Congratulations on a great ARC
Dear fellow cruisers,
First of all congratulations to all the ARC participants that will join the World ARC 2012/2013. We followed you all during the ARC and noticed some great passage times. You are obviously all well prepared and ready to go for the great trip the World ARC is.
We are back in New Zealand for the Pacific Cyclone Season while you will cross the Caribbean Sea, visit the beautiful San Blas Islands, experience the thrill of the Panama Canal, the Perlas Islands and the beautiful Galapagos. While you will be on the way from the Marquesas to Tahiti we will start our journey North again to join the fleet in Fiji.
We sailed from New Zealand to Niue, be sure to go diving there if this is your thing, and back – some 3000 Nm – as a test run after our extensive refit and repair of the Tsunami damage from the 2010 Chilean Earthquake. All is pretty good but we still had some ‘glitches’. To read about them in more details go to http://www.hr48.ch. There just might be the one or other point that you will want to check on your boat.
2 words of friendly advice for Niue – one is to bring cash (NZ$ if you can or US$, which you will need to exchange at an unfavorable rate and high fee) as there are no ATM machines on the island. Actually this is not quite true. There are 3 machines but they are in a warehouse as the data communication infrastructure does not support their use. Pretty much everything on the island has to be paid in cash. Getting a cash advance on your credit card is very, very expensive as the local bank’s fees are some of the highest we have seen anywhere. Panama or Tahiti will be your best bet to get some NZ$ if that is the route you are going to take. The 2nd advice is to make sure that you have a lifting bridle for your dinghy that keeps the dinghy level with the outboard on. You will need it for getting ashore as there is nowhere you can park your dinghy in the water. There is an electric hoist that swings around and lifts the dinghies in and out. The total lift is between 2 and 4 meters depending on the tide. The hook is pretty big so make sure your ring is large enough or you have an extra soft shackle to fit. I know it is early to think about Niue but once you are there and are trying to figure out where the balance point of your dinghy is you might get frustrated pretty quickly or worse spill the contents of your dinghy into the sea. We were in Niue for several weeks and saw it ‘all’....Our bridle is no more than 3 ropes with carabin hooks that attach to the lifting points of the dinghy (1 at the bow and 2 on the stern) with 2 stainless steel rings – one for the dinghy with the engine and one for it without the engine.
Will be following you on the World ARC website and look forward to reading your blogs. We look forward to meeting you in Fiji in a few months time. In the meantime we wish you all trouble free great sailing, following seas and always a hand below your keel.
Charles and Marie