richardhammer

Hiva Oa is another beautiful spot in the Marquesas. It is far more industrial than Fatu Hiva but still very rural on our standards. The anchorage was very crowded and we ended up anchoring too close to the freight dock, requiring us to move in the morning incase a ship was going to come in. On Wednesday morning we dinghied to shore where we were picked up by our tour guide Frida for the day. She took us first to immigration to check into the country. All went smoothly there and we were then off to explore the island. We took the main road which runs all over the island up the mountains and down the switchbacks from one side to the other. We saw many little towns and beautiful valleys. Along the way we stopped at a few key locations. One of them was called the smiling tiki. It is a rock carving of a tiki that is smiling and we were asked to identify if it was a man or a woman. We went with woman based on hand placement and the way the hair was done. It turns out we were correct but for all the wrong reasons. Oh well. We also stopped at some petroglifs, as well as a nice beach, and a farm where they were making dried bananas. We were able to sample the bananas as well as buy a lot of additional fruit. At the end of the all day tour, after bouncing along the miles and miles of dirt road, Frida brought us back to the boat around 6 PM.

We had made plans to have dinner onboard our friend’s boat Double Diamond so we stopped by Murar’s Dream, grabbed a few supplies, then took the dinghy to Double Diamond. Andy cooked up his famous chicken coconut curry and the 6 of us told our war stories and conversed over some fine food and bubbly celebrating safe arrival to French Polynesia.

The following morning Andy, Debra, and I, along with Melody and Cassie from Double Diamond, walked the 45 minutes into town. We explored the local shops and bakeries and I splited off with the Double Diamond crew while Andy and Debra hiked up to view the local cemetery. After a few hours of exploring it was back to the boat so that I could pack.

I began what turned out to be a rather lengthily process of putting everything I had in 2 large duffle bags and my backpack. By the time I was finished they were stuffed full and quite heavy. I was worried that they might not make weight for the plane but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best; I did pay the extra $150 for the 2 bag ticket but was still concerned.

After packing, we refueled Murar’s Dream. This is no pull up to the dock and drop the nozzle in. Nope. This had to be done using the 5 gallon cans. We loaded them into the dinghy, headed over to the fuel station, filled the cans, then back in the dinghy to empty them into Murars Dream’s tank. 2 hot sweaty trips later she was full!

After dripping sweat for a few hours Andy and I headed back to shore to use the outdoor shower for a well deserved rinse. It was then time for my going away dinner out at the local pizza restaurant. But, we could not head there without first heading to Double Diamond for Margaritas. Jeff makes a mean Margarita! An hour and a few drinks later everyone was sufficiently boisterous and we disbursed on the dinghies to the dock where the restaurant had sent a car to pick us up. 9 of us squished into the Range Rover and headed up to dinner. I ordered an everything pizza that was piled high with lots of veggies including artichoke hearts and too much other stuff to remember. No olives though! It was absolutely delicious! A few bottles of wine and a few martini glasses of chocolate mousse later, we piled back into the car and it was back to the boats! It was a wonderful last night full of fun and conversation with some of the nicest people on the seas.

Hiva Oa airport. I was free to run right out onto the runway if I had wanted to.

Smiling Tiki

Lookout point

Hiva Oa lunch spot

Largest Tiki on the Island

Monday at Fatu Hiva we decided to take advantage of the beautiful terrain and went on a long hike. We tried to hike to “le cascade” (the waterfall) which is one of the sites to visit on the island but were never quite successful. We had planned to do the hike on Sunday after church but were advised that the road and trail would be too muddy and slippery, so we postponed the venture until Monday. There are no signs here and it is one of those walk till you hit the big rock and turn left type of things. Although we never made it to the base of the waterfall, we did see it from a distance and got another good hike in instead. The whole island is so picturesque that no matter where you turn, you will enjoy the natural beauty. We found some fruit trees on the side of the road and loaded up with limes, so im sure some lemonadas are in the near future! On the return, we came across some locals scooping up dried coconut meat and laying out fresh meat to dry on a large concrete slab. We were able to learn that the dried meat is then used to make coconut oil and soap which is then taken to Papeete for sale at a semi-annual exposition.

Later in the evening we had a local Marquesian dinner at one of the local’s homes. The previous day Debra and I had dinghied around coordinating with all the boats in the anchorage and we were able to coordinate a good crowd of people to attend the dinner.  13 of us rendezvoused at the dinghy dock and walked up the street to the home of Serge and Kati. There was laid out a feast of chicken, fish, breadfruit, papaya salad, red and yellow bananas, and, of course, rice. They had set up a large banquet-style table, so we were all able to sit together. At first, Serge was off conducting a mass and training others how to conduct the prayers, but on his return, he, along with one of his granddaughters, became the entertainment. He broke out ukulele-style instruments and played and sang for us all. Andy, along with Serge’s granddaughters joined in playing instruments and singing. Later in the night Serge brought out some of the wood carvings (Tiki) which he does. He uses a very hard wood known locally as steel wood, and it is almost rock-hard and extremely dense-much more so than even teak. The carvings were very neat and I am sure he will have a good showing at the Tahiti exposition.

After we were all well-fed and entertained, we all dinghied back to our respective boats for a good night’s sleep. In the morning we are off to Hiva Oa.

Walking on Fatu Hiva

Fatu Hiva Anchorage

We made it! We arrived at Fatu Hiva Island (Marquesas) on Saturday 4/13/13. The entire trip took us 21 days and 2 hours. This is quite amazing considering I guessed that it would take 21 days 4 hours! We averaged about 6.3 knots. Not too shabby! The journey as a whole went well with minimal breakages and problems. The biggest thing to note was a failed impeller/water intake on the generator. We were able to open it up and get it fixed in a matter of a few hours. If that hadn’t been fixable, things would have been much different. Other than that, no serious breakages or line chafing. Just the usual auto pilot shut downs and overpowering wind gusts in big seas. By the end, we were all definitely ready to be here though! It is very exhausting and hard on the body trying to live your daily life while constantly bouncing around or being healed over. I am looking forward to my first night’s sleep in 21 days on a flat bed! But, first things first! As soon as we anchored Andy and I went into the water to scrape all of the barnacles off of the hull. If you do not get them right away, they quickly calcify and then are nearly impossible to get off. We spent a couple hours under the boat with the snuba rig scraping and cleaning and got most of the barnacles off. The hull is still green with algae growth, but that can wait until tomorrow or the next day. For dinner tonight we are grilling some Dorado that we caught and enjoying a nice bottle of Two Hands Ares wine to celebrate.

Fatu Hiva is a beautiful picturesque island that reminds me of scenes from the movie Avatar. It is very lush with lots of foliage and green everywhere. There are no beaches here but instead huge cliffs and skyscraping rock formations. The anchorage is very deep so lots of chain is needed and although it is clam, the wind howls through in excess of 30 knots so you need to be prepared for that. It also likes to turn from bright sun to torrential downpours in a matter of a few seconds. Those of you who have spent your whole life in CA have never experienced anything like it. Those of you with some east coast experience might understand. In a few seconds there is like 3 inches of water on the ground and everything is absolutely soaked. You had better hope you didn’t forget to close a window! We plan to be here until Monday or Tuesday and then we will head over to Hiva Oa to officially check into the country. We would consider staying longer but there is no way to get money here and we don’t have much in the way of French Polynesian Francs. We traded a fishing hook and some wine for a bundle of bananas, limes, and grapefruit but don’t have too much more that we want to trade at the moment. There are some great hikes but they generally involve a boat ride or car ride and that costs money! We will see what we can do and then will be heading out!

The time has come for us to depart the Galapagos. All of our paperwork is done, we are filled up on fuel, the food has been stocked, the boat has been thoroughly cleaned, the bottom scraped, and the laundry is being picked up in the morning; and Saturday we are off! The Galapagos has been a great adventure and beautiful place to explore but it is time to move on. I am excited to get moving again. This leg of the trip will be 3000NM and will take us across the Pacific Ocean to the Marquises Islands. We hope to be able to make the trip in 21 days. If we are under that would be fantastic and if we are over it will likely be due to a lack of wind. We do not have enough fuel on board to motor so we will be sailing most of the time and if the wind dies, we will be forced to sit and wait. There is a group of 7 boats that will all be leaving the anchorage on Saturday and we will keep in touch along the way. We will quickly be out of eyesight however due to the different speeds, exact courses, and the vast size of the ocean! Every morning and afternoon there is a radio network set up that all of the boats in the area chat on and trade valuable information so we will all be participating in that as well.

When we leave the Galapagos, which are located at about 1 degree south latitude, we will have to head SW to get down to the trade winds which currently can be found at about 5or 6 degrees south. One we get down there we will start heading more West and hopefully ride the trade winds the entire way across. I will miss you all over the next few weeks and will not be able to communicate until we get to the Marquesas and only then if I can find internet. We will however be blogging on our sailblog almost daily while we are underway. If you wish to follow our progress you can check out www.sailblogs.com/member/murarsdream.

Hope everyone has a great few weeks and I will talk to you from the other side of the puddle!

We have arrived in our final Galapagos Anchorage; Isabella. It is a small little anchorage surrounded by shallow rocks and underwater reefs. There are 12 other boats here and it seems rather full. Hopefully we don’t get too many other boats coming in or it might get a bit squishy. A number of our old friends are here and we are getting reacquainted. We are currently waiting for our agent to come and check us in so that we can legal leave the boat. If he doesn’t show up w/in the next few hours I think we will go ashore anyway. We plan to be here between 1-2 weeks and then we will be off to the Marquesas. I am hoping the winds come up and we are able to leave on the sooner side so that I have more time to enjoy French Polynesia. I will keep you posted with any new developments.

Since getting back from the cruise on Thursday, there has been a lot going on. On Friday, Debra, my mom, and I went snorkeling at Kicker Rock on a day tour. The tour was extremely unorganized and they were running about an hour late. We finally got on the boat and they drove around for an hour pretending to give us a boat tour but really we were stalling while waiting for some other people to arrive. They finally arrived at about 1045 when we had been told to meet at the dive office at 830 in the morning. They quickly jumped from their water taxi onto our boat and we sped off to the dive site. At our first site we saw lots of sea lions and some fish. The sea lions were very playful and I got some great video. We then all climbed back into the boat, which wasn’t really designed for easy access from the water, and made our way to Kicker Rock. Here, the scuba divers went in the water first. Just as us snorkelers were about to jump in, the divers rose back to the surface and said the current was way too strong and that we were on the wrong side of the rock. We had to remove our gear and move back into to boat so that the divers had room to get on with their tanks and everything. The boat then moved to the other side of the rock and we went for it again. Finally in the water we quickly adjusted for the current and began to move around the rock. One had to constantly swim in order to stay still so it was quite a bit of work. However, I found it to be well worth it because we got to see lots of black tip and white tip sharks as well as turtles and of course fish. I was hoping for a hammerhead but was not lucky enough to see one. As of now, that is still the only thing I would like to see that has eluded me thus far.

After the diving was over, we returned to the boat and cleaned up. We had arranged for a local family who I had befriended through a volunteer on the island to come over to visit the boat as they had never been on one before. The mom and dad brought their 2 little kids with them and they played on the boat, jumped in the water, and had a great time. They caught the water taxi back to town and we followed shortly after to meet them again for dinner. We ate at a great grill and had a wonderful evening. Debra and my mom returned to the boat after dinner and I stayed out for another hour to experience the local Karaoke bar. It was great fun and everyone here loves to sing (In Spanish of course). But the night had to come to an end and I had to say my goodbyes and catch the last water taxi back to the boat.

First thing in the morning we prepped the boat to head over to Santa Cruz Island, about 43 miles away. We had expected a few guests to join us for this trip but it turned out that none of them were able to for one reason or another. Debra hoisted the anchor while I manned the helm and Donna relayed messages back and forth. The anchor came up with no problems and we were off to Puerto Ayura in Santa Cruz. The trip was a bit rolly and had minimal wind starting out so we motored happily along. As we got a little further the wind picked up but was right on our back so we decided to just keep motoring and get there faster rather than try to sail. The gps kept losing our signal for some reason and at one point it thought we were on land and doing 15kts. I was able to get us there despite this confusion. We pulled into the bay and were surprised at how many boats we found anchored. We circled around the anchorage looking for a good spot. I felt like I was a dog on my morning walk looking for the perfect hydrant. After talking with a few of the boats and looking at who had stern anchors out and who didn’t, we found the perfect little spot right beside our friends from San Cristobal, Summerset. We dropped the anchor and then backed on it past where we wanted to be in order to set the stern anchor. Getting the stern anchor where I wanted it turned out to be a bit difficult so we had a water taxi come over and help drop it. We got all settled and waited for our Agent to come out and meet us so that we could check in. She showed up about an hour later and took care of everything for us and told us about her favorite restaurants on shore. We caught a water taxi to shore and had a nice dinner and internet time. My mom also did some shopping for gifts to take home with her. Then it was back to the boat to get ready for bed and pack up, as Donna was heading for the airport in the morning.

The next morning when I woke up I decided that I wanted to move the stern anchor closer to our boat. It turns out that the water gets very shallow very quickly and where our stern anchor was sitting it was only in about 5 feet of water. This wasn’t a problem other than it made the anchor line very shallow in the water and after watching numerous little dinghies and water taxis almost run it over the night before, I decided it was better if I just went ahead and moved it. I lowered our dinghy and pulled myself out to the anchor. I was able to lift it while Debra pulled me back in towards the boat and we got it reset in a great spot and all is well now.

We then took the taxi to shore and had breakfast before heading to the airport. We got an email from Andy who was coming back to the boat today that it would be a good idea for Debra and me to meet him at the airport and help transport all of the bags he brought back to the boat. We took the taxi and then the ferry and then a bus to get to the airport. My mom checked in, we said our goodbyes, and then Debra and I went to go wait for Andy to arrive. We waited almost 2 hours before we saw him come out. Unfortunately, he was light on luggage because not all of it had managed to get on the plane! We hoped that it was still going to come on the next plane but we were not sure. And since it was only one plane per day, nothing was going to happen that day anyway. No one at the airport could tell us where the bags were and the best they could do was tell us to check in tomorrow. We went back to the boat and unpacked what stuff Andy had been able to bring back and hoped that the other stuff would show up the next day.

The following day Andy and Debra went to the airport to go try and get the bags. When I caught up with them later in the day, the bags had been recovered and we got everything that we needed! Thank goodness. We are now in the process of finding places for all of our spare parts and replacing the things that had broken. We will be leaving Santa Cruz on Thursday or Friday and heading over to Isabella. We will spend a week or 2 there and then it will be off to the Marquesas.

Kicker Rock

Black Tip Shark

Sea Lion Circle

If you have never sailed to the Galapagos, you are missing out. If you have never hiked the Islands here, you should. And if you have never taken a week long adventure cruise aboard the Galaxy, you must! I was lucky enough to have my mom come and visit me here in the Galapagos and we decided to tour the islands aboard a small cruise boat of 16 people. This is the best way to really see the islands as these boats are able to go places that private boats are not. The majority hold up to 16 people, the maximum number 1 guide can take, and have a 15 day loop itinerary mandated by the Galapagos National Park office. Inside of this loop there are many different orders and destinations which the boats are assigned so that there is very little overlapping. There are also different quality of boats from tourist to luxury. With so many different boats and so many itineraries to pick from, I had a hard time choosing. Based on my research and experience, one should book the cruise last minute so as to get a large discount on price, and book an itinerary that predominately focuses on Isabella and the small, uninhabited islands. Also, go for the superior or luxury class boats! Or atleast that is what I did and it has been absolutely spectacular!

On sat, March 2^nd, I caught a ferry boat from San Cristobal, where our sailboat was parked, over to Santa Cruz island to board the Galaxy. This is a bumpy 2 hour ride onboard a 600 horse power cabin cruiser type boat that goes full-throttle through the open seas. It was quite the experience. I managed to arrive safely and dry, but my back wasn’t feeling so hot. Unfortunately, my mom’s flight out of Miami had problems and was delayed. She missed her connection to the Galapagos and didn’t arrive until a day late. The Galaxy team was extremely organized in a country that is not so much so and was instrumental in figuring out a way to get her onboard the boat. She arrived a day later and quickly made herself at home onboard the Galaxy.

The past 5 days have been full of hiking, exploring, snorkeling, meeting the wildlife, and feasting! Every day we have 2 morning activities and 2 evening activities. A typical day begins with a buffet breakfast at 7am with some of the most delicious fruit, cheese, meat, omelets, cooked vegetables, etc. that you have ever tasted. And if you are the boring sort, there is always yogurt and granola. After stuffing ourselves we head out on our 2 small dinghies to explore the destination we are at. We hike/walk for about an hour and a half while finding local wildlife everywhere. We then dinghy back to the boat where we are greeted on the back deck with fresh fruit juice (a new kind daily) and a snack of crackers, chips, and cookies. We then change into snorkel attire and head back onto the dinghies and we are off to explore the waters around the area we just hiked. After snorkeling we return to the boat for lunch. Lunch is a variety of things including meets, stuffed vegetables, varied salads, etc. There is always so much food it is hard to pace yourself. After lunch we usually digest for an hour or 2 while the Galaxy repositions itself for our afternoon activities. We then load into the dinghies and off to explore another part of the islands. We either bring our snorkeling gear with us and leave it behind while we hike, or we return to the boat, grab our gear and head back out for our last activity of the day. Oh, I almost forgot, there is another snack of fresh juice and cookies in there as well. Finally, we return to the boat around 530pm. Depending on our schedule the captain will allow us to spend 20 minutes jumping from the upper deck, witch is about 35 feet hight and quite a thrill. We still have a few people who have one last chance to go off from the top deck and earn their wings! Anyway, after we conclude that we shower up and then it is dinner time! Dinner is a plated meal and you select your choice at lunch. I have had things such as fillet minion, stuffed bell pepper, red snapper, and a pork chop. And don’t forget desert! Always a delicious creation of some sort.

After dinner we all get together and our Guide Roberto goes over the activities for the following day and gives us suggestions for footwear and attire. We also look at the map to see where our next destination will be and what we have to look forward to. We then head off to bed around 9pm and the boat lifts anchor and heads to our next destination. We wake up the next day at our new destination and the day begins again!

It has been a great trip and unfortunately tonight is our last aboard the Galaxy. The crew has been fantastic and so has our guide Roberto. The animals all come out for us and we have some great memories and photos/video to share with you at home. We also made some new friends who we will keep in touch with and hopefully travel with in the future. The Galaxy was fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone thinking about visiting the Galapagos.

Tomorrow my mom and I will leave the Galaxy, board the ferry boat, and head to San Cristobal to join Debra on the sailboat, Mirar’s Dream. Donna will stay with me for 3 more days here in the Galapagos and then head home.

My new friend

Dolphins at sunset

The Galaxy