Saṃsāra or Sansar (Devanagari: संसार) is a Sanskrit word that means "wandering" or "world", with the connotation of cyclic, circuitous change. It is also the concept of rebirth and "cyclicality of all life, matter, existence", a fundamental belief of most Indian religions. —-Wikipedia
With Samsara on the hard and repairs ongoing we rented a car and circumnavigated Tahiti Nui looking for a museum that was apparently closed and stopped off at the Vaipahi Gardens, which were a surprising delight.
Along the way we stopped at a few of the ancient Marae, the stacked stone, ceremonial/religious sights and stumbled onto some dancers practicing for the big Hieva competition coming up soon. They told us not to shoot any pictures so this clandestine video is not the best. It was really cool!
We also drove down to the famous Teahupoo where the waves were huge, but we got there too late in the day to arrange a boatride out to see them and the brave surfers. I did get Katie catching a wave however.
Once Samsara was back in the water we moved around to the NW side of the island in Taina Marina. It was beautiful with views of Moorea in the distance.
While side tied in the marina we got the parts in to repair the main roller furler (pictured is the damaged flange), installed a new tricolor light on the mast top, replaced the faulty bilge pump and changed out all of AGM house batteries for new Lithium Ion batteries. A little pricey but so much better!
Invited by neighboring cruisers we went to an organized performance of Ukelele singers and dancers of all ages. We shot too much video and I’ve tried to reduce it to some of the best ones. Very entertaining!
These youngest dancers are so focused thoroughly committed they’re guaranteed to make you smile.
It appears that everyone in Tahiti must learn to dance at some time.
This was the grand finale!
Katie and I also had the time (while waiting for parts to arrive) to take an 8 day scuba re-certification class that included dives in the lagoon and outside the reef. Great fun!
One of our favorite restaurants we discovered close to the marina was the Blue Banana which offered good food, great service and amazing views!
So we had guests coming towards the end of June and we planned to sail to Fakarava a week before their arrival to get the lay of the land but the day we took off we discovered that our depth sounder was not working. We had to order a new one and it took about one week to arrive from Florida. We did a lot of waiting in this paradise but it was a good place to be delayed. Once it arrived our favorite tradesman, Thomas the electrician, installed it the same day and we were ready to go to Fakarava in the Tuamotus!
With a little concern, we weighed anchor and headed south east out of Taiohae Bay at about 17:00 heading for Fatu Hiva in about 15 kts wind on our port beam. I unfurled the main as we exited the bay keeping it reefed to the first point. Our plan was to sail through the night and arrive at Hanavave or the Bay of Virgins before nightfall the following day.
Outside of the bay the wind picked up to 25kts and I tried to reef the main further but found that the in-mast furler would not move in or out! Without being able to drop the sail and head back, we were committed to press on and hoping to resolve it the next day. Somewhat close hauled in 25kts of wind and into the swell made it a very challenging night. We tried not to leave the cockpit as any movement below was dangerous.
The next morning we had not even made it to Tahuata, the island just north of Fatu Hiva. My calculations suggested we wouldn’t make our intended anchorage by sunset so we turned more west for Tahuata. In the meantime I tried to fix the stuck main furler, first thinking it might be a kinked or twisted line, which was fed back to cockpit under the deck. It was indeed twisted and I fixed that but still no movement. When I took off the plate at the base of the mast to look at the main furler flange, I found that the securing bolts had sheared off and the furler was ceased in the tight space.
With this new knowledge and the fact that with the sail permanently reefed to the first point and not able to be taken down, we committed to turn and sail directly to Papeete where we would deal with it in about 8 days. Fortunately the weather was favorable, at least for the first 3-4 days that we could trust on Predictwind forecasts.
To add to the excitement, we had taken on water during our rough night passage, crashing through waves and for some reason the bilge pump was not coming on consistently. We got it all dried out and committed to installing a new bilge pump in Papeete, but it seemed a little more onerous at the time. By the next morning we had made good progress in favorable winds and seas. Above is a video taken of the stern just before sunrise.
After the sun rose, the light would become so intense we had to put up a screen.
The squalls would come and go all around us occasionally dumping buckets of water on us and changing the wind direction.
Sunrises and sunsets were a daily show!
To get to Papeete in Tahiti, we had to pass through the Tuamotus, an archipelago of just under 80 low lying islands built on the reefs remaining from ancient volcanoes that have long since eroded away. The area was know as the “dangerous archipelago” to the early sailing explorers and has only recently become safer with improving navigation charts. In the picture above we’re passing Tahanea in a gap between motus of less than 10 miles. The sun had just gone down.
We passed the time reading novels, sometimes to each other, and writing blogs. For the last three days we lost our wind and being reluctant to run the engine (and the water compromised sail drive) we were forced to drift with the permanently raised main sail slapping back and forth in the swell. That was painful knowing that it was hurting the sail.
We finally sighted Tahiti and what a magnificent sight, as welcome and enticing a landfall as it must have been to sailors in the 18th century.
An excellent rigging company (Fenua rigging) in Papeete talked us through letting go the out haul and gathering the main sail and lashing it to the main mast so we could motor into the marina and safely into our slip. In hindsight we could have done this if we had visited Fatu Hiva, but it was probably best that we got to Papeete before we had bigger problems with our sail drive and propeller. We made our way to Techni Marine to haul Samsara out of the water to fix the sail drive.
Though expensive, Techni Marine was professional and thorough. While “on the hard” we also re-painted the bottom.
While our home was high and dry, Katie and I relaxed at the Tahiti Pearl Resort and enjoyed the purple sunsets.
Carlos was a tremendous asset on what was our first long passage and a pleasure to be with. On our arrival in Taiohae Bay we cleaned the boat and went up the mast to recover the spinnaker halyard stranded when the Code 0 swivel block broke. We enjoyed some good meals and rented a car to explore the island a bit. Carlos was of course missing his family and eager to go home. We drove over the island to the airport on the north west side and bade him a sad farewell.
With Taiohae Bay facing south there is usually a good swell entering the bay that makes going up the mast a little more exciting than usual. Here’s our neighbor Doug up the mast on Paseo with Nan in control of his life on the winch below.
Nuku Hiva was lush and beautiful from any angle. Once we had checked in and got our French Polynesia Long Stay Visas moving forward. We re-stocked with the beautiful fresh fruits.
Nuku Hiva is where many cruisers get their first, obligataory tatoo, but somehow, though we talked alot about it, Katie and I kept the canvas clean. I did, however sign up for Ukelele lessons. There were always people on the dock and in town playing and singing.
Taiohae Bay is where Herman Melville jumped ship in the 1840’s and found the inspiration for Typee, his first book. Katie and I listened to the entire audio book together on the way over and were eager to see the wild, beautiful places and potentially cannibalistic people that lived here.
Up and out of the caldera that is Taiohae Bay and over the pass to the east (a path Herman Melville’s characters struggled on, trying to escape the disciplining ship captain) there is another bay called Taipi (or Typee) as written by Melville. Up valley from the bay are ancient Marae, or stacked stone religious structures. Katie and I coordinated with a few other cruisers on an organized tour that was excellent.
Along with the ancient ruins, we also got instruction on the plants, flowers and fruits.
Getting ready to leave, we topped off the diesel by taking the tender to the fuel dock and filling up the jerry cans. Turns out that while we were in Nuku Hiva there was a championship soccer playoff game between Tahiti and the Marquesas. The winner, in this case the Marquesas, went to Paris!
The game brought out the whole town. I love this second action video because of the casual dog in the penalty box!
Sometime in our second week in Nuku Hiva I was checking the engine fluids and that included our saildrive, which is like a transmission between the engine and the propeller. In it I found the oil “milky” indicating that water had somehow made it’s way in, probably through the drive shaft seals. Using it was not impossible but doing so would cause potentially larger problems if not failure! To fix it required hauling Samsara out of the water and the closest marina capable of that was Papeete, almost 900 nautical miles away! We decided to head for Fatu Hiva then non-stop to Papeete. Fatu Hiva was supposed to be amazing and we did not want to miss it.
Checked the weather forecast. Note there are 6 different weather models and all of which predict a passage of less than 15 days, maximum wind speed of 17.3Kts and less than 4 days motoring. Sounded perfect! Predictions like this become progressively less reliable out more than three days….
And we finally untied the lines and shoved off! Nuku Hiva here we come! We sailed away on the afternoon of April 12th. and found a southerly giving us a pleasant sail through the first night.
We were very fortunate to have an excellent crew member to help with watches and more.
My watch began at 4:00am so I had lots of time to think, read and write. Every morning I was rewarded with an awesome sunrise! The winds were perfect and the seas moderate.
We caught a Skipjack Tuna on our second full day out!
Katie turned it into a healthy and delicious dinner
Besides taking a watch, sailing, cooking and cleaning, Katie made an extra effort to always look her best!
… and afternoon/evening meals were always a special event!
Oddly we saw Boobies throughout the passage. We often wondered where they rested beside on the few transiting boats. As the winds died down, they landed on Samsara. The can make a stinky mess in no time at all!
In the lighter airs we hoisted the code 0 out of the forepeak and raised it on the spinnaker halyard.
We sailed with the Code 0 for about 24 hours in about 10 kts of wind and it was beautiful. Then, on afternoon of the 5th day, we heard a pop, which was the swivel block at the head of the sail exploding. With surprise and dismay , we watched as the sail drifted down and under our hull as Samsara continued forward powered by the main sail. It took about an hour to get it all back on board and may not have happened if Carlos wasn’t there to help. I would have had to just cut the lines and let it go….
Life went on with lots of resting.
More great Sunrises. We think Carlos was missing his wife and kids!!!
Showers on the back of the boat!
And laundry! We cleaned up the cockpit later this day as we crossed the equator!
Of course there were many more beautiful sunrises and sunsets! Below is a nice video of a sunrise.
Some happy selfies!
We caught another Skipjack Tuna!
Katie took several videos out of the forward window….
We took one last selfie before arriving at Nuku Hiva!
After rounding the SE end of Ua Huka we finally closed in on Nuku Hiva. The cliffs look like carved chess pieces! After 19 days at sea we finally motored into Taiohae Bay seeing our friends Nan & Doug on Paseo for the first time in about a year, though we had been tracking their progress on Predictwind and reading their well written and entertaining posts.
Nan & Doug were taking a video of us as we came in as well!
We wasted no time, cleaning up the boat and going out to the nicest restaurant in Nuku Hiva with the captain and crew of Paseo.
On New Years Day Puerto Escondido was sunny and bright. Definitely the nicest marina in the Sea of Cortez. We loved it there but had to push on to Puerto Vallarta to get ready for the big Jump!
We first sailed a lazy day south to Agua Verde, with it’s distinctive island rock at the entrance that looks like a breaching humpback whale from a distance.
After a good night’s sleep in a somewhat crowded anchorage we rose to clear skies and winds in the high teens and twenties. We headed out into the waves then downwind to San Evaristo.
This was our third time anchoring at San Evaristo now and it was as beautiful as ever.
From San Evaristo we sailed to Ensenada Grande near the north end of Isla Partida to spend one night leaving the next morning to sail to Bahia Los Muertos but once we rounded the north end of the island we decided to change course directly for Puerto Vallarta expecting a double overnight.
By 10:40pm we were sailing 8 knots on a broad reach. At 2:00am we cam a little closer to traffic than I would prefer!
By the afternoon of the third day, passing Isla Isabella and the Marias, our wind gave out and we had to motor the last few hours, passing the Tres Marietas at the entrance to Banderas Bay before arriving at the La Cruz Marina, our home away from home for the last year.
We enjoyed La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta. There is a market every Sunday in the Marina with music, vendors and great food!
While in La Cruz we painted new markers on the chain, installed a new VHF Radio, added another 375 watt solar panel, acquired seven 5 gallon Jerry Cans for extra diesel, visited with friends and re-provisioned for our possibly 3 week passage to the Marquesas.
After our Copper Canyon adventure we crossed back over the Sea of Cortez to Baja then south to Puerto Excondido/Loreto to pick up Katie’s sister Janet and husband Ron to join us for a Christmas cruise.
With Samsara all cleaned up and ready to go in the beautiful Puerto Escondido Marina Kate and I provisioned then picked up our guests for the sail north.
We stopped first and Isla Coronado for the night and explored the shoreline.
When Kate & I had been in San Juanico a month earlier we arranged with “The Farm” to take us all on a mule ride so Christmas eve morning we made the 1K walk out to the farm.
We took a ride south and inland through the chaparal then down to the beach and back along the shore. It was beautiful!
At the end of the day we grilled steaks on the beach reminiscing about past Christmas eve dinners.Moonrise off the stern.
Ron is an eager, persistent and consummate fisherman. Here you can watch an expert land a Pacific Bonito. These are the most common fish in the Sea of Cortez and a good fighter. We tried eating it once and that was enough. We let these go!
Another example of Ron’s prowess. I think that’s a kind of Trigger Fish. We let him go as well.
After many hours of trolling we finally caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi! We didn’t let this one go!
Proud father! Here Ron is having a heart to heart with Ms. Mahi Mahi expressing his serious gratitude. Tastey!
Ron generously brought all kinds of tackle, new boxes and a spin cast rod and reel which I duly organized. Kate’s not very happy with the cabinet space this is using but this is essential stuff and needs to be accessible!
Back in Puerto Escondido we had our Mahi Mahi prepared by the restaurant and shared with fellow cruisers. On the 28th Janet & Ron taxied to the airport and we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. Life is good!
sv-samsara.com 