Faaroa Bay Raitea

We finally left Huahine yesterday for the 20 mile sail across to Raitea. We pulled up anchor around 10:00 in the morning and had the sails up inside the reef and then sailed out of the reef and on towards Raitea. Cathy sailed the boat through shifty winds as they blew across Huahine and finally 5 mile or so out, the winds steadied up and were directly astern. Cathy called for wing on wing so up to the foredeck I go and with the genoa poled out to port and the main full out to starboard we trucked along between 6 and 7 knots. The seas were rolly but with good speed it wasn't so bad. It was a good sail and the winds stayed with us all the way through the reef entrance on Raitea. We pulled in the genoa before we sailed in and went under main alone and shot straight through. The winds by this time were blowing from the south so instead of beating our brains out tacking up a narrow channel, we motored the remaining 3 miles or so to Faaroa Bay. We had been told about this place by an Australian guy we met in Avae Bay on Huahine at the potluck we had on the beach. He said that it is well protected from most winds and that there is water available and a river that you can get up with your dinghy at the head of the bay. We anchored in about 15 meters with a mud bottom so great holding. Good thing too! The bay is protected from most winds, but NOT what we started to get last night and continue to get now. It's blowing about 25-30 knots right down the bay and we are dug in good. I don't think we will be going much of anywhere today, but who knows. There are a bunch of mooring balls about halfway up the bay, owned by Sunsail and Moorings. There are a few American boats on the them, but I tend to trust the anchor more than an old, questionably maintained mooring. The plan is to spend a couple of nights here and then head to the north end of the island to the town of Uturoa. After that, we plan to spend a few days around the other island inside the reef, Tahaa, then next weekend, off to Bora-Bora. We'll see how it all works out.

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Faaroa Bay - Raitea

We finally left Huahine yesterday for the 20 mile sail across to Raitea. We pulled up anchor around 10:00 in the morning and had the sails up inside the reef and then sailed out of the reef and on towards Raitea. Cathy sailed the boat through shifty winds as they blew across Huahine and finally 5 mile or so out, the winds steadied up and were directly astern. Cathy called for wing on wing so up to the foredeck I go and with the genoa poled out to port and the main full out to starboard we trucked along between 6 and 7 knots. The seas were rolly but with good speed it wasn't so bad. It was a good sail and the winds stayed with us all the way through the reef entrance on Raitea. We pulled in the genoa before we sailed in and went under main alone and shot straight through. The winds by this time were blowing from the south so instead of beating our brains out tacking up a narrow channel, we motored the remaining 3 miles or so to Faaroa Bay. We had been told about this place by an Australian guy we met in Avae Bay on Huahine at the potluck we had on the beach. He said that it is well protected from most winds and that there is water available and a river that you can get up with your dinghy at the head of the bay. We anchored in about 15 meters with a mud bottom so great holding. Good thing too! The bay is protected from most winds, but NOT what we started to get last night and continue to get now. It's blowing about 25-30 knots right down the bay and we are dug in good. I don't think we will be going much of anywhere today, but who knows. There are a bunch of mooring balls about halfway up the bay, owned by Sunsail and Moorings. There are a few American boats on the them but I tend to trust the anchor more than an old, questionably maintained mooring. The plan is to spend a couple of nights here and then head to the north end of the island to the town of Uturoa. After that, we plan to spend a few days around the other island inside the reef, Tahaa, then next weekend, off to Bora-Bora. We'll see how it all works out.

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Avae Bay, Huahine

Where has the week gone? Last Sunday, we looked up in the afternoon and saw this ugly black cloud front moving in so decided to move off the coral shelf we were "anchored" on. Anchored on is a relative term here. The only thing holding us in place was large blocks of coral that the chain had wrapped itself around. It was only about 15 feet deep so unwrapping the chain was not that bad. When we saw those clouds coming though, we decided that we would probably not risk getting dragging or getting dragged into by another boat. We went back into Haavai Bay by Fitii and anchored for the night, safe in deep water and clay bottom. On Monday we motored south inside the reef to the southernmost anchorage in Avae Bay. He channel is well buoyed and the shallowest we saw was around 4 meters. Very nice here but open to south and southeast winds. The winds by this time had of course turned to the S/SE. We had a bit of a potluck onboard with John and Renee from Scarlett O'Hara and David and Linda from Toketie. John and Renee had spent quite a few years in Mexico working and their stories were hilarious. We've not done much else here except walk and snorkel a bit. Yesterday was spent stripping the paint off part of our water generator system. The propeller assembly that we drag behind the boat to generate electricity when we are sailing was painted by the manufacturer. Nice looking when new but it is cast aluminium and paint doesn't work well. It was a mess. It's stripped now and will stay bare as that won't corrode past a dull patina on the finish now. The day ended off with a big potluck on the beach. We spent a couple of hours swapping lies with other cruisers, a great time. Today we will probably head back to the north end and maybe tomorrow go over to Tahaa, 20 miles west.

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By Land and By Sea

We rented a car yesterday with Barry and Ann from Cats Paw IV to tour around. We got this little Fiat Punta. There's lots to see on Huahine, including some very well preserved old Maraes', the traditional religious/habitation sites of the Polynesians. The marae culture was pretty much killed by the arrival of missionaries from Europe in the early 1800's after Cook's visits to the islands in the 1700's. The first Marae we stopped at in Maeve at the north end of main island of Huahine, was an extensive area of seven different Marae's. There was a large open air museum that, although light on artifacts, was heavy into explanations of culture and history. There was a fair amount of human sacrifice involved in the local ceremonies. One that I thought was a bit different involved the building of one of the principle structures on the Marae. It had to completed in one day and the human sacrifice required for it's construction had to placed under the main lodge poll. Imagine, you wake up one morning and the chief comes to you and says you are to the mainstay of the new building. Wow, what an honour as you are dragged out and ritually put to death. A different time, a different place. We continued on from there and checked out some o the rebuilt fish traps used by the locals. There is a huge lagoon on the NE side of the island that has a narrow entrance to the ocean. The Polynesians of old, built these elaborate fish traps that allowed the fish to swim in at high tide and they then got trapped when the tide wet out. They could then harvest them at their leisure. The traps were renewed in the 1960's but looked like they had begun to fall into disrepair again. The next highlight was feeding the eels. There is a unique species of blue eyed eel here and they grow up to 6 ½ feet long. Barry had brought some hard sausage that they didn't like to we cut it up in small chunks and fed it to the eels. They loved it. Big suckers too. I guess most of the tourists stop and feed them. From there we continued around he islands, stopped just over the bridge between the main island and Huahine Iti for a traditional picnic, red wine, baguette, cheese, you know the standard picnic fare. The most notable part of the afternoon had to be the vanilla farm tour we stopped for. We saw this sign on road that said turn here for a vanilla farm tour. We turned into this small lane and this lady in the house were driving by called out the window to continue up the lane, turn left and park. OK, we did. I have to describe this next bit in detail as it was absolutely unique. The four of us got out of the car and stood around trying to figure out what's next. This thin bald guy comes of the workshop we had parked in front of and motions us in to the covered stand like you would see on the roadside selling fruit. He has us all crowd around the counter then snaps open an old, cheap plastic briefcase. Then with both hands, one underneath the case to hold it up and one to hold the top open passes it under our noses so we could smell the contents, little plastic packages of vanilla. He then takes out one package, opens it, pulls the vanilla part way out, and passes that under our noses so we could smell it. He informs us at this point that the vanilla is for sale at 1000 CFP per package. We decline to purchase, he points to a sign tacked up on the post with his picture on it and the words "Don't Forget your Guide". The tour is over, he wants a tip, we turn our backs, walk back to the car, and drive away, busting a gut laughing over this 2-3 minute "Vanilla Farm Tour" that consisted of one rude guy, one old, cheap plastic briefcase and a pointless attempt to get a tip. We decided that we wouldn't take any more tours after that and drove around the rest of the roads on the island. Most were great and some were muddy, but it was a great day out. Then we took the car back, which turned into a major undertaking. It had rained off and on all day and the roads were wet and as I said some were muddy (OK one was REALLY muddy). The car was pretty dirty but only dirt. Just before we got back, the car started making this weird noise. It turned out that the electric cooling fan had mud on one side of it and when it started, it was out of balance. The cheap plastic mount, and an unbalanced fan made a heck of a racket. The guy at the rental car refused to give me back my credit car slip after I paid cash for the car. He said that he needed to see if there was any damage to the car and he would then charge my credit card. I had purchased insurance when I rented the car, I told him this, whereupon he got very incensed and said that no insurance covers everything. After a long VERY heated discussion, and me insisting on seeing "The Damage" we went back to look at the car. As I had told him earlier, it was mud on the fan blades that had unbalanced them. The service guy had washed them off and all was fine. What a hassle. All in all a great day topped of with a beer at a beach bar overlooking the anchorage!

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Wind Wind and More Wind

We actually got off the boat on Saturday for a couple of hours. We took the dinghy the mile or so to the village of Fare, the main village on Huahine and checked in with the local Gendarmes, walked around, bought some fresh food, and generally just stretched our legs. Nice little village, huge supermarket and lots of tourist style shops along the waterfront. The only downside to the trip ashore happened when we were walking back to the dinghy. I felt these two big drops on my head and just then Cathy said, whew, that bird just missed us, no it didn't. I got hit right on the head with lovely fresh birdshit. Luckily there was a public washroom right there so I managed to rinse it out of my hair before it dried. I honestly can't remember the last time that happened. When we got back to the boat, we decided to pull up anchor and motor south inside the reef to a large landlocked bay called Port Bourayne. We pushed wind a tide for an hour and a half and came into this beautiful bay. There were 7 other boats at anchor but well spread out. We ended up anchoring in about 25 meters of water so lots of chain out. Then it really started to blow and it's been doing it ever since. Basically the last 4 days have been windy and wet as opposed to the previous two days that were just wet and windy. Overcast with rain, and too much wind to put the rain catcher out.
Huahine is actually two islands and the bridge that connects Huahine and Huahine-Iti (little Huahine) is at the bottom of the Port Bourayne. Under the bridge and you are in Maroe Bay, where we first went and didn't anchor. Sunday we took the dinghy and went over to the small village in Maroe Bay. There is a beautiful new dinghy landing and little artisan/restaurant right there. There was a bunch of kids swimming off the dock when we arrived. They motioned us in, took the lines, held on to the dinghy while we got out so we didn't fall into the sea (their words and reasoning anyways) and said they would look after the dinghy while we walked around. They were great. They took great fun in running off the dock and flipping or jumping in the water. We walked around for awhile until the rain came (again), got soaked and headed back to the boat. We did manage to do a little snorkelling on the reef near where we are anchored but it's mostly dead and not much to see. Other than that, we have been on the boat pretty much. Did a few little jobs like whipping rope ends (naughty naughty rope!), changed a fuel filter, exciting stuff. I started carving with the yellow cedar I got from Bob on North Broughton Island last year. I decided to start easy and am carving a small Inukshuk. I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along, and so far, no blood!!
I think we'll head back towards the village either today or tomorrow. Cats Paw IV arrived here on Sunday and we talked about renting a car with them for a day to tour the island. We'll see what the prices are like but splitting the cost should make it OK. The weather is SUPPOSED to get better but so far this morning I see grey skies and rain clouds. We are in the midst of a squash zone between a High and Low pressure system that just doesn't seem to want to move. Ah well, it can't be sunshine and blue skies all the time (but I'm not sure why not?)

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Boat Bound in Fiti

We woke up to wind and rain and it really hasn't stopped all day. I put the rain catcher up but it got too windy. Not much else happening. I changed out the display unit on the Navman Wind instrument to the old one as the new replacement I got in San Francisco last year has died already. The old one works a bit better but not great. I am extraordinarily disappointed in Navman products. So far we have had both the Depth/Log and Wind display units replaced and both the replacements have failed as well. The LCD screens stop displaying. I will contact Navman again and see what if anything they can or will do about this. If they can't supply instruments that will work, I will junk them and replace them in NZ with something with a bit of quality. We wanted to get to shore today to check in but we are reluctant to leave the boat in these winds. You never know. Luckily there is only one other boat in the anchorage, an NZ boat that we met up with in Papeete. They have been circumnavigating for 14 years and are on their way back to NZ. Maybe tomorrow we will get to shore…….

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Huahine

We left Opunohu Bay yesterday just after lunch for the 80 mile sail to Huahine. We expected to have a reasonable sail in 15-20 knot winds. Oh yes, we expected it alright, what we got was a slow lumpy roll that had us motoring for an hour and a half to get out of the shadow of Moorea and then motoring again from 04:00 to get to Huahine. The wind went light early. The swell was less than swell, with a nice roll from the NE and winds from the ESE. Oh well, you win some, you fight others to a draw. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep. We actually find the single overnight passages the hardest. You don't mentally get into the rhythm and sleep does not come as easily. Anyhow, we made Farerea pass on the eastern side of the island by around 07:30 and went in to Maroe Bay. Very nice but no real anchorages unless you are in 30 meters or more. We decided we didn't want to deep anchor so headed back out and around the island to attack it from the west coast. We had a great sail around the island and by 11:00 we made the pass at Fare. The pass in looked simple and according to the cruising guide, no problem. There was no real problem but there was significant swell breaking on either side of the pass (LOTS OF SURFERS!!), and good current and eddies in the pass. The funny thing was, the cruising guide states that Maroe (on the east side) is best visited by dinghy from a cut between the west and east side of the islands, rather than use the "possibly dangerous" east coast pass. We found the "possibly dangerous" east coast pass much calmer and easier than the west coast pass. Sometimes I wonder at cruising guides. We have gone where they said not too and found that the areas to avoid were some of the most pleasant. For instance, the entry on Manihi in the Tuamotus starts "I cannot recommend this atoll and goes on from there about how bad the anchoring is, how rough it is etc.
We ended up anchoring in Fiti, just south of Fare. It's a bit quieter and only a mile or so by dinghy to the village in Fare. We have to go there in the morning to check in with the local gendarme. We will do a little exploring on land while we are here and have no idea how long we will stay.

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Boat Jobs and Moving On

Spent yesterday doing a few boat jobs, going for a walk on shore (first time on land in 5 days) and generally whiling away Sunday in paradise. Barry asked if I could give him a hand adjusting his valves in the afternoon so before I helped him, I decided to check ours. Good thing too. Only one valve was a bit out but the alternator belt was frayed and almost ready to let go. It's such a good idea to check you engine pretty much every day you run it!!
We are planning on moving over to Opunohu Bay today for a couple of nights before heading off to Huahine.
We weighed anchor around 11:00 and headed out to move a whole five miles or so south. In order to do that we had to put the outboard on the rail, put the dinghy on deck, secure the outboard gas can on deck, out everything away in the boat and make sure nothing could go flying. We got out of the reef entrance and immediately pulled out part of the genoa and sailed on a deep reach, headsail only, to Opunohu. We cooked along at a comfortable 6 knots or so. The wind stayed with us so we sailed in through the pass and most of the way into the bay. Once again, we decided to come to the head of the bay rather than stay out near the outside, much calmer and much more peaceful here. The scenery is even more spectacular than Cooks Bay. No real development in the bottom of the bay, so nice and dark at night.
Monday was strange though in other ways. First, we found out that our Kiwi friends Paul and Gina off Solace were racing off to Raitea to put their boat on the hard and fly back to NZ. Paul has a history of electrical arrhythmia and has been feeling very unwell for the past couple of weeks. We're hoping that everything turns out all right. There is another boat in Raitea that will help them decommission Solace so Gina won't have to do it all herself. Then, after we got to Opunohu, we got a call from Cats Paw IV, who were supposed to be following us over here. They got outside the reef in Cooks Bay and their engine died so they pulled up a bit of sail and headed off for Huahine, about 80 miles away. Basically a bummer Monday.

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Cook's Bay Wind

We had a great evening on board Island Time last night with hosts Mary-Ellen, Ron and crew Bill. They have a 1982 Norseman 440 that Ron has owned since 1985. The boat is showroom clean and set up beautifully for cruising. The plan for today was to move out to the anchorage on the reef at the entrance to Cooks Bay. We pulled up the hook with some effort as it got caught on something heavy. A little motoring around and slacking off the chain finally got us free. As we got out to the head of the bay, the wind started to blow around the corned and the dinghy that we had tied to the port side almost flipped over from wind catching under the bow. We quickly turned around and headed back into our nice, quiet, secure anchorage in lots of deep water. The outer anchorage is on the reef and is only 8-9 feet deep. We draw 6 ½ feet so I wouldn't have got much sleep. I just heard from the boats out there that they have had gusts up to 40 knots. I'm glad we're here!! We did have one small casualty from our short trip today. We left one of our solar showers hanging on the mast and when we were broadside to the wind when we turned back, the bag went plop and drop into the tide. We didn't notice until after I came up on deck to shower off after spending an hour cleaning the bottom of the boat. Oh well, c'est la vie and besides that one was ripping at the handle anyways. On the bright side, the bottom of the boat is nice and clean again and we still have one shower bag. Thanks for bringing two Rob!!
Cats Paw IV hosted a "dessert party" in the afternoon. The previous owners of their boat, also Bluewater Cruising Association Memebers, took a picture of Cats Paw in Cooks Bay. That picture now graces the title page of the dessert section of the Bluewater Cruising Cookbook, hence the dessert party. Ann invited everyone in the anchorage and they all showed up. Steve and Sylvie off 2nd Wind, an Aussie couple who left England in 1999 and who are finally getting back to Aus, Island Time showed up, and the crew off "Far Out", a Farr designed 72 foot sloop that was part of the ARC rally. They were an interesting mix; there was Estelle, one of the paid crew form Spain, Victoria, the 13 year old daughter of the owner, and Jonas her teacher. Jonas and Victoria along with the owner (absent just now) are Danish. Luis, the captain, stayed onboard. I ended up taking Jonas back and got a tour of the boat. A dual cockpit design with crew quarter aft and guest quarters forward. Lots of teak, but surprisingly simple inide.

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Moorea, The Sequel

After rocking and rolling and dealing with TOO MANY BOATS in Papeete, we decided to formally clear out with immigration and leave for Moorea. Toketie did indeed arrive Tuesday and we had a good dinner with them last night. They will catch up with us as we move through the Society Islands. We left Tahiti via the main harbour this time and ended up having a great deep reach all the way to the reef entrance for Cooks Bay on Moorea. We anchored just about exactly where we were before. There are still very few boats here which is nice.
Papeete just got too weird with all the flotilla arriving from the Tuamotus. The VHF was non-stop and anchoring was a nightmare. Tuesday night I ended up on anchor watch all night because one of the boats beside us got too close. It turns out that they had their chain wrapped around some coral and did not bother to clear it. When the wind changed directions they did not swing and because of that they took up a lot of anchorage room. All boats need to swing together and when one doesn't, it really mucks it up for those around them. When all was said and done, we decided to leave. Formal clearance was a bit bureaucratic but pleasant. On the way over here today we kept a close watch out for whales. We had a couple of humpback's surface about 100 feet from us on Monday just outside the reef entrance to Cooks Bay when we left. Apparently, the Orcas come down around here by the end of June as well. Ahh, the life aquatic.

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Back in Papeete

We came back to Papeete yesterday to provision, clear out, take an island tour, etc. Toketie was due to arrive Tuesday so we thought we could catch up with them for a few days before we continued on. We put the sails up outside of the pass in Cooks Bay and after tacking a few times and some rather major wind shifts, we better motor sail the rest of the way. We came back in the pass at Taapuna which is close to the anchorage and not recommended when a southerly swell is running. A southerly swell was running and for a some weird reason, the current was strongly against us out of the pass. Strange as there is only about 80 cm. of tide here. We made it through with many revs on the old diesel. Anchored in close quarters as there are even more boats here than when we left. Tomorrow we will book a land tour for Thursday and then Friday, hopefully we can get away back over to Moorea then on to Huahine. Toketie arrived around lunch and found a hole to tuck into. We will catch up with them later, after they have a bit of a rest. Had a long talk with Randy, the net controller for Pacific Seafarers today. The family off a boat we know is having their boat delivered back to Seattle and they are flying to Hawaii for a month. Randy runs a B&B there and I asked for a bit of info on longer term accommodations for them. The guys that are on the HAM nets are a great help and I can't say enough good things about them. Randy cruised for 11 years throughout the pacific and we talked about what he had seen and the changes since he went cruising. I mentioned that I could see over ine hundred boats at anchor where we are. When he was here in 1990, there was no facilities really other than the navy repair yard. Now there are a couple of yards, chandlers, marinas, all the frills, if you have money. French Polynesia for boaters can be summed up I think as "a wonderful place, bring cash".

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Another day in the Life=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=85?=..

After a quiet morning, we went ashore to make a phone call and get a few groceries. On the way, Cathy spied out a place for me to get my hair cut and with some urging, I did. Once again, short is the order of the day when it's this hot. We wandered around a bit then back to the boat for lunch then off to do some snorkelling by the reef. We did a slow tour by dinghy of the big 4 masted ship that came in Friday night, the "Star Flyer", one of the Star Clipper ships. If I ever take a cruise it would be one of those ships.
The snorkelling was OK, not a lot of life but the coral does show some signs of rejuvenation, mostly though it is pretty dead. Saw quite a few small fish, ranging from black to electric blue. We thought about going down to Port Phaeton but will likely not bother as it will be full of boats and it's better here. Toketie is leaving the Tuamotus today and will likely get to Papeete in a couple of days if they get some wind. We will head back to there likely on Monday. We are both quite surprised at the relatively few boats that are here. Most of the cruisers seem to be hanging around Papeete. Good for us.

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