S/V Rutea Sails Around the World: Taiohae Bay on Nuku Hiva Island

Monday, April 25, 2011

Taiohae Bay on Nuku Hiva Island

I don't know why I was so anxious to leave Hana Moe Noe Bay on Tahuata Island. It had a nice sandy beach (the first one we found in the Marquesas), the holding was very good and the snorkeling exceptional. For some reason, I was ready to leave when we got there so after just two nights, we left at 0-dark-thirty last Saturday. The sail to Ua Poa was squally with lots of rain and very lumpy seas. The skies remained heavy with clouds as we approached Ua Poa and it wasn't until we were almost too close that we got a glimpse of the towering spires that shoot up thousands of feet from the center of the island - very dramatic. The sea on the north end of the island, where the main anchorage is, was about as lumpy and confused as we've seen on this trip. I worried that no matter how well-protected the anchorage is, it was going to be an uncomfortable night. There were eight boats all ready anchored in the too-small, too shallow bay and they all were anchored bow and stern. Our guide book instructed us to anchor south of the quay, which left even less room. (I've got to figure out a better stern anchoring system for Rutea - it's a huge project to deploy and retrieve the 45-pound Danforth anchor and it doesn't happen quickly - if it does happen quickly, the teak cap rail takes an awful punishment as the 3/8" chain gnaws it's way out of the lazerette and over the side. However, with three of us on board, we get the job done in a fairly orderly fashion and we positioned ourselves perfectly.)

No sooner did we get the anchors set when the French Customs force decided to pay us a visit. It was obvious that they had been watching us as I hadn't even had time to mop my sweat-soaked brow when they climbed aboard. These were three big men, one of Polynesian descent and the two others appeared European. They filled out a form and asked us questions like, "Do you have more than $10,000US cash on board?" or, "Do you have narcotics on board?" and we tried to be pleasant and polite with our responses. They did a rudimentary search of the boat and wanted to know how much liquor, wine and beer we had on board. I think they were a little disappointed when they didn't find much. As they were leaving, I asked if I got some sort of document or sticker saying we had been inspected. "No," came the reply from the big Polynesian, "We can search your boat anytime we want."

Our old guide book had told us of a restaurant in town that had local music and dancers on Saturday nights. But after a thorough canvas of the entire village, we found that of the two restaurants (one was a pizza shack) nothing was open. In all fairness, it was the day before Easter but we found things to be unremarkable and boring.

The next morning we reversed our stern anchor drill and took off for Nuku Hiva, the most populated of the Marquesas Islands. The wind was out of the east at 20-25 knots and our course was almost due north. With a reefed main and just the staysail out, we crossed the 26-mile span in slightly less than 4 hours and under glorious blue skies - a perfect way to spend Easter, if you ask me!

We're now in Taiohae Bay, which is wide open to the south and it's a little rolly for my liking. The village is still very small even though it's the largest in the Marquesas. There's about 15 other boats here and many of them we know from Mexico and other ports. Tomorrow we're going to try to get fuel but the prospects don't look great: The fuel 'dock' isn't set up for yachts and using fuel jugs to schlepp 80 gallons of diesel is a challenge. Oh, well, we've got all the time in the world.
-----
At 4/26/2011 3:15 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 08°54.86'S 140°06.06'W

Corie's Shot of Giant Manta Ray

radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Rutea

Rutea was built in 1984 by Conyplex in Mendemblik, Holland. A small brass plaque says that she's hull Number 9 but on the Conyplex website www.contestyachts.com there's no mention of them building that many. She's designed by Dick Zaal, who designed most of Conyplex's earlier boats. The brochure says that she's 48' overall with a 14'6" beam and she draws 6'. Her cast iron bolted-on fin keel weighs 12,000 pounds and she is supposed to displace slightly over 37,000 pounds but she's never been one to watch her weight and, ahem, she's gained more than a few pounds since we bought her in 1996. Her ketch rig sports Profurl furlers for the jib/genoa and the staysail. The main has a very tall aspect as does the mizzen. All of her winches are made by Enkes although I did add a Harken self-tailing for the main halyard. She uses an unusual reel winch that's equipped with Spectra rope for furling the genoa. There's a running backstay on the mizzen mast and there are no forward lowers on the main mast. The head stay is Dyform.

I replaced the original Volvo MD40A six-cylinder diesel with a Beta Marine 90 and I've been very happy with it although it puts out nowhere near 90 HP - probably 70 is more like it. Regardless, it's adequate and very economical on fuel. I also replaced the original Westerbeke 6kw genset with a single-cylinder Kubota diesel that drives a 150-amp alternator. Since we switched over to 12-volt refrigeration, we no longer have any 110-volt appliances on board, other than the water heater. Since the new Beta Marine engine has two big alternators (one is 100 amps and the other 175), we have our Victron inverter/charger power the water heater when we're under power (we don't have engine coolant circulate through the water heater).

Rutea's layout down below is different from many boats of her size. Aft of her water-tight forward bulkhead is a 'wet' head, complete with two sinks. Aft of that are two cabins, both with bunk beds on either side of the boat and each has a door to the forward head. This was perfect when we cruised with our family as our 3 children had their own quarters. The main saloon occupies the area aft of the forward cabins and her dinette and settees are large enough to seat 10 people (we've had many a memorable meal here!). Under the cabin sole are two 90-gallon stainless steel fuel tanks. Under the settee seats on either side is a 120-gallon water tank, also made of stainless steel. On the starboard side, aft of the dinette is the foward-facing nav station and on the port side is the galley where we have a 7 cubic foot refrigerator and a 5 cubic foot freezer. Aft of the nav station, on the starboard side is my work shop. This was originally designed to be another stateroom but the original owner had Conyplex convert it into a work shop, complete with a heavy-duty work bench and a massive 6" vise. I sometimes spend days at a time in there. Many a visiting cruiser has eyed with envy, drooled with desire and blatantly coveted my work shop! I have access to the engines from there. On the port side, aft of the galley, is another 'wet' head. Aft of that is the aft cabin, which has a settee as well as a full double-size berth. Aft of the aft cabin or 'owner's stateroom' as it's called on many boats, is her spacious lazarette, which is where the water heater and diesel-fired boiler are located. Bolted to the back of the aft deck and overhanging the transom are her Simpson davits (I sometimes tell people that the boat was built around those davits - they're very substantial with a capacity of 250 Kgs). Resting on top of the davits are Ruthie's roto-molded kayak and above that are two 215-watt solar panels. Hanging off the davits is our Aqua Pro dinghy and it's 15-horsepower Honda outboard.

On deck, starting at the bow, is Rutea's primary anchor, a Bruce 30 kilogram that's connected to the 350' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain with a Wasi Powerball. The anchor and chain are deployed and retrieved by a Lofrans Progress II windlass. In the anchor locker lives another Bruce 20kg anchor that's connected to 50' of 3/8" Hi-Test chain and 150' of 1" MegaBraid rope. Also in the anchor locker, amongst many other things, is the 18' Para-Tech sea anchor with it's dedicated 100' of 1" single-braid rope. Moving aft is Rutea's main mast, which has double spreaders, four Enkes winches and one Harken self-tailing winch. The mast is made by Selden as are the two heavy spinnaker poles. The tracks for the staysail and the genoa are stainless steel. In the cockpit are five more Enke winches and a Harken mechanical backstay adjuster. The mizzen mast is also quite substantial and has three Enkes winches on it. The turning blocks are stainless steel. The steering system on Rutea is the Whitlock Mamba system using a torque tube and a push-pull rod. The compass in the binnacle is made by Sestrel.

Even though we try to keep up on Rutea's appearance, she's still starting to show her age. I replaced her portlights (all twelve of them) and Ruthie has taken over the job of varnishing her brightwork. In 2000 we removed her teak decks and replaced it with painted fiberglass. Much less maintenance! She's what I call a 200-foot boat: She looks great from 200 feet!

Regardless, the best part of Rutea is the way she handles. While she's not the fastest filly in the fleet, she can cover a respectable amount of distance in a day. Her sail plan allows her to be easily balanced to the point where the autopilot has very little correcting to do. Her sails are all made by North except her spinnakers are Dutch-made.

Rutea’s electronics package includes radar, chartplotter, AIS, sounder and sailing instruments - all made by Garmin. Her radios are all old but they work well. Her Icom M802 SSB has been modified to use ham frequencies.