Get Lost On Purpose

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  • Ecuador, Crossing the Pacific, and Polynesia

    I got a few emails from people who read the old blog asking how I ended up in French Polynesia so here’s a brief summary of last years events and the Pacific crossing.

    Dosia was stored in Ecuador at Puerto Lucia Yacht Club for a total of 20 months from December 2006 to August 2008.  I was really happy with that boatyard for the long term storage.  Their weather has the perfect elements for boat storage: little rain, overcast skies, and dry air.  They also have tremendous security set up there and they seem to keep running logs of each boat in the yard.  I left Ecuador in April 2007 and  I returned last July.  A thick layer of dirt and airborne dust covered every inch of her but the paint job beneath was still in good shape.  No bugs, mold, or mildew and the only thing missing was small fender that fell off the back of the boat.  There’s some pics below.  I painted the bottom and did all the normal boatyard stuff while I waited for my crew to arrive in early August.  Thankfully, the managers of the yard and some of the marina residents warned me to start the paperwork early.   That process turned into a whole debacle and took something like 37 days to complete.   It took every bit of patience I had to get through it and I vented on the message boards around the web as it was happening.  You can read all about it here.

    Dirt After a long storage in Ecuador

    Once that was done, the crew and I set off for the Galapagos.  Aaron is the cousin of a friend I had been doing deliveries with back in the states.  He didn’t have a lot of experience but it wasn’t needed since I can pretty much sail Dosia by myself and downwind sailing in the Pacific doesn’t get any easier.  At the time, I had semi-budgeted out all my money for the rest of the year so I needed someone who could basically pay their own way.  Aaron had the added benefit still being in school and used the trip as a “semester abroad” where he’d sail with me and then continue on to the Cook Islands and New Zealand after we arrived in Tahiti.  It worked out well and I think Aaron would still be in New Zealand right now if it weren’t for school.

    In the Galapagos Galapagos Sunset
    After a short stop at the Galapagos, we started the Pacific crossing on August 31, picked up the tradewinds on day 3, and averaged 145 miles a day for the three-thousand mile crossing.  That’s fast for this size and type of boat and I couldn’t believe it when we pulled into the harbor at Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas after only twenty-one days.  The crossing itself went smooth but wasn’t without problems.  Somehow a rocker arm broke on the engine 750 miles from the Marquesas.  We could use the motor but it sounded like a freight train was driving through the cockpit so we didn’t turn it back on till we were a mile from the anchorage where we could get it repaired.  With the engine, we would have done it in twenty days cause I know of at least two instances I would have turned that sucker on!

    After twenty-four hours of flying and a two-hour mountain drive with Jean-Pierre, the French throat-talker, Margie arrived in Taiohae Bay on her first ever excursion out of the U.S.  We were stoked to keep moving so after touring Nuku Hiva by car and hiking the waterfall we headed back east to catch a glimpse of the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva before heading to the Tuamotus.  We intended to stop at the island of Ua Pou for the day to grab some fresh bread and use the ATM but when the engine died a mile outside the entrance to the main harbor, we found ourselves stuck.  And we almost found ourselves on the rocks after the wind died behind the mountains!  Two weeks later with a new fuel injection pump but still no functioning engine we left the island much wealthier than when we arrived.  We had made our first friends in French Polynesia.  Fara, Youri, and the family helped us with the engine, showed us around the island, partied with us, and loaded us down with more fresh fruit than three people could possibly consume.  Aaron went goat hunting with some of their friends from town.  They took us deep sea fishing.  We helped them sand the bottom of one of their fishing boats.  We even had a Marquesian slumber party at their house one night.   I don’t hesitate to call them lifelong friends and I’m excited at the prospect of seeing them again this year.

    P1050119 P1050229

    After the 700 mile engineless sail to Tahiti, I pulled Dosia into the harbor with the dinghy and started looking for help.   Aaron left on October 25th.  I remember this because it’s Margie’s birthday and we ate the most expensive meal I’ve ever had in the company of Vince Vaughn, John Favreau, and Jason Bateman at the Intercontinental Hotel.   A week later, we found ourselves boarding the boat…not our boat…a cruise ship.  For 10 days, we lived in the lap of luxury aboard the Tahitian Princess while Pascal, my godly mechanic, replaced the entire lower end of the motor in Papeete.  It was less expensive to grab a cruise for $700 a piece and eat for free than it was to stay in or around Papeete plus we got to visit many of the islands we were missing due to the mechanical problems.  After the cruise, we spent a few more nights in a hostel before the motor was complete.  From there, it was a quick sail over to Raiatea to haul the boat out and store her at CNI for cyclone season.  We made our way back to the states, bummed a room off my parents for a few months, worked odd jobs, and traveled up and down the eastern seabord.  Now here I am again.   Twelve more long days till Margie gets here.  Kinda wish I wasn’t on island time…

  • Always something broken on a boat

    Last night I decided we need a logo. Not a crappy logo either. I don’t want it ending up on this site. I’m in the market for someone who can turn the pic you see to the right into a basic logo design. If you know any good graphic designers, send me an email.

    I measured the output of the watermaker yesterday. It’s supposed to make around 1.5 gallons an hour. I’m getting six cups an hour. Now I’m no expert but I’d say the thing is broke. The Katadyn Powersurvivor 40 is the purchase I regret most of anything on the boat. I’ve hated that thing since the first time I turned it on and saw it dribbling water like grandpa at the urinal. It doesn’t make sense to have a watermaker that produces that little amount when I could have bought one that makes 30 gallons an hour. Yes, the small Powersurvivor only uses a fraction of the electricity but I would rather run the engine for a couple of hours and almost fill up the tanks with a big power hog. Next time, next time. I took it apart for the fourth time in a year to see if I could fix it and once it was back together I was up to 6.5 cups per hour. That’s with the brand new membrane I brought back to Tahiti with me. I’ve checked and double checked everything so I sent off an email to Katadyn this morning.

    I did a few searches and there are barely any cruising boats using Twitter. Others ought to look into it. I set up an account that will allow us to email Tweets (updates) from anywhere, even the satellite phone. It’s a great way to follow a cruising yacht in real time as they move about the globe. Not to mention, I get constant updates from the marine industry on news, products, sales, etc. Yeah, it’s one more thing to monitor and take care of but it’s also one more way to stay in touch with family and friends. And I’ve yet to meet a boat where that wasn’t important.

    Almost one week has passed since I moved over to Moorea and the only cash missing from my pocket was spent on a horrible meal at a roulotte. I’m determined to eat all the Ecuadorian food on this boat before I buy anything new and the selection is getting sparse. The one thing from Ecuador I’m truly sad to see dwindling is the peanuts. The crunchy coated peanuts from there have become my favorite snack on board. I wish I would have bought 50 cans. I’m sure I could have found somewhere to store those and about 25 more rolls of paper towels. I need to sit down and write an article. “What to overload your boat with before you cross the Pacific.” Peanuts and paper towels. There. The article is finished. I would like some fresh meat though and I may have to wander over to the store today. That grill is dying to be cranked up. It is Easter so I’m sure the picking will be slim. Hopefully I don’t get over there and find a sign like this on the door.

    No meet

  • Boat Jobs and Sailing Stories

    It was hot yesterday.  No wind, no clouds.  So I hung out on the boat all day working on odd jobs trying to avoid the sun with hopes of saving my recent layer of new skin.   Some water got left in the hose leading to the head and during the four months Dosia was in storage in Raiatea and some nasty stuff grew in there.  Every time I turn on the sink or the shower in the head, it smells funky, you might say “ripe,” for the first 20 seconds.  I began the job of pulling out the hose to see what can be done and made it about 4 feet before I cranked up the computer and started surfing.  This cartoon explains it all.

    So I was looking up some sailing stories and found some interesting stuff.  In Australia the other day, they found a dog who fell off a sailboat some 4 months ago and, after a 6 mile swim, survived on an island by herself eating goats.

    Then I got onto ghost ships and read about the old time Mary Celeste, which was found abandoned at sea in the 1870’s sailing herself merrily along towards Gilbraltar.  That story led me to the Kaz II.  Stories like these are freaking crazy.  A small catamaran is found drifting off the northern coast of Australia in 2007.   The engine is running, a laptop is sitting out turned on, and the table is set.  There is even a video camera with footage of the crew right up until the time of their disappearance.  No signs of distress or foul play.  Only a sailboat missing its three-man crew floating in the ocean.

    There’s 94 boats on the puddle jump list.  And I know of at least one other coming from Ecuador that’s not on the list.  I talked with Mike from Polynesia Yacht Services the other day and he said his emails dropped from 300 last year to 50 this year so it looks like it may be a slow season.   I don’t know whether that surprises me or not.  You wouldn’t think the economy would have such an effect on cruisers who, most likely, have been planning their departure for years but maybe some had to actually cancel their plans.  Who knows…  I guess we’ll find out soon enough.  Much of the fleet has just arrived in the Marquesas and will slowly make their way towards the Societies.  It sure will be nice to have some english speakers around.

  • Back to Tahiti

    The sail over to Tahiti from Bora Bora took twice as long as I thought but I guess you can say that’s typical of sailing.  I forgot about that westerly current that  pushed me backwards a knot in the direction from whence I came.  I was finally able to grab a wind shift and sail at an angle that made much more sense for my intended destination.  It’s been such a long time since I sailed upwind I forgot about the excitement that goes into it.   The rail spent most of the morning in the water yesterday.  To you non-sailors, the boat was heeled over so far the deck was awash.  That means I was going fast, not thinking of safety, and seeing if I could break anything.  After miles of easy downwind sailing, it was fun to push Dosia to her limits again and remember why I put so much hard work into making her seaworthy.  So there it is, my first overnight solo passage and I gotta say, I don’t like it.  I don’t understand solo sailors and how they do it or why they even want to.  I guess many don’t have a choice cause if they did, I assume they’d sail with a beautiful woman like I do (no offense Aaron…you were a good mate last year man).  In the end though, I guess it’s not who you are voyaging with as much as the fact you are actually out there doing it, living life the way you demand it be lived.

    And that brings me to my not-so-official quote of the week.  I was reminded of this quote reading a fellow Pearson 365 owner’s blog.  I used to have a copy of Sterling Hayden’s book, The Wanderer.  I have no idea what happened to it but I remember reading it 10 years or more ago and falling in love with the concept.  A hollywood actor in the 50’s, distraught with the industry, accused of being a communist, and pissed about his recent divorce, takes the kids and runs off on his sailboat to Tahiti. You may recognize him at the cop Michael Corleone kills in The Godfather but probably not as it was years after this photo was taken.  A famous quote from his book describes exactly what I’m doing out here and why I’m doing it at this point in my life.  Sterling Hayden died from prostate cancer at age 70.

    Sterling Hayden“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea… cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. “I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.” What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine – and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need – really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all – in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?”