Cruise of the Ketch Julia

[J.Madison]

When it was time to cross to Tahiti, we headed out of the flat calm of the deeply protected anchorage and were surprised that it was blowing quite hard directly on the nose. Time for some deep reefs. We double reefed the main, took a hefty roll of the jib, and reefed the mizzen as well. Then we put the rail in and bashed into it.





Anchoring has recently been really restricted in Tahiti, and all the rest of the Society islands as well. The locals are fed up with cruisers I guess, and are going out of their way to make it difficult. Covid did not help, stacking boats up in the Societies as the route westward was closed. It is very sad, but is part of the reason we spent so much time in the Marquesas where we felt very welcome. We got a spot in the marina, to avoid the anchoring confusion and crowds. It was our first marina, and our first real shower, since Mazatlan.



The marina was dead calm, and sweltering hot. We were not used to it after life in the trade winds, swinging on the hook! We were happy to be greeted by the crew of the Fife yawl Latifa, the only other wooden boat in town. I believe she was the covergirl of our favorite magazine very recently, I only know because they had a copy on board. I hadn't seen a WBM since Seattle. Latifa recently arrived from the Carribean and we got to poke around on deck a bit. A very nice and well maintained big boat.

[J.Madison]

Our other neighbors, besides 200 giant catamarans, were a bit more...... imperial star cruiser.....
What exactly do they keep in all those giant domes? Why isn't one enough? How much netflix can you watch at once?

[J.Madison]

The old man arrived, and we headed back to Moorea in a dead calm.







We did some more hiking. It is a very pretty island.



There are very well preserved ancient sites in the woods, including a number of temple sites. We have learned some of the history of the area and it is pretty interesting. Apparently a cheif on Tahiti used weapons he recieved from the crew of the Bounty to try to unite (conquer) his whole island. He almost succeded but was then defeated and fled to Moorea. There were missionaries setting up there, and he and his entourage converted, then went back to war with the missionaries and their weapons on his side. The new God and his gunpowder was succesful, and the owner of this particular temple was killed in battle fighting to preserve the old ways, or at least the old power structures. Moorea then converted as well, and the missionaries forced them to throw all their tikis into the sea. To this day there are at least half a dozen churches along the shore of Cook's Bay.

[J.Madison]

There is an experiemental farm (I think a government entity) and they make spectacular coconut ice cream. It was a well organized little farm. There were huge avacado trees lining the road, I had no idea they were full height trees, you would need a huge lift to pick the top ones. We grabbed a few windfalls that were still green.





This is a typical reef anchorage in the Societies. Lots of boats. Nobody seems to anchor deep in the valleys, so we do that a lot. With 20 boats out on the reef we will be just around the corner deep in the bay. They get shallow depths and white sand bottoms, but full exposure to the wind. We get deeper darker muddy bottoms, but solitude and better scenery and perfect calm.



We headed out one evening for an overnight run to Huahine, farther from the Tahiti sprawl and probably the least touristed of the main Society Islands.



We exited the pass in the reef and sailed off into the sunset....

[wizbang 13]

fuggin catamarangs

[pez_leon]

The Cooks are sort of open, you can currently visit the island of Rarotonga, but that is just one anchorage in the commercial harbor and a lot of miles toward those scary southern waters! We have thought hard about it, even bought a Cook Islands courtesy flag, but I think we are going to head direct to fiji.

We flew to Rarotonga for a stupendously great vacation in July 2014. We loved everything about the island (and nearby Aitutaki): welcoming people, superb and varied hiking, easy access everywhere with a rented scooter, comfortable accommodations, good freediving - everything. I was crestfallen to read in the Cook Islands News (which I still check religiously) that the LAX - RAR weekly flight is unlikely to resume after the pandemic. I still hope to get back somehow.
That being said I'm not sure I can unconditionally recommend Rarotonga to you. The harbor was exposed and looked pretty uncomfortable. The weather this time of year is cool enough that we didn't linger on beaches. And while I won't concede that any island in the world could be more beautiful, I also can't argue that the islands you've photographed look any less beautiful.
It's a pity the rest of the group is closed. Suwarrow and some of the other smaller islands sound like once-in-a-lifetime destinations.

- James

[John B]

Good idea. I might try to find something like that. Don't have any gear oil on board, hydraulic transmission....



Congrats! The bow is pointed westward! When leaving Mexico, our plan was just 2 months in French Polynesia, then head north to Hawaii and then home via Alaska. This would have been an absolute race against the season changing farther north, we'd probably be in Hawaii right now making a quick pit stop before setting out again. A lot of sea miles....We decided not to force it so hard and just keep going with the wind for a while.



We would love to stop in Niue, and Beveridge reef as well but unfortunately they are still fully closed to all yachts. As is Tonga, which is a major bummer. American Samoa and Western Samoa are closed too, maybe opening up 1st of Aug but that is aimed at airline passengers and will be about a week too late for us. They are still in full covid mode- curfews every night, closed restaurants, mandatory masking, etc.... This next stretch of the world is just about the most closed and locked down anywhere outside of china.

The Cooks are sort of open, you can currently visit the island of Rarotonga, but that is just one anchorage in the commercial harbor and a lot of miles toward those scary southern waters! We have thought hard about it, even bought a Cook Islands courtesy flag, but I think we are going to head direct to fiji.

Missing Tonga is a shame, the Haapais and Vavau are pretty neat although the Haapais can be exposed as the wind boxes the compass every couple of weeks.
Although Beveridge would be a great place to visit my comment was intended to be a bit more pointed. A WBF member hit it in 17. Instead of meeting up with him in Fiji I heard about him on the news. They were safe, the boat a total loss.
Fiji is better cruising than Tonga, you need to get your head around the whole sevusevu thing, the kava gift, but it's a wonderful place with very engaging and helpful people. After a while you start wishing to give more , especially the outer groups and islands like the Lau.
I love the blend of people too, its where Polynesians met Melanesians through war and trade historically plus of course the great sugar cane diaspora of Indians as well.
It's fantastic, you're going to love it there.

[Mark0]

So your dad has crew that takes a boat to various tropical locations and he just flies in for vacation. Well played Mr Madison, well played (senior).

[Yeadon]

I really enjoy these trip reports. You’re in it. Nice job.

[snow(Alan H)]

I have been enjoying the vicarious cruise so much, thank you for sharing, I know the effort that it all takes. Interested to know what you are shooting on - camera or phone, and what model?Best regard Alan H (New Zealand) waitematawoodys.com

[J.Madison]

So your dad has crew that takes a boat to various tropical locations and he just flies in for vacation. Well played Mr Madison, well played (senior).

Yeah, pretty much. We do make him sleep in the chain locker though....

Although Beveridge would be a great place to visit my comment was intended to be a bit more pointed. A WBF member hit it in 17. Instead of meeting up with him in Fiji I heard about him on the news. They were safe, the boat a total loss.

Oh yeah, I remember that. Didn't realize it was Beveredge reef. I talked to two seperate sailors yesterday who had lost boats on reefs and were back trying again on another boat. I've heard this next section called "the dangerous middle." Yikes.

Interested to know what you are shooting on - camera or phone, and what model?Best regard Alan H (New Zealand) waitematawoodys.com

Through most of mexico, we were using an old DSLR that was okay for photos and totally lousy for video. It had an annoying problem of never focusing correctly. We upgraded to an Olympus OMD E-M5III which is not the top of the line image or video quality, but it had two excellent features for us, a splashproof housing that will hopefully give it a chance in the salty environment, and really excellent internal stabilization. Image quality was a definite step up from the old Canon as well. We just got a gopro as well, which should help the underwater shots and its something we can use when the spray is flying, which is a lot of the time under sail. Nice to have wide angle sometimes too.

All images on this thread are straight from the camera, somebody who had more time could probably really make them pop, but.....

[J.Madison]

So we left Moorea for the overnight sail to Huahine, about 85 nm.



Dad got his first dose of tropical squalls in the night, twice on his shift we got hit with torrential rain and very strong winds. For the first time, one person was not able to pull in the jib by themself in the high wind, even totally luffing. (We don't have a winch for this.) The drum requires a 3/8" line, which really ins't thick enough to fully lean into. Two people brought it in fine, but I was thinking if I was alone a few wraps on the winch handle and pulling it like a T bar would really up the power. We entered the lagoon without trouble and anchored in a deep bay for some more rest.



The next day we headed down the island inside the lagoon. The channel is fairly well marked, though it doesn't go all the way around.



We were about to anchor, in a difficult spot with lots of coral, but a local came out on his outrigger canoe and directed us to a mooring. No charge. I dove it, and we pulled hard on it, seemed pretty good. He was the caretaker of the little beach, we swam in and hiked up to a viewpoint over the bay.





Huahine is actually two islands, nearly touching and occupying the same lagoon. This bay is the split between the two islands. It was very scenic.

[J.Madison]

We walked the road for a ways. It was completely peaceful and unspoiled. This must be the least touristed of the main Society Islands, and the people seemed friendly.





The next day was my birthday. This also happened to mark exactly one year since we left the dock in Seattle for the last time and headed out on this adventure. In many ways it feels like much more than a year, we have seen so much. We had some special things planned, starting with home-made cinnamon rolls for breakfast.



We continued down inside the lagoon as far as possible, anchoring at the southern end of the island.



We hiked to a large temple complex. Its a little unclear to me exactly how these temple platforms were used, and the signs are always a bit shy about the details of what specifically went on here. I suspect that it was not a place you wanted to be brought as a captive from a battle though....



It was located right on the water, and the surf breaking on the reef was impressive.

[J.Madison]

A little more walking up the hill gave some more great views.



We headed back to the boat to get all gussied up for dinner at one of the fancy resorts. Not something we normally do.



Not a bad place to be one year after pulling away from the dock in the Duwamish river. I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me!





Celebrations aside, we headed up to the main town of Fare, looking for some internet to finalize our Fiji paperwork. Surprisingly, wifi has been harder to come by in the Societies than in the more remote islands. We didn't succede, but we did get some groceries at the biggest store we have seen yet in FP.

[J.Madison]

The islands of Tahaa and Raiatea are just over 20 nm west of Huahine. They are sort of one entity, sharing a single lagoon. We set sail for Tahaa. This is from the gopro, using that old realtors trick of a wide angle lens to make your ship look 60 feet long.



Approaching the pass the waves on each side looked absolutely huge. Giant perfect pipelines were forming, spray flying into the air looking like a line smoke stretching along the reef. It was unclear if the breaks were completely across the channel or just to each side of it. We had a bit of a panic, re-reading the sailing instructions but it didn't mention hazards in common conditions. We carried on, slipping between the thundering breakers without issue other than to our nerves.



The calm waters inside the reef are so nice after the ocean swells just outside.



The next day we made a couple attempts to anchor near some outlying motus, but the area isn't charted and we were rebuffed by dense coral and rapidly shelving shallows. At the next spot we inched up out of deep water, going from 80 ft to 4 ft in about one boatlength. We must have been just kissing the sand under the forefoot. The stern would have hit. We dropped the anchor back a few feet on the steep sidewall for a very quick snorkel. Luckily it was flat calm or we wouldn't have gotten away with it. When it was time to leave we brought in some chain and dragged the anchor back into deeper water to retreive it.



About this point we had finally used up our last propane reserves. Nearly 4 months on a 20lb tank, must be a record. I had finally obtained a tank of local butane and all the fittings to connect to it. We decanted the butane into the propane tank, which actually worked pretty well. It has to be upside-down so you get the liquid instead of the vapor. We even filled some of the little disposable propane bottles for the bbq, which is not exactly recommended by the manufacturer.



The west side of Tahaa faces the spectacular sunsets, that is the island of Bora Bora in the distance.

[J.Madison]

Our last adventure on Tahaa was to snorkel the coral gardens. We anchored up on the reef side of the lagoon, and rowed in to a little channel between two motus.





The waves breaking on the outside of the reef provide a steady inflow of water and there is a reliable current of a knot or two passing between the motus. It is a shallow area and absolutely full of coral. We started at the outer end, and drifted down on the current looking at the fish and coral as we went. We liked it so much, we walked back and did it again.

[J.Madison]

We left the pass on the far side of Tahaa, heading to Bora Bora. The wind filled in and we had a good sail.



Bora Bora is a dramatic place. The mountain is steeper than most of the others, and it is a fairly small island so you can sort of grasp the whole thing at once. Unfortunately its popularity has caused cruisers to somewhat wear out their welcome. It is now forbidden to anchor except in two very specific places for a short time. You must take a mooring ball, which costs as much as a slip in the brand new marina in Tahiti. Fresh water can be purchased, for the equivalent of $20 per fillup. One private company runs all the moorings and water, they must be making a killing. They claim that the idea is to protect the coral, and I've seen some cruisers (and charterers) do things that would turn any local sour so good for them on one hand, charging through the nose to visit their paradise. On the other hand it means that most cruisers can't stay very long, so the place is mostly infested with charter catamarans. We decided to stay for a couple nights, you can't pass this close and skip Bora Bora.



The reef near our anchorage was noted as having lots of rays. We took the dinghy over to have a swim and look for them. We found a few rays, but mostly we found sharks!

[J.Madison]

I don't think we would have been brave enough to jump in the water with all these sharks, but there was an outrigger power canoe with some tourists and a guide and they were in the water so we jumped in too. There were dozens of sharks, and they never stop moving. They circled around us in a giant shark whirlpool, just out of reach. I think the guy had them basically trained. He would whistle and drum on the outrigger and they would appear and start circling.











This lady was working in her garden and ran out to give whitney some flowers for her hair.

[J.Madison]

Whitney had heard of a "somewhat challenging" hike up to the top of the mountain, and it is highly recommended that you take a guide. Of course we went it alone.



The trail was not very frequently used, and barely able to be followed in some places. This vine is absolutely taking over the Society Islands. There are large tracts of forest that have been killed and nothing grows but the vine. This banana grove is about to succumb. I searched the internet for invasive vines on these islands, but didn't find any info. The other island groups did not have this issue. I assume it is invasive, as it is killing everything wherever it grows.



The hike quickly turned into a climb. We used roots and vines to pull ourselves up.



Just finding the trail was a challenge.



Finally we broke through the canopy for a first viewpoint.



The oldest crew member decided that was a pretty good spot just to stop and sit for a bit. Whit and I pushed on hoping to summit.

[J.Madison]

Towards the top there were more and more stretches that required a rope to ascend. We slowly put our weight on the old ropes that were rigged up at the critical points and we did eventually make it to the top. We were absolutely beat, that was a very steep mountain.







There were giant prehistoric looking ferns growing on the hillside.





We stumbled back to the boat before sunset and jumped in the water to soak our aching legs.



Bora Bora had been lovely, but it was time to grab some more provisions and head to Raietea to start our checkout procedure and get the boat ready for another long ocean passage.

[Thad]

Wow. Thanks. Goodonya.

[StevenBauer]

Still loving this. Thanks so much for sharing your adventure with us.

[johngsandusky]

Beautiful pictures!

[gray duck]

Incredible journey! Thank you and Godspeed

[AJZimm]

Thanks for keeping us up to date, Jon. Much appreciated!

[Hugh MacD]

Thank you so much for taking us along! It's a voyage I'll never be able to do so following your adventures is a treat!

[Yeadon]

Wow, check out that giant fiddlehead.

[J.Madison]

Thanks folks. Fiddlehead, I knew there was a term but I couldn't remember it. Don't some people eat them? These would be a meal for a whole family. Might need the tenderizing hammer.

We headed out from Bora Bora on a rainy, squally day with quite a bit of swell running. We were backtracking upwind to Tahaa to wait for a weather window for the next big crossing. The window was a week out at least, and we didn't want to pay that in mooring fees on Bora Bora.



It was a wet ride, but eventually we made it into the protection of the island. The southern swell was crashing on the reef and sending up smoke all along it.



The breakers were huge, still not used to navigating right next to these monsters as they flank both sides of the entrance cut.





We spent the next few days visiting the Gendarme to handle paperwork, getting the final provisions, getting our advance clearance to enter Fiji, etc... Lots of homework, much of which required visiting the main town on Raitea. There is no anchorage at the town, and lots of charter cats fighting for moorings, so we did some fly-by drops of the dinghy while the mother ship went elsewhere to anchor up. I don't think we spent the night in the same place twice since Tahiti, but we did get so see a number of little villages as we bounced around looking for water, fuel, and a trash bin.



The wind has been strong for a few days, and there has been a massive swell rolling in from the south. This was the system we have been waiting out. The swell here has been 4.5 meters, and the "high commision" actually closed the area to navigation for all small boats.

[J.Madison]

Inside the lagoon the water was mostly flat, though we could feel some swell that made it over the reef for the first time. We left Raitea and headed back to Tahaa where we knew we could get water for free and a nice uncrowded bay as well.



We have been struggling a bit with finding a weather window for the 1800 NM passage to Fiji. The steady trade winds of our passage to the Marquesas are not so dominant here, they come and go and there is a lot of influence from the south pacific convergence zone and storms in the southern ocean. It is the dead of winter down there, and every few days some big monster goes rolling across the 30s or 40s and sends heavy seas north. Lots of complicated troughs and other features reach up and cover the waters we will be sailing.

Still waiting for one last email from the weather router in NZ, but it looks like tomorrow we will go for it as this swell event dies down. We will arc north to get out of the worst of the next system that will be sending nasty conditions our way, and then hopefully get back on track for Fiji. The difficulty with a passage this long is the forecasting peters out well before arrival, so we don't know what the last few days will look like. We expect this passage to take 15 or 16 days.

If you enjoy dot watching, our tracker link is https://forecast.predictwind.com/tra...play/SV_Julia/

See you on the other side!

[Mark0]

Yeah, pretty much. We do make him sleep in the chain locker though....

Wait until you tell him he needs to wear a bikini for the youtube hits like many of the other channel visiting crew.

I really like your video content, more my interest. I would enjoy seeing more of the technical side of running your boat, but I'm not too mainstream.

Have a good passage !

Cheers,
Mark

[Rich Jones]

Amazing photos!! Thanks again for taking us along.

[Hwyl]

Really enjoying this.
Had you thought of putting a sleeve, made from the outside layer of another line. Just enough to not go around the drum.
That would give you better grip, so you can get those first few wraps of the jib.

[Mike1902]

Checked the boat tracker today at 1.54 GMT. Boat speed 12.5 knots!! Go Julia, surfs up.
Just checked again , just over an hour later, 2.8 knots ...

[Rich Jones]

Checked the boat tracker today at 1.54 GMT. Boat speed 12.5 knots!! Go Julia, surfs up.
Just checked again , just over an hour later, 2.8 knots ...

Can you share the link to this boat tracker thingie?

[Rich Jones]

It's been a year now since you left on this great journey.
Is there an end point or will you continue cruising until you feel you've had enough?