The sailing adventures of SV Meriwether and her crew
When we left French Polynesia we had anywhere between a single overnight sail to thirteen-plus nights. There is 1300 miles between us and our next major destination of Tonga. How long we would be at sea was fully dependent on the weather from day to day. No forecast could be trusted 13 days out, so we planned our route to...
Forty miles west of the last largely populated islands in French Polynesia is a small volcanic island surrounded by an atoll-like ring of land protecting the inner waters from the sea outside. This little island is known as Maupiti, and is home to roughly 1200 people. To enter said protected waters one must thread the needle between breaking waves and...
By this time our French Polynesia visas were nearing their end. From the day we arrived in French Poly we had only 90 days to complete our travels and get to a place we can officially check out of the country and promptly leave. We could have checked out on Tahiti, but then we would have had to sail right...
We moved from the island of Tahiti to the next island to the West – Mo’orea. Cook’s Bay, on the northern side of the landmass to be specific. It was a simple 45 mile, 9 hour, passage. All of which we motored as Tahiti itself gives a large wind-shadow to the prevailing westerly winds. Why come here? Well, mostly to...
Finally getting a weather window to depart the Tuamotus, we took it with zeal. It took an hour and a half to motor our way out of our last atoll and into the open waters of the Pacific Ocean where we were able to raise the sails and shut down the old Perkins. For the next 300+ nautical miles we...
The Tuamotu Archipelago consists of dozens of small islands and atolls. The atolls are the primary reason people like us come here. A ring of land and corral with a lagoon inside accessible by a pass or two cut through the ring. These passes often come with a good sprinkling of caution as the contents of the atoll need to...
With only a few days remaining in our time allotted for the Marquesas, we were looking for a window to make the multi-day jump to the band of atolls (aka; The Tuamotus) a few hundred miles further South-West. First, we needed to resupply our food stores as well as visit the fuel situation. Taiohae is a good sized village on...
30 nautical miles to the north of Hakahetau is an intimate, and well protected (finally) cove; Hakatea on the island of Nuka HIva. The wind was still blowing the day we chose to hop islands, but at least the wind would be on our beam for the day. The wind was not going crazy or anything, but it was on...
After the struggle to get our anchor back on the boat, we did make the 140+ nautical mile journey to our next destination with ease. With ideal sailing conditions through that day, night, and the following morning we couldn’t have asked for a better sail. Heck, even the local pod of dolphins came to see us on our way early...
It was time for us to raise anchor to leave the Bay of Virgins and it’s 100 foot depths. This we have done before, and I intended to use the same plan as those other times; run the line through a block attached at the mast, and back up to the other side of the windlass that can haul in...
