose downs that are becoming necessary in the heat.

Rylin threw our ½-day party tonight and baked us pizza after pizza, and we continue to fly (!) along at 8kts (sometimes more), growing ever closer to that benchmark latitude.

behind the scenes

0730UTC
N09 27
W125 48
1200nm from Baja.
Tomorrow we will be HALF WAY. Rylin is organizing a party. We will dress up & pretend we haven't seen each other in a while. This is a stretch, considering we are 5 people on a 44-foot boat. When someone takes a 2-hour nap it feels like they've been gone for ages.
It's 1:00 AM & everyone just went back to sleep after a rousing to put the 2nd reef in the main. We're still flying along over 8kts in NE15-18kts. The jib has been poled out for 3 days & we just keep going back & forth between 1st & 2nd reef in main. Most delightful thing that happened today was dragging our feet off the bow, thru the water as we surfed 10kts down waves with dolphins criss-crossing just under our toes. Funniest thing that happened today was Dan found a dead flying fish, down below
amongst the setee cushions. If you could see the route this fish had to take to get into the cabin, past the unknowing watch-stander's head, thru the companionway, under the produce hammock & over the table you wouldn't believe it possible!
I should mention that we are not alone. We have some fabulous "behind the scenes" help from our friends Matt Peavy (in Laramie, WY), and Scott Gordon (in SF Bay area) who are sending us daily weather info on what to expect, where to go for wind (more or less of it), and if there are any storms to be concerned about. We are so thankful for their help!

sliding computer

N11 05
W123 26
0715 UTC
The wind blew NE15-20+ most of today and we are currently surfing (modestly) down 8-10' waves, wing & wing with 1 reef in the main at 8kts. All is good aboard, but the laptop is wanting to fly across the nav table as I type, so I will keep this 1 short. Heard on the HAM net there's another sailboat only 30 miles ahead of us going only 6kts., which we are looking fwd to passing tomorrow (not that we're competitive or anything). It's 1:15 local & everyone's rolling in their bunks on the waves, but
I can still hear the sounds of someone snoring peacefully.

easy sailing

(no subject)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

1/3 way there

0930 UTC
N12 40
W121 19
875 nm s. of Baja
1800 to Hiva Oa
It's 3:30 in the morning local time. Everyone is asleep down below & a half moon is hanging in the eastern sky. This definitely feels like the middle of the ocean. Wait, this is the middle of the ocean. Blue everywhere! The wind seems here to stay, at least for now. We doused the kite last night before dark & have been sailing wing & wing with the poled-out jib ever since. Wind is up to NE 15 & we are flying along at 8kts. As we go s. the days are getting H-O-T & shady spots in the cockpit are worth
a premium. Sleeping is challenging with all the squeaking & banging & rolling & heeling as we fly down the waves, but the sleep deficit is all part of this whole thing. In addition to the normal amount of projects (mostly done by Dan), hearts, backgammon & Scrabble all came out today. We continue to have lots of blue-footed booby's flying around, & the last few days have brought tropic birds, as well as hundreds of flying fish skimming along the water's surface. Sometimes we get in the path of these
little air born creatures & have to peel them off the deck in the morning. While this is not a happy day for them, this is extremely entertaining for us. Tonight we heard 2 boats, over the HAM "net," in the doldrums with 1-2kts wind. We are trying to appreciate these amazing trade winds now, because we know what's coming!

spinnaker!

Today was a great day. After 36 hours of frustrating, super-light wind from the NW, it finally clocked and started blowing 10kts from the NE. We set the spinnaker and ran all day at over 7kts. In the middle of a late-afternoon hearts game, Schimy caught a black fin tuna, and by sunset we were eating sushi rolls in the cockpit, wasabi and all! Hopefully this wind will stick with us, and we'll keep clicking off the parallels.

0500 UTC
N14 24
W118 25
700 nm south of Baja
2000 to go

trying to pet the dolphins!

just hanging out in the middle of the Pacific

0430 UTC
1030 local
N15 41
W116 39
600 nm south of Baja
2100 nm to Marquesas
Life on board has fallen into a routine of standing watch, cooking, cleaning, reading, attending to a project or 2, and sleeping (or at least trying). Dave Lee seems to have set a personal record of hours spent sleeping, and Rylin has committed us to a daily game of Scrabble. To our delight, a pod of dolphins stayed with us yesterday for over an hour, leaping and cavorting, and congregating around our bow wake. Mostly it's been cloudy and raining all around us, but not yet on us. The clouds are nice
on the skin, but not so nice for our solar panels. They did part last night in the south, though, for a nice viewing of the southern cross (we are rationing the number of times we can play CSN "Southern Cross" - so far 3). Wind has been ranging WWN - N and seems to be finally clocking to the NE. Tomorrow we are hopeful for some real downwind spinnaker weather, as we have just been broad-reaching with mainsail and jib.

wind

0725 UTC
0145 local
N18 57
W113 39
335 nm south of Baja
The wind has been our friend. We are still speeding along between 7-9kts. in 8-14 kts of NW wind. We hooked up the windvane today and it has been steering beautifully, saving us the electricity the autopilot consumes. Our first 24-hr run was 190-miles (!!), which is a high precedent to set; one which we're not sure we can continue to meet. But we're excited to try! Everyone on board is feeling almost 100-percent. No traffic except for blue-footed boobies trying to land on the boat.

cruising

N21 31. 54 W111 05.45 - 2130 local. Still flying along at 8.5kt in 17kts. WNW. Night seems to be best for transmitting so will plan to update on night watches. Everybody healthy & happy & on the rd. to sea legs. N21 W111 36.7 - 0315 local - sailing thru the monlight

sailing

Approaching a moonlit Cabo at sunrise.


N22 26.12 W110 12.83 - 1200 Heading south 221-degrees true at 8.5-kts in 16-18kts. WNW wind. 40 miles south of Cabo. We ducked into Cabo San Lucas at 0700, weaving thru literally hundreds of outbound sport-fishing boats, jockeyed for position in the fuel dock line, topped off, & were rounding Cabo by 0830 while Schimy fried us up some egg & bacon croissants. We are speeding along, hitting 9-kts. regularly. Aside from some minor seasick in these big SW swells, all is well on board!

motoring!

2130 - N 23 37.66 W 109 26.44 An uneventful first night, as we motor down the Sea of Cortez in no wind. We had a few hours of afternoon sailing down the Ceralvo Canal, escorted by a pod of dolphins. But now we're back to the diesel. Because we are using fuel so early in the trip we will plan on a morning stop in Cabo to refuel. We should be in and out by 0900 and then on our way into the Pacific, where we will hopefully find some viento! All well aboard S/V Confetti.

Here we go!! Our lovely and amazing crew is Dave Schimelpfenig (AKA "Schimy"), Rylin LaPlante and Dave Lee, all NOLS friends. We'll fill up at the marina's fuel dock at 0700, head out of the LaPaz, sail out of the Sea of Cortez, and point toward the Marquesas.

Making up the watch schedule and posting the last blog photos.