Final Days on Fakarava and on to Anse Amyot
All plans are written in the sand - as Mother Nature had her way and produced a day full of squalls. There seemed to be a squall every couple of hours and we weren't going anywhere!
David decided to make a last run for water and to off load some garbage. He made it to the beach and then hung out at the Magassen (store) while the next squall hit. I was amazed that he made it back to the boat relatively dry. That rain in the last squall was so heavy that the shoreline disappeared!
Another interesting event - when we came back down to the north end there were only four boats at anchor. By Thursday there were 20! Quite a few of them moved down from the south anchorage due to the forecast - that anchorage would not be protected from winds from the north. Several of the boats had also planned to leave by the pass in the south however the seas outside the atoll had been building for several days and as a result there would be no slack tide. The pass on the north end is a lot wider and not so vulnerable to the northern running seas.
I spent the day inside, cleaning and reorganizing the drawers in the galley. I also cleaned off all the rust on the flatware - one of the hazards of washing in saltwater. We rinse in fresh but obviously not enough.
Friday 03-Jun-2016
At 0620 we released the line to the Mooring buoy. We then put one reef in the main, unfurled the Genoa and motor sailed to the pass in order to charge up all the systems on the boat.
Scrambled eggs with bacon, onion and herbed cream cheese for breakfast along with fresh tangerines.
0725: we ran the pass, with the water looking worse than its' bite. The standing wave in the pass looked a little like the rapids on the St. Mary's River. Only difference is the depth of the water is 50 feet. The water was still ebbing as we went through the pass about a half hour before slack water. With the winds coming from the southeast one can expect the ebb to go on a little longer than predicted. This is why the current and tide program that we use is called a guesstimator! But it really was a non event.
We headed away from Fakarava on our way to Anse Amyot. We actually had to gybe at one point in order to alter our course to clear the point.
Clouds on the horizon were starting to look a bit threatening
so we prepared for the squall that looked to be heading our way. Rain gear is accessible. Genoa is fueled in. Eased the main - it already had one reef in. All port holes and hatches are closed. I have a bathing sit on so no need for rain gear. And we wait. And wait. And wait. The rain finally came but only for about ten minutes. There were a few weird puffs of wind but no real change in wind direction or strength. From the picture you can see how threatening it looks but the reality for this one anyway was that it was a non event. The thing is - you can never tell. So we always prepare on the side of caution. If nothing else it makes for good practice.
I keep talking about squalls and why are we seeing so many of them? First of all a squall is caused by a downdraft of wind from a cloud with a large vertical development. These are usually the big puffy cumulonimbus clouds.
The wind usually runs ahead of the movement of the clouds so along with the visual you will usually experience a drop in temperature and an increase in wind before the rain starts. They may come with or without wind depending on the force of the downdraft and this wind may cause a complete change in direction from the course you are steering. How severe they get can sometimes be predicted by the darkness of the clouds and the sharpness in the demarcation line at the bottom of the cloud.
As you can see in the photo - this one had the potential to be a bad one! But sometimes the squall uses up all of its energy before it hits you and the effect on us is minimal. In this case we ended up with no wind and just a little bit of rain. The worst is when they happen at night for your only warning is that increase in wind and drop in temperature and the disappearance of the stars. At night, especially with no moon, you have a lot less warning and can get caught off guard. This is why we always sail conservatively at night with at least one reef in the main and the Genoa partly or completely furled in.
These squalls can last for a few minutes to several hours. As I said before - we have been lucky so far - most of them have missed us completely or petered out by the time they reach us. The couple that have been challenging were short lived! And the reason we are seeing so many of them is due to El Niño and the increase in water temperature.
As our day progressed so did our wind speed. This was largely due to a gradual change in wind direction. We started out on a broad reach with the wind coming on our starboard quarter - about 150* angle from the bow of the boat. Then it came around and we were on a beam reach with the wind at a 90* angle from the bow and ended up close hauled with the wind at 45*. With each change our speed increased from 4 to 5 to 6 knots. Not a bad sailing day.
As we approached the entrance to the anchorage David noticed that the GPS was slightly off from the reality of the situation. This is a good argument for not entering passes in the dark! Anse Amyot isn't actually a pass but rather an indentation into the motu on the atoll.
The entrance is well marked with red and green buoys - remember green is kept on the starboard side when entering (opposite to the North American system) and two large white range markers. You move across the entrance until the two range markers line up, then you turn into the channel.
Position: 15* 48' S 146* 9.1' W .
There was a good current coming out of the pass but no standing wave. We had timed it well for high slack water. We picked up a mooring buoy - I should say David picked up the mooring buoy while I steered.
We just got settled in when the winds started to pick up to 20 knots, gusting to 30. We just got in in time as the wind continued to blow over 30 knots all night but we were protected from the reef. Lots of rain!
One can never be sure of the holding power of these mooring buoys - depends on how they are secured and how well they are maintained. And we were only in 17 feet of water and relatively close to the reef. David was up and down most of the night checking our holding and making sure we had not dragged. Our position held through the night.
We heard that several boats got caught in these conditions overnight - news from the radio net. Weather forecast has the winds continuing through the next day so decided to start an extra night. But David had me start up the boat and come up on the mooring buoy so he could put on an extra larger diameter line. Maybe he will sleep better.
It was unfortunate that the weather was so disagreeable while we were here. Gaston and Valentina maintain the buoys for a $5 fee and will also put on a $30 dinner for you (sometimes lobster or roasted pig or whatever was caught that day) if you book ahead. If you have dinner then they waive the mooring fee. But the conditions were too unsettling to put the dinghy in the water and go to shore. They didn't even bother to come out to pick up their fee. This site is also supposed to be very good for snorkeling - no Sharks! But I guess we will just have to read about it!
But it sure was pretty for those few hours when it did clear.
I knew that we were going to have an overnight passage to the next atoll so I made some French Onion Soup and Coq a Vin - this is French Polynesia after all and what they do have plenty of is onions, chicken, potatoes, carrots, inexpensive Swiss cheese and expensive wine (though we still had some from Mexico) and baguettes!
The night settled down and we were able to get a good nights sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment