We're still comfortably enjoying life on Moorea in this nice little anchorage. We're knocking off lots of little repairs and projects off our list that we compiled on the way here, and we get to enjoy a nice swim or snorkel every day as a reward for our work.
The weather looks like it will be very calm on Monday and Tuesday so we will take that opportunity to make the 20 mile sail over to Tahiti with Inspiration at Sea. Time to hit the big city of Papeete!
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Here's a view from the docks of the spacious clubhouse.
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Just as we were finishing up our play date with the rays a couple of the small black tipped sharks came over to check out all the excitement. Even though they are very harmless, I was glad I was out of the water when this guy swam by.
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One of the "must do" tours for anyone visiting Moorea is to go swimming with the rays over by the Intercontinental Hotel. It's a hot spot for all the tour boats so we went over early before the big crowds got there and we're thrilled with the experience. The big rays come right over as soon as they see the dinghy approach and swim right up to you in the chest deep water.
We took a can of sardines to feed them treats and got to pet them -- they feel like velvet. Another wonderful tour by led by Vicky!
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Today I tackled some new spots on the dodger that we saw the stitching failing. Thank goodness for my handy Speedy Stitcher!
The dodger is extremely well made, but it was made in the North West where they don't have such harsh climates as we found in Mexico and the South Pacific. The Sunbrella fabric holds up well, but the thread that they stitch with isn't as durable as what they use when they build something in the southern climes, so the threads wear out and need to be replaced. It isn't the end of my project == I equate it to painting the Golden Gate bridge which I've heard is a never ending project == they start at one end and by the time they reach the other end it's time to start over!
So on it goes......
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Some blustery winds from a new direction in a fairly crowded anchorage kept us up some of the night and then we stayed pretty close to the boat most of the day just to make sure we didn't play bumper boats with anyone.
The change in wind direction wouldn't have been a big deal, but several new boats came in to the anchorage just before the winds picked up and some of them were anchored a little to close for comfort. And when everybody starts swinging with the changing wind you don't know where they'll end up.
All was well for us, but one guy did have to re anchor in the night as he was moving too close to the boat that was beside him, but now behind him. The bad thing was it was the 2nd boat that had anchored to close to him.
But we enjoyed our boat day and got some projects done and a little reading time in -- something I haven't had time for since the passage.
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A real highlight on the Big Hike was the Bamboo Forest -- a magnificent sight.
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Yesterday Vicky played tour guide once again and we did the 3 Coconuts hike from the Belevedere Lookout -- it was spectacular!
It took 3 hours round trip and we hiked through ever changing forests -- including a section of giant bamboo. We did switchbacks and crossed streams -- a little bit of everything before emerging to a lookout on the ridge where you could not only see both bays on the north side of the island, but you could see the surfing beaches on the other side.
It was a challenge, simply because we haven't been hiking in so long since we've spent the better part of the last 2 months out at sea. It felt good to put those muscles to work again and we look forward to more walks and hikes before we leave Moorea.
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Some parts of the hike took us through forests of trees that we'd never seen the likes of before -- they had sides that wound like ribbons instead of round like a regular tree trunk. Fascinating.
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We started the morning tracking down some things for the boats, plus a little shopping for some souvenirs, then we visited the Tropical Gardens -- not too far from the boat.
It is a family farm where they grow a large variety of tropical fruits and plants and it is high in the hills with a gorgeous view. They make fresh fruit drinks and give you samples of the tasty jams they make with interesting combinations of their fruits. They also grow vanilla beans and they showed us how they have to pollinate the flowers by hand to produce the beans.
It was another interesting day and once again I'm exhausted. Need to get my rest because tomorrow is the big hike up the 3 Coconuts from the Belvedere Lookout!
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Now that I have some internet I have added a few pictures to the blog posts I made while underway on the passage from the Gambiers to Moorea. I hope to add some albums to our photo gallery soon, but until I do here are some glimpses into our voyage.
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07/21/2012, Moorea, French Polynesia
We rented a car with Vicky, who has been here since June 22nd and has driven around the island several times, so she was able to show us the sights. And a wonderful first look it was!
We circumnavigated Moorea stopping at the major highlights and ending up at the big Champion store where we did some good provisioning as the cupboards are getting bare after all our remote traveling.
Tomorrow we will do some more exploring and then on Sunday we'll drive back up to the Belvedere Lookout and do the 3 hr round trip hike to an even better lookout!
It's a beautiful island and we're happy to have an experienced tour guide to drive us around and show us the sights! Thanks Vicky!
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This makes the melancholy in my heart go crazy... I miss this place so much.
We enjoyed a day of boat projects with a little snorkeling thrown in so all is well abroad Cetus.
Tomorrow we've reserved a car with Vicky and will do some provisioning as well as some good sight seeing and hiking too,.
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Still in the midst of getting Cetus back to normal after the difficult passage but we managed to get in some shore leave and picked up Vicky this morning and she guided us through the pass to the next bay over (Cooks Bay) where we tied the dinghy at the Bali Hai Hotel then walked to the nearby town, visiting some shops, a super marche (small store) and the bank machine.
It was a great adventure and now we have a good lay of the land -- and some cash to spend. Afternoon was spent on boat projects but we have snorkeling plans for tomorrow morning before we tackle some more cleaning/repair projects. It's a good mix of work and play and we're thoroughly enjoying this beautiful anchorage.
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We pulled in and anchored in this beautiful spot Monday evening at 5 pm -- putting an end to the 11 day ordeal that the passage from the Gambiers had become.
After a warm welcome from Vicky on Inspiration at Sea we enjoyed a quick swim in the beautiful water surrounding the boat and then Vicky returned with food and drink and we swapped sea stories from all our passages since she left the Galapagos at the end of May. It was a wonderful reunion and she even brought camarones for Rosie!
A nice long comfortable sleep -- no more rocking and rolling! And we awoke to a beautiful morning and are now getting things back in order aboard Cetus.
Looking forward to enjoying this lovely spot on Moorea -- and I'll write more about the passage in the next blog.
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07/15/2012, out in the Pacific
We're sailing again!
Terry was able to retrieve the sea anchor without any problems (though it was a difficult task) and we are under way with near perfect conditions at the moment comfortable following winds and seas moving along at 5 knots =just what we'd hoped for all along.
We waited till 3 this afternoon to pull in the anchor, because the seas and winds were lessening all day and that was the first that it looked doable. Now we're going into what looks to be a very comfortable night and only 120 miles to go.
It will be nip and tuck to see if we can make landfall tomorrow before dark, so we're expecting that we'll finally get our anchor down on Tuesday morning.
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and we did.
After 24 hours of running with our long awaited following wind and seas, that were growing to uncomfortable strengths and size, we took the advice of Lin and Larry Pardey from their book Storm Tactics and took a break by putting out our sea anchor to wait until conditions improve to continue on.
The sea anchor is an 18 foot parachute made specifically for this purpose by Para-Tech. We've actually used it twice before, but this was the first time we had to deploy it with just the two of us on board. It was a difficult decision to make as we were making good progress and only had 137 miles to go to our destination. But conditions were worsening and we felt that it was dangerous to continue on as waves were beginning to crash into us and our trusty copilot Rick was having a hard time maintaining the tight course needed to not get sideways to the seas. We planned it out during the night and just waited for daylight to perform the task, and the bright red sky of the sunrise told us we had made the right decision.
Terry carefully inspected and prepared all the gear and then threw the sea anchor with two buoys attached over the side and put out 350 feet of 1" nylon line followed by 100 feet of chain with our sentinal attached (a heavy weight we use with our anchor) to hold the line down in the sea. We then drifted back on it and voila, we are anchored at sea.
Due to the nature of the seas and swell, it is not as comfortable a ride as we had experience before with it, but we are happy to be out of any danger and able to rest and clean up the mess that Cetus has become in the last 48 hours. The forecast is for the wind and seas to gradually diminish over the next 2 days, so we'll have to wait and see what the conditions are like before we tackle the task of retrieving the parachute and getting under way again. The past two days our forecast has called for 18-25 knot winds, when in fact they were 25 to 35 with gusts as high as 47. We are still having winds in the 30's. And just as in the Sea of Cortez, it's not the wind speed that is the problem, it's what the seas become after a sustained period of high winds.
So that's our story for today. This short little passage from the Gambiers to Moorea has turned out to be the most difficult passage we've ever had.
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Well, we're hanging in there being pushed along by 25 to 35 knot winds and surfing down 10 to 12 foot seas. These conditions are predicted to last thru tomorrow then start calming down. We have the storm trisail and stailsail up and Rick, our trusty windvane, is doing a fantastic job of steering the boat along. We have to jibe a bit because the wind is directly behind us on our intended course, so we're traveling farther than our miles made good. If we could steer a straight course we'd be there Sunday without a doubt.
Things did calm down a bit last night, and we're hoping for the same tonight. At least when it gets dark you can't see how big the seas are. We're very glad Cetus is such a sturdy little boat.
We made 110 miles good yesterday so now have only 204 miles to go! We really hope the timing works out that we can get in Sunday before dark, but we may not make it till Monday morning.
We must be almost there because we're almost out of cookies :)
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Rick*, our Monitor windvane.
I honestly don't know how anyone can cross oceans without one. We've had the luxury of having an extra crew member (in the form of a windvane) since our first ocean passages aboard Cassiopeia. They are actually better than an extra crew member because they can stay at the job 24 hours a day and require no food or sleep, yet they perform the most arduous duties on board -- steering the boat in the right direction. And they seem to do a better job than the human crew.
His cousin Otto (the autopilot) is a great help to, but he requires power so to utilize his services we need to run the engine or he'll drain the batteries in a hurry. But in times of no wind, when Rick can't do his job, Otto is the man of the hour.
With a windvane at work steering the boat it allows all the other crew to take care of other tasks and to eat and sleep without someone always having to be behind the wheel. And steering a boat on the ocean in the winds and seas we're having is difficult at best and very wearing, so with Rick at the helm doing the toughest job on the boat, we are able to take care of everything else much easier. Thank you Rick!
* It seems all cruisers are want to give a name to their windvanes to recognize them as the crew member that they truly are. Monty is a common one for Monitor windvanes and others have named them after family members that they wish were sailing with them. Our windvane on Cassiopeia was a Navic windvane (designed for smaller boats) and when the salesman sold it to us the said it was like a Ford compared to a Monitor which is the Cadalac. So, since it was a Ford we called it Gerald. We've chosen to call Cetus's windvane Rick, after the fictional character in Terry's books.
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The winds have picked up to the predicted 20+ knots from the ESE so its making for a great ride aboard Cetus. Since it is downwind sailing we do have to deal with a little side to side rocking, but having the seas coming from behind us giving us that extra little push as we surf down the waves is a nice feeling after those three days of bashing into the same type of seas.
We've got sun and blue sky with lots of white puffy clouds now instead of the ugly grey squally weather that came with those NW winds. Nothing quite as nice as trade wind sailing. And we're finally making some mileage good to our destination of Moorea and put 109 miles under our keel yesterday. Right now we have 341 miles to go -- yipeeee!
So all's well aboard Cetus and we're enjoying the ride.
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