You may remember the remarkable 70 double canoe ‘Ontong Java’ built by Hans Klaar just over 2 years ago in West Africa. In our last report in 2007 he had sailed her across the Atlantic to Brazil http://wharram.eu//live//article.php?story=20071003181619589. Since then he has taken her through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific. In July he reported form Tahiti and in September he had sailed as far as Fiji. Soon he will be in New Zealand.
Email news received on 27th July:
We are in Tahiti once again, had a good sail up the Tuamotus, did 15 plus atolls. Did a lot of beach combing, made some good finds, 17 glass bouys, a whale skull with a rat hidden away on the inside, took me a week to flatten (?) it. Traded for a bucket of pearls and I am now sporting a pearl necklace, with pearls the size of sparrow eggs, even the Tahitians are ogling them. Did loads of bird watching, my rarest find was a pair of Polynesian ground doves, very rare now, due to rats. All in all are living like kings.
Boat is well as usual, did some good runs, sun-set to sun-rise 125 miles (approx. 10 knots average over 12 hours), all no steering thanks to bungee and string to jib (fly by wire), fastest speed/surge on record was 26 knots. Average miles every 24 hours is up to now 144miles, 25 miles better than last time I came trough here.
(Spirit of Gaia also averaged 140Nm per 24 hours across the Eastern Pacific in 1995)
We are getting some interest from the local Polynesians, by and large to be measured by the amount of fruit that is waiting for us in the dingy and the heap of necklaces hanging on the hook in the kitchen. I have one gentleman, a Polynesian from Moorea, coming past every other day, keen as beans. He tells me that this is the best sailing canoe he has ever seen. He was following me for an hour while we zoomed out of the pass at Fa’aa watching us hoik up the sail and spilling the drifter for a quick weekend in Moorea.
He is in the know, as he is the star navigator designate hereabouts and has some hairy trips under his belt, like an 84 day voyage on an Inca reed raft - Peru to Rangiroa Atoll. 20 days Easter Island reed barge to the Gambiers with a Mayday thrown in for good measure. And an on the spur of the moment trip to the Canoe Gathering at Ngatia harbour in Raratonga, in a decked in Va'a Tele the local racing paddle canoe, 600 odd miles in 5 days. He wants to come with a boat load of people this weekend, so maybe I’ll be out of a ship faster than I know.
You guys must have been exhausted after your Lapita trip, I am getting to hear bits and pieces through the grape vine, will come and visit you once I am back in Euroland and you will have to tell me about it.
Other wise my girlfriend went home for the annual. I am still alive and kicking a bit so I will carry on on my own to Fiji, easy enough with this boat of mine via Samoa Pango Pango. I hear they are closing all the canneries there, see if I can pick up antifouling and other industrial jetsam and flotsam and then head out for New Zealand.
Next email received on 27th September:
Just got into Fiji, was a hard sail downwind from Bora Bora via some empty islands, single-handed too, 14 days. But all is well, need a paintjob as I blasted great swaths of it off, surfing. What did I expect? Third-world paint and primer.
Meeting up with some friends from New Zealand, they want to build something like I have in one of the outer islands, an Eco project where even the supply boat should be sailing backwards and forwards. We’ll see, I have some time to play.
Thanks for that pass on, will see what they want with their Tuamotu documentary [NZ documentary on Atoll Dwellers contacted JWD looking for Wharram catamarans to take part]. I am just getting a bit cynical with all these project ideas, I have seen quite a few of them lately, seems they are all waiting in the wings for some idiot to put his/hers head on the block.
Met up with old Tilman in Moorea, was fun to see him in action, liked his boat more so that one hardly sees him on deck and always pops out of one of his hatches like the proverbial ‘jack in the box’, “man goes into a hole, man comes out of a hole, is man a crab?" Had some laughs, gave him my computer and time so he could get connected.
Will hang out here 2 months, then carry on to New Zealand, maybe tie the boat up and fly to Switserland, it’s time to go home I feel, if only to get sick of the place again.
By the way. Hans would be happy to sell Ontong Java and is willing to consider any offers. He will then probably go and build another one! Contact him on wgowest@yahoo.com
