Next Stop, Tuamotus!
12 May, 2025 | 1340 Ship’s Time | Full-Sail, Beam Reaching
I wasn’t sure we’d ever get out of Nuku Hiva. After spending over two weeks on anchor in a rolly Taiohae Bay, both Emily and I were ready for a change of scenery. We’re not your typical cruisers—after a passage we tend to sit tight in one place and recover, doing small boat projects, going exploring ashore where we can, but generally not moving the boat. For one, FALKEN is very difficult to sail short-handed. Handling the mainsail is the tough part; just flaking it on the boom requires three to four people and a deliberate plan. Plus, we’re happy to sit tight, and normally we only have five days between the end of one trip and the start of another.
But in the Marquesas, we had more time. Partly because we were ahead of schedule on the passage (I always allow more time on the longer trips), and partly because we knew that resources would be scarce in that remote archipelago, and if we did have any problems on the crossing, it would take more time than usual to sort them out. As it happened, we had a pretty uneventful crossing, and besides dropping the jib topsail off for a minor repair with Kevin at Nuku Hiva Yacht Services, we had a pretty mellow stopover. Make sure to read my blog from our hike with Tangy & Ana in the valley near Hakaui, which is posted on The Quarterdeck.
And yet, when the crew finally arrived on Saturday, the island didn’t seem to want us to leave. It’s just the start of the rainy season in the Marquesas, and boy did it show. For almost two weeks Emily and I enjoyed sunshine and the odd shower. I went for several jogs on shore (and got overheated!), and we had starry nights. But leading up to crew arrival, the weather took a turn, and on Sunday, yesterday, when we had planned to depart in the late afternoon, the rains turned biblical. All through the valley in Taiohae, waterfalls sprung up out of nowhere and the harbor turned into a muddy trough of washed-out debris. We couldn’t run the watermaker, but then we had so much water streaming off of our sun awning that we managed to fill our tanks in an hour, redirecting the flow right into the open deck fill.
So we sat tight, and woke up to sunshine this morning and a green light for departure. As I type this, FALKEN is out of the lee now of Ua Pou and sailed fast on a beam reach in bright sunshine and deep blue water, having covered 42 miles in our first five hours or so. The remnants of yesterday’s rains, though, were visible even 20 miles offshore—we sailed past an enormous tree stump, probably half the length of the boat and a few feet thick. A scary thought in the dark…
It’s hot and sunny in the cockpit, and the off-watch crew is taking advantage of the shade up on the bow, sitting on the windward rail behind the jib and watching the waves go by. Feels very good to be at sea again.
// Andy
andy@59-north.com
View more passage logs
Ketch us if you Kan
Falken is soon to carry on our preferred route of South, back to (hopefully) warmer climates. We’re all excited to set off and see more of this wild landscape as we head down to Victoria. A thermal trough over Vancouver combined with an offshore high pressure creating funneling NW’ly winds means it is due to be pretty fruity on the 9th. This passage is just under 600 miles, relatively short for Falken, but I’m sure we’ll be kept entertained with dramatic scenery, wildlife and weather!
Final Blog
Falken and her crew arrived safely into port last night around 8pm boat time, 10pm Prince Rupert time. Some spicy weather was anticipated, but luckily the 35kt gusts and 2.5 meter waves were no match for this expert crew. We had an exceptionally smooth docking, despite it being Alex's first time parking this year (!). We all agreed that this was a very special group of people—I for one am so impressed with how everyone stayed so positive, helpful, and appreciative of humor despite an arguably challenging passage. We'll all return home significantly saltier than we were when we left, a mark of a passage properly sailed.
Lessons and a Gift
The biggest lesson is the helm. The lesson here is that even if you don't think you can do it over and over again with no sleep, cold and damp, it has to be done and so it can be done. Flying fish are cool, dolphins are really really cool, but the coolest of them all are the whales. And most of all Alex: "Find your center Carla. Always know where your center is so you can come back to it". He means the helm but it applies to life as well.