Yesterday we had a final lunch with some friends in Bora Bora at a famous place called Bloody Mary’s before hauling up the hook and motoring out of the pass and into the open ocean. We splurged for burgers and bloody marys because tomorrow on my birthday we’ll likely be eating tunafish on baguettes and gatorade.
Out of the pass we caught some wind and pulled out all our canvas. We sailed west on a reach making 6 knots in 8 knots of wind on calm seas. We passed Maupiti just at sunset as great colors lit up the sky behind the high island.
Good wind held through most of the night, but on my graveyard watch the wind swung astern and dropped to 4 knots. I put up the spinnaker single hand and stretched out on the trampoline to watch the stars and keep an eye out for boats.
We are getting our sea legs back after a good deal of time at anchor. We are trying out scopolamine patches to take the edge off the first few days at sea. After that your body get accustomed to the motion and all is well. So far so good. No signs of side effects which apparently include blurred vision and “acute toxic psychosis”. Sounds like a real dozy of a combination on the graveyard watch!
Today conditions were pretty flat and calm. It was a great day to lay out in the trampoline and read, but not so great for sailing. Fixed a plugged diesel hose, made yogurt, and made 12 gallons of water. All in a day’s work. Got a strike on one of my fishing lines, but not a hook up. I’ve heard fish don’t like flat, sunny conditions. I’m also a terrible fisherman. Good thing we stocked the boat full of Pringles and Gummy Bears.
We should pass north of the island of Maupelia in a few hours. The wind is filling in and we’re back under sail. All good aboard tonight.
June 2nd saw the high wind which had previously swept the Tuamotus and filled our kites in the past days calming.It’s time to head to Tahiti.Liza and Felix have flights to catch and Miranda and I have a good deal of work to do on the boat that we’ve been neglecting.It’s been terrific ignoring minor problems in favor of diving and kiting and snorkeling all in the same day.That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?But the TO-DO list grows longer little by little as the salt air and general wear and tear take their toll on everything.We need a week of civilization, or more specifically, a hardware store.A grocery store wouldn’t hurt either.
Made a couple lunches and a couple dinners to have in the refrigerator so no one had to cook in the two day passage.Said goodbye to our friends on Namaste who we’d been kiting and diving with for the week. We pulled anchor without incident. Our three meter anchorage had low, scattered coral heads and we floated the chain to avoid them. We rounded the long shoal finger just inside of the Fakarava pass and exited easily even with 2 knots of incoming current. Outside the pass we put up the spinnaker and ghosted along slowly for an hour, then doused it and motored, then flew the spinnaker again just at dusk. So much work, this sailing life. Now we’re on the downhill run to Papeete. A little rain accompanied us along the way.
June 3rd, our second day on passage to Tahiti trailed behind us like our wake astern.At the end of my watch the wind died and the spinnaker sagged over the deck.I pulled it down and fired up the girls.We motored most of the day in zero wind.Really ZERO wind.The Pacific was glassy, and besides a few gentile rollers lifting the boat there was nothing but our forward motion courtesy of the diesels.The wind filled in come evening, and just before dinner we were again sailing, now on a beam reach.A cargo ship, the Chiquita according to the AIS, steamed by us off our starboard at 18 knots, coming within a half mile.We haven’t seen a real ship in months!
Liza and Felix caught a tuna and cleaned it for dinner!We put it with rice and veggies and sat on deck watching the sky afterwards. Miranda spent some time digging coral out of her knees from kiteboarding into and through the coral ‘bommies’ in Fakarava. Much easier if you just go over them.
Now it’s another gorgeous, cloudless night sailing under a full moon bright enough to put charge through the solar panels!
Sighted Tahiti the morning of June 4th.The tall green of the island and its massive dimension contrast starkly with the low, tiny motus of the atolls we’ve been frequenting.It’s pretty amazing to think that there were islands like Tahiti on all of those atolls, once tall and green, now ground into sand and swept out to sea as the coral reefs build into low motu and remain.Pretty neat geographical evolution.You can really see the scale of geologic time.Don’t blink.
The wind built steadily throughout the night.This morning I woke to the pleasantly rocky ride associated with good wind.We’re up to 15 knots of wind abeam and are nicely making way, topping out at 8 knots.The boat hums happily with a low vibration when we approach hull speed.Feels good to be moving fast; I’m humming too.Funny how one’s mood is so synced with that of the boat.She’s like another entity among us.Like I need one more female personality aboard!(kidding, kidding!)
Cumulous clouds cap the verdant peaks as we round the north side of the island. Eventually buildings spring into view and other boats bounce along the choppy sea. We prepare for making port. Just before we pass between the (backwards) navigational buoys we called the harbor control and were given clearance to enter the port. Were they going to fire cannons at us if we didn’t call? We sidled up to a finger pier in the new municipal marina that’s still under construction without incident, despite my rusty docking skills. I think we just sailed to Tahiti.
Sailed back from the western chain of motu in great morning sun and anchored just north of the pass on an uninhabited islet. We took advantage of the turning tide and went out for another amazing drift snorkel in the pass, then I foraged around the islet. Came home with a couple coconuts and a oyster net buoy that I’ll use as a float.
The 16th saw us waiting for the slack tide at 3:15PM. We were a little sharked out by then, so Liza and Felix explored the islet. Meanwhile, I went on a repair spree and fixed the 120V inverter, two 12V oulets, and a exhaust hose. A hole was worn through the aging hose and it was spewing exhaust water into the port engine compartment when the diesel was running. The water was vented to the bilge and the pumps were kicking on more frequently than normal when we were motoring. Some plastic, vulcanizing tape, an a little duct-tape on the top just for good measure, and we’re back in action, at least until I can replace it in Tahiti.
After the repair fest, I jumped in to check the anchor and found it pretty terribly tangled in a mess of coral. The anchor was sitting happily in the sand, but the boat was hung up almost directly about the coral head, the chain wrapped tightly under and around a mushroom-shaped dome. Bad news. It came down to a team effort getting us free. Miranda let more chain out to give the boat some wiggle room. Felix towed the boat forward with the dinghy to give the chain some slack, and I swam the 17 meters down to the coral head and tried to pull the chain out from the crevices, then up and over the 6 foot coral heads, and deposit it in the sand on the other side. It took me about 6 dives to get it, each time I’d run out of breath, the boat would pull back tight on the chain in the wind, and we’d have to do it again. This was probably my limit for working at depth and each time I came up it didn’t seem fast enough. I ended up with my hand inadvertently on the clasp of my weight belt. Good practice though. As if 17 meters wasn’t a pain enough, half way through our rigmarole a couple sharks showed up and loitered for a while. We are researching floating the chain next time.
After a nap and a little lunch we motored out the calm pass with the main up. Back in the open water we unfurled the jib and took off at a nice 6.5 knots heading southwest towards Makemo, our next atoll in the Tuamotus with an easy pass. A couple miles out a dark, ominous shadow slipped past Tayrona’s starboard hull. It looked like a really big shark to me until it jumped out of the water. It was a ten foot long porpoise, dark with some white blotches. Another showed up and they played in our bow wake for a while, showing off, jumping and swimming belly up just under our bows. It’s a good omen, I hope.
Then it was sunset and in no time we were out of sight of the low atoll and back to the open sea. Huzzah! The dark crept in as we made dinner and ate under the canopy of a moonless starry sky. Went to bed around 7PM, woke at 2AM for our turn around the atoll Taenga, a passless, uninviting coral berm. It was out there hiding in the dark, and with no moon it was a little disconcerting to know it was lurking four miles off our port. We lit it up with radar and the low islands showed up clearly out of the darkness.
Went to bed anticipating our landfall in Makemo the following morning. Looks like we might be slower than we calculated, missing the slack tide we hoped to hit in Makemo’s south pass, but plenty of time to figure that out when we arrive. Worrying about speed while traveling by sail is pretty wasted emotion.
