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.

  • Cruising and the Internet

    As I sat here today checking the progress of the Puddle Jumpers on their way across the pond this year, I realized how nuts it is to high speed internet access here on the boat.  When I graduated high school, wifi was barely a blip on the radar.  Now, twelve years later, I’m sitting at anchor in one of the most beautiful places in the world sending text messages to Margie in Georgia and updating my Twitter page.  Many cruisers will argue I’m not really experiencing “the life” if I’m plugged into what’s going on at home but welcome to the future people.  As we get closer to a “viable” satellite broadband solution for smaller yachts I think cruising will shift to a younger, still career-minded crowd.  I put viable in quotes because they do have systems on the market but the data transfer amounts are still small for how much money they want.  How many jobs these days require nothing more than a desk, a computer, and the internet.  Hell, I was up at 3:30 this morning to monitor the opening of the stock market.  With the right technology, those jobs can be done from any where in the world, even the middle of the ocean.  No reason we shouldn’t have graphic designers, active traders, and other web based business people out here then.  That’s why I check blogs like Panbo’s Marine Electronics continuously waiting for the next big announcement.  It shan’t be long till I check the site one day to hear Ben Ellison raving about a $100/month all-you-can-eat satellite broadband provider.  I’d be happy to shell out several thousand on equipment if someone could come up with that.

    Speaking of communications.  I looked over today and realized I haven’t once turned on my SSB radio since I’ve been in the Pacific Ocean.  I spent all that money and time installing it and I only used it a few months in the Caribbean to pick up Chris Parker’s weather net.  I only use the Iridium for email these days.  It’s so easy.  And maybe I’m a little anti-social when it comes to radio nets.  So what.  Doesn’t make me a bad cruiser.  So I made a note and tomorrow I shall be up at 5am to monitor the nets and see how the Puddle Jumpers are doing.  Let’s see if I can get some use out of the thing this year.

    ssb