There was this “award” going round cruising bloggers a few months ago (or maybe still?) which I have to admit I found both weird and fascinating. Weird because it was more like a chain email or pyramid scheme than a real award and fascinating because, let’s face it, I love the idea of interviews*.  I cherry picked a few questions from two interviewers and even though I am making fun of the award I was still very flattered you guys thought of me.

Leah’s questions:

Why are you cruising wherever its is you’re cruising right now? How did that become a destination?

Well, it’s the South Pacific and I think that answers also how it became a destination!  It’s amazing. It’s everything I wanted out of cruising. It’s a dream. I am making memories of a lifetime almost every day. I’m forgetting details of better places than I had ever visited before. It’s overwhelming and awesome. So, yeah, I like it here.

How’d you find your boat? Have you had other boats?

I (Livia) had never had another boat. Carol (my husband and supercruiser) had owned a 26’ Robert Perry design (Mirage). We decided to hire an expert to help us decide what boat to buy because we didn’t feel we knew enough. We knew so little that he encouraged us to visit a few boats while we were in Seattle visiting family over the holidays. The very first boat we stepped on that trip was the boat we bought and went cruising on (!) even though we went and looked at bunches of other boats.

If you weren’t sailing/cruising, what would you be doing?

Working to fund the next vagabonding adventure? Homesteading? Caravaning? More cruising?

What’s your big-picture plan? Where do you hope to be in 5-10 years?

Still alive and healthy and active. Still searching working on keeping the fun-to-suck ratio in the appropriate balance.  Perhaps seasonally working and seasonally traveling?

How do you keep yourself entertained on long night watches?

I do a long night watch from midnight until 5am. After trying a bunch of different standard watches we settled into our own idiosyncratic watch schedule. My usual plan is to make a cup a tea while “safe-ing the route”. This means I do the zoom in and zoom out double check on the electronic charts which we’ve already done prior to leaving on the intended route but is the responsibility of each watch person to double check on the actual route. I take my tea to the cockpit and zone out, absorbing the horizon, the sails, the weather, the windvane, for at least an hour. I then often grab a second tea, and a snack, and repeat that process. Somewhere around 2:30am when I need distraction, I alternate horizon sweeps with email writing. If propagation is good at that time of night I often do a weather download while uploading the emails I wrote. At this point, around 3:30, I go back to the cockpit full time with either: an audio podcast, an ebook, video podcast on the iPad. Once I’ve toughed out that hour until 4:30 or so, I come back down and start alternating horizon sweeps with settling down rituals – face washing, teeth brushing, whatever.

Dos Libras’s questions:

What is the one thing you wish more people knew about you?  Don't be afraid to brag here... this is your chance!

I wish more people knew about the Newly Salted project and volunteered for Newly Salted interviews. Now that I am cruising it can take a while for me to respond to those interviews (which is why I put the Interview With A Cruiser project on intermission) but I really appreciate when people participate. If you are newly off the dock (< 2 years) or know someone who is, the deal is that you self-interview and I publish it. Consider it a donation to the dreamers out there.

What would you say is your partner's greatest contribution to your success (current or future) as sailors/cruisers?

Carol has an amazing attitude and I didn’t realize how critical that is to cruising before we left the dock. Carol is ready to put on his game face and do dirty jobs at almost any time. I’m not saying he loves it, but he is ready to “pay the piper” for all of the good times and he does so with good humor and a good nature.  This leads to some “leadership by example” in the sense that I see him gearing himself up to do something he didn’t necessarily want to do and I “man up” as well because I’m not willing to let him deal with it alone. He brings out the best in me during those situations. He is also really  good with dealing with on the fly information gathering.

When will you/did you REALLY consider yourself to be a Cruiser?  What does the word "Cruiser" mean to you?

I don’t really care what people call themselves. I was a cruiser the day I left the dock to start cruising. I think the main problem is when people who are cruising fail to indicate the limits of their expertise.  If you have been in one region , doing one specific type of cruising, you can’t talk about whether “all cruisers need windvanes”. We have been in the South Pacific for a couple of years and we have only seen a few countries so really we know only a taste of the region. Lots of cruisers go on and on about things they really know nothing about just because they’ve been cruising a long time. Length of time cruising tells you very little about how much someone knows and it doesn’t tell you if what they know will be applicable to your cruise.

What do you think will be the thing that ends your Cruising journey?  Andy why?

Before we started cruising I didn’t know if we would stop when we ran out of money or when we were done with the hard work/discomfort aspects of cruising. I knew we wouldn’t get bored. Now I think we will run out of money before we don’t want to put up with the uncomfortable parts. I think this is because we’ve somehow managed to spend a fair amount of time off the boat every year. Whether it was for good reasons (visiting family, house/resort sitting), or bad reasons (repairing the boat), each time refreshed us. After a break we start missing the boat, missing the travel, and we come back with refreshed emotional reserves to deal with problems.

What size boat do you/will you cruise on?  And if money were no object... would you buy a bigger one?

We cruise on a 30+ year old, 35 foot monohull. In our price range, we wouldn’t change boats. We have a solid boat we can take almost anywhere in the world (ice would make us nervous). 

If money were no object we would be on a performance catamaran (think Atlantic or Outre-mer, not Lagoon or Fountaine Pajot). The additional space would be great and appreciated (particularly for our toy collection – kites etc) but really we would switch for the fun of sailing that fast, between anchorages sailing well in very light air and making fast passages.

*I loved creating the Interview With A Cruiser Project. Although on intermission, the IWAC still gets a lot of regular traffic and I love the idea that it remains standing as a free and open resource. And, admittedly sporadically, I am still publishing Newly Salted interviews.

I don’t know if you remember this post about our favorite sailing gloves?

A reader notified us (thank you!) that Gill had reportedly had problems with some of their leather, had switched leather, and would replace our gloves. As cruisers far from North America we hadn’t tried contacting the company to send our gloves back, deciding it would be a hassle.

After contacting Gill, we had new gloves shipped to our N American address, no problems.

Kudos to Gill.

In a stroke of luck we arrived in Vava'u with two weeks of on and off good kiting wind so we were able to kite at all three locations.

Background: We kited in August-September 2014 and were using 3mm wetsuits. On grey days when the wind was up we even brought a thermos of hot tea to the beach. Of course, we’ve been living in the tropics for years and are acclimated to more heat than when we left Canada! While we usually use Google’s cache of satellite imagery to pull from for offline use with SAS Planet, but we used SAS to pull from BIng here because the pictures were better and so that is where the following links will take you. All locations are the launch spot not the anchorage.

Sandbar near Kenutu (S18°42'35.04" W173°56'32.36"). This was by far our favorite kite spot in Vava’u for a number of reasons. A small sand island and bar covered at high tide but otherwise usable with a great, relatively obstacle free line in almost any wind directions and plenty of room to get blown downwind for learners. A little choppier near high tide if the winds are honking and if the ocean swell is up it can add a bit to the chop only at high tide. The sand bar is a mile from land and so has unobstructed wind from almost any direction. Plus, the anchorage at nearby Kenutu Island is excellent in strong trade conditions. It can be a little gusty but it stays fairly flat, no fetch can build, and the island has a great beach and a great hike to the ocean side views.

The only downside is that the kite island is about 1nm from the anchorage. Depending on your dinghy/outboard combination this could be a deal breaker. We found it wet but doable and well worth it. One day we saw a resort boat bring a kiter to this island for a downwinder somewhere so that might be an option for fly in visitors.

Taunga sandbar (S18°45'12.89" W174°00'37.19"). Taunga’s sandbar connects to the island south of it. If the wind is too far South there is a wind shadow at the launch spot which you have to fight out of but it is short and then you are in unobstructed wind even in SSE winds. In ESE conditions the upwind side of the bar is excellent – no shadow, no coral, good wind and a huge section of water to play in. It can be a bit lumpy here but wasn’t as lumpy as what we experienced at Mounu (below). We haven’t kited in solid E or ENE conditions which are what you would need for unobstructed wind on the flat water side. Looking forward to trying that because that side of the bar looks excellent.

The most beautiful anchorage in Taunga is on the windy side which is unfortunate because in non windy conditions it is idyllic. Great sand, great holding and nice depths for anchoring. During strong trades the fetch becomes quite uncomfortable (we can vouch for that) and if we go again for kiting wind we’ll try anchoring on the marked anchorage on the W side of the island.

Mounu Island  (S18°45'07.05" W174°04'06.69"). This is a resort so if you were flying into Tonga this would be an attractive option. It looked fancy, so pocket book dependent. The daughter of the owners is a kiteboarder but wasn’t at home when we were there. We introduced ourselves to the owners and asked permission to launch from the southwest side of their beach which they granted right away. There is some reef downwind of the launch spot but after that it is obstacle free and a good spot for learners as it starts shallow enough to stand in but eventually becomes deep and clear downwind of the main kite area.

Lots of good reasons to come here and we will probably stop by again if nearby but we found the spot to be quite choppy and the anchorage to also be in the line of the fetch and so can’t say that it is our favorite. The anchorage around the corner at Avalau (sometimes Ovalau depending on the chart) was gorgeous so you could move back around there for the evening and have a small beach fire below the high tide line (so they sea can wash away the traces of it).

We were first tipped off to these three kite spots by SV Starship.  Thanks guys!

Based purely on conversations with other full time cruisers, I believe that we treat our batteries within a fairly normal range  – if there can be such a thing as “average battery use for a full time cruiser in the South Pacific” I think we fit the bill.  That is to say, like most cruisers, we treat our batteries in ways they were not designed to be treated. Our batteries don’t die on us, we beat them to death.

Estrellita’s battery bank cycles mostly between 70 and 90 percent of capacity. We rarely discharge to 50% but we rarely bring our batteries to 100%. AGMs like to be charged to 100% regularly. This was just not practical for us for the most part. Running the Honda until our battery bank is 100% charged (or nearly) happened only occasionally and we haven’t plugged into shore power for two years. Our haul out facilities (when they had power at all) had different voltages than we use and no converters. We could add more solar or add wind but for various reasons (real estate mostly) we haven’t made that decision yet. Our solar does a good job and our regular use of our Honda EU2000 generator brings things up whenever we make water (details on the system here).

Our Sears Diehard Platinum Marine batteries (made by Odyssey) lasted 4 years before they stopped holding useful voltages at moderate levels of discharge.

That is…OK…not bad even.

It’s not terrible. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to get excited about. 600 Amp hours of batteries retailed for $1500 at the time we purchased (we had a coupon to knock that down a bit). That puts the cost at $375/year of service at full price.

Note: The customer service at Odyssey was delightful. Email responses from knowledgeable tech people that were detailed, fast and on target, even though we had purchased our batteries from Sears with the Sears brand. Sears basically wanted us to bring the batteries in. If you live/boat in the US, that would be actually very useful.

I (Livia) recently joined the ranks of the tweeners. To mark this occasion, Carol and I spent a few days on our own in the bay of Onemea on Taravai.

Carol made crepes for breakfast, we picnicked on the beach for lunch, and with dinner, thanks to Robbie H, we were able to afford a great bottle of wine.

It was a birthday to go down in the memory books and a huge thank you for making it special. The sunset that we toasted it to was nothing short of spectacular – directly into the ocean over the encircling reef of Mangareva.

We haven’t had access to good inexpensive wine for years now and that means we don’t get to have good wine very often. This was a real treat for us.

Thank you, thank you Robbie H!

When we had our goodbye party with our friends on Taravai, thanks to Joshua J, we brought the beer.

Our hosts used some recently caught wahoo and made poisson cru (raw fish with freshly pressed coconut milk and lime), grilled fish and rice. The rest of us brought a side dish and Estrellita brought a couple of six packs of big boy Hinanos.

Tip: In French Polynesia, if you bring booze to a party and give it to the host at the beginning of the party, it is now their booze. They may offer it to other people, or not, as they see fit. If you give them beers, and they offer those beers to other people who arrive, they are NOT giving away YOUR beer. They are giving away the beer that you gave to them.

It’s really a doubly wonderful gift. Not only are you giving your host beer which they may not afford regularly on their own (it *is* expensive), but you are also giving them the opportunity to be rich enough in beer to offer beers to their guests. With your gift, they get the pleasure of receiving, of imbibing and also of giving to others.

Thank you, thank you Josh J – you made the party!

I’m embarrassed at how behind I am on our liquid motivation posts. This one is from TAHITI for goodness sakes! I could blame the storm, the haul out, or the passages, but it is really because I’ve been lame.

While we were in Tahiti, working our arses of at our haul out, we were a short walk away from the only place in Tahiti that brews something resembling a microbrew – Les Trois Brasseurs. This is the same cold deliciousness that is served at the Dinghy Dock Pub by the large marina in Tahiti which we have also sampled.

Well, thank you Dana G for a round of cold ones at the Dinghy Dock Pub. And just to prove that we have firmly internalized the frugal values of the CFSA, we provide proof that we went at the two for one special and were able to get 4 (yes, *4*) beers in Tahiti (where beer is so not cheap).

And thank you, thank you, Gary B, for the opportunity to stuff ourselves with burgers and pizza* (and beers of course) at the Trois Brasseurs main location in downtown Papeete, Tahiti.

On a cruising budget, eating out in Tahiti is not something we can treat ourselves to often. We enjoyed every single bite and those calories went to good use in the several weeks of boatwork (which is also on my blog catch up agenda).

*Incidentally, what is with cruisers and our obsession with finding burgers and/or pizza after landfall. Neither Carol or I were huge burger eaters but man-oh-man do we crave them when we arrive in a "city”.

Yep, wine made in French Polynesia (see below).

We don’t eat out very often in French Polynesia because of the expense. We have found some cheap eats (e.g., the casse croute) but otherwise we save our going out budget for ice cold beers (also expensive) somewhere where we can enjoy a different view than from our cockpit. Funny enough, one of our favorite things is to have the beers at a bar that overlooks the anchorage. Something about seeing your home floating in paradise makes the beer tastier.

A very VERY big thank you to Ronald C. who sent us a Paypal donation and funded not only a much needed and appreciated feast onshore at a great “snack” (small outdoor cafe in French Polynesia) called Chez Lili but also enabled us to sample some locally wine which had been previously out of the range of our cruising budget. We were so excited to be eating out at Chez Lili that we split in half and inhaled the curried mahi mahi burger and ate half of the tuna carpacccio before I remembered to snap a picture! If you visit Rangiroa, Chez Lili is delicious, the fish perfectly prepared and the owner Lili is a riot and worth the visit herself.

After the snack we picked up a bottle of Vin de Tahiti, Blanc Sec (2008) made right here in Rangiroa, the Tuamotus, French Polynesia. Even though we were slightly afraid (I mean come on, atoll wine??) we very much wanted to taste and to support the local vintage. With the last of Ronald C’s donation supplemented with one from my Mom (Love you Mom!) we bought and chilled a bottle, broke out the fancy glasses and the contraption we’ve been calling a cockpit table and watched the sunset.

We were extremely surprised to love the wine. The tasting notes talk about the influence of the minerals from the coral rubble on the terroir. I tasted flowers and honey (without the corresponding sweetness). An unexpected find, unfortunately a little out of our normal price range. Of course, when we were still DINKs (dual income, no kids) we had been known to sleep in our car on a road trip to save money but buy a case of expensive-for-us wine on the same trip. Priorities!

VIDEO FRIDAY and also, your moment of zen. A *big* thank you to SV Namaste for taking several of our videos back to the US of A and uploading them with fast internet.

This video is aerial footage, taken with a GoPro on our Blade Trigger kiteboarding kite, of one of our anchorages in the Tuamotus. If you put the video on the highest quality play you can see the coral under the water, the sand banks, and Estrellita floating in the middle of the beauty. Enjoy – we did!

After a night of sailing and then heaving to outside the pass at Tikehau, we made our entry in the morning choosing slack but erring on the side of the outgoing current to avoid wind-over-tide. We were surprised by how much outgoing current we found and over the next week we realized how full the lagoon must have been on our entry as we watched the lagoon empty. Often after entering a pass, you turn directly into wind toward the sheltered part of the lagoon and so after a nice sail between atolls we often find ourselves motoring straight into the wind and swell toward the protected anchorage. It is always a bit of a bummer way to end a nice sail. After 6 miles of this, we anchored just East of the main village, near Pension Hotu and the airport. This anchorage quickly became uncomfortable and so we moved even further east toward the Pearl Beach Resort to avoid the building fetch. This anchorage was better, but still lumpy.

We didn’t find the kiting paradise that we were expecting in Tikehau. Even though the kiting was good, it was not better than where we have been before in the Tuamotus.

As mentioned previously, the search for a better anchorage took us to every side of the atoll. Overall, the anchorages were beautiful above water, especially on the NW side of the lagoon where the reef side of the motus was alive with coral and fish, but the underwater, except for the pass, although was hard to difficult to appreciate because of the murkiness of the water.

Tip: If you stop by Tikehau, have lunch at Pension Hotu. We had enormous meals of fresh tuna (poisson cru and carpaccio) and the staff of both Pension Hotu and Tikehau Plongee were extremely boater friendly – helping us with a number of cruiser chores and helping us locate various supplies.

Lumpy-hau, we will remember you for your mantas and for the amazing village, walking and biking on the reef side of the village motu was the highlight of our trip. The village was extremely friendly, spotlessly clean, and well gardened. We spent quite a few days walking to get ice cream and enjoying the village.

The beauty and wow factor of the reef side of the village motu made exploring by bike a delight. We did it twice, packing a picnic, swimming in mini-pools of the beautiful clear ocean water.

We also enjoyed hunting in an atoll (reportedly) without ciguatera, getting to enjoy a bunch of new fish we had never eaten before.

((Carol is starting to write blog posts – watch out world!))

In the South Pacific, on tropical atoll called Fakarava, in the Dangerous Archipelago (the Tuamotus), there is this bar…

A hanging bar, built by the crew of a few cruising boats, from the wreckage washed ashore during 5m swell, completely from found and salvaged materials - the bar is named Sud Bar and depending on your language of choice might evoke thoughts of bubbles (English) or the compass direction 180 true (French).

Come on in, have some fun, carve your name in the hanging bar. The house specialty is fresh green coconut water with rum. The bartender (perhaps you?) opens the nut, the recipient drinks a few ounces, and the bartender tops up the nut with rum.

If you visit, take some time and some tools and leave the bar more over-the-top than you found it. Repair the damage, use only natural or found materials, and invite the entire anchorage for a Sud Bar Style evening.

Location: One of the motus in the West anchorage of the South Pass of Fakarava Atoll.

Did you know that some places are relatively unaffected by lunar tides but seriously affected by solar tides?

I (Livia) wrote an article that appeared in a recent issue of Ocean Navigator on the application of solar tide knowledge to navigating passes in the places like Maupiti, French Polynesia. You can read the article online here.

Thanks to Michelle on SV Cheers who first told me about the topic.

For a direct comparison of possible boats for your S Pacific cruise, here is a 35’ Pretorien on the left and the Westerdam on the right. The Pretorien left Canada about 16 months ago and the Westerdam left about 30 days ago. Facilities aboard are slightly different as well.

You can see we’ve moved into a high rent district here in Uturoa, Raiatea, French Polynesia. Except…we haven’t because the dock is free, at least for us. From the angle of the photo below it looks like their mooring lines are almost the thickness of our furled headsail.

The boat loaded a bunch of people in Vancouver and so we, flying our enormous Canadian flag, had a lot of visitors stop by. This included members of our home yacht club, the CFSA! As proof of the true CFSA’ers that they are, they stopped by with a frosty six pack of tall Hinanos which went down quite smoothly as French Polynesia is currently transitioning into the Southern Hemisphere summer.

And we leave you with Carol kiting over for a photo with Estrellita. Not quite the boat you would take across the ocean, but perhaps the dinghy?