Land Ho!

03 May 2024

Where am I? 

Latitude: 09°58.1 S

Longitude: 138°17.8 W

Just 42 miles from making landfall at Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands.

How is the weather?

Winds have been light and variable over the last several days. Generally from 090° or thereabouts. Sea state is quiet and there has been no rain recently. Our average speeds have slowed to around 5 knots which is much slower than expected.

What am I feeling?

Full of anticipation for our impending landfall at Hiva Oa! And somewhat frustrated that we are currently sailing at only 6 knots average speed due to the winds falling off. We had hoped to be dropping anchor today (Friday) in daylight and were looking forward to our first chilled beers ashore tonight – but it now looks like arrival around midnight instead. 

What has happened this week?

Land ho!

We’ve just spotted Mohotani and then to the north, Hiva Oa, her mountains but a blue-grey smudge on the distant horizon!

The third week of our passage has been the quietest – both in terms of the weather and the mood on board.

Winds are now just 8 to 11 knots and coming from around 100°, directly aft of Fujin. We are still sailing wing on wing with the genoa poled out to port and the boom out to starboard, preventer firmly in place. We’ve had this rig up now for two weeks. At the moment, it looks like we can hold this rig right up to our anchorage. Both sails are being back-winded from time to time as a larger wave passes under us, which puts a bit of stress on the rigging, but given that the winds are light, it’s manageable.

The mood on board mirrors the sea – quiet, yet not subdued. After 18 days at sea, all are well settled into the routine of life on board. Watches, napping, reading, tweaking the sails, fishing, thinking, stargazing, throwing dead flying fish back into the ocean, checking for chaffing lines, cooking meals, cleaning up, etc. Sometimes I get asked “what do you do all day?” – well, these are some of the things that take up our time.

As does fixing things that go wrong. Last week, we sorted out our Raymarine P70s autopilot head unit. This week, we have an issue with the breaker switch for our mast head tricolour light – this is the navigation light we usually use – it is one unit which shows red for port, green for starboard and white for stern and as it is at the top of the mast, it is more visible at night than our deck level navigation lights. The breaker switch on the panel keeps flipping off a second or two after being turned on. We need to check the panel and to do this, I need to switch off all electrical devices, which I will do once we are at anchor. Hopefully we can spot the issue when we open up the panel. In the interim, we are using our deck level navigation lights at night.

I have also replaced one of our Raymarine i70 data displays as its screen had become bleached by the heat and sun over the last 9 years of use. Thankfully, it’s pretty much plug and play. I will update the firmware on the new unit to the latest version once we drop anchor, rather than risk crashing our navigation systems while at sea!

Our fishing continues to produce good results, although sadly we did lose one large fish which snapped our 100lb line and took all of our mono leader and the lure. This was the result of a combination of tightening up the reel too quickly and being too slow to take in the sails to slow the yacht down. We also lost a hook today to something very large with sharp teeth – perhaps a shark? Anyway, we’ve enjoyed some delicious tuna, wahoo and mahi-mahi so far and have more in the freezer. The last dinner I prepared was blackened wahoo – which went down very well! Once at anchor, we need to splice some mono into our hollow core braid line and select a new lure for our rod – we’ve plenty of supplies on board this time, after not being well enough prepared for fishing when we crossed the Atlantic back in 2018.

We have just raised our French Polynesia courtesy flag and our Q practique flag on our starboard spreader and will clear in on Monday at the Gendarmerie with the help of Sandra from Hiva Oa Yacht Services. We need to do some chores as well – laundry and re-provisioning – and will also tour the island before moving on to Nuku Hiva some 12 hours sail to the northwest. 

For now, our thoughts turn to the most pressing terrestrial matters – ie where and when will be find our first ice cold beers!

Fujin out!