Monday August 29
Fakarava, Tuamotus Islands, French Polynesia
Hello Family and Friends,
Early Monday morning I arrived outside of Fakarava. I dropped my spinnaker and unfurled the Genoa. I also started the engine because I wanted to be sure it was available when I wanted it and given the problems that I have had with it recently I wanted plenty of time to work out any issues.
As I approached the pass into the lagoon it looked like a whitewater river. Large white waves stretched for perhaps half a mile before me and they were from one side of the pass to the other. For some reason my electronic chart for Fakarava was missing the tide information that I have found for other harbors such as Taiohae on Nuku-Hiva. So I didn’t know what phase of the ebb and flood of the tides I was in. However I saw other boats negotiating the pass so I decided to go for it, it looked a little scary but for a short period, my plan was to power through it because once inside the lagoon I needed to turn to Port 90 deg directly into the wind and cruise up a narrow channel. I furled the Genoa and put the engine in gear, nothing happened, I added power and nothing happened the boat just wasn’t responding. Eventually I realized that I had no forward gear, reverse worked but forward didn’t. I was at this point committed to the pass, I couldn’t turn around and I couldn’t reverse out of it. I unfurled the Genoa and sailed through slowly, it was bouncy ride but not the end of the world. I was more concerned about what I could have possibly done to the transmission to cause it to be damaged? Had putting the engine in gear while sailing with engine off somehow caused this failure?
Once inside the lagoon there is only a narrow channel heading directly into the wind. The adjoining areas are noted as having no
hydrography and guide books had warned that outside of the channel was dangerous. I made several tacks up the channel and added my main for better handling. I noticed two boats anchored near the shore just to the North of the channel and decided to stop there if I could. I was able to anchor under sail in 60’ of water, pretty deep to anchor, I used 300’ of rode, all I have on the bow.
After a rest because I had been up most of the night navigating between several sets of islands on my route I looked into the problem. It was quickly apparent that it was my transmission lever mechanism that was broken, not the transmission itself. Some friends of mine in a similar vintage of boat had the same problem recently. It looks like it will be necessary to replace the entire assembly as there were bits of broken plastic and bent metal littering the engine room. It may require ordering parts from the states.
I have rigged up a makeshift way to shift in and out of gear but it requires that I have the cockpit locker open to access the cable that now has a vise grips on it. Pull for reverse, push for forward and someplace in the middle is neutral.
Tuesday morning I finished cleaning up all of the things that had to be taken out of the lockers and the tools needed for the temporary fix planned to head to the small town on the NE corner of Fakarava several miles away. I hoped to find bread there as I couldn’t get any in Nuku-Hiva and I needed most other provisions as I hadn’t been to a store in a week.
BUT I couldn’t get my anchor up! The chain maybe caught under a coral head called a bommie here. In fairness I was aware of this anchoring challenge in the Tuamotus. You are supposed to put floats on your rode to keep it off the sea floor and possibly tangling on or damaging a coral head. I couldn’t do this Monday morning because tying the floats on would have taken too long
and allowed me to drift too far towards shore, because I had no power.
Of course I have gone forward with the boat but I have been unable to break the anchor out.
Let me explain a little about my anchor setup. At the end I have a Rocna Vulcan anchor12 Kg attached to that is 100’ of 5/16” galvanized chain followed by 200’ of 9/16” nylon line. When I bought the boat it had an all chain rode of about 275’. While the boat was hauled out of the water I had to do maintenance inside the chain locker so removed the chain and I stored it as the yard instructed. Unfortunately the chain disappeared from the yard when I was ready to put it back onboard. As partial compensation the yard gave me the setup that I now have on the bow and another somewhat smaller one as a stern/spare setup.
I have plenty of other spare anchoring gear, 2 more anchors and one more rode. So if worse comes to worse I will tie a float onto the forward anchor rode and leave it here. Then move the boat and anchor with my spare gear and return to retrieve the anchor with a diver. I can’t free dive to 60’ and I don’t carry scuba gear. I can’t fit that type of equipment in my tiny boat.
There are lots of divers here as this is a world class dive destination. I even thought about flagging down one of the many dive boats that pass by me to ask for their help.
The following day GREAT NEWS the anchor came up without a problem! I had all my spare gear out and rigged up ready to go but I gave it another try.
I powered over to the small town at the North East corner of the atoll in winds up to 27 kn with some squall activity. What is great about this anchorage is that there is no “fetch” meaning waves can’t build up over a long distance. So it is a fantastic anchorage
with 3 small grocery stores close by, fuel, restaurants, perfectly gin clear water, white crushed coral beaches, calm seas but good breezes and beautiful palm trees. It is worth a long voyage to visit!
I am having a shipment of stuff I need from the states sent to me in Tahiti. It is a pretty big hassle and expensive to ship but at least I am told that I can import the equipment duty free as a “yacht in transit”. I will need to do the same for the shifting mechanism a US $400.00 OUCH!!! PART.
A great passage from Nuku-Hiva to outside of Fakarava some challenges thereafter but I am super excited to be in the Tuamotus!
I am only 200NM from Tahiti so I am not in a rush to leave for there. Once I know the shipments are squared away I will make some plans in that direction.
As an aside I met a couple from Texas on their perfect condition Hans Christian 48. They lived on the boat as their only home for 26 years and have owned it for 33 years. They are dedicated to maintaining the boat and that is what that brand of boat requires. Sadly most Hans Christians that I have seen are beyond restoration they are just too much work to bring them back to decent condition. I also met a French family that was previously anchored near me in Nuku-Hiva and recognized me again in Fakarava. They offered to help me with anything I needed because I am a solo sailor. I suggested to the husband that he should cook for me, he offered to lend me his wife instead. I think he will be sleeping on deck for a while! Haha!
Much luv from Paradise in the South Pacific,
Ben Lindner, S/V DAWN
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