Monday, July 31, 2006

Bye to Niue..

We left Niue on Sunday morning heading for Vavau in the northern part of the Kingdom of Tonga. And the weather continues to be a little rough. There's currently a high being squeezed between two low pressure systems creating strong winds from the southwest in this area. This combined with heavy swells and numerous squalls have provided the excitement necessary to keep Fredrik and I on our toes. Sternila, a fifty foot schooner, that left Niue little behind us have been sailing close to us all night. First getting a head of us, then reefing and slowing down right in front of us. Luckily we were awake and alert and could pass Sternila only quarter of a mile apart. Today the wind have veered to the east gradually making our ride more comfortable as the waves turn to come from the east. We have 75 miles to go and all is well onboard.

Take care

H�kan

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Saturday, July 29, 2006

Pictures from Niue and some from the past

Village show day in Alofi




Dinner with new friends

The sky in Niue


Niue's coastline is very different from French Polynesia

Håkan on a bike ride, which ended with his pedal falling off.

A hurricane with over 300 km winds destroyed 80% of the islands buildings 2 years ago.





Not a very popular airline

Our mooring spot in Niue

Moments at sea


Using our spinnaker pole to pole out the Genoa


Sunset in Bora Bora

Maiken in a big following sea

Fruit carrying competion in Bora Bora

Oskar at the Beachcomber Hotel


Thursday, July 27, 2006

Nuie July 27, 2006

I’m sitting on deck listening to Dave Matthews and letting the afternoon sun caress me.
Maiken are tied to a mooring bouy outside Alofi on Niue, and Fredrik s laying on foredeck listening to “Sommar” on Swedish radio via free wireless internet. This remote little island, best known for it’s inexpensive internet addresses, is fairy large and completely flat, quite unlike the mountainous islands and atolls in French Polynesia. The name Niue means “look, there’s a coconut” in Niuean. It’s a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand. Besides the local lingo everyone speaks English here. With a population of about 1800 it’s one of the smallest countries in the world, population getting smaller every year. People leave this tropical paradise for New Zealand. In January 2004 a tropical cyclone with winds up to 300 km per hour struck the island demolishing 80 percent of the buildings. Luckily the cyclone struck at daytime and there were only one casualty. In the following months 300 inhabitants, mostly elderly, left the island. It would seem to be good opportunity to buy oneself a tropical estate at a reasonable price. There are some problems though. The locals bury there relatives on their own piece of land, so one or two tomb stones on the lawn is not unusual.
When we were sailing towards Alofi yesterday a motorboat with a couple of smiling pretty girls came up too us. “Är dere svensker?” - Are you Swedes? A very nice welcome! But a rhetorical question I should think since we flew our very BIG Swedish flag. As the patriots we are. Or could it be the sight of two salty, athletic sailors that caught their attention!? Anyway, the pretty Norwegian girls were going whale watching. And we had to guide Maiken to port. Today we hired bicycles and went passed the local golf course, nine short holes. Tempting though. Only 15 dollars green fee. And clubs can be arranged through Nuie rentals, only there was nobody there. Lunch hour?
Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow? Speeding our way on two wheels we ended up on THE hotel on Nuie; Matavai. Very scenic location! Big waves breaking at the shore, thirty meters below the hotel. Whilst checking out their lunch menu, we encountered a couple of familiar whale watchers in the restaurant. Having spent lunch with them I now realize that we never got properly introduced. But one of them is a dentist and the other teaches yoga and gives massage. Both lives in Oslo, and they’ll probably show at the “Wash away bar” one of these nights. It’s a long way though, eight kilometers, and there’s no lights on our rental bikes. But as they say; when the cause is right, there’s no limit to the effort you will go through!

Be sure to wear a helmet whenever on two wheels!

Håkan

Monday, July 24, 2006

Still at sea

Well, this trip is really becoming longer than we first thought, light or no wind the last two days has made a mark. We have motored a few hours in the morning yesterday and today, just to feel that we are actually going somewhere and to charge batteries. This ocean without any wind is like a ever changing landscape of ridges and valleys, the mighty Pacific swell just comes rolling by and since it is so long and gentle you only notice it if you look towards the horizon. This is also an area with a lot of humpback whales that comes up to the Tonga region to have their calves, H�kan saw one this morning. Right now the wind is back, and we are sailing along in over 6 knots and we have less then 200 nm to Niue.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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Friday, July 21, 2006

Light winds makes lazy days at sea

Well, according to everyone else on the radio net there isn't supposed to be any wind around, but Maiken is still gliding along making 4 knots. The secret I think is really just that we either go wing in wing with the mainsail or just the big genoa with the spinnaker pole holding it out, it doesn't need much wind to push us along. Me and H�kan is getting really good at handling the fairly long pole around, while setting everything up. Other than that, it has been really lazy days on the boat, reading books (right now, we both read the same book unfortunetely "Atlas shrugged" by Ayn Rand, so we have to steal it from each other), and eating good. The last two days we have had swedish pancakes with cloudberry preserve (hjortronsylt) for breakfast. So, not much going on, just life at sea.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Another great day out in the big blue

I had a great time this morning reading all the emails from friends and acquaintances that responded after having read the article in my local hometown newspaper. Please, keep them coming, my sister is doing a great job checking my emails and blog comments and getting them to me via my sailmail email. I promise I will try to respond to each and everyone of them. The wind has been steady from the South for the last 12 hours now, so Maiken is happily sailing along westward. We are currently sailing right past two of the Cook Island, we have no really desire to stop since we have heard from other cruisers that the local conditions make a stop very hard, both the pass to the lagoon, and not much room to anchor. We might try to stop at Bevridge Reef, which is an atoll with no real land over water, just a ring of coral. The boat that is anchored there now, had only great things to say about it, this is where listening to the radio net in the morning is a great asset. The sea has calmed down amazingly quickly from scary high waves to just a nice long swell, this is the result that the wind shifted 90 degrees, which flattened the existing waves down.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Waiting for the front...

Lat 17 deg 21' S Long 156 deg 13' W 13.15 local time July 17 2006

Keep on rocking in the free world! And Neil Young isn't the only one rocking. Neptune has been rocking, and rolling, for the last couple of days. This morning a clear sky and the sun is soothing even if we're inside, hatches closed. Hearing other yachts on the same route reporting on the radio in the morning also feels good. We are not the only ones having a less than pleasant voyage. Fredrik and I have agreed on a strategy for the next 48 hours meeting the front. The wind will spin 360 degrees counterclockwise and then gradually decrease in strength. Hopefully we won't have the wind on the nose for long. Beating with this heavy sea won't be pleasant.

19.00 local time
The wind has increased steadily over the last hours. So we decided to take in the third reef, and we make six to seven knots with the mainsail only. Seas building during the afternoon and evening to small mountains. Beautiful but a little scary even if we were prepared. Right after sunset when it looked pretty steady and the wind had showed some tendency to go below 30 knots there came a rainstorm with winds up to 40 knots. Luckily it lasted only for half an hour. So here we are in the night checking the radar now and then for squalls waiting for the front to pass.

Alea jacta est.
H�kan

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Sunday, July 16, 2006

On the move again

Lat 17 deg 14' Long 154 deg 45' 17.00 local time July 16 2006

We are on the move again, and it feels good. After three days on Bora Bora we set sail for Niue some 1000 nautical miles away. My son Oskar left us after fourteen days and continued his journey around the globe. Next stop Tokyo. Thanks for all the new music and books Oskar, and good luck on your journey! The sea has been "lumpy and bumpy", as they say on the Coconut net, due to changing wind direction and rather strong wind the last days.
The radio controller for the radio net said this morning that he worked on getting the water out of the boat due to breaking seas, all this while managing the net. So I hope for the sea to calm a little bit right now. Until then we'll just keep on rolling.

Take care
H�kan

So here we are again, things slamming around in the lockers on the boat, the odd wave crashes on the side of the boat sending some books flying. There are times you just don't really appreciate sailing. It is a bit of a shock to go from a calm turquoise lagoon to a steel blue ocean with foam streaming down in the waves. The good thing is that Maiken is performing great, good speed with only the Main with 2nd reef in. We are leaving behind French Polynesia, which has served us well and we are looking forward to new islands and friends. For now it is just to hold on and spend the days reading, listening to some good music, and looking forward to the next meal.

I hope all is great with all my friends and family,

Take care,

Fredrik,

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K ärlekens ö ...

En liten notering från Tahiti den 10/7 2006.

Vi ligger på svaj 400 meter från land och Marina Taina, en knapp mil sydväst om Papeete. Västerom oss i riktning mot Moorea dundrar bränningarna mot barriär-revet. Vi har varit en vecka på Tahiti , "the island of love".
Att Tahiti skulle vara kärlekens ö märker vi inte mycket av även om människorna här liksom på övriga öar vi besökt är vänliga och tillmötesgående. Den omskrivna bekymmerslösa attityden fanns nog både på Marqueses och Tuamotus, men knappast här pä Tahiti med sin stadsmentalitet. Kapten Cook med flera sjöfarare som kom till Polynesien på slutet av 1700 talet hade inga svårigheter att byta varor och tjänster med lokalbefolkningen. Spik var eftertraktat hos lokalbefolkningen som gjorde om spikarna till fiskekrokar. Bland annat byttes spik mot erotik av kärlekstörstande besättningsmän. Det sägs att mängden spikar som drogs ut ur skrovet på fartyget utgjorde ett direkt hot mot sjödugligheten hos fartygen.
Tahiti har knappt 200 000 innevånare, de flesta boende i och runt Papeete. Här och var ses byggnadskranar, cementblandare och högar av armeringsjärn och allt tyder på att Papeete tillväxer. Unga människor flyttar in från öarna omkring. Urbanisering tycks vara en universiell trend. Från båten ser vi grönklädda branta berg vars toppar når ovan molnen. Närmast stranden; hotell, marinor och en del egna hem, ofta skjulartade. Nära stranden går också vägen, närmast Papeete tvåfilig, som går runt ön. Sluttningarna närmast vattnet och några hundra meter upp är tätt bebyggda med som det verkar moderna egnahem och även en del hyreshus. Några hundra meter från marinan ligger Mammons lokala högborg, Carrefour, dit vi vallfärdar nästan dagligen. Priserna där ligger fortfarande betydligt hägre än hemma men lägre än de lokala magasinen på öarna. Vi bunkrar för närmsta månaden åtminstone. Stadslivet i Papeete har lockat till ett antal besök. Enklast och billigast tar man sig dit med Le Truck, gamla lastbilar med flaken överbyggda och försedda med träbänkar. Enkel resa kostar 130 CPF vilket motsvarar cirka 10 kronor. Vi har gjort ett antal resor till Papeete, njutit en kall öl och tittat på folklivet, shoppat lite och ätit gott. Middag på kajen på en av många s.k. Roulottos är ett prisvärt och välsmakande alternativ. Vi har sett parader, dans och musik på den s.k. Heivan, en årlig fest med inslag av traditionell dans, musik och kamp. Bland annat tävlan i fruktbärning, spjutkastning och rodd. För att få lite kontrast till båtlivet gick vi en kväller till det lokala lyxhotellet Beachcomber för drinkar, middag och underhållning.
Men efter några dagar med fast mark under fötterna börjar tankarna på att kasta loss igen och hissa segel.

Sjön suger.
Håkan

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Saturday, July 08, 2006

Easy life in Tahiti

We are still in Tahiti, but we are getting ourselves ready to head out tomorrow for Huahine. We have stocked up on groceries and drinks, and filled our watertanks, the only thing left is to buy tax-free diesel just before we leave. The last few days has been very relaxing and we have contributed a lot to the French Polynesian economy, mostly on cold Hinanos and baguette sandwiches.


We went to the fancy hotel Tahiti Beachcomber Inter-Continental yesterday to see the Grand Ballet de Tahiti, it is free if you have a drink in the very nice bar. I don't know if the blurriness of the pictures are because of the fast moving dancers or the drinking requirement in the bar for the photographer.




We have had tropical rain showers at times during the last few days, it can be a pain, but it makes for a lovely sky

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Pictures from Fakarava

Closing in on Tahiti at sunrise.

A beautiful Mahi Mahi we caught.

Sailing wing in wing to Tahiti.

Some dancing in a backyard.

A bikeride with Håkan and Martina around the atoll.


Sunset and sunrise on Fakarava.





A few scenes from the village.




There is lots of fish everywhere in the lagoon.

A couple of pictures of the local school.


The village of Rotoava on Fakarava

A small wahoo that we caught on the way over from Marquesas

Maiken is eager to get to her first atoll.