July 16-25, 2014
This was our only stop in The Cook Islands. It is a national park, and there are no permanent residents, but a park ranger watches after the place during the cruising season. We were there with a fun group of boats and enjoyed many beach social gatherings
Logbook – July 16, 2014 (Mopelia to Suwarrow)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0900 Bora Bora Net – 8122 – S/V Novae en route to Mopelia
- 1305 Engines on
- 1318 Depart Mopelia
- VHF call to S/V Novae – Saw them on AIS approaching. Called to give them pass info. Talked to Stephano.
- VHF call from S/V Novae – They changed their minds and will travel with us. Also a cat. 49′ in length.
- 1425 Engines off. Main + Genniker
- 1456 VHH all – Dances with Dragons broadcast “no wind.” I responded back, he is NW of us and headed to Fiji.
- 1600 mini-net 6212 – Net control = Lady Carolina in Suwarrow. Light Copy. Wiped out wind transducer – had to reboot.
- 1800 Underway net 8122
- 1818 Port engine on to charge batteries
- 1848 Port engine + Main
- VHF broadcast from Dances with Dragons – nice moonrise
- 2308 VHF call to Novae – wanted to make sure they saw the small fishing vessel in front of them. Tim spoke with Helen. Novae is 3 nmi off our Port stern
Daily Notes
- Swapped propane tank
- Boys caught a wahoo while I was off watch
Email to family and friends dated July 16, 2014
Subject: Exodus – Au Revoir French Polynesia
We departed Mopelia this afternoon and, therefore, have departed French Polynesia. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Mopelia, it really had everything to offer… good snorkling, friendly people, running trail, beautiful remote surroundings, and lobster. Last night Alex and Tim went with Hio to gather lobster. This was a very different lobster operation than they are used to. They basically walked FOREVER on the reef in knee to thigh high water and grabbed lobsters when they saw them. But there weren’t that many, so it was a lot of looking and not a lot of grabbing. I think Tim got two, but Hio gave us four for our family. Both Tim and Alex said it really was not fun at all, but hey, at least we have lobster. We have very little wind right now, so we are creeping along at about 3 kts. We are not sure if we are going to go all the way to Pago Pago or if we will stop in Suwarrow. It will depend on weather and if we can make it to Pago Pago before the next front approaches. Right now that looks unlikely, but we will keep watching. We have two other boats out here with us that we have talked to on VHF. There are also a whole slew of boats on passage from Bora Bora to Suwarrow that we talk to on SSB morning and evening. So, we are far from alone out here.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Logbook – July 17, 2014 (Mopelia to Suwarrow)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0028 VHF call from Dances with Dragons – having engine trouble (low oil pressure) – may divert to Pago Pago instead of Fiji
- 0035 VHF call from Dances with Dragons – restarted engine. pressure looks good. suspects it’s the gauge. will likely still go to Fiji.
- 0126 – fish on, wahoo. threw back.
- 0625 P engine off. Genniker only.
- 0730 Mini-net 6212 kHz. TBV checked in from Suwarrow.
- 0756 VHF call to Dances with Dragons. No response.
- 0800 Isabela net. Lochmaren from Papeete. Checked in and requested traffic with Code Blue. Talked w/ Judy. Bad propagation. Got relay help from S/V Sequoia.
- 1157 VHF call from Novae. They didn’t copy our replay.
Email to family and friends dated July 17, 2014
Subject: Exouds – Creeping along
The forecast was for very little wind, and it has been spot on. We motor sailed most of the night, but now that the batteries are charged we decided it was time to give it a rest. So, no we are moving along at a not unrespectable 3.3 kts, under headsail alone.
The highlight is the guys caught 2 wahoo. Well, the second one hooked on my watch, and I had to wake Tim up when the line started paying out. So, fresh washoo for dinner tonight!
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Logbook – July 18, 2014 (Mopelia to Suwarrow)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0730 Mini-net. Net controller = Me
- 0815 Genniker + genoa. Squalls all around.
- Max TWS 19.5 kts E
Email to family and friends dated July 18, 2014
Subject: Exoudus – Fishes
Not much to report here, other than the Wahoo we caught night before last turned out not to be a wahoo but a barracuda. So, last night the guys caught a “yellow fin tuna” but since I haven’t inspected the meat myself yet I am reluctant to report that with any sort of certainty. And for the record, Brenden says he never thought it was a Wahoo, he said the eyes were too big, the teeth too big, the tail too small, and the stripes not quite right. So, when he says he actually thinks it was a Barracuda, I’m gonna go with that. We ate it, and it was pretty tasty, more juicy like Dorado than Wahoo. If it really is a Yellow Fin, we will be dining on Sashimi for lunch. It has been such a long time, since the Marquesas, since we’ve had tuna. Everything else is well on board.
Love and miss you all.
-D.
Logbook – July 19, 2014 (Mopelia to Suwarrow)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0730 Mini-net – Net Control = Lady Carolina. Chara just off the tip of Huahine.
- 0910 VHF call from Estrellita. They did not copy our resonse.
Email to family and friends dated July 19, 2014
Subject: Exodus – Headed for Suwarrow
Well, the weather has determined that we are headed for Suwarrow. We will never make it to Pago Pago before the wind dies again in advance of the next front blowing through. So, that also means we may be stuck in Suwarrow longer than we want, but I suppose there are worse places to be stuck. We are about 105 miles out, and at our current speed we will arrive in the middle of the night tonight, so we will have to start thinking about slowing down soon. But the wind is supposed to die off a bit, so we don’t want to slow down TOO soon. Anyway, this has been a particularly uncomfortable passage. Certainly not your lovely downwind run with following seas. No, the seas are a confused mess and we get hit on the beam at random intervals which sets us rocking pretty good, so Brenden and I have been down for the count most of the time, not sick, just not right. This morning is the closest I’ve felt to my normal self since the winds picked up about a day and a half in. It WAS a yellow fin tuna, by the way, and we have still enjoyed sashimi and tuna steaks, and if I’m up for it today I will make poke.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Logbook – July 20, 2014 (Mopelia to Suwarrow)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0002 Genniker only
- 1400 Genoa only
- 2356 Genoa only (2 reefs) TWS 13.3 kts E
Logbook – July 21, 2014 (Mopelia to Suwarrow)
Passage Log Highlights
- 0659 Land ho! Genoa (3 reefs) TWS 18.8 kts E
- 0854 Engines on
- 1014 A/B log – no sails
- 1054 Engines off Suwarrow
Daily Notes
- Potluck on beach w/ Tulu, The Southern Cross, Kiyf (?), Novae, Sundancer II, Jacfar, Shakti, Ui (kid boat from Germany with 2 girls), Mahi Mahi
Email to family and friends dated July 21, 2014
Subject: Exodus – Approaching Suwarrow
We are about 3 miles out from the pass entrance, so we should have anchor down soon. (I’ll make a post to facebook via the inReach when we have anchor down.) We are really looking forward to arriving.
It was a little sad this morning, because we realized that our PPJ convoy of buddy boats is totally dispersed right now. Chara is still back in the Societies (they have a 1 year visa for French Poly), Lady Carolina is in Pago Pago (American Samoa) and True Blue V is in Apia (Western Somoa). We will still keep in touch daily via SSB and we hope to reconverge eventually in Tonga. Hopefully Fluenta will catch us there as well. We are making new friends while out on our own, but sadly, no kid boats. Luckily Alex and Brenden keep each other entertained pretty well. Extremely well, actually.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Email to family and friends dated July 21, 2014
Subject: Exodus – Anchor down in Suwarrow
Like Mopelia and the Tuamotus, Suwarrow is an atoll, but the pass is about as straightforward as they come, with the exception of not being marked at all. So, we rely on our charts, the reports of other cruisers, and most importantly, our eyes to find the coral shelves that lie on each side. We had a bit of a false start though, because we got just about to the pass entrance when we realized our depth sensor wasn’t working. Abort, Abort! We turned around, power cycled all of the nav electronics, because sometimes when we transmit on certain frequencies with the SSB it wipes out our wind transducer, so we thought maybe that happened to the depth one. No, that wasn’t it. We figured out by slowly approaching that we just weren’t picking up depths greater than about 45 ft. So, we went through the pass, and when Tim was in the water checking our anchor, he also cleaned the depth sensor. I’m not sure if he tested it though… maybe I should do that today.
All is well in Suwarrow, it’s very pretty here, just like everywhere else. It’s a lot more crowded than Mopelia, though, as we are here with 9 other boats. We had a potluck on the beach last night and it was fun meeting everyone I’ve been talking to on the radio over the past few days. Tim and I were pretty tired though after the passage, so we turned in early.
There is another kid boat here from Germany, and they have two young girls, and so yesterday after we got here Tim bribed the boys to go take the girls dinghy surfing. It’s too bad that we still have to bribe them to do stuff like that.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Logbook – July 22, 2014 (Suwarrow)
Daily Notes
- Happy hour on Novae with The Southern Cross, Sundancer II, Shakti, and True Blue
- Boys play on shore with girls from Uui
Logbook – July 23, 2014 (Suwarrow)
Daily Notes
- T – snorkel w/ Stephano (Novae) & True Blue to manta cleaning station and off southern reef
- D – run around the motu
- B-day celebration for Mike on Shakti. B and the Ui girls built habitats for hermit crabs. Brenden calls his a “sanctuary”
Email to family and friends dated July 23, 2014
Subject: Exodus – More Suwarrow Fun
Suwarrow has turned out to be a lot of fun. We had a happy hour yesterday evening on Novae, which is a 49 ft catamaran and makes Exodus look like a tiny shack. They are an Italian and a Scot who immigrated to Australia 27 years ago, so their allegiance lies with the Aussies. Tim went snorkeling with Stephano (from Novae) and some other folks today while I went “running” and the boys did their school work. He said it was really nice, so we’ll probably go out as a family tomorrow morning. I put “running” in quotes because while I did circumnavigate the main motu here 1.5 times, it was more like run/hiking since half the way around running was pretty much impossible due to the coral terrain. We just got back to the boat after a birthday celebration for one of the other cruisers, and we are getting ready to prepare our lobsters from Mopelia for dinner…. mmm…. (Sorry, LC. We only have four lobsters, I’m sure if we got more we would save them and share…)
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Logbook – July 24, 2014 (Suwarrow)
Daily Notes
- Family snorkel – 1 manta ray ~ 10 ft. Beautiful
- Another potluck – new boats True Blue, Upon the Wind, Pamela, Moonjoos (w/ 15-year-old Cameron), La Rochelle
Logbook – July 25, 2014 (Suwarrow)
Daily Notes
- T – snorkel w/ Stephano. Amazing clarity.
- D – passage preps, crazy run in the heat. Swig of rum from the guys on Moonjoos
- A/B – crabitats on shore
Email to family and friends dated July 25, 2014
Subject: Exodus – Heading out tomorrow, probably
The wind is supposed to pick up late in the day tomorrow, so we think we will make our exit from Suwarrow. We had another potluck on the beach last night and a lot of new boats have come in, including one from South Africa with a 15 yr old boy on it. Alex is hanging out with him on shore right now, but I think Brenden is building “crabitats.” Crab habitats, duh. There is an abundance of hermit crabs here. Our next stop will likely be Pago Pago, American Samoa, but we might play it by ear and make the final decision en route. If it ends up we would arrive at Pago pago at night, then rather than slow down or wait, maybe we’ll just keep going to Apia, Western Samoa. We hear the provisioning and everything there is quite good too, and it has a better anchorage.
Love and miss you all,
-D.
Gresham Family Exodus 