Pitufa.at

One of the things cruisers dread is a problem with the fridge. To do any repairs yourself you’d need at least a filling gauge to check the pressure and to add refrigerant, a bottle of refrigerant gas, a vacuum pump (in a size a yacht inverter or generator can handle), soldering gear, a spare compressor, a spare electronic unit, a filter/dryer, some copper tubes and the skills to handle all that stuff…
For obvious reasons only cruisers that have already been through very traumatic experiences carry all that gear–we don’t, although after the events of last week we’re considering getting all that and adding “fridge wizard” to the job requirements on Pitufa.

Last Saturday the compressor started behaving oddly, turning itself off and on all the time, then it suddenly stopped working. We couldn’t see any obvious malfunction, nothing burned through, but the filter/dryer was unusually cold. Of course it had happened on the weekend, no way we’d reach anybody before Monday. We were lucky though, as we were parked next to SY Jakker and our friends Jaklien and Toni immediately offered to store our stocked up cheese and sausages in their fridge. Additionally they supplied us with cold beer cans to keep the rest of the things in the fridge cool (and Christian happy).

On Monday we moved to the buoy field off the main village, asked at the chandlery, got a phone number for a fridge repair guy here on Bora Bora, called and he agreed to look at our problem on Wednesday. Imagine our suprise when the young Polynesian mechanic really showed up on Wednesday at 8.30 just as promised (that’s a very exceptional experience with the French businesses here in Fr. Poly). He briefly checked the pressure, looked at the problem, declared our compressor to be “mort” (dead) and admitted that he didn’t even know where to order one like that. Ouch. We already saw ourselves beating against the wind to Tahiti at that point. But then he phoned his supplier, who suggested Michel from the chandlery at Marina Taina in Tahiti. We phoned Michel at 10, he had one on stock, took it to the airport at 12 (!) and it arrived at the ferry dock in Bora Bora at 7 in the evening. We were awestruck, but also a bit suspicious if our luck would hold.

The next morning we ran out of luck though. Teri the fridge guy called and said he wouln’t be able to do the job, but told us that he’d refered our problem to Wilfried the other fridge guy on Bora Bora, who’d come in the afternoon. We waited and waited, no Wilfried. He finally showed up at 4, immediately went to work, discovered a leak in the soldering connection of the filter/dryer, suggested changing only the electronic unit and voila–the (not so late) compressor started again. He changed the filter/dryer, welded the copper tubes and then wanted to use his vacuum pump to evacuate the system of air and humidity. We plugged the pump to the generator we had borrowed from another boat, but it only gurgled nastily–the generator wasn’t strong enough… I immediately took the dinghy round the anchorage, asked every boat if we could borrow a generator, but most claimed they didn’t even have one (and no solar panels either, hmm, suspicious). Then I asked at the Top Dive Shop and a
t the Maikai hotel/marina, but the only advice I got was to buy one in Tahiti. Nice. In the end the boss of the hotel showed up, and suddenly our luck changed again. Of course we’d be able to come to their dock and use the shore power there. Hurray!

Early the next morning we took up a buoy next to the dock, tied the stern to the dock and started waiting for Wilfried once again. Like beginners we left the dinghy at the stern and of course the shore line got under it, a gust hit the boat, the line pulled tight and flipped the dinghy and drowned the outboard. We spent two happy hours cleaning it–still no Wilfried. In the end he showed up at 3, started the vacuum pump and disappeared for another 3 hours. When we had given up hope at 6 he came back, refilled the system with gas, the compressor purred happily again and Wilfried presented us with a hefty invoice and a lecture on how Jehovas Witnesses could save our souls…

Since the beginning of this year experts have been warning of increasing El Niño conditions and we have also mentioned this a few times on our blog. Here’s a little summary for those who are not quite familiar with this term.

El Niño (spanish “Christ Child”, because the phenomenon occurs around Christmas in South America) happens, when the atmosphere and the surface of the sea in the equatorial Pacific are heated up more than usual.

Under normal conditions the water temperatures in the Pacific are 28 °C off Indonesia and only 24 °C off Peru. In strong El Niño years these temperatures are more than 2 degrees higher.

Due to the trade winds, cool water rises from the deep sea near the coast of Peru and causes the Humboldt current, which transports cool, eutrophic water up the South American coast northwards. In strong El Niño condition this current weakens and can even stop completely.

Usually warm surface water flows westward in the Pacific. During El Niño this current can be reversed because of changes in the wind patterns. The Eastern Pacific gets heated up while the waters off the Australian coast get cooler.

Experts presume that El Niño is a natural, cyclic climate phenomenon. However it seems likely that it is reinforced by global warming.

El Niño conditions influence the climate on a global level: Tropical cyclones are more numerous and even more destructive (the higher water temperatures supply them with more energy…). Strong rainfall on the South and North American westcoasts leads to floods and landslides, while the Amazonian forest lacks rain. Southeast Asia and Australia experience droughts, which then cause giant forest fires. While East African countries experience more rainfall, Southern Africa is drier than usual.

The interruption of the Humboldt Current is fatal for the fauna off the coast of South America and Galapagos. When the plancton dies off the food chain in the ocean collapses and masses of fish, seabirds and seals die from starvation. Due to the abnormally high sea temperatures coral in shallow areas suffers and eventually dies off from coral bleaching.

For us here in the tropical South Pacific, El Niño means that prevailing weather patterns move closer to the equator. This is also true for the South Pacific Convergence Zone, which is usually aligned in southeasterly direction and then reaches as far as Fr. Polynesia. In the convergence zone clouds, squalls and troughs are generated and during southern summer also cyclones can be developped. The risk for Fr. Polynesia (which is usually considered safe) to get in the path of such a storm rises considerably. The Societies, western Tuamotus and Austral Islands have been devasted by cyclones during former strong El Niño episodes.
Near the convergence zone the usual tradewind pattern is interrupted. Wir are planning on using those phases with northerly or even westerly winds to sail eastwards before the onset of the cyclone season in November.

When we arrived in Bora Bora, two cruise ships that regularly circle around Fr. Polynesia (the Wind Spirit and the Paul Gauguin) were anchored in the lagoon. Towering over the small main town and the sailing yachts, they seem oddly out of place on such small islands. The Paul Gauguin left soon and we could hardly believe our eyes when we looked out the next morning and saw that the Wind Spirit (134 m long) had got a new neighbour that dwarfed even her: the Radiance of the Sea is 293 metres (not feet!) long and carries 2.500 passengers and 850 crew members on 12 decks. It’s hard to imagine how the local tour operators cope with such a rush demand.

Watching the tenders buzzing back and forth spilling their human cargo at the dock we decided to go for a program off the usual sightseeing route and went on a hike up the ridge south of the two main volcanoes just next to our anchorage. It was a strenuous walk over slippery slopes and through sometimes dense underbrush that eventually took us up a little peak with wonderful views all over the glittering lagoon. From our outlook we gawked at the hustle and bustle beneath: the coast and the motus are dotted with hotels, bungalow colonies grow over the lagoon like mushrooms, guided jet ski groups whizz around and excursion boats gather over the snorkel spots where fish are attracted by regular feeding.

When we got back to the pier all sweaty, scratched and muddy, several tour buses had just unloaded their passengers who were busy taking photos of the bay with pretty little Pitufa in the foreground and Christian’s undies merrily flapping on the washing line.

As the cyclone season is slowly approaching, we’re heading back eastwards. After leaving the Societies, we’ll visit one or two atolls in the Tuamotus, before sailing up to the Marquesas again.

We’ve only been in Maupiti for one and a half weeks, but it feels much longer, because we’ve been so active every day. We walked around the island (only about 2 hours on the one road they have), paddled the kayak up to the northern motus and to the lovely airport (no fences, no waiting hall, but a beautiful white beach and benches in the shade of trees), hiked up to the cliffs that tower over the village and after building up some fitness we finally tackled the highest mountain. The path is clearly marked and there are even ropes on the steep parts where some rock climbing is necessary. We picked a cool day with southerly winds, but we were still soaked with sweat and quite exhausted at the summit. The view over the tiny lagoon with its turquoise waters and pretty motus was absolutely worth it though.

The cover for our dinghy is also getting bigger bit by bit. We use a robust lorry canvas that is attached to the dinghy with velcro strips (sown unto the canvas and glued to the dinghy). We’ve already managed the tricky bow area where the rounded parts require tailor-made strips of canvas to make it fit tightly. The long, straight side parts will hopefully require less fiddling about

From June to October humpback whales migrate to the tropics where the females give birth in the protected lagoons. We were lucky to see many of these impressive creatures from anchorages in Tahiti and even more here in Huahine. Yesterday a group of three whales (2 adults, 1 baby) came through the pass into the lagoon just off Fare and as we are anchored just on the edge of the sandy shelf next to the pass they swam past Pitufa within a few metres. There was quite some activity on the radio with crews from anchored boats alerting each other of the nature spectacle going on in our next vicinity. Everybody was watching awestruck from their decks despite a squall that arrived almost together with the whales, 2 dinghies buzzed towards them keeping a respectful distance to the giants. We couldn’t believe our eyes when a large catamaran with lots of crew steamed in through the pass and headed straight for the group of humpbacks without even slowing down. The whales dove out of sight immediately, but when they emerged again the cat went after them again and thus chased them out of the lagoon. For us it was incredible to watch such irresponsible behaviour as you’d expect at least some awareness from people cruising (or chartering) here.

(click for larger picture)