Jacques on Watch!!

Pos 18deg40S, 179deg38E
We left Koro this morning with a 15 knot ENE wind, nice sailing in moderate seas. But by midday the wind became inconsistent and we ended up motoring most of the afternoon. But by 8pm a nice Northeaster came up, and now we are broad reaching at 8 knots to Matuku with only about 25 miles to go. Only problem is that we will arrive at 1-2am, so we will have to spend the rest of the night driving in circles outside the pass, waiting for daylight. We could not wait in Koro any longer as a SE headwind is predicted for Sunday afternoon. But with a midnight arrival I will put Jacques to work in the cockpit whilst I go catch some ZZZZ's. Shimmi is sailing like a beast, very solid. Liz seems totally over her seasickness, right now she is reading a book in the saloon with a head torch.... whilst shimmi is bobbing and weaving across the south Koro sea. Jacques is also quickly learning how to do a watch, although his still mostly just strangles himself when trying to tie a bowline. Otherwise its been a grey and rainy day, we are all looking forward to our landfall at the Lau island called Matuku.
Cheers
G

Mal de Mer

Our first attempt to sail down to Matuku was on thursday, but the wind was still too much on the nose and so we turned back, rather waiting for more north in the wind. Then yesterday (Friday) we tried again, the wind was bit broader, 20 knots ESE, we FLEW down to Koro Island, beating in bumpy conditions, doing 8-10 knots with full sail, exciting sailing, but the close hauled sailing got the better of Liz, and almost claimed Jacques as well. So we decided to break the journey and let our guests recover. A grib file also indicated that the next day would have better conditions. So now we are anchored in the lee of Koro Island, 35 miles south of Savusavu. Its a lovely anchorage, with beautiful coral and dense tropical jungle on a steep mountain side. On the way down we caught a Mahi-Mahi which was lunch (fried in beer batter) and dinner (on the barbeque). Tomorrow morning we will try sail the rest of the way down to Matuku. Wish us luck, because if the wind is nor more out of the north tomorrow we probably wont make it to the Lau's...
G

Chart - Click on img to enlarge

ALL ABOARD!

　
Hi Nooski
Liz and Jacques arrived with boards and all, everyone is happy, not too tired, had a good night sleep on shimmi last night, later today we head down to the Lau's. Looks like East winds going NE tomorrow so it should be good sailing. We are probably going to Totoya or Matuku. Thanks again for all the help. Toilet seat fits perfectly, paddle is on board, THANKS A MILLION FOR THOSE AWESOME GOOGLE EARTH PRINTS, THEY ARE WICKED!!!!
Cheers
G
Noo's Note:-
As there are no decent charts of this area: I uses Google Earth attached a overlay grid of the Long/Lat and prepared a pile of detailed images - A4 size as to how to get into small bays......

Liz and Jark on their way to visit the Shimminators!

Copy of SMS from Jark in Nadi - Fiji

Hi Trevor,
We are here, it’s a bit like being in a clean Indonesian main street with palm trees.
The surfboards are being freighted as we speak to arrive on Thursday morning in Savusavu c/o Shimmi as the twin otter won’t take the boards.
Liz has been amazing and is a bit tired now. She is fast making friends with custom officials in the southern hemisphere and educating me on the benefits of additional bags as you never know when you just might need a stripey ( Those large plastic zip bags you see on the top of a i-taxi – ed)
Another ed's note:
They were freeking out with the shopping list of stuff to bring, like paddles, spares, medical supplies, toys for the kids, even had to get them a new toilet seat....it's amazing what a good fart after eating too many beans can do to the loo!
Hooray for a surfboard bag!!!!!
They fly from here to Savusavu to meet Shimmi in a small Island hopper plane - oh Hum!

Moala

Matuku

Totoya

Lau Islands

LAU - The Mecca of Cruising

We have the Lau permits!
Please do a bit of Googling and reading up on the Lau group, its a great privilege to be going there, only very few yachts go there, like 2 or 3 per year!
Our route:
We will probably do one overnight sail from Savusavu straight down to:
Moala 18deg36S, 179deg51East
Totoya 18deg57S, 179deg53West
Matuku 19deg09S, 179deg43East
When finding these islands, please note the Longitude changes from East to West. Moala and Matuku are East of the dateline, Totoya is West.
Most of these islands have fantastic anchorages, especially Matuku. We will have to do Sevu-sevu with the village chiefs of each island. Also the diving, fishing and surfing is just without equal.
Please know: where we are going is VERY special. I hope, hahahaha. After about a week in the Laus we will do a day sail due west to Kadavu Island (stay maybe 2 days), then up to Frigates Pass (stay maybe 2-3 days), then back to Nadi.
Cheers
Gol

BULA (Whatever that may mean!)

Bula!
We are in Fiji, friendly locals and thank god things are cheap!
That area with the wave is truly awesome, long perfect left, long perfect right, lots of other nooks and crannies etc etc. Good anchorage on that narrow sandbank on the inside of the lagoon near the left. BUT, this all went to shit went the SE trades came up again yesterday. Sandbar anchorage became untenable, had to go back to a so-so anchorage about 5 miles west, on the SE corner of Taveuni Island. Yesterday afternoon Kahlil, Josh and myself went into the local village on Taveuni to do a sevu-sevu ceromony (google it) which is how you ask for permission to anchor. This entails being introduced to the village chief, handing him a bundle of Kava root (which we had pre-bought in Savusavu). If he accepts the Kava (which they usually do), then your are "accepted" to the area and may anchor, surf etc etc. All went down well with our sevu-sevu except that they cooked and ate Kahlil.
This is now our 2nd day of strong 20 knot ESE winds... the whole south facing area is completely blown out, so we headed around the north west side of Taveuni, we are now anchored in the lee of Taveuni, about 2hrs drive from the surf zone, waiting for the wind to calm down. However, there is a strong NNE wind predicted for tomorrow and the next day... so our current anchorage might become onshore ... but then again a NNE wind will be offshore on the left... but may be too strong ... blahblahblah. Bottom line is that this may be wrong time of year for this area, which has a narrow swell window (swell needs to squeeze past the Lau group) AND its onshore with the May-Aug SE trades. Either way, it takes a while to get to know an area, especially this one, as our charts are dodgy. Two days ago we spent the morning buzzing around on the dingy, with handheld GPS and chart, marking all the true positions (lat and long) of the reefs onto the chart, diving down to check depths etc, like doing a crude but effective survey. Followed by transferring all the data onto shimmi's chart plotter. Only once this was done was I confident enough to drive shimmi "into" the area.
This has been a true modern surf exploration, starting with Kahlil finding these "potentials waves" on Google Earth, then a long stormy crossing to get here, then checking in and stocking up at Savusavu, then heading back up to the surf area, hoping to coincide with a swell and favourable winds, then struggling to find a good anchorage amongst unmarked reefs and a setting sun, then the next day doing our own dingy survey, then finding a suitable anchorage near a surfable wave... to finally surfing it small, only to have a murderous SE to blow it all to shit the next day... but who knows? Hold thumbs for a few glassy days with a nice south swell.
To put this all into perspective, other than Chantal and Kahlil's session 2 days ago on the lefthander, we have not surfed since leaving Huahine more than a month and a half ago, and now it looks like this Taveuni area may be a hard nut to crack at the height of the SE trades. And that is the reality of exploring for surf, and it is why most surfer-cruisers just head to the known spots. Fiji does have plenty of other west facing reef pass waves which are offshore on the trades, so no major worries, its only a matter of time before we are in the green room once again.
Our permits to visit the Lau group looks like they may happen. Google the Lau Islands, they are part of Fiji, but only just. You cant go there without applying for all sorts of permits, it is a truly primitive, unspoilt island group, and its got sick surf with no-one on it. The southern Laus have great swell exposure and some great SW facing reef passes. Check them out.
Bula!
G

MADE IT!

Pheeeeeew!
We are on a mooring in the small village of Savusavu. Its tiny, no port, just a deep bay with 3 clubs offering moorings. Now waiting for a string of officials to come out to shimmi so that we can get officially cleared in.
We have had one helluva passage over the past 2 weeks and we are glad its over. Fiji now promises to be a great cruising ground for the next 3-4 months!
Thanks for following our haphazard progress and for giving support and praying for wind, less wind or whatever. It will probably be a while before our next blog update.
Cheers for now
G

80 Miles to Savusavu - washing machine sailing!

Afternoon Day 4
5pm, 23:00 UTC
pos: 16deg39.5S, 179deg02.2W
About 80 miles to Savusavu
Things have changed. Gone is our relaxed motor across a balmy ocean, hauling in yellow fin tuna. Unbeknownst to us it was the calm before another mini storm. During my 12-4am watch a potent SSE wind came up, whipping the sea into an ugly mess within hours. We ended up with 2 reefs in the main and jib, reaching across an ugly ocean in 25 knots of wind. We have no choice but to sail across it, virtually a beat, we are constantly being sideswiped by waves, we've had a few green waves right over shimmi's bimini! But the good thing is that we are FLYING, rarely going below 8 knots. We should now make it to Suvasuva in time for a Friday check in. But it is very uncomfortable. Nobody is seasick, but if ever we should be, its now. Our 2 darling boys have spent most of the day on their butts on the saloon floor, even the adults are barely able to walk. Had to vise grip the soup pot to the stove.
Another crazy thing happened, despite all the whitecaps, windspray and breaking waves, Chantal spotted a white sail far behind us, turns out it is our friends on Someday Came (with Josh's 3 year old girlfriend Violet) who left Bora-Bora 2 days after us, they have been making passage all this time. I think they are on day 12, they sailed right through that storm which drove us to seek shelter at Apia, Samoa. We spent 2 days in Samoa, so when we resumed our passage to Fiji we ended up on converging tracks. Now we are only 2 miles apart on the vast ocean. But they are on a monohull so we are sailing away from them now. They should arrive in Savusavu a few hours after us. Beers will be drunk.
The ocean has improved a bit as we are moving in behind some island groups to the south. By midnight tonight we should round Cape Vula and then its dead downwind to Savusavu. Hopefully my next message will be from our mooring!
Midnight:
Late this afternoon it got really rough again, with shimmi being tossed all over the show. After washing a big pile of dishes yours truly started feeling seasick, Uuuuugh. But I have had a bit of sleep now (8-12) and I am feeling better. The wind has moderated to about 15 knots, the sea is a bit calmer. We are now 8 miles from rounding the South Cape of Taveuni Island. Looks like we may have to set the spinnaker later at 2am. I think we have had every conceivable point of sail, sea state and wind speed on this passage from FPol. Coconut Milk Run? More like Coconut Milk Shake.
Cheers
G

Ass glued to the floor

Our final 150 miles and yet again we are getting our asses kicked. We're sticking to our course which means very uncomfortable ride but at least we are flying. Shimmi is flying. I have got my ass glued to the floor hanging out with the kids. I'm going to turn the foredeck of the Shimmi into a helicopter landing pad, land me a nannie and go on a date with my sexy husband! Once again Josh + Indie are amazing. Don't know how they do it. I promise to never ever moan on LAND ever again.
Lots of love
Chonny

FULL House/Stywe Lyne

End of Day 3, June 30
Midnight, 06:00 UTC
pos 15deg57.4S, 177deg06.9w
155 miles to Laucala Island, our Fiji landfall.
Today the story goes like this:
Its 5pm, about 10 miles from Zephyr Reef, 4 handlines and a rod, for 5 lines total. One silver spoon, one yellow welsh plug, one pink skirt, one small white and grey rapala and one giant orange marlin teazer (skirt). A motley collection of leftovers. 5 Tuna strike, all at once. The 300 pound mono line with the pink skirt snaps. A big tuna, a 4o pounder on the marlin skirt, is first on board. Both Kahlil and I on the gaff to get it on. A blood bath commences on the aftdeck. The next one, a 20 pounder on the spoon, I release. Then we pull in the one on the welsh plug, a 30 pounder, followed about 20 minutes after it all started, by reeling in another 30 pounder on the rod. That's what they call a full rack or full house strike. The back of shimmi looks like a crime scene. And the evening meal? A mountain of sashimi. The freezer is stacked to the brim with big chunks of yellow fin tuna. What a party! What a way to break a bit of a dry spell in the fishing dept. Moral of the story? Yellow fin eat anything.
We have been motoring, motoring. No wind, calm sea, three quarter moon, beautiful evening. We may stop and scout out the area around Qumea Island and Veitalacagi Point over the weekend, and then go to Savusavu on Monday. If you go to 16deg49.04S, 179deg46.10W on google earth's co-ords, you should be on a narrow sandbank on the inner rim of the outer reef. See if you can find the potential surf spots. Kahlil previously found three potentials on google earth, all within 1 mile of each other. We have heard from no-one else about surf here, so this could be a true bit of "modern" surf exploration.
Cheers
G

End of Day 2

End of Day 2
Western Samoa to Fiji, 50o miles, 3-4 days?
Midnight, 06:00 UTC
pos 15deg16.5S, 175deg01.8w
288 miles to Laucala Island, our Fiji landfall.
We had a great day and a half on the spinnaker. For most of the night and early morning we were averaging almost 9 knots, sometimes surfing from wave to wave to wave at 10 -12 knots for long periods of time. But as the sun went down this beast of an Easterly wind, which has been raging since Tuesday last week, came to an end. These enhanced trade winds were the result of a dreaded "squash zone", and we were in the worst part of it at the end of last week. Anyway, now its time to start moaning again about the lack of wind, right! Hahaha. We don't really mind, we filled up with diesel in Apia, so we are motoring now, making about 6 knots over ground.
Sometime early in the morning we will pass Niua Fo 'Ou Island, its in the middle of nowhere at 15deg36.3, 175deg38.6. Please google earth this island, it is a small but perfectly round volcanic crater island, with an isolated lake in the center.
Whilst I was off watch and sleeping, three 20 kg blue fin tuna were swimming next to shimmi like dolphins. Kahlil trolled a rapala right in front of their noses but they declined. Then he got his speargun and took no less than 3 shots (from shimmi's deck), but he missed each time. Are the Kiwi's known for being bad shots? Just wondering. If it was me I would have simply jumped onto the fish's back and stabbed it in the head. Then again those fish must have known I was sleeping otherwise they would never have come so close to the boat.
The kids are well, the sea is almost flat now so they are able to play and walk around.
Cheers
G

Route to Fiji

On our way to Fiji

End of Day 1
Western Samoa to Fiji, 50o miles, 3-4 days?
Midnight, 06:00 UTC
pos 14deg03.3, 172deg41.1w
428 miles to Laucala Island, our Fiji landfall.
After much weather and grib file analyses we decided to set sail again. The wind was predicted to moderate from Sunday evening onwards to light variables by Wednesday, so we decided to use the last of these potent Easterlies, before they die all together.
We left Apia harbour with much apprehension, not quite knowing what to expect with the sea and wind. But our first day has been great. Still around 20 knots of Easterly wind as we left the harbour with around 4 ft of windswell, quite rolly as we reached with a single reefed main and full jib to clear Apia point. After that we turned dead down wind, set the spinnaker and were on our way. We sailed through the straight between Upulo Island and Savaii as the sun went down. Now we are south of these islands, back in open ocean. We are currently eating the miles on a near perfect spinnaker run, straight down the rhumb line at 247 degrees, doing 6-8 knots in 15-18 knots of wind. There is still some left over swell and we are still rolling around a bit, but nothing compared to 4 days ago. We are headed for the Fijian port of Savusavu.
Spirits on board shimmi are high. Kahlil finally managed to book and airticket home to New Zealand from Fiji. This put him in such a good mood that he cooked a full on gourmet meal: Raw tuna in a chilli marinade, fried chick pea and rice, re-fried beans and homemade mayonaise, all wrapped in a flour tortilla. Yum.
I have decided to rename Apia: Mullet Harbour. I have never seen so many polynesians with mullet hairstyles. Definitely no sophisticated French influence here. But it was great to chat with the locals, most of whom speak fluent English with a Kiwi accent.
Josh and Indie are both very happy, accepting this last leg to Fiji with no complaints.
We are so glad that we are not getting hammered out here!
Cheers
G

Forced Gybe nearly nails Kahlil

End of Day 9
We are anchored in Aipa Harbour , Western Samoa. As we approached the harbour at 9 pm a rain squall came through with 40 knots of wind. Had to slow down and wait for it to pass. This storm just does not want to let up. Earlier on today shimmi did a forced gybe with preventer ON. 12mm barber hauler rope snapped. Barber hauler block nearly nailed Kahlil as it flew past. But we sorted it out, it ripped one of the side screens in half in the process, luckily that was the only damage. We are all beyond tired, we are going to sleep like the dead.
In Josh's world Western Samoa is called "Toy Island", being site of the world's biggest and best toy shop. If they don't have a toy shop here I am so screwed.
Sorry about this disjointed mail but i think I am hallucinating.
Cheers
G

Aipa - at last!!!

Just put both boys to bed.....my little miracles. Golla and Kahlil are literally driving through a thick sheet of rain into the harbour of Apia on Western Samoa. Can't imagine what it will be like to not be rocking around. G will write the blog version later.
love you and good night.

Almost there!

DAY 9- CRAZY SURFS

Howzit Noo
Day 9
00:00 Local, 07:00 UTC
pos 14deg21.3S, 169deg34.9W
Distance to Apia Harbour, Upolu Island, Western Samoa: 131 Nautical miles
Day 9 has commenced! We are still being flogged, no change, wind a bit more east which makes it tricky as we are now almost dead downwind with not much angle to play with. Sea even bigger and meaner. Just took a side wave right over the top of the coach roof. Also rain squalls the whole day so we were all camped out in the saloon, cabin fever of note. But shimmi is still in her groove, eating up the miles. But we are rolling like a mono, stuff flying off the table, pots have to be clamped etc. Not lekker, but hopefully this is our last night. Still triple reefed main, no jib, doing 7-9 knots. Plenty of crazy surfs and waves breaking everywhere, luckily not too often on shimmi.
Between 8 and 12am I lie with Josh, he passed out, but I can't sleep, way too much rocking and rolling, huge waves crashing into the bridge deck, long surfs which mostly end in semi broaches which fling you sideways out of your bunk. At least with the combination of the angle of the wind, the angle of the waves and our course we always broach to windward, so no chance of an accidental gybe. But its not fun.
Kahlil has been a solid watchkeeper and he has also kept the evening meals flowing, despite the bad weather. Otherwise it was a miserable day for the 2 little pirates as you can well imagine. Chantal just sits on the floor with them for like 8 hrs straight.
Glad to hear Liz got a ticket!!!!
Cheers
Gol

Emails to Shimmi

Hi Guys,
Please remember that sailmail is a very slow (snailmail) download on the yacht.
For sure your emails are more than welcome but please keep them short - no attachments - no pics - no links. They are having a tough passage right now but things should improve and your emails mean so much to them!
I've included my weather forecasts just to keep you informed!
These are taken from Fiji's weather fax for shipping which can sometimes be a touch confusing!

Weather Report

I’VE CONTACTED SAILMAIL RE THE CAPPING OF YOUR USAGE

12;30am Local 25/06/2009

Ok today’s weather fax is much better – less confusing
Yup I can now see that as of Midnight local time you were right in the front which had just passed over you with NE winds of 30 knots and thunderstorms!
As you progress out of this belt the winds will change to SE 20 knots moving into the ENE 15 knots
Sunny skies over Tonga and FIJI
You are in a pressure area of 1012 but should be moving into the high zone of 1014 – going on to 1016mb

This should commence around 16S 172W
Really hope things improve for you – you seem to have the right rig up and in the groove – makes so much difference!

Day 8 midday

Day 8
midday update
pos 14deg41S, 168deg14W
Distance to Apia, Western Samoa: 212 NM, Course is 288deg.
We made it through the night. Conditions are the same. Very rough, the worst we have had on shimmi. Waves are cresting and breaking with long foam tracks, I eventually furled the jib completely, only a sheeted out 3rd reef main and we are running at about 140 degrees to the wind, its made the ride slower (7-8 knots), but more comfortable, we have found our groove, so now we are just counting miles. About 35 hrs to Apia. To make matters even more interesting, there are rain squalls within this whole mess as well! Like I said before, shimmi is not the place to be right now. But we are maintaining, we are sailing conservatively and shimmi feels very safe. But its a wild ride, WILD. Weird looking out over this massive expanse of ocean, white caps and confused waves are far as the eye can see, with dark line squalls obscuring the horizon... and us on shimmi such an insignificant little bit of jetsam, bobbing around with our agenda.
But we are all well, like I said shimmi is in her groove. It took us hours to find this "groove", starting with 2 reefs in the main and a full jib, then reefing at midnight, harnessed into the lifeline, waves crashing over the deck as we round up into the wind. Then sailing for a while with 3rd reef main and three quarter jib, struggling to keep the jib "full", forcing us to reach across this crazy sea (going sideways across it). Then eventually taking the jib out of the equation. I rigged a preventer for the boom which runs forward to a barberhauler amidships, like you do on a monohull, this has made a huge difference. We are now able to run almost dead downwind with no "snatching" on the main sheet. Sorry about all the technical gobblydigook, but there are a few of you whole will appreciate what we are doing.
I have been unable to download sailmail, only send.
Cheers
G

Click on img to enlarge

DAY 8 -

T's Note: I guess my weather information bears little relationship to this.....................
Day 8
1am
15deg12S, 166deg50W
We are getting clobbered. 35 knot winds out of the SSE, 12 ft SW groundswell, 6 ft SE wind swell across it, 3 reefs in the main, we are heading for Apia, Western Samoa, 298 miles away. Huge underdeck slams, lots of waves over the boat, we are sailing at 120degrees doing 8-9-10 knots with a triple reefed main. Crazy shit and be lucky that you are not on shimmi right now. Waves are breaking and the white water washes over the side, into the cockpit, like a fire hose at times (but not too often). We have another 40 hrs of this ahead of us. Yipppeeeeee!
Thank fuck I have another very competent crew, Kahlil, on board.
But shimmi is holding together, we are running as much with it as we can, not much sleep to be had by the adults, although the 2 little pirates are nicely passed out.
Lets cross our fingers that it does not get worse!
Cheers
Gol

Weather Report

To days synoptic chart from the FIJI met office is not too clear to me!

There is a stationary front from 20S 155EAST – 35S 158E that is off the coast of Australia – far away and of little consequence right now to you

Looks like your front has passed over you and that you could be in a CZ

The high with its center around 168 E Repeat East and 35S seems to be moving in a NNE direction

Baro at center of High is 1030

Baro atYour last position 1012

The winds are from the SE 15 to 20 knots.
Towards East the winds will move to the NE but this is from 170 E

You should be experiencing heavy cloud cover which could indicate stormy weather with its typical winds from all directions!
To the North of you there are no wind arrows.

Bottom line looks like the high is ridging up toward you and that you could anticipate the SE trades of 15 – 20 knots …with one or two arrows going up to 25 knots.
Sunny skies over FIJI!

Having said all that one of the emails from the puddlejumpers have commented on bad weather coming and suggested a yacht goes for Pago- Pago…….that is the one that was on the rocks with a single handed sailor who was waiting for a good high tide to float himself off!

Now I’m confused!
Interesting to know how this compares with your Grib files – let me know if these weather reports reflect what you are experiencing!

DAY 7

Day 7
1am local, 07:00 UTC
pos 15deg03.7S, 164deg22.6W
Distance to Pago-Pago (American Samoa) = 365 NM, to Savusavu (Fiji) = 946NM
I am not sure if Trevor posted my update regarding the potent band of SE trade winds which are going to hit us soon... a big system, from Tahiti to Fiji, containing 25-30knot SE trade winds, and lasting to the end of the forecast period. At this point we are not sure if we should laugh or cry. 30 knots of wind blowing across a long stretch of ocean will whip up an ugly sea, and it will worsen. But if it stays in the 20 knot region it MAY be fine, creating awesome broad reach sailing conditions, and giving shimmi a sleigh ride all the way to Fiji. On a broad reach doing 9 knots we will not need more than 3-4 days, once in the system, to get to Fiji. So right now we are not sure what to do. The most recent grib files show a slightly moderating forecast... SOOOO my mateys, we are probably just going to GO FOR IT. With one eye on Pago-Pago off course.
Otherwise life on board shimmi is not really worth writing or reading about right now.
But here is a time schedule of a cruise day on shimmi:
12-4am Gideon on watch. Send daily blog to Trevor, download grib files; 4am to 8am Kahlil's watch, lines out at dawn; 5-7am Indie wakes up. Chantal's 14hr kiddie day starts; 8am-12pm Gideon on watch (Kahlil sleeps); 12pm Chantal makes lunch, bakes a loaf etc; 12pm - 4pm Kahlil on watch; 1pm-3pm Siesta for kiddies, Gideon sleeps, Chantal lies with Josh; 4pm-8pm Gideon's watch; 6pm Kahlil cooks dinner; 7-8pm kiddies get put to sleep; 8pm-12pm Kahlil's watch; 12-4am Gideon's watch... blahblah. In between all this the boat turns into a play school every day with every single flat surface occupied by either a toy, crayon, lego, books or blocks.
We did a nice long spell under spinnaker earlier with NE winds, now we are motoring again Bob, into a light NNW headwind. We have about 70 engine hours (3 days of potential motoring) remaining in terms of fuel. We are running out and will soon be a true sail boat, sniff sniff.
Out new port side rudder bearing is making a loud "squeeck" noise, I think the guys in the yard did not tighten the quadrant properly causing the rudder to drop by about 7mm which in turn exposed a "fresh" part of the rudder stock into the new sleave. But it is still turning/moving freely, i tightened all bolts, i should have checked in the yard, but thats how it goes.
cheers

Pago Pago Harbor

Weather Report

Having checked Google Earth Pago Pago seems a sheltered harbour.........with a reasonable entrance!
I cannot seem to down load the grib files- just steams up the computer and I do have a VERY FAST box. I'll work on it tonight.
From the weather fax which I have from another source the front now stretches from 20S 173W to 30S 155w and is moving in a NE direction with a baro of 1014. Behind it is the high pressure area.
The winds indicated are 20 - 25 knots SE.
Soooooooooo I think it will be good to take a break in Pago and re-energise.......
You may well find the winds to be favourable and give you a bit of a sleigh ride - 25-30 knots is fine for you
Have FUN!

UPDATE - DAY 6 - STORMS BREWING

Day 6 further update re bad weather ahead:
I have just downloaded a fresh set of grib files via sailmail, and in 3-4 days time we are going to get clobbered by a very potent band of SE trades, 30 knot average winds (which means plenty of 40 knot gusts). This starts in about 72 hrs time over the entire western south pacific, from Fiji to Tahiti and it looks like it will last a while. I am not concerned if its only for a day or so, but this system looks big, powerful and long lasting I am concerned that it will generate very rough seas, getting rougher each day.
Right now this system is still about 72 hrs (3 days) away from our projected position. So our options are 1. Head up to Suvarov, 110 miles north, under motor, once there wait 2 days for the system to arrive then wait it out. Maybe a week in a Suvarov anchorage with 30 knot winds. No fuel and no supplies of any nature. We will have to run the gennie etc. By the time we leave Suvarov we will only have about 50 engine hours available to us and still 1000 miles to Fiji. Our food will also be fairly low by then. So not a great long term option. Also a unknown anchorage with fair to bad holding.
2. Head to Pago-Pago, American Samoa. Its about 490 miles due west, its a very sheltered harbour with all services, fuel and shops. But we will not get there before the strong trades hit us. Probably our last day and a half will be in 30 knot winds and a building following sea. But the sea state should still be OK at this point. This is a workable option. From Pago-Pago its only another 500 miles down to Fiji (3-4 days sailing, it wont affect our timing), we can wait for a good weather window and do it with full tanks of fuel and a well rested crew.
3. Keep going for Fiji. It will be a rough and fast ride, probably do it in under 8 days, surfing down waves, 3 reefs in the main or bare poles, white knuckles. Any takers?
So Pago-Pago it will be. For now anyway. Lets hope those last 2 days are not too crazy.
Cheers
G

DAY 6

Day 6
00:00 Local, 06:00UTC
pos 14deg49.9S, 162deg03.1W
Distance to Totoya Isle, Fiji: 1050NM
We had a good sailing day yesterday, starting with the spinnaker in light NE, which strengthened to an eventual 25 knots plus. By mid day we were running a reefed main plus spinnaker, doing 9-10 knots with 13 knot surfs. Eventually it got too much for the spinnaker so we snuffed it and continued with the jib. By late sunset the wind was dropping rapidly, so we dropped the main, furled the jib and back out with the spinnaker, doing 5 knots in around 10 knots of tailwind. So we are being kept busy, with no sign of those so-called trade winds WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO BLOW STEADILY FOR DAYS ON END. But by staying north we avoided that low. The sea was quite bumpy at times with a big SW groundswell and a small short period NE windswell moving over each other, with shimmi bobbing on top. We are now about 100 miles south of Suvarov. The next closest island group is Samoa (427 miles), then Tonga (721 miles), then Fiji (1050 miles).
Early on we caught two Mahi-Mahi (Dorado), Chantal baked a loaf for lunch with Mahi salad, Kahlil made Mahi curry and rice for dinner.
We only have about 3-4 days left of motoring in our fuel tanks, so we still need at least a week of good wind to make it to Fiji. Hopefully the SE trades will kick in soon. Thats all from us on shimmi, quite boring, I know.
Cheers
G

DAY 5

Day 5
1am local, 07:00UTC
pos 15deg05.7S, 159deg39.1W
250 NM from Suvarov (northern Cook's)
1173 NM from Totoyo Island, Fiji
Bit of groundhog day on shimmi. We sailed slowly under spinnaker from 9am until 3 pm, been motoring since. Light tail winds. Solid groundswell running from the SW, bit of confused chop on it, but generally still very comfortable. We have about 95 engine hours still available to us, having used about 50 over the past 4 days. Our watermaker is functioning fine, our tank is kept close to full.
There is a strong NNE wind predicted for later today, it should be a good wind and we are well positioned to make use of it. By noon today that low pressure should be right below us, we seem high enough above it, so far so good. We will pass relatively close to Suvarov on Monday sometime, but we are unlikely to stop there. It has a north facing reef pass which gets waves during the northern hemi swell season. So we will just keep on going. Uninhabited Totoyo Island (Eastern Fiji) apparently has a wave, that may be our first stop before checking in at either Savusavu (Northeast Fiji) or Suva (Southwest). Depending on our timing we may also stop first in Tonga, but I have not quite figured out where? Tonga has hundreds of small islets scattered amongst big coral infested lagoons with chaotically shaped fringing reefs. Quite tricky unless you know where you are going. Anybody got some info on Tonga?
Kahlil is cooking our evening meals, he is a chef of note: Seared Yellow Fin in coconut milk, Mahi-Mahi in batter, Pajella/risotto, Cottage Fishpie with white sauce... all very yum and a welcome change from our regular fare. We are all now in cruise mode, Josh and Indie are still struggling a bit in the mornings to find their groove. Indie says 3 words: Momma, Dadda and Wow!
Cheers
G

DAY 4

Day 4
00:00 local, 06:00UTC
pos 15deg33.4S, 157deg29.4W
At the start of day 4. The sky is a perfectly black canvass for a the billions of stars on display. For the past 24hrs we have been sailing or motorsailing or motoring in whichever westerly direction we could, ranging from southwest (with a NW wind), west (with a S wind) and northwest (motoring with no wind) . Lots of zigzagging. Sound strange? Its called making a passage under sail, and it does not happen along a straight line. We used the engine for 13 of the past 24 hrs... hopefully some form of proper trade wind will arrive soon and just blow us straight to Fiji without us having to touch the sails once they are up... yeah right. But we have managed get above 16deg of latitude, we are slowly moving to lower latitudes, whenever we motor we aim more northwest, so that we can avoid that low pressure which is soon coming to theaters near yours truly.
The sea is still fairly calm, it was a better day for the kids, Josh is making a comeback although he is eating like a bird. Indie however still eats like a industrial strength garbage disposal machine, he is in this respect a true Malherbe. You cannot even think of walking past him with food in your hand.
Kahlil, our new crew member, has just completed writing a novel. He majored in human genetics at university , and his novel is about a guy who engineers a disease to "cull" the human race to a more eco friendly size. Nice. So I've been proof reading the first and only copy.
We may stop in Tonga on the way through to Fiji and I would really appreciate any tips of where to find the surf there... Please email me with any info.
Cheers
G

DAY 3

Day 3
1 am, 07:00 UTC
pos 16degS, 155deg29.1w
1 am. Rocking boat. Middle of the Pacific. What. Was. I. Thinking?
Our course now is around 230-240deg, we are still under full sail, the wind direction has shifted from North to North West, forcing us to sail a more south westerly course. As a result Suvarov Atoll is no longer our destination. We checked the weather files (grib files) and there is a fairly potent cold front/ low pressure arriving on Sunday, hitting the southern Cook Isles in full force. If we keep on our current course we will sail straight into it, it has 25 to 40 knot winds predicted, straight on the nose. This we do not want to do. From what I can gather, if we stay above 16degS, we should be OK. Tomorrow looks like it may be a no wind day, if so we will motor north. Either way, this current Northerly wind, which is pushing us south, is not predicted to last. So hopefully between now and Sunday we will be able to claw our way north again, out of the path of this bloody low pressure. So Suvarov may well become our short term destination again later on... But what on earth happened to South East trade wind sailing and the so-called Coconut Milk Run??!? Helloooo! The wind is North west with a menacing cold front imminent!! Bloody hell, we may as well try sail from PE to Cape Town in the middle of winter. Not.
But the sea is still flatish, the wind is 12-16 knots, our speed is around 6 knots, we are as close hauled as can be, and we are still heading in a westerly direction, so its all good. We'll take it, thank you very much. Caught a Mahi-Mahi and a Boobi, we set the Mahi free and ate the Boobi. (Kahlil humour). Otherwise we are all trying to adjust to the long haul ahead of us. It looks like we may sail all the way to Fiji without stopping which is another 10 days at sea ahead of us. Kind of hard getting your head around that. 10 more days. Chantal had a long day with the kids, Josh has a temperature , he is pretty miserable. Must be flu from one of the kiddies in Bora-Bora. But the good news is that we have all kinds of visitors joining us in Fiji, we are so excited, in fact we are shaking with anticipation. The visitors are going to be (first batch): Jark Artaheron with maybe Laura and Amelia, Chantal's mom Liz; second batch are Gideon's dad Deon and FIANCE Rosa. Yes can you believe that they are going to fly two thirds of the way around the globe to come visit us?! So as you can imagine, we have quite a incentive to make it to Fiji on time. Jacques and co arrive on 13 July, that gives us 23 days to get there. It should not be a problem. But lets hope that this little Sunday storm can be avoided.
I have started a stomach stretching regime to make space for all the biltong that I am going to be eating.
Cheers
G

FLYING ALONG

Still Day 2
9am, 19:00UTC
pos 15deg46.089S, 154deg30.361W
Just a short note to say that at 330 am (it was a black night) Kahlil and I raised the sails. For the past 5 hrs we have been flying along in a northerly wind, quite a close reach, doing a steady 8-9 knots, heading straight for Suvarov Atoll. We recently had shimmi hauled out at a dock yard on Raiatea Island, we remachined a new rudder bearing, new bottom paint job, new gearbox seals and centered the rudders. Also just prior to leaving Bora-Bora we replaced 3 broken battons, the top three. I had some old battons in the one forepeak, we cut and sanded them to fit. So, as a result shimmi is now slicing through the south pacific with renewed vigour. Josh and Indie are struggling a bit right now to adjust to a new voyage. Its hard when you just learnt to walk and the floor is moving all the time! But the sea is quite flat and the wind is great. Sun is shining and we are eating up the miles. However the weather fax indicates a low approaching with contrary winds for tomorrow. Noo?
Whoever prayed for wind: Thanks!

LEAVING BORA BORA 4 FIJI

Day 2
1 am local time, 11:00 UTC
pos 16deg09S, 152deg54.71W
We left Bora-Bora yesterday after a solid week on a mooring in front of the Bora-Bora Yacht Club. It was a great spot just to hang out, we used their barbie facilities, bar and little kiddies beach on a daily basis. Other kiddie boats arrived (which we had met previously) called "Someday Came" (Josh's main girlfriend Violet (3) and "Love Song" (Josh's 2 cowboy buds Morgan and Wyatt, aged 3 and 5). They played themselves into a frenzy.
I did not put anything on the blog, but this is actually our second attempt at leaving for Fiji. A week ago we tried, but got hammered in bad seas and light winds, so we turned back to Bora-Bora. We also decided to try and find another crew to help with this next leg.
Day before yesterday our new crew Kahlil joined us, he was on a 55ft Outremer catamaran called Natural Mystic (google it). Now we are around 600 miles from Suvarov atoll (part of the Cook Islands) where we may stop. No wind to speak off, we are just motoring through the night in a calm sea. Did catch a nice yellow fin. As you may know, we have not caught anything significant SINCE GALAPAGOS. That was hard to admit, but there you have it. But Kahlil says they also caught nothing around Tahiti, and only once they have stamped your passport out of FP will you start catching fish again. And VOILA!
Not much else to report, pray for a good wind!
Cheers
G

EXPOSURE

It was towards the end of another 2 hr solo session in smoking 6 ft pits at spot X on Island Z that I began to ask myself the following question? Why am I surfing alone? Why is it not crowded with Seppos, Jaapies, Ozzies and the like? Besides this super consistent right hander Island Z has 3 or 4 other class waves, an airport with regular flights, a nice little town with tarred roads, various hotels and a few dive resorts. In short, it is not some remote surfing outpost. Not main stream, that's for sure. But its not G-Land in the 70's. So why has this island not become another Lagundri Bay or Lakey Peak, with rows of surfing losmen, massage huts and bientang caves? Like many other class waves, it was discovered in the 70's by two whiteys, both of whom still live on the island. Both married local lady's, both are now grandfathers. Their offspring all surf.

But lets first give this progression, of which Lagundri Bay is a fine example, from pristine virgin wave, to sleazed out, over-exposed and supercrowded surf destination, a name. Lets call it, for want of a better term, "EXPOSURE". Why has this exposure not happened on Island Z? The answer, as I am sure you have guessed, is localism. But this is a different brand of localism, not only focused on what happens in the water, but also on the land: No surf camps, no surf shops, no surf charters, no photographers, no contests and therefore minimal exposure.

If you have your ear to the ground, can read a naval chart, and you have average exploration skills you will find this spot. And if you do, and you arrive alone, without 8 frothing surf buds, but with a mellow attitude, you will be greeted and you will get waves. So this is not the kind of localism that we are used to back home, which is centered around lots of hassling in the surf. Sure, if you even paddle for the same wave as some of the Island Z locals, you may end up in a wheel chair for life. But if you show common sense, play it cool, let wave's go through, let okes go on your outside (especially if they are big), soon they will ask you where you are from, give you the Polynesian hand shake and call you onto the next wave.

Its simple really: You must not be seen as a threat to their surfing treasure. So when groups of surfer's arrive, or pro's with cameras, then things get violent rapidly. This then fuels the spot's "heavy local"

reputation, and as a result it becomes removed from our list of friendly surf destinations. But the point I am trying to make is that localism on Island Z is evident mostly on land. And its what you don't see. No surf camps, no surfy hotels, no rooms to let to surfers, no surf taxi boats and not a single surf shop. Ye cant even buy a bar of wax here, my mateys! The locals simply will not allow anyone to open any of the aforesaid establishments. This started way back with those first two gringos who found Island Z's surfing treasure trove in the first place. They kept their mouth's shut. They did not invite their mates and they did not build a big surf camp. They did not even try to buy any land from the locals! This may be because they are just 2 drunken slobs with no ambition, OR, maybe they were just bloody shrewd. I don't know.

What I do know, is that the locals have given up a big opportunity to make a lot of dollars out of traveling surfers. And in return they have kept their most precious resource UN-EXPOSED. The local surfers all understand this. It was a conscious decision a long time ago, and it has now become a way of life. Nobody even tries to do anything which may lead to exposure.

Rather make money off the main stream tourists and scuba divers. Besides, if you even tried to open a surf camp it would be burned to the ground and you will be thrown of the island. One of the local kids was recently crowned world junior champ, yet his has never brought home a single one of his many wqs tour buddies. No photos have appeared in mags, no free dvd's.

And who of us has the time to travel to a destination if you have not even seen one pic of the waves? This UNEXPOSURE of Island Z, mainly due to the fact that the locals have chosen barrels over dollars, is why your's truly has had two epic sessions here, racking up barrel after barrel, ACE OUT.

In Indo you often get hussled by the same local who own's the losmen where you are staying. Or by the oke who owns the nearby surf shop. That is just bullshit. They want you to come spend your money but then pull the agro on you in the water?!? I've never really been able to figure that one out. Or the foreign surf camp owners who somehow wangle exclusive rights to waves like you get in Fiji. Or okes who move to J-Bay, then after a month he thinks he owns the place. I mean Hello! Then again, I feel sorry for the Indo surfers. Much of the exposure there happened before any of the locals where even surfing. I am sure that now many of the young generation of surfers would like to turn back the clock and somehow un-expose their waves, but its too late. However, on Island Z, these 2 old gringos kept the surf masses away. They showed their kids what they had and how to protect it. Now its in their blood. The wave on Island Z is their sacred

resource. It may not be sold in any way.

So, if you are the package deal type surfer, and most of us are in this world of tight schedules and stressful deadlines, then Island Z is not for you. No, Island Z is for the explorer type surfer, the oke with time on his side, patience and some street savvy. You may arrive here by plane, but most probably on one of the inter island traders. Alone. You will book into one of the local dive resorts or bum a room off one of the local families (hide your board behind a bush whilst you negotiate). An hour before dawn you will paddle a kilometer out to the reef pass. You will get VERY VERY barreled. And if, towards the end of the second or third hour of your solo session, 4 big locals arrive with facial tattoos, simply greet them warmly by saying "Ia Orana", do the Pollo handshake if its offered, and start paddling back to town. Go have breakfast and just be STOKED. When no-ones looking, dig out your trusty old binocs, find some high ground, watch the wave out on the pass. It will soon be empty again.

NEW PICS

Check the link - I've just added some new pics to the Shimmi web album
YOU'LL FIND THE LINK ON THE LEFT OF THIS PAGE - JUST SCROL DOWN TO BELOW THE IMAGES

FIITI - RIGHT HANDER - ACE OUT!

am almost surfed out. Have had 3 or 4 magic sessions at Huahine's fabled right hander called Fiiti. Yesterday morning I dawn patrolled it, surfing
4-6 ft perfect barrels, sheet glass perfection. I expected the line up to fill up with agro Huahine locals at any moment, but by 9am, 3 hrs later, i was in probably my 25th deep shack, still ACE OUT. After that it got a bit busy, I went back to shimmi, ate most of the baguette on board and kept an eye on the lineup with my binocs. Our anchorage is about a kilometer north of this pass called Avapehi, the wave is at 16deg43.467S by 151deg02.956Ws. With my binocs I can just make out the wave in the distance. Then suddenly, at about 2.30pm I could not see anyone in the lineup. So I grab my board, sped over there in the dingy and surfed myself stupid for another 2-3 hrs, ACE OUT again. And this my friends, is a class wave. Its like Kalk Bay reef going right, only about twice the length.
Basically a back door barrel on take off, then space for a big hack, then it sets up for a mutant barrel as it squares up to the reef. You can surf it at any size, the small ones are as much fun, its a swell magnet, a lot of waves come through constantly, you spend most your time surfing or paddling back. Weird paddling back after a long shack to see the rest of the set bomb through with NO ONE on it. Although in my mind you were all there surfing with me. Halfway through this session i misjudged an inside barrel, somehow got my leg wedged amongst the four fins of my board, lots most of the skin on my right shin. But what a day! This morning i dawn patrolled it again, basically same script as yesterday, a bit smaller, I got a bit cocky, pulled into a dodgy barrel on the inside section (should have just kicked out), got myself nicely punished on the reef. Not much skin left on my left arm from elbow to wrist. Too much blood this time so I had to get out, some fat pieces hanging out. "Fishfood" as old Mentawai legend Moose once told me. But what a trip to surf such epic waves on one's own? How often does that happen these days. Then again, if you hunt for surf in remote parts of the globe, its bound to happen sooner rather than later. All I can say is THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Now lets talk about Chantal. She has been claiming Fare left (south side of Avamoa Pass, 16deg42.719S by 151deg02.755W), this wave runs along the pass right next to our anchorage. Its a long tropical version of E-Lands Bay with lots of fast and slow sections, a few shacks and loooong paddle backs.
But a relatively mellow wave by Tahitian standards. Chonny has just completed her third session, having backdoored plenty bombs and carving extravagant turns along the length of this long point break wave. She is stoked and smiling! Because of the quality of the right hander where I surfed, almost no-one other than intermediate types surf Fare left, so its empty most of the day. Not a bloody soul in sight. So ladies and gentleman, for once we are not complaining!
I have started educating myself on Fiji, which is our next stop. Our plan is still to leave French Polynesia from Maupiti on 17 June, so we should be in Fijian waters by late June/early July. We are going to focus on the southern part of Viti Levu and the famous Frigates Pass which is off Yanuca island just south of Viti Levu (Frigates is at 18deg26.487S, 177deg57.112EAST). South of Yanuca lies Kadavu Island (19deg09.559S,
177deg58.582EAST) which has good waves, not sure where. Note that the longitude is EAST, not WEST, as Fiji is on the other side of the dateline.
So any info about Fijian waves and good anchorages would be much appreciated. We don't have internet, so its hard to do research, especially with google earth being such a handy tool.

HUAHINE

DOUBLE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

HUAHINE

We are at a new island, called Huahine. It was an overnight sail from Papeete, it was the first time that we sailed overnight without a third person helping us as part of a 3 man watch system. We have been speaking to quite a few couples with kids to find out how they do it, and its basically the father's job to do the night watch, using a radar alarm and its OK to doze off. So that's what we did, Chantal was on watch until 10/11pm, then i took over until the morning. The radar alarm is loud enough to wake me (it did) and I sleep with my hearing aid. Yes, I still have my hearing aid can you believe it. The only reason i still have it is because I hardly ever use it! It was a great night cruise, no wind so we motored, by 6am a nice beam breeze was up so we sailed the rest of way. We were slowly overtaken by another catamaran, as it came past we saw that it was a racing cat with knife-like hulls, rotating mast shaped like an aeroplane wing etc. Made us feel a bit better. As you know, whenever 2 yachts sail in the same direction its a race.
We spent a long and expensive week in Papeete. The main thing we did was sort out shimmi's electrics. The charger was not charging properly, the battery control panel was erratic, the wiring generally a mess. So we had a marine electrician guy help us. Three long days later it was all sorted (we hope). I also did some work on the starboard engine, I had a bit of a fight with a leaky impeller pump, after a few gasket attempts I realized that it was the lipseal sitting on the shaft. Of which I have 3 spares! Every now and than something that you need is actually on board. The highlight of our days in Papeete were the 5-6pm happy hour beers at the local "Dinghy Bar", followed by a pizza to share. We also met another cruising couple with 2 young sons, we ended up doing dinners together and Josh and Indie played like crazy. Their sons are 3 and 5 called Morgan and Wyatt (cowboy names!). Josh and Indie are both happy, strong, healthy. No-one on shimmi has been sick for a long time. My eczema is slowly clearing up, I am on a long cortizone program which we slowly taper. It started as 40mg/day 2 months ago, currently I am taking 15mg/day, hopefully we will reduce to 10mg/day soon. But this eczema is a bastard, its your own body reacting to an "imagined" allergy, so there is no cure, all you can do is use the cortizone to "trick" the body so that it stops reacting, hopefully if you do cortizone for long enough the body will eventually "forget" what it reacted to in the first place.
Our Huahine anchorage is beautiful, a stone's throw from a lovely white beach. Two navigable reef passes lead into a big friendly lagoon on the west side of the island, there is good surf on both of these passes. But right now the swell is flat. I have recently realized that the surf in French Polynesia, like the rest of the world, also GOES FLAT. We have not really had a good swell since that big day a month ago at Teahupoo. The WCT contest at Chopes was also held in small, marginal conditions. In the end we decided that with the lack of swell its not worth it to go down there, hacking for waves with 44 of the best surfers in the world. Our Huahine anchorage is at 16deg42.7S and 151deg02.4W, its has a small town called Fare, it is a small quaint harbour village, we look forward to drinking a few cold Hinanos this evening at one of the local restaurants, called a "Snack" in French Polynesia.
We are now in what's called "The Leeward Islands" of the Society Islands. The leewards are Huahine, Raiatea, Bora-Bora and Maupiti and they are in a cluster about 100 miles Northwest from Tahiti and Moorea. Our French Polynesia visas expire on 17 June, we will probably set sail from Maupiti which is the westernmost of the leewards. But we have a lot to do until then: We have a haul out booked at a boat yard for 2 June on Raiatea. Shimmi's rudders are vibrating, this caused the autopilot failure previously. So we hope to have the rudders re-sleeved which means about 3 days on the hard. After that we really hope that shimmi will not give us any more major shit. Everyone we speak to say that the first year of owning and cruising long distance on a newly bought yacht is make or break, as everything goes wrong, everything needs to be fixed/replaced and you have to really intimately get to know your boat. So can someone please tell me if we are finally coming to the end of this soul destroying and prohibitively expensive "phase"? Anyway, yachties (grotty yotties) refer to this concept of constantly fixing things as "staying ahead of the boat". And am I getting ahead of shimmi? Only time will tell. As I am writing this email the gennie just sputtered and died. Dirty filter? 70 hrs since last filter change, so maybe. What a pain. Incidently, this process of getting to know one's boat transforms all yotties into so called "systems experts". Unfortunately, topics surrounding boat systems thus dominate all yotty conversations, you can spot a long time yottie from a mile off, he is the guy who is constantly rambles on in a boring monologue all matters related to ship's systems, it sounds like the soft far away drone of an almost broken generator, the purpose of this monologue often has the sole purpose of showing you how damn smart he is. I hope I am not describing myself....yet...
What I have realized is that cruising long distance equates basically to the crazy task of fixing one's boat in different parts of the 3rd world. Utterly foreign places where you know no-one, know where nothing is, have no transport once ashore, cant get cash, where people don't speak your lingo and charge outrageous prices for the most basic services. Where no spare parts are available, electricity in the wrong voltage and every cruising yacht is seen as a major source of income. One cruiser told me: Cruising is only 10% fun. The rest is just a slog. Yes, now that we are in our second year of "cruising with kids", we can start having a few opinions on the topic. We often wonder if we are doing the right thing. Especially w.r.t. the kids. They cannot hang out with their grandparents, extended family and friends and basically have no stable "neighbourhood". This is a big thing which you take away from them. But in return you give them hands-on parents, 24/7. And they should do very well in Geography once in school! But in the end we are happy that our cruise will be coming to an end in Oz at the end of the year. We miss home too much (read 'babysitters').
Another thing I realized is that the French yachties have got the best deal. There are French Islands in all the oceans: In the Caribbean (St Martin, Martinique), Pacific (Tahiti, Noumea, New Caledonia), Indian Ocean (Reunion, Mauritius) and so on. Cruising around with a French passport (and lingo) is just so much easier. Us English speakers think that the whole world is "English", that English is the so-called lingua franca. Not so. In most of Central and South America the language is Spanish. Call it a separate Spanish/Portugese universe, because that's basically what it is. Now we are in a part of the "French Universe". Which extends right around the globe. And another universe that we know so little off is the Chinese... What I am trying to say that when you cruise along the equator of the world's oceans, the english language is of little use. No matter how loud or slow you talk. The South Pacific is also as far from home for South Africans as it is possible to be on the globe. We would love to fly home for a quick fix of family and friends, but its too far and too expensive. Also the main reason why none of you can come visit us...
Cruisers also often get little more from their destination than the initial "post card view" of the place. It is usually very difficult to land a dingy ashore unless there is a dingy dock, and even if you do, will your dingy still be there when you get back? Once ashore, can you afford to rent a car, if not, figure out the local bus route? If you have some kind of bicycle on board then that's fine, provided it has turned into a rusty pile of junk in the forward locker. But do you have a bike for each crew member? And if you add kids to this equation ... the youngest who has to sleep from 12 till 2pm ... so in the end, shore excursions are few and far between. The first 2 weeks at any destination is in any event spent fixing everything that went wrong on the way there. Doing any kind of overnight shore activity means you have to leave your boat either on a secure mooring or in a marina which = $100/night and you haven't even gotten started on your own excursion. Some yotties manage to do a lot of shore stuff: hiking, bussing and biking their way around. But if you have young kids, forget about it. So yes, on shimmi we have an endless series of post card impressions of all the places that we have visited, but we have not really penetrated this gold fish bowl very often. Thing is, that even when you do, you are just a tourist, you will always be just a tourist, expect to be treated as such. The irony is that the only places that you get to know really well are the ones where you have to do repairs. I know every single filter, fan belt, volvo spare part and ship chandler shop in Papeete!
Surfing is the same thing. Every time you get to a new surf sport you have to go through the slow and stressful process of staking a minor claim for yourself in the lineup. Be friendly, greet all the okes, smile as they paddle around you again and again, even though they are teenagers on boogey boards for fucks sakes. After a few sessions you start seeing some of the same faces, you start getting a few bombs, you don't fuck them up so you get a few more. You start to get a feel for when in the day its the least crowded as its often very busy on the dawn patrol. Some locals are friendly, some are just pure assholes. Often the assholes can barely surf. Of all the places I surfed, Teahupoo had the mellowest locals, figure that one out. Some islands, like Raiatea, has a reputation for heavy locals. This usually means that it takes even longer before you get one of the bomb waves. Yes, its awesome to surf all these great waves. But it is stressful too, its not like you are paddling out at your local spot with a few of your mates. I am every inch the outsider. You get dropped in on without so much as a sideways glance. But every now and then, especially when its big and pulsing, you end up in the right place. All the elements come together and WOOOOSH, you get spat out of the craziest pit.
Cheers
G

MOOREA AGAIN

There has been quite a few stories doing the rounds about what happens on the island of Moorea when the fairly rare SE swells hit. I was surfing the reef pass near the capital of Tahiti, Papeete, and got chatting to one of the locals. He said that a SE swell was arriving on Saturday and that the fabled right hander on Moorea should be all time. So we decided, have boat, must go. Another factor in the equation however was the shitty weather predicted for the weekend: Plenty squalls and strong winds. The Society islands lie far enough south (17 degrees), to be affected by the high latitude low pressures which move through sporadically during the southern hemi winter exactly like our western cape cold fronts. During May to August these fronts seem to cause crappy weather once every 10 days or so. So although we were keen to surf these rare waves, we were also hesitant to head out into the teeth of a low pressure system, giving up our fairly secure anchorage near Papeete. But you cant make an omelette without breaking some eggs, so here we are. Surfed some great waves, it was well overhead on the sets, a few bomb barrels came through, but the NW wind was not ideal. I saw quite a few pro surfer faces in the lineup from Teahupoo, but overall the crowd was fine. Apparently Kelly Slater was on the beach here, but he had to head back to Teahupoo as they were maybe going to run the first round of the CT contest. Yeah, I told Kelly to scram. By my second session the swell had slacked off a lot, so don't worry, you did not miss much, it was only happening for about half the day. We found a great anchorage just opposite the Sofitel Hotel in a big shallow lagoon, Nuarei Bay, this has to be one of the most beautiful over water hotel settings that we have seen. Our anchoring co-ordinates are 17deg30.127S, 149deg45.736W, its worth checking it out on google earth. White beaches, pristine coral and these crazy right handers reeling down the outer reef. These waves are beautiful to watch, peeling down about 3 km's of reef, but they are too fast and shallow to surf. The actual wave is around the corner, basically right next to the airport runway, at Faaupo Point 17deg29.468S, 149deg45.091W. There is another right hander about half a mile south of Moorea's main ferry pass, its another crazy barrel but you have to get out as the wave does not have a happy ending. Unless you surf with full body armour and have wheels on your board. Anyway, our great anchorage in Nuarei Bay is currently being pummeled by winds from all directions. The low pressure is truly on us. A gusty wind and a current flowing out of the lagoon has shimmi dancing in circles, tripping up the anchor and moving all over the place as she alternately reacts to the current or the wind depending on which is the strongest. So tonight we will pay for our sins, probably not much sleep and plenty of staring at the chart plotter. I tried setting a stern anchor (took most of the afternoon, driving the 2nd anchor out in the dingy, blahblah), but it just was not viable, we decided to let shimmi just "do her thing", swinging freely on the 50 pound CQR. But we have coral heads all around us, not much room to move, and the wind is howling in the rig. There are a bunch of lovely houses up on the hill, their cosy lights twinkling, how often don't we wish for just one night on dry land! I tell you what, we are going to appreciate our little house in Sandbaai SO MUCH! We are enjoying what we are doing, but sometimes you just feel stuck. When you cruise on a yacht you basically take your home wherever you go, but like a tortoise's shell you can also never get rid of it. But we would never be able to afford staying ashore here anyway, so its a privilege to stay for free (sort of) on shimmi in all these awesome spots.
Early the next morning:
We made it through the night! Not sure how strong the wind is as our brand new wind instrument (950$) is no longer working. But its something close to a black south easter. The current has slowed down. With the dropping swell there is not so much water coming over the reef anymore... which means we are lying facing into the wind and the anchor is holding. We are warming up baguette in the oven, scrambled eggs, ham, jam and swiss cheese. With a solid cup of brewed coffee. This has been our staple shimmi breakfast since arriving in French Polynesia. Anyway, hope you are all well, anybody got a weather/swell report?

FAREWELL TO ANDY

Our shipmate of the past 4 months, Andy Carter, has gone back to California to face the REAL WORLD and start a new life. We will miss him dearly. He became like an older brother for Josh and Indie, and his departure has left a HUGE hole on board shimmi. If there is one thing we learned from Andy, its that it is possible to be a courteous and all-round great guy ALL THE TIME. To live with a family of four, of which the kids are 1 and 4, is a hectic thing to expect from someone, but Andy did it for 4 months, with always a smile and a helping hand. Add to this more than 5000 bluewater cruising miles across the longest expanse of open ocean from the Panama to Tahiti, facing all kinds of bad weather, under pressure repair jobs and severe sleep deprivation ... its impossible to explain here what we all went through together, and we could not have done it without Andy. His evening meals are destined to become the stuff of legends (also his washing up hahaha). But most of all Josh and Indie are already missing their big buddy. We are now anchored near an airport, and every time a plane flies over both Josh and Indie scramble to the window and Josh yells: "Here comes Andy!" We will miss you mate, go well and may all the right doors open for you in California.
AU REVOIR and CIAO!!!!!

EVER CUDDLED A MANTA RAY!

Saffa tourists take over Moorea
Yes, finally we had a chance to "just be tourists". We cruised around the top of northern Moorea, checking out Cooks Bay, Opanohu Bay etc. Truly stunning, these deep bays indent the north coast of Moorea like the letter "W". Josh and I swam with a whole school of Rays, they brush right up to you, obviously used to being fed. We were surprised how "soft" they were, rubbing up against us. Later on we sneaked into the Pearl Bay resort which was the first resort in Tahiti with "over water" bungalows. We spent most of the afternoon around the resort pool, drinking whiskey and coke from Chantal's handbag. We were not going to pay $15 for a drink, hahaha! Now we are back on board, watching a golden sun sink into the horizon, the barbie is lit, steaks are marinated, Yeeeha. Andy has 6 days left on shimmi, its going to be strange without him, to say the least. Especially Josh and Indie are really going to miss him...
G

MOOREA

We are currently anchored on the left side of the Avarapa Pass, southern Moorea at 17deg35.599S, 149deg775W, just inside a great right hander, paddling distance from the back of shimmi. We left Tahiti this morning and had a great broad reach over to Moorea, only 14 miles which we did in under 2 hrs. The lagoon here is not as well charted as the lagoon's on Tahiti, so we had to drive around a bit, using our polariods to see where the reefs are. But we found a good place to drop the pick, in 10 m on sand, about 100 meters from the wave. Now that we have surfed Teahupoo, all other waves look a bit "mild"! This right hander is a fun wave with barrel sections, cutback sections etc, I had to go dust off my 6'0 four fin, I struggled to re-adjust to surfing a small right hander after the madness of Teahupoo's crazy drops and insane pigdog barrels. In fact this is the first right hander that we have surfed since Galapagos!
Josh and Indie are great, lovely snorkelling just off the back of the boat, Indie is now happy to doggy paddle on his own with water wings on. Josh, well he is a little fish. Moorea is a stunning island, its worthwhile to google earth it, Cook's Bay in the north is world famous. The diving around here is supposed to be world class with rays, sharks and 1000's of fish. Hopefully i can shoot something for the pot which does not have cigatuera poison.
There is a fun left hander on the other side of Avarapa pass, Chantal is going to give that a go tomorrow.

JOSH FOLLOWING DAD'S FLIPPERS!

NEW PiX

http://picasaweb.google.com/wilcopix/Shimmi26thApril?authkey=Gv1sRgCOmU2avp8dnTggE#

Click on this link for the latest pics

BARREL FEST AT TEAHUPPO

BARREL FEST

Barrel Fest Continues
We have had the most insane run of surf this past week, all at Teahupoo. Andy and I have been doing two sessions a day, with the surf being 3-4 foot with well overhead sets. Sheet glass, no wind, just perfect barrels reeling down the reef. And, get this, NO ONE ELSE OUT. Teahupoo has developed a weird anomaly: On the really big days, predicted well in advance, there will be a few crews of chargers out. But as soon as the swell drops these guys disappear. Teahupoo does hot have a dedicated daily local crew like on many of the "easier" waves further down. Also, as with most of the waves, you need a tinny to get out there or face a fairly long endurance paddle out to the pass. And as we have come to realize this past week, small to medium Teahupoo is a world class wave. Crisp barrels, whackable sections and it only gets too shallow right at the end of the wave. Even the really small shoulder high one's are fully surfable, we surfed it the whole week, even today, with absolutely no swell on the charts, there are some fun head high waves with no-one on it. Another factor with the crowds is that there are just so many other waves in the area, immediately north and south of Teahupoo. Not only on the reef passes, but also on sections of the fringing reef which has a few interesting corners, especially when the swell is small. Teahupoo also has such a "heavy" reputation that it does not really attract your joe-average traveling surfer... So its perceived to be too heavy for travelers, it has almost no local crew, and it only gets crowded on the really big days.... That leaves 100's of smaller days with no-one. STOKED!
We have shimmi anchored at 17deg51.571S and 149deg15.093W. Its basically at the back of the Teahupoo reef pass, in the lagoon behind the judges tower. From the back of shimmi we have a nice front-on binocs view of Teahupoo, its kiff cause we can constantly monitor the crowd and be on it when it thins out. The area here is just mind-blowingly beautiful: emerald green mountains in the shape of giant pyramids, streams full of lillys, crystal clear water, the tranquility of these endless blue lagoons, the white surf crashing out on the coral reef. At the back of the Teahupoo basin is a little perfect A-frame beach break, Josh has caught about a 1000 of these waves, i push him in on Chantal's mini mal. In the late afternoon we go for a stroll along the waterfront, there is a small headland where all the homes have massive green lawns and trees rolling down to the lagoon, Indie finally gets a chance to stretch his legs and RUN INDIE RUN!!!!!
Finally, yesterday Chantal paddled out at Teahupoo and caught a hand full of waves!!! Yes, you read right, Chantal charged Teahupoo.
This weekend a massive swell is supposed to hit, it may be a tow situation. Will keep you posted,
Au revoir
G

Lekker Stuff!

Teahupoo
We are finally having a fat jol, this place is just totally blowing our minds. Had 2 sessions at Teahupoo today, solid double overhead pigdog pits, insane. We love it here, good anchorages and a wealth of surf, finally we are having a high surf hit rate, easily as high as a Mentawai charter, without a bunch of other boats, just relaxed mellow locals. We have another 50 days left on our visas in French Polynesia and we are already crying about having to leave! But around mid June we will cruise westward again towards the Cook islands, Tonga and Fiji. Then Oz by end November.
Teahupoo is about as heavy a wave as i have ever surfed, even more so with a fairly full lineup, when the sets come its a scramble, the wave shifts around the reef quite a bit, so its easy to get too deep. Its also got a few weird corners which can let you in quite easily, other times its just pure over the ledge crazy shit. It takes pure commitment. But my pigdog is working well, i backdoored a few ridiculous pits which had the whole gallery hooting, such a kiff feeling. Also had one no-hands. Ate shit a few times too, almost had a 2 wave hold down, the white water just would not let me back up. Did a full cartwheel out of the lip, i refuse to pull back, cant throw name here.
There is a Billabong junior contest at Vairao this week and the trials for Teahupoo also start pretty soon. So it may be time for us to move on, get away from the crowds a bit. Then again we are really enjoying being in a vibey area, we have had enough uncrowded solitude on those long crossings to last a lifetime! Not sure what to do. Moorea, the island right next to Tahiti has 4 or 5 sw facing reef passes, including the navigable Avarapa Pass on the very south west corner of the island which has a known wave with a village called Vairapa nearby (=fresh baguette). Further up the west coast there is another navigable pass called Matauvau and then two non-navigable passes (Avamotu and Taota). All looking very promising with plenty underground rumours of ridiculous waves on Moorea.
The other half of the society islands are called the Leewards, of which the main surf ones are Raiatea and Huahine. They have insane surf, these islands are the same kind of formation as Tahiti and Moorea (mountainous, fringing coral reef, calm inner lagoon, REEF PASSES). But they are more than 100 nautical miles west, which means an overnight sail to get there. We need to do a haul out on shimmi, the travel lift in Papeete turned out to be 10cm's too narrow, so we have made a booking with the yard on Raiatea on 11 May for a haul out. That's 3 weeks from now that we have to be in Raiatea. So maybe another week here, 10 days in Moorea and then head over to the Leewards? Our haul out will use up about 3-4 days, so by mid May we can start exploring that area, by which time we will only have a month left with our visas in French Polynesia...
Anyway, the swell is dropping fast now so tomorrow is going to be a family beach day. Only problem with the coral reef/lagoon thing is that there are very few sandy beaches and we really need to get Indie off the boat and running around. Tomorrow's mission: Indie must run!
Au revoir

TEAHUPOO - SURF'S UP!

TAHITI
We have been in Tahiti for about a week now, and what a week its been! We have surfed our brains out, most of our sessions so far has been at a wave called Vairao, which is the reef pass just north of Teahupoo. Teahupoo is on the most southern pass of SW facing Tahiti and it tends to get blown out by the prevailing E to SE winds quite quickly. We've been down there a few times to surf it but was too "wild" the first time and then too small the second time. Josh ended up surfing Le Petit Teahupoo (small right hander on the inside of the pass). Trust me, you don't want to surf "wild" Teahupoo, especially not for the first time. The WCT is heading this way soon, so everyone is gearing up for the big circus. But the fact remains that of the shimmi crew only Josh has had waves in the village of Teahupoo.
We surfed Vairao overhead and a barrel fest was had by yours truly. The first part of the wave hits the reef hard, this is where you get barreled or mangled on the reef. My back is lacerated, but its a good feeling, its a great way of getting rid of eczema. One morning Andy and I did a 5am dawn patrol, surfing 4-6 ft perfection until we were toast.
The whole Tahitian wave set up is unique, completely unlike Indo, Maldives, Philipines. Here it is all about the reef pass. It makes so-called surf exploration SO EASY!! You just cruise to any reef pass with southern exposure and VOILA! Most of the time the reef pass is navigable so you can check the wave out from all sides as you drive through the pass. And many times there is a right and left on opposite sides. How kuk is that? However, the waves are not as long as in Indo, as most of the reef passes "curve in" quite quickly. Another huge bonus is that once you are through the pass and into the lagoon, you have an awesome and protected place to anchor, once again unlike Indo where you often have to drive miles to find a place to drop the pick for the night. And, many of these lagoons have 2 or 3 reef passes leading into them (there are 4 passes going into the Teahupoo lagoon), so once you are in, you just cruise inside the lagoon to go check out the next pass. Or take the dingy. Most of the time if you dawn patrol you will be on your own as the locals are not that onnit.
In French Polynesia you get basically three kinds of islands:
1. The young ones: The youngest are the steep mountainous ones like the Marquesas which dont yet have significant coral growth and no fringing reef at all. Very few waves here, only a few non-perfect rock bottom points; 2. The adolescents: Like Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea etc, these have steep mountains with a fully established fringing coral reef surrounding a massive chain of interlinked lagoons. These are the ones you want. Now that I have laid my eyes on one of these islands I am just faarken blown away. Beautiful jagged green mountains, blue lagoons, reef pass after reef pass; 3. The old tops: These are your atolls like the Tuamotus. All that's left of the island is the fringing reef and a huge and often exposed lagoon. Often there is only one or two passes into these atolls, because of the size of the lagoon there is always a huge current flowing out, the anchorages are often dodgy as there is no mountain to hide behind (not like 2 above) But many perfect waves here too, its just that they can be quite hard work.
Another thing which makes the "adolescent" islands awesome is the lifestyle of the locals. They live in a long virtually uninterrupted chain (in Tahiti anyway) all along the edge of the lagoon which goes virtually around the whole island. Every single house is on the water's edge and almost every house has a slip or jetty with a speedboat tied up to it. Everyone just buzzes around on the water all day long, diving, fishing, paddling on their pirogue or whatever. Tahiti is truly a paradise, i can see why Gaugin went nuts when he arrived here. For the first time i feel really privileged and stoked to be on a yacht which is the only way to appreciate the splendour of the place.
Its a pity that South Africa is so far from here, as it is the first location that I have seen which gives Indo a full run for its money. The waves are generally shorter but more powerful, more intense. Not better, just different. It does not have the architecture or vibe of Bali, and the barrels dont go on forever, but believe me, you know when you've had one.
We were just up in the main port of Papeete for 2 days, doing some boat jobs, collecting our autopilot, dropping off our watermaker and doing a big grocery shop. We were on our way down to Teahupoo for a big 18 second swell which arrives tonight, but a 25 knot SE nailed us on the head so we had to enter a lagoon (with a perfect reef pass) further north to wait it out. Hopefully the wind moderates tonight and we can do the remaining 2 hrs down (calm sea estimate) to Teahupoo tomorrow morning. If not we will just stay here and surf the Maraa Pass which has a right hander like Bank Vaults (in the Mentawais) and a left like Kandui. The Maraa Pass is at 17deg44.934S, 149deg34.781W.
As I mentioned before, the whole surf exploration thing here is a piece of piss. Look on the chart, locate the reef passes, AND GO. Just head for the reef pass. If its a north facing pass, then go there Nov-March, if its south facing, then April-Oct. On Tahiti alone there are more than 35 reef passes, more that 25 of them have good waves. Its a no brainer. Another weird thing is that i have yet to come across a surf charter boat. Sure their are some, but this kind of surf tourism does not go down happily with the local polynesians. Most of them look like Jonah Lomu, covered in tribal tatoos. They have been super friendly, Polynesian hospitality is legendary, but i am glad i dont have a boat load of Mentawai punters on board. I would be stitching okes up and it wont be for reef cuts. Most of the traveling surfers here come in one's and two's and they stay with local families. So in this respect too its very different to Indo which gets overrun by obnoxious Jaapies, Seppos, Feral Ozzies and Brazil Nuts.
Its expensive though, no such thing as a 1 dollar nasi goreng. But if you stay with the locals and cook your own chow its fully do-able. Make sure you rent or have one of the 100's of local tinnies at your disposal on YOU MY FRIEND HAVE IT MADE.
The WCT arrives soon for the Teahupoo event, we may anchor shimmi down at the Teahupoo basin to give support to the BOKKE. I am thinking of painting a huge SAFFA flag on an old bedsheet and with shimmi parked right by the venue ... could be fun. Jarvi, have you got an email for Greg Emslie/Davey Weare?
So hopefully i get a barrel at Chopes before the circus hits town. Tomorrow it will still be solid, maybe a little too solid for my liking (what does 18 sec do at Chopes?). I really want my first surf there to be "introductory" as opposed to "post mortem".
Will keep you posted
G

PAPEETE

TAHITI - ALL WE WERE LOOKING FOR!

Tahiti is ALL that we were looking for! Great surf everywhere, great anchorages, great snorkelling, fresh baguettes in the mornings and a little girlfriend for Chonny. A 28 year old female surfer who has been sailng ALONE for 4 years (google Lisa Clarke). Of the 3 nights we have been here she has been over for dinner, breakfast, tour de surf, fallen in love with Josh etc.
We are spending 2 nights in Papeete (at Tahine Marina) to do our official check in, pick up the autopilot, drop off the watermaker, buy Josh a toy and then head back to the surf.
The picture is of Josh diving under the boat.

TAHITI - WE'RE HERE!

Approaching Southern Tahiti
8pm local 06:00 UTC
pos 17deg53.355S, 149deg05.738W
We are rounding the southern tip of Tahiti. We got here faster than expected, sleigh riding at 100-120deg under spinnaker alone with solid 14-18knots of true wind. We averaged close to 8 knots for the day with plenty 10 knot spells and a 12.4 knot top speed! We are about to sail past Havae reef pass which is where Teahupoo is situated. Its too tricky to go in there now at night so we are going to enter one of the reef passes a few miles further north. Its almost full moon so it should be fine. The pass I have in mind, Tapuaeraha, has two lead lights up on the hill. We hope to anchor next to Vairao village and do some food shopping tomorrow. Then its back down to Teahupoo, rumour has it that there is a big sw swell arriving mid week. Few nice 12 ft Teahupoo barrels should be fun. Get the old heart pumping.
Its worth checking out this southern coast of Tahiti on google earth... most of Tahiti is surrounded by a lagoon and outer reef, you can almost cruise around the whole island inside this protected lagoon. There is a multitude of reef passes to access various parts of it, the wave Teahupoo happens to be on the south side of one of the most southern passes (Havae reef pass). So we can actually drive shimmi right up to the wave. Hold thumbs for a big circus at Teahupoo mid week. Curtis can you confirm this swell?
Au revoir
G

YUMMY GARBAGE BAGS

En Route to Tahiti
pos 17deg01.3S, 146deg23.17W
8pm local, 06:00 UTC
180 miles to go
We are on the move again, we left Faaite Atoll mid morning with initially blustery squally winds and a rough ocean, now things have settled, wind is around 12 knots apparent. After a few sail changes we are now running on spinnaker only, doing around 5-7 knots, should make it a 2 day cruise. We should be at Tahiti by Sunday morning, we will probably stop off at Teahupoo which is down on the south west coast. Kiddies had a bit of "first cruise day" niggles ... but have now settled. Josh is amping on what stock the Tahiti toy shops may have. We are very low on food, basically eating crusts and re-opening garbage bags. By the time we get to Tahiti, Andy and I would have hand steered shimmi more than 1000 nautical miles. But our autopilot is fixed and waiting for us in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. Nothing much more to report ...
Au revoir

DRY BARRELS - MY FRIENDS - DRY BARRELS

Faaite Day 3!
We finally scored the surf to cancel out the 30 day slog to get here. Just two of us in the water, emerald green barrels reeling through. When we first surfed this wave 2 days ago it was described as follows:
"Finally scored some nice overhead waves at Faaite's lefthander yesterday. Beautiful groomed tropical left point break, bit like Telescopes in the Ments. The righthander is a kamikaze A-frame which starts Ok with a nice pit but then runs straight onto dry reef (gave it a wide miss) ... looks like its only surfed on spring high with a huge swell. The left runs over a very shallow ledgy reef with 2 linked barrel sections. The first section pinches high making it hard to exit, the second section runs out over virtually dry coral heads, gnarly. Kinda have to wait for the bigger sets, we caught the tail end of the swell yesterday, i think it was bigger and better the day before, but also very windy. But hopefully that new swell hits tomorrow, then we will get a better idea. About 3 or 4 locals, all on body boards, the one guy rips stand up on his body board, go figure. Some epic snorkelling but yet to catch anything worthwhile on the rod. "
By this evening it was well overhead, low tide and a very light offshore. Dry barrels my friends. Dry barrels. As the swell grew this evening it just got better and better. Golden sunset over sheet glass perfection and i am not blowing smoke up yer ass. Two wave sets every 5 minutes with just 2 of us out (me and Andy) makes for a pretty special session. I had one stand out wave, I backdoored a solid 6 foot pipe, I had to claim it, and did. Who needs pets when you have a pigdog? Yes it was a dream day, an entry on the good side of shimmi's ledger. Its a class wave, medium length, tight and tricky barrel until it goes overhead, hard lip to hit, dodgy to cutback, many menacing coral heads if you fuck up. I wont bore you with wave descriptions any further. Also knocked two fins out of my 6'4, now riding my 6'0 four fin in hollow six foot surf. Its not quite like Tom Curren riding his fish at Bawa, but its getting there. In the end we are just so stoked to have found a wave which is offshore all day long and picks up the regular swell. Those are the 2 most important ingredients when you explore for waves. Who knows how good or long it will get on a really solid swell?
STOKED!
G

FOOD FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!

4 April 2009
Fakarava Atoll
We spent the day here, deciding not to head over to Faaite (which has the surf spot) as we were still licking our wounds after the 4 day crossing. I fixed the gennie and Andy and Chantal baked bread and banana loaf. Our anchorage of last night turned out to be in the middle of a strong outflowing current and opposing winds, so today we scoped out the area for a better anchorage. We eventually found an old mooring right in the best spot, halfway out the reef pass, off to the side in a big eddy. I dived on the mooring and its a huge old anchor, nice and strong. Across the reef pass is an old abandoned village and small rustic dive resort with all its bungalows and little bar/restaurant out on stilts, jutting into the pass, awesome. The diving just below shimmi is out of this world, just 1st class tropical snorkelling with plenty black tip reef sharks, Napoleon wrasse, trumpet fish etc etc. Josh was in his element, not scared to snorkel with the sharks which are bigger than him. He also now dives down to about 3m, even more if there is an audience. We joined the resort for dinner, about 15 other people, buffet. Indie and Josh were running around laughing their heads off. To get to the restaurant we simply drive the dingy up to the edge of their deck, voila! Now its tummy's full and of to bed. Andy is catching sharks with a spoon off the back. If you know nothing about fishing that might sound strange. Just a loud yelp from him every now and then. First thing tomorrow morning we cruise 12 miles across to Faaite, hold thumbs for swell, offshore wind and big empty barrels.
Au revoir
G