Location 15° 41S, 149° 34W
Sunday, 09.30.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 15° 41S, 149° 34W at noon today. We have about 106 NM to go to Rangiroa. The weather is changeable. We had been more or less close hauled on the starboard tack, more or less heading for Rangiroa from noon yesterday to noon today. Light winds, 10-12 knots from the Southeast, but adequate to move the Maggie B at 4-6 knots. Lovely sailing. At noon today we got a little frontal passage, and now we are close hauled on the port tack, heading more or less for Rangiroa. A typical 120 degree wind shift. There are small rain squalls all around, so we are ready for anything.

Lunch today was our friend Livio’s avocados from Bora Bora with four clove garlic vinaigrette dressing (courtesy of the Captain), with French brie cheese, small, hot pork sausages and Arnold’s Ship Biscuits. Dessert was Charlie’s perfect papayas with lime juice. Washed down by the Schooner Maggie B’s finest desalinated water.

Most sailors know the term “marlin spike.” It is an essential tool for splicing and opening difficult knots. Few realize that marlin spikes were, in fact, marlin spikes, that is, the beak of marlin fish. Hannah and I are vastly fortunate to have been given nice marlin spikes from our friend Richard Postma. They have had the chance to dry out for a year. Now they need to be sanded and polished and appropriately decorated with fancy work.

At current speed, we will arrive at Rangiroa during the night. We will either slow down as we get close or find a nice spot to heave to, well off the reef. The Pacific Islands Pilot says that we can expect slack water in the pass “5 hours after moonrise; 4 hours before moonset; 5 hours after moonset; and 3 hours before moonrise.” We’ll see.

All is well.

Location 16° 41S, 151° 28W
Saturday, 09.29.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 16° 41S, 151° 28W, just around the corner from the Taravana Yacht Club, where we had moored for Friday night. We are finally underway for Rangiroa. We have about 235 NM to go and, wind and weather permitting, should be there Monday, October 1st.

Wind and weather are permitting us pretty well now. We are doing 6 knots, headed about for Rangiroa, as we have a 10-14 knot SE’erly, though things may change as we work our way out of Huahine’s wind shadow. It is a lovely clear day, with only a few clouds which serves as punctuation in the blue sky.

The scene as I write this at @1600 is completely beautiful. Huahine is about 20 NM off our starboard beam, the twin islands of Raietea and Taha’a are 20 NM behind us and Bora Bora punctures the horizon about 35 NM away on our port quarter.

If the technology worked, we uploaded a bunch of new photos to the web this morning, which I hope all will enjoy.

All is well.

On the ‘Road’ Again, Thursday, 09.27.2007

The Schooner Maggie B is finally on the move again. We left Bora Bora on Tuesday, September 25th and had a lovely sail across to Taha’a, as the wind had come a little South. We moored at the Taravana Yacht Club at 16° 40.9S, 151° 29.1W. All positions in this part of French Polynesia are approximate as the charts and GPS disagree by about 2/10ths of a mile. I’m sure that the French think that it is just another proof that the Americans are being mean to them. In any case, no prudent Captain would trust his GPS to take him closer than 2/10ths of a mile in French Polynesia (or perhaps anywhere else) until setting local error rates.

Tuesday night at the Taravana Yacht Club is buffet and dance night. The YC is ably run by Maui Postma, the son of our friend Richard. The buffet was delicious and included many of my favorites: chicken fafa, poisson cru with coconut milk and plates of sashimi. All much improved by a rum punch that had had the afternoon to “steep.” The dance was very good for a little, quiet island, with a great firedancer to finish it off. As always, one fascinating element was how many locals showed to watch from the shadows. While the show was officially for the tourists at the Yacht Club (we were perhaps 30), the real audience was the aunties and uncles and kids and boyfriends and girlfriends, who way outnumbered us.

We then motored on Wednesday, September 26th to Uturoa, the second biggest town in French Polynesia. Three story buildings! We fueled up and shopped the stores for provisions for the long leg to Chile. The town was quite different from Vaitape in Bora Bora. Vaitape is almost all about tourists and selling them pearls, or at least a t-shirt. Uturoa is the regional market town. Stores sell crates of things, not individual items. The ferry’s are loaded with food and packages almost more than people. There are even a few chic cafes, where overseas French pass a few hours over lunch, with cigarettes hanging from their lower lips.

Filling up on diesel was a revelation. The last time we did was in Papeete at Marina Taina. In Papeete, our port tank was empty and the starboard down perhaps 10 gallons. The starboard filled fine. The port was a problem. Full is about 120 gallons or 450 liters. At Marina Taina the guy running the pumps was a bit of a jerk, harassing us and fiddling with the pump. We put in 225 in the port tank before it burped and overflowed. Consternation. I dismantled the vent, blew everything out, double checked top to bottom. It wouldn’t take another ounce. Getting ready for this refueling, I roughly estimated that we had used 350 liters from the left tank. Hmmmm. How could we use 350 liters when we only put in 225 into an empty tank? In Uturoa, we filled it with 330 liters without any problem. The answer to our puzzle is that the jerk in Marina Taina must have inadvertently given us an extra 200 liters or so when he was fiddling with the pump. No problem!

At the dock in Uturao, one of those marvelous random events happened. Theresa had thrown overboard a bottle with a message when we were returning from Moorea to Papeete, a month or so ago. She mentioned the Maggie B, and that she was leaving us for another boat. The bottle was picked on the beach at the South end of Raietea a few days ago. Some of the information was a bit unclear and interest was ignited. There was a brief bit about it on local TV. A reporter for “La Depeche” got interested and found our website and saw that we were nearby and wandered down to the dock. I was relaxing in the cockpit having a medicinal (sore throat) afternoon Hinano beer, waiting for Hannah and Kath to return from t-shirt shopping. And so there should soon be another article about the Maggie B and our mysterious bottle in La Depeche, the voice of French Polynesia.

Wednesday night we spent at , just near the Pass Teavamoa. It was lovely with the hills and valleys West of us and the rollers pounding the coral reef just to the East. But a tough anchorage. The bottom went from about 130 feet to four feet in about 50 yards. We nosed in and dropped the anchor on the edge of the “hill” and hoped that the wind wouldn’t change. Fortunately it didn’t.

The Marae Taputapuatea

Today, Thursday, we went to one of the most fabulous spots in French Polynesia, the Marae Taputapuatea. This is the Vatican, the Jerusalem, of Polynesian culture. All other maraes had to have a stone from Taputapuatea to be consecrated. Voyages of exploration and conquer departed from here and went out the pass Teavamoa, the holy pass. New Zealand is 2216 NM, Hawaii is 2381, and the canoes came from here. The site is well restored, very impressive and used regularly. The delegations that came to Maupiti to invest the new king — from Hawaii, Tonga, the Cooks, Easter Island and New Zealand, came here afterwards for other ceremonies, including fire walking.

We are reminded of the international cultural connections tonight, as I write this, because 200 meters away is a dinner between a visiting Maori group and their Raietean hosts. The music, dancing and drums, over the last three hours, makes the Maggie B shake. We were met by a new friend, Charlie Gomph, who sailed out here 35 years ago from Hawaii with our friend Richard Postma. He has a lovely Raietean wife and lives in the hills above Taputapuatea, growing vanilla, Nonis, coconuts, bananas, breadfruit, avocados, papaya, taro, and much, much more. He recently got electricity and a telephone, which he considers a bit decadent. He is passionate about his island and helping it to a clean, green, non-tourist over-run future. We had a lovely, fascinating day with him covering history, ecology, gardening, politics and the future. He loaded us down with so much fruit and vegetables that we had to beg him to stop. We are baffled what to get him to thank him as he has everything, though not very much by most standards. He asked for some tubes of Neosporin, which isn’t available here. Charlie uses it regularly as he is also the “bush doctor” for his valley. Our new crew member, Robert Farrar will hopefully be able to bring some out to Rangiroa, which we can mail back to Charlie.

So tomorrow we plan to go back by Uturoa to get a few more things that we forgot. Then on back to Taravana Yacht Club for the night. We are hoping that the next system with a nice SE’erly comes through Saturday. Rangiroa is about 260 NM to the NE from here, so anything south of east would be a blessing.

In Rangiroa, at Hotel Kia Ora (see the web site, or read the great book “Fragile Edge”), on October 3rd, we should rendezvous with Robert Farrar, who will be our fourth crew member. Robert is a very experienced sailor from Atlanta, which we will try not to hold against him as he can more or less speak standard American (if there is such a thing). He will join me, Hannah Jordrey and Kath Moore. Kath is 24 and from Australia. We met her when she was the Mate on the Windward Bound, a 88 foot brigantine, based in Hobart. Kath joined in Bora Bora. Full resumes will follow soon for the crew page.

All is well.

Location 16° 32S, 151° 45W
Monday, 09.24.2007

The Schooner Maggie B is still in Bora Bora at 16° 32S, 151° 45W. No, we haven’t “swallowed the anchor,” though it is getting a bit of marine growth on it. We are still waiting to get a new computer and camera which have made it to Tahiti, but are caught in Customs. Each day they say “tomorrow” and then ask for more documentation. Mañana, mañana.

Planning our next lap

After Bora Bora we are headed over to Taha’a and Raiatea, then off to Rangiroa in the Tuamotus. We have spent a lot of time looking at the charts of the South Pacific the last few days and now it seems as if we will have to skip the Marquesas “this lap.” The general plan is to be in Montevideo, Uruguay, about the second week of December, which would mean passing the Horn about the first of December, which would mean hitting Puerto Montt, Chile about the first of November.

It is about 4200 nm from Rangiroa to Puerto Montt, or perhaps a month, allowing for a stop at Easter Island. So than means leaving Rangiroa about the First of October. Not that far away.

An historic occasion in Maupiti

We had a lovely trip last week. Our friend Richard Postma Captain of the Taravana (see www.taravana.com) took us over to Maupiti in his little game fishing boat, the LunaSea (his daughter is named Luna). We went over in the LunaSea because the pass at Maupiti is infamous for its danger and difficulty. Even with LunaSea, it took two little boats coming out the Pass to guide us in. The swell breaks full across the pass, and the outflow is about eight knots, with a 90 degree turn right in the middle. You have to wait for a break in the wave sets to rush in. Fortunately Richard is a surfer and good at reading waves. Even so we would have gone back to Bora Bora if it hadn’t been for the locals helping us to time the sets.

We went for a marvelous historic occasion. The people of Maupiti were choosing a new “king.” They had delegations from Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga and Easter Island to support the occasion, which was held on Monday the 10th, the new moon at their restored marai. On the following day they were to have a “Peche de Cailloux” — literally “pebble fishing.” The pebbles are stones about as big around as two fists together, tied to a 2-3 meter rope.

The whole community comes out, including every boat. Men only in the boats, one to steer and one to scare the fish by smashing the water with the stone. The goal was a strip of beach perhaps 200 meters wide. At either side of the target were wings of people with palm fronds tied together, extending out into the lagoon perhaps 200 meters. At a signal, a smoky fire lit on a spot of beach visible to all, the two wings of boats close in from left and right, smashing the water and creating maximum fuss. Perhaps 30 boats to a side. Behind the boats are little speedy boats with tall flags, zipping up and down like samurai warriors on horseback with their signal flags, keeping the lines straight.

The boat wings meet those standing in the water (including your Captain) and more palm fronds are rushed out to close gaps. Much shouting and thrashing. The trap is closed with the usual confusion of too many Chiefs giving too many orders, but all good humored with singing and insults and encouragement shouted up and down the line. Everyone is dressed in pareus and flowers, some combinations being amazing. The biggest, baddest guy has his tiny granddaughter on his shoulders, teenage boys tease teenage girls, Westerners shoulder the line and learn the latest variation of handslap greetings. Brave fish jump the line, occasionally hitting people in the head, to great amusement. Once the circle is pushed all the way in, dignitaries are given fish spears to get the first fish. The Hawaiia representative (a State Senator from Maui) went first, looking very uncomfortable, but handily spearing a nice three foot Jack. The rest of the fish are speared or grabbed, making for a reasonable catch, though not worth all the effort in a narrow cost/benefit analysis. But for community building, invaluable.

Jack London, in his The Cruise of the Snark reports on a Peche de Cailloux done in his honor in 1907 in Bora Bora, where they got zero fish. He reports that one out of five were then complete failures, and that they did it about monthly. In Maupiti, this was the first Peche de Cailloux in seven years. It isn’t done any more in Bora Bora. We will have photos soon, including of the Pass. We hope to be out of Bora Bora by this weekend, and over to the Tuamotus by next week. We’ll see. Island Time.

All is well.

Location 16° 32S, 151° 45W
Saturday, 09.08.2007

The Schooner Maggie B is steady in Bora Bora at the same anchorage 16° 32S, 151° 45W. We are on a lovely sand platform in about 20 feet of water. The area is about 200 meters by 300 meters, without any coral. We have an excellent anchoring system out, 120 feet of 1/2 inch chain, a 100 pound Manson Supreme anchor on the end, and a 30 pound “Anchor Buddy” about 17 feet down the chain from the bow.

As the Maggie B works back and forth, the chain rakes the bottom. the other night we had a bit of a system go through and we had 20-25 knots of wind from all around the compass. The Manson Supreme reset perfectly and didn’t move more than a few feet in any direction. In the morning (I swim to check the anchor every morning), the bottom looked like a Japanese Zen garden that had been raked in a perfect 100 foot circle.

The local rays seem to like the raking that the anchor chain does. They search for goodies just under the sand and then suck them up, ejecting the sand out of their gills. The depressions that they leave are the size of large soup plates to small woks. The spotted Leopard rays spread out their normally narrow nose to something that looks like a sapper’s mine detector as they coast along close to the sand hunting their prey.

There are many flounders along our sand platform. Normally they are invisible, but they can’t effectively hide where the sand has been raked by the movement of the chain because though they have the color right, they can’t match the ridges.

We are near the famous Hotel Bora Bora. Their over-water bungalows are the most expensive on the island. We, however, have the perfect over-water bungalow in the Maggie B, though the beds aren’t King-Sized and romantically draped with mosquito netting.

It is interesting to see the current dance program at the Hotel Bora Bora. All of it is quite authentic as different troupes compete for the 14 July festival. Ten years ago it was mostly girls, with just a few guys dancing. Now there is lots of emphasis on the traditional male exploits, like fire dancing, spear throwing and rock lifting. They even do a “haka” imported, it seems, from the Maori.

We are quite excited by our next expedition. A nearby island is called Maupiti. It is remote and has a difficult pass. On Monday they are to choose the King of Maupiti, which happens only every 10 years. On Tuesday, they are going to do a traditional “stone fishing” where the whole community comes out to capture lagoon fish by slapping the water with stones tethered in traditional braids to herd the fish together. We are going over with a waiter from the Hotel Bora Bora who is from Maupiti, either in the “Maupiti Express,” the TaraVana, our friend Richard Postma’s catamaran, or in the Maggie B, if we have a good local guide for the pass. It should be
epic.

All is well.

Location 16° 32S, 151° 45W
Tuesday, 09.04.2007

The Schooner Maggie B has returned to a lovely spot off of Hotel Bora Bora at 16° 32S, 151° 45W. Taha’a was a marvelous break. Our friend Erwin Christian took some smashing photos of the Maggie B outward bound from Bora Bora. They are up on the web now. Erwin and I are making one of them into a post card that will eventually be sold in all the shops in Bora Bora!

Communication from the Maggie B will be erratic for a while. A few nights ago I fell in the water returning to the Maggie B, unfortunately carrying a briefcase with the primary computer, camera and cell phone. None swam well. Even though the briefcase was in the water for only a few seconds, all were ruined. In 2000 departures and rrivals on the Maggie B, the first time I fell in the water, I was carrying the good stuff. All ship’s papers, passports, etc. as well.

After passing up the briefcase, I swam around to the ladder to get on the boat, loosing my wallet in the process. A bad night.

Fortunately, the next day at first light, when I went looking for the wallet, there it was 50 meters behind the boat, in only 30 feet of water. At least I didn’t have the hassle of new credit cards and license.

New phone was easy and the SIM card works fine. The computer was backed up and the hard drive seems fine. The camera’s SIM chip also seems fine. And we have the #2 computer, all
paralleled, right? Wrong. The #2’s power connection failed
and the power supply chip shorted out the first morning it
was called on. But I’ve saved its hard drive and will
download everything, just as soon as I can get a new
computer, which may be in a few days. There is a very
helpful team of computer wizards on the island, so we are
well supported.

More soon.

All is well.