Moorea and the Sailing Rendezvous
23 June 2009
Roger
Tane has posted the latest batch of photos. These include the ones with the 80+ sharks (part of a school of 300-400) and the sailfish.
The downtown yacht quay filled up completely by Thursday evening, and boats were squeezed into the smallest gaps. Little knots of cruisers gathered on the docks, and parties developed on several boats as friends got together once again.
I was surprised to see representatives of marinas in Whangarei and Tauranga working the crowds, handing out literature about their facilities in New Zealand.
The official start of the Tahiti Moorea Sailing Rendezvous was on Friday. A marquee was set up near the cruise ship dock for registration, vendors, and a little entertainment. We were asked if we would take additional passengers for the rally to Moorea on Saturday morning, and we accepted. A cocktail party and reception, complete with speeches from the organizers and local government officials, was held in the evening.
The two young women who were our passengers arrived around 9am on Saturday morning, and we joined the crowd of boats heading out the pass for the race to Moorea. Our passengers both worked for the Rendezvous organization, and are in training as cruise ship crew. One of them had been a pearl farm diver in the Tuamotos. Unfortunately, there was very little wind, and what there was was coming directly from Moorea. The boats were started in three groups at 5 minute intervals: Monohulls 40 feet and under, larger monohulls, and catamarans. This meant we were in the first group. As 10:05 arrived, we crept over the start line, and then began moving slowly out to sea. In the very light and patchy winds, boats would approach and pass, only to drop back and be passed in turn. Boats ahead of us would gain ground, then stop in a dead patch and all be pointing in different directions. We were dogged by a 27 foot Nor'sea, a father and son we met later on a 5 year circumnavigation. They passed us, then we passed them, then... we did finally beat them across the finish line. Gallivanter, at 47 feet, raced pass us, then fell into a hole. We also beat them. The boat that won, Incantation, came past us quite quickly---it's a long and racy boat, and they were flying a huge spectra genoa. After about 5 miles, the race committee shortened the race by placing the finish line boats perpendicular to the leading boat at the time. Because of the wind angles, we still had nearly 15 miles to motor to the anchorage after passing the finish line!
We motor more slowly than just about everyone else, so by the time we got to the anchorage, it was very full. In fact, there were more than 70 boats packed into a small area just inside a pass and behind the fringing reef. We anchored amongst the super yachts, three huge sailboats that were not part of the event. We were very close to three other boats, and at times, very close. As the flow through the pass changed with the tides, the current would change direction in the anchorage. However, the wind affects each boat differently, so at times we'd all be facing different directions. On the second night, there was a stronger wind and suddenly it was a bumper boat event as several boats dragged, or swung into others. It would have been most entertaining had it not happened at 2am.
Tane and I formed a team with four others for the traditional Polynesian games. The first was an outrigger canoe race, where we came second in our heat. Each boat had four team members and two locals, one at the bow to set the cadence and switch sides with the paddles, and one at the stern to steer. It soon became apparent that the boat with the local woman in the bow always won---it seems she set a much higher cadence than the men. We found this out only after we'd raced. The other events were a foot race carrying fruit (a stick with a bunch of bananas at each end), husking and milking coconuts, and stone lifting. There were three stones, 80lbs, 150lbs, and 200lbs. On Saturday night, we had dinner at a nearby Hilton hotel that consisted of individual thatched cottages on stilts in the water, and on Sunday, a traditional meal was served in the park near the anchorage.
The event was very well organized, a great deal of fun, and we met many more of the cruising fleet.
The anchorage was at Opunohu bay, the location used in the film South Pacific. At the head of the bay, there's a magnificent spire mountain covered in green jungle---this is probably the most common shot you see of French Polynesia, and it is breathtaking. There are other peaks around it, and the whole effect is both dramatic and exotic.
We stayed another two nights as we explored the area. A dinghy ride of about two miles around the island inside the fringing reef took us to an area of shallow water with a sandy bottom in front of the Beachcomber hotel, another of the thatched cottages on stilts affairs. Here we swam with stingrays. You get in the water with snorkeling gear and soon they arrive, some of them four feet or more across. We brought along sardines to feed them, others brought along raw fish. You stand on the bottom and hold the food in one hand. As a ray passes, you grab its nose with your free hand and feed it with the other hand. Their mouths are underneath, and if you hold on to the food too long, you discover that they have very strong jaws! Once they notice you have food, you have a crowd around you, pushing their heads out of the water and against you. It's quite an experience, as they push and jostle. The underside is velvety soft, and they seem to enjoy being tickled and scratched under the nose. It was fun to watch new arrivals in dinghies hop into the water and be mobbed by the rays---lots of panicked yells and mad scrambling back into the boats. All the while you're being entertained by the rays, there are several black tip reef sharks cruising around the periphery.
Tane and I also did some tank dives on the outside of the fringing reef, thanks to our friends on Arielle and Long White Cloud. Each day, we had a picnic lunch ashore in the beautiful park grounds with a group of friends, and on the last day, held a book swap as well. It was all great fun.
On Tuesday evening, we raised the anchor and started the overnight passage to Huahine, 80 miles to the northwest.