April - December 1997
After eight months and 10,000 miles, "First Light" is happily berthed in New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere cyclone season. Our first year of cruising has been filled with adventure and enriched with many new friendships.
Last April we picked up the boat in Bonaire in the southern Caribbean, where we’d left it for four months. We enjoyed several weeks of great snorkeling in Bonaire while finishing up boat projects and then made a four-day passage (following the Hale-Bopp Comet) to the San Blas Islands of Panama. We spent a week sailing amongst these fascinating islands and trading with the Kuna Indians for molas and conch, accompanied by our friend Bruce McConnell who had flown down from Santa Rosa. After much waiting we then transited the Panama Canal and turned left, arriving at the Galapagos Islands after a 900-mile, 6-day passage. It was exciting to cross the equator and make landfall in these remote islands
We spent a week reprovisioning and visiting
colonies of booby birds, frigate birds and fur seals on some of
the islands (which are a national park of Ecuador), then set out
on our longest passage of the trip – 3,000-miles across the
Pacific Ocean to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. We
had been a little concerned about doing this long passage with
just the two of us, but we found that most of the other boats
were also sailed by couples and, in fact, it worked out great.
The weather was generally good with "fair winds and
following seas." Although we only saw two other yachts and
two ships, we were part of a group of 20 or so boats – from
a dozen countries! – also doing the passage, who stayed in
touch twice a day via SSB radio net. We had many beautiful,
moonlit nights and sunny, pleasant days with only a few squalls
thrown in for variety. After a fast, 17-1/2 day passage we were
quite excited to see the craggy, volcanic island of Hiva Oa
rising out of the ocean: the South Pacific at last! The photo is
the anchorage at Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva Island in the Marquesas.
We spent a terrific month exploring the
isolated and beautiful Marquesas Islands, both on our own and
with other cruising boats. Although the anchorages can be deep
and were often rolly, and it was sometimes a challenge finding
supplies, the people were friendly and it was fun trying to speak
French (mostly Jill). The Heiva festival (around Bastille Day in
July) with much local music, traditional dancing, and food and
drink was really great, as were the 4-wheel-drive trips exploring
the rugged interiors of several of the islands. The photo is of
Andy "directing traffic" on Pui Island.
We next visited the Tuamotu Islands – low atolls covered with palm trees and white beaches and surrounding beautiful coral-studded lagoons -- which, unfortunately, can only be entered by negotiating tricky passes with major currents and sometimes breaking waves. Although nerve-wracking for us beginning cruisers, it was good experience for what lay ahead. After stops at Ahe (site of much black pearl farming) and Rangiroa (where Andy got SCUBA certified and Jill happily snorkeled), a few days sail brought us to Tahiti and the Society Islands. Actually this trip, which had started out as an easy overnight passage, took a little longer than expected when we ran out of wind for the first time and also (foolishly) fuel.
The Societies (which include Moorea,
Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora) are quite beautiful,
although far more populated and more in the mainstream of tourism
than the rest of French Polynesia. The colors of the lagoons have
to be seen to be believed. We spent weeks indulging in our
favorite pastimes -- snorkeling, island touring and socializing
with old and new friends. And after several months away from
civilization it was fun spending two weeks amid the big-city
bustle of Papeete, complete with croissants, a great produce
market and even a marine chandlery or two. This photo is of
"First Light" moored stern-to in Papeete (Moorea is in
the background).
The passage from Bora Bora to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands is about 400 miles and can be a little rough. Leaving on the tail end of a frontal system, we immediately were faced with 30-knot winds (from forward of the beam) and big seas. After weeks spent at anchor or just day sailing, we had lost our sea legs and for the first time since leaving the U.S. we both fed the fishes! More serious, though, was the four-foot rip put in the mainsail when a reefing line parted. We made it to Rarotonga under Genoa and the TINY storm trysail and managed to find an upholsterer who had an industrial sewing machine that Jill used to patch the huge main. (The patch held all the way to New Zealand!)
The Cook Islands are far less frequently visited (by yachts or tourists), and proved to be among our favorites. We spent several weeks at the capital, Rarotonga, and at tiny, isolated Palmerston Island. The Cook Islanders were some of the friendliest people we have ever met and we left with many happy memories, particularly of our time at Palmerston. Only 37 people live there and with no airstrip and only three or four supply ships a year, they are quite isolated. When we arrived with half-a-dozen other yachts the islanders were delighted to see us (particularly since we brought supplies and mail from Rarotonga) and they made us feel like members of their family. After much feasting, volleyball, coconut crab-hunting and nightly jam sessions, we sadly left our new friends and continued west.
The small island nation of Niue was about
three days sail from Palmerston, directly on the rhumb line for
Tonga. We spent several days there in a very exposed anchorage,
spelunking in fascinating ocean side caverns (and managing to
flip our dinghy in the big surge at the landing) before going on
to the northern Va'vau group in the Kingdom of Tonga. We were in
Tonga for a month, also visiting the more remote islands of the
Haapai group, with beautiful beaches and excellent snorkeling and
diving. In Tonga we ran into cruising friends we hadn’t seen
for months, including Frank and Cynthia Robbens on "Kialoa
II" from San Francisco, and Tom and Julie Vance on
"Vanessa" from Sausalito (and Port Townsend,
Washington). Frank and Tom are old friends of Jill's and it was
fun meeting them so far from home. The photo is of Jill leaving
our signature on the rafters at Club Hunga, in Tonga.
In November we made an 1100-mile, 7 ½-day passage to New Zealand. This is a trip that many cruisers look forward to with some trepidation, as you are caught between the approach of the Southern Hemisphere cyclone season and the tail end of the winter gales near New Zealand. We had several days of beautiful sailing in 20-knot southeasterlies, 30-hours of motoring through a high pressure area, one night of 35-knot westerlies and finally 18-knot southwesterlies that had us close-reaching for the last day. But all in all it turned out o.k. and we arrived safely at Bay of Islands, a beautiful resort area in the north part of the country, just in time to help organize a U.S.-style Thanksgiving for 90 cruisers at the Opua Cruising Club. The dinner was a great success, complete with turkey (quite expensive down under), stuffing, cranberry sauce and plenty of pumpkin pie. We spent two weeks on a mooring in Opua before heading a little further down the scenic east coast of New Zealand to a quiet marina in the tiny town of Tutukaka (our first marina since leaving Panama).
We flew back to the U.S. in December for a six-week visit. Andy got a go-ahead from his doctor to continue cruising, and Jill had some surgery on her hand. When we return to New Zealand we will spend some time doing maintenance work on "First Light" and making the inevitable changes and improvements following a year of cruising. We hope to buy a car and explore that beautiful country until the end of cyclone season in May. From New Zealand we will head north and west to spend the '98 cruising season visiting Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia before heading to Australia in October to wait out the next cyclone season.
During our first year of cruising we sailed some 10,000 miles – a total of 12,000 since leaving Annapolis, Maryland in November, 1995. Like so many before us, we have found that the cruising life is not always idyllic and involves a lot of hard work. But overall we are having a great adventure, seeing some fascinating places, meeting many terrific people and making many new friends.
Andy and Jill
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