Tahiti

WinLink Position Reports:  Tahiti Arrival

Marquesas Islands to Takaroa Atoll to Tahiti

WinLink Position Reports:

                                    from the Marquesas Islands (upper right) 

to  Takaroa Atoll                  

to Tahiti (lower left)                                                

Tops of Old Worn-Down Volcanos

Takaroa Atoll: 
with roads, buildings,
 and even an airport runway just north of the channel 

Takaroa Atoll  (upper right) 

and Three Other Atolls

Rising from the Sea Bed

Takaroa Atoll (upper left)

The three most recent position reports (WinLink)

WinLink position reports

The WinLink e-mail system provides for position reporting.  The EYE crew has recently transmitted two position reports.  The most recent report is coded blue.  Older reports are green.

Two WinLink Position Reports for the WPT ( call sign KJ4QYH )

WinLink position reporting system also shows other boats nearby.  In the image below, the WTP is highlighed in blue.

Recent position reports in the area

Where is SPOT?

SPOT Messenger onboard the WTP

Bonjour.  As the EYE moves through French Polynesia...   when will the SPOT tracking data return?  

Rearranging the SPOT coverage map so that the Pacific is in the center makes it easier to see that the William T. Piquette (WTP) is still in the middle of the mid-Pacific no-coverage zone (lightest gray). 

On the transit from the Galapagos Islands to Fatu Hiva Island in the Marquesas Archepeligo (shown in red),  the SPOT position reports from the WTP were sucessfully received well into the no-coverage area and up to within 200 miles from the Marquesas.   The WTP is now southwest of the Marguesas and entering the Tuamotu Islands

SPOT Satellite Coverage 

A reasonable guess is that the SPOT track will begin to re-appear as the WTP moves out of French Polynesia and towards Samoa and Australia.   Another week, another 600 miles to the west / southwest and we'll probably start seeing a some SPOT location data on the tracking map.   Meanwhile,  Alan reported that he is keeping the SPOT on in tracking mode (a signal sent every 10 minutes).  

Google Map for Comparison:  Gallapagos Islands to Marquesas Islands

Here is a copy of the unedited official SPOT coverage map which puts the mid-Pacific on the margins;  not as easy to read for EYE purposes.

Brief Reports on Way to the Tuamotu Islands

Nice School

Here is a brief e-mail from Alan at about 11:50pm (eastern) on May 14, 2010:
"Good News  -- WinLink* working great this evening. Faster speeds than usual.  Received lots of [email] messages. Very happy. Hope your doing GREAT!"

(* WinLink is the HF radio e-mail system he is using)




Also, a tweet from Alan for the crew at about 11:30pm (eastern) on May 14, 2010.
"On the way to the Tuamotus!  11 deg 14' S 141 deg 04' W"
 

    Position Plotted:  100+ miles southwest of the Marquesas Islands 

 

 

Where are the Tuamotu Islands?  Here is a schematic map...

 

  (not for navigational porpoises)

The Tuamotu Islands are low atolls, like this .....

 Nobikini  Atoll

Many other atolls.....

Tattoo?

How many of our guys do you think will come home with a Marquesan Tattoo?

Mother's Day Tweet from Our Manly Young Men

The crew of the EYE tweeted 'Happy Mother's Day' on the website yesterday. I also got an email from Alan this morning wishing me a belated Mother's Day (guess he's finally getting the Ham Radio antennae to work). He said that they tried to connect with the satellite phone yesterday but no success.

He also said "Yesterday we captured, killed, and barbecued a goat with 3 guys from another boat. It was very manly"  : )

From Hanamenu to Nuku Hiva

Approximate Path

"Anchored in Hanamenu on Hiva Oa.    Headed for Nuku Hiva Today"

-- 1:00pm (eastern)  May 10, 2010

"Anchored in Nuku Hiva.   All is well."

-- 1:00pm (eastern)   May 11, 2010

The town of Hanamenu on Hiva Oa Island

Twitter Update:  Hanamenu at about 11pm (eastern time) May 8, 2010

Where is Tuhuata? ...on Google Maps

The latest tweet gives approximate latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes at about 2:00pm on Friday May 7, 2010.  

(One degree of latitude (or longitude) comprises 60 minutes of latitude (or longitude) and in turn 1 minute comprises 60 seconds: 1° = 60' and 1' = 60".)

These coordinates typed into Google maps produces a map...

The tweet gave degrees and minutes but no seconds.  How accurate is that? 

A degree of latitude varies slightly in size depending on location; it ranges from about 68 to about 69 miles.  At the latitude given in the tweet, 1 degree of latitude is about 68.3 miles, so 1 minute is about 1.13 miles.  A second of latitude is about 100 feet.

A degree of longitude varies in size. Near the equator, it is about 69 miles,  and the size gradually decreases to zero as the meridians converge at the poles.  At the longitude given in the tweet, 1 minute is about 1.15 miles.   A second of longitude is about 100 feet.

If the longitude reported is in error by 1 minute, and the latitude reported is in error by 1 minute,  then the position given could be off by at most 1.6 miles.

     

Conversations among crews

From a post today on http://aboarddignity.com/blog/ we learn from the crew of the s/v Dignity that the EYE crew enjoyed visits with the crews of some of the 23 (+/-) boats anchored in the Bay of Virgins.

Alan said in his brief call home yesterday that he was looking forward to comparing notes with others about radio stations for e-mail.


It is worthwhile reading the entire post on http://aboarddignity.com/blog/. Here is an abrieviated version if you prefer:


"First full day in Fatu Hiva
by Steve Southwood on s/v Dignity
(radio call sign KC2RIY)
May 5th, 2010

"Waking up in Hanavave and taking in the surroundings makes all the effort of getting here worthwhile. The place is astounding. It has to be noted though that this is the first land for the wind which has crossed nearly 4,000 miles of sea from South America to the east. With 3,500 feet peaks the air is pushed up and the moisture condenses giving a lot of cloud and occasional rain.

When we woke it was quite overcast so we planned to go ashore in the afternoon after we’d done some boat work. John (and later Helen after she’d written her blog) set about the transom steps which had collected a lot of growth during the passage. As hinted at in my last blog I set about the failed components. It was a great relief to find the charger working. On first thought it would have been better the other way round as having abundant fresh water aboard makes a huge difference and we do have alternate ways to charge the house batteries. However, the water maker, being more componentized, will be simpler to fix than a solid state charger.

When I managed to connect and receive emails I received some instructions from Spectra to check a few things out.
...
John had started cleaning the sides of the boat. He was a bit embarrassed how scummy they were. We weren’t the only boat like that but it’s always nice to be seen clean. I joined him in this. It’s a slow process. ...
We were in the water until lunch time. I didn’t quite finish my part before being called in. While in the water a French Polynesian customs boat had arrived. The worry for a lot of boats here is that we’re here without clearing in at Hiva Oa. It’s a lot easier to sail from here to there than the other way round so for boats crossing the Pacific stopping off here is natural even though it breaks formalities.
...
... it was now after 2 O’Clock in the afternoon local time and we had yet to go ashore. We collected as many water bottles as we could and soon we were off ashore. We had decided to climb the nearby hill to reach a cross that overlooks the village. When I say ‘hill’ it has to be noted this was somewhere in the region of 2,000 feet high.
...
The walk back down was a lot easier.
...
Back at the dock we collected the water bottles and filled them from the free fresh water spigot at the dock. ...
On the way back to the boat we stopped off at Kamaya to say hello. When they’d seen the customs boat they’d scarpered ashore and used the time to visit the falls. We agreed to meet up in the morning and go ashore to see a tapa maker at work and arrange an evening meal with one of the locals together.
They’d bumped into the crew of William T Pickett who’d I’d talked to early on in the passage who’d mentioned us and wanted to see us.

I then dropped off Helen and John and went over to visit William T Pickett. The two crew were aboard and the captain ashore but I was invited aboard for a chat. They were a young crew doing a circumnavigation being followed by some schools back in Florida using their travels to stimulate course work and exercises.

Turned out they had been using our positions given on the net relative to theirs as some sort of class work and no doubt saw our abysmal performance towards the end as a result of our lack of appropriate sails for the winds we had (at least in one piece). Someone ashore had even found our blog and forwarded parts to their boat email so they already knew of some of our tales.

From an educational angle I hope there is an important lesson from our passage blog. We deliberately wrote separate blogs not looking at what each of us wrote until the end. What you got was three different peoples perspectives on the same events. Due to our individual natures you get to see what happened from three different angles.
...
I stayed aboard the William T Pickett for nearly an hour during which time the captain arrived and it got quite dark. We all had stories of the flying fish. One of their crew had been hit by them two or three times while on watch. That must have been nasty and is up there with waking up with one in bed with you.

Back on Dignity I retrieved my emails. I definitely need a new high pressure pump. I also received a response from our agent in Tahiti and we have a way of getting a new part through customs and out the Marquesas. I placed my order with Spectra and asked if we could still try and troubleshoot to identify cause based on the symptoms we had. Either it was the pump failing or there is an outside cause which needs to be identified lest it ruin the new pump.

Dinner was curry accompanied by a can of beer and wine. We’re back on land. Did we just spend 3 weeks sailing?"

Not Alone Out There

There is steady traffic from Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas Islands.  Check out this map showing the current locations of sailing vessels that use the WinLink Position Report system....

Traffic:  s/v  Dignity  is highlighted

All of the following cruisers are near the s/v  William T. Piquette.     These boats have either just recently arrived at Fatu Hiva Island,  or they are about to arrive.

s/v Dignity's  tracking map  (WinLink Position Report system)

Many of these cruisers maintain wonderful blogs.  For example, here is the one by Steve, Helen, and John onboard Dignity. 

S/V LeuCat  is the catamaran cruising home of Dave and Mary Margaret Leu.  Check out their blog...

LeuCat Blog

And another:  the s/v  Kamaya which is the home of Ruth, Tim and their children, Kai and Maya  (thus Kamaya).

Blog of s/v  Kamaya

There are many such blogs.  Here is one more full of exciting day-to-day reports....

s/v Nika

These are wonderful adventures to read.   Check them out.

Fatu Hiva: a harbor, a store and a post office

Fatu Hiva Island:  Bay of Virgins 

(http://yachtpals.com/node/10213)

Alan called home today (May 4th) at about 3:30pm.   He was able to buy a phone card for use on a local pay phone on the Island of Fatu Hiva. The card only worked when he call land lines. He had to talk fast so as not to use up all his minutes.

He said Fatu Hiva has no Wi Fi,  has no Verizon coverage (so the blackberry does not work there), and the HF radio stations for WinLink / HAM radio are too far away.  

There is a store and a post office on Fatu Hiva --and that's all there is!

They will be sailing to a larger, more-densely populated, nearby island soon and expect to be able to buy some time on Wi Fi there.

I told Alan that some other boats that had just now arrived at Fatu Hiva are currently transmitting e-mail by WinLink / HAM    --I can tell because they have been updating their blogs saying "Land Ho!"   He said he would talk folks on other boats in the harbor and try to verify that his radio and antenna are working okay.

If necessary, he said they cold resort to subscribing to the SailMail Association which would give them access to the SailMail frequences and a radio station only 500 miles away.

From all accounts from other cruisers who post blogs,   there are three things you definitely want to do when you reach Fatu Hiva:   get a full night's sleep,    walk around on dry land,   and celebrate!

The crew has been "on" Fatu Hiva for two days   --most likely doing just those things.

Arrival at Fatu Hiva Island

The crew arrived at Fatu Hiva Island about mid-day on May 2, 2010,   according to their most recent "tweet" (http://www.eyeotw.org/).

SPOT Inc.'s coverage map is not very accurate, apparently.  It indicates that coverage would be non-existant during the middle part of the transit, but improve again as one reaches the Marquesas Islands and continutes west, south, or southwest. 

The actual experience was that coverage was not bad all the way across until within about 250 miles from Fatu Hiva Island. 

Speed was good all the way across

Here are the positions (from left to right) of Fatu Hiva Island, the most recent location sent by HF radio,  and the most recent SPOT location mesaag