Saturday, March 24, 2012

New Zealand to Vanuatu via Kermadec Islands

A short video of the trip from NZ to Vanuatu. My good freind Mike came along on his first trip offshore. It was a wee bit bouncy but was fast. Follow the link to you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-J62VtTf-s

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Guam

Guam is a bit of a culture shock after the remote atolls we have been at in the the recent past. The harbour is busy with naval vessels, commercial shipping and lots of tourist/dive boats out and about. Air traffic overhead is also quite heavy, both commercial and military and ashore there is a 6 lane highway into town and multi-story hotel buildings. We are anchored off the Marianas yachtclub, which has wifi and showers, but is a long way out of town. We will have to hire a car to stock up, but at the moment we are doing very well with lifts and have walked back from town once and caught the bus back once. We are enjoying ready access to such exotic vegetables as lettuce and carrots.Coming up from West Fayu, we had winds of around 20 knots most of the way and manged to rip our (old) headsail so the second half of the passage was done under a tiny bit of jib and our small staysail. Arrived off the Apra harbour entrance at night and spent the night slowly reaching back and forth until we were allowed to enter the harbour after 0800. For some reason we were told we had to go to the commercial wharf, which is unusual as most yachts clear in at the yacht club. We tied up alongside no problems, but unfortunately due to the amount of high speed traffic going past, we have large black fender marks down the side of the yacht (much worse than the ones on the other side from Chuuk). Having said that, customs, immigration and the Harbourmaster were prompt, friendly, courteous, efficient and so far FREE! Although, gun-toting customs officers were a bit disconcerting!We are ordering some spares and bits for a few repairs here and doing some maintenance while we wait. Not sure how long this will take, as several companies have not even bothered to get back to us. This includes West Marine, a large US marine company, specialising in online and international orders! Hoping to explore a bit of Guam and do some diving while we are here as we are not looking to leave to go north until the end of April.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

West Fayu Photos

Some photos from West Fayu. Note you can double click to get a larger photo, they just seem to upload faster making them small initially.



Lizards and a hermit crab eating coconut
One of the many fledglings in nests on the island. Not many as low as this one though
Lots fell out
Nice t-shirt
Weaving a ridge-piece for a new hut

One of the wrecks at West Fayu

Puluwat


Puluwat village inshore from where we were anchored

Tuba collecting
Baby sharks
Sailing canoe coming back from a day's fishing
Lighthouse on Alet Island

Ruined buildings near the lighthouse

Japanese guns

Alet Island lighthouse seen as we were leaving for West Fayu

Diving Photos


Sunset from the Blue Lagoon Resort in Chuuk


Rio de Janeiro


Snorkelling on a Zero fighter plane


Tori by funnel (Fujikawa Maru)


Anenome and fish (Fujikawa)


Mast (Fujikawa)


Fujikawa Maru


Gun mounted on the Fujikawa Maru


Jim about to swim into the hold on the Fujikawa


Tori on the Fujikawa Maru


Turtle swimming past the Heian Maru


Heian Maru in English and Japanese


Heian Maru


Kensho Maru


Us swimming through the samson posts on the Kensho Maru


Kensho Maru

Jim looking at an anenome (Kensho)


Bomber plane
Some diving photos from Chuuk. One of the guys we were diving with took these on an ordinary digital camera in a waterproof case, no lights or anything. We might get some more photos from a guy with all the gear but we think these are pretty good anyway. Note that for all the photos, if you double click on the photo you can get a larger version.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

West Fayu

As usual after a stretch of very calm weather, the day we decided to leave Puluwat was the windiest we had had for a while. Oh well. We left mid morning in order to have good light through the pass and set sail for West Fayu, a tiny island about 150 miles away. It was blowing about 25 knots and quite choppy around the island, so we were quite impressed to see some of the sailing canoes out fishing. We had a fast trip to West Fayu, arriving in under 24 hours and were through the pass and anchored in sand off the island by about 9 am. There was a yacht already anchored there who got a bit of a shock to wake up and find another boat next to them. We were also very surprised to see another yacht as we haven't seen any since we were in Pohnpei, well over a month ago and now we see one here, in one of the remotest spots possible. The day after we came in, we were sitting chatting with the couple on 'Ivalu' and we saw another sail on the horizon. Eventually, this resolved into an outrigger sailing canoe about 30 feet long with 10 men and one pig on board. They come regularly from Satawal, 40 miles away with just a compass for navigation and not a piece of safety equipment or lifejacket in sight. On the day they arrived, the wind was between 25-35 knots with around a 3m swell, not conditions I would've wanted to be out sailing in an essentially open boat for 40 miles. When they sail overnight, the canoes run watches of three people: one to steer, one for the mainsheet and one to bail.

West Fayu is a small lagoon with one island, with no permanent inhabitants, but there is a fishing camp which is regularly visited. There are several rough huts, a corrugated iron church and water catchment. There are also gardens with bananas, papaya, taro and tobacco but large supplies of betelnut must be brought from home. The trees are full of nesting seabirds (noddys?) which must make the soil quite fertile. I found one bird that had got tangled up in some twigs and we managed to set it free. It was lucky for it that we found it, as roast seabird is definitely on the menu here. One evening, we saw the birds being taken by catapults and scrambled eggs were also on offer for breakfast. We had a lovely evening here with 'Ivalu' sitting on the beach in front of a bonfire, watching the hermit crabs surround us.

Apart from walking around the island, we haven't done much here yet, as since we have been here the winds haven't abated. The anchorage is quite choppy and rolly, as the surrounding reef is not high enough, and the island not big enough, to offer much protection. The roar of surf breaking on the reef is constant and some of the breakers we can see from the yacht are quite large. Also on the reef are the remains of two boats. One of these, which must have been quite a large ship, could be mistaken for a couple of oddly-shaped volcanic islands, but the other, a fishing boat, is still intact. As the sun sets, in silhouettes it looks as if it is still steaming towards its next port. If the weather gods are kind, we would like to have a closer look at the wrecks and maybe do some diving but we will have to wait and see.