07/23/2009, Mopelia, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Our hike with Graham and Sue on Chandrika , in a valley in Moorea, was very fun. The problem was no one had been on that trail for a very long time so we lost the overgrown trail in the jungle half way up the mountain. We never found got to the top. We got a few mosquito bites - there is always present the worry of Dengue fever, carried by mosquitoes. So far, 3-4 weeks later, so good. Although the hike was fun, Patrick slipped on a rock and fell hard on his left shoulder. A week earlier he pulled ligaments in that same arm when climbing the mast. Pulled ligaments, damaged rotor cup =3D sleeping propped up, eating prescription pain pills and keeping the arm in a sliing. So now I have a half hearing, one armed captain lets hope the rest of him stays intact .
After an evening concert on a another boat, Hypnautical , the boat owners professionally plays harp, guitar, and sings, we left the next day. By the way, Patrick didn't go to this concert due to the pain in his arm, and I promised to take good care of the dinghy when I left without him. When I crawled up on Hypnautical, I handed the dinghy line to SOMEONE and then never thought about it again till someone came by in a dinghy and asked if anyone lost the dinghy he was towing. Embarrassingly - it was mine. Yes- I took good care of the dinghy Everyone promised to not tell Patrick, but of course it was the first thing I told him about when I got back!
Our sail to Huahine, which by the way I had the pleasure of being "captain", since Patrick was enjoying being cabin fluff due to his shoulder, was pretty docile. We had about 15 knots off the port quarter, and I flew the genny most of the way. We came in the wide and deep pass at Huahine and settled in to the anchorage at the town of Fare. The next day we motor sailed the 10 miles down the west coast to get to the southern anchorage which is a pretty sand beach, with lots of blue water to marvel at. We stayed there almost a week. One night was our wedding anniversary so we spent one expensive night in a very comfortable hotel. We even watched CNN but after a half hour and all the commercials we turned off the television. It was a relaxing evening with a very nice candlelight dinner with traditional Polynesian fare. We slept in too late the next morning to have breakfast, so we instead had a nice brunch on the boat.
We really splurged on this island and rented a car for the day, and toured the entire island. Its only about 20 miles around the whole thing, going down every road and stopping at every "tourist attraction". In a stream below a bridge, we saw (and fed a can of tuna) the sacred ancient blue eyed eels, and visited the archeological sites of which there are many on this island. We saw lots of beautiful vistas from the tops of the low mountains, and ate ice cream. It was an enjoyable day.
So after about 10 lazy days in Huahine, we sailed onward another 25 miles to Raitea. Raitea has the most important archeological sites in French Polynesia. The sites were used for communicating with departed ancestors and making offerings and sacrifices to the Tikis. So we anchored dinghy distance to one of the sites and had a nice stroll. Aside from reading the signs, there was a lot left unexplained a guide would have been nice but the area was set more as a park than a pay to enter tourist attraction.
In Raitea, we had a great walk up a nearby valley not too far from the big archeological site. There were farms growing all the vegetables you could want, and then further up, there were fruit orchards, many of which had gone wild and were overgrown. We came back with a full bags and backpacks of grapefruit, carambolla, (star fruit) oranges, limes, and some kind of squash or pumpkin. It was a fun day of food gathering.
After a few days we sailed the coast northward to a town called Tahaa. The sun was going down, and we weren't sure if we would actually make it there before dark so we decided to anchor in between the two islands. Our Tacktik depth finder hasn't been very reliable. It does ok in shallow water but gets lost in anything over 60 feet. On the chart, we picked a spot to anchor in 12 feet of water but as we approached, it was clear to me, with my polarized sunglasses, that it was NOT 12 feet as the depth sounder was indicating- it was maybe 2 feet. Patrick takes great delight in scaring me. SO he slowly edged up to the shelf anyway, and hung the bow over what turned out to be beautiful coral. The depth finder suddenly says we are in 2 =BD feet of water, I shriek at Patrick, telling I told him it was 2 feet, and why is he still going forward?!?!?! He says no, I think we can make it- although the boat was no longer moving forward I go up to the bow and take a look. I scream back it is definitely not deep enough for you to go forward! Its not even deep enough for our dinghy!!! Finally he decides that he has toyed with me enough and backs out. We never hit it was such a great drop off that it went from nonreading which lately is over 60 feet deep to 2.5 feet in a split second! NO number in between! We motored like mad to Tahaa and picked up a mooring ball as the sun went down. My heart finally stopped pounding a few hours later.
The next day we motored out of the pass which in itself was a little breathtaking to say the least. Huge breaking seas on both sides of the pass, and huge swell in the pass. Luckily its very deep in the pass so you know you wont bottom out but it was still a little exciting. Not a time for the engine to give up
15 miles later, we were at Bora Bora. Motor sailing the first 5 miles due to the lack of wind and a nice sail the last 10. Bora Bora has a vertical, majestic beautiful as so many Polynesian islands are. After hiking to a mountain top and looking down to the lagoon and all the aqua colors I was struck Bora Bora is indeed the most beautiful island I've seen, at least from a mountain top! We were not going to go to other anchorages in Bora Bora until I saw these colors and then I HAD to put our boat in some water like that. For the next 2 days we moved around the lagoon to the south. . We snorkeled in the gorgeous green, blue water but didn't see many fish at all. We did follow a tourist boat around and they led us to a stingray site. These stingrays weren't as friendly as the ones at Moorea, but we still had fun with them. I shouldn't say WE really. Patrick, after 3 weeks is still very uncomfortable . His arm is healing and becoming more mobile but its been a a slow process. The discomfort keeps him from getting the water. We went snorkeling with Sam from the boat Yanti Perazi - a friend of mine from before I even knew Patrick. I crewed for him. So it was Sam and I in the water while Patrick operated the dinghy for us. The moment that the tour boat left, the party broke up and the sting rays departed too. It's a shame though, the snorkeling here seems to be really suffering from lack of fish due to over fishing and the construction of too many hotels. . I would be very disappointed if I spent 5k to come here as a tourist and the snorkeling was this poor. The water is clear, but there is little to see. Actually, not many tourists spend the money to come to French Polynesia. There are far more empty hotel rooms than occupied ones. I did not dive the pass but Sam did and he said he only saw a few sharks and not much else. Its too bad. But we have enjoyed Bora Bora for other reasons. We enjoyed the hula dance competitions in town for Heiva (festival) for a few nights, and we love the people here. You can leave groceries in your dinghy, just tied to a dock, and when you return not only will your dinghy still be there, your food will be too its not like that everywhere in the South pacific. Also, we love that people will so freely share the fruit in the trees in their yard. All you have to do is ask for one, and you will walk away with a sack full.
Oh and here is something the US should implement. No bags given at the grocery store. You must bring your own. Yes, I know a pain at first, but then it becomes habit to bring a bag with you when you shop. If you forget you can buy a bag for a dollar, so its not like you get stuck, and you can usually find a cardboard box. But can you imagine how much plastic would be saved if we did this in the US?!?!?
We leave in the morning for an atoll 130 miles to the west. It is the last island which is part of French Polynesia, but not many people go to. Its called Mopelia. It has a population of 4. We collected oranges from someone's yard today to bring to them. We have heard that the spear fishing might be good there so we are going to try to go in. The pass is suppose to be one of the trickiest of all of French Polynesia. The pass is 40 feet wide through a shallow reef with a constant out flow of a strong force. The weather has to be just right to go in. We think we have a good weather report for it so we are gonna go "take a look". If we cant go in safely, we will continue on 550 miles to Palmerston, and take a look there instead
Rebecca and I are extremely fortunate to be contributing editors to Blue Water Sailing magazine. Putting together an article is a lot of work. It can take 4 to 6 weeks and many rewrites to finalize an article which can be read in 15 minutes. Our association with Blue Water Sailing does not restrict us from submitting articles to the other sailing publications. SAIL magazine, July issue, ran our Night Flight article about a close tolerance night of navigating along the Caribbean, Mexican coast. The September issue of SAIL will contain our article about engine room maintenance. One article I am excited about will be in the September issue of Blue Water Sailing. It is about our passage through the Panama Canal. Over the years I have steered three other yachts through the Panama Canal. I can say that the Canal is not the well oiled machine it once was which affected our transit and the transit of other yachts we know of . One article I am now working on is about the island of Fatu-Hiva. Thor Heyerdahl, of Kon-Tiki fame, lived off the land of Fatu-Hiva for a year back in 1930 and wrote a book called "Fatu-Hiva, Back to Nature". Since we researched the history of the Marquesas and retraced some of Heyerdahls steps on the island, we can now see that Heyerdahls book is a yarn riddled with inaccuracies and made up material.
Since leaving Rhode Island, this is a list of our published articles.
November 07 Introductory article on Brick House including boat upgrades December 07 Raymarine Auto Pilot Install January 08 Electronics (Rebecca) February 08 Communications Aboard Brick House March 08 Monitor self steering installation April 08 Sea Frost refrigeration install May 08 Safety Equipment onboard Brick House June 08 LoFrans windlass install July 08 Provisioning in Bahamas Aug 08 Sept 08 Shade Tree awning Oct Nov 08 So Far So Good. What has and has not worked after one year. Dec 08
Jan 09 Feb 09 Communication Aboard Mar 09 Jumentos , French Consulate April 09 Hauling Out In A Foreign Port July 09 SAIL magazine Night Flight navigation Sep 09 Panama Canal passage Sept 09 SAIL magazine Engine Room maintenance
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Comments [2]
07/09/2009, Moorea, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Well it's been almost a month since we wrote. Why is that the longer we are out here, and the more beautiful our world becomes, we write less and less often about it? I guess we are getting spoiled and used to all of this scenery and a less hectic lifestyle.
From the Tuamotos the wind blew us at a pleasant 5 knots with following seas. Easy. We passed Tahiti and continued on a few miles to Moorea. Our friends Peter and Nikki on SV Bagheera had our new alternator for us there. Monique on SV Zen carried the alternator in her luggage from Florida and handed it off to Bagheera for us. Cruisers can be so kind and helpful to other cruisers. Within 24 hours, Patrick had it installed and running perfectly. It's a big improvement over our backup alternator which is about 45 amp hours, and even over our 150 amp alternator.even though it's a 125 Amp Alternator! Go figure! Now we just had to wait for our rigging parts and SSB antenna to arrive in Papeete.
We spent about 10 days in Moorea, taking a long hike with 8 other cruisers up over, around, through, double back and across Moorea ( a 10 hour uphill hike!). We attended potlucks and cocktail hours on other boats, making dresses ashore with the other woman (Patrick got out of that part) cruisers, and enjoying a WiFi connection from the boat! We spent the entire time in Cooks Bay, which is a beautiful protected anchorage inside the lagoon at the foot of towering mountains.
After 10 days of socializing we sailed over to Papeete, about 15 miles back east. You can stay for a week on the city docks for one third of the price that it costs to stay at a dock in Newport for one night!!! Customs boarded our boat almost immediately upon pulling in, and despite opening almost every locker in the boat didn't find anything to hassle us about. Oops.maybe we forgot to mention the Vodka we had on board. The one most obvious cabinet they did not open was the...yep! We then did our "official"" check in to Papeete at the Port Captains office and we were ready to enjoy Tahiti. We received our new back stay rigging in the mail and Patrick had it installed in a day.
Since our new special "clip onto the back stay" Single Side Band antenna had not shown up in the mail, Patrick bought $27 worth of the smallest diameter stainless steel life line wire available, plastic thimbles and Nicopres swages. Tied to a distance of 4' from the top of the mast with strong ¼ inch line and the lower end a foot up from the arch, it was a quick and easy installation. It seems to work pretty well- I spoke to someone in Minnesota- 5400 miles away. closer transmissions seem to be equally as good. The next day, we actually were able to track down the new antenna and now have it stored on the boat while we play with this homemade one for a while.
The Rendevous was fun, although we only attended day one in Tahiti. When the boats left to sail to Moorea, we also left and went to the mooring field off of Marina Taina on the west side of the island. There were hundreds of boats there, both on moorings and anchored. It reminded me of New England cruising- where everything is moorings.and I remembered how it felt to be on a mooring for a weekend, knowing you had to leave on Sunday or Monday to go back home and go back to work. I still don't take it for granted how great it is to not have to go back home on Sunday or Monday and especially work. The water was beautiful blue, and we enjoyed another 4 or 5 days here, taking buses back and forth to Papeete and other sites on the island. We also took a 4WD tour one day with a guide and got to see the backcountry of Tahiti. It's such a naturally beautiful island with so many waterfalls and towering rugged peaks. It was a cool day!
After almost 2 weeks in Tahiti, we sailed back to Moorea to visit the other bay- Oponuo Bay, where the sailing rendezvous took place for Day 2 and 3. I'm sort of glad we weren't here for it. The anchorage is stuffed with about 15 boats right now- they say there WAS 80 boats! Boats had so little swinging room that everyone just stayed up all night, rafted to other boats, and laughing about it all. Not really my style, but at least things didn't get ugly.
We had the MOST amazing day yesterday. After snorkeling with Isabelle from Wasabi all morning, Patrick and I took the long dinghy ride over to an area famous for stingrays being quite friendly because of tourist boats feeding them. We found the spot and as soon as we turned off our motor and tied to a mooring ball, about 15 rays raced to our boat. I got in the water pretty quickly, knowing that all my friends had been here and no one had any problems with the rays and sharks. It was 3 feet deep and a sand bottom! I put my face in the water, and one ray came up and practically kissed me. I reached out and pet him, scratched him behind the ears and he winked at me. No kidding at all! I look over and see 4 foot long black tip sharks. They are watching out for their buddy making sure I don't hurt the fellow. Another sting ray glides past me, brushing my thigh with his wings. This kind of behavior continued as Patrick sat in the dinghy and threw in pieces of ham and chicken fat. The rays didn't appreciate the food at all, but the sharks and remoras all moved in, happy to be left something to eat. The rays stayed around for about a half hour. When the ham was gone, Patrick slipped in to the water beside me, and the rays were happy to have more company. 3 or 4 of them swam between the two of us. One was over my head, one was practically sitting on my back, or was that Patrick? I could not tell what was ray and what was Patrick for a few seconds and was afraid to move in fear of startling them. But after they seemingly cuddled with us for 30 seconds, they gracefully moved away from us. SO many rays came right up to me and let me pat them and scratch them and look right in to their eyes. Their skin is so smooth and soft, on their top and underside. It was the coolest water experience I've had since coming here! They were huge and graceful and never threatening at all. You could see the 3 inch barb at the base of their tail. If someone was to step on a resting ray they could get a nasty wound. The sharks never bothered us, or threatened us in any way, and there were a few large jacks and lots of beautiful tropical fish that came around for the free handouts as well. I thought of my mother a few times.she has always dreamed of coming to Tahiti.which means Moorea too.she would really love this!!!
Today, the furthest that we ventured was the cockpit. It was a rainy cloudy day. We caught some rain and had a visit from Graham and Sue, a young couple on SV Chandrika. We are going hiking with them tomorrow, although we aren't sure if we may get eaten alive..The guy who promised to show them the way to the trailhead, who also offered them marijuana, says that first we will burn a fire on the beach to ask the gods where the trail is, and to get his blessing for going on it, and then will go to the promised land or forgotten paradise..or something like that.whatever.
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