SV Estrellita 5.10b

Plastic Reduction

2013-05-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

We usually use the ad money generated from this site for something extravagant and/or unnecessary – fancy dinner, drinks out, booze for the boat. This time we decided to use the money for something that we would not normally budget but that would be good for our local environment.

It doesn’t take long for a sailor to become up close and personal with the impact of plastic. Plastic in the water, plastic on the beaches. It sucks, right? Hard to get away from plastic totally but we all do what we feel we can.

One thing that most people have reduced is their use of plastic bags. Fabric grocery bags are easy and practical on the boat, problem solved.

What is a new addition to our vessel, thanks to the google ad money, are purpose built mesh fruit/veggie bags. *love them* Here they are pictures above full of veg from Fakarava. Each bag is big enough to hold 4 cucumbers or a couple of bundles of leeks and is easily bleach/washable when it gets dirty.

Thank you!

2012 Repairs in Paradise

2013-05-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

In one year of cruising in Mexico and the South Pacific, over 2012, what broke?

Sun damage on thread: The number of times we have repaired sunbrella stitching on our two headsails: 3. The number of times we have repaired the sunbrella stitching on our mainsail cover: 2. The number of times I have repaired stitching on our aging dodger: 2.

The impact of popping and rolling: One lower furler bearing. Probably contributed to the sacrificial suncover stitching going on the headsails as well. We also had some old thin attachment points on our running back stays (to the block and tackle) split through. We replaced them with real (new) shackles.

The impact of salt water: After burying our nose in the waves for two windward passages our windlass was so crusted with salt that it became unusable. While trying to use the unusable windlass I caused the chain to skip the gypsy while freeing it and dumped all of our chain overboard (still connected to the boat of course). Our relatively new chain has some rust as does our anchor.

General wear and tear: We have had minor chafe on several halyards (nothing has chafed through). We need to re-do some of the furniture tabbing which we will do this coming hurricane season.

Unusual breakages: Our spool valve broke on our watermaker. Also, our cockpit microphone stopped working (still trouble shooting).

In general I consider this a fairly normal or even light amount of breakage on a boat that has been used continuously for a year, covering a lot of open ocean miles.

Logbook: Rotoava, Fakarava

2013-05-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is not our first stop at Rotoava. We were here briefly last year for supplies. It is one of the major villages in this area of the Tuamotus and so a good place to get whatever it is you need and the odds are good we’ll see this town again.

We timed our visit with the arrival of the Cobia, the interisland freighter that brings supplies and people throughout the Tuamotus. With its arrival came fresh fruit and vegetables and so in addition to the dried goods, gasoline, laundry, internet, post office, cell phone recharge, ATM* errands we were also able to load up on fresh goods.

Not much to say other than we find the village quite friendly. And also that we enjoy the ice cream at a tiny shop just South of the concrete quai or just North of the new wooden dinghy pont (dock). 150CFP for a double cornet.

*There is now an ATM at the post office. Big news for Tuamotus travelers!

Logbook: Anse Amyot, Toau

2013-04-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

There have been a lot of squalls and I picked these pictures to show you what French Polynesia looks like when the sun doesn’t shine. New colors of blue to watch.

Last year we avoided Anse Amyot because it was packed full of cruising boats at the height of the season when boats are transiting through French Polynesia on their way West. Also I think we weren’t ready for a restaurant and a crowd. We were enjoying the remoteness of the Tuamotus and figured that we would have plenty of time for crowded harbors in the Society Islands. Instead we visited the SE corner of Toau with the other 4 or 5 boats in the kiting crew.

This year we stopped in with our buddy boats and met the owners (Gaston and Valentine) who were fun and snorkeled the coral field just West of the main fish trap. The fish trap was extraordinarily sad. Not that I am opposed to catching fish, eating fish, or trapping fish with a trap. It was sad because there were sharks caught in the trap (they are later released) and a dead Napolean Wrasse inside. The coral field had some great spots and we enjoyed the snorkeling. I enjoyed the flat waters of the protected anchorage to play on our new standup paddleboard which I’ve been taking out for a spin almost every day.

Logbook: NE Apataki & Buddy Boating

2013-04-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

After leaving the haul out facility we needed some serious RnR. We needed to play in the water, watch a lot of sunsets and slowly finish the odds and ends that needed to be stowed or fixed on the boat. We got that time by spending a week in the NE corner of Apataki.

We met up with two boats that we had met last year in the Tuamotus. Both boats have kiters aboard and we had a fantastic time kiting and hanging with them last year. They were our Tuamotu tutors; both boats had much more experience with French Polynesia and the Tuamotus in particular and we had a great time learning how to milk the fun out of the region from them. Since we all splashed at the haul out facility, we have been traveling in loose formation, playing in concert, and it’s been a great time. Who would have thought that three independent, free thinking cruising couples would have so much fun joined at the hip?

Carol has continued his schooling this year with an introduction to spear fishing which he has taken to with gusto. We are eating a lot more delicious fish and we need to buy a good gun for him at the next opportunity. You have to be quite careful of what fish you shoot in the Tuamotus as there is a particular type of poisoning you can get and the fish that carry it vary from atoll to atoll and even within atolls.

We rigged our aerial silks for the first time on deck, from the main halyard (google aerial silk if you haven’t seen these before). We were too excited to take any pictures but we’ll make sure to bust out the camera next time. We successfully climbed two different ways and tried some of the rest positions. You need relatively no wind so it is the perfect complement to kiteboarding in which you need wind.

Apataki Carenage: Haul out in the Tuamotus

2013-04-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

If you want to haul your boat out in French Polynesia you have to choose between hauling out in Raiatea, Tahiti or Apataki. The first two are in the Society Islands and Apataki is in the Tuamotus.

We chose Apataki Carenage for three main reasons:

Apataki is less humid than the other two which reduces the mildew problems of a shut up boat.
Because the motu is private land, in a remote area, theft is not an issue. I’m sure boater-on-boater theft is a possibility as usual but otherwise there is no worries on that front.
Apataki is the furthest East and thus a generally lower risk for cyclones (although yes the Tuamotus have been hit).

After arriving we realized that we had other benefits that we hadn’t been expecting.

We felt like we were still cruising/on an adventure.
Daily swims in Tuamotu water.
Green coconuts for drinking.
Fish BBQs with the family and other cruisers.
The grocery store in the village (across the atoll) takes credit cards.

We had arrived with a few concerns primarily related to the remoteness. People warned us about hauling out there because they said we wouldn’t be able to get supplies. I think as long as you aren’t planning a 3 day in-and-out haul out with no time to spare, supplies are not any more difficult than most other places. In fact, for English speakers I think Apataki is a good place to be because the family will use their cell phone and make calls for you to track down parts that you need. As for receiving supplies, there are 3 flights a week into Apataki that carry freight and every 2 weeks an interisland freighter arrives (MV Cobia III) which can carry heavy or non-airplane-suitable items such as batteries. Whatever is in Tahiti is accessible in a relatively short time frame from Apataki. In addition, the haul out facility has its own small store with commonly used supplies like grinding disks, paint brushes, bottom paint, epoxy, etc.

One bummer is the lack of internet at the haul out facility. We didn’t care about being out of touch but we didn’t realize the extent to which we have relied on the internet in previous haul outs to solve problems that come up in repairs. The carenage has satellite internet which works, slowly, and not always. In the village they have normal internet and you can arrange to take the boat to the family’s home in the village and use the internet there (while shopping) which is what we did.

Tuamotus Compendium Addition and Correction: The compendium gives a second hand report of a dispute about the bill between a boat and the carenage. Our experience was that the bill was the same as quoted in advance and the family was exquisitely careful to apprise us of any additional costs for things we requested after the initial quote (which was almost identical to the prices on their website). Also, the compendium reports a $30/day liveaboard fee which would have been a deal breaker for us. This is not currently correct and perhaps a language issue. On the bill the carenage lists a daily fee for “vie abord” which means living aboard. However this amount includes the fee for the boat to be on the hard for that day (lay day) and so you must subtract their normal lay day fee from this fee to see the actual living aboard premium. Living aboard increased our lay day fee by 1000 CPF or about $12USD per day.

In sum: If we were leaving our boat in French Polynesia again we would definitely return to Apataki Carenage. If we were hauling out for a short trip we would haul out there as well. If we needed work done on our boat by someone else, we would probably try to avoid hauling out in French Polynesia at all.

I’ve got (a good case of) the blues

2013-04-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

The colors of blue in the tropics are so vivid and varied that they are difficult for me to keep in memory. When we left for N America I would tell people that the blue was indescribable. It is a color that you must see to understand and even photos can’t convey the intensity. Even having experienced and lived surrounded by these colors for part of a year, even having taken photos and videos, even after attempting to describe them while in the USA, the blues still took my breath away when we returned to French Polynesia.

It is as if your mind cannot fully contain the sensory input and so you can’t really remember the blues when you remove yourself from their presence.

This photo is from the village in the NE of Fakarava (Rotoava), Tuamotus, French Polynesia and the anchorage is nice enough but not particularly beautiful…and yet this is the color of the water when the sun shines.

The Estrellita Report: 2013 Update #1

2013-04-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

These quick summaries are for non-regular blog readers. Regular readers will see them a few times a year and can tune them out. For various subscription options, including more regular updates, go here. Should you wish to bail on this list if receiving by email, there should be instructions for removing yourself appended.

-----------------------------------------

Our last quick summary was in July of 2012 and we told you that our current plan was to spend hurricane season in New Zealand. Well, they joke that cruising plans are written in the sand at low tide and this is a good example of that. We never made it to NZ.

Having fallen in love with French Polynesia, we went to the Cook Islands and decided that although it would involve two passages upwind against the trades that we were going to sail back to French Polynesia. Thus, after having a great time at Suwarrow and at Penrhyn in the Cook Islands, we sailed back to Bora Bora.

If you want a taste of our initial time in French Polynesia we made three videos: The Coconut Odyssey, A Taste of the Marquesas, and A Taste of the Societies.

We continued our upwind sailing all of the way through the Society Islands back to Apataki in the Tuamotus (both are part of French Polynesia). We left the boat in Apataki on the hard and flew back to North America where we spent 3 months being thoroughly spoiled by friends and family. And I mean SPOILED. All of our dual income friends took it upon themselves to treat us and host us time and time again. Thank you – you know who you are and we look forward to your visit on the boat.

While we were in N America we started the process of applying for a long stay visa for French Polynesia. This was subsequently granted and on my birthday we flew back to Tahiti where we stayed with friends in their gorgeous home who spoiled us further.

That is basically where the updates on the blog have left off. We still have to write about our trip to Apataki on one of the interisland freighters and our experiences in the Tuamotus since arrival. We plan to cruise in the Tuamotus this season and spend next hurricane season (N American winter) back in the Marquesas. After hurricane season we will continue our journey West further into the Pacific and leave French Polynesia fondly in our memories.

Feel free to drop us a comment on the blog or an email at s.v.estrellita@gmail.com

Just another week on SV Estrellita 5.10b

2013-04-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Family and Friends,

More than a month without internet access. Having a great time and collecting good stories to share. Here are a few photos in the meantime.

Love, Team Giddyup

Hull Art

2013-04-16T14:19:00.001-07:00

You might remember the hull art from our last haul out which was geared toward our impending departure southbound to Mexico via the USA. This year we continued the tradition with a Blade Kiteboarding “b” on the rudder, an illustration of the fun-to-suck ratio on the port side of the keel and some “fierce” teeth on starboard.

I would like to say the multi-colored paint was intentional but again we were faced with the last two gallons at a chandlery in Mexico just prior to departure and they had two gallons of the paint we wanted, one blue and one red.

It’s nice to end a long sweaty haul out with a bit of fun.

Polynesian Cows

2013-04-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

VIDEO FRIDAY

This was not taken in Switzerland as your eyes may suggest to you, but on the elevated hillside of Tahiti. Thanks Gilles!

If you can't view this video try going to our channel directly to find it.

Kiting at Point Venus, Tahiti

2013-03-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

VIDEO FRIDAY

Here is Carol kiting on a light wind day skimming across the blue waters (and black sand) of Point Venus, Tahiti. Light air and early in the day so we had the place nearly to ourselves.

If you can't view this video try going to our channel directly to find it.

Govino Glasses

2013-03-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I am completely jealous.

Friends of ours just opened their set of Govino plastic glasses and I covet them. Not hard acrylic they have a rubbery feel, slightly squishable but not squishable enough to lose liquid and they have a thumb indentation so they are easier to hold.

Yes, I said thumb indent! How cool is that? They are hands down the coolest boat "glassware" I've ever seen.

Warning visitors: The next set of fly in guests may be required to grab some for us.

(No, we are not sponsored by Govino, but I wish we were!)

Mega Groceries in Tahiti

2013-03-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

VIDEO FRIDAY

Can you find what you need in French Polynesia? Carrefour (and other mega-groceries) in Tahiti are enormous grocery (and everything else) stores. There are at least a half dozen in Tahiti and I know at least two other Society Islands that have large (but not mega) groceries as well (Raiatea and Bora Bora).

Here is a peek inside the non-food side of the Carrefour near Marina Taina in Papeete:

If you can't view this video try going to our channel directly to find it.

Cruiser Cheap Eats in French Poly: Casse-Croute

2013-03-20T02:00:00.000-07:00

There are 4 kinds of meat on this sandwich, plus eggs. It is stuffed with french fries and has rocquefort (cheese) sauce. Oh, and I should mention that this is *half* of the normal sandwich because Carol and I split one.

Welcome to the land of casse-croute, sandwiches French Polynesian style.

Half a baguette loaded with goodies, fries included and placed on the inside.

You can find them at almost every snack (small eatery) and they are generally less than 500 polynesian francs (< $6USD). Also, as you can see, unless you have a serious hunger going on, you can usually share.

Identify these fruits

2013-03-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

Can you identify these? Some are easy, and some are perhaps not so easy. All were found at a juice stand in Tahiti on the side of the road. We couldn't identify all of them on our first try.

1.

Sunset in Tahiti

2013-03-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

VIDEO FRIDAY

We had some crazy sunsets while staying at our friends' house on Tahiti. Every night after running errands or exploring all day we would get together for a nice meal on their deck and watch the sun go down.

If you listen during the second half of this short video below you can hear the live drumming that was going on at the dance school across the street.

Haul out continues

2013-03-13T02:00:00.001-07:00

Despite the cheeky graphic, we are actually looking forward to the next stage of the haul out.

We put in a week of work in the water and two weeks on land before we left for N America. We will work hard for another 2 weeks, and maybe an additional week in the water, but then Estrellita will be set to carry us around the S Pacific for...well, as long as we can stretch it.

And we splash in the Tuamotus! In the heart of great kiting, snorkeling, and friends. Several boats we met last year, who kite, will ne splashing around the same time and we have Bella Star coming west this year and new friends in this year's puddle jump that we are looking forward to meeting in person.

This season is going to rock.

1000 days of cruising

2013-03-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

Today is 1000 days of cruising, or vagabonding as we like to call it, particularly when we just spent 3 months off of our boat.

We are celebrating by taking a cruise. Seriously.

Of course our cruise ship is the Cobia, one of the French Polynesian interisland lifelines which transports goods and a few people and we are taking the cruise in our to het from Tahiti, where international flights stove, to our boat at Apataki *with* hundreds of pounds of luggage plus groceries purchased at the megastores of Tahiti. We will spend one night aboard the Cobia before arriving at Apataki in the Tuamotus to rejoin SV Estrellita 5.10b.

Full report on the Cobia experience to follow. With no WiFi at the haul out facility and several weeks of work ahead of us I won't be uploading any new posts for a bit. Just rolling out some pre-scheduled posts from our time in Tahiti.

What are your Pacific vs Atlantic stereotypes?

2013-03-09T17:59:00.002-08:00

You might remember our post about the influence of region on "expertise" and ZTC's post about the same topic which sparked a bit of discussion on their facebook page.

The discussion brought up the stereotypes people have about regions without having traveled there.

For example, having never been in the Atlantic, based purely on watching other people's blogs, I have the following stereotypes as compared to the Pacific (what I've seen of it so far).

I assume that in the Caribbean:
- wifi is more ubiquitous
- people spend more time with other cruisers
- there are more funky bars
- anchorages are more crowded on average
- the locals are a little more burnt out on tourists
- a lot of N Americans have taken up semi-permanent residence in the area (like the French do in French Polynesia)
- people dive less

I have the following stereotypes about the experience of N American cruisers who have left from the "right" coast. They are:
- more concerned about having shoal draft
- less concerned about having a wind vane
- less likely to have done any long passages

Remember, I mean "on average". Of course, any one cruiser could seek out, experience or be something completely different.

What are your Pacific vs Atlantic stereotypes?

Shower Time in the Tropics

2013-03-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

VIDEO FRIDAY

Carol walks us through his version of a tropical shower.

More videos on our YouTube Channel.

Shedding layers: Cruiser chic

2013-03-06T02:00:00.000-08:00

While still living in Canada, a few years before we headed South, we stopped buying winter clothes. We had enough that we could wear one set until items actually wore out and then discard them.

It was pretty cool and fairly novel to us to actually wear clothes until they disintegrated. People would see clothes that were ratty but still functioning and suggest we replace them. We enjoyed telling them that we wouldn't need a fleece when we were sailing in the S Pacific.

Despite this wear down, we still had more winter clothes than we needed aboard. So we took a set of partially worn out clothes with us to N America to wear for 3 months. By the end it was comical. My jacket had a shredded liner and a sleeve half ripped off, one more wash and Carol's jeans were going to dissolve and he had a shirt that was more holes than fabric.
As part of the grand finale I dressed in layers for our flights back to French Polynesia. I wish I had takwn more pictures but here I am fully layered for our early morning Seattle flight.

I immediately ditched the featherless down jacket, scarf and hat. At our connection in Honolulu, the socks and pants went. And at our arrival in Papeete the t-shirt was packed in favor of something looser.

It felt good to get rid of *something* because we had nearly 300 lbs of luggage we were bringing back to the boat.

Postcards From Paradise

2013-03-04T09:59:00.001-08:00

There are a number of services that will mail postcards for you and on my personal to do list was to test and choose a service.

Why? I find myself sending fewer postcards because the selection is often poor, or doesn't reflect the experiences that I had, and because the cards and postage can be expensive. With electronic photo sharing options many people cruising forego postcards altogether but there is something special to me about receiving something from someone in the mail.

Postcardly is the compromise that I chose. I can send an email with a photo I took as an attachment, to a special email address I set up in advance. The card is printed with the photo as the front and the subject and body of my email as the message on the back. Depending on which preset email I chose, the card is addressed to different people and mailed from the US - for a total cost of $1 if mailed to a US address or $2 if mailed internationally.

I wanted an email based service rather than an app based service because now I can prepare the emails to initiate the postcards while I am offline and then when I next sync my email the cards are processed and sent.
To use the service I need internet access but so far I have had WiFi as often or perhaps more often than I have seen post offices. And of course the card isn't mailed from an exotic port.

After testing the service I was quite happy with their photo printing quality and speed. I set up a bunch of addresses while I had fast internet.

I received 3 free postcards as part of a free trial and after seeing the cards I prepaid $20 for 20 printed-and-postage-paid cards.

A Taste of the Societies

2013-03-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

VIDEO FRIDAY

After leaving the Marquesas we went to the Tuamotus. Unfortunately I somehow don't have those videos on the portable hard drive I brought back to N America and couldn't process them. After the Tuamotus we sailed to the Society Islands, and here is a 17 minute sampler of our travels.

More videos on our YouTube Channel.

Beware "experts" like us

2013-02-28T02:00:00.000-08:00

Imagine two couples, both having left Canada at approximately the same time to go cruising, both approaching 1000 days off the dock. Both boats have reached the tropics, one couple left from the left coast and one from the right coast.

Besides the effects of their different personalities and boats, how different will their experiences be based on cruising in different oceans - the Atlantic vs. the Pacific?

Those nearly 1000 day Canadian cruisers are Mike and Rebecca from Zero to Cruising (in the Atlantic) and us (in the Pacific). Mike is writing on the same topic today, go check it out.

Through conversations with Mike I have been reminded that cruising region is huge in forming opinions on more general aspects of cruising.

Whether it is the availability of gas vs. propane, the usefulness of wind generators, the need to hip or hoist your dinghy, the availability of WiFi...so much of cruising is affected by where you are and where you have been.

We had such a great time at the Seattle boat show and we felt we had some real world recent information to share about French Polynesia. Even so, we tried to limit the reach of what we said. After all, we spent our first year cruising locally in Canada rather than tropical, were in French Polynesia under six months, and have visited only 2 countries in the S Pacific so far.

As we approach 1000 days of cruising, we still have only experienced a small segment of what cruising can be.

When you listen to people yammer on about stuff it is always important to consider their experience, their situation, finances, boat type, hobbies, and personality and ask yourself how that fits with your dreams, strengths, and situation.

If you haven't already, I am suggesting that you add 'cruising region' to your BS filter as well.

We expect things to change when we travel further West. Some of the ways we are currently cruising will have to change to match. Even what we see as ideal, is only ideal for us...for now.