Just sitting here consoling myself by eating cheezy puffs (actually, ‘Biguns Fromage’), listening to the wind howl, swaying slightly in my seat as our boat gets nudged back and forth in the waves. This isn’t any fun AT ALL. We’re tied up to a mooring ball at Mai Kai Marina, and all I can think about is how much strain our poor bow line must be under, holding us in place against the pressure of the relentless wind. It’s been a fairly productive day but we’re both feeling a bit out of sorts. We anticipated leaving Bora Bora for Suwarrow today or tomorrow at the latest, but we made a last minute change in plans due to weather reports, and the fact that the friends we planned to do the passage with aren’t arriving until sometime later tomorrow.
This morning we (reluctantly) pulled anchor in a picturesque bay where we were tucked in nicely out of the wind behind a small motu (Island within the lagoon). Why did we leave our little patch of paradise? To take care of business before leaving for Suwarrow, of course! If we weren’t so darned determined, we could have procrastinated long enough to get the latest weather report which would have told us to ‘stay put’. But no, we had to ‘stay on task’ and charge across the bay to Mai Kai Marina (which is close to town) to go to the Gendamerie, buy provisions, and get fuel, rather than enjoy a day of snorkeling!
As soon as we turned the corner and headed for the Marina we were greeted by whitecap crested waves, and gusts of 38 knots. Man - what a disappointment. As we approached the Marina, Tom braced himself for a major challenge hooking us up to a mooring ball. With this much wind and chop, the pressure was on for me to maneuver the boat up to the mooring ball and hold the boat steady and motionless against the wind and waves. Good luck!
I throttled up and motored straight up to the ball, keeping it just to our port side (as directed by the Captain). My mission: slow from 5 knots to 0 and avoid any sideways motion so he could grab the mooring ball line, run our rode through it and tie us off before the wind and waves wreaked havoc with our plan. Mission accomplished in 60 seconds flat. Tom flashed me the ‘A-OK’ hand signal from the bow. This seemed too good to be true. I stayed at the helm working to keep us stationary, waiting for frantic hand signals and perhaps a bit of yelling, but none came. He returned to the cockpit with a big smile. Every once in a while everything comes together perfectly. Lady Luck was on our side this morning!
So we hopped into the dinghy and motored to the dock, with refreshing saltwater spray soaking us along the way. Nice. First stop: Marina Office for check- in formalities. But it was closed for the day. Hmmmm… it’s Sunday. Then we got a foreboding feeling about accomplishing the other items on our list during this ‘day of rest’. But the Officer at the Gendarmerie mentioned the other day that they would be open Sunday, so at least we could get THAT job done. We carried on, walking along the eerily quiet road into town. The only people we passed along the way were wearing their Sunday-best, and were returning from Church. We passed the chandlery. Closed. Then the gas station. Closed. A little further along - the Super U (grocery store). Closed. Finally, still further along, we found the Gendarmerie. Open. Whew! Just as he said it would be. So, we took care of business there, and headed back to our dinghy, feeling somewhat satisfied for accomplishing at least something in town today.
After a radio chat with our friends from Huck and a quick download of weather reports, we started wrapping our minds around Plan B: staying put for at least a few days. A weather trough was approaching (causing high winds) – which meant that there would be plenty more of what we were already experiencing in the bay. Not a good time to travel.
Still too geared-up to relax for the rest of the day, we worked on a few projects so at least we’d have some level of satisfaction at being productive today, and to justify leaving the beautiful anchorage and foregoing a day of snorkeling. So the freezer is defrosted, the beans have been soaked for a couple of recipes, we made more water, Tom topped up the engine oil, and cleaned the filter.
Our day is about to get much better. Our friends from Enchantment touched base to let us know that they’re at the Bora Bora Yacht Club, which is just a short 15 minute walk from here. We’re meeting them there for dinner, where we’ll have a great time swapping stories about our travels since we spent time together in the Tuomotus, and discussing our respective travel plans.
All in all, things are pretty darned great. There are many worse places to be stuck while we wait for the next weather window to head to Suwarrow!