Blog 9 Aug. 2022

16 40.94S:151 29.18W

Rest Days at Apu Bay

We had windy but safe nights while on the mooring, both on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, a guy in a small va'a, the new version of the sleek and traditional, single-outrigger canoe, came by and asked that we depart by Thursday afternoon. Our fine mooring, it turns out, was owned and maintained by a local pearl farm and they had planned to rent it. Of course we agreed.

We enjoyed two wonderful rest days at Apu. Hanging on a sturdy mooring provides security for restful sleep, and easy departures. We read and puttered with boat projects and had glorious cocktail hours. Enough boat turnover in the mooring field allowed us to watch large families and couples handle their boats as they made their way through a mooring field, and struggled to attach to a mooring. A couple in a monohull, with the woman at the bow, were on their mooring quickly, while a big, extended family (grandparents, parents, kids) on a rented catamaran, struggled for an hour. It's easy to tell if a person is experienced in grabbing a mooring by their approach on the boat's bow. The woman I mentioned was standing on her bow holding her extended boat hook like it was a whaling harpoon. She was scanning the water for moorings and it was quite obvious that she knew exactly what she was doing.

I haven't mentioned this because I'm still coming to terms with it myself.

As we headed North on Sunday for our abortive trip to Tapuamu, we crossed the inner end of Heuripiti Pass, a heavily used pass for vessels traveling to and from Bora Bora. We've commonly used it for that express purpose, both coming and going to Bora Bora.

On the outside of the pass, healed over on her port side, was a new sailboat wreck. She still had her dodger and bimini up, but no sails out, so the wind and waves hadn't destroyed the canvas yet: the wreck was evidently quite new. We'd had no word of another boat wrecking on the reef and we've never seen one there. If I had to guess, she was coming from Bora Bora and simply cut the corner into the pass too closely. Of course, there are a million other reasons to explain the wreck at that location, but since she was right at the pass entrance, it's not an unlikely scenario.

She was well on the reef, so the seas had pounded and pushed her further than her original collision point, and may have turned her around, as well, indicating a completely different cause. We'll be on the lookout for more information as we can acquire it and I'll pass it on. At any rate, the wreck is the final resting place of a set of dreams riding on a sailboat.

French Polynesian authorities have mandated that the owner must pay for the wreck's removal. That's not unreasonable but it is a heavy blow for the owners. "Removal" at this point, probably doesn't mean dragging her off the reef and sinking her, but hauling her back to land and having her cut into pieces for disposal in a landfill someplace. I'm assuming that she won't be salvaged but that's usually possible, depending on the damage and the owner's pocketbook.

Still, it's a sight that disturbs every sailor, I think. We both hope that the crew was unharmed.