Mahina Expeditions offers offshore sail-training expeditions, offshore sailing seminars and boat purchase consultation.
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As it turned out, two fairly intense lows parked over New Zealand for nearly a week, with storm-force winds knocking out power in Auckland suburbs and causing damage in Northland. The cause was a very large, unmoving 1032 high pressure cell that parked east of NZ on May 10. For us, having thought we had left NZ on favorable weather system, the resulting stationary squash zone (compression of isobars between the high and the lows situated over NZ) was forecast to have 50 kt NE headwinds and very large seas for quite a few days. A tropical low was forecast to come down from Fiji, making another very strong wind situation to the north of NZ, and was predicted to last several days. From our position at latitude 35 S there were no easy or comfortable options. Bob McDavitt of NZ MetService recommended a course NNW, toward the Kermadec Islands, NE of NZ, telling us to expect up to 50 kts in squalls and swells to 6.5 meters (20’).
By 0600 on May 11 we had the third reef in the main and 50% of the 130% genoa reefed as the ENE winds gusted into the low 30’s. The seas, which had been large and crossed since our departure, became even more confused. By 1600 on the 12th the winds reached solid 30 kts, gusting to 45 and we shifted tactics from close reaching to forereaching by furling the headsail and continuing on under triple-reefed main alone. This dropped our speed from 6 to 3 kts, but forereaching meant we weren’t dropping off the breakers with mega crashes into the following troughs. The boat felt more comfortable and the off watch crew could get some rest. We now found ourselves situated at the convergence of the low from the north, a warm front, and the fast-overtaking cold front.
By 0600 on May 16 the same pesky front (this time shown on the NZ weatherfax charts as a combination convergence zone and occluded front) had sped up and came roaring over us again. We resorted to forereaching in 30+ kts with gusts peaking at 46 kts. The seas were huge and rather confused but at least this time we were able to steer our course. Again following the frontal passage and torrential rains the winds dropped and we motorsailed for a few hours to maintain some headway in the lumpy seas.
Yesterday was our best day to date, a measly 132 miles but after 12 days at sea it was a huge accomplishment in the right direction. We’d sailed an extra 400 miles in the wrong direction. With 12 knots of breeze at sunrise we couldn’t resist setting the spinnaker which we flew until sunset. It was interesting to note that with the wind relatively forward we were able to keep the boatspeed up to 5-6 knots in winds as light as 7 kts. Last night the wind filled in and the swell dropped until we were flying at 8+ knots, and this morning, with winds touching 17-18 kts, we tucked the first reef in the main only to discover we sailed slightly faster and flatter. This crew has been amazing. In the worst of the weather Marta would be on the wheel dodging spray and singing away in French or Spanish. Each has said, "This is great experience, and exactly why I chose Leg 1!" Are they nuts, or what?
I am Marta Ripoll de Urrutia, 54, a Columbian mother of two girls, (26 & 19) and a boy (24). I grew up in Cartagena and have been married with Felipe for 31 years. We live in Bogota where I own two MaxMara Italian fashion shops. We have bareboat chartered for 25 years and now Felipe is trying to convince me to buy a sailboat and sail around the world with a rally. For that I would need to know much more about sailing and that is why I am here. Felipe Urrutia, 55 from Columbia where I have always lived at 8000’ in Bogota and need a change, so I am planning a round the world cruise with my wife. I signed up for this expedition to get real experience of crossing an ocean. For 18 years I have had a rose farm, exporting flowers worldwide. Bob Mass, 55. I’m a recently retired physician from the SF Bay area exploring options for the next phase of life. I sailed small keel boats on the Bay with my wife Sheila until our kids arrived and she refused to take them onboard. Now that they are off to college, I have joined this expedition to gain more skills to enable the dream of a slow circumnavigation, hopefully aboard a Hallberg-Rassy. Seth Siegal, 63 from Seattle. Since retiring in 2006 from a career in software development, I returned to my teenage passion for sailing. I have been cruising the coastal waters of Puget sound and Canada and later this summer we take delivery of a new Malo 40, on which my wife and I plan to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. Jim Kerr, 63 from San Francisco. I retired from an accounting business last fall and am thinking about taking my CS 36 on the Baha HaHa race this year. I joined this expedition to sharpen my offshore skills and to make sure ocean sailing is for me. Jim is a keen cyclist and is already talking about renting a bike once we reach Rurutu. Jim Floyd, 61. I am a professor of veterinary medicine at North Carolina State University. I am a novice sailor, having just completed Offshore Sailing School’s Fast Track to Cruising course before joining this expedition. My goal is to become a confident, competent skipper capable of chartering in different countries. This has been a fantastic learning experience in the company of wonderful companions. Shortly after this expedition ends I have volunteered to go to Afghanistan to help the farmers with their cattle. I had a similar deployment to the Horn of Africa in 2008.
May 20, 2010, 0530 hrs, 25.58 S, 158.22 W, Log: 137,865 miles, 437 miles to Rurutu, Austral Islands
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Amanda even made her first batch of date scones |
Seth takes a sun sight |
However, a couple glitches popped up. After using my laptop to run our PowerPoint screen for sail trim class, I plugged it back into the Iridium satphone to download the weather GRIB files. The Iridium wasn’t about to cooperate – it’s little screen would read, Call Forward On, and then it would drop calls after two seconds. I tried every trick I knew; shutting everything down, pulling the batteries out of the phone and computer, and then trying again, then going into the Iridium menu to see if perhaps some setting had been changed. I finally got a message off to UUPlus, our satellite compression service and received an almost instant reply that the entire Iridium system was down because of a switch they had changed. UUPlus was now in the queue waiting for a fix. This was the last thing in the word I expected and during the 13 years we’ve used the Iridium system it’s the first time a problem like this has occurred. Hopefully the system will be back working today. We carry an entire spare Iridium phone, docking station and antenna, but I haven’t actually rigged it up before, something I must do.
Over the last couple of days Amanda and I had both noticed our Frigoboat fridge didn’t seem as cold as normal. Both thinking things might get better we just put it (hopefully) down to the fact that a few times I had forgotten to turn it back on after switching it off to make weatherfax chart reception clearer. Last night I tried turning the tempertature control down but when the box felt warmer than early this morning I decided something was wrong. At 4 am I checked the refer saltwater cooling pump in the engine room, which is always warm, but it was dead cold. To see if the pump was the problem I checked for voltage coming to the pump when the fridge was on, and there was none. I next rewired the pump to the identical bilge sump pump next to it and found that the refer pump was ok. Then I zeroed in on the small 24 volt to 12 volt step-down transformer under the sink that powers the pump and Bingo! I discovered a blown fuse. Upon replacing the 5amp fuse everything is working fine. The million dollar question here: do fuses ever die of fatigue and old age, or is there a short somewhere? I think I’d best order a spare transformer from HR Parts in Sweden. Even better, I should switch to the newer system that eliminates the troublesome seawater circulation pump, simply using an external small keel-cooler to dissipate the heat from the fridge and freezer. It’s been on the market now about ten years so was not an option when MT was built.
Our winds that had been so steady for days dropped off and we spent the last half day motoring in calm winds with the goal of reaching tiny Rimatara, the westernmost of the inhabited Austral Islands before dark.
By 1630 we anchored well off a white sandy beach in 30’ depths and without any encouragement everyone donned masks and snorkels and jumped in for a swim. The water was crystal clear, with visibility over 100’. We saw three fishermen in small outrigger canoes and a handful of people on the beach, but that was all.
As Rimatara is not a port of entry we couldn’t go ashore, so before dusk we raised anchor and set sail on what turned out to be a fast 82 miles reach then run towards Rurutul. Upon rounding the northern tip of the island at dawn we decided to heave to briefly off the tiny Moerai Harbor to let a small squall pass and gain a little more daylight.
The harbor was built specifically for Tuhaa Pae II, the small freighter owned by the Austral Islands which calls at Rurutu every couple of weeks. There were only two fishing-speedboats in the water and a few racing outrigger canoes visible onshore so we could choose between dropping an anchor and backing up to the harbor wall, or side-tying alongside the large black rubber ship fenders at the quay. We chose the second option and dropped the anchor several boat lengths off the wharf to help hold us off. This worked well and with an unusual westerly wind there was almost no surge in the basin. By utilizing eight dock lines along with anchor, Mahina Tiare rode quietly; only occasionally would our fenders touch the black ship’s fender.
As soon as we had completed mooring I hiked a half mile to the Gendarmerie, not expecting them to be open at 9am Sunday morning. After buzzing the intercom installed on the outer gate a gendarme answered. He said he would stop by the boat at 2 pm and that in the meantime we were free to explore the island.
MT anchored and tied to the quay |
Island shoreside view with MT in the basin half way along the reef |
Crew receiving gifts of pamplemousse and bananas |
We each signed up for one hour mooring watches and those not on watch took off exploring. The mooring watches turned out to be very entertaining as following church many locals came to check us out and take pictures. They all said it had been many years since a yacht had stopped at Rurutu although two years ago they’d seen a yacht sailing past the island in the distance, but it hadn’t stopped. We invited many of the visitors aboard as they were very curious to see below, often wondering what we ate and how we showered. Before long gifts of fruit were piled high on the decks and invitations to tour the island were pouring in.
John meeting with the Gendarmes |
Timothy, a young retired interpreter and his wife took all of our gang off to lunch and to see the largest cave, complete with massive stalactites and stalagmites.
Marta was a special hit with the local ladies. A woman named Tiare arrived at the boat asking for Marta and we explained the Marta was out touring and would be back later. Tiare had brought us generous portions of her families traditional Sunday feast which had been cooked in the underground earth oven. The food included pork, taro, and taro leaves along with grated coconut fermented with a special small crab. When Marta returned she was rather baffled by the gift from Tiare as she’d never even met her before. Tiare, who was extremely shy, had brought with her friend Marie Boucard, a vivacious young French-Italian, to act as translator. Marie had arrived in Tahiti three years earlier when she had been working as a crew aboard a mega yacht and had become captivated by island life. Both Tiare and Marie eagerly accepted an invitation to come aboard. Tiare, like nearly all of the locals had never been on a yacht before and was very intrigued as to how everything worked. Tiare’s three children were too scared to come aboard at first but once mum was on the aft deck it then seemed ok and they were soon leaping aboard and scurrying around to check out everything.
Marie, Tiare and Marta on the aft deck |
![]() Marie, Marta, Filipe and James enjoying Tiare’s traditional dinner |
This morning Amanda and I went for a dawn run along the coast and got to view a few limestone caves. Everyone we passed waved and smiled and when we stopped in one of the three Chinese stores, the owner saw our Hilo Bay Paddler shirts and asked if we had been to Hilo. She and her family had just returned from attending the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo and said they loved visiting the Big Island of Hawaii.
One the many limestone caves |
It felt a little sad to be leaving such a beautiful and friendly island so soon and before long we watched Rurutu, this magical little piece of paradise recede into the horizon.
Our sailing conditions have been perfect, with the wind varying between 12 and 20 knots and from a beam to broad reach, so MT has been just eating up the miles.
Jim sets the preventer as sail out of the lee of the island |
May 29, 2010, 0600 hrs, 17.28 S, 149.48 W, Log: 138,690 miles, at anchor off Moorea
As we neared the Taapuna pass Wednesday morning, our winds died to 4-5 knots but we managed to ghost along whilst enjoying amazing images of Tahiti and Moorea at sunrise. Previous expedition members Laura and Giogio were moored at Marina Taina aboard their Nordhaven 47 Lisa Maire. They’d spoken with the marina manager, finding us just-vacated slip across from theirs in the very full little marina.
When I headed to town to check us in Amanda was in the process of covering going aloft for rig check and I’m happy to report that every one of our expedition members made it safely up and down the mast. While I made lunch crew practiced using our new Sailrite sewing machine and after lunch Amanda covered double braid splicing and how to build fishing lures. James created a spectacular blue and sliver lure named Chepito (singing debt collector) while Marta’s pink passion lure was christened Conchita. They’re rigged and ready so well report soon on how they perform.
MT arriving at Marina Taina |
James, Marta and Amanda in full lure creation |
We all enjoyed sunset drinks aboard Laura and Giorgio’s boat and an excellent dinner ashore before heading to Moorea yesterday morning.
Wow, Leg 1 is over and our crew departed with many praises and thanks for a rewarding experience. Amanda and I now be will be working on varnish, laundry, sewing projects, chores while mixing in some fun reef swims, runs up the valleys and kayaking. Surprisingly, there are very few boats here on Moorea. We’re not sure if that’s because we’re early in the season, or if there are fewer cruising boats this year. Cook’s Bay usually has 15-20, but I only counted four on my sunset kayak paddle last night. Still... we've got a couple of more days here on Moorea so I’m sure we’ll encounter a few more boats and perhaps some old friends.
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