06/19/2009, Moorea, Society Islands
Well, here it is: My first blog entry and my visit is already near its end. In only two weeks I have visited a few of the most beautiful places in the world. Tahiti was beautiful. We rented a car and drove around the entire island, stopping for pictures, lunch, and a tour of a tropical garden along the way. Alyssa and I tried climbing anything and everything. Of course, being the rain witch, I had to have a large storm come onto the island in the middle of the night, popping two of our fenders and throwing us up against the brick pier. Tahiti is definitely the hustle and bustle of the Society Islands, and we decided to find a more secluded anchorage. We then motored to a point outside Cook's Bay in Moorea and spent a few nights in between the reef and the island which created glassy water I've never thought possible in the ocean. After motoring towards the inside of Cook's Bay (and narrowly missing the reef) we stayed here for the last three nights, enjoying the jagged peaks of the mountains surrounding the protected lagoon of the bay.
Yesterday was our exploration of Moorea via scooter. Now, dad has driven motorcycles and scooters before, but for mom and me, it was our first time. So, of course, one of us would have to crash into something..... Let's just say I had a minor disagreement with a handmade stone wall.... And I won. After getting back on my feet (and returning the scooter to its upright position) we began our adventure around the island. The scenery was beautiful, but I almost spent more time trying not to be run over by the locals on the one road that circles the island. We went up to Belvedere, a picturesque spot about 2000 feet above both Cook's Bay and Opunohu Bay, where we found a trail down to a small waterfall. We'll try to upload the pictures from the last week as soon as we can. After seven hours of holding on to the throttle of the scooter my hands and arms were at their end. If it weren't for lunch and the few stops for shopping, I don't think I could have made it back to our side of the island.
For now, I'll have to end the blog entry a little short. We are heading back to Papeete for the sailing rendez-vous, and I will definitely do at least one more blog before I head back to reality.
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06/17/2009, Baie De Cook, Moorea
We have had a whirlwind existence for the past week, taking advantage of our time together with Megan and Alyssa. We played tourist for several days, renting a car and circumnavigating the island of Tahiti-Nui, stopping at local eateries, touring botanical gardens and acclimating Megan to island life. We enjoyed the nightlife and restaurants at Marina Taina, making many new friends with the crews of the many superyachts moored at the Marina, and even getting a tour of one of the largest, Aquilla, owned by a Russian Oligarch. The crews of the superyachts, average age 26 and Aussie, were a kick, always looking for the next party, and if they could not find one, create one. They organized a blues/fusion band one evening, and a full-on Tahitian feast and dance another night. The gallery has many more shots of this party.
I have promised Rina a "spa day" for several months, so we took advantage of a very nice spa at the International Beachcomber, getting massages, facials and wraps of various types. Given the low occupancy, they were dealing, so we got the run of the facilities, including steam room, "interactive aromatherapy showers" and secluded tea room for half a day for a relative pittance. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch with a bottle of Vueve overlooking the pool and lagoon beyond, with Moorea in the background. After 4 full days, we put Alyssa on an airplane home, and she is now enrolled in summer school at Gavillan College in Gilroy. Back to reality for her!
The next day, the 3 of us escaped the noise and density of Tahiti for Moorea, where we are once again enjoying the tranquil life. That is, until Carinthia showed up from Bora Bora, and proceeded to through another in a series of rousing parties. Tahiti is nice for the convenience and accessibility of services, but boy, are we getting used to having nearly secluded anchorages to ourselves.... Quite a transition from Mexico...
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06/12/2009, Papeete, Tahiti
Boy, it's sure fun having the girls together (Isn't this a cute picture!?!). We walked an amazing botanical garden "Jardin Botanique de Paperari". Trees, plants, and flowers from all over the world. They seem to thrive on the climate here. A little (I mean A LOT!) rain never hurts anything! We drove completely around Tahiti, nothing but green mountains, the bluest teal waters and surfing galore. Great time, we will be missing Alyssa soon, leaving Saturday evening...then we are off to Moorea for diving, snorkeling, kayaking and mountain hiking to fill Megan's vacation time. Hello to everyone, and you'll hear from me soon!
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06/11/2009, Papeete
I think its clear clean drinking water! The long saga *appears* to be over. After 9 weeks wrestling with our watermaker, we appear to have finally restored its health. After receiving new seals and o-rings upon our arrival in Papeete, I rebuilt the high pressure pump, changed all the filters and started her up. In less than a minute we were making water... then 10 minutes later, we were not. A string of obscenities emanated from the aft lazarette. I started looking around, and noticed a washer was loose, pulled out an allen wrench and noticed that several bolts were loose.... Hmmmm, could has sworn I torqued those. Turn it on again, it makes water for 30 minutes, then the pump starts stalling, increasing pressure, which then forces the system to stall the feedpump, dropping pressure to the membrane and, you guessed it, STOPS it from making water. More toxic language bounces off the hull. I pull the high pressure pump out, and completely disassemble it, looking for seals or o-rings that have shifted but find nothing. I put it back together and reinstall and start her up. It makes water for 1 hour, then 2 hours, then 4..... hmmmm. At this point, with my tragically optimistic outlook, I was ready to declare victory. I decided to toast the momentary victory and wait for another day to declare a total victory. The next day, we made water for 6 hours with no issues. So there it is.... The weight has been finally lifted...
So what was wrong? The original problem was a blown feed pump that spewed water all over the inside of the boat, but a separate and unrelated problem was the seals on the main pump shafts not holding sufficient pressure. Comparing 2 of the 8 seals with new, there was an important lip missing on the inside edge that contacts the shaft. There was lots of rust residue inside the unit, and our hypothesis is that the rust helped the seals degrade. The source of the rust appears to be two plugs on the end of the large pump, which show stains flowing down into the bottom of the pump.
Lets hope this is the end of it!
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06/10/2009, Papeete, Tahiti
We left Rangiroa on the afternoon tide, on the backside of a big windstorm that kicked up 10 foot short period waves outside the pass over the previous several days. We were expecting to make the 200 mile trip over two nights and arrive in Papeete in the morning. Instead, the 18-25 knot winds on our beam allowed us to average well over 7 knots the entire passage. Rather than head into Papeete, we stopped at Point Venus, about an hour before Papeete and got to anchor behind a reef in clear blue waters just in time for sunset. 200 miles in 27 hours for an average of 7.4 knots. I think that is a new 24 hour record for Follow You...177 miles. It was a bumpy ride, but well worth it to only spend one night at sea.
The next day we motored into Papeete harbor. OMG: Civilization... Dirty water, tons of cars, lots of noise... tons of restaurants, a fully stocked Carefour superstore market, and the hustle and bustle of lots of people. Kinda exciting. Our reservation at Marina Taina, made over 6 weeks ago, meant nothing apparently. To paraphrase that great philosopher-king J. Sienfeld, [with irony] "You know how to *take* the reservation, but you don't know how to *keep* the reservation. *Keeping* the reservation is the most important part of the reservation" We had to schmooze constance in the harbormaster office every day for 4 days to get a side-tie, in which we are now comfortably ensconced.
Megan arrived on Tuesday night and it's the full nuclear family together for the first time in 6 months... feels nice. After a chill day yesterday while a big storm created overcast, high winds and constant monitoring of our dock lines and fenders, we are headed out to play tourist today, touring the island in a rental car under blue skies and gusty winds.
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06/02/2009, Rangiroa
Take a look at the updated gallery for cool underwater pics of octopi, Alyssa swimming, our best sunsets yet, Rina and Allan fighting with the Watermaker (again) and other assorted stuff.
Off to Papeete!
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How insanely awesome, youse two (three), gonna peruse the gallery now.
06/02/2009, Fakarava, Tuamoto Islands
Yes, we've been delinquent in our duties... We arrived in Rangiroa a week ago and got so distracted that we neglected to share....
Upon arrival, we enjoyed some of the best weather and snorkeling yet, with a vibrant reef and clear water. We anchored off the Kia Ora resort at Passe de Tiputa in a glassy calm, where the horizon within the lagoon blended seamlessly with the sky above. The scenery here is exotic, with high end resorts bungalows over the water, an inviting dock, multiple dive centers and a very cool but way-to-expensive bar.
On our first night, we took the dinghy in to enjoy the sumptuous Sunday night buffet, which was an oasis of taste the crew of Follow You had been craving for months, including sushi, oysters, crab and other recent rarities. We snorkeled twice a day, seeing a different variety of sealife, including dolphins, octopi, and those fish that swim in real tight schools, just like in "Finding Nemo", LOL.
The idyllic scene eventually changed however, as a significant front came through, dropping many inches of rain on us over a couple of days, clouding the waters and bringing 20-25 knot winds. Once again, our 69lb Rocna anchor proved its worth, spinning and resetting in the sand as the winds reversed direction.
We passed the time playing scrabble, watching movies, skyping with an increasingly excited Megan, who will join us shortly and completely disassembling and cleaning the high pressure pump for the watermaker. Our replacement parts await us in Papeete and we will depart today, assuming the winds decline enough to squash the 8 foot standing waves in the pass. Several boats tried to leave this morning, only to turn back in the face of the intimidating conditions.
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05/24/2009, Rangiroa, Tuamoto Islands
Anchored off the many coral heads, sitting on the beach, taking it all in after yet another great snorkel adventure.
After dropping Stephanie and John at the Airport, Rina, Alyssa and I headed just down the inside coast of the atoll to anchor where there was rumors of good snorkeling and good internet access. We found both, although the winds made the anchorage very bumpy the first night. Luckily, we were rewarded the next two nights with a dead calm and glassy conditions. We also found a great restaurant, Teanuanua that we did both lunch and dinner at over a couple of days, enjoying the ambience and food. Check out the newly updated gallery for a bunch of new pictures of this restaurant, snorkeling and passage pictures taken by Carinthia.
We made an overnight passage to Rangiroa last night in calm seas and light winds. We did get 8 knots on the beam overnight though, which allowed us to sail in quiet comfort with a positive current. We arrived at high slack tide and had an easy entrance through the pass, which was filled with drift divers and snorkelers. Even at slack tide, we were doing 9.5 knots SOG while only 5 through the water. We'll hang out here for a couple of days, snorkeling the pass and catching up on some maintenance items before heading to Papeete next week.
-allan
Ps. LOTS of new pics in the gallery
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05/18/2009, 16 03.6'S:145 37.2'W, Rotoava, Fakarava Atoll
On Friday we weighed anchor, taking only 30 minutes to extricate it from the coral heads, to sail the 12 miles inside the Fakarava lagoon to an anchorage at the midpoint of the atoll. Our electronic charts are amazingly accurate here; with coral motu's sighted within 20-30 feet of their chart position. Inside the confines of the atoll, which is 10 by 30 miles, there are well defined and marked channels which snake a path from north to south. After a 2.5 hour sail to a 2 mile crescent bay, we anchored 50 yards from a sandy beach buffered by small mushroom shaped motus that provided excellent snorkeling in 85 degree water. Winds had shifted to the east, providing a nice lee for our anchorage overnight. These idyllic conditions were only to last for another 12 hours, unfortunately.
On our second night, winds shifted to the north and the wind driven chop made for a moderately bumpy night. By mid morning the intensity increased and the wind waves grew to 4 feet. We decided to head to the north end of the island where there would be less fetch for the increasing winds. The 15 mile trip took several extra hours as we beat directly into the wind, sometimes making only 2 knots over ground. Our bow would rise slowly and fall into a large trough, shuddering in the process. We had not experienced this kind of slamming since summer afternoons on San Francisco Bay just south of San Francisco Airport, where the winds bounce off San Bruno mountain and kick up huge wind waves, creating similar conditions. And this was all INSIDE the lagoon.
We arrived at Rotoava, the main village on the island in the late afternoon and anchored in smooth white sand for a change. The anchorage, however, was like a washing machine due to the currents and wind. We prepared for a rough night. We made dinner reservations at Teanuanua, a very cool local restaurant and checked our snubbers for signs of chafe as seas continued to build. Late in the day we got word that the restaurant would not serve dinner due to the weather conditions, as they are right on the water. We quickly found an alternative further south at Havaiki, one of the resorts just out of town. Even better, they would send a bus to pick up our party, which had now grown to 10, with the addition of Carinthia and Wayward Wind. With very little grace given the heaving boat, we stumbled into the dinghy and headed for the dock. After a wet ride that all but negated the positive effects of the showers we had just taken, we met up with the rest of our party and jumped o n the rustic tourist bus for the 2 mile trip to the restaurant. Arriving at Havaiki we had one of those wonderful long meals with great food, great drink and great conversation.
After dinner we poured ourselves back in to the bus, headed to the dinghy dock to find the anchorage utterly transformed, and not by our blood/alcohol level. During our 3 hour venture, the winds shifted 180 degrees and turned to a whisper. Better yet, the anchorage was now a flat calm. We slept well and long that night, probably due to the aforementioned blood/alcohol level, and awoke to another idyllic scene. It's amazing how the sea state influences your impressions, as the prior day, the town and its surrounds looked foreboding, while today it was straight off a postcard. Restaurant Teanuanua was open for lunch today, so we dinghied back and had one of our best meals yet, in an amazing setting right on the water.
We will hang here for a couple of days awaiting the supply ship, which brings fresh veggies weekly from Papeete. Stephanie and John depart tomorrow afternoon after a month aboard Follow You. They have become competent cruisers, adapting well to the rhythms of life aboard and the compromises necessary for 5 people to coexist on a 46 foot boat, especially with our limited water supply while in the Marquesas. Next up is Rangeroa, 100 miles to the North. -allan
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We're off to explore Highway 49 this Memorial Day, so will say hi to the area for you.
SJ
05/15/2009, Fakarava, Tuamoto Islands
As expected, Carinthia invited the entire anchorage over a Mexican potluck and jam session. Along with Hipnautical and Follow You, we were joined by Aaron and Lauren from Wayward Wind and Tim, Elizabeth and Seth from Honeymoon, for a total of 16. Rina and Alyssa made tamales and handmade wholewheat tortillas which were the hit of the party, along with Elizabeth's ceviche. We jammed until 2 hours past (cruisers) midnight, or until the tequila ran out. We had 3 guitarists, flute, and a variety of percussion. Roger and I, in the photo above, very much found a mutual wavelength, with a lot of great improve between us.
Our zinc's are changed, rudder and thruhulls inspected, knotmeter, depth sounder and fridg anodes cleaned and so were heading north to the middle of Fakarava lagoon to Motu Vahapiapia where there is supposed to be excellent snorkeling.
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