Society Islands
Sunday, August 28, 2011 – Bora Bora
Tomorrow morning we leave French Polynesia and head to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. It is a little sad leaving, but the time has come (literally as our visas expired 2 days ago) and we must move on. Rarotonga is about 580nm southwest of Bora Bora and it should take us about 4 days to get there. We will be incommunicado until then, except that you can follow our progress on the “where’s Hokule’a page”. Have a good week…..
Friday, August 20, 2011 – Tahaa
We loved Tahaa so much that we decided to come back. We are anchored in Tapuamu Bay right now and I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is here. Flat calm anchorages, millions of stars at night, and an amazing view of the sun setting over Bora Bora off in the distance. The other reason we came back was to have some more time to visit with Leo (the turtle guy) and to interview him for an Island Earth story. Bill and I met Leo 13 years ago when we were here on Far Niente and we were amazed at his passion and dedication in helping to save the endangered sea turtle population in Tahaa and Raiatea. In 1993 he started the Hibiscus Foundation and is credited with rescuing over 1500 sea turtles in that time.
Many of the turtles are accidentally caught and injured in fish traps or nets. These turtles would normally be sold by the fishermen to local Polynesians as food. Instead, Leo buys the turtles from the fishermen, puts them in a protected area off of the pier at the Hibiscus hotel, then feeds and cares for them until they are healthy enough (or in some cases large enough) to be released back in to the wild. Before being released the turtles are tagged, measured and weighed. All of this information is sent to the Regional Marine Turtle Conservation Program in Western Samoa where it is recorded in their database. The program keeps track of the turtles and sends the various rescue centers notices about their respective turtles. One of Leo’s turtles was found on an island some 3700 miles away, unfortunately it had been shot by a person spearfishing.
I have to admit that when I first met Leo, as impressed as I was with his passion and what the foundation was doing, I really questioned how successful his effort could be in the long run without a cultural change in the local community. I mean the Polynesians have been eating turtles for centuries. But here he is 13 years later, the foundation is doing well, and the local (Raiatea/Tahaa) turtle population is recovering. The problem he says is that the overall turtle population in French Polynesia continues to decline. Sea turtles are considered endangered by the French government which makes it is illegal to kill or consume them. However, enforcement of these laws is difficult at the local level and most efforts have been focused on large black-market/commercial operations. I think we just need more Leo’s around.
The Hibiscus Foundation is a non-profit foundation completely supported by donations and with a donation of 1000 euros, you can name a turtle and release it yourself. This level of donation was clearly out of range for Hokule’a and Solstice, but Leo was kind enough to let us release one anyway. We got a relatively young green sea turtle that we named “Leo” in honor of the man himself. Because Leo (the turtle) was so young we needed to release him in the lagoon versus the ocean. Leo (the man) showed us on the chart exactly where we needed to take Leo (the turtle) and we decided to take one boat (Solstice) figuring that we would need all three sets of hands (Jackie, Bill and Jake). First we needed to get Leo (the turtle) into the dingy, then out to Solstice, then up the ladder and onto Solstice’s aft deck. The climb up the ladder was interesting as I needed both hands to carry an understandably upset Leo (the turtle). Bill held the dingy securely against the ladder while Jackie grabbed the loop on my back pack and helped pull Leo and I up. Once on the aft deck, Leo calmed down a bit especially with some light neck rubs and head petting. It took about an hour to get to the spot, where we anchored Solstice, went back down the ladder with Leo and into the dingy. Leo was getting pretty excited at this point because he knew he was going home. We motored the dingy up to a sandy spot off of the reef, said our goodbyes, and Bill released Leo over the side. That was pretty darned cool. Stay safe out there Leo!
Thanks again to Leo (the man). You are amazing and keep up the good work.
Thursday, August 18, 2011 – Haamene Bay, Taha’a
So I “happened” to be looking over Jackie’s shoulder and read an email she was writing. It sounded like a good journal update to me, so I copied it off of the computer and here it is (with her permission of course)...
Yay, we finally have an internet connection again! It’s spotty and slow but beggars can’t be choosers.
We left Bora Bora about a week ago and backtracked a little to Taha’a. It’s only about three hours away so we decided that after all of our company left we would go back and spend a little more time there. We weren’t able to stay as long as we had wanted to the first time because we had our friends with us and we were on a whirl wind trip to see as much as possible. Taha’a is really a beautiful island. It’s also where the majority of Tahitian vanilla
is grown. So, of course, we had to go to a Vanilla farm. It was really amazing to see how they
grow the vanilla.
Unbelievably, they still hand pollinate every single vanilla plant. It was
very interesting to
see all of the hard work
that goes into producing the vanilla. Not being one
to let a good
opportunity pass me by, I took advantage of the local price and
bought some
vanilla beans.
In the states, 5 vanilla beans usually cost @$20 but here I was able to
get @ 30
beans for
$30. I’m still the bargain shopper:)
We also met a guy named Leo the first time we were in Taha’a. He runs a small hotel but also has a foundation that saves the local turtles that have been caught by the fishermen. The turtles are an endangered species but there is still an underground market for them in the islands. Jake and Bill wanted to come back to film a little documentary on him for the website. We were very fortunate, as Leo let us take a turtle on the boat and release him. Jake is going to write an update for the website about our turtle experience and we should have pictures and film clips up soon.
After releasing our turtle, we sailed around to the other side of the island and anchored in this beautiful bay that is across from one of the most luxurious resorts in all of French Polynesia. I don’t think I’ll be doing a spa day there:) Jake’s idea of a spa day is running the generator so I can have hot water for my shower:) Yeah, he spoils me. LOL
We’re going back to Bora Bora in a couple of days to get fuel and fill our water tanks. You can’t find water everywhere so when we have the chance we fill up on water so we don’t have to make so much underway. Then we’ll start watching the weather for a good window to head to the Cook Islands. Our 3 month time allowance in French Polynesia ends August 28th so we need to leave by then.
We’re picking up our friend, John, in Raratonga. He’s visiting for a month and is going to stay on Bill’s boat. He’s the
other guy who sailed with Jake and Bill when they sailed the South Pacific some 13 years ago. We’re really looking forward to seeing him. We had hoped that he could stay longer, but unfortunately he’s got to deal with that 4 letter word that starts with a “W” and lots of other obligations that keep his schedule very busy. So the next time I have to walk a ½ hour with my laundry or wonder when the next supply ship is coming in so I can get some fresh vegetables, I’ll remember what the alternative could be J…
August 14, 2011 – Richmond, VA - Journal Entry from the "Webmaster"
Hokule’a and Solstice have returned to Tahaa to interview Leo, the turtle man, and probably will not have internet access to provide updates for a few days. So I decided to contribute to Hokule’a’s journal during the lull. Jackie and Jake actually requested that I write something about the trip that my younger daughter, Shannon, and I made to Bora Bora to visit with Jackie, Jake and Bill. So here goes……
Shannon and I were fortunate enough to spend 10 days on the beautiful island of Bora Bora with our sailors (of whom we are extremely proud!!). We left the east coast about noon on Wednesday, July 27th, and after being on 4 different planes and a ferry, finally arrived in Bora Bora around 9 am GMT/UTC, (2 pm EDT) on Thursday, July 28th. Needless to say that after 24 hours of travel, we were pretty tired but decided to just stay up and take advantage of our first day in Bora Bora. What a wonderful sight to see Jackie and Jake waiting for us at the end of our ferry ride from the Bora Bora airport!! After many hugs and kisses, we hopped on the hotel shuttle and headed off to Hotel Mai Tai to check in and drop off our luggage. We were greeted with huge smiles, leis and an exotic juice drink upon our arrival at the hotel. Shannon and I, being landlubbers, had decided that staying on Hokule’a during our trip would not be a very good idea. Shannon tends to get sea sick and even though Hokule’a was anchored at the Bora Bora Yacht Club (yeah, right – it’s not your typical yacht club), we did not know how either of us would react to the motion in the lagoon. Better to be safe than sorry! With the amount of luggage we had, I don’t think we would have fit on Hokule’a anyway. We would have driven Jackie over the brink in no time flat.
Speaking of luggage, I have to tell you about the extra cargo I had to transport. Jackie and Jake needed some replacement parts for Hokule’a and asked if I would bring them with me and, of course, I said yes. During the weeks before the trip, boxes started showing up at my house with all the replacement parts that had been ordered and shipped to me. One of the items was a set of dinghy oars – a 32” long set of dinghy oars. Given that my largest suitcase is 29", I knew I had a problem. No worries, I would just find a 32” long duffle bag and pack my clothes and the replacement parts in it. I would still have only one bag to check – or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when, after putting all the replacement parts in the duffle bag, it weighed 35 pounds and there was no room for my clothes!!! I had no idea what the parts were but when I looked at the contents of the boxes, I thought that I would be lucky to get through security. I had a clock, a battery, a radio, a 300 volt something or other and I’m not sure what else. Well, that certainly looked like a possible red flag to me. A friend was driving me to the airport and as soon as he walked into my house, he said “You look nervous. Are you afraid to fly?”. I looked at him and said, “No, but if I get through security with that #$@$^$# duffle bag I will be damned lucky. I never want to see that duffle bag again!”. But I didn’t have any problems with security, just had to lug that thing through multiple airports and security checkpoints. Thank goodness for Shannon. She took charge of “the thing” and made life a lot easier for me. Travelling with her was a blessing. We had a lot of fun together on the trip to and from Bora Bora.
Back to our first day in Bora Bora….. Our room was ready when we got to the hotel, so we dropped off all of our luggage and started our 10 day adventure. We were staying at the hotel for only 2 days and then were moving to an over the water bungalow that we had rented for most of our stay. It wouldn’t be available until Saturday so the Mai Tai became home for the first couple of days. After seeing photos and reading journal entries of Jackie’s and Jake’s various modes of transportation to date, I decided we needed to have a car. Nir, the gentleman who manages the complex of bungalows where we would be staying, had a car that we could rent. After we settled in at the hotel, I called Nir and he came to pick us up and take us to get the rental car. Jake was kind enough to take on this task and let Jackie, Shannon and me lounge around in the hotel reception area. Jake came back with the rental car, an itty bitty Ford of some kind. We headed out to pick up Bill, grab some lunch and tour the island. We had a great lunch at Bloody Mary’s – at least Jackie, Shannon and I did. Bill and Jake weren’t too pleased with theirs. After that, we drove the one 18 mile road around the island and took in the sights. Bora Bora is absolutely beautiful. The variations in the color of the waters surrounding the island are unreal. Check out the photo gallery to see for yourself. There are a few mountains and the rest of the island is fairly hilly. This is a poor country as witnessed by the housing of the residents. The only luxurious sights are the many over the water bungalows that make up the various hotels on the island. And the only people you see in the shops are tourists.
Oh, and I have to mention the umbrella incident. As I was sitting in the Richmond airport waiting to board my plane, I received a text from Shannon asking if she should bring an umbrella. I had checked the weather and there was no forecast of rain in Bora Bora for the time that we would be there. So I sent her a text back telling her that no rain was forecast and she wouldn’t need an umbrella. Well, guess what. As soon as we had we checked into the hotel, it started raining. Of course, we had no umbrella and no raincoats. So we asked at the front desk about rain gear. Oh yes, the lady said, she had rain gear for us. She brought out these things that looked like giant open ended shower caps. It was all plastic with a cut out which was encircled with elastic for us to put our faces through. Needless to say, it rained a few more times during the week and I never lived down the “don’t bring your umbrella” thing.
The day after we arrived, Jackie, Shannon and I had breakfast at the Mai Tai and then headed to the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa for an afternoon of relaxation. We had to take a shuttle from the main island to the motu on which the spa is located. The resort is luxurious and beautiful. The massage rooms are built over the water and you can see lots of water creatures as you are getting a massage. We each had a massage and afterwards had lunch at the resort’s restaurant. Then we hopped the shuttle and headed back to Bora Bora. The next day was filled with shopping, shopping and eating, then more shopping.
On Saturday, we checked out of the hotel and headed to our over the water bungalow. It is located at the opposite end of the island from the hotel and was once part of Marlon Brando’s estate. In fact, its name is Marlon’s Over Water Hideaway #2. The bungalow next to it was owned by Jack Nicholson at one time. Shannon and I got our luggage together and I took one look at it and the car and wondered how in the world it would all fit. But if you know Jackie, you know that she is the world champion of packing. She got all of the luggage in and the 3 of us still fit in the car with the luggage. Never mind that I was sitting in the back seat with two of the suitcases stacked on top of one another. One sharp curve and I would have been beheaded. We arrived at the bungalow, schlepped all the luggage in and checked out our accommodations. Nice, very nice! Especially the huge covered porch on the front of the bungalow which was built over the lagoon.
Then it was off to pick up Jake and hit the grocery store for supplies. Never in the world did I think I would see the price of $30 on a pack of paper plates. But there it sat on the store shelf. Needless to say, we washed dishes all week long – no paper plates for us. Paper towels were $5 a roll and we used those sparingly. All paper products are priced unbelievably high. In fact, the price on most everything in Bora Bora is high. We got our supplies and fixings for dinner and headed back to the bungalow which seemed like it was about 100 miles away. Driving is treacherous on the island – dogs, people, bicycles, mopeds, you name it all over the place. It’s nothing to see a kid on a bike carrying multiple baguettes and a chicken home for dinner. And every time I looked up, we were going past Bloody Mary’s. I swear there’s more than one on the island! Jake grilled steak, tuna and shrimp on the great grill we had at the bungalow and Jackie and Shannon fixed salad and grilled veggies. And, naturally, all the veggies and fruit have to be soaked before they can be eaten. Somewhere along the way, we picked up Bill (lots of things are a blur now) and we all had a great dinner together. Bill became the dishwasher for the night.
The next few days went by much too fast. Jackie, Shannon and I did that shop til you drop thing almost every day. We must have looked at a gazillion pearls and, of course, Shannon and I could not leave Bora Bora without a few of our own. Jake spent a lot of time on the internet at the bungalow since access at the yacht club was limited and came with a price. We went for a dinghy ride one day and Shannon and Jake snorkeled while Jackie and I lounged in the dinghy. We grilled for dinner several more times, ate pizza at a little restaurant (yes, there is great pizza in Bora Bora), had lunch at the Aloe Café, went to Bloody Mary’s again – we had to since it was there every time I looked around - and just had a great time together. We went to a dinner buffet and Polynesian dance show at InterContinental Bora Bora Le Moana Resort one night. The food was fantastic and I was almost embarrassed by the number of times I went back to the buffet, especially for dessert. I got to dance with the Polynesian dancers and was dubbed the best tourist dancer of 2011, lol. We went to the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort and Spa for lunch on Friday before Shannon and I left on Saturday. What a beautiful resort!
We laughed and laughed and ate and ate and shopped and shopped. What more can you ask for to make up a great vacation? And we made a considerable contribution to the Bora Bora economy during those 10 days.
As much as we wished otherwise, the time for Shannon and me to leave rolled around. So Shannon and I packed up our things and that brings me back to that duffle bag. I had every intention of giving it to the first taker, but lo and behold, Shannon managed to fill it up with the goodies she purchased during the trip. So, once again, it was part of our journey. Only this time, it wasn’t mine to worry about!!!! Once again, Jackie’s “world’s best packer” title came in very handy. She fit all of the luggage and 4 of us (Jackie, Jake, Shannon and me) into the rental car. But there was absolutely no way we could get Bill in the car so Shannon and I had to say goodbye to Bill at the yacht club. Then it was off for more shopping, believe it or not, and then lunch at – you guessed it – BLOODY MARY’S!!!!! I need to see if I can buy a stake in that place. We spent the afternoon just messing around and waiting for time to board the ferry for the airport. All the while, Shannon was trying to figure out how she could stay in Bora Bora. She and I thought about asking Bill if we could sign on as his crew but then figured that he has enough trouble as it is. The 3 of us together would be a disaster in the making. But I bet we would have a heck of a lot of fun.
The time finally came for Shannon and me to board the ferry and say our goodbyes to Jackie and Jake. Wow, it was so hard to leave them. I wish we could have stayed longer but they would have been broke and no longer able to continue their journey and it would still have been hard to leave. I can still see them standing there waving at us. I miss you soooooo much and love you sooooo much, too. Shannon and I will see you next year in Fiji! In the meantime, know that we love you and think about you every day and pray for a safe journey for you and Bill.
So Shannon and I boarded the ferry and, upon arriving at the Bora Bora airport, discovered that our flight was delayed 1 hour. Oh great, what a way to get started. But everything worked out and, after another 24 hours of travel, we arrived home safely, Shannon in North Carolina and me in Richmond.
What a terrific vacation! Enjoy some photos of the trip…….
Saturday, July 30, 2011 – Bora Bora
As I mentioned previously, several years ago Jackie and I were here in the Society Islands on the Paul Gauguin. One of the most memorable times for me on that trip was scuba diving outside of the pass here in Bora Bora. That was when I saw my first really big shark underwater. I will never forget coming around a coral head and seeing this 12 foot lemon shark slowly turn and swim directly towards me. As it got closer, I could see that it was swimming with its mouth opened just enough to see some really scary looking teeth. It continued to swim directly at me until it was about 5 feet away and then it gently veered and swam past me. It was that experience that inspired the shark tattoo that I went out and got the very next day.
Now that we are back in Bora Bora, I really wanted to go see a lemon shark again. So on Wednesday, Bill and I went diving with a local dive operator here called Bathys. The first dive we did was in the northeastern part of the lagoon where we might be able to see some manta rays. Sure enough not more than 10 minutes in to the dive, I had a medium sized manta ray swim right over top of me. I say medium size because it only had a wing span of about 12’. Don’t get me wrong, a manta ray with a 12’ wingspan is a huge animal to see under water, but mantas can grow to have up to a 25’ wingspan. Thank goodness they only eat plankton. As far as being eaten, their only natural predators are really big sharks and orcas.
Our second dive was outside of the pass in the same general area where I had previously seen the lemon shark. The depth of this dive site was about 50’ and before I even hit the bottom I could see a large shark swimming below me. Lemon sharks get their name because their skin has a slight yellow tint, but from that distance I couldn’t tell if it was a lemon shark or not. Finally, I got close enough and I could see a second fin. Unlike many sharks, lemon sharks have a second large dorsal fin about two-thirds of the way down their back. As I am filming the shark swim away, I see something out of the corner of my eye and it is another lemon shark that is swimming over to check me out. Again with its mouth partially open and showing those amazing teeth. Fortunately attacks on humans are very rare with only 22 recorded incidents, which is surprising for such a large shark (up to 13’). Their diet typically consists of other sharks, sea birds, stingrays, and crustaceans. I saw 4 different lemon sharks on this dive all of which were in the 8’ to 10’ range. One shark (that seemed particularly fond of me) had a small school of golden trevallies swimming underneath its belly (see the photo).
It was a great morning of diving and an awesome welcome back to Bora Bora. I shot some pretty cool underwater video that we will try to get up on the website soon.
Speaking of the website, Jackie’s mom (best webmaster ever) and sister arrived on Thursday. So while the 3 girls were out having a spa day, or black pearl shopping, or something like that (I can’t keep track), the boys decided to do the hike to the summit of Bora Bora. The Lonely Planet travel guide for Bora Bora describes this hike as follows. “If you are really fit, you can try the arduous climb up to Mt. Pahia (elevation 661 meters), Bora Bora’s iconic summit. It’s a five to six hour hard going return hike from Vaitape, with some difficult uphill scrambles and a few treacherous sections. A local guide is essential as the paths are notoriously difficult to find and to follow. Don’t attempt to do this hike on your own because there have been numerous instances of hikers getting lost and injured along the way.” Bill, Jerry (our friend from the boat Pacific High), and I decide that we don’t need no stinkin guide. After all we navigated all the way to here from California, how hard could it be to find our way up a little hill. About 2 ½ hours later (admittedly with a little help from a local to find the beginning of the trail) we made it to the summit. Fortunately there were ropes installed to help get up and down some of the more difficult sections of the trail. The views were absolutely amazing. About 2 ¼ hours later we were back in Vaitape enjoying an ice cold adult beverage. Now that’s my kind of spa day….
Check Out These Cool Videos
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 – Bora Bora
Wow, I can’t believe that it has been 10 days since our last journal update. How I would love to be able to blame it on poor internet access, having company, or the fact that the webmaster is on her way here for a visit, but the honest truth is that we have been having way too much fun.
Our friends Dana and Peggy left today after spending an amazing week with us on Hokule’a. Here is the cliff notes version:
What a great week and a really nice vacation for Jackie and I from the normal cruising routine. Jackie’s mom and sister arrive on Thursday, so Bill and I have lined up some scuba diving for tomorrow. Hoping to see some big lemon sharks and manta rays…
Saturday, July 16, 2011 – Apooiti Bay, Raiatea
We arrived in Raiatea this morning after a fairly rough and squally trip from Moorea. The weather forecast had shown that we would have 15-20 knots of breeze for most of the night, then it would increase to 25-30 knots by later this morning. It was pretty accurate, but our course was nearly dead downwind and the seas were pretty confused. We sailed almost the entire way with only our jib.
We were happy to be in the lagoon when the wind picked up, but we still had to navigate our way around coral heads for about 5 miles to the northwest end of Raiatea where we wanted to anchor.
As luck would have it we had several squalls come through during those 5 miles. As a squall would approach we would take note of where the reefs/coral heads were, try to get into an open area, put a way point in the GPS, turn the boat into the direction of the squall, and try to hold the boat in that exact spot until the squall passed. It is really fun to have zero visibility and know that boat-eating coral heads are all around you.
The anchoring around Raiatea is pretty deep (80 to 120 feet) and over the past few years they have installed moorings in most of the shallower spots almost forcing you to pay for a mooring. Capitalism at work. So we settled onto a mooring in beautiful Apooiti Bay which is only about a mile from the airport where our friends will arrive on Wednesday. The airport actually has a dock where we can pick them up in the dingy. Sounds like a good project for LAX…
Thursday, July 14, 2011 – Cooks Bay, Moorea
About 5 years ago Jackie and I took a cruise through these Society Islands on the Paul Gauguin and spent 2 nights on the ship here in Moorea. One afternoon we ended up at the bar/restaurant of the Bali Hai Hotel which has an amazing view of Cooks Bay. Several boats were anchored in the bay that afternoon and Jackie said that she really hoped that we could be sitting here one day looking at our own boat anchored out there. Well today is that day and ironically the Paul Gauguin just came in to the bay.
We have had a wonderful week here in Moorea, but it time to move on. We have friends flying in to Raiatea in a few days and we are really excited to see them. Raiatea is about 100 miles away, so we are going to leave just before sunset tomorrow so that we can arrive there early Saturday morning.
Saturday, July 9, 2011 – Papeete, Tahiti to Opunohu, Moorea
Well the bus ride yesterday to Teahupoo ended up being quite an adventure, but well worth it. What was supposed to be a 1.5 hour bus ride from Papeete to Teahupoo turned out to be over a 3 hour trip with multiple bus changes. At one point I was the only person on one of the buses and of course the driver spoke only Tahitian. I ended up going to the bus maintenance area with him, the gas station to fill up the bus and I think we actually went to his house to feed his dog or something. The road ends at the town of Teahupoo and you have to walk about a mile to view the actual surf spot. To really get a good view you need a boat to take you out to the reef. The surf was pretty small for Teahupoo standards being only 6-9’. There was not a single person surfing…too small the locals said. This wave has been described by many pro surfers as the scariest wave that they have ever ridden.
We had planned on getting an early start to Moorea this morning, but at 8am was the start of the most prestigious va’a race of the year in Tahiti. The start line was once again right off the back of our boat. This race was the 6 man va’a race from Papeete around Moorea and back to Papeete. Thirty-five miles of open ocean paddling.
We ended up leaving Papeete at about 1000 and had the anchors down in Opunohu Bay on Moorea by 1:30pm. What an unbelievable contrast from all of the city noises to absolute silence (with the exception of a few chickens and a few hundred thousand crickets). Many movies have been shot here because the views in the anchorage are so stunning. Welcome to Moorea….
Sunday, June 26, 2011 – Papeete, Tahiti
We arrived in Papeete earlier this afternoon after a 31 hour sail from Rangiroa. We
timed our exit out of the Avatoru pass perfectly and had calm conditions with maybe
a half knot of current on the nose. Of course we wait until our last pass transit to get
the tide situation figured out. Oh well…
The pass into Papeete harbor is not much of a challenge in comparison to the Tuamotus.
It's wide and deep with little current. The entrance to the harbor does however cross
the approach end for the runway at Papeete airport, so prior to entering the harbor,
you have to call Harbor and Air Control to obtain permission to enter and cross the
runway approach.
Papeete is a busy harbor with lots of cruise ships and cargo vessels. The city itself is the
capitol and largest city in all of French Polynesia. Hokule’a is moored on the quay right in
the middle of the harbor, but amazingly we have a stunning view of Moorea off of our
stern.
The quay today is a mooring/dock combination where one end of the boat is tied
off to a mooring and the other end tied to a dock. It used to be (13 years ago) classic
Mediterranean mooring where you dropped an anchor and then backed up to a concrete
wall to tie off your stern. Today it is much nicer because you are further away from the
street noise and you have the choice of bow or stern to the dock. We need bow to the dock
to make it easier for Jackie (aka short legs) to get on and off the boat.
Granted we have only been here a few hours, but the most amazing thing about Papeete
thus far is simply fresh water.. The ability to let fresh water pour out of a hose and on
to the deck of the boat (with out panicking) seems miraculous. It has been nearly 2 months
since we have had access to a good water source. The Tuamotus have no water to spare for
boats and we tried taking on some water in the Marquesas, but it turned the color of iced
tea in our tanks and had to be dumped overboard. While we do have a watermaker, it’s 8
gallons per hour production, does not lend itself to hosing down the boat. I typically hate
washing the boat, but within 15 minutes of tying up at the quay, I had the hose and a bucket
of soapy water ready to go.
Tomorrow we will venture out to another amazing thing about Papeete and that is the ability
to obtain fresh vegetables. Cruising often times brings you back to the basics of life. I
mean
here we are in Tahiti, the heart of Polynesia, and all I can think about is fresh water
and fresh
vegetables…..
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 – Papeete, Tahiti
Once again I am shocked at how quickly time flies and I can’t believe that we have been here 10 days already. What a great city and what a great time to be here as it is during their celebration of Heiva. Heiva is a huge month long traditional celebration of the Tahitian culture. It includes traditional competitions such as singing, dancing, outrigger canoe (va’a) races, fruit carrier races, traditional javelin throwing, stone carrying, weaving, and copra preparation. Every night we can sit in the cockpit of the boat and listen to the sounds of Tahitian drums and singing from either the competitions or the practice sessions. Several nights we have followed the sounds to their source and watched the performances.
This past weekend was the va’a (outrigger canoe) races. Little did we know that the start/finish line was located about 100 feet off of our stern and that we had the best seats in the house. The races consisted of one person, two person, three person, six person and culminated on Sunday with the 16 person double hull va’a race. All of the va’a launch off of a very historic beach where ancient Tahitian leaders, high priests, and warriors held great ceremonies celebrating the arrival and departure of large double hull canoes. This is the same beach where in 1974 the original Hokule’a arrived from Hawaii.
Another reason that time is going by so fast is that we have been working our butts off as Papeete is one of our main re-provisioning and boat maintenance stops. I know a few of you have asked what the heck we are working on, so I have included at the end of this update a list of the boat items we have actually completed here in Papeete. As usual we didn’t get everything done that we wanted to, but we have enough done that we will be leaving for Moorea early Saturday morning. Tomorrow we are taking a break from work, Jackie is going into town to go shopping and I am making the trek down to the southeast end of the island to visit the famous surfing spot of Teahupoo.
Tahiti boat maintenance/repair list
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 – Cooks Bay, Moorea
Our first morning (Sunday) in Opunohu was glorious. Flat calm anchorage, no wind, only 4 other boats in the entire bay, and stunningly beautiful. The best part of all was that we had no boat projects scheduled. Moorea was to be all about relaxing, exploring and fun. So Sunday we took care of the relaxing part and basically did nothing.
One of the four other boats in the harbor that morning was another Liberty (same as Hokulea and Solstice) named Zephyr. It is pretty ironic that there were just over 30 of these boats built and we have now seen 3 other Liberty’s in French Polynesia...Evergreen, Ohana, and Zephyr. We had the owners of Zephyr, Bill and Tracy, over to Hokulea for happy hour that night. Come to find out that Zephyr cannot be legally called a Liberty. It was the first Liberty built, but apparently the designer never got paid his commission by the original owners (not Bill and Tracy).
On Monday we worked on the exploring and fun parts. In the morning, Bill picked us up in his dingy and we headed out of Opunohu bay. We stayed within the lagoon and navigated our way through the coral heads for about 3 miles up to a sandy spot in the reef where we went snorkeling with a large congregation of southern stingrays. The reason for the large number of stingrays is that several commercial tour groups come to this spot and feed the rays for the tourists. The feeding also attracts blacktip reef sharks and at one point there were 5 sharks in the water with us. With all of the activity in the water, the sharks started getting a little agitated so we decided to continue our exploring elsewhere. We headed over to a nearby motu for a picnic lunch with an amazing view. Several hours later we ended up across the channel at a resort hotel bar that over looked the lagoon. This would have been an amazing place to stay and watch the sunset, but we needed to have some daylight in order to navigate our way back to Opunohu. As it was we ended up hitting a coral head anyway, but fortunately no serious damage was done. This was definitely a fun day.
This morning we hauled up the anchor and headed over to Cooks bay. It is a 4 mile trip with 2 really easy passes. If only all of our passages could be this perfect. More later from Cooks bay….