11 November 2007 | Vava’u, Tonga
Hello Friends of Bahati!

OK. So it has been way too long since we have updated you all on our voyage. And for once, we have no good excuse. Really, we have been just having too much fun (and dealing with too many issues!) to take the time to write. Sorry!

This will be a brief update, and more will come when we arrive at our next port of call (plus pictures galore, we promise!). We are currently in the Vava’u island group in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Since our last ship’s log update from Tahiti we have covered about 1600 sea miles and visited many incredible South Pacific islands. We spent two wonderful weeks in Tahiti, filled with making boat repairs, provisioning, visiting with many friends some of whom we hadn’t seen since Panama, surfing classic South Pacific reef breaks, and Michael and Josh marking the occasion of this 2007 Pacific crossing with traditional Marquesan tattoos.

From Tahiti we set sail for beautiful Moorea, whose jagged and lush volcanic mountains are visible on the horizon from the big city of Papette. Moorea was one of our favorite stops. We climbed mountains, swam with countless reef sharks, attended and sang with an inspiring and beautiful catholic mass, and ate ice cream at the local agricultural school. We enjoyed ourselves with the company of our friends on EMPIRE, SEA BERYL, DON QUIJOTE, and ADRIATICA. After a week or two in Moorea, EMPIRE sailed north to Palmerston, SEA BERYL went back to Tahiti for repairs, and BAHATI and DON QUIJOTE sailed northwest for Bora Bora.

Halfway to Bora Bora, we made an unscheduled stop in Huahine, lured by the tales of a classic surf break in the island’s reef pass. We arrived, and the sea was flat, though the island was lovely. We had a nice dinner, and awoke the next morning to firing surf! After the local surf crew had tired of the wave, Josh and a handful of fellow surfer/sailors took to the waves — very, very happily — and got continuously rocked for the next two days. One night while sitting on their boards just outside the pass they were approached by three breaching humpback whales. What a special moment! The swell passed, and it was time to move on! A lucky and fortuitous stop for sure!

After a slightly uncomfortable overnight sail, we arrived in picturesque Bora Bora, a classic South Pacific postcard. A perfect blue lagoon created by a barrier reef with a tall, jagged volcanic mountain rising in the center. It was also full of honeymooning tourists from the U.S., which was a bit of let down, though not at all surprising. These islands were the setting for the Mutiny on the Bounty….and one can easily see why Fletcher Christian and many other BOUNTY crew did not want to leave! After a week or so enjoying the island with DON Q (and celebrating their one year anniversary since leaving Norway!), we forced ourselves to push on, (taking our captain with us!) and leaving French Polynesia, sadly, behind.

We set a course for the Cook islands, and decided that we would see which way the wind blew us. After a couple of days out we were blown south, towards the island of Aitutaki. With light tail winds, we went about preparing to launch our trusty spinnaker. We pulled the giant sail out of its giant sock, and just as our speed jumped to seven knots Captain Biscuits proclaimed, “We’ve lost steering!!! Get the sail down before we lose it!!” After a quick scramble, the spinnaker was back in its sock, and we set out to assess the situation. Turns out our steering cable had snapped, and though we could still steer with the auto-pilot (which leads directly to the steering quadrant on the rudder), we had no use of our steering wheel. We set ourselves on auto-pilot and spent the rest of the night assembling our emergency tiller (which we were very fortunate to have….thanks again Tom Whitehead from Portland Yacht Svcs! ) We then sailed the remaining two days to Aitutaki without touching the wheel or the tiller until we were just outside the reef surrounding Aitutaki’s inner harbor. We then engaged the emergency tiller and steered her on in by hand! Exciting and a bit nerve-wracking for sure!

We had been told about the pass through the reef at Aitutaki by many a South Pacific sailor….the BOUNTY had stopped here as well. It is legendary for its shallows. We had been told that many boats were unable to make it through, but, if we were to hit bottom that it was only sand. We arrived outside the pass just before dawn, and were immediately greeted by a mother humpback whale and her calf, who swam directly toward BAHATI and when about ten feet away dove beneath our hull, giving us the experience of a lifetime, watching these enormous animals glide under us. The sun rose, and we were visited by the tremendous local sea turtle, George, who would be our ambassador to Aitutaki for our entire stay. Once there was enough light to see the beautiful lagoon just inside the reef, we decided we had to give the pass a try, and get inside to anchor with our friends DON Q, the Chilean boat, SURAZO, and fellow Mainers on HERITIC and OLD MANATEE, as well as our Bulgarian friends on MAGNOLIA.

Josh had calculated that high tide was at 10 am. We called Aitutaki Port Control on the VHF radio and the very helpful lady on the line corrected us and said that high tide was actually at noon. So we planned to attempt the pass with the rising tide at 11 am.

BAHATI’s specs claim that her keel is 6 feet deep. We have been pushing up our waterline with so much gear, water and fuel, so we knew that we were deeper then that. But the question was, how MUCH deeper? Captain Biscuits made the call that we were most likely 6′4″ deep. Armed with this knowledge Michael and Josh launched the dink and scouted the pass, testing the depth throughout with a pole marked at 6′4″. They discovered that at its shallowest point the pass was 6′8″. Great! We should make it!

We entered the mouth of the pass at 11 am — Nat on the stern steering with the emergency tiller (remember, our steering cable is broken); Michael in the cockpit controlling our speed with the throttle; Josh on the bow directing our path into the deepest parts of the pass. Captain Biscuits said our only way through would be to try and plow our way through the sandbar if we were to touch bottom. Halfway through the keel hit bottom, we bounced off and kept moving forward. Not much later, we hit again and pushed our way forward through the sand. The third time we hit, we accelerated to full power to try and force our way through. “Faster! Faster! We can do it!!” came the call from the bow. Full throttle for a good while and no progress. Damn! We are stuck. Our stomachs come into our throats, and we leap into the dingy with anchors to try and kedge ourselves off. We attempt pulling ourselves off with two anchors five different times, without any success. Our friends watch with binoculars from inside the pass and confirmed sadly to themselves that, in fact, we were not moving. The only progress we make is sideways with the rudder approaching the reef a few feet to port. This is a bad moment!

Friends came out with endless streams of advice. “Empty the water tanks! Offload the jerry cans of fuel!”… etc… etc… The water around us is dropping steadily at this point, and more and more of BAHATI’s hull is becoming visible as time passes. Our drinking water is being dumped overboard when we finally get a radio call from a local fishing boat asking if we’d like a tow out of the pass. “How much?”, is the next question. “How about $60?”… With the full knowledge that we will pay just about ANYTHING to be towed out of this reef at this moment, Captain Biscuits pipes back, “Kiwi dollars or U.S.?” — “Kiwi”, is the reply. “YES PLEASE!!!”. He could have said $1000 Euros and we would have paid it to get back afloat and save our rudder.

The boat comes out with our Bulgarian friends on MAGNOLIA taking pictures from the bow, and the fishing crew attempts to tow us out backwards. Even under full throttle, we aren’t budging. Finally, we try towing the bow around. BAHATI heels sharply on her side, freeing the keel from the sand, and while over on her ear, we slip off. But damn! The two anchors are still out. Michael and Josh leap into the dingy with the anchor rodes and pull up the anchors while BAHATI scoots out of the pass under tow.

Wow!, It feels great to be back out at sea. With many lessons learned! Turns out that high tide WAS at 10 am, and we entered the pass with a dropping tide. And perhaps, now, with all our extra gear, we are much deeper then we think! Later, we got ahold of the marvelous port log book, filled with the history and entries by hundreds of vessels who have passed through this infamous island over the years, and we find that we are one of probably 25 boats in the last two years to have run aground in the pass… It makes us feel a little better!

We spend the rest of the week anchored in the open ocean outside the pass, visited by sea turtles, and the fishermen catching flying fish at night with amazing butterfly nets in all kinds of weather under moonlight and flashlight! Over the course of the week, under Biscuit’s genius guidance, we jury-rig a new steering cable. We also fall absolutely in love with the island. Nights at the “Blue Nun” dance club. Soccer with the local team (who asked Michael and Josh to play for Aitutaki in a Cook Islands tournament). An island feast with traditional dancing. Visits to Bill, the local arborist’s amazing gardens with hundreds of different fruits and flowering plants. Scooter riding around the island. Snorkeling. And many late night navigations through the pass. When the week’s end comes to pass we are all very sad to leave and vow to return to visit again with some of the friendliest people in the world.

We push off with a functioning steering cable and make a pit-stop for three days in the tiny island nation of Niue. Sea snakes. Limestone caves. It’s a magical place… but it’s time to move on again, because now, after spending the summer with her garden in Maine, our much missed, Betsy, and our family friend Hillary Gerardi, who is on leave from Middlebury College in VT, are in Tonga already, waiting for us!

One day out of Niue, the auto-pilot dies! And after a couple of tiring days hand-steering, we arrive to reunite with Betsy in lovely Tonga!!! She and Hillary fly in together to sail in Vava’u and Hillary to do the New Zealand passage with us. And here we have been ever since! It’s been over a month now. What a wonderful place! We have spent week after week exploring the outer islands of the Vava’u group and loving every minute of it. Full moon parties on the beach. Kava ceremonies. Diving. Snorking. Spearfishing. Caving. Hiking. An amazing 21st birthday party for Hillary complete with an underground traditional Polynesian Umu oven that Josh created. Volleyball on empty islands. Reunions with many sailing friends. A long reunion with Betsy. And much much merriment and debauchery with new Tongan friends in town.

From Vava’u, Tonga, Captain Biscuits even flew to Singapore to work for a week!! The beard came off, and boy does this Captain clean up good. Nat was tested by the working world again, and Captain Josh and the crew were tested to see if they could fill his shoes and eat his allotted amount of cookies. The boat stayed afloat in his absence, and the crew even managed a number of days of lovely sailing! Unfortunately the Captain got stuck in Australia for five extra days after he hit a nightmare of immigration/customs red tape. Biscuits is now back aboard. Betsy has flown to New Zealand to await our arrival. And we are now five aboard BAHATI — Nat, Josh, Michael, Hillary, and Tim Barker (a good friend of Nat’s close friend, Jerry Knecht, who sent Tim in his place after having to change plans at the last minute.) Tomorrow we hope to leave our new friends behind and head off on what is popularly known as the hardest passage in many people’s circumnavigations. We sail 1200 miles almost directly south into the high latitudes where strong storms whip up quickly. We’ve been watching the weather patterns and think we’ve chosen a good window to depart. So with any luck, in a week or two’s time, we’ll have completed the Pacific Crossing for this year (new t-shirts to prove it!), and will arrive in New Zealand, where we will be spending the 5 month Pacific cyclone season. It will be time to overhaul the boat, find jobs, and settle into city life again. What a prospect. The crew’s feet haven’t seen shoes in almost a year. What will it be like??

After touching down in the North Island of New Zealand, Josh will be flying back to Tonga to help our Canadian friends on NORDIC make the passage to New Zealand as well. They are a wonderful family, and mother Dani had to fly home from French Polynesia after her father died. So it is only the father, Martin, and daughter, Catherine, aboard. On this tough passage it will be smart to have more crew, so it sounds like Josh will be doing the passage twice.

You’ll hear from us soon as we enter the wonderful world of New Zealand and back to a “real” working life for a stint.

Fair Winds and “have a good watch!”, with love,

the crew of BAHATI

Nat, Josh, Michael, Hillary and Tim