South East Polynesia

To say that we are alone in this expanse of water is to fall short of describing the feeling of isolation brought about when plotting our position on the charts. At a point in this crossing the closest humans to our position were in the International Space Station above our heads as we were a few hundred miles due north of the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility of Point Nemo; in short the most bleak and desolate place on the planet, devoid of any life and furthest from safe haven. At this time of year there is very little maritime traffic on this highway of the ocean, a quick glance at marine traffic confirmed the closest vessel being hundreds of miles away. What of it? We had been across the Atlantic, crossing the North-South equatorial divide and spending thirty days at sea, this was to be a veritable walk in the park. In theory, yes, it is the same feeling as our Atlantic adventure, in fact we are to be at sea for a shorter time as we head for Tahiti to break the seven thousand-mile journey to New Zealand in two, however the Pacific has given rise to a feeling that one might expect to feel when traversing a great desert, the sheer expanse bears down on our small human efforts to venture forth to our destination; the waves are rapacious monsters, the storms are frenzied cyclones and the immensity enlightens perspective. .

12th February2019

1500hrs

25° 00’000 S , 130° 10’000 W

Our intention to snorkel the infamous Bounty in Bounty bay off Pitcairn Island was thwarted by an intense tropical storm that kept us well away from the island’s menacing lee shore. Our experience of the rock that has been the protagonist in Destination’s gossip vines for the last few days was nothing more than a silhouette in the distance. The story of the Bounty, and how Pitcairn came to be inhabited, is undeniably interesting albeit marred in violence and scandal. HMS Bounty was a Royal Navy merchant vessel tasked with transporting breadfruit from Tahiti to the British-held West Indies in the late 1700s. Captain William Bligh, though a staunch and able commander, put his crew through the hellfires of Cape Horn without success, only to turn tail and make for French Polynesia under the Cape of Good Hope, an extraordinary failure after months of painstakingly slow progress. The crew’s mutiny after their acquisition of breadfruit in Tahiti was swift and bloodless, Bligh and his officers completed an incredible passage in one of the lifeboats that they were marooned on with minimal equipment available to them, likened to that of Shackleton and his officers in the James Caird to South Georgia. The mutineers returned to Tahiti to be reunited with their alluring Tahitian consorts and took to the Pacific to find some haven from which to escape the retribution of the British Royal Navy.  The island of Pitcairn has been inhabited by between two hundred and five people since then, the odd waves in its population can be attributed to the dark undercurrents of incestuous scandals and a civlisation born out of a violent band of mutinous cockney sailors.

A crackling voice over the VHF breaks the spell we were all under as we inconspicuously drifted past the island with all this information churning in our imaginations:

“Please all be informed that bingo night has been cancelled, Sandra will be in touch with the next date, check your emails.”

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The South East Polynesia ridge is a most interesting part of the Pacific, the volcanic activity over millions of years of grinding earth gave way to these volcanic islands, some of which have sunk and formed atolls and coral reefs with the remnants of the volcanos. The names of the islands we slowly pass by are a constant source of amusement to me, some familiar names as ‘Gambier Islands’ and ‘Podesta Islands’ and some such as ‘Disappointment Islands’ to be respected for their concision. Every one of these atolls and islands is resplendent in its own respect, be it a fertile volcano or a white sandy atoll accompanied by coral reef that teems with life that is positively alien to us Europeans.

The majority of these two weeks has been smooth sailing. The pairing of little wind and large rolling seas made for an uncomfortable first week, however one quickly acclimatises to the ceaseless pendulum motion of the yacht. The weather steadily improved as we neared the tropics and started thawing our chilled bones. The glorious expanse of the universe is bursting out in the sky almost every night as the milkyway carpets our view, the thoughts that one is privy to on reflecting while face up to this impossible majesty will forever drift on the waves of the Pacific, lost to the magic of the stars. Dark green water gave way to the brightest oceanic blue, pierced and bolstered by a jolly sunshine beating down on us every day. Now and then we experienced passing tropical showers, an appreciated fresh-water clean of the deck and stainless. Being out in this uninterrupted oceanic wilderness means that we have a perfect view of isolated systems on the horizon, with no land-based interference, Ish and I eagerly compare our forecasts to what we are seeing in front of us and point out the fronts that wrestle for right of way. We have been tracking a nasty low pressure system that loomed heavily over Tahiti, a capricious agent intent on breaking our as far agreeable quest across the Pacific. Our final two days are to be an arduous uphill battle.

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16th February2019

1400hrs

18° 50’000 S , 148° 10’000 W

As forecasted, we came to a head with a heavy Norwesterly last night. Our speed has been heavily reduced as all two hundred tons of aluminium slowly lurches up the face of each of these rolling giants and careens down the other side, only to be ground to a halt before bravely mounting the next assault. The wind angle is painstakingly on the nose and we are limited in our ability to have any cloth out so we are bare poled and straight into it with only our diesel powered workhorse leading the charge. The familiar slamming brings up memories of our escapades in the Southern latitudes, we’ve been here before but the tropical setting makes for a far more agreeable experience, nothing we can’t handle.  This angry storm will be with us all the way into our berth at Papeete, where we are due to arrive tomorrow morning, a thought that enlivens even those hunched over the lifelines, Tahitian dreams inspiring sickly smiles on green faces.