Cruising is fixing things in Paradise
26 June 2023 | Baie Tapuamu, Tahaa, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Eric

Post time is 1330, 6/26/23
The passage from Huahine to Raitea on 6/18 was an easy sail. The wind
was a little light, but we managed to sail for a few hours. In Raitea we
found a public mooring ball near the reef west of Upuroa. The passage to
the mooring field was a twisty route around coral heads. We slowly made
our way with lookouts on the bow watching for the coral heads. The
actual mooring was in 20â (we draw six).
The next day, 6/19, we followed our breadcrumbs on the chart plotter out
of the mooring field and headed for a marina near the airport. The
marina was tight and required a med moor in a tight spot. Compounded
with a significant amount of wind I made several attempts, and finally
decided the marina and wind conditions were too much for Rover and me,
so I gave up.
Plan B was to go to the fuel dock, get fuel and hang out until our new
crew member, Jackie, arrived. That plan worked better, and after we got
off the dock we followed our well-worn breadcrumb trail to the mooring
field.
6/20, we finally escaped from the mooring field and headed for a ball
owned by the Ficus restaurant. Linda and I and our friends Mark and Kim
had dined here during a charter in 2018. The crew went ashore for some
adventures while I stayed aboard and worked on boat projects. Diane came
back with a lovely birthday/anniversary present from Mark (results of a
pearl farm tour) while Jackie got lost on her walk and depended on the
kindness of strangers for a ride back to the boat. We were the only
guests at the Ficus and had a wonderful dinner and conversation with our
chef. No dancing this time, since it was a Tuesday.
Strong winds were predicted later in the week, so we decided to head
over to Bora Bora for a few days. We were able to sail most of the way,
and turned on the engine as we approached the island. We threaded our
way through a narrow passage to a ball in 16.5â at Motu Tapua N Mooring
field. We stayed for an extra day and dinghied over close to the reef
for some snorkeling.
6/23 we reserved a ball at Bloody Maryâs Restaurant and had a nice
snorkel in the âCoral Gardenâ before dinner. Dinner was excellent,
reminiscent of our 2018 cruise. Afterwards, Jackie had another adventure
at the Heiva, a local festival and once again relied on the kindness of
strangers to get reunited with the crew at the dinghy dock.
6/24 we made the upwind passage back to Tahaa. Wind was pretty good, on
the nose, and we were able to put up all working sail: Jib and Mainsail
with a reef in each plus the staysâl. The crew hadnât sailed with that
many sails up, and really enjoyed being at the helm for several hours.
This was only the second time Rover sailed upwind since departing San
Diego. We caught a mooring ball belonging to Hibiscus restaurant in Baie
Motutiari just before sunset. Once again, we were the only guests and
had a wonderful dinner and a nice conversation with the proprieter.
Next morning, 6/25, we completed our counterclockwise circumnavigation
of Tahaa, anchoring in Baie Tapuamu. The anchorage was deep, and we put
out 250â of our 300â of chain. There was a Tapas bar made from a
voyaging canoe with a dinghy dock, so that was the obvious choice for
dinner.
This morning the plan was to head over to the city dock to do some
paperwork for the next passage. It was a 6 am roll and go, and it was
going well until weâd pulled up 25 feet of anchor chain and the windlass
stopped. An hour of troubleshooting and exploring alternative methods of
raising the anchor passed, and then we gave up on todayâs plans. My
morning was spent on my back with my upper body in the anchor locker.
The door is small enough I have to put my arms in first and squirm in.
The windlass motor hangs down and I have a half inch clearance from my
chest, not quite enough for a deep breath. After some disassembly,
reading of schematics, measuring voltages, etc, I isolated the problem
to one of the three relays. I removed the connections to that relay one
by one and cleaned them, speculating that corrosion was the culprit.
After reassembly, it worked. All the tools, references and spare parts
were put away after lunch.
With the remaining half day, we decided to do a drift snorkel across the
bay at Motu Maharare. The crew raved about the snorkeling as the best of
the trip, so far.
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