Tahiti

Our passage from the Tuamotus to Tahiti was a quick one. We went through the Fakarava pass at 3.15pm on Monday, a bit after slack water. There was a little turbulence and we used the engine as well as sail just to ensure we stayed clear of the reef. The south easterly breeze was 20-30 knots and we were all (Good2Go, Slick & Gypsea Heart were also out there with us) reefing sail to both stay under control and slow down so we didn’t reach Tahiti in darkness. We tried to have a game of Scrabble during the day, but gave up as the sea was just too lumpy. We motored into Papeete Harbour at about 7.30am Thursday.

We are tied up at the Town Quay on a floating dock with quite a few other cruisers. It’s a very convenient place to be as we are less than 5 minutes walk along the waterfront from the centre of town. I, Louise, have been in ice-cream and shopping heaven since we arrived. The clothing stores are having sales in the lead up to Bastille Day (July 14) so it has also been a great opportunity to replace some of my fetid banana stained tops and shorts. It takes a cruise like this to discover just how badly banana sap stains clothes!

Just near the Town Quay is the area where the ‘roulottes’ set up each evening. These are vans from which you can buy your dinner and sit at the plastic tables they also provide. The food is reasonably cheap, good and plentiful and we have eaten there a few times, enjoying the Chinese food and crepes with ice-cream. It’s nice to dine out in the mild evening and take in the sights and sounds. Speaking of which, each night we hear drumming or singing or music. We think it is the local people practising for the Heiva which is a major cultural event for French Polynesia and goes from about now to Bastille Day.

It’s really nice to see how the traditional culture is also everyday eg. Men and women wearing flowers behind their ears, vibrantly coloured pareus (sarongs) and amazing shell and bone jewellery.

Moorea

We spent last weekend at the neighbouring island of Moorea. There is a mob here who put on events for the Puddlejumpers (us mob who are crossing the Pacific by sailboat). They organised a great weekend which started on the Friday night with cocktails, dancing and fire sticks. On the Saturday morning about 30 yachts sailed over to Moorea – they kept calling it a rally, not a race, but everyone looked like they were racing to me! We left Brio on the Quay and went over with and spent the weekend aboard ‘Watermusick’. The Musick family, Bill, Becky and kids Joseph, Raymond and Melody were very kind to let us ‘invade’ their space for the couple of days. But honestly it feels like such a big boat compared to ours, we never felt like we were in anybody’s way.

Team Water Musick

We did pretty well in the ‘not-race’, coming in at 7^th place. The anchorage at Moorea is beautifully clear and has a stunning mountain backdrop. On the Sunday, we had a day of cultural sports and other activities, including outrigger races, tie-dying a pareo, banana carrying races, tug-of-war and dancing lessons. I just can’t seem to manage bending my knees one way while swivelling my hips the other way. The Polynesian women look so much more graceful and gorgeous when they do it.

Love that colour and movement!

Ivan's team won the outrigger races - Happy chappies!

Louise makes a pareo

Today is a public holiday in Tahiti for Independence or something like that. They call it the day of internal autonomy - sounds more like a surgical procedure to me. There are outrigger races going on just next to where we are on the Quay. People seem to have come from all over French Polynesia to participate and it is wonderful to see all the ‘colour and movement’ (as Dame Edna would say). The bodies, the costumes and the spectacular backdrop of Moorea island are all gorgeous.

Boys lining up for their race

Gorgeous girls - tres jolie



Tres jolie aussie

Tuomotus

We moved on from the verdant mountains and towering granite monoliths of the Marquesas to the Tuomotus group further south east. The geographic contrast couldn’t be greater: The Tuomotus comprise low lying, palm tree fringed coral atolls. The lagoons within the atolls are turquoise and aqua and lap upon brilliant white beaches. It is classic Pacific postcard and travel magazine cover imagery.

classic coral atoll scene

Our passage to the Tuomotus was 4 days and 4 nights to reach our chosen destination of Kauehi atoll. The sail across was fine, starting off in little or no wind and by the end of it dealing with squally, 30-40 knot winds. I mozzed us when I said as we were just about to enter the atoll through the pass in the reef that at least we hadn't had much rain with the squalls. As we motorsailed into the anchorage the skies thickened, the rain came in and it was grey all around. Not great conditions for seeing and avoiding the notorious coral heads that are in the atolls. But we knew it was a pretty easy pass to enter and could see most of what we needed to see on the chartplotter.

Speccy snorkelling

We celebrated my birthday here  -the big 50. I didn’t have the gourmet experience I was hoping for as there really is nothing but coconuts on these atolls, but I managed a chocolate brownie 'birthday cake' and we had a couple over from another boat to share a couple of bottles of red wine. The next evening a bunch of us got together on a catamaran (aka a palace) and feasted on fish and salads. Another chocolate cake was produced and I was sung 'happy birthday'.

a new 'do' for my 50th

After 4 or so relaxing days at Kauehi we moved on to Fakarava atoll. To ensure we got out the Kauehi pass as near to slack water as possible, we sailed up to the pass in the late afternoon to anchor just inside the pass for the night. There were 2 other yachts there doing the same thing. We had been undecided as to whether it was better to stay at our anchorage off the Kauehi village for the night and leave at 4.30am in the morning to get to the pass, or to spend the night anchored inside the pass, therefore only requiring a 6am start. To our regret we chose the latter. It was a very rolly anchorage and we got hardly any sleep, mostly because of the worry about whether the anchor would hold or the anchor rope would chafe, potentially letting us loose on the reef less than 20 metres behind us. As it turned out we survived the night, raised the anchor, still in the bucking seas, early the next morning and motored easily through the pass. We sailed in a south-easterly breeze of 12-16 knots, with quite rolly seas, the 30nm to Fakarava. As we were aiming to reach the northern pass of Fakara by about 1pm to get the end of the incoming tide, we turned the engine a couple of times to maintain an average speed of 5 knots. We came in through the pass at the expected time and sailed down to the anchorage off the town of Rotoava, dropping the anchor amongst about 10 other yachts at around 2.30pm.

As with the previous village we stayed at and in the Marquesas, the people who live here are very welcoming and generous. The villages are very clean and neat and while it is hard for people to grow a garden on the coral base in the Tuomotus, many houses have some bouganvillea, frangipani and assorted other plants around them.

the local boys gave Ivan a fishing lesson

We hired bikes for a day and rode the length of the bitumen and beyond. In one direction from the town the sealed road stretches for 16km and then continues for about another 5km. There wasn’t much to see along the way other than some houses and pensions and of course the ubiquitous coconut palms! We enjoyed the exercise though. Because the nature of coral atolls is that they are circular and narrow, we could usually see either the lagoon side or the ocean side of the atoll at any one time. The width of the atoll is probably only about 500m on average. In the other direction from town, the sealed road only goes for about 3km – to the airport. Most people come to the Tuomotus for the diving and snorkeling. I came for the chance to ride a bike on an airport runway – not many places in the world you can do that!

another baguette about to be devoured

After a really interesting tour of a pearl farm, including the purchase of a belated birthday present for me, we set sail for Tahiti.

Miss allie pic

The Marquesas

We spent 11 days in the Marquesas, exploring 3 different locations. We could have spent weeks there of course, but we really are trying to get this little boat home to Australia. Anyway, if I was to be a ‘live-aboard’ it would definitely have to be on a 45ft catamaran, complete with shower, a decent sized bed and communication systems that don’t involve standing on one leg, at a 45 degree angle holding the satellite phone out the hatch while the rain comes in! Ok, maybe that last one was a bit of an exaggeration.

Back to the Marquesas…..we arrived in Taiohae Bay, Nuku Hiva in the early afternoon on Thursday 24 May. We had a big sleep that night and the next morning rowed the dinghy (our crappy second hand outboard has spat the dummy and Ivan likes the exercise) to the dock and walked up the pretty little street, passports and boat papers in hand to check in with the Gendarmes. The Gendarme who checked us in had only arrived on the island from Paris a few days prior. Apparently they have to do a 3 month stint in a French outpost every couple of years. We said he must have felt very lucky to have been posted to such a beautiful place. He looked at us like we were crazy. I guess the Marquesas are a bit quiet for a boy who’s grown up in Paris!

Approaching Nuku Hiva

My brain and belly have both switched gears since leaving the Galapagos. I have caught myself on more than one occasion saying “gracias” instead of “merci” or “hola” instead of “bonjour”. It’s hard to shake off months of Spanglish, replacing it overnight with rusty schoolgirl French. Still, it keeps the brain plastic they say! As for my belly –baguettes, brie, pate and chocolate mousse – I was in heaven! A big topic of conversation amongst cruisers is food – what is available and where and when to get it. It is extreme in the Marquesas (and the Tuomotus) where fresh food is hard to come by. We love visiting markets wherever we are, but having to get to the Taiohae Bay market at 4am just to get some veggies is ridiculous! By 5am it’s all sold out. We did it though and came away with avocadoes, lettuce, tomatoes, bok choy and some fruit while others who arrived later came away with “nada” oops “rien”.

We did a tour of Nuku Hiva with another couple. It was really interesting to learn the history of the island from Richard, our guide, as well as hear about current social issues they face. The island only schools children up until abut year 9. After that they have to go to Tahiti to continue their education. Richard’s daughter is only 6 years old now, but he is already worrying about sending her off on her own to Tahiti as a 14 year old.

A pretty top view

We celebrated Ivan’s birthday in Hakaui (or Daniel’s) Bay. It is a relatively calm anchorage, surrounded by towering mountains and the feeble bleats of wild goats. A handful of families live in the bay. They grow fruit and some vegetables that are shipped to Tahiti every couple of weeks via the cargo/passenger ship Aranui. We asked a local couple to prepare a Marquesan feast for us and 8 others for Ivan’s birthday. It was a great afternoon featuring shrimps in coconut sauce, taro, green bananas, manioc, a salad of watercress and cucumber and banana turnovers for dessert. There was also a coconut husking session - it's not as easy as it looks!

Let the party begin!

From Hakaui Bay we day sailed across to the island of Ua Poa and spent a couple of nights in quite a rolly anchorage there. The dinghy landing there was a challenge as there was a huge swell at the dinghy dock. We just had to leap out very quickly and then drag the dinghy up onto the dock before the surge dragged it away from us. The village here was a little larger than the one at Hakaui Bay and even boasted a primary school and a shop. We were met at the dock by a guy who led us up the road to his family's fruit farm where we spent a couple of hours, talking, watching him make coconut milk and finally purchasing some fruit. It was nice to be able to have a freshwater shower at this village, even if it was just a stream of water coming out of a pipe in full view of everyone next to the dinghy dock!

Ivan chats to the neighbours while the granite looks on