Moksha's Messages In a Bottle

About half way to Sydney

2009-09-26T20:02:00.000+10:00

Hi all,

The sun's just gone down and we've suddenly got wind for the first time all
day - 12 knots! Well not so bad, the white A1 gennaker dragged us along at
a respectable speed (5 to 6.5knotts out 6 to 8 knotts of breeze) as long as
we kept the wind forward of the beam meaning we have been sailing west all
day. Wind now has swung to the north and is mostly keeping us moving at 7 -
8 knotts but the wind has lulls back down to 8 knotts reducing our speed
considerably. If only we can get a bit further south west we should get a
steady 15 to 25 knotts of breeze. Until then the gennaker will stay out
through the night with hopefully a vigilant crew that can take quick action
if the wind picks up lots.

Got caught out last night with a wind change and a sudden increase in wind
crew acting a bit slower than necessary. Richard was in bed but felt the
change and was on deck to sort things out. The wind went through a 180
degrees change in direction which led to a uncontroled gybe testing the new
boom. As we were sailing with the gennaker up at 60 degrees to the apparent
wind we did not have a boom break on but as the main sheet was reasonably
tight it was not so bad. As the gennaker had backed itself into the rig we
needed to gybe back, furl the gennaker and drop it into the sail locker.
Out came the gybe and we have nice sailing in the 15 to 20 knotts of
breeze.

We are 400 nm (about 700km) directly east of Fraser island Qld and had
remarkable VHF radio reception hearing many of the VMR coastal patrol
stations along this section of the Australian coast. We had a chat on the
VHF to Bundaberg and it was like we were 10nm away. Normal reception range
is about 25nm.

It's amazing how busy and exhausting it is staring at the
ocean and the main all day and all night, and somehow we simply havent had
time to write the blog.

This is our 5th day of the crossing. We left Port Vila on Monday afternoon
after 4 days of sorting, cleaning, arguing, sweating, cooking and shopping
(Quicksilver bordies cost $7 here!), a few nice dinners at expat joints,
some truly horrendous laplap, and a yachty get-together at Sam's place on
the water. I got my hair braided and apparently look like a wombat.

Half moon is above our heads, stars are out, U2 crooning...life doesn't get
any better than this according to Richard. Kev wrecks the moment suggesting
that the company could be better. With that, we should probably introduce
the crew:

Tom (aka Tom Cat): strapping 6ft 3 English lad. For some reason he's
hanging out in NZ???? "He won't set the world on fire, but he'll be there
to put it out". He's a lovely, sturdy type.

Christian (aka Gorgeous): he's our genius - he's actually a rocket
scientist!! From Belgium! Very cute accent. Spent the first 4 days puking
his head off and curled up on the deck in the foetal position...poor little
lad. We saw him for the first time today, he did a hilarious dance with the
broken toilet seat, then patched it up with expoxy fortified with smashed-up
coconut shell. Did a great job synchronising the navigation systems and
cooked some Belgium stoemp.

Stuart: (or Stu as he likes to be called) good humoured (though not as good
humoured as we need to be for
putting up with him), straight out of the hobbit - lythe, muscular, all over
the boat like a ferret in a frenzy. Had some dodgy sailing disaster with
his boat going to the bottom just south of where we are now only 4 months
ago. We've been
ripping the piss out of him about that ever since he told us. "When I first
met Stu, I thought he was a crazy Kiwi. I still think he's crazy" (Tom
Cat). Stu's more comfortable with a gun shotting something to eat than a
computer (which is why I'm
on blog again)...Stu's definately in IT denial. Skipper was initially in
two minds (bit supperstitious about the yacht he was on going to the
bottom), but Stu has pulled his weight and has endless energy. Unsure how
he will respond if he gets a bucket of water thrown over him.

Kevin (aka Sir): highly cynical Englishman with a heart of gold. He's got
more moles than Mick Jagger, loves his wife, dogs and teenage daughter (at
least as much as anyony can love their teenage daughter).
Stares wistfully out at sea with dreams of sailing into the sunset with his
wifey on his yacht, then falls asleep at the helm. He's got that very
funny, dry sense
of humour delivered in a great cockney accent that keeps us all in stitches.
We luv Kev!!

Krystina: Krytina is the only other girl on board, and is just lovely. She
is so bright and happy and laughs at absolutely anything. She's whipped up
some ripper meals and keeps the personal hygiene standards on board high.
She spearheaded a mass shower and shaving today, so after ponging pretty
badly for the last few days so we're all smelling sweet.

Richard and I are the only ones from the last crew. I'm sure the others
will write about us tomorrow!

Photos and more in the next day or so.

As Stu would say "fully sick bru" (bro to the rest of us)

Love from Moksha

en-route port vila-sydney

2009-09-23T05:23:00.000+10:00

the words of the skipper..."its a lonely ocean out here".
we reckon he'd be right. Not another vessel in sight so far; just how we
like it!!
Moral amongst the troops is great. Oh, apart from the crook ones; who are
starting to come right finally.
no rain,storms,dolphins,turtles,or pirates so far....but one whale spout
sighted yestreday afternoon.Bonus !!
Looming ahead of Moksha is "the grand passage" which is plonked firmly in
New Caledonian waters for us to negotiate later today.Being 20ish nm wide it
should be a doddle.

Port Vila

2009-08-07T15:32:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 4th August 2009

Havanah Harbour to Port Vila

Plough through morning jobs, then Cath and I go snorkleing. It's too shallow for sharks so it was nice to be able to potter around in peace without constantly looking begind us expecting Jaws! More gorgeous fish and coral gardens with winding paths we could swim through. Got out and ran along the beach wearing our snorkels and flippers - absolutely ridiculous and very funny.

Get back to the boat and immediately depart for Port Vila. It's just south a bit so we motored. Even after only 2 weeks in the wilds, its weird to see houses, banks, hotels and other people.

Berth at the marina. Richard chats up the other sailors and they all stand on the dock laughing at us girls trying to get an enormous sail into a very small bag.

Richard shouts us dinner at the marina's restaurant. We tuck into bottles of red wine and are without doubt the rowdiest group in the place. Richard gives an entertaining assessment on each of us - the good and the bad. Great little band playing with a Vanuautan singer who has a voice like Barry White. Lu and I get on the dancefloor and do lambada, then Cath makes a saucy entrance....the whole restaurant staring at us as we romped madly around the dancefloor. Cath and I did a hilarious dance to Tom Jone's 'Delilah' that had everyone laughing and got them up dancing too.

Onwards to the casino. Rocked up with matted hair, dirty cargos, stinky t-shirts and thongs...but Jupiters Vanuatu doesn't mind. We gambled 2000 vatu each on Blackjack, losing it, wining it back, and of course eventually losing it all.

Wednesday 5th August 2009

Wake up with hangovers. Lazy breakfast, then get stuck into the jobs. Cath and Lu on the saloon and galley, me in the garage, Gav helping us all and Richard in the internet cafe. Groove around the boat to groovy music and chat with our boat neighbours. I'm Diesel Daisy today (though definately more Diesel than Daisy!!). Burn around the busy little harbour in the tender collecting fuel and checking out the other boats.

Fish and chips at the marina restaurant for lunch, and we sit and sailor-watch. Nice ambience here, chilled and relaxed. Boats of all shapes and sizes coming and going from all over the world. We luxuriate in real showers and I somehow managed to tease out the enormous matt in my hair which I thought would have to be cut out.

It's Richard's last night tonight and he takes us to Le Rendesvouz up on the hill for dinner. Divine seafood platters (with banana smoothies!!).

We're all exhausted and crash out.

Thursday 6th August 2009

Richard's last day.

We continue ploughing through our jobs but can see the light at the end of the 'To Do List' tunnel!! . Nice soggy weather...pouring with rain but very warm.

Richard waved a few clothes at the water and proudly hung them on the line..."washed!!". Bless. Such a lad. We all write gooey stuff on Cath's thankyou card and give it to him at lunch. He gives us a bit of a wave and is gone.

Resist the temptation to steal the boom off the catamaran next door and sail to Hawai, and go back to our jobs instead.

Watch Little Miss Sunshine and hang out at the marina bar for a bit. Cath does her class for the first time in weeks, and upgrades to the master suite.

Pick at what's left on the boat for dinner.

Friday 7th August 2009

Richard, it's taken me 15 glorious hours to write this blog!! Hope you had a good trip home. We miss you. It's raining pick handles. Gav's being a super little cheese and cracking the whip. Actually, he's asleep and we're watching movies.

Cath and I flying home tomorrow, Gav and Lu staying on the boat for another week.

This is the last blog 'til we return in a few months with the next installment - new boom and the crossing back to Aus!

Over and out from Moksha.

Sulua Bay, Emae Island to Havannah Harbour, Efate Island

2009-08-04T10:07:00.000+10:00

Saturday 1st August 2009

Sulua Bay, Emae Island

Grey day. Butt crunches with our morning cups of tea, then me onto blog duty. Trying to remember anything after about 3 hours is a challenge, let alone 4 days!! It's amazing how busy each day actually is - I've not opened any of the books I bought and Cath has missed most of her online classes. Between getting out breakfast, clearing up, sailing or boat maintenance, bit of a swim or snorkle, making lunch and clearing up, dodging Richard, making dinner, clearing up, sending a few emails, having a chat, we fall into bed exhausted. Anyway, scratch back through it all get it down - all the while Richard making threats that he's going to send it without photos if I don't hurry up. Argue with Richard coz he says I'm too slow and that he's taking blog off me and giving it to someone else to do. That put me in a stink so I had to go snorkling to cool down. Beautiful coral gardens and a mind-blowing assortment of pretty little fish. Great spot.

Lunch, then we launch into our respective jobs - Lu tucking into transom door electrics, Gav fixing sonar, changing filters and supervising Lu ;), Cath put up the riding sail to stop us sailing at anchor, and me getting stuck into bilges, pumps and toilet system programming. Richard answers our endless questions with remarkable patience.

We regroup on deck for a well-earned beer at sunset. Lu and I make ripper pizzas for dinner, washed down by highly alcoholic digestive herbal wine that tastes like rocket fuel.

Plan to snorkel at Cook Reef tomorrow morning, leaving 9am.

Sunday 2nd August 2009

Sulua Bay, Emae Island

Another grey day with rain pending. Wake up late. None of us actually feel like snorkling and suggest maybe working on boat today and going tomorrow instead, but no correspondance will be entered into and we pull up anchor at 9am. Motor over to Cook Reef, about 45 minutes away. Gav makes great coffee and we all come round a bit. He catches a Bluefin Tuna, but it was too small so he kissed it and threw it back. Great anchorage after some tricky reef negotiation. Starts raining. Really really not great weather for water sports and we're a bit reluctant, but Richard gives us a kick in the pants and we get our wetsuits on. Potter around the reef seeing amazing coral, fish, turtles and sharks (little). Best snorkeling so far.

Something must have been in the water as Richard came up in a happy, naughty mood. Rained hard on the way back to Sulua Bay and Richard and Gav were completely soaked. I make a banana cake (with 10 bananas!!!!! - we have too many on board) and passed up pieces of it straight out of the oven, hot and sodden...rolled in extra sugar and butter...mmmmm... :)) That destroyed the appetite for an already less-than-appealing lunch that Lu and I made of packet fried rice, cabbage and mashed pumpkin. Somehow that disappeared too.

We spend the rest of the day holed up in the saloon watching movies as the rain pours down outside. Cosy..and steamy!

Monday 3rd August 2009

Another grey day in paradise!

Leave at 8am and motor over to Cook Reef for another snorkel. Saw a huge stingray, more amazing fish and more beautiful coral gardens. It is incredible. Richard reckons its the best snorkeling he's ever done. Gav takes lots of underwater photos. Delicious hot showers, then we continue to Havannah Harbour on Efate Island, just up the road from Port Vila. This is our last sail...boo hoo!!

Perfect sailing conditions. We put up the main sail - it's clew secured back to the winches adjacent to the helm. Works a treat and we romp along at 8 knots with SE winds at 15 knots. Who needs a boom!!! Richard is in a fab mood and we have lots of laughs, a photo shoot, a grammer lesson, and hot fresh bread with butter and vegemite for lunch. Gav's trying hard to catch a fish for dinner but that's difficult without Disco Jill who got eaten by something.

The wind drops completely and the water becomes silky smooth in that amazing deep azure blue. Cath and I sit on the bow singing the theme song from Titanic to get the dolphins to come closer. They don't. I think it's Cath's pitching...

We girls muck around with the sails whilst the boys muck around with dirty dishes - this is a very modern boat!!

Arrive in Havannah Harbour, where Survivor Vanuatu was shot. It's beautiful. Cath goes up the mast for the first time to find a good place to drop anchor, but is brought back down coz Richard thinks she's not seeing what she's up there to see. Gav goes up and gets it right the second time after anchor goes down and is brought back up again. Lu's been gagging to go up the mast so we strapped her in and sent her up. She got half way, went white and poo'd in the bosun's chair.

Cath ate too much banana cake yesterday and her system has clogged up so we are eating veggies for dinner. Watch a terrible movie and crash out.

There are no limits now on what we are saying or doing in front of each other. It's pretty vile...and very funny. It's only been 2 weeks, but it will be weird coming back to reality and I'll certainly miss everyone.

Love from Moksha

Some words from the boss including an update re broken boom situation

2009-08-01T17:28:00.000+10:00

All is going well here. Have been in some very nice anchorages though a bit difficult to get into sometimes due to limited places to anchor in a reasonable water depth 4 to 12m.   Sent quite a bit of time with local villagers which has been lots of fun. Some highlights have been walking a few hours through the jungle with 10 kids and a guide to a spectacularwaterfall that made for a refreshing swim. Custom meals and dances and helping out with charging their batteries for their mobile phones. They really do live a simple life with few first world luxuries other than their mobile phones. Most have no power, live in thatched bare ground huts and grow or catch nearly all their own food.    They are very generous, unassuming and gracious people.

It appears that replacing my double braid mainsheet with a smaller less stretchy sheet may have contributed to Moksha's boom woes. On a Gybe once the boom gets to the extent of the mainsheet there is less give meaning the boom (or at least the bit between the mainsheet and the mast) comes to a sharp halt but the unsupported end of the boom still has some momentum. Also reducing the number of turns the line around the boom brake from 3 to 2 probably was not a good idea as it speeds up the movement of the boom a bit.

We have decided not to try to temporarily fix the boom as to fit the aluminium plate on the 4 sides effectively to a bent boom will be difficult. To straighten the boom I think would mean cutting a piece out of it. Could be done but a fair bit of work to then have probably 1,500nm to sail home with a crew that some of which are likely to have doubts about the boom. And then once we are home to throw it out and start again.

To get back to Port Vila where we will fix Moksha, the pre ailing winds means sailing to windward. We set up the trisail and used the normal headsail when we headed out yesterday. We ended up with between 2 and 10 knots of wind for much of the time so were not making good progress.   So I rigged up sheets for the main sail to be used without the boom.   On Moksha
we have big padeyes on the corners of the transom while were perfect for flattening the sail (outhaul and Vang) and the extra padeyes on Moksha's rails were used to sheet the sail in and out. Worked remarkably well and ended up later in the day sailing to windward in 15 to 20 knots like we had a boom.

Made it to the very safe anchorage of Port Sandwich in the dark and then had to deal with the depth and the forward facing sonar playing up - bit unnerving. This morning will have to plug in the spare forward-facing sonar unit I have been lent to see if this fixing the problem. Getting a lot of interference in the normal depth sounders readings meaning the depth readings jump all over the place and you have to pick the real readings from a ones which are false; unsure as to why.

The plan is to sail each day south east and stay at a safe anchorage overnight. A good run will get us to Port Vila in 4 days and a slow run 7 days. Today's objective is Emae Island (next to Cook reef) however depending on the conditions may end up in any one of two other anchorages (Lamen Bay or Revolieu Bay on Epi Island)   Will stop at Cook reef on the way as my
current crew have not snorkelled on this good bit of coral atoll.

Once in Port Vila will spend a few days tied up at the marina while we clean up and sort things out on Moksha including removing perishables. Will then move Moksha to a mooring. Have organised a Kiwi guy to look after Moksha while I am away that has set up a business at helping the passing yachts.

I am likely to fly home about 5th. Some of my crew are likely to stay on a bit longer. Once home arrange for a new stronger and improved boom to be made and freighted to Port Vila. This is likely to take a couple of months. Mario my rigger will fly over and fit the boom.

The plan is to return to Vanuatu with Crew to sail home early October.

Regards Richard

Heading back to Port Vila

2009-08-01T11:26:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 28th July 2009

Uri, Port Stanley

Jayatma's last day today. She loves markets so she, Richard, Lu and Gav take off in the tender after breakfast for provisions.

Cath and I hang out on the boat. We should be reading the Moksha Manual and learning stuff, but we put on music and lie on deck in our bikinis, shooting the shit in the sun. Slovenly slappers!

But we make a good lunch when the others get back.

Richard makes Cath and I prepare the trysail for flying tomorrow. So we're stuffing around with jackstays, halyards, shackles, giggling and cackling. Cath wasn't very focussed coz she didn't have knickers on and was sure the others were looking up her dress through the saloon ceiling hatches. Richard occasionally roaring 'No!!!!" from his bed as he hears our painfully slow thought processes trying to work out how the trysail goes on. A helicopter flies past, close. And of course Cath pulls her dress up, baring absolutely all...then moons them.

There's something big in the water making large ripples and bubbles - we reckon its a dugong. Richard and Jayatma get brave and snorkle around trying to find it. No luck. Just as well as it was probably a shark. Gav goes canoeing in the setting sun.

Moonlight dinner on deck. Lu makes chocolate cake and we stuff ourselves in honour of this being Jayatma's last night and my birthday tomorrow. Such a beautiful night...water gently rocking the boat...balmy breeze...the stars so bright...moon shining on the water...groovy chill-out music...wine. So cool.

Everyone goes to bed, but as usual Cath and I don't know when to stop, get drunk and get yelled at.

Wednesday 29th July 2009

My birthday. Chocolate cake for breakfast. Mmmmmmm. :))

We drop Jayatma off at the wharf and she heads to the little airport.

This is the first time we've sailed since the boom broke. Bit trepidatious. We raise the trysail and pull out the headsail. But the breeze is very light and our boat speed very slow.

Richard sets up a series of sheets attached to the clew of the main sail, running them back to the winches adjacent to the helm. And we raise the main. The extra padeyes put on Moksha for use with a drogue or towing another boat and on the aft rails come in very handy. The main sail is flying like a huge trysail, with no connection to the broken boom. Boat speed increases and we have good control of the main sail shape.

We eat lunch on deck. Richard splits us into watch teams as it is possible that we sail during the night. Richard, Lu and me from 4pm to 8pm, then Gav and Cath 8pm to 12 midnight, then us, etc. Gav and Cath go below to rest. Lu takes the helm for a while, then me. The wind is still light, the swell still small. Richard dozes. All good.

Richard takes the helm and gives me and Luciana a lesson on the effect of time in relation to sailing at different angles to windward - which is significant.

The wind starts to pick up and hangs around 15 - 20 knots. We barrel along at 8.5 knots. The full main sail holds nicely and we arrive at Port Sandwich just after sunset. Who needs a boom.

Cath makes pasta for dinner. We really notice Jayatma not being here. We miss her. It's funny how close we all get, living in each other's pockets.

I write up the procedure for raising the trysail. Early night.

Thursday 30th July 2009

Catherine writes up the safety procedure and proudly hands it to Richard, forgetting she's left in a some gritty comment about him, written in rage ...."Cockpit Risks - The Skipper: anyone who boards this boat and is a little sensitive should try to grow a thick skin before coming into contact with the skipper as this may cause some detrimental effects to your spirit". He reads it out and we all have a laugh. Lu whips up a banana cake. Gav gives me a lesson on getting him up the mast to fix the mast light.

Depart Port Sandwich for Lamen Bay, Epi Island. Put trysail up and headsail out. Great day sailing...over-cast but good wind (up to 32 knots) and big swell...and dolphins! Boat speed 4-7.5 knots. Lots of deep and meaningful group discussions - mostly about sex and relationships, hilarious moments, chocolate and drenchings when our lads lost focus on the helm.

Arrive into Lamen Bay in the dark with 20 knots and driving rain, both on the nose. We anchor with 12 other yachts - its the Lamen Bay festival or something like that. We snuggle up in the saloon and hear a Kath & Kim-style of discussion on the VHF radio between two NZ women on the other boats. Then Cath gets on the radio announcing that Moksha has a wench looking for a husband...very funny.

The engine's been running so we all get hot showers tonight :)) Gav makes laksa for dinner.

Something went wrong with the water maker so it was still going when we went to bed. It's behind Cath's and my cabin and makes a bit of noise so we put our ear plugs in...but kept talking. Didn't realise we were yelling at each other and waking up the boat once again. Wooopsies!!

Friday 31st July 2009

Leave Lamen Bay early, destination Emae Island. It's 16 knots in the bay alone, so we braced ourselves for an exciting ride.

Richard ups the ante on me and I spend the next 3.5 hours putting up trisails, pulling out headsails, putting away headsails, pulling out storm jibs, cranking on the checkstays, backstays, babystays, halyards, getting drenched on the foredeck, connecting sheets, removing sheets, getting drenched on the foredeck, setting up furling lines ALL BY MYSELF! The others were not allowed to help. Richard grills me relentlessly. The gang sit there laughing when I get it wrong and cheering when I get it right. I suprised myself, but still had a good few moments gazing blankly at the rig, trying to see what I'd forgotton...Cath and Gav helping me out when Richard wasn't looking...thanks guys :))

Gav puts a line out the back with Disco Jill - the slapper of all lures, always up for it no matter the conditions and will not come home alone. She did good, getting us a skipjack tuna, but something bigger got to it before we did so we only pulled up 1/2 a fish. Bit gross. Gav carved it up and we had sashimi with risotto and miso soup for late lunch / early dinner the moment we anchored in Sulua Bay, Emae Island.

We really stuff ourselves. Catherine feels like an oompa loompa and wows to swim tomorrow til her legs drop off. Richard gets sick of us and goes off in the tender to one of the other two boats anchored here looking for some fibre glass to go with the epoxy needed to fix the water filter housing of the watermaker. The previous epoxy temporary fix put on previous cracks as we had no fibreglass to reinforce it. Richards and Cath epoxy up the water filter housing, hopefully ready for use in the morning. Our water-maker is broken and we are on water rations...no showers, sea water for toilets and washing up.

Lu and Catherine make popcorn and we all watch a movie on the sexy plasma screen that comes up from the back of the purple leather lounge.

Port Stanley, Malekula Island

2009-07-28T09:28:00.000+10:00

Sunday 26th July 2009

No lobster turned up during the night.

Richard rips us out of bed, declaring there wind and that we are leaving after breakfast for Port Stanley, about 25nm north up the east coast of Malekula Island.

He hands over to Cath and I to get us sailing. God. We fumble around with the main for a bit and eventually get it up, fumble around with the plotter and evenutally get a route in, and after fumbling around with the Moksha Manual, even get a reef in!

Running down wind in 20 to 25 knots, gusting up to 30. Boat speed 7 to 9.5 knots. Short, choppy sea state. Richard hands over helm to Gavin. We put in a gybe to head inland. Richard lets off boom-brake and the boom swings over faster than we expect, with a bit of a bang, but we think nothing of it.

We get inside Port Stanley and find the intended achorage not sheltered against the south-east wind, so potter around for a while and get another. Locals paddle up with mobile phones to be charged. They come on board and sit there watching us as we do our stuff. Cath and I zip up the sail cover. Then Cath: "oh my god!", pointing. Richard comes to see, making some droll comment about me standing like an idiot with my mouth hanging open.

Then he sees the broken boom.

We all stand around gaping at it. And the locals sit there gaping at us. Unbelievable.

We deliberate over how it could have happened - maybe when the main sail back-winded, or maybe during the gybe...

Make tea and eat biscuits for our new friends and sit around glumly. The girl plaits Cath's hair while Lu and Gav have a go in the dug-out canoe, heading into the mangroves to "find a new boom". The locals invite us to eat laplap with them tomorrow.

Back in the saloon, we run through our options: sink Moksha, fix Moksha (with paddle pop sticks and expoxy!),
sail home sans main sail, etc. We're really sad at the prospect of flying home early. Hopefully we find a solution.

We decide against posting the blog before we've made a decision in case it worries our peeps at home.

We retire to our respective cabins and watch movies on our laptops.

Monday 27th July 2009

Our fearless leader barrels out of his cabin in a suprisingly good mood and launches straight into how we can fix this puppy. After great thought and consideration, we girls head up onto deck to work on our tans and brazilian butts.

Three long lovely hours later, we pile into the tender (except for Gavin who is being a real man and taking the canoe) and go to Uri village for laplap. Our hosts (the three that visited us yesterday) give us a tour. Their village is orderly, clean and pretty, and has the most beautiful roosters. They dress us in mission dresses, sprinkle talcum powder on our necks (??) and give us neck-lays made of little rolled-up leaves. We drink kava which tastes like carrots and mud. It makes us relax
and our throats cease up. We eat inside a little hut - a feast of manioc (a root vegetable covered with island cabbage and coconut), oysters, little smoked fish, crabs, chicken, breadfruit and baked yam, all laid out on a carpet of palm leaf matts. Interesting flavours and textures...Lu gets something going wrong in her tummy - probably from eating crab poo.

They show us a skeleton of a dugong and we go to take off the mission dresses, but apparently they are gifts. Such lovely generous people. We pay them though, and also for the laplap.

Jam back into the tender in our dresses and laugh and squeal as we bounce along in the moonlight, getting totally soaked...rotten Richard!!

Regarding our boom situation, Richard emails the following to the next crew:

Hi Crew

Unfortunately, yesterday we creased our new boom on Moksha. We are not 100% sure exactly how it happened but in 3 hours of sailing we undertook only one gybe and half a dozen tacks, so it appears to be the result of the gybe. We were sailing downwind in 25 knots of wind gusting to 30 knots in calm seas.

We undertook a planned gybe using the boom brake and even though the boom brake worked slowing the boom movement across the boat, the boom when it came to a stop, due to the mainsheet, must have been travelling faster than it could cope with and creased at the same place as the boom we previously broke. We did not notice the crease until we anchored later in the day.

After much heartache about what to do and options open to go forward we decided to ring (and later emailed them with pictures) Hall spars in New Zealand. They were very helpful and gave precise details of how we could fix it either using flat 5 or 6mm aluminium plates (bent so it fits the shaped on the boom) on the four sides of the boom riveted in placed as well
as epoxied for a distance of 800 to 1,200mm depending on the exact way we go about it. We could use two thicknesses of the good sections of the previously broken boom for the sides as it may fit better. We could affix the main sheet to the boom using a strop instead of the stainless steel tang. This strop attachment is a superior way of the attaching the main as
it spreads the loads over a larger area instead of just one point. The word from hall spars is this will be stronger than the boom was but would not be pretty.

We can source all the materials in Port Villa and the work is likely to take a few days. We would need to remove the boom to do the best job. Currently we are 130nm north west of Port Villa. We plan to sail back to Port Villa using the headsails including gennakers and the trysail over the next 3 or 4 days stopping a couple of times where hopefully we will get favourable beam to aft of beam winds. If we get the prevailing winds it will be uphill to sail back.

Once in Port Villa I will make the final decision of what to do. Basically we have two options.

1. In Port Villa, temporarily fix the boom, meeting you in Port Villa on the date we were planned to meet in Sola and then sail home. Once home we would source a stronger and improved boom setup. This is not anticipated to delay the return date to Australia.

2. Leave the boat in Port Villa, fly back to Australia and arrange for a stronger and improved boom setup to be made and sent back to Port Villa for fitting and then sail home. It will take between 6 to 8 weeks to get a new better boom and 2 to 3 weeks to get it to Vanuatu and fitted. So if we take this option it is possible that the return trip to Australia is significantly delayed. I am very sorry if this eventuates and realise that some of you may not be able to make it for this later date. I would reimburse you for any costs incurred.

If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to email me.

Apart from this little mishap we have been having a fantastic time. See blog for updates.

Regards Richard Rowe

PS. Some more information we have found out about the boom setup on Hanse's:

a. It appears that Sparcraft also make an ocean quality stronger boom for a Hanse 540 that we have just learned about. Moksha does not have this boom.

b. Considering we have only used the boom that has recently been fitted to Moksha for less than 3 weeks and have done probably less than 10 controlled gybes mostly in light winds we feel the boom is weaker than we need for the style of sailing we normally do on Moksha (i.e. we are not totally conservative sailors and like to keep the boat moving well).

c. A number of Hanse's have broken or creased booms.

d. Using a boom brake with full main to gybe puts more load on a Hanse 540 boom than it can cope with when winds are above 20 knots.

e. Mid sheeted booms with tangs to connect the mainsheet to the boom can be problematic due to the loads involved being taken at one point on a now reinforced section of the boom.

Love from Moksha

Banam Bay, Malekula Island by Elise the blog queen

2009-07-26T19:49:00.000+10:00

Thursday 23rd July 2009

Cath and I wake up early and motivated (after realising we've been complete
slackers); fast butt crunches followed by fast breakfast; an impressive
dissertation to the team on safety by Cath and Elise reads the whole section
on 'Bilges' in the Moksha Manual! We pour over the maps and deliberate
destination options. Jayjay only has 6 days left on board so we will
probably stay on Malukula Island.

Lunchtime departure from pretty Port Sandwich and we all agree to head north
to Banam Bay. Short, easy burn up the coast - up to 9 knots boat speed,
wind picked up to 20 knots, and nice rolling swell. Helped onto our
anchorage (16:20.231S 167:45.437E) by a friendly local in an out-rigger.

The water is sotempting....Gavin jumps in but I think the rest of us are a
bit shark-shy (especially after learning we've been hanging our arses into
waters "teeming" with sharks!!).

Cath whips up a tasty fritatta and Lu makes a chocolate miracle out of soy
products and a bale of hay. We loose a week of fully crunched butts in 10
minutes! Divine!!

Friday 24th July 2009

Gavin teaches me the tender, and me, Lu and Jayjay go to shore to find out
about the waterfalls and dancing mentioned in Lonely Planet. We're met by
one of the men from the village who takes us into his garden, then to his
village - Remep. He shakes the lime tree for us, fills our bags with
pamplemousse, and offers to get us lobsters. Other men from the village
come out to greet us...it's Children's Day here today and the women are with
the kids at school - weird with only men crowding around us. They take us
into a stuffy little hut jambed with guys watching Vanuatan MTV or some
equivalent at full volume. Jayatma and I sit awkwardly on the map
surrounded by them, sweating, and bolt for the door as soon as the song's
finished.

Chat with the village chief in their church and make loose arrangements to
play volleyball with them later in the afternoon. That's soon superceded by
an arrangement at the next village (Fartafour) to see their traditional
dancing. We go and play around with the kids whilst they get ready to dance
(Vanuatan speed). Semi-naked men from 12yo - 84yo sing and dance the
traditional hunting, war and wedding ceremony songs. A separate performance
by the women. They seem a little shy at first, but we girls join in (tops
on!!) and we all have a laugh. After lots of thankyou's and hand-shaking,
we head back to Moksha in the setting sun.

This is paradise.

Saturday 25th July 2009

Gavin stays on the boat to solve the mystery of the blocked port loo and
Cath stays to get rid of her cold. The rest of us go to the waterfall.
Quick de-tour into Remap village, photos with girls making laplap, women
sewing mission dresses and a tame, scraggy-looking bird which John (our
guide) said they are going to eat. Collect 12 giggling kids as we go and
have a jolly little sortie to the falls, singing, clapping, playing little
games. The kids laugh as absolutely anything which is very gratifying.

Eventually get to the waterfall. We swim and muck around for a while, then
head back. Richard squeeking intermittently "Jay, are we there yet?". Eat
bananas and pamplemousse from the trees and chase the kids down the road.
Get back to the tender, lap the copra boat, say hi to the NZ yacht 'Te Vaka'
that just came in, and back to the boat for lunch and siesta.

Cath and I paddle to shore in the one-man canoe and arrange delivery of 2
lobsters...'sometime tonight'.

backtrack blog - Lenaru Village

2009-07-23T19:09:00.000+10:00

This is a backtrack blog....filling in details of our visit to a village a
couple of days back.

20 July 2009
Island - EPI
Bay location - NE of Lamen Bay, between Nduana Pt
Village Name - Lenaru Village
Chief - Mark Mel

Anchor Location
Area not charted to any detail other that showing approximately location of
reef in either side of bay. Bay has one area of consistent depth of
approximately 11m in the north east corner. In the South east corner area
there are a number of bombies.

Shown on Navionics Chart as a break in the reef, though reef is not
accurately shown at least in anchor location as anchor location is on area
shown as reef 0.0m deep.

Anchorage is protected from the SW around to the East and provided a
pleasant anchorage when Lamen Bay became untenable due to a south west
swell rolling in.

Approach from 16º33´965S 168 º10´391E
Anchor Position 16º34´161S 168 º10´530E

Landing on the sand beach was easy and protected from swell though at low
tide there could be some bombies to dodge on the way in. Apparently a
direct route to the yellow marker on a coconut tree located just to the west

of centre of the beach is recommended by the locals.

Village History ..
French company (Natura ?) apparently displaced local village some years
before independence (? 12 or 15 years) in 1978? With the village relocating
to the nearby island of Paama just to the north. The company set up a
coconut plantation for the production of Copra. At independence some of the

displaced villages returned and have a growing but small community of
approximately 20 people, some of the children are away at boarding school.
Some of their relatives have stayed on Paama and as with many villages some
of them have gone to Santo or Port Vila for work.

Most of the women we met told us they were sisters, most were married with
at least one child. The chief had 5 children. One of the women had lost her
only child at age 2 months to a tumour. The chief's youngest child (3 months

old) was sick with some kind of infection giving boil like sores on the
skin. The chiefs wife had taken the child to see a doctor (I think in Lamen
Bay) and was giving the child penicillin she had been prescribed.

From our discussions with the villagers it appears they lead a comfortable
life but lack the income to live much more than a subsistence life with just

enough money to send a few of the children to school, but not enough to have

for high school or to fix the broken outboard engine.

The villagers were welcoming but shy apparently as they were unused to
seeing many visitors. They were very courteous to us and very grateful for
our visit. They gave us what they called "mini lap lap", manioc which had
been cooked in coconut milk. They told us they make lap lap every Sunday.

Huts were a mixture of traditional thatching and corrugated iron. There are

a number of decaying buildings apparently from the plantation days of Natura

that were mostly now unused.

The village is a half hour walk from Lamen Bay, but seemed very uninfluenced

by the town ways.

Language
The Villagers appear to be all or mostly educated in French, though the
grasp of English is good enough for a good conversation. As well as Bislama

they also speak the local language traditional for the village as well as
the local language on Paama.

Religion
A simple Presbyterian church is located on the western side of the village,
though the villagers appeared to have kept many of their traditional ways.
The priest comes once a week.

Gardens
The villagers were very helpful when asked for fruits and returned in their
canoes with Paw Paw & a huge bunch of Bananas (eating) as well as cooking
Bananas & Coconuts. We traded with them for coloured pencils, a cap, jeans,
a wind up torch, and a snorkel and mask. They were delighted.

We were given a tour of one of the village gardens which we thoroughly
enjoyed. Apparently they have 5 other gardens for that village, which are
all fairly close by. They had copious quantities of taro (including water
taro), yam, bananas, coconuts, paw paw, corn, manioc and island cabbage.
They also grew small quantities of spring onions, small capsicums,
pineapples, breadfruit, mandarins, pamplemousse, sugarcane. They have
extensive coconut plantations left from the copra company, so there are
sprouting coconuts all over the place. They are well worth trying with a
very interesting texture and a very pleasant taste. The chief mentioned they

never go hungry because they can always go and get a sprouting coconut.

The village had a few cows/bullocks which we saw. They did not have pigs
themselves, but the chief mentioned his brother in another village has
several pigs. They had many chickens and gave us a few eggs.

They said they usually eat fish about twice a week, sometimes chicken,
bullock when there is a marriage or other reason for a big celebration. They

occasionally have wild pig if they have killed one. They rotate their
starchy vegetables, say having manioc one day, taro the next, kumera the
next etc. They seemed to eat Island cabbage two or three times a week.

There was drying reef on both sides of the reef and from the boat we could
see women at low tide collecting food from there with a knife and bowl.

NEEDS OF VILLAGE:
They have a dinghy with an outboard motor but the outboard motor has been
broken for a few months. This causes problems as they use the dinghy to take

things out the larger cargo boats for transport to market. Also they would
usually use the dinghy to visit family still living on Paama. The coil is
broken, see photo. It is a Yamaha engine - enduro 15. So if you are passing
through and have a spare coil, these guys could really use it and would be
eternally grateful.

Crew change over by Elise

2009-07-22T18:58:00.000+10:00

Thursday 16th July 2009

Gavin, Lucianna, Cath flew in to Port Vila and spend the day lying by the pool, getting provisions at the market, contemplating eating bats, getting drunk, or something like that.

Friday 17th July 2009

More of the same for Gavin, Lucianna and Cath.

Elise managed a hairy jet-lagged 4-hour costume change (from Samba to Sailing) in Sydney, then back to the airport for Port Vila. Arrived 11:30pm, declared the 25kgs of chocolate but got tangled up when customs came across Moksha's replacement fuel pump. After smiles, explanations and a US$7 fine, arrived at Coconut Palms Resort where the others were staying.

Rendezvous with Cath after getting past the lecherous male receptionist (who had apparently failed in his attempts to seduce Cath) and negotiating what was apparently a labyrinth of corridors for the paralytic baton-wielding bell-boy.

Saturday 18th July 2009

Crew change-over day.

Gavin, Lucianna, Cath, Elise and about 100kgs of provisions squeeze into a little five-seater Cessna. Simon, the pilot, tells us we are on the weight limit and the first goggle of horror rolls through us. We bump and rattle our way up into the sky in the drafty little craft. Gavin and Lu are all smiles and photographs whilst Cath and I are clutching each other and blanching. But dense jungle gives way to incredible clear turquoise waters and reefs. It's really breathtaking. Half an hour later we spot Moksha in the distance. Very exciting to see the boat after so many months of anticipation. Simon swoops over her and we wave down to Richard. Land on Epi Island's landing strip, extract Cath's fingernails from my knee, a
quick 'hi-bye' with Sophie, Byron and Asha as they head back to Port Vila with Simon, and we head for the boat.

Fresh (in the loosest possible sense!) gang aboard, we do a little sortie north away from Lamen Bay - a nice introduction for this motley crew suffering everything from jet-lag and sleep deprivation to constipation and withdrawals. We find a little bay sheltered from the wind and poke around finding a good spot to anchor. I climb up onto the boom (in a missionary dress) for a better perspective. Friendly locals in out-rigger canoes come to say hi, and we trade crayons, snorkels and other bits and bobs for bananas and fruit. Wash the kids' towels. Snorkel. Eat curry for dinner. In bed by 8pm, rocked to sleep by the soft breeze of the South Pacific....really divine.

Sunday 19th July 2009

Visit the little village. Wash clothes. Eat. Snorkel. Chill out.

Monday 20th July 2009

Yoga stretches and butt crunches in the morning sun. Snorkel over to the reef - keeping a sharp eye out for sharks - and discover amazing fish and decent coral. Pack up and set sail north to Malekula Island. Nice sailing.

Overcast and mild. Top boat speed 9 knots, wind speed 25 knots, 2-3m swell. Gavin runs a fishing line out the back, and Lu, our black ninja sailor spots what looks like a small shark bouncing along behind. Great excitement.
Gavin hauls it in, wrestles it on board, declares it Wahoo and carves it up. Sashimi for dinner :))) Happy days.

Arrive at Awai, part of the Maskelyne Islands at the south of Malekula. Not much room to find a good anchorage between the three other boats anchored in between the coral reef and deep water. Good protection from the swell but no protection from the wind from the south east howling through over the reef.

Generator has lost all power. Gavin and Richard spend a few hours chasing down the problem with Dominics help over the Sat phone. Never knew there were so many fuses. Ended up being a 15amp blown fuse. All Ok after
changing the fuse.

Tuesday 21st July 2009

Not a great anchorage and apparently we slipped anchor during the early hours, probably due to not enough chain out in a questionable sloping bottom in the difficult conditions. Wind very gusty going from 5 knots to 30knots all night meaning we have had a very blowy night doing laps back and forth across the bay behind the anchor. Moved about 25 metres and were getting a bit close to the other anchored boats. The effect of having the anchor loaded and unloaded as the wind wandered back and forth and gusted up and down around the headlands and over the reef made for very difficult anchoring conditions. At times we ended up beam to the wind while at anchor putting more than desired loads on the struggling anchor. Only the second time Moksha has ever slipped at anchor with its larger non standard Rocna 32 kg anchor and 13mm chain. Planned to try the ridding sail to stop us sailing at anchor but instead chose to leave in search of more protection from the wind.

Catherine not well and Jay Jay tired after not sleeping much. Apparently she decided to do some work in the middle of the night for 2 or 3 hours instead of not sleeping. Richard, Gavin, Lu and I set sail for Port Sandwich in search of less expose and more ambience. Wind still up - 25 knots nice sail with just a 2nd reefed main sail. Anchored in shallow water mud bottom in the very protected bay. Had to check the keel was not sitting on the mud as the boat felt so solid and unmoving. Looking forward to a very quiet bliss night sleep.

More water problems!!!! Previously we lacked battery power due to generator fuel pump problems (the watermaker is hungry on amps) but now a cracked water filter housing has put the water maker out of action. Looks like the kayak may have hit it when being stored. Richard ordered a replacement to be brought over in a couple of weeks with and spent the afternoon with Jay Jay epoxying the old one back together. Back to fresh water rations until the water situation has been fixed. Water rations means everything saltwater including toilet flushing, dish washing and swims instead of showers.

Wahoo for lunch. Wahoo for dinner. Yahoo for Wahoo!!

Hopefully some sunshine tomorrow.

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

Sun!!

Yoga and Brazillian butt crunches for us lesser mortals, whilst Lu draps herself out on the foredeck looking oh so effortlessly fabulous with her skinny minny bikini bottom disappearing up her perfect arse. Elise and Gavin brave the murky, shark-infested waters for long enough to get wet, Elise over-doses on papaya seeds, pukes and sleeps for the rest of the day.

Moksha looks like a chinese laundry with bed sheets all over the place. Gavin, Lu and Cath take off in search of local produce and come back loaded with ruby red and white grapefruit (sooooooo much better than aussie grapefruit!), oranges, bacon-flavoured island cabbage. JJ did a canoe sortie and didn't see anything.

Tongoa and Epi

2009-07-22T08:23:00.004+10:00

We left Emae early Wednesday morning with good winds, 15-25knots, and made it to Tongoa by 10am. We motored along the western coast with its steep volcanic mountains and coconut trees clinging to the falling cliffs, looking for somewhere to drop the anchor. We eventually found a small anchorage on a beach, but it wasn't very safe, so within a few hours we were off again, towards Epi Island.

We anchored in a lovely bay called Revolieu, with it's black sand and reef close by. As dusk fell we were all busy in our cabins when Asha shrieked from the saloon! We had been swamped by flying ants! Closing all the fly screens and hatches didn't seem to work very well, there were thousands of them! And with them came bats, thankfully not in the boat, but they flew around the boat all evening.

The next morning, after cleaning up the carpet of dead ants, we got to work on some duties. One of which was maintenance work for Richard and JJ. One thing led to another and before we knew it the generator wouldn't start. Not a good thing, especially with only 55% battery charge.

So we decided to drown our sorrows with a bit of a sail. With winds of 5-9knots we decided to bring out the gennaker. Asha and Sophie got to work setting it up while Byron raised the main. Literally the second we started raising the gennaker the winds hit 18knots! A gust picked up part of the

sail and it filled before we were ready to unfurl! With a little bit of manipulation by skipper Richard we soon had it unfurled and a beautifully filled sail! Actually, maybe too good. The wind was climbing and it didn't seem suitable for the gennaker, so within 10 minutes we furled the sail away

and brought out the head sail. That lasted 1 minute. The shackle at the clew of the sail had come off. As soon as Richard had a new shackle ready we brought out the sail again, dropped the halyard a few feet and got the new one on. We were off again and heading towards our next destination,

Lamen Bay, the home of the Dugongs!

Last night and this morning have been spent discussing power usage. We now have no freezer, no power outlets, no TV or music, no showers and are flushing toilets with sea water. Hopefully with the crew changeover we'll have a new fuel pump for the generator and it will all go back to normal!

Sophie and Richard have both spotted Dugong's but no one has managed to swim with them as of yet! Fingers crossed!

Sophie

PHOTOS (not in order): Tongoa Island, Sailing to Lamen Bay Epi, Asha at the helm, Lamen

Island, Asha buying bananas from local man, children parading environmental

awareness, view of Lamen Bay village from the boat.

Emae Island and Cook Reef

2009-07-14T19:03:00.000+10:00

Havannah Harbour has done Moksha well after around 2 weeks stay all
together. The last three days there were spent relaxing after our intense
week of work in Port Vila. We swam, snorkelled, read books, JJ practised
yoga in between work and preparing yummy salads, Richard slaved away on the
poo tanks (yuck), Byron, Asha and I explored the beach, played with hermit
crabs, and chatted the afternoons away with picnics of red wine and cheese.

So moving on, we had a poor sail from Efate to Emae with winds of 3-8knots.
It was enough to raise the gennaker but not to keep the main sail filled.
When we realised we had only gone 10 nautical miles in 4 hours and had
another 15nm to go we decided it was worthwhile motoring. We eventually
anchored in Sulua bay just Northeast of the 'port' which consists of a small
building on the beach. Shortly after anchoring we were making ourselves
settled when Byron, relaxing in the hammock, noticed some dolphins close by.
They put on a fantastic show for us complete with out of the water twists
and flips! As you can see in the awesome photo Byron managed to capture.

Later that afternoon Byron, Asha and I took the dinghy to shore to have a
look around and organise some more bananas for JJ. Coming in we thought
we'd
be considerate by driving the dinghy up to the side of the passage but came
to a halt when we ran aground, much to the on lookers pleasure! The locals
were cold at first but didn't take long to break in. We met the chief who
gave us permission to stay and told us he could get us some bananas for the
next day and that if we wanted to explore the next town was only 5minutes
away - turned out to be more like 20 minutes! Nevertheless we got there in
the end. Some super friendly kids came running over to us, the eldest
introducing themselves. We small talked with them for a while about their
village, the island, soccer and our relationship status, then when we
realised the sun was setting and we had to get back before dark we headed
back. All in all a lovely village with friendly locals.

Today we went for a quick motor sail over to cook reef where we did some
snorkelling and diving on the lovely reef. We spent a few hours exploring
the underwater world, with its beautiful coral heads of table tops and live
coral, and their many inhabitants including loads of "nemo"! You know that
Richard is serious about snorkelling when he shaves off his moustache to
become the mythical fawn we all know is hiding beneath.

We made our way back to Emae and are now anchored for the night. Richard is
currently playing doctor again this time with Asha, another victim of killer
ear wax! Last week Sal had great results from Dr. Richard's method after a
major blockage, so there's hope for Asha yet! Next on Richard's to do list
is painting JJ's toe nails!

Sophie

*PHOTOS: Byron and Sophie picnic, Lelepa Isl. Beach, Asha canoeing, washing
out to sea, Richard looking out for bombies, dolphin show, Byron loves
chocolate pie, Dr. Richard and Asha, beautician Richard and JJ.* These may
not be in order, sorry!

sailing again

2009-07-11T21:01:00.000+10:00

Blogger Jayatma here.

Recapping the last few days...Asha and Richard/Sadashiva arrived last week
and hung out in Vila chatting with other yachties, drinking and gambling
whilst waiting for the boom and Mario our rigger to arrive. Mario arrived on
Tuesday, shortly followed by me on Wed and the boom later that day. Sal and
Kendall departed for a quick romantic resort night before leaving on
Thursday. The boom work and other rigging progressed quickly and we left
Vila as scheduled on Friday morning just in time to catch the last bit of
tide which was deep enough for us to get out of the harbour.

We had a pretty fun sail then from there to Havana..scarcely an hour out of
Vila we looked down at the gib sheet to find that it was around the wrong
side of one of the blocks and the cover had been shredded! Doesn't take long
for us to break things! A little later we heard a lovely snap noise and
looked up to find that the HF radio wire had snapped...seems the backstay
was tightened a bit too much.

We then sailed head on into a nice rainy squall for a bit, with upto 35
knots and raindrops like razor blades. Once we hit the entrance to the
harbour though things quickly got quiet and we ended up turning on the
engine for the last little bit. Found a nice anchorage and settled down to
yummy papaya & passionfruit for dinner..well actually everyone else had
pesto and sun dried tomato pasta. Once we were all in bed ready for sleep
the wind turned us beam on to the swell and we had a not so lovely
rock'n'roll sleep...

Today has been the poo tank cleaning day, led by SS/Richard and helped along
reluctantly a bit by the rest of us. Lucky there have been some nice
trade-offs, Sophie made a yummy smelling chocolate pie/cake which competed
well with the smell of the poo tank. Also sun has been shining which made a
change from the last few rainy days...and we are off for a swim to the
nearby island.

Relax a little.

2009-07-04T15:41:00.002+10:00

The past days have been missing in the sailing department, due to the
obvious lack of a boom. But to look on it on the bright side, there's
plenty of space for the hammock now!

So our first two nights in Havanna Harbour were spent in Ai Creek, then
Matapu for an extra night and when that didn't please our guests we headed
backwards to Lelepa Island where we found a beautiful beach close to Purumea
Point to anchor at. The first night we spent here was peaceful and lonely
but in the morning we started acquiring neighbours, to our disgust. The
plan was to move Moksha back to Ai Creek to do a crew swap, Luke and Kathryn
get off and Kendall and Sal get on, but we were nervous someone would steal
our ace spot. So Byron motored the 2 nautical miles over and back in the
dinghy. We loved this location so much we spent the next two nights there.
The days were spent snorkelling, diving, swimming and reading, with
afternoon hermit crab races and beers on the beach.

We thought it best to show Kendall and Sal a bit more of Vanuatu so we made
a move to Sunae bay, a beautiful shallow inlet with a mangrove shoreline.
Once again, relaxing days of reading, snorkelling, kayaking, attempted
fishing (with beef, thus no success, not advised) and games of chess, with
evenings of games of Spit It Out and episodes on end of The Office. Today
we decided to make a move to Hat Island, named appropriately because it
looks like a hat from every angle possible! The anchorage was a little
hairy to say the least, with winds from the NE and bombies everywhere we
looked. Moksha wasn't gonna last a second! So we turned around and headed
for Pauls Rock.

Literally moments before we anchored I realised we had finally caught a
fish! I ring Kendall and Sal in to bring in the beast while Byron turned
the boat around because his crew was now preoccupied. After an arm wrestle
with our Skipjack Tuna we managed to bring our prize onto deck. I didn't
waste time. I cut it's head off, started gutting it and cutting it into
fillets before Byron could put me on anchor duty. Cabin fever? I don't
know what you mean. The poor fella didn't have a chance to put up a fight!
By the time Byron set the snubber up I had Sushimi ready for an afternoon
snack! Kendall and Sal are cooking up a storm with the rest of the Tuna
steaks! Yum! The best meal yet.

What can I say? This place is boring. Where's the tropical paradise?
Let's go somewhere else.

Sophie

Havannah Harbour

2009-06-27T11:38:00.000+10:00

Dear Moksha Blog Fans,

On Friday at midday Gavin, Nathan, Veda, Peter and Richard said their
farewells to Moksha. Luke and Kathryn came on board to join me and Sophie
for the next 5 days.

We departed Port Villa in just enough time and only just managed to make it
over the 2 sand bars in a falling tide. The depth read 0.00m. With a nice
15 - 20 knot wind we sailed under headsail for about 3 hours to Ai Creek in
Havannah Harbour. Anchoring was tricky as the depth rises very quickly and
it's hard to find somewhere sallow enough without crashing into coral heads.
We spent 2 nights in Ai Creek and passed our time by snorkelling, kayaking
and setting up the best possible position for the hammock.

Sophie and Kathryn decided to secretly buy some Momo's for themselves
(island dresses) and Hawaiian shirts for me and Luke. After they dressed up
they felt like both going for a paddle in the 1 person kayak and of course
managed to fall in straight away.

Last night the wind swung around to NE and it wasn't very protected in Ai
Creek so this morning we motored up to Matapu which is where we are now.
Sophie is debating if she should cook coconut rice or sticky date pudding.

Byron

from really good to "could be better"...

2009-06-24T19:34:00.001+10:00

As you all already know we lost our steering a couple of days ago... having
limped into Dillon's bay, the day was spent by all trying to fix whatever
problems reared their ugly heads as well as doing a bunch of preventative
maintenance to stop any potential issues.

The steering was a particularly complicated issue and it took us the better
part of the day to get it sorted... which we did by removing the broken 3 or
4 inches of the steering chain and loosening the cable so it was long
enough. We have ordered a spare steering cable just in case of future
problems.

With all the hard work behind us we took up the invitation from David, the
local Village spokesman, to attend a Melanesian feast. (tarro, maniok,
chicken broth, rice as well as coconut and paw paw for dessert).

Shortly after dinner, with Moksha in ship shape, we decided it was time to
head for port Villa. David the local tribesman needed a ride and asked if he
could come with us on the 80 nautical mile passage to Port Villa. All was
looking good as we sailed off into the night by 8:00pm including our new
crew member... conditions were fairly benign right through till about 12:30
am. Gavin and Peter were on watch and hating the light winds fluctuating
between 5 and 15 knots even though we had a forecast for 20 to 25knotts.
With Richards's assistance we shock out the 2nd reef.

At around 12:30 the wind starting building fast 12, 16, 18, 22, to a steady
25 knots gusting to 28 and eventually just over 30 knots... it was easy
sailing , deep downwind with full main & no headsail and making 6-7 knots of
boat speed... all was going well. Veda and Byron were coming on watch and
conditions were deteriorating fast with a squall approaching. It was time
to reef but time was against us.

It all happened faster than you can imagine - Gavin handed over the wheel to
Veda and before he could get into the relative safety of the cabin, there
was a loud crash and the boom broke. The main back winded as a result of a
change in wind direction brought on by the squall combined with a gust of 35
knots. The boom brake held the boom in place on the port side (we had been
on a starboard tack) ....the boom broke where the main sheet joins the boom.

We were all suddenly thrown into emergency mode!!!

Richard lead the charge with a cool head as always as we set about trying to
control a thrashing 3 metre long piece of boom that was still attached to
the sail and threatening to break off the other part of the boom and
potentially damage the boat or worse - hurt one of the crew. So safety was
our first priority. We stayed out of the cockpit as much as was possible as
well as very carefully going forward to work.

We weighed up a number of options and in the end it took us 2 hours to
secure the broken end of the boom and drop the sail - the ocean decided it
wasn't in the mood to co-operate throwing all sorts of thing at us from
rough seas though too big and unpredictable gusts and rain squalls in the
middle of the night. Veda was a particular standout, steering for 2 long
hours and trying to control the boat whilst the rest of us worked on
securing the boom. Even with the main depowered as we could (by easing the
main sheet and changing our sailing direction) we were sailing at over 5.5
knots in mostly 20 to 25 knots of wind with some wild gusts to 35 knots,
rain squalls and rough seas. Through careful planning and care we were not
in any serious problems as we had a number of headsails and a trisail we
could have used a working engine and everyone was well.

By the time dawn had broken, we motored into the safe haven of Port Villa
harbour. We were all very tired but everyone was Ok. We cleaned up the boat
and all sat down at a waterfront bar and ate and drank, happy to be back on
Terra Firma!

All of the crew fly home over the next few days except Byron and Sophie.
Byron and his mates have changed their sailing plans as we have no mainsail
and will be confining themselves to places close to Port Vila.

It appears we will have a new boom within a couple of weeks back on the boat
ready to continue our sailing adventures.

At anchor once again...just!

2009-06-22T11:07:00.001+10:00

Exciting is the understatement of yesterday if we were to summarise the past
24 hours. In fact to be fair we should go back 2-3 days and fill you in on
what's been going on... and leave the best (and worst) till last.

After our exciting adventure across Tana Island in order to go through
Customs, we followed up with a day of working on the boat, fixing a few bits
and pieces and relaxing. In the afternoon "The Volcano 5" (Richard, Byron,
Sophie, Veda & Peter) took off to go and see the Volcano whilst Gavin and
Nathan explored the local hot springs, and hiked up to the top of the
lookout. We rendez vous'd well after dark for a crew dinner and another
Moksha cook book specialty - Cous cous and tofu chocolate cake! A great way
to end another great day.

We woke the next day to some fairly grim weather, but decided the time had
come to move on, so we weighed anchor and headed for the small island known
as Aniwa - we had fairly strong winds on the way over and weren't even sure
if we would be able to anchor once we got there. To make things more
interesting and "Fun" as Richard calls it, our charts (paper and electronic)
were totally useless to a point where our chart plotter was showing us as
being on land when we were sailing and surveying the area for a decent
anchorage at least 200M offshore!

Luckily a boatload of local fisherman came past and a simple hello and a
wave was all it took to get some advice as to where to anchor... the
anchorage was deep and required us to let out all of our 70M or so of chain
as well as another 30M of rope - this was all done in time for dinner and we
settled in for a quiet night's sleep. The morning was overcast and weather
reports downloaded via mailasail confirmed that we had a storm headed our
way but it was still some 24 hours off... we put faith in the forecast and
went off snorkelling, fishing and relaxing.

We all skin dived, saw Turtles, white tipped sharks as well as
countless schools of tropical fish and of course loads of coral! Sophie
decided to use the leftover noodles as bait and caught a couple of tropical
fish - more than all the rest of us put together... nice work Soph!

We all went to sleep early, knowing we had to be up at five to get going to
our next destination. The first signs of the forecast not being 100% correct
appeared at around 2:00 am when Moksha started rocking and rolling. A quick
scan of the instruments read that we had 10-15 knots of northerly wind
instead of the predicted Sou-easter. By 6:00 am that had turned to an
onshore westerly - exactly the opposite to the prediction?!!

We got going as soon as we could and within 1 hour we could see some nasty
clouds chasing us... the wind kept on increasing and the barometer continued
falling too fast for comfort. We decided to alter course to a safer
anchorage than the one we were initially heading for... shortly after that
decision we furled half the headsail and put in the second reef in the
main - things were hotting up, swell was up to 3 metres or so and wind was
gusting up to 30 knots... we were in control and sailing well... the wind
and seas continued to build and soon we were seeing constant 35+ knot gusts
that eventually built up to a constant 35 knot wind with constant gusts up
to 45 knots.

We took all of this in our stride and Moksha was handling the conditions
beautifully - the seas continued to build and some of the waves were easily
in the 5-7metre range - biiiig walls of water, luckily not breaking very
often.

Things were going well, we were in control, Byron steered a boat record of
14.06 knots boat speed with 2 knots current added to that making it 16 knots
over the ground! Gavin had been steering earlier and after Byron had enough,
Gavin jumped back on the wheel... but the fun wasn't over yet... soon after
jumping on the wheel, Moksha got rear ended by a fairly chunky wave and
rounded up, as soon as she had been brought under control she seemed to run
away again and this time there was no correcting her - "Our steering is
gone!" was all that Gavin said... As soon as everyone registered what was
going on, we all jumped to our stations, Gavin and Byron furling what was
left of the headsail (we were already sailing with significantly reduced
headsail) and Richard engaging the hydraulic autopilot which bypassed the
steering mechanism and quickly allowed us to regain control of our
direction. The emergency tiller was brought up on deck for good measure, but
wasn't used.

We settled Moksha down and all sat down to contemplate our next move... the
wind was still blowing over 40 knots and the waves continued to build in
ferocity. We decided to go for the safety of the lee shore of Erromango,
which is where we are safely anchored now. We put in a third reef and still
managed to 'limp' towards our destination at over 5 knots, with spray flying
everywhere and the occasional wave giving us a good kicking on the beam!

Everyone was calm, and the preparation that Richard has put into Moksha paid
dividends today. Since anchoring we've had a good look at the problem - a
snapped steering chain link and are confident of being able to repair it
this morning.

And so the adventure continues!

Customs in Tanna Island

2009-06-18T08:15:00.000+10:00

We have been trying to clear customs for the last few days and it almost
seemed impossible. Apparently we need to get a truck to take us to the
other side of the island; after walking for 45 mins to find the chief of the
village, he just says "no truck today, maybe tomorrow" and so we walk back
and wait till tomorrow. The next day we all get in the back of a ute and
drive 2 hours to the other side of the island. We reached the customs
office, paid some fees and filled out some forms. Then drove another 10
minutes to the immigration office, filled out some forms and paid some more
fees. And finally another 5 minutes down the road we went to the quarantine
office and paid more fees! So we finally enter Vanuatu and are no longer
illegal immigrants. After the 2 hour return journey all our bones and bums
are sore!

Byron

5:00 pm 14 June - Dropped Anchor at Black Sand Beach, Anatom Island, Vanuatu.

2009-06-14T17:25:00.000+10:00

All crew are well, and excited to be here and still smiling after our yellow fin tuna Sashimi lunch!

More tomorrow, we're off to celebrate our arrival.

:-)

...Land!...

2009-06-14T13:21:00.000+10:00

We are in the final few hours of our sailing adventure accorss the ocean. The island of Anatom is slowly getting bigger on the horizon with only 26.9nm to go. We should be arriving at just before it gets dark.

Just just caught a Yellow Fin Tuna which is being prepped for sashimi for lunch. Yumm...

This morning we discovered the pin holding the boom to the mast was about to fall out. Lucky we found it just in time!

Photos are of a sunrise right near New Caledonia yesterday morning. Also, a Dolphin Fish which we caught yesterday.

Byron

waiting for the sou-easterly trade winds.

2009-06-11T18:15:00.000+10:00

Another fun day on SV Moksha! A calm day with, very quiet seas and the wind steady at 8-12 knots from the WSW.

We passed the time watching a DVD on storm tactics, playing guitar, cooking, eating and relaxing. The fish are hiding from us and despite best efforts we didn't get so much as a bite all day.

The new gennaker got a good workout and is continuing to drive us north at a respectable if not a little slow 6knots with only 7-8 knots of breeze behind us. We've been working hard at getting our weather routing software working and with some help form Roger Badham, so far, things have been working pretty well. So fingers crossed that we will get the predicted wind shift that will allow us to gybe and head east again.

Veida is continuing his culinary exploits, with a choclate cake currently in the oven, Fritata yesterday as well as delivering or helping deliver such delights as Laksa, Roman Chicken, Fish curry & cous cous scrambled eggs over the past 3 days.

Nathan has become our resident baker with another fresh loaf of bread this morning, meanwhile the yogurt maker is also a winner giving us freshly made yogurt for breakfast every day.

The weather is warming up, and we're all excited about spotting land, hopefully within 2 days or so. For our latest position check out http://blog.mailasail.com/moksha

over and out

Gavin

Where's the land gone?

2009-06-10T15:06:00.001+10:00

Dear Moksha Blog Fans,

We're finally settling into the trip and things are feeling a little more normal and relaxed. At present Soph is doing her Chinese Medecine assignment in her Cabin, Nathan is dilligently cleaning the kitchen, Peter is working with the paper charts, Veda is steering, Gaving is sleeping up on deck and Dad is on his computer researching boats. I am meant to be on watch but I managed to escape to write this blog post. Billy Jean by Michael J. just came on over the speakers and manages to drown out the sound of the generator a little.

The wind is blowing a steady 15-20 knots and we've been sailing on a pretty comfortable broardreach for at least a day. The seas have been up and down, pretty rocky at times but are settling down now. Over the last 24 hours we have done 190nm which puts us at an average of 7.9kn. Generally we've had great weather will almost no rain and its starting to get warmer now. Looks like we'll arrive in Vanuatu in 3-4 days time.

As you have probably heard we're eating pretty well. Its nice having a breadmaker, yoghurt maker, Veda and of course our new non stick scanpan fying pan. Maybe we're eating a little too well with all of the snacks disappearing pretty quickly. Sorry to anyone who is doing the leg on the way home =).

The attached photo is a sunrise from about 2 days ago. It was amazing as the full moon was setting at the same time as the sun was rising. Photos can't capture that!

Hello from us all to anyone reading. If your a true moksha blog fan please post a comment on our blog. We'd love to hear what you have to say.

Byron

The First Day At Sea

2009-06-09T09:24:00.000+10:00

After leaving Coffs, we spent our first day at sea dealing with an awkward short swell off our aft quarter which made sailing and sleeping uncomfortable. A whale and an albertross were spotted, which we'll take as a good sign.

Meanwhile, after trying a few different lure combinations, Veda caught the first fish of the trip. A small tuna, which made a great contribution to our evening meal.

You can track Moksha's latest position at: http://blog.mailasail.com/moksha

Coffs Harbour

2009-06-09T09:21:00.000+10:00

We made reasonably good time to Coffs, arriving midday Saturday only to have to wait for the high tide to get Moksha through the silted-up marina entrance. After a great trip up, we bid farewell to Craig, Dharmadev and Elvire, who were only doing the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour hop.

A little over 24 hours were spent making final preparations and we left Coffs on the Sunday evening tide to a full moon rising over Mutton Bird Island.

You can track Moksha's latest position at: http://blog.mailasail.com/moksha

The Trip: Pittwater to Vanuatu via Coffs Harbour

2009-06-05T12:26:00.005+10:00

Dear Moksha Blog Fans,

We are on our way to Coffs Harbour where we will stop and wait for the right weather to sail to Vanuatu. We have spent heaps of time preparing for this trip and would like to thank everyone who was involved.

Let me introduce you to the crew. From left to right: Veda, Elvire, Sophie, Byron, Richard, Gavin, Dharmadev, Nathan, Chris and Craig.

This photo was taken at 11pm just before we left.

Photographer: Asha

Elvire, Craig and Dharmadev will leave us in Coffs Harbour and the rest of us will sail on to Vantuatu.

Stay tuned for more of Mokshas Messages adventures.

Byron

Crocodile Smiles, Whales and Sailing!

2009-06-05T10:32:00.000+10:00

It was touch and go for a while there, with the wind not co-operating... we decided to wonder down to Crocodile Smile, the local Thai restaurant in Newport for a final crew dinner on land. Craig is still reminiscing about the Massaman Beef.

We set off from RPAYC at 11:10pm and motored for the first couple of hours. Gavin and Nathan were on the night watch 1:00am - 4:00 am and were awoken by the sweet sound of the main going up at 12:50a - we were finally sailing!

It started slow but built through the night and early morning. Elvire loved the sunrise, Veida's eating well and smiling and Sophie loving the port cabin (sleeping well!) - Peter, Dharma and Craig took over at 7:00am and saw the first Whale of our trip - apparently he was uncooperative according to Peter!

Richard and Byron are doing a great job of skippering!

More soon.

Gavin with contributions from all.

Getting ready for Vanuatu

2009-05-30T19:59:00.007+10:00

The weather window to get up to Coffs Harbour from Sydney is looking good on Thursday night. We had a final crew meeting last night, and all of the preparation and hard work is really starting to show.

The boat is very well prepared, most of the dry food has been stored, safety gear, first aid kits, fishing gear and many a toy are getting double checked and going onboard over the next 3 days.

Vanuatu here we come!

Pittwater to Coffs Race

2009-01-04T08:34:00.000+11:00

Hi all.

On the 2nd of Jan 2009 at 12 noon Moksha went over the line for the 2009 Pittwater to Coffs race. On board we had Skipper Richard, Second Skipper Byron, Sophie, Veda, Amy, Burke and Charlotte.

We had a great run up the coast with the wind mostly on the beam or just behind with winds mostly between 15 and 25 knots, perfect conditions for Moksha. Our average speed was 10 knots, sometimes dropping to 8 and at one point we surfed a wave that pushed us to 13.5knots boat speed! We have taken a wider course than most boats in accordance with the expert weather routing advice we got. And it paid off! We came in at 1 day 4 hours 38 minutes and 56 seconds. Although we weren't first over the line, more like 7th in our division and 20th overall, after our handicap corrected time we were awarded first place for our division!

If you would like full results and other info see http://www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=66

So I suppose you're wondering what really went on?! Well, where do I start? The Skipper got the most sleep out of everyone, even when he was on watch. We had conflict within the crew when a few members, namely Veda and Amy, wanted to veer away from the course that Byron had plotted because "everyone else is hugging the coast". Byron had to either sit by the downstairs plotter screen or go up on deck every 15 minutes to check on them. Hence, he got the least sleep.

Everyone was very well fed with the beautiful food that Mukta prepared for us. However, I don't think Veda planned on having second hand food in his midnight coffee when Charlotte did'nt realise that the cups needed to be cleaned especially well after Burke was a little bit sea sick in the sink a few hours before. The unidentifiable 'chunk' found in his coffee has made all of our stomachs churn, as Im sure it has for anyone reading this.

All in all we had a great race with everything going according to plan and Moksha sailed very well. Today is a rest day so we're planning on visiting the Big Banana and maybe Bellingen, my childhood home. Tomorrow there is a small casual race to Solitary Islands and then presentation night in the evening.

We are home

2008-08-28T08:28:00.000+10:00

We waited in Southport for a favourable weather window to get back to Sydney for 4 days. An early morning start (5am) on Wednesday 20th August saw us leaving Southport before sunrise. As the winds were not predicted to swing to the north until later in the day we motored for the first 4 hours. We were hoping to make it back to Sydney before the predicted 40 to 50 knot winds from the south west on Saturday morning early off Newcastle.

From then on the winds varied between North East and North West (10 to 35 knots) all the way down the coast until we were off the Central coast just north of Sydney. We held the full main sail and the self tacker for most of the journey giving us a very fast trip down the coast.

If the winds stayed from the north we would have been home in time for breakfast on Friday 22nd. Unfortunately the winds turned to the south west and blew from anywhere from 10 to 35 knots for the last 30 nautical miles giving us a bumpy ride for the last few miles. The bumpy and very short seas made for very slow progress every large chop cutting the boat speed back to less than 4 knots. After persevering with trying to make reasonable progress under sail alone it was decided to turn the engine on and drop the sails for the last part of the journey home.

The only complaint that I heard was the sailing was all too short having only sailed for less than 4 days to return from Boult reef in Queensland (just south of Heron Island).

Next years winter trip is going to have to be a lot longer.

Wow what a trip

We are Sailors!

2008-08-21T13:32:00.000+10:00

O crap...

Wow what a week!!

I don’t even know where to start we’ve done so much!

Our journey began pretty relaxed as we left Gladstone and anchored off a reef just outside. Here we snorkeled amongst some amazing coral and even swam with a lone Manta ray who came up to check us out. Britta actually spotted him from up the mast, and got abandoned there as we all ran to get a better look!

We left there in high spirits but were pretty soon heeling over and being slammed about by rough wind and waves. We had to endure this for days and nights, but finally our efforts paid off and we hobbled into Southport harbor, Surfers Paradise. Here Richard celebrated by polishing off an entire bottle of some exotic wine (so much for a dry boat, he’s got an entire cellar under his bed), and then getting us to pay for his meal and drinks at the yacht club. The nerve…

Anyway we enjoyed our next couple of days ashore, eating junk food and partying, Billy a bit more than most. We did a couple of chores on the boat, including fixing the spinnaker, anchor rollers and a winch, all of which we managed to break during our short trip down. We enjoyed it, but after not too long the throb and blinding lights of the city became too much, and our hearts began to yearn once more for the open sea. We knew wed over stayed when we caught Richard cooking and washing up. I think solid ground has a bad effect on him

We left Southport early yesterday morning, and were having such great sailing we decided to raise the spinnaker. Big mistake: As usual with the spinnaker, nothing went right, and just as we managed to fix its newest problem of not unfurling completely, the entire sail tore off at the top of the mast, and we spent the next half hour winching and pulling the flapping sail into the cockpit, and untangling everything and packing it all away. It was pretty exciting for most of us, but somehow I don’t think Richard was too pleased.

It wasn’t such a bad day though, as we had wonderful 20 – 25 knots of wind blowing us straight down the coast and a current helping us along too. If this carries on the trip’l be over too soon! It’s not too bad though because the weather predictions say we might get some really rough southerly winds later on, so hopefully we'll make it safely to Sydney before then.

Till next time, Cheers

A frisky whale

This old ladys name is Jo

It was hard enough doing this in the harbor never mind in a real storm..

The best looking crew member (if i do say so myself)

Burke and Billy. Theyve been sleeping together since the trip started. They say theyre just friends...

Going out snorkeling

Madness.. She was giggling all the way up here

What a fish!! This was as close as i wanted to go to this monster and all his sucking sharks

Absolutely beautifull

A couple of fish-mammals

Billy loves those field glasses

A friendly sea bird

Dolphins hunting in packs

Entry to Southport

Somethings definitely wrong here...

How you doing Burke?

Click, Snap.

The nightwatchman

My boat, My rules!!

One of our crazy Germans

A little D.I.Y. - Destroy it yourself

Hard scully work for Myra

What goes on when Richards not around

Cute fish-mammals checking us out

Tails from Turtle Town

2008-08-09T19:07:00.001+10:00

A few more pics from today's snorkel experience and post snorkel celebratory dance from Gyan...

2008-08-09T18:20:00.001+10:00

Katie: Yesterday we arrived at 'North Reef' with spinnaker flying and not one upset tummy. A picture perfect island with a quaint red tipped light house in the center. We were both surprised and concerned about triangle shapes swimming in small groups surrounding Moksha. Some more concerned than others apparently.... Jayatma, Sadashiva and Gyan donned their snorkeling gear for a closer look. Meanwhile those of us not so brave watched anxiously from the safety of our "home" while the fearless met our new neighbours- the giant manta rays. An evening online information search was reassuring- manta rays, fascinating and -totally harmless. Today the day was spent attending to chores, mastering knots and building anticipation for a memorable manta ray encounter. Unfortunately, the manta rays today had other plans, not one sighting from in or above water. Luckily, Gyan had his dancing shoes on to put the smiles back on our faces.

North West Reef experience

2008-08-07T19:00:00.000+10:00

By new crew member Katie...

We set sail early yesterday from Great Keppel island. "Great sailing" according to our skipper. According to the 3 new crew aboard Moksha- a four hour "bumpy voyage" designed to test our stomachs, Jon's stomach failed :( We arrived at North West Island at around lunch time. After lunch, my 1st snorkling experience in the Barrier reef also my 1st shark encounter- not what I expected. Jon and Matias had caught some perch for dinner, very nice. Desert, thanks to Britta- apple crumble, perfect end to the day :)

This morning, sunrise at sea, then back to bed until a resonable hour. Skipper job allocation, followed by chores. Dinghy trip to the picturesque unspoilt North West island for picnic lunch and swim. 2nd snorkling trip in the North West reef- this time a guided tour by our very old, lovely turtle friend, no shark sighting for me. Absolutely magical sunset. Dinner tonight courtesy of Giarn.

2008-08-06T18:17:00.000+10:00

View Larger Map

change of crew again!

2008-08-06T17:12:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

Moksha has had a change of crew yet again. Still onboard are Richard, Britta and Matthias and back on board is Jayatma, along with new crew members Katie, John and Gyanmurti.

Yesterday we just made the window of opportunity to leave Rosslyn Bay during the last bit of high tide....only a couple of times did the depth sounder say 0.0m under the keel as we were leaving the marina area! We motored over to Great Keppel Island (not much wind) and anchored there for a peaceful night.

Early this morning we left and headed to North West Island, which we reached at about 1:30pm, after near perfect beam reach sailing conditions, in 12 to 18 knots wind. The only sea life we spotted on the way was one dolphin, one flying fish and a sea snake. I was glad to finally see a sea snake.

It is a great anchorange here with a lovely sandy bottom and really clear water. John and Matthias caught 4 fish between them, so it looks like a fish feast for dinner for the non-veg folks. Pretty much everyone has been for a snorkel this afternoon and the most exciting thing we saw was a big shark, just hanging out at the bottom of a hole in the reef. It was very exciting and a little scarey at the same time. We quickly swam away as it was pretty big, close to 2 metres, but then i could not resist going back for a picture, so check him out below. I also saw a really big old turtle, but he was photo-shy disappearing as soon as i got the camera on!

I hope the skipper won't make us leave too early in the morning as the island looks pretty interesting and it would be good to have time to explore. We will have to time it right as the reef is above water at low tide and we are anchored on the outside of it, so to get to the island we have to go over the reef.

the shark

North West Island

More Islands, Italy up on the top and the never ending story of the Spinnaker

2008-08-04T13:57:00.000+10:00

G'day, Grüß Gott, Buongiorno!
Today, Monday August 4, is the last day of our trip on Moksha. That’s sad, but hey look at the photographs. We had lots of fun, fairly good winds, heaps of very good food and we learned a lot. Mostly sailing, but other things as well. Bread making for instance. Every day another member of the crew made a bread. Yummy!
Italy is the current football world champion (in some places strangely known as “soccer”). Our private Italian, Dario, made sure to bring Italy to the top of sailing as well. After looking for loose screws in the mast he refused to come down. The English are more down to earth; see Tom deep down under in the sail locker room.

Of all the Islands we have been to we liked little uninhabited Shield Island the most. So, if anyone is travelling around here don’t go for the most famous ones, go small, go remote.

The last days of our trip:
Friday, August 1, 2008: Shield Island - Port Clinton, 50 NM
Saturday, August 2, 2008: Port Clinton - North Keppel Island, 35 NM
Sunday, August 3, 2008: North Keppel Island - Great Keppel Island, 25 NM
Monday, August 4, 2008: Great Keppel Island - Rosslyn Bay Marina, 10 NM

We say Goodbye and wish the new crew all the best, fair winds and good luck with the outside spinnaker jibe. Richard kept us busy exercising this; so be prepared guys.

Aloha from Moksha

Dario on the top

Tom Down Under

Brave New World

Spinnaker Fun

Serious steering

Farewell

New crew, same fun and the spinnaker

2008-08-01T10:13:00.000+10:00

Yes, the new Moksha crew is continuing this blog and is having a good time on board. Great boat, great skipper, great crew and great weather. Apart from the wind for times we have to admit. But we are not about to complain as we already sailed in 25 knots of winds. Not for very long, but we had serious fun. It was that serious that half the crew went seasick that day.

And here we are. These guys are happy to spend some time on Moksha being Richard’s new crew: Britta from Germany (First and only woman, responsible for Safety and Wellbeing), Robert from South Africa/ now Australia (First Mate), Tom from England/ now Australia (Communication, Plumbing and Diving), Dario from Italy (Generators, Engine, Sports and Speed) and Matthias from Germany (Engine, Blog and Fishing). Our trip is taking us all the way down from Mackay to Yeppoon. And we do make sure not to take the direct way. The islands around here are too beautiful to be missed.

Our trip so far:

Saturday and Sunday, July 26/27, 2008: Mackay Marina
Monday, July 28, 2008: Mackay Marina – Scawfell Island
Distance: 26 Nautical Miles (NM)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008: Scawfell Island – Curlew Island
Distance: 45 NM
Wednesday, July 30, 2008: Curlew Island – Marble Island
Distance: 30 NM
Thursday, July 31, 2008: Marble Island – Shield Island
Distance: 12 NM

As this is about sailing there is a lot (strange) to say about the wind. Today’s story is about the weather/ wind forecast. These days they are always wrong. The wind is always coming from exactly the opposite direction as predicted. And is 10 knots weaker … The same happened yesterday, but that didn’t prevent us from making history: Moksha’s first sailing under a spinnaker. The photos speak for themselves. Good looking sail that. Nicely done. Only the wind let us down. But we still made 4.9 knots boat speed out of 4.2 knots of wind. Not bad for a start.

That’s for today. I have to go to deck. There is a whale right beside the boat.

Aloha from Moksha

Observing

Rocking

Spinnaking

Relaxing

Eating

Farewell Moksha

2008-07-29T21:49:00.000+10:00

Saturday the 26th of July was our last day aboard Moksha. We finally saw sun! As well as breaching whales, dolphins and turtles. The morning was spent sailing from Shaw Island (where we were anchored for two nights) to Scawfell Island. I loved Scawfell, thought it was idyllic and would like to go back some day. I collected some shells from the beach, David went fishing and Dad kayaked. The afternoon was closed with a stunning sunset.
I hope the current Moksha crew continue the blog & are all having fun.

Wind

2008-07-23T19:21:00.000+10:00

Glenys on her way to solid land.

We are anchored North West of Shaw Island. We left Mum back on Brampton Island, where I am most certain she is enjoying the solidarity of land beneath her feet. The headsail was up today, it took about three hours or more for us to travel from Brampton to our point of anchorage, in 25-30 knot wind with 40 knot gusts. Right now we are sitting in 30 knot winds, at least the swell is not as big here! No turtles today, David didn't catch any fish either. If you have just started checking this blog I advise that you scroll down to the beginning of the blog & check out the weather the previous Moksha crew members were privvy to.....
Dad baked bread, he opened the stairs and sat the dough on the hot engine to help the dough rise! Just finished now, tastes pretty good. Might go get some more now. Bye.

Brampton Island & a shark

2008-07-22T23:03:00.000+10:00

Evening. Today we sailed from St Bees Island, to the not so far away Brampton Island, where we are currently anchored for the night. Winds averaged 26 knots on our way across. The highlights of the day would have to have been seeing everyone dressed up in their cool wet weather gear, playing cards and David catching a Black Spot Shark (which he put back in the water not long after it's capture) in the afternoon. I think Mum misses land and has managed to mention several times how much she likes living on land! We have also discovered that it's best if mum doesn't listen to the weather report..... I'm hoping that it clears up soon so we can see more turtles.

All geared up

The Black Spot Shark

Between St Bees & Keswick

2008-07-21T19:29:00.000+10:00

Hi all, it's Celeste here (Celeste Rowe - Richard's niece & Asha's cousin). Stephen (Dad), Glenys (Mum), David (boyfriend), Richard & I flew up to Mackay yesterday. We arrived in the afternoon & did some general housekeeping things. As we had to do the grocery shopping this morning (the shops aren't open on sunday up here) we didn't set out till early afternoon & cruised easily from Mackay Marina to finish up anchored between Keswick Island and St Bees Island.

Everyone spotted turtles. Dad did some kayaking followed by David who fished off the kayak. He caught a Long Finned Rock Cod and a Stripey Sea Perch. The cod was a very pretty darkly spotted fish and the Sea Perch has horizontal orange stripes along it. All the fish were thrown back - we are after something a little bigger for our sushi.

It rained a little earlier in the day and the water was like glass whilst we sailed. It looks like it will be marginally windier tomorrow which is good.
Off to dinner now.
David & I aboard Moksha

Richard & the anchor

Moksha between Keswick Island (left) & St Bees Island (right)

Surprises around every corner

2008-07-13T14:51:00.000+10:00

Byron and Sal

Kendall enjoying the beautiful waters of Blue Pearl

Good bye Richard, Asha and Alicia! Hello Kendall and Sal!

I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t easy for Moksha to say goodbye to her skipper Richard. But so far Byron has been doing a pretty damn good job! For the past few nights we’ve spent our nights in familiar moorings as we were on Hook Island last week. The first night we stayed at Stonehaven looking for some refuge from the howling winds. We got none. Our night was restless and uncomfortable as we sailed our anchor doing 180degree swings. We left early the next morning for Butterfly Bay where we picked up a mooring and stayed put for the rest of the day and night. We attempted to go for a hooker during the day, but after both batteries failed on us we knew something was wrong with it and had to admit defeat (Byron is still trying to work out what’s going on, with the help of Dom the marine electrician). The next morning we headed to an anchorage on Hayman Island called Blue Pearl and on the way we saw a spectacular sight. Is it a rock? The GPS doesn’t locate a rock here. Is it a log? No, it looks smooth. We got the binoculars to have a closer look. NO WAY! To our disbelief what we had been looking at was a WHALE!! But this whale didn’t appear to be behaving normally; instead it was just lying on the surface, not moving. I thought it must be dying. After about 10 minutes or so we noticed something else moving next to the whale and before long it became clear we were looking at a baby whale! We’re not sure, but we think the whale may have been giving birth! Soon after the whales starting moving off, then they would come back again, then swim down and away again! Eventually we thought we’d better leave them alone and we headed on our way. It turned out that it was a good day for wildlife when later we say a huge turtle floating near us with its head up, and then a possum on the beach! We spent the day exploring the area and this morning went for a snorkel in some of the best reef we’ve seen so far – plenty of fish too! We’re now on our way to Luncheon Bay – yep, for lunch!

Just in case you doubt our whale story, I posted a video!

The Long Awaited Moksha Update

2008-07-06T12:31:00.000+10:00

Taken from our anchorage at Boarder Island

Asha and Alicia setting up the hookah

Batfish

More Batfish

The new crew member, Alicia

Dad, now converted to a mythological fawn.
Actually he shaved his moe to get a better seal on his mask for snorkeling

Me and Sophie

Ok Moksha blog fans. I understand there has been a bit of tension regarding our lack of blogging. We haven’t had internet connection for the last few days so let’s just all relax.

The Update:

So we got to Airlie beach. It would have been nice to relax but we all had to run around and try to restock and sort out broken things. Some of our problems were; generator won’t start, water maker not working, tank monitors not working properly (we thought we had water when we had none) etc. We did what we could, picked up Alicia and headed off to Hook Island to use our hookah. We spent the next few nights at Stonehaven Anchorage, Butterfly Bay, Luncheon Bay and last night we went to Border Island and stayed at Cateran Bay. We have also gone to other places for some water fun. They include Langford Island, Pinnacle Bay and Manta Ray Bay.

The second night at Butterfly bay we came in at around 4.30pm to see a 42 foot charter cat almost hit another boat while anchoring. They pulled up their anchor and tried again. While we were scoping a spot for anchoring the yacht that almost got rammed by the cat decided to go nuts at us and tell us to anchor further away. They we’re a bit paranoid so we disregarded their thoughts and anchored next to them. During this time the cat tried to anchor another 3 times and there was also a 40ft sports cruiser that had many failed attempts at anchoring. Both gave up and left the bay. Quite funny we thought.

Anyway, keep tuned in for the more Moksha adventures

Where is Moksha?

2008-07-02T22:19:00.000+10:00

View Larger Map

You can also see this map in Google Maps

And also in Google Earth (if you have Google Earth installed on your computer) by selecting the link on the top right of the Google Maps webpage

Almost There.

2008-06-30T10:52:00.000+10:00

Here are some more photos. The first one is just north of Rosslyn Bay. The second one is right outside Lady Musgrave when we were leaving at 7am. The last one is snorkeling at Lady Musgrave.

Yesterday we dropped JJ and Ivan off, so now its just the four of us. We sailed all yesterday and all last night with one person watches. We continue today and hopefully will pull up somewhere tonight just short of Airlie Beach.

fishy business

2008-06-28T17:32:00.001+10:00

Dad/Ivan catches a fish

Asha paints a fish

A starfish

A sword fish or two

Here are a few more shots from Lady Musgrave Island. We spent the whole day there yesterday snorkelling and exploring the island. Ivan caught a fish and made his special Croatian fish stew for dinner which was enjoyed by all the fish-eating members of the crew. We stayed the night anchored at Lady Musgrave but it was a bit wild and woolley as the winds picked up to 20+knots and we sailed on the anchor for most of the night.....those of us who sleep lightly, well lets say we slept very lightly, listening to all the stange noises of the wind on the boat.....funny how it can be easier to sleep when actually sailing, even if it does feel like being in a washing machine.

We are now on our way to Great Keppel Island, with 20+ knots of wind behind us and the boat speed peaked at 12 knots earlier. We should get there by about 8pm tonight. We will anchor there for the night and then me and Dad/Ivan will somehow work out a way to get to the mainland for our flight back to Sydney.

For the tally.......we have seen 7 lots of whales today, lots of jumpers...and that was just on the 8am to 12 watch!

Fun and games with the hooker

2008-06-27T16:53:00.000+10:00

ASHA WITH A LITTLE TURTLE!

ARE YOU FOR SCUBA?

BYRON DIVES!

Fun and games with the hooker

Yes, that’s right, hooker! Get you’re mind out of the gutter! A hooker is a portable underwater breathing apparatus for diving. We had an awesome time diving Lady Musgrave’s beautiful waters. We saw colourful coral, plenty of fish including wrasses, clown fish (NEMO), angel fish, baby damselfish, stingrays, sea snakes, and even TURTLES!

With all our fun in the water, Asha got inspired to paint a fish! Ivan got inspired to catch some fish! And chances are someone is going to have to get inspired to cook a fish!

Asha and I went for a swim to the Island yesterday. It turned out to be longer than we thought (we we’re exhausted at half way)! All in all it was definitely worth it as the snorkelling around the island is stunning! We also went for a walk in the “forest” when Byron came to save us in the dinghy – we wouldn’t have made it back to the boat otherwise!!!

Lady Musgrave Island

2008-06-26T18:46:00.000+10:00

No Byron go this way!

Here it is for the record...Ivan doing the dishes.

Walking on Lady Musgrave.

Our bright and early start this morning (5am) from Bundaberg put us in good stead to reach Lady Musgrave while the sun was high in the sky. Lady Musgrave Island has reef all around it with just a small entrance into the reef agoon surrounding the island so the sun above helps to see into the water ahead to avoid coral bombies. We had a good trip over but the wind was exactly behind us all the way so we decided to motor rather than putting the sails up. Just for those who are counting (me!) we saw 4 dolphins between us and a big whale.

Byron's Brilliant Boating Blog

2008-06-25T19:13:00.001+10:00

Thought it was time I posted something. Here is a photo of a whale stalking us.

catch up blogging

2008-06-25T18:33:00.001+10:00

We have had a few blog free days....so now attempting some catch up. After leaving Noosa on Sunday afternoon we had some rough rocky seas for a few hours before the seas settled and we had lovely sailing through the afternoon and evening. On Monday ....well i can't really remembers Monday....I guess we had more sailing....and i think that was when we saw the whales....lots of whales, including some up close.....stay posted for the whale posting, including photos!

On Monday night Asha was being very diligent doing her end of watch checks and she discovered that there was some weird thing going on with the engine......something to do with nuts and couplings on the drive shaft. So the boys checked it out and decided we needed to have someone check the engine properly so we would head into Bundaberg or Gladstone and we shouldn't turn the engine on until then. So Byron and I were on watch at 7pm and we decided it was looking like a nice cruisy watch so Byron would stay down and watch a movie for the first half while i was on deck and then we would swap and i could go below and catch up on some emails.......good plan! So i went on deck and had a great first hour..... lovely gentle winds, fullish moon, magic carpet swells, good music on my MP3 player and was having a lovely time .....when gradually the wind started doing weird stuff......first coming from one direction and then the next and before i knew it the wind was doing the full 360 degrees around the wind gauge and it became impossible to hold any course, either with the auto pilot or with me steering.

Sadashiva/richard came to have a look and he couldn't get it to hold course either (yeah so it wasn't just me!), then the wind started to drop and we were just going round in weird circles, bobbing back and forward on the swell and the sails starting flogging back and forth......like some kind of weird bermuda triangle. So there was nothing to do but turn the engine on....trouble was the engine was broke. So the boys went down and did some kind of blokey stuff with the engine which involved grinding and lots of noise and away we went. Luckily the wind picked up about 3am and we could turn the engine off. We headed across Hervey Bay (famous for whales but didn't spot a single one) and we have been in Bundaberg since last night. We got the engine fixed, stocked up on groceries and had a great sleep and long hot showers....feeling human again! I even managed to do some class planning which was handy as i have lectures and classes to teach on my first day back at Mangrove. We head out of here at 5am in the morning and onto Lady Elliot or Lady Musgrave Island and hopefully some more whales.

P.S Mum, Dad told me not to let you know he has been doing the washing up every day and also tidies up the boat....he even offered to vacuum!

Ahoy Ahoy our first stop

2008-06-23T13:19:00.001+10:00

We stopped at Noosa for the night to let us all have a bit of a rest. In the morning Co- Skipper Byron and Crew Soph and Asha went for our first day trip to Lagoona Beach to get a mega breakfast of eggs benedict and scramble eggs. Our beaching with the dinghy didnt really go to plan but Asha and Soph took one for the team and got a bit wet while Byron convenietely stayed dry.

Back at Moksha the oldies had a swim.
Next destination Lady Musgrave Islands, ETA: Tuesday midday.

Dolphins off Moreton Island

2008-06-23T12:46:00.000+10:00

Team Moksha enjoyed the company of these dolphins for a while just off Moreton Island. They seemed to enojoy themselves as well.

moksha's progress

2008-06-22T10:34:00.000+10:00

Here is a good pic of Asha, she is currently the watch captain......apparently a big boat went past close but she was just making the next round of stitches on her crochet and didn't see it till later! The wind is up and we are hooning along, just past North Stradbroke Island and we should make it to Lady Musgrave Island by tommorrow afternoon. Which is good news for the crew, we have made such good progress that we can stop and relax for a day or maybe even 2!

We had a lovely full moon (winter solstice) moon rise last night around 7. Ivan and Jayatma had the midnight to 5am watch, which was really beautiful. The wind was gentle and the swell was what i call a magic carpet swell, it goes up and down really slowly, with little or no waves and feels just like the ocean is breathing. At one stage we felt this wave come from the port side and before i could think...wow that's weird cos the swell is actually from the south we heard this big whooshing noise...it was a whale.....about 5 m from the side fo the boat!

We handed over to Sophie at 5am and went down to bed. The wind pretty much picked right up from there and being in bed felt like being in a washing machine. At the front of the boat where i was sleeping the boat was slapping down off the waves...it was pretty weird....next i knew i was sleeping! Funny how you get used to stuff......probably will find i can't sleep when the boat stops moving.

Crew are all well and happy, Byron has been playing the guitar, Sophie is reading, Ivan is washing the dishes, Asha is crocheting......I mean on watch and SS is playing with technical stuff and making phone calls and recovering from his little episode of flooding the cabin this morning when he left the hatch open and a wave washed over the bed. Okay better get back to relaxing now, before its time to make lunch.

Whales whale whales

2008-06-21T13:30:00.000+10:00

We have seen lots of whales, too bad they are really hard to photograph

Voyage to the Whitsundays!

2008-06-21T13:10:00.000+10:00

Skipper: Richard

Co – Skipper: Byron

Crew: Sophie, Ivan, JJ and Asha

We left Bayview mariner on Thursday the 19th of June and headed out of Pittwater on our way up north. We had a lovely leaving party waving us off from the wharf! Thanks to Moksha's trusty friends, who made our boat float with excessive accessories!

The first afternoon was pretty dead calm and we motored a fair bit then at about 12am we had a storm with rain and lightening, the wind got up to 28 knots. Had some great sailing since midnight on Thursday with tail winds mostly in the 12 to 25 knot range. We have so far been average 150nm per day using the big head sail the whole time. Last night we put 2 reefs in the main, rigged the storm jib and left it in place furled so if the wind came up unexpectedly we could easily cope with the situation.We have just passed Yamba and are coming up to Evans Head, we have done about 288 NM all up. We will probably get to Lady Musgrave Islands on Monday some time. Skipper dad/richard has been refusing to sleep consistently keeping watch over everyone and checking his beloved boat. Nothing has broken so far.

Today is another day in paradise. Jj and Ivan are currently at the helm singing to Crosby and Nash, while the rest of the crew hide downstairs. Most of us are pretty excited as co skipper Byron is attempting to make pizza! I made bananas smoothies yesterday which was thrilling. As always Soph is on facebook trying to make friends and dad is making an excel spreadsheet of her friends.

Byron Monkeys the mast

2008-06-21T12:28:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Co - Skipper Byron decided he was costa phobic and needed some 'byron space'. Up the mast seemed like the easiest solution.

He actually went up to attach our 3rd reef line.