Sailing from Raiatea to Samoa: accept what nature offers

From 25 kts in > 3 m waves to dead calm in one week: everything is possible. Key is to accept what nature offers you. Be prepared and enjoy a week’s fossil free sailing experience on the Pacific, on board of Ya. In fossil-free awe!

Ya’s crew members prefer the papaya’s with some lemon:)

Prepared

Sun Sep 07 2025 06:32:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Since we left one day later (check the blog ‘Bureaucracy’) we knew already that we would be in 25 knots of wind with 3.3 meter waves.
Well, we’re in it now.
That is the beauty of PredictWind. You know exactly what the weather will do. So we prepared everything. An extra line here a strong fix there, the second and even the third reef in the mainsail.
Most important preparation: the food. We cooked for two days, so we only need to heat it up the next days, till Monday.

We go downwind now. The third reef in the main was not necessary, we lowered that sail. we prepared too much, just the 20 m2 staysail gives us enough speed when it is blowing.
And it is! The wind generator has stopped and the thing is set to stop not before it runs in 35 knots of wind…
No worries, we are well prepared.

Balance

Mon Sep 08 2025 04:49:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Brent referred to a Japanese painting style where everything is so much balanced. He looks at the wave crests and when the sunlight gets through you see this vulnerable transparant green color. That balance e so special with the waves that can be black and blue, with the sky now having various types from white to grey, and patches of light blue. This is the balance of nature!

About the food, Peter is glad that he can heat up the prepared food. Makes him feel he balances a bit with Brent.

The battery bank is full. Not because of the solar panels, because there is not much sun. The autoprops charged it and now it is so fully charged, the Battery Management system asked to start the last stage, the so-called Balancing Stage.

It is that you hear the wind wistling throug the rigging, or you would not believe we are in 20-25 knots of wind. The Ya sails calm. Calm in motion, but the speed is still high. So the waves come slowly onto the stern. We sail a running course, close to dead down the wind, but just enough running to prevent the rolling motion. The working staysail does its work, the centerboard is lifted. Our faithful windvane steering needs to give only light corrections.
Ya sails in perfect balance.

Cool

Tue Sep 09 2025 04:38:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Our problems.

Before we left the fridge broke down. so just before we left we filled it with 10 kilo of ice and, yes it shrinks every day but so far so good the problem will pop up later.

The battery bank is full,we cannot charge more and the generators make us very energy positive. So how to solve this problem?
Now we make ice cubes with our ice cube machine and fill the fridge with it.

Now last night one of us must have hit the switch to the fridge and we discovered it works again.

We have more solutions than problems. isn’t it cool?

Wed Sep 10 2025 07:49:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Shower

Peters night watch was one with showers. The rain is not the problem, but the wind. Depending from where the shower comes from, the wind slows down to nearly nothing and then suddenly starts blowing a lot. Or vice versa, coming from the other side, you get the blow all at once. So the mainsail is reefed preventively but before every squall the outerjib has to be furled in. And out. Et cetera. Ok, it keeps Peter fresh.

Well, fresh? Peter asks himself., Do I smell myself or is it Brent?

Time for a shower.

Calm

Thu Sep 11 2025 05:56:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Yesterday we sailed into a calm and PredictWind predicted we would sail till about 6 pm and the calm would leave us today at 6 PM. But, we could sail till midnight. Not because PredictWind was wrong, but Ya could continue sailing in these light winds. When the wind becomes light, most sailboats turn the nose away to the wrong course so one lowers the sails (and starts the engine nowadays). But the Ya has a mizzen on, is very aft ship, preventing the nose bearing away. In light weather we can sail on. At midnight there was no wind at all and only then we lowered the sails. This morning at 10 the first light breeze came and there we sail again. Still the breeze is light, and we can’t sail the downwind course we have to for Samoa, but we get close.

We enjoy what nature gives and stay calm.

Decisions

Fri Sep 12 2025 06:06:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Generally, our course is as the wind direction, so we have to gybe so now and then. When, depends on the wind changes we expect always difficult.

However, we let our thoughts go when eating a piece of fruit. And we have pretty much, . We stille have apples, papayas, pomplemouses, mangos, bananas, oranges, and some more I forgot now.
And every time you have to choose.

You understand, here on board the Ya are tough decisions to be made.

Fossil free awe

Sat Sep 13 2025 07:08:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Again we are in a calm. We try to avoid it but each model -PredictWind can deliver us no less than seven- shows different areas, so we just took the most probable course to avoid it, but no success.
Other boats start the diesel then and motor many hours, but we are fossilfree and kept on sailing this afternoon with nearly no wind and we enjoyed it. For miles. During dinner the wind died out completely. We enjoy the silence.

Brent starts contemplating and says:
“It is quiet. It peaceful. It is simple: the sky, the clouds, the sea and the boat.
What do we see:
The clouds, the colors in the sky, the glassy water, a lonely white tropical bird flying into the orange sunset.”
Brent is in awe.

September 7, 2025September 7, 2025

Sailing from Raiatea to Samoa: bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

Thu Sep 04 2025 06:16:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Bureaucracy is a French word and we experienced this is well executed in French Polynesia.
When one leaves the country with a ship, the captain must report that at the Customs. He fills in a form, another form and another, often with the same passport numbers and so on. Then after half an hour it is done. So in an hour you are ready, you get a stamp and you may leave the country.
But French Polynesia computerized it. So now when you enter you fill out a 4 pager on the internet. With the very slow internet in Gambier, it took us three times 2 hours. (the third day the internet was a bit better.)
To clear out, you go to the Gendarmerie (the police). Everything should be filled in. Piece of cake. No. Things should be filled in different, and then the form has to be evaluated. Not by that gendarmerie, but by a man in an office in Tahiti, some 100 miles away. That man/woman there has no affection with the clients. Now it is depersonalised. In stead of clients, they only have pile of forms in a big inbox. So, instead of an hour like in the early days, it can take one, two or even three days before the gendarme gets the approved form back from ’Tahiti’.
We must consider ourselves lucky because this time it took only 1 1/2 day.

To consider: next to weather forecasts, there should also be a bureaucracy forecast.

Speed, Food and a good mood

Fri Sep 05 2025 08:38:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

In Brent’s watch this early morning the wind was that light, the speed was very low and the wind vane steering hardly worked. Brent had to correct the course nearly constantly. But, he likes sailing, the ocean, he did it with pleasure.
The wind came back, little by little during the day. The Ya sails her easy way over the waves and we enjoyed it. In the afternoon we set a reef in the mainsail and the wind kept increasing. We sail with a nice speed, the motors are charging the battery bank well and we like it.
Brent fried a beautiful Argentinian rib steak , with mashed potatoes and bok choy lightly fried with garlic. Wow. This is a great meal. Meanwhile the wind increases a bit and our Ya sails 7 knots, nearly the hull speed. Wow again.

Brent, Peter and Ya, we are all in a good mood.

Missing screws

Sat Sep 06 2025 05:41:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

So now and then we have discussions on climate change, single use plastics and other issues on how we can solve the world problems. During such a discussion Brent looked at the mainsail and pointed that the upper batten of the mainsail was loose. Just in time to discover this because tomorrow we get a lot of wind.
We took the sail down immediately. On one plate connecting the batten to the mast rail, there were three screws missing. Peter (backup is his middle name) found new screws in the screw box. Brent put them on, now with a bit of glue. Job done, sail up, here we go again.

Now, about the world problems we still have to solve, some missing screws are:
Regulation by the government, insight and skills, a bit of pain to make people change and a bit of hope to give the solutions a chance.

Map

August 30, 2025August 31, 2025

Sailing from Fakarava to Raiatea with a broken rudder

It’s only a 3 days sail, but anything can happen when sailing from Fakarava and Raiatea in the Tuamotus in French Polynesia!

Sun Aug 24 2025 06:53:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Smoothly

We went anchor up and it went smoothly. Predictwind forecasted 20+ knots of wind, force 6 and we had to go through the North Pass of Fakarava, with currents up to 7 knots. We planned to pass on the slack, just when the current would alternate its direction. It went smoothly.
On the ocean Brent served a great pasta with soufflaki and with a stew. Delicious, it went smoothly through our throats.

Noises and noises

Mon Aug 25 2025 06:42:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

The Ya sails smoothly through the waves, although they are 3 meter high. You hear the waterflow along the hull and some splashing here and there. The 20-ish knots of wind creates sounds through the rig and there is also a funny sound made by the luff in the new mainsail.
Brent is new in board and all these sounds are new to him. But there are noises and noises. Peter distinguished a squeeze that was not familiar to him. He discoveted a damaged rudder bracket. Directly we secured it with a line. But we are glad we discovered it before the rudder gets loose or so. Safe for now.

The housing of the rudder bearing ripped. In this picture we are in the harbor and we already removed the rudder blade

We will have a repair in Raiatea.

Moussaka

Tue Aug 26 2025 06:10:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

We found a beautiful piece of veal meat from the flank and Brent fries it with some onions and a bit of oregano.
Then he sliced some potatoes. Then an aubergine. These slices, he salted them first, to get the bitterness out. You scrape off the salt later.
Then you put the slices in a pot, layer by layer: potatoe, meat, aubergines, and a roux sauce. Grated cheese on top and in the oven.
Serve it there where nobody would expect it, like on the Southern Pacific between Fakarava and Raiatea.

It is delicious!

Autoprops

Wed Aug 27 2025 08:06:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Normally we live energy neutral. But yesterday we charged an extra 3.2 kWh. It is our record of the last 10 years. It is just caused by the two Autoprops, the propellers we use. These are so efficiënt because they automatically adapt their blades depending on the speed and the use.no electrics or so, just by using nature. Peter loves them.
Today we got another 2.4 kWh out of them. Peter loves them even more. Brent is enthousiast about them.

We arrived safely in Raiatea, where we will have to fix the rudder. We keep you posted!

August 23, 2025August 23, 2025

Kiwi on board

Hello, my name is Brent Burge. I have come to join Peter in Fakarava (FP) and to then help sail to New Zealand.

I am a retired engineer. Taking this trip is an old ambition of mine. I m looking forward to the fun, adventure and great company.

In New Zealand I would say I am a Kiwi. But I have learned people here think I am saying I am a Kiwi Fruit.

The Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand. It is flightless and nocturnal. The female takes 30 days to grow an egg. The egg weighs up to 25% of the mother’s weight. It then takes 80 days for the male to incubate it. Over a 100 years ago, the first modern commercial Kiwi Fruit variety was bred in New Zealand. It was then know as Chinese Gooseberry. For marketing reasons the name was changed to Kiwi Fruit.

So I am a Kiwi here on board Ya living a dream.

August 17, 2025August 17, 2025

How you can travel sustainably

Are you perhaps one of the 350 million people visiting reefs? (source).

If you want to do that sustainably, then this is something for you.

Travel off the beaten path

No habitat will change from the bit that you affect as an individual traveller. It changes by the impact of the mass. Then, habitats of birds, fishes and coral, will be damaged and disappear. The cause is called ‘overtourism’. Most people don’t consider overtourism, if they are aware of it anyway.

Often there are no airlines straight to the place off the beaten path. Yes it will cost you a certain quantity of extra time, but you get it back in quality. You can blend in. Perhaps you don’t blend in the place and the people, but they make you feel welcome and you can be part of it all. However, your environmental impact blends in the ecosystem.

And your visit there is a special visit, far more worth the money.

Sailors who want to get off the beaten path for sailors, simply take the remote places that are more difficult to navigate. On the left side we see the wide and deep entry of the island of Fakarava. On the right side the narrow and shallow entry of Manihi. Yes, we were careful to get in, but then we spend two beautiful weeks in Manihi. For 12 days the Ya was the only boat. In Fakarava there are so many yachts, a quick count says about 60 now. There is even a Yacht Service, a pier, a dock, everything. And the obvious poor habitats around it.The government is trying to defend the nature a bit by forbidding a lot. But that is fighting the symptoms. You better spread the yachts over the islands.

Stopping with single use plastic is easy in our Western culture. But once you are on the borders of our culture, in your vacation paradise, it is different. Their culture is often a bit like what we discovered in the seventies, with everything shiny and fast, the cars, the food, the sugarized drinks. And the single use plastics lubricate it all.

Stop using single use plastic – and talk the talk

As a traveller you are a special person in this culture. You are a combination of a tourist, a guest of the country who is smiling and enjoying, and a consumer who has money to spend. If they see you, there is something at stake. You are the one who can allow yourself the response: “Sorry, I don’t do single use plastic.”

Just don’t buy it. Actively ask for the alernatives. Be astonished or show your ‘je ne sais quoi’ look if they can’t answer you and turn your back to the shopkeeper and leave to go to the next one.

If your guesthouse or you B&B gives you a lunch or picknick basket with single use plastic, just give that back and ask for real forks and knives and cups. Show that you are serious, e.g. by saying you don’t mind an extra deposit for it.

Since the local people have just been affected with these materials and the short term happiness the bring, they feel happy. So they look away from the garbage floating in their waters. But you, with your smile, are allowed to ask questions. You are in the only group -the only stakeholder if you want- who can stop single use plastic in time, make the short cut for this people. This is what you can give back.

Pick it up

Once the local people are affected with the western-american habits and lifestyle, you find the impact floating in the water. It doesn not mean that you can do the same. Do the opposite and fish it out of the water and bring it all the way to a bin. The ecological impact is perhaps nothing, but it shows that you are respecting their nature as it is.

For example in Bocas Del Toro, Panama, the Wasteless World Foundation organises a two week clean up of the beach of a small island. Now that it is clean for some years, the islanders themselves change bit by bit and the cleanups are becoming less and less frequent.

*Inge has always been a great plastic beachcomber. No bottle or cup is too much for her. But now, she agrees, this one she had to let go. ;-§*

August 10, 2025August 10, 2025

Facts and figures about us travellers and the Ocean

There are many travel agencies considering sustainability, but Original Travel is a travel agency taking care of what we do with Mother Earth in all aspects. Vacation? Yes! Damage to Mother Earth? No!

On the website of Original Travel we found “40 Facts and Statistics About Tourism and Sustainability”in a prominent chapter. Are they undermining their own business? No, on the contrairy, they prevent and fight all negative aspects piece by piece in their way of organizing travels.

Here we highlight some of the facts and figures Original Travel has brought forward. They are on economy and ecology. We, as tourists, become aware of our foot print, and we start knowing what to do against it.

An honest, open and courageous step of Original Travel. Follow it.

The economy of the blue tourism

Blue tourism is the main motivator to travel

50% of all tourism is motivated by blue tourism. People love to see and explore the coastal and marine areas and it is often the main motivator to choose their travels. For the American and European continent, it is even 80%.

The marine tourism is a rising market. In 2023 it is doing 70 billion, but in 2030 the market is projected to have risen to 113 billion.

The EU blue economy is fast growing and big

With a annual growth of 20-25 % , and a turnover of 1 trillion now, the blue economy is the future. Did you know that only the wind e nergy production has risen more 300% since 2015!

Coastal tourism is a money generator in Europe

It adds 50 billion Euros on value to the European economy. It creates nearly 2 million jobs across the continent.

The Atlantic and Pacific are the oceans wht the future economical growth

The ecology of the coasts and oceans

Each tourist melts 83 tonnes of snow

The Atlantic is believed to absorb 0.11 million metric tons of plastic waste every year just from the US.

The Pacific meanwhile is home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a huge mass of debris and rubbish which is believed to be 1.6 million square kilometres in size. That’s three times the size of France.

The most harm to the seas was found to be the fishing and aquaculture sector – although in this instance, up to 40% of companies operating in this sphere did at least understand and acknowledge the impact they were having.

In 2035 we may see more plastic than fish.

A small area can never ever cope ecologically with a high concentration of pollution

Next week we go to all solutions, especially how we can change our way of celebrate our vacations and travels.

Lots of thanks to https://www.originaltravel.co.uk/tourism-and-ocean-sustainability-facts

August 3, 2025August 3, 2025

Bénitiers?

We walked along the beach in Manihi.

And we saw something that looked liked coral, moving, in mesmerizing colors of black and blue.

First you see a black curly thing in the water, on a shell.

If you come closer, the camouflage of it is beautiful. check the film here under.

We showed the film to the Manihi people when we were eating in their ‘snack’. They immediately recognised it: Benitiers! It is some kind of clam, typical for the islands, and also, they were going to catch them for their special festive morning meal the next day.

So obviously, we ordered a plate.

We ate it for lunch. It was prepared with coconut and curry and some chives on top. The only thing one shouldn’t eat was the intriguing black lining. So, we didn’t. But the rest we ate with great curiosity and respect.

It was delicious. Something in between an oyster and a snail.

July 27, 2025July 27, 2025

Manihi Party, Dancing and Singing

It looks like the whole island is involved in the Saturday night party. Or, actually two parties, because the first dance show is on the Friday night. But the Saturday night show is the highlight. It looks like everyone has cooperated in the spectacles, and the dancers are just a part of it. But, what a part! Enjoy the traditional dances and songs of Manihi and the Tuamotus in the next video.

July 20, 2025July 20, 2025

Party in Manihi

The island of Manihi (French Polynesia) gives a party. This is part one, the preparation and the first day.
All 450 inhabitants work together, every year, for more than a century, to make a great 10 days feast. This is a strong and sustainable community many societies can learn from.

July 12, 2025July 12, 2025

From Makemo to Manihi and learning

About the excitement of the Parasailor and the lesson, learning from canned food, the climax of the way we went through the pass of Manihi,

Makemo for a speed date

Wed Jul 09 2025 , 16 37.691s 143 34.405w

Makemo, just to see it.
We saw the village. Did our shopping. Fresh fish!
And, even a bigger surprise, rowing back to the Ya, we saw the Free Spirit next to us, with Jean-Luc on board. Jean-Luc was the man who took care for the Ya in Fatu Hiva when the emergency helicopter brought Peter with his broken vertebra to the hospital in Nuku Hiva. A silent hero.
Thing fall together. He came for dinner and ate our delicious Poisson Cru, (raw fresh fish, ‘cooked’ in fresh lemon juice.)
But, we leave again, going for Manihi, 180 miles to the West North West.

A slow wind and consequently a slow sail ride, zigzagging the ‘bommies’ of the coral. We would get a slow and easy passage through the North West pass. Well, it wasnot. The current was 5 knots and at the end was a whirling water. But is was allright, we got through. We sailed into the night.

*The full moon was so bright, we could see everything.*

Learning from the Parasailor

Thu Jul 10 2025 15 25.355s 144 55.493w

Predictwind would predict the perfect wind for a beautiful Parasailor day. So this morning at 6 o’clock we were ready. But, the wind was a tiny bit more Northerly and didnot really come from behind. Also the wind was a bit stronger. Anyway, we hoisted it: the sock went up, and the 104 m2 sail opened before our eyes, always a flabbergasting breathtaking beautiful moment.
But, indeed, the wind was a bit too strong and we had to sail to the wrong island… Finally we lowered the sail again.
After all it was three hour playing with the sails and a learning moment to set the right sails.

We rounded up our playful day with a dinner feast…. Not.

The dinner. If you are not sure if food from a can would be nice, you take a next can, it can only get better you hope.
The canned chicken porc tasted like plastic. The chestnut just from the can, massively expensive, was like food just from a can. They surrounded the Frankfurter sausages, which tasted like a well wettened piece of cartboard. The cheese from a carton pack, that you can store uncooled, was perhaps the least bad.
It was the first time we left our plates with food on it.

A learning moment to go for fresh food whenever you can get it here.

The first time we did not empty our plates. The boring brownish colour gives an idea how it tasted.

Manihi pass

Fri Jul 11 2025 Manihi

It was still early in the morning when we arrived before the coast of the island Mahini. We saw the pass to go in and the whirly waves related to the outgoing current made clear: we’d better wait.
At 11 o’clock we came back. Mwah, better wait a bit more. At 11:30 we came back and the water was beautiful. We went through the pass, just on the slack between outgoing and ingoing current.
We have become experienced Tuamotu pass sailors. We were so fond of ourselves, that we just anchored somewher. Let us hope that our anchor is not stuck under a ‘bommie’ piece of coral.