Sailing to Bora Bora

Hi,

I have gone the other way on a 50ft Ketch in 1983/84 with 4 people onboard.

It took us 10 days Tahiiti to Mangareva, 4 more to Pitcairn, 14 to Easter Island and then 35 to Callao in Peru.

It was a heck of an adventure and I am very glad I had the opportunity to travel that way and to visit those places away from the regular places the yachts go to.

We sailed through the canal and on to French Polynesia via the Las Perlas islands and Galapagos. Quite an unexplainably awesome trip. We skipped BoraBora as it's a bit of a honeymooners all inclusive island but we did manage various Tuomoto atolls and a few Marquesas islands. Then on to Tahiti and Moorea.
We were on a Swan46 with the owner on and off for various stages.

Seriously happy memories

Here are some guys that did an extra long 'route of discovery' as they took delivery of a new 50' cat in Chile to eventually end up in Bora Bora where she operated as a fishing/charter vessel for many years.

RunningTideYachts, Ltd. - Archives

Shes been sold to a new couple operating her down in the Caribbean now

Hi,

Met some Canadians who had done that while we were in Tahiiti, they nearly died of de hydration on the way when becalmed for weeks with no engine.

I would say they still remember it to this day.

When we went from the Galapagos to Tahiti, about 4600 miles, there was a French sailboat that was out of fuel and water. We dropped them quite a few 25 litre tanks of both. They made it about 3 weeks later.

Bora Bora was so ******, we didn't even bother staying for 24 hours.

Sterling Hayden did years ago with his kids

Sterling Hayden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


.....A QUOTE FROM STERLING HAYDEN'S BOOK, WANDERER

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

Sterling Hayden

Since its publication in 1963, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer-bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography.

Sterling Hayden's schooner Wanderer in Sausalito in 1958 - Spaulding Wooden Boat Center Photo Blog

Bought a canal barge in the Netherlands and moved it to Paris to live on it part of the time (1969).

1959
Jan. 23: Actor Sterling Hayden was somewhere on the high seas last night with the four children he is barred from taking out of the United States. The supposed destination of his 98-foot gaff-rigged schooner, Wanderer, was Santa Barbara when he left Sausalito at 10:30 a.m. With a fair wind and calm seas, he should have completed the 310-mile coastal trip. The Coast Guard was alerted to be on the lookout for the 67-year-old former San Francisco pilot boat once known as the Gracie S. Hayden's former wife, Betty De Noon Hayden, expressed fear he was on a court-forbidden voyage to the South Seas. Hayden was awarded custody of the four children, ages 6 through 11, by Judge Emil Gumpert last week. But Gumpert refused to let the children go along on a projected South Seas voyage with their father, a former Gloucester fisherman. He said the Wanderer was not safe for such a trip. He described her crew as amateur. The 42-year-old actor-sailor recruited a volunteer crew of eight men, including a doctor. There were also five women aboard and the three children of First Mate Phillip Africa. Before the judge ruled, Hayden had proposed a trip across the Pacific that would include stops at Tahiti, the Marquesas, the Thursday Islands, Bangkok and Hong Kong. The ship carries no radio.




This guy was an inspiration for me as well:
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-sailing-discussion/6710-motor-sailers-philip-rhodes-john-alden.html

Pitcairn must have been interesting!

Hi,

It was pretty neat and we divided the crew into two groups of two, myself and another went ashore on day 1 and then we were lucky enough to get to go in the Longboat out to a Containership that has hove too to unload a container fr the island. It was a great experience and quite humbling when asked by the guys on the ship how we were travelling and upon looking back at the island to show them what we were on the stark reality of just how small our boat was sunk in--- Rapidly.

We then changed around so the other two could have a go ashore. We then went ashore again on Day 3.

We would have stayed a bit longer but the weather was not that good and we left into a pretty good blow after a terrifying ride from the shore to the yacht through breaking waves in an AVON Semi Rigid boat operated by the Pitcairner with the family name Brown and first name a non PC one to use here.

Getting from this bouncing beast onto the yacht was an adventure in itself, not sure I would be too keen to repeat it almost 30 years later.

Blue Ghost wrote:

So why not use Google (or other search engine) before eliciting responses (far too freely given in IMHO) from the likes of K1W1 and brian eiland who've nevertheless generously replied in their own time.

Furthermore, Blue Ghost wrote:

Sailors have been traversing the Pacific west to east for several centuries now. Airplanes have been doing the same for easily the past 50 years. But I'm pretty sure that there are no regular train services from the US west coast to Bora Bora or any other south Pacific destination.

But apparently trolls are never truly recognised by even the most experienced YF contributors...?!

I didn't take you for a troll Blue Ghost....what reasoning was there for that??

I'm glad you brought the subject up again as it made me re-live a little of my past. Regrettably I never got to make that trip myself, and even more regrettable is that many of these adventurous trips of the past will not be half so enjoyable in these modern days of territorial protection, international terrorist crap, etc., ...and the element of surprise and discovery that one would experience not having the advanced information provided by this modern computer age.

There is nothing "wrong" with Bora Bora. It is a very quiet and lovely spot that probably doesn't appeal much to the ADHD crowd.

Any chance you've been on Suwarrow too?

...greatfully supplied on another form...
Short clip of the "Wanderer" from 1964, lovely music......

Schooner "Wanderer", 1964, Honolulu to San Francisco by Melvin P. Miller - YouTube