French Polynesia Is In The Rear View Mirror. It’s Time To Sail To The Island Nation Of Niue.

I must admit that after months of not writing, it feels great to pick up the computer and record our travels. This year I have only made a couple of posts and they have covered a lot of time. But today I am going to slow down and share a bit more detail.

In May, we successfully checked out of French Polynesia with the island nation of Niue listed as our next port. Niue is unique, little known and sounds really interesting. One issue though is that there is only one mooring field and no anchoring allowed. We have reserved a mooring ball, but if the wind turns west, all boats are required to leave immediately. We hope that once we sail to Niue, the weather will cooperate and we can stay for 10 days.

The clearing out process in Tahiti went smoothly but it was bittersweet to leave the beautiful archipelagoes we had called home for two years. As I stated before, we could stay in French Polynesia for more than two years, but we would have to pay import fees. As much as we enjoyed exploring FP, we were ready to sail to a new country and if I am honest, it will be refreshing to be in a country where English is the primary language. Our French has improved, but it is not excellent!

Technically once a sailboat checks out of most countries, it must depart the waters within 24 hours. Fortunately, this rule is sometimes loosely followed and officials usually understand that plans might be altered due to weather considerations.

We know many sailors who really stretch this rule and stay in a country for weeks or months after officially checking out. We don’t feel comfortable or respectful blatantly flaunting the laws, so Frank and I took only a few extra days in French Polynesia after we checked out. We used those days to prepare meals for the sail, relax and have some quiet, restful days while waiting for a good weather window to passage to Niue.

We left Tahiti immediately after checking out, but moved only a few miles to the island of Moorea to enjoy one last bit of time in Ha’apiti. We loved anchoring there and relished the quiet waters juxtaposed against the island’s rugged features.

Although the forecast was not favorable to sail to Niue, there was a good window to travel to Huahine, which although still in French Polynesia, would get us about 80 nm closer to Niue. We took the opportunity to sail to Huahine and spent two nights there until a reasonable weather window developed.

Stopping in Ha’apiti and Huahine provided us with the opportunity to have a final visit to two of our favorite places in the Society Islands. We enjoyed reminiscing about who was with us in those places and the adventures we had there. Stopping in out of the way places, which we tend to prefer, was a good idea since we were officially checked out of the country.

When Frank and I make a passage, we keep a log of our trip on the computer so we have a record of our latitude & longitude, wind speeds, sea state, sail plan, boat speeds, power and water levels as well as general conditions and thoughts. The intention is to record the log every two hours, but some passages we are more diligent than others.  

This passage I made plenty of notes and it was interesting to look back and read the progression of the passage. The mind is an amazing organ that quickly allows one to forget things that are less than pleasant, so the notes were helpful.

I’ve decided to take you on the passage with us from Polynesia to Niue by sharing some of the notes I made in the log.

May 11, 2024:

07:00 We upped anchor for our passage a little late today because it was overcast and drizzling. Forecast shows we will motor for the first several hours. The passage is predicted to be windy from wind angles of 130+ most of the way. About 1160 nm to Niue.

14:32 We have been motoring for 52nm so far. The skies have cleared but we are too downwind to sail in 9 knots of breeze.

18:00 Just about sunset, wind upped to a bit over 10k so we are sailing wing on wing. Slow but not motoring. Beautiful sunset with a green flash.

20:30 Wind has touched 13k but that’s the highest so far. Beautiful, beautiful night! Lots of stars and a sliver of the moon. A little noisy when the boom “bams” from lack of wind pressure. Still sailing wing on wing – no complaints. 

22:51 Wind lightened up and came more to the SE. Rolled up the genoa and now motor sailing again.

23:59 Tried to put the genoa back out, but no luck. Motor sailing again. Mr. Moon set about 2 hours ago but the stars are shining beautifully. Total miles today only 122.

May 12, 2024

03:14 Wind speed not consistent enough to keep the genoa out. Wind direction is more N of E than forecast. Turned N of rhumb line to get a better wind angle and set up for a forecasted southerly wind direction change sometime in the morning. Clear skies.

07:24 Clear skies, pretty day. Wind has not materialized. Still working N of rhumb line in anticipation of TWD change and TWS increase. Waves have not increased yet, currently about 4 feet.  I’m fine if those bigger waves don’t ever materialize. Though a little more wind for a dead downwind sail would be good.

11:03 Finally have a bit of wind and now we are under sail. Helps increase boat speed. Seas are beginning to build. It’s a really pretty day outside.

17:10 Well, now we are making better time. Good wind angle and a steady breeze between 14-17 knots right now. We are hoping to keep the speeds up so we arrive at a reasonable time on the 16th. This has been a truly pretty day. Waves are getting bigger but they are coming from the rear, so all is well.

23:48 Wind has definitely picked up. Furled the drifter and put out genoa at 10 pm. It is quite sporty tonight with cloud cover; very little light outside which makes it less fun for my watch. We have covered 197 nm today and may break 200 by midnight.

May 13, 2024

07:23 Wind lessened a bit just before Frank came on watch. He flew main and genoa until sunrise and now we have main and drifter. Anticipate wind building later today, so guessing we will need to R2 around sunset.

11:26 Frank is napping. Wind is pretty consistently between 16-20. Boat speed average for today is 9 knots thought it feels like we are doing better than that average. Waves are definitely a factor in SOG. We get sucked in and slowed down but then we surf down a wave and go fast. Still pretty and a nice temperature.

22:30 Once again the wind picked up for my night watch. The wind also went more south which was not expected. Furled the Drifter and deployed the genoa. Wind is averaging 20.2 now and the waves are slapping against the boat sometimes. Our speed has picked up significantly. We are averaging 9.5 knots for the day now.  Nice sky tonight. To me it feels like the temperature is not as hot as in FP. That may be because we are further south of the equator.

May 14, 2024

04:22 Wind speed, boat speed and TWA are good. Hoping for a Thursday, May 16th arrival which will require about 9.6 knots average boat speed. Nice clear skies. Having no luck getting StarLink to comunicate with my devices. StarLink is online and sees the devices but not downloading. Puzzling.

09:53 Wind and direction have allowed us to have good boat speed. So far for today we are averaging 9.9 which will definitely help us reach Niue at a reasonable hour. Seas are building and TTR gets swished around, but Jude (autopilot) is doing an amazing job!

18:45 We are making good time today: average boat speed is 10.1 and 190 nm so far. I saw a ship today and AIS said it would pass 9 feet from us! I hailed the container ship captain on VHF and they kindly turned to pass behind us. Jude is surfing waves again which hopefully means the waves are becoming more to our stern.

May 15, 2024

07:03 Well, the wind definitely bumped up last night on my watch. Sadly I awakened Frank and asked him to sleep upstairs to keep me company. Instead he took the watch around 11pm. Lots of wind and waves, plus the fridge door kept opening and closing. But then the bottom drawer flew out of the space completely. Yep! It is bumpy. I slept upstairs while Frank helmed. About 4 am I took the helm back and Frank is sleeping upstairs. The big waves I was hoping to avoid have arrived, so it’s been a challenging night. Glad to see daylight even if it is overcast. I’m glad I have such a capable captain who spells me at the helm!

10:10 Wind has chilled a little but the forecasted wind is 20-30 until we get to Niue. Waves are pretty big. Waves this big from the sides make smacking sounds against TTR. The gas cans “jumped” to a new spot. The fridge door flew open again and we had to put things in the outdoor fridge to lighten the drawer so it will stay closed. SO thankful TTR is such a sturdy and fast sailboat!

18:42 Well, it has been a good mileage day, but also one that we mostly sit due to big seas. We have covered 186nm today so far with an average speed of 9.9 and a max speed of 21.5. Nice enough day with some clouds but no rain. Forecast shows chance of rain from here to Niue. Hoping we can get in and settled without seeing much rain. Of course, once moored, we would love to have a free boat rinse (from rain). EVERYTHING is salty and damp feeling. I would bet the seas are 12 feet now. We will both be glad to get to Niue and settle for a couple of days. I hope the weather there cooperates.

May 16, 2024

02:10 This has turned into a trying trip; big seas, wind shifts, departure from predicted forecast, rain, some very dark nights, etc. But only the last 24 hours has become difficult. After adjusting sails and course and messing with a variety of possible sail plan solutions, we have just decided to drop the main and use one engine plus the genoa and straight line into Niue. TWD is playing havoc right now. In 20 minutes it has moved from 75 to 104 degrees. Rain has been coming in from the rear, so everything is wet.  To cap it off, we wrapped a line in the starboard prop. The long line of the tweaker we use on the Drifter jostled loose, fell in the water and got caught in the prop.  Not our best passage but hopefully we can still be in port by sundown tomorrow.

04:53 We are both feeling tired. I hope we can get in by dark. Lots of rain tonight.

15:00 Waves are still big, but this section is easier if a bit slower. Waves are behind us and we are rhumb lining to the mooring field by using only the genoa and one engine. Still raining, which we expected. Today is Thursday and happily the forecast for Niue looks favorable beginning Saturday. Friday we can clean the boat and check in after a good night of sleep.

Arrival in Niue was a bit of a relief. The passage was only 5 days, but the seas were very sloppy and the forecast was not accurate. I think the last time I asked Frank to sleep upstairs was 5 years ago, so clearly the waves and shifting wind were enough to have me on edge.

Niue is an open roadstead mooring field with plenty of room between boats. We easily caught the mooring ball using only one engine. Frank jumped in the water to check the line around the prop and thankfully it was barely wrapped and easy to clear. No damage!

Now that we know all is well, we can clean up a bit, have a relaxed dinner and a good night of sleep.

So, after leaving the waters of French Polynesia that we loved so much, was Niue a good passage destination? Absolutely! I’ll tell you all about it in the next post.

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