Cheoy Lee 41"Astraea"

Adventure Sailing South Pacific

Modern Sailing Academy Adventure Sailing French Polynesia

“Welcome to Tahiti” said the lovely Polynesian voice over the plane’s announcement system as we lightly touched down in Papeete.  I could not believe that I was here.  As a somewhat jaded business traveler I am accustomed to flying from SFO to distant destinations in Asia and Europe, but this time was different.  This time instead of a few days of meetings and business dinners I was off for two weeks of sailing from the Marquesas to the Tuomotus. 

 

Probably like many San Francisco sailors who own a blue water capable boat, I had sailed the Bay many times and looked longingly at the Golden Gate and dreamed of sailing out beneath that great bridge and heading for the South Pacific.  Like many SF Bay sailors, a weekend trip to Drake’s Bay, or a short trip to Half Moon Bay was really the only option for a sailing adventure.  Even squeezing in a Baha Haha was not really practical right now. 

 

However I did dream of retiring, hopefully soon, and taking that trip down the coast to Panama and then the Puddle Jump.  Every month I read Latitude 38, Cruising World, and Blue Water Cruising and dreamed of the day.  However there was always in the back of my mind the same questions:  “Do I really want to retire earlier than I have to, rearrange my life, and take off to sail somewhere I have never really experienced?  What skills do I really need to do this?  Can my boat and I handle the South Pacific?  What equipment is important?  Will I be bored?  Do I really need to spend all that money for a watermaker?” 

 

Last Spring I had been at Modern Sailing Academy taking a private sailing lesson with Suzette Smith on our Cheoy Lee 41 ketch, Astraea, when I had run into John Conley.  John told me that he was putting together one of his Adventure Sailing trips for the South Pacific in March of 08 and that I should come along.  I was sold!  That had been almost a year ago, and now the day had finally arrived and I was landing in Papeete! 

 

Now, a little background.  I had learned to sail as a midshipman at the US Naval Academy back in the 1970’s, and I had spent twenty years as a Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy sailing virtually around the world.  I had “steamed” through the South Pacific, but I had dreamed of sailing there all my life.  When I had relocated to San Francisco several years ago I had found a real estate agent and a sailboat broker, not necessarily in that order.  Soon we were settled in our South Beach condo and we had bought both the boat of my dreams and a berth in Emery Cove. 

 

Now I had the boat.  Sure, it had been a while since I had sailed, like maybe 25 years, but it’s like riding a bicycle, right?   Wrong.  The first time we took Astraea out of her berth I was so excited, and nervous, that I ran her aground right inside the breakwater.  (Those little white buoys are for what?).  Well, during my years in the Navy that would have been a career ending move.  But everyone runs aground in San Francisco, right?  The second time I took her out I had not yet learned when to reef in San Francisco.  I know now the answer is, “About one o’clock”.  Anyway, after a near disaster with the Berkeley pier and an accidental jibe that destroyed Astraea’s main sheet traveler, I decided that it was time for this old Navy sailor to seek professional help.  As I bemoaned my destroyed traveler over a beer at the South Beach Yacht Club (during the old double wide trailer days), someone had recommended Modern Sailing Academy.  I checked them out and decided to swallow my pride and sign up for Basic Keelboat.  My instructor turned out to be Suzette Smith, a superb sailor and even more important, a great teacher.  Within the next couple of years I had my little ASA book signed off for every course in the curriculum except the last two, Celestial Navigation and Off Shore Passagemaking.  Now I was off on my MSA adventure to get those last two certifications checked off the list and, more importantly, to see if cruising in the South Pacific was really something worth making a major lifestyle change to do. 

 

The MSA offering had three choices.   Leg one was within the Marquesas, the second leg was from the Marquesas to the Tuomotus, and the third leg was from the Tuomotus to the Society Islands.  I chose leg two as this was 13 days, the longest course by a couple of days.  It also had the longest open ocean crossing, some 550 miles, and it offered the opportunity for the ASA Offshore Passagemaking certification.

 

MSA made the whole thing really easy.  One check to MSA and one to their extremely efficient travel agent (yes, Internet users, there is still such a thing as a live travel agent) and every detail was taken care of.  Except the packing.  Air Tahiti was the only way to get from Papette to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, and as they fly small two prop planes they only allow 44 pounds of luggage per person.  I normally carry more stuff than that for a long weekend sail to Half Moon Bay.  After all, I had a sextant and other navigation equipment, my PFD, and a long list of “must have” sailing items like sailing knife, flashlight, reading light, a copy of Typee for passing the time and getting into the spirit of French Polynesia, and my dog eared copy of The Voyagers Handbook, Second Edition by Beth Leonard.  That book alone weighed five pounds. 

 

Of, yeah, and an Iridium satellite phone.  Hey, I am a San Francisco business exec.  I must have a phone (or so I thought).   Actually I found that the office got along quite well without me for three weeks.  However I did learn that Iridium does work beautifully throughout the South Pacific and you only have to turn it on when you want to call someone.  A handheld GPS and an Iridium would be two of the first things in my ditch bag.

 

For weeks before the trip I would pile up all the necessities on the bathroom scales and, finally, the night before leaving, I started taking out the extra twenty pounds of things I would have to live without and would reluctantly leave behind to get to the 44 pound limit.  Also, there were going to be John and six students living aboard a Beneteau Oceanus 473, and I knew enough about boats to know that there would not be a lot of room for extra “stuff”.  My seabag had to shrink.  I finally decided that I only needed a few pairs of shorts and tee-shirts, so finally I was able to get close to the weight limit.  Plus my sextant.  (By the way, the CO2 cartridge in the PFD in checked luggage is not a problem, but sometime try explaining to TSA at LAX what a sextant is and why you are hand carrying it). 

 

The arrival in Papeete was right on time, and the connection to Air Tahiti made, and I arrived in Nuku Hiva on March 16.  Now for someone who is accustomed to SFO, LAX, HK, and LHR, the Nuku Hiva airport was an introduction into a whole new world of beautiful air travel simplicity.  Thanks to my efficient travel agent back in California I was met at the airport by a driver in a four wheel drive Toyota SUV. 

 

Now Nuku Hiva is basically a volcano with a little land around the sides of it.  This necessitated two hours to travel the 12 miles from the airport to the hotel, which was on the other side of the island, which meant basically climbing high up on the side of the volcano, and back down the other side.  Some of the views were stunning, and the views were totally unobstructed by guard rails.  Also there was no paving. 

 

First Sight of Nuku Hiva from Air Tahiti Flight from Tahiti

 

 

As we came to a place on the road high over Nuku Hiva the driver pulled over to let me get my first look at the bay.  The view of the bay and mountains leading down to it was breathtaking.  Perfection.  Just what I had expected and dreamed of.  Even from this high perch I could see a number of sailboats dotting the Bay.  Once again it crossed my mind, “Would I someday be anchored out in that Bay aboard my Astraea?” 

 

Taiohi Bay

 

 

Immediately after arriving at my hotel and dumping my seabag and after a change into shorts and a tee-shirt I took off for a walk around the bay to explore my new environment and to see what kind of sailboats were in the harbor.  As luck would have it, I actually ran into John standing at the dinghy landing.  The Leg One crew were just leaving and it was still two days until we were to join the boat, but John invited me out to visit.  Oh, and by the way, unfortunately the boat was low on water, so could I help out a little by making a few dingy trips between the landing and the boat to ferry out water in the four jerry jugs.  I would learn to loath those jerry jugs during the next two weeks. 

 

I soon learned that the boat had four 220 liter water tanks, and each jerry can carried 22 liters.  Simple math is that it takes 40 jerry cans to fill the water tanks.  Fortunately, after a few trips that day John decided that we would wait to top off the tanks until we arrived in Ua-Pou where he knew we could go pierside and get water without having to carry it out in the dinghy.  Unfortunately, we did have to get diesel here in Nuku Hiva and off I went with the dingy and four large fuel cans.  Within two hours I was back with plenty of fuel in the cans, not to mention in the bilges of the dingy and covering me from head to toe.  I could taste diesel fuel for two days.  MSA Adventure Sailing was already providing an introduction into the reality of cruising. 

 

A couple of days later it was finally time to move from the hotel to the boat!  I had already met Holly, who was easily identified at the hotel as I had spied her sitting by the hotel pool reading the latest edition of Latitude 38.  Always a dead give away for a Bay Area sailor.  Now it was time to join the boat and meet the rest of the crew. 

 

I already knew John from my lessons at MSA, and I had done an eight day course with him a couple of years before onboard his boat, Polaris.  The crew of six included Holly, a surgeon originally from San Francisco and now living in Baltimore, Jerry, who at age 69 was a very experienced sailor originally from the Bay area but now working as an engineer at a government lab in New Mexico.  Holly, Jerry and I were the only three who had significant sailing experience.  The rest of the crew included Paul, a psychologist from Texas, Ethan, an arborist from Northern California, and Laird, a former sound engineer for the Grateful Dead (no kidding) and now retired on a mountaintop north of San Francisco.  Our ages ranged from Holly, at 43, to Jerry, at 69, and our sailing experiences were just as varied.  Also, our reasons for being there varied.  Holly was working hard on getting her Coast Guard Captain certification and I was there to learn about offshore sailing in the South Pacific in anticipation of soon sailing there on my own boat.  The others were there mostly just for the adventure and experience of sailing in this area of the world.  Interesting, four out of six of us had previously sailed with John on MSA Adventure Sailing trips in California, The Mediterranean, and the South Pacific. 

 

Late morning of March 20 we were finally underway from Nuku Hiva to Ua Pou.  This was an upwind trip and we were going into 20 knots of wind and 10 foot seas.  Fortunately I don’t get seasick, but three of the new crew did and were heaving over the side.  All part of Adventure sailing!  We were off.    

 

Our Instructor and Skipper John Connolly and Me

 

We arrived in Ua Pou, where as John promised we were able to go pierside and get water.  Non potable water.  I very quickly learned that this is standard in the South Pacific.  You buy drinking water or you have a watermaker.  If you are lucky you can sometimes find hydrants a good distance from the boat where you can fill up your jerry jugs with non potable water from local cisterns.  We were able to top off all our water tanks and then went back out to anchor, loaded up into the dingy, and went to dinner at this fantastic little restaurant on a hillside overlooking the harbor.  It was right out of Bali Hai.  The owners were French, of course, and the food worthy of a bistro on the Left Bank of Paris, only the fish was fresher and the view was better.  We had about three types of fish, chicken, rice, and several bottles of good wine.  This trip was off to a very good start. 

 

Ua-Pao off the starboard bow

 

The next day we were underway from the Marquesas bound for Fakarava in the Tuomotus.  For the next four days we organized into three section watches and learned how to balance watch standing, cooking, eating, sleeping, and navigating.  This was really one of the primary reasons I had taken this leg of the course, to experience the 550 mile sail across open ocean.  The surprising part was how quickly we all fell into our routine and how fast the time and the miles passed.  I also learned that using my sextant, which I had mastered many years before as a young Ensign navigator on my first Navy ship, was quite a bit more challenging on a rolling 47 foot sailboat in the open ocean.  Also, computing the results of the star sights was quite a bit different on the salon table of a pitching sailboat than in the much more stable chartroom of a warship.  Lesson learned:  know how to navigate by the sun and the stars, have a full set of paper charts, but invest in high quality GPS chart plotter and have a good waterproof handheld GPS stowed away for a backup as well as for that ditch bag. 

 

Sunrise on the Open Ocean South Pacific Style

 

The only thing more exciting than sailing away from a harbor for an extended crossing is seeing the next harbor come into view.  After four days of sailing everyone was up on deck the morning of day five to catch the first sight of Fakarava on the horizon.  As we neared the island, however, there was something coming over the horizon that was unlike anything I had seen anywhere in the world in my years at sea or in sailing in the Bay.  We all took turns watching this unusual object through the binoculars.  It looked like three huge vertical poles, all the same size.  Then over the horizon came the hull and yes, there was no mistaking, it was Maltese Falcon.  This is actually almost as exciting a sighting than the island of Fakarava!  As we made our way into the harbor the famous sailing yacht passed close by and anchored out some distance away from the harbor. 

 

As it was early in the season there were no other sailboats in Fakarava, other than Maltese Falcon, so we were actually able to go pierside in the little village.  After four days at sea it was an unexpected treat to tie up and to be able to step off onto the shore.  The dreaded no-no’s did not materialize, nor did any mosquitoes, so we remained at the pier for the two nights of our stay. 

 

Pierside in Fakarava, Tuomotus

 

Now Fakarava is NOT a large established harbor like Nuku Hiva.  We were berthed in a tiny little village of Rotoava with one small grocery store, one incredibly beautiful little open air restaurant, and one nice pension that also had a fixed menu dinner.  This was my first experience on a motu (island) with only a small village and it was wonderful.  The people were all friendly, like everywhere in French Polynesia.  However there were few supplies to be had, and everything was outrageously expensive.  Another lesson learned.  When sailing in French Polynesia bring money.  Lots of it.  However the scenery was unbelievable, the food at the one restaurant good, and the snorkeling was fantastic.  The coral formations breath taking.  Two days here was NOT enough.  This place deserved a good two weeks.  However this time I was on somebody else’s boat and we were on a SCHEDULE.  It will not be like this next time!!!!!  Already I was deciding that yes, I think I did want to come back here with my own boat.

 

Typical Beautiful Fakarava Beach Scene

 

After two days in Fakarava we were underway for Toa’u.  Now this was a totally different kind of visit because Toa’u is a deserted motu.  It was also very small with very tight navigation inside the pass.  I was the navigator going in, and it was hairy!  Very narrow channel within the lagoon.  However thanks to an accurate GPS and two minute fixes we made it, and anchored off a totally deserted beach.  After a short dingy ride to shore and more great snorkeling it was time to have a nice meal and some good French wine and watch the sun set over the motu.  Lesson learned:  when anchored off of a beautiful island in the South Pacific the only place to sleep is topside. 

 

Our boat anchored in Toau

 

Early the next morning Holly and I decided to go ashore and go exploring.  The island was classic South Pacific with curving sand beaches, palm trees, and lots of crabs and other beach wildlife.  There was one old deserted hut on the beach, but other than that there was no sign of human existence.  We walked down the beach and after a while decided to cross over to the Ocean side.  As we were crossing through the jungle we were walking along this tidal pool and suddenly up ahead, about 100 yards, on the other side of the narrow pool were two WILD BOARS!  Now these things were HUGE!!!  I would guess they would tip the scales at 1000 pounds each.  And one had tusks!  We stopped, they stopped, and we stared at each other across this little stream.  My thought was “how fast can I climb a palm tree”.  Fortunately the boars decided flight over fight, and they walked away into the jungle. 

 

Tidal Pool Toau (the wild boars are gone!)

 

We crossed over to the Ocean side and I was exploring some of the lava formations when I heard this scream from Holly.  Now Holly is fearless, the daughter of a Navy SEAL and she has dived all over the world, including the Great Barrier Reef.  She laughs at sharks.  Well, apparently she had startled a four foot eel which was lounging in a tidal pool when Holly walked up on it and unlike the wild boars the eel decided to fight and chased Holly over the rocks on the beach for about 20 feet!  She was running and screaming!  Afterwards we were both were almost rolling on the sand laughing.

 

Sunset over Toau

 

Well, too soon we were back on the boat and under way for Apahaki, a nearby island that has a small fishing village.  As we neared the pass there she was again:  Maltese Falcon anchored just inside the pass.  We altered course to pass close aboard and wave to the crew. 

 

We had an incredible time leaving Tao’u.  The seas in the pass were about 15 feet with five second intervals.  It was like riding one of those mechanical bulls one sees in the movies.  Incredible!  I was at the helm and we all just held on for dear life and prayed that the diesel gods would keep our diesel running until we got out into the ocean.  Even John, who has been professionally sailing for 40 years, said it was one of the roughest passes he had ever sailed through.  It was awesome!  I was totally stoked.  Interestingly I felt no fear, just sheer joy, total exhilaration.  I wish I could describe it fully, and needless to say it would have been impossible to take pictures.  We were holding on for dear life!  A man overboard in this situation would have been a total nightmare.   Lesson learned.  My Cheoy Lee 41 and I can do this. 

 

Rough Seas Leaving To-Au

 

 

Soon we were making eight knots toward Apahaki when the Maltese Falcon started coming up astern of us.  We watched as she unfurled row after row of her sails without a soul on deck.  Soon she was in full sail and passing us at something like 20 knots.  It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen.  Needless to say, she was soon over the horizon. 

 

 

Maltese Falcon Under Sail Leaving Taou (They passed us!)

 

 

 

Apahaki was another amazing island.  It had a small village with a small store, but no water.  We were able to go alongside this small pier.  Most of these villages have a pier for the supply ships to come in.  Otherwise they could not exist.  However if the supply ship is there, or is coming, a sailboat has to anchor out.  We were in luck. 

 

We had lost our gas tank for the dinghy during our wild bronco ride out of Tao’u.  We therefore could not use the dinghy motor to go snorkeling, so Holly and I paddled the dinghy out into the reefs to do some snorkeling.  Come to find out the best snorkeling was right along the pier where the boat was moored.  It was Holly’s birthday, so John and I found this little pension and arranged for a big dinner for all of us and was even able to get them to do a chocolate birthday cake.  The owner, whose name was “Friday” (no kidding) really did it up for us.  We had raw fish, grilled fish, chicken, rice, we brought our own wine, and we had “chocolate gateau”.  Friday even had his wife carry the cake out and he accompanied it singing Happy Birthday with his guitar. 

 

Dinner and Holly's B-Day Dinnere Apataki

 

On March 29 we departed Apataki and did a fantastic overnight sail to Rangarora.  We had  20+ knots of wind and sailed at 8 knots most of the night.  I had the 0400-080 watch and was able to watch the sun rise on my last day of sailing on this trip.  It was, to my good fortune, a fantastic sunrise.  Late morning March 30 it was all over and I and the rest of the crew dinghied ashore to our hotels to wait for our flights back to the real world. 

 

Rush Hour in Rangarora (Snorkeling trip)

 

 

Yesterday was the first day back in the office.  I actually forgot to take my cell phone to work.  I had 1600 e-mails to get through and a lot of catching up to do.  That’s fine.  Thanks to this two weeks of sailing in the South Pacific most of my questions about a future cruising adventure on my own boat are now answered.  Most importantly, yes, it will be worth it to make a lifestyle change, retire, and sail Astraea to the South Pacific and, perhaps, all the way around the world.  After this much too short taste of cruising in the South Pacific my plans are to retire in time to make the Baja HaHa in 2009 and the Puddle Jump in 2010 back to French Polynesia, and after that to go where the winds take me.  Thanks to John and my two weeks and 900 miles of sailing with him on this Adventure Sailing South Pacific I am confident that my boat and I are up to the challenge, and we can do it safely and have fun.  Also, Mr. Svendsen, the answer is yes, you can go ahead and install that water maker and that price looks a whole lot more reasonable than before this trip. 

 

Last Sunset on THIS trip to French Polynesia (Tahiti, Society Islands Sunset)

 

 

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On March 21 of 2008 I took off from San Francisco for a flight to Tahiti and an incredible adventure in French Polynesia.  For 15 days I joined a crew of five others and our instructor, John Connolly of Modern Sailing Academy.  The reason for this trip was twofold:  to have the adventure of sailing in French Polynesia; and to see ifcruising was something I really wanted to do.  You can read here about this incredible trip.  Make sure and visit the pictures that I took.  French Polynesia has to be the most beautiful spot on earth.  Get there soon before it becomes another Hawaii!!!!