Easter Island

[rennie]

I will be heading to Easter Island from Panama in the next 2 weeks and was wondering if anyone has any advice on the Island. Anchorages, customs, hiking, things to look out for.

[Mirar]

Hello there, It is a few years since we sailed down to Easter Is. from the Galapagos Is, but somethings don't change. We left about the same time of year and had a great romping sail ,hard on the wind. I think we took 16 days in our heavy Herreshoff ketch, very wet going.
I felt that it was getting a little late in the year for that trip. We were starting to see the diminishing trades and the start of fall weather coming up from the south. We made our landfall at Hanga Roa and were well treated by the authorities. We spent about two weeks there, and managed to get ashore everyday. It is a place to be very vigilant! We were blown out of anchorages twice with squalls coming in rapidly and the heavy swells building quickly. To give you an idea, off Hanga Roa , we were burying our bowsprit before getting all the anchors aboard and getting out of there. One thing is that it is a short distance around the island to find a lee. For example, if blown out of Hanga Roa, try Vinapu off the airport, or Anakeena, which is a beautiful place to anchor. Some smaller boats have been able to get into the harbor of Hanga Pica, but at 53' overall we were too big. Lots of surge rolling in there anyways.
We were very pleased to find the excellent provisioning available. The islanders don't seem to lack for anything.
Anyways, we were hoping to get to southern Chile but realized we were too late in the year, it now being early May, with unstable weather showing up. We changed the plan, up to French Polynesia and home to British Columbia, over the next few months.
As a side note, it is the only place I have ever departed from, that the Port Captain asked to see that we had charts for our next destination!
Good luck!
Greg

[svQ]

Mirar, thank you so much for your detailed and helpful response. Did you also stop at Pitcairn and Gambiers? Would be really interested in your feedback on those places if you did. THANKS!


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[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, rennie, and svQ.

[svQ]

Thank you Gord! We very much look forward to participating and sharing.


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[Mirar]

Hi Rennie, No, we didn't make it to Pitcairn, although we intended to. We were totally becalmed for three days leaving Easter Is. and figured that by the time we got wind we would not be able to get ashore at Pitcairn anyways. I think this was a result of being too late in the year and having the trades starting to dissipate. There were already signs of fall storms moving in from the south. We started motoring northwest to French Polynesia and finally got back into wind after about 3 days. The Gambiers sound spectacular and anyone that gets there raves about it.
One piece of advice for the anchorage at Hanga Roa is to stay well out in deep water, up to 60-70 feet as inside of that is lots of coral heads. It is not for the faint of heart but Easter Island has been one of my favourite stops.
cheers, Greg

[Livia]

We spent 3 months in the Gambiers. Your trip sounds very exciting! I know Frenchies who have visited Pitcairn and Easter but we havent.