juni 2023 – Sailing with Saphir

Days in Niue

When we arrived to Niue the swells was quite big and it made it very tricky to go a shore. We decided to take a slow relaxing day , fixing on the boat and go in the next day. You will understand what I mean by tricky to go a shore when you see the movie.

So after breakfast we head in to land and the pier where the dinghy hoists up on the pier. It is a bit tricky but after a few times you learn.

We headed to the government building to regístrate us in to the country. At the same time we also made the paperwork’s for leaving, very convenient. Three different institutions, custom, immigration and bio security. We filled in the immigration paper , the same one you get on the plane when entering a new country and rest was already done by ARC. Edgar just had to sign some papers and pay tourist tax.

We started to walk to the shop, The Arc had organised a sunset drink in one of the few bars. After that a dinner with performances at a resort on the island. It was a nice evening with great company.

The next day we went for a guided tour to see part of the island. There is a lot of caves and and some freshwater pools to walk/climb in and also to take swim in. The water was a bit cold but it was refreshing and after a while you get use to it. Even Edgar went in snorkelling. Felt little strange that there was almost no salt even if it was connected to the ocean although not a huge opening

In the evening one of our guides open up her house for us to have a barbecue. We all went to buy meat and drinks for the evening . So nice of here and her friend to open up her home for us. We had a great time. Lots of laughs, singing and dancing. It was very long time ago I dance so that was really fun. We adults showed the young adults how to move.

Happy that is not only me and Edgar that have to get the dinghy in to the water in the middle of the night. It all went well.

Relaxing Sunday including a short walk

I went diving on Monday afternoon with Laura,Michel,Cory and Luc. We went in to a cave which was fantastic. Little scary with all these snakes in the water. Even if they didn’t do anything except being very curious and scared me when it came up to check on me. The landscape outside the cave was fantastic and so different from what I have seen before. Hard to not to go lower then 18 m which is what I am certified for when the water is so clear and bright.

After the diving it was time to move on and go to Tonga. We welcome Rob onboard. He is working for the ARC and needed a lift. Toghether with Misty, SolanaV , Pec and Pippin we hoist our sails and headed to Tonga ready for two nights sailing.

Hugs Eva

BoraBora to Niue with stop in Suwarrow or not

After Eva had left it was time to focus and prepare for the next leg that is including to stop before we are in Tonga. We got divide in two groups since the island we are going to visit don’t have space or enough buoys at their bay for all 24 boats at the same time. The first group starts on the 14th of May and we take our dinghy to watch the start and wish the first group fare winds.

Since we already where in the dinghy we decided to go around the corner where we have seen that the cargo boats goes in. The yellow houses is probably the warehouse for the goods. Further in is a small village and they have built some large pools that we couldn’t make any sense of.

The upcoming days we went shopping with Matt and Fiona on Matilda. Luckily they rented a car so it was easy to go drive between the different stores to find what we wanted. Me and Fiona took a walk by our self to see if we could find some nice pearls but no luck. I did found some on my next trip… The boat needs to fill up. Don’t know if it’s a sailing boat but guess. Saw that they had hoist the sail in the evening and put lights on them when still where anchoring. When we came back after filling up diesel our dinghy was laying there keeping our place

We had some sun downers and dinners in the evening toghether with the rest of the sailing group. One night was with performance.

There was a lot of training around our boats but I manage to to some paddling around without disturbing their training. Last sunset in Bora Bora for us

We are getting ready for five days at sea. The bed is made for us on the couch since it is to rolly to sleep in our own bed. The Norwegian flag is hoisted and Pippin is getting to the start field

The start went of at 12.00 and we hoist our second jennaker that is on a rolling thing and not in a sock as the other one. This is the first time we hoist it since we left Sweden 10 months ago. The wind was twisting and turning around the Island so it took some minutes before we got some wind in our jennaker.

Just after the start we got some dolphins jumping next to us

As it is Norways Independence Day we celibrate it with waffles for lunch with the Norwegian brown goat cheese and drink Solo. Happy Independence Day Norway 🇳🇴

We avoided some squalls during the night so our route is no that straight more zig zag between the squalls.

On our third day at sea we get information that we need to change our course and go direct to Nui and not to Suwarrow. The first boats had arrived there and was denied to get in due to some paper that was wrong. Since we all have the same paper with us the World Arc asked all off us to go direct to Nui. We had 402 NM left before we changed the course and now we have 810 NM to Niue. 3 extra days on Sea so total 6 days before we are moored. This news took us down a bit. As we say in Swedish “the air went out of us ’ We was really looking forward seeing Suwarrow. Specially since this is such a remote place and really hard to get to. I hardly believe that we will get a chance to get there unless we do a new pacific crossing…. I Hmmm maybe not.

One early morning at five we caught up a sailing boat. Just when Edgar thinks we will pass it the wind to blow up and the sailing boat speeds up. Edgar hois the sails and hope that the sailing boat speeds up and that we can get back on our course by going behind her. They where heading to Fiji so our courses crossed each other . Took a while though but finally we could go back on our course and head to Niue

After a few days at sea the days goes in each other. We make turn on watches. You sleep or try to when the other is on watch. I knit, listen to books, play some games on my iPhone, work on the blogg during my watches. It keeps me awake. If it would have been less rolly I also would have done some exercises so my back,hip /leg will get better. This rolling makes the pain worse and almost impossible to do the exercises correct specially when it involves keeping balance.

The view I really like both the nice days but also the rough ones. Sunset, sunrise and so on . All jas it charms almost. Do not like the squalls with thunder.

Finally we can see Niue. This little flat Island in the South Pacific is one of the smallest countries in the world.

It will be very nice to relax for a few days now.

Hugs Eva

Tahaa to Bora Bora. 8-12Maj

When we arrived to Tahaa we stop for the night right inside the reef and had a glass of home made white Sangria. Will definitely do that more times. We had dinner and then went over to Thetis for a sundowner drink and was home first around 22.00 arrived there around 17.30. Very long sundowner and also so nice to meet them and lots of the Arc boats.

The next morning we went to coral garden that we had heardIt the the in so much about. Took us a few turns until we had the anchor in. It is nice to know the depth underneath us. Our depth meter is broken and we do have the charts telling us the depth but it is not the same to know the exact measurements. It makes a difference. I hope Edgar can fix the depth meter soon so we we are sure about the amount of chain we need to have and that we do not need to end up to far out from land. There are some boats from the Arc laying here already and more are coming. Its a very popular place.

We take the dinghy in to the coral garden. It is a opening between two Islands so the water is quite flowing. Very lovely snorkelling place. Here I meet again some curious fishes.

After been I snorkelling all things needs to be cleaned in freshwater due to all the salt. Do some washing at the same time and this time it has to dry in the boat.. The night is magical and we continue playing hitster. This time all of won.

Before we leave the next day we have to snorkel one more time. This time I see black tip sharks and to giant morays. Lots of other nice fishes and corals as well.

Time to leave this beautiful place and to Bora Bora. We have a bouy at Bora Bora Yatch Club that is located 10 min drive with the dinghy to the town. This is also the place where we will meet up the other boats before we do the 5 leg on our sailing with World Arc. Here they come out to you so we can pay for the bouy. Great service! They also comes and pick up our garbage.

Me and Eva are ready for exploring Bora Bora when we are here. We didn’t get that far since we had to turn around to not miss the happy hour although we saw some cool things om the way.

We went in to town to check how the connection works to the airport and to walk around a bit. We found this cool map showing all the island in French Polynesia covering almost hole Europe. It gives you a perspective how huge French Polynesia is. The hard part is you need a boat or a plane to get to the other places here . On the way back we got rain…. Have not had much of that during the sailing and I knows it needed even if I do prefer the sun. Locking on the bright side it is not cold when it’s rains.

We had a great last evening with Eva and in the morning after we drove her in to town in her new hat she bought yesterday. From town there is a boat transfer to the airport.

It’s been a great time having you onboard Eva you are missed already and we wish you a great summer sailing back home in Sweden with Bullen. Hope to see you soon. Thank you for joining us on our adventure.

Hugs Eva

Huahine

We arrive early in the morning to Huahine and anchor close to the village Fare. A short relaxing time and some swimming next to the boat. The current is quite strong so you can lay behind the boat and swim without moving forward.

After lunch we take the dinghy in to land to throw our garbage and see what the village has to offer and what we can find in the supermarket . It is a huge store where you can find many other things then food. Even here it is not much fresh fruit and vegetables. We get some soft drinks, beers, fruits. A stop at the yacht club for a drink before we head back to the boat.

In the evening we are invited over to Jörgen and Louis on Sara of Sweden for dinner togheter with Jan and Anders from HokaHey. It was a very nice evening at there boat. Great food, fisk that they had caught. Wonder when we will get som fish on Saphir?

The next day we went for a bike ride with Jörgen, Louise, Alex and Inez from Sara of Sweden. We rented e-bikes since there are some hills that are very’ Bran’. First stop is to taste if the sea is fresh water or a mix. It is a mix. The next is a museum where you can se how their i boats looked liked that they built to travel around and visit other islands. In the canal that goes in to the sea they have built fish traps of small rocks.

The tour continued out on a peninsula to have a swim and some snorkelling. Luckily for us was that there was a little restaurant in a privet home so we could have lunch with the best view.

Next stop was to look at the blue eyed eels. There was a lot off them when we spotted them. After that we had some hills to bike up. The e-bike made it easier and we was rewarded with a great view. Thank you Louise, Jörgen, Alex and Inez for a great day.

When we came back BlueSunshine and some more boats had left and found a better spot further south. We hoisted our anchor and went over to them. This was a fantastic spot and well worth moving the boat. We went over for sundowner at BlueSunshine together with all from Sara of Sweden. There is a few off this sundowners on the boats or ashore. It is very nice and relaxing . Also very nice to see the others boats closely and get some good ides for your boat. The last photo was taken by by Mark on Amanzi. Time to use our own drone I believe.

One off many good things to sail in group is that we share information between each other. As BlueSunshine told us about the great snorkelling they went with their dinghy. We had to try that as well. It was so great that we went there twice. The second time we got there before the tourist boat and then the water was even clearer. No swimmers with fins that had stirred up the sand. I have never seen so many different fishes together at the same time. Yes the tourists boat feed the fishes so that helps that they stay there but never the less it is magical. It is not only the fishes that is fantastic it is the corals in so many different shapes and all these lovely mussels hidden in the corals also them in so many colours. Enjoy the picture and the movies. Extra fun was the little fish that was very curious

We went ashore on the lovely beach we was anchored outside. There was a man there that own the land and he told us he use to have a hotel here 25 years ago. Since he only speaks French and mine is not that good I didn’t get why. But he wanted to show us where it use to be. The pool or maybe more a big pond was still there. Up behind the threes he pointed was where the small hotel use to be. Think he said around for 30 guests. Edgar went in the water instead of joining us.