On anchor in Ahi Lagoon, Tuamotus Archipelago

We have gotten some news of the attacks on the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon. We are greatly saddened by the deaths and destruction caused by misguided and misled hatred. Our deepest sympathy goes to all those directly affected by these senseless acts of aggression.

What we are doing is of insignificant consequence in the broad view and so we will continue. I believe that the more we reduce our lives as a result of the actions of hatred, the more successful and joyous the perpetrators will consider themselves.

I will continue by telling how we get such news, and (in my experience and concerns only) what it is like to be so remote when such an event occurs. First of all we have gotten no news since we left Florida, until we got the news of these attacks.

We were on anchor in Manihi, in the Tuamoutu Archepelago when the attacks occurred. That is about 500 miles northeast of Tahiti. Our hour is six later than the East Coast of the US. On the same day of the attacks, we went ashore for lunch, and by strong coincidence, an English speaking local was at the only other occupied table. He asked if we had heard, and gave us a synopsis of the results of the four plane crashes. Later, we went to a resort where English speakers are plentiful and got only slightly more news and opinions. Where we have been, all broadcast news is in French and we have seen no newspapers and no television.

Since the first report that we received, I have tried to get news on the Single Side Band radio, but reception has been poor and we do not know the best broadcast frequencies or schedules. Single Side Band is a form of short wave radio and therefore the signal travels great distances but reception clarity depends on a combination of broadcast power, frequency, distance between broadcaster and receiver, time of day or night, time of year, global current weather, and solar interference.

We have onboard a list of a dozen short wave frequencies that the BBC targets at North America. These are the frequencies that have worked two times, but reception was not clear. It would be helpful if you could find on the web, frequencies and schedules of short wave radio broadcasts from locations in the Pacific that are in English and send those to us.

The most complete news that we have gotten has been thanks to emails from Elke. She is writing excellent reports and interpretations of the events back home and the entire crew thanks her for that.

My daily life has not been as affected as it would be if I were back home. We have no means to view the crashes and destruction on television or even to see a still picture, and we have no way to spend time viewing, listening to, or reading news updates. Based on the little that I know, I have three thoughts to mention in response to the news. One is concern for my loved ones that might be feeling additional stress because of these events. Two is great sympathy for those directly affected. Three is trust that our government will take appropriate actions to reduce the possibilities that such events can recur which should include elimination of the motivation and means to repeat such destruction.

Now I will give an update of our travel and activities. We left Nuku Hiva on 6 September at 1440 local time (0910 ECT, and 0310 UTC) and headed southeast to Manihi in the Tuamotu Archepelago. We arrived on 9 September at 1216 local time. The wind was more on our beam than we had hoped. We sailed with 15-knot winds from the east most of the time. On the 95-hour passage, we ran one engine or the other for 30 hours because during those hours, winds were less than sufficient for good sailing. We also ran one engine for seven hours immediately upon departure from Nuku Hiva to charge up our batteries and to run the water maker.

Going into Manihi was exciting, as are most passages through small inlets into large lagoons. The tides here are only 2 feet on average, but these lagoons often have 300 or more square miles of enclosed lagoon and all of the water that rises and falls with the tide inside of the lagoon has to pass through the very small inlets. The inlets are seldom more than three hundred feet wide. Currents can reach up to six knots or more and maximum sailboat speed under power of not much more than that. Considering the shallow depths, and coral heads in random places, I am particularly relieved when we break through to deeper more open waters inside of the lagoon. We try to time our "running the pass" to times of high and low, slack tide, but the tide tables do not give local conditions, and the weather (high and low pressure systems) can change the amount and time of flow significantly.

Once inside Manihi, we went about five miles to windward to get to the part of the lagoon most protected from the wind. The depths inside of the lagoon averaged about 100 feet, but many coral heads come right to the surface, or just below the surface. To cross the lagoon, we had to keep constant watch. We only travel in such conditions with the sun directly overhead, or slightly behind, so that the rocks and coral are visible. Once one gets the hang of it, travel is safe as long as one is vigilant.

Manihi was advertised to have an excellent dive shop and so I decided to take advantage by making a dive with them. The dive turned out to be excellent. We went just outside of the lagoon to a location protected from the wind. The guide took some frozen fish to attract sharks and three or four six or eight-foot gray sharks soon made an appearance with thousands of colorful fish of all sorts. We stayed in the water about forty minutes swimming along the drop-off where the coral was alive and very colorful. As we swam along, a six-foot moray eel came out of the coral right next to me and quickly reentered another hole about six feet away.

The dive was a wonderful success and it will make me much more comfortable as I increase my usage of the Super Snorkel we brought on the trip. The Super Snorkel is a clean-air compressor that is powered by a gasoline engine and supports two divers on hoses up to sixty feet long. The day after the scuba dive, I used the Super Snorkel to work under the boat to remove all barnacles and to study the conditions of the props, rudders, transponders, grounding plates, sacrificial zincs and haul. Everything appears to be in excellent order.

Later, I loaded the Super Snorkel into the dinghy, went close to a protected shore, tied the dinghy on to someone's mooring, and dived for about twenty minutes. Sea life inside the lagoon is not as colorful as it is outside of the lagoon. We have read that the 1998 El Nino devastated a lot of coral in the South Pacific, but I believe what I saw was actually evidence of the difference between sealife inside of the lagoon, as compared to sea live outside of the lagoon.

Yesterday, 13 September we left Manihi to go to Ahe. The two lagoons are 14 miles apart at their closest, but we traveled over thirty miles from one anchorage to the other inside of the lagoons. The passage into Ahi was even more exciting than into Manihi, but we made it without any problem. We did start one passage and found conditions different than expected so we turned around in the middle of the pass and went out again. Thank goodness for two engines placed far apart in the two hauls of Cosmos.

We went back out into the ocean to study our charts and watch the current from afar, hoping that the currents would settle. About an hour and a half later we went in. We experienced two knots of current, and that was enough for me, considering all of the other challenges of shooting the pass. Inside Ahe, we met a family from Montpellier, France and Victor, the father, told us that he got to the pass earlier than planned and should have waited outside, but went anyway. He experienced six knots of current against him and made progress at one knot through turbulent water. His face was a bit contorted when he told us about it.

We are now on a fine and gentle anchorage in Ahe. The views are what one would expect from inside of a lagoon. Nothing but low beaches and palm trees along the shore. The thing that surprises me, is how big the lagoons are and consequently, the far side of Ahi is so distant, that it is often over the horizon.

Victor told us that a supply boat will come on Sunday and that we can go aboard to buy fresh vegetables. We are currently planning to wait for that opportunity..

I will tell about the rest of our stay in Ahe later.

Our best wishes to all back at home.

Joe Dorr