Admiral’s Update No 14 2014

Greetings Everyone,

It’s DEFINITELY an El Nino year.  Instead of the steady south east trades we are constantly getting a series of light fickle winds interspersed with sudden and often quite violet squalls.  Yesterday we tried to tack across our track in 10-12 knot winds and after twelve hours we ended up just seven miles ahead.  That would have to be an all time record SLOW!!  We have given up as the wind is now one knot and we are motoring the last 170 miles into Tahiti and should arrive about lunch time Saturday.

We intend booking into a brand new marina which has a half price discount for June.  We will top up with water, fuel and a rest there.

Phil finally got the modem working after we found another Australian yacht who had a disc with the latest firmware updates for it.  It turns out that Yotreps notifies the marine rescue centre in Canberra if a vessel hasn’t checked in for a few days and consequently the rescue centre had put out an alert for us.  I don’t think it did much good over here as it didn’t come up on any of the cruising nets.  I don’t think the countries over here are as efficient as the Australian authorities.

God bless,

Pam and Phil

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Admiral’s Update No 13 2015

Greetings Everyone,

Sorry to have been off the air for the last month.  Phil has two modems he uses to access the Ham Radio for e-mails and they are both not working.  He will use wi-fi when we are in places where it is available.  It means there may be big delays in answering e-mails so please excuse.  Also, we can’t update the Yotreps information as well.

For me the 38 day 4663 nautical mile crossing was an endurance test.  I never did get my sea-legs and had an ongoing battle with sea-sickness and tiredness.  The wind was constantly easterly and meant we were goose-winged and rolling with winds from ten knotts to 37 knotts.  Still we made it.  We are anchored in the Marquesas at Atonau on Hiva Oa Island.  Today we walked into town — about an hour’s walk –only to discover we need to return tomorrow with more paperwork.

The people are friendly and lay-back in the extreme.  There is very little fresh food and we are exploring to try to find some paw paws, bananas, and tomatoes before heading off, probably Thursday, for the Tuamotus and then Tahiti.  There we plan to enjoy the many beautiful islands and have a good rest.  It will take about a week to ten days to get to Tahiti after we leave the Marquesas.  Hopefully we will get internet there again.

God bless,

Pam and Phil

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Maranatha landfall in the Marquesas Islands?

Some time after Maranatha could no longer be seen on the Yotreps system, the Search and Rescue arm of Australian Maritime Safety Authority started making enquiries with a number of people connected with Phil and Pam. We can now all thank Bruce Bentley for getting the most recent and reliable electronic information in relation to the safety of Phil and Pam and Maranatha. Thank you Bruce. Here is his email:

Sam,
good news ,I have a site called live ships Ais which is part of the ship tracking system world wide for all comercial shippiing and also for pleasure boats if so fitted. maranatha has this facility and I can tell you that maranatha has arrived at a town called Atuona on the island of Hiva,oa in the marquesias . so very good news right on time , perhaps you could let people know.
regards for now

bruce

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