French Polynesia – Page 2 – Adagio’s Voyage

The Absence of Fear

One question I get asked most when I tell people about our adventure living on a sailboat and traveling the world is, “Aren’t you afraid?” This is often followed by wide eyes when they imagine sailing in the middle of a black night or through a squall. Or, perhaps they can’t imagine trying to navigate a foreign country where you don’t speak the language or where there has been a history of crime or violence. The short answer to the question is “no.”

That doesn’t mean I never experience fear. It means that I choose not to be afraid and live my life in fear. Of course there are dangers being on a boat in the middle of the ocean or in a remote place with no medical facilities if we were to get sick or injured. There are probably more dangers driving on a busy highway in Los Angeles. But, by succumbing to fear all you do is to limit the amazing and soul enriching experiences that you can have in this life.

My biggest challenge in the last three years was overcoming fear in learning to scuba dive. In my initial dive instruction, I had to do the pool class three times to get past feelings of panic and claustrophobia before I could get out into the ocean. Once we started traveling and diving, I would hang onto Mike’s hand underwater with a death grip while I worked to control and slow down my breathing so as not to panic. I had to take Mike’s advice not to look at the depth gage so I wouldn’t freak out about how deep we were. But, I was determined to dive. I kept at it, and each dive got easier and easier. The depth got more comfortable, the current didn’t freak me out, and soon I started to feel like I belonged underwater.

That determination to overcome my fears has paid off with the most amazing underwater experiences this year. The fabulous visibility in French Polynesia makes it feel like you are diving in an aquarium. And, every island and atoll has different reef fish, pelagics, sharks and corals. Even when we’ve dove in the same spot on different days, each dive is different. You never know what you are going to see.

We got out of the marina in Papeete after getting our boat projects done and headed back over to Moorea where we anchored off the reef in Opunohu bay. Our friends Marcus and Diana on s/v Allora were there and really wanted to go diving with us. They had just bought some new tanks and dive gear and were anxious to use them. So, we made a plan, filled the tanks and headed outside the reef to some buoys used by the dive boats.

Marcus and Diana had done that dive earlier in the week before we arrived and had an idea where to proceed. We descended down the mooring line to about fifty feet in a canyon surrounded by rose coral, which was different from most of the coral reefs we’ve dove so far in French Polynesia. There were plenty of beautifully colored reef fish around and the occasional black tip reef shark. But, the stars of the show on this dive were the turtles!

There were huge sea turtles all over the reef. They were almost camouflaged among the reef just lying there resting. Several of them let us get really close to them as Diana took pictures. A couple of them eyed us suspiciously for a few minutes and decided it was better to take off and find a new resting spot. So, I got some great video of them swimming around. It was a fabulous dive, and we are excited to go back out on the reef again as there is supposed to be a spot we can view some lemon sharks!

We listened to a podcast recently that had an interesting perspective on the political divide in our country based on psychological make up. It played soundbites of various politicians and made the observation that some speeches were all about fear and terror where others were about positivity and hope. The psychologist explained that this was not by accident. That people really do view the world in different ways. Some people honestly see threats all around them, whereas others acknowledge crime and danger but look rationally at statistics and so forth.

Right after this, I happened upon a blog post from another cruiser about his experience in Papeete. It was horribly negative stating that it was full of crime, gangs, graffiti and trash. He talked about being afraid of walking down the street and his girlfriend hiding the jewelry she was wearing for fear of being robbed. I couldn’t help reading this and think, “Is he talking about the same place I see in front of me?” Yeah, there’s crime in Papeete. I talked about the petty theft at the marina in the last post. There is also over 50% unemployment, so there is a lot of poverty. I saw all that, but I also saw a beautiful island with kind people who were just trying to live their lives. Not everyone was in a gang. The other sailor may have seen some trash on the street, but I saw incredibly manicured gardens outside people’s homes. How is it that some people see fear and terror and others see beauty and light?

I disagree with the psychologist that said that people have this inherent nature about being fearful and seeing dangers everywhere they go. I think we all have a choice about whether to buy into fear and limit our experiences or to embrace life.

We sent off our ballots this week for the mid-term elections in the U.S., and I’m choosing to vote for candidates who do not traffic in fear. Scaring people, blaming others that look different, speak a different language, practice a different religion or simply have a different outlook on life is not productive. What an amazing place this would be if we all chose to extinguish unfounded fears and focus on love and hope.

Kenny Chesney is one of my favorite singers, and he has a song with Ziggy Marley called Love for Love City. (The song and album Songs for the Saints are about the Caribbean islands after the hurricanes.) I think the lyrics are how I wish all of us, and our elected officials, would speak about our country and how our people should come together and reject the fear mongering…

All I’ve got’s love for love city

All of her people are my people too

Every color, every creed

Together in good times, together in need

All I’ve got’s love for love city

~katie

Tahiti Travails

We started looking for a weather window to head back to Tahiti. Tahiti is about 90 miles from Huahine, which means it would take us about 18 hours. Since we can’t make that trip all in daylight, we would leave in the afternoon and arrive the next day mid-morning. The trip from Huahine to Tahiti is against the eastern trade winds, so the key was to try and find a couple of days where the wind was more from the south, lighter and hopefully not much swell. The forecast gave us two days to go, otherwise it looked like we were probably going to stay put for at least another week where the wind would be blowing 25 kts on the nose.

We were sad to leave our friends, but we had put it off long enough. We had to get back to Tahiti! We left on a beautifully sunny afternoon. The wind and swell was making for some pleasant sailing for the first few hours, and we had our fingers crossed that we were going to have a beautiful night sail. That positive attitude quickly soured when the winds died out completely, then shot up to 25 kts, then died back down again, and back up to 17 kts. We had quite a few squalls overnight that with the shifty wind kept us on our toes.

When we arrived in Tahiti the next morning, we were both pretty tired. One overnight of sailing always seems to be a bit harder than a multi-day sail where you have the chance to get into the rhythm of shifts and sleeping only a few hours at a time. And, with the challenging conditions, neither of us got all that much sleep that night. But, we were pleasantly surprised to find our friends Marcus and Diana on s/v Allora waiting for us as we pulled into the marina in Papeete! So, we left good friends in Huahine but greeted other good friends in Tahiti. That is one of the best things about cruising. We find friends wherever we go!

We had heard on the radio over the few weeks prior that there had been several thefts in the downtown Papeete marina recently. And, the office manager made us aware of them again when we checked into the marina. We’ve never had any problems with crime while we’ve traveled, but crime can happen anywhere. Apparently the thieves would board boats overnight while people were sleeping and grab whatever they could throw in their pockets or backpacks, like cash, sunglasses and cell phones. So, these weren’t very sophisticated thieves that were taking expensive electronics off boats. Just your petty thief.

We usually do not lock ourselves in our boat at night. Our cabin is right next to the companionway stairs as you enter the boat. It would be really hard for someone to come in our boat without us noticing. But, we weren’t going to take any chances with the current thefts. The last thing I’d want to do is wake up to a stranger in my boat! So, the first night we were in the marina, we had the companionway locked and nothing seemed amiss. But, when we woke up the next morning, we found dirty black shoe prints on our deck and on the cockpit cushions. Someone had been on our boat! I couldn’t believe we didn’t hear them, as they stepped onto the boat right outside our cabin. But, we were locked in and nothing was stolen. We found out three boats were boarded that night and at least one was robbed. The marina has stepped up the security, and there hasn’t been any problems since. But, we are still sleeping with the companionway locked as well as our spreader lights and cockpit lights on to deter anyone thinking of trying to get on our boat again. Whew!

The main reason we came into Tahiti was to do some work on the boat. We haven’t done any real maintenance or projects since we left Ecuador in February, so that is a pretty good run. When you travel thousands of miles on a boat in 8 months, there are going to be some things that need attention. First, we had to find someone who welds stainless steel. We have a somewhat complicated exhaust system for the diesel engine, because the engine sits mid-ships below the water line. So, the exhaust has to be cooled and travel quite a distance to exit the boat. Like all things in a salt water environment, things start to fail after awhile. And, we had a few places that were starting to leak and needed to be re-welded. Taking apart the exhaust system, having the pieces welded and reinstalling the system (while crossing your fingers that it stopped all the leaks) was a gargantuan task requiring you to twist yourself into a pretzel in a tight space to get all the pieces out. It was a BIG project, but thankfully it worked.

Next, our sails needed some work. The sails aren’t that old, but they’ve gotten a lot of use the last three years. Some of the stitching on the UV covers was coming out, and there were some worn spots that needed to be patched. We found a great sail loft in Tahiti that did the work for a reasonable cost. We have a nice sewing machine on board, but without the space to lay out the sails, it just wasn’t possible for us to do the work ourselves.

Our maintenance list also included servicing our outboard engine for the dinghy, changing the oil in the dive compressor and generator, scrubbing down the decks, and polishing the stainless railings and cleats. We’ve been hard at work everyday making sure Adagio is ready to go for next season.

Being in Papeete, the largest city in French Polynesia, also gives us the luxury of going to the Carrefour! The Carrefour is a large, western style grocery store with any kind of imported food you could imagine, including a lot of French pates, sausages, cheeses, etc. After shopping mostly at the small magazins in the islands, being able to shop at the Carrefour is like heaven. But, do not go shopping there hungry! We made that mistake and came back with way too many French cheeses. (You can also buy freshly made baguettes and crepes there – ok…this is making me hungry…)

In addition to shopping at the Carrefour, there is a large indoor/outdoor market downtown mainly on Sunday mornings. The market starts at 4am. We arrived about 7am and still had a pretty good pick of fresh local produce, including pineapples, papayas, pamplemousse (grapefruit), beautiful lettuces, and these delicious red plantains we recently found. There are also a lot of prepared foods you can purchase, which are a combination of Chinese, French and Tahitian. We bought pain du chocolat, chinese pork buns (char siu bao) and chicken shumai. Inside the market we found roasted pork and a large fish market. It was pretty awesome.

Now that we’ve gotten the majority of our projects done, we’ve got to figure out where we’re going to leave our boat when we head back to the States next month. We’ve never had a problem finding marina space, but this year is a bit of a challenge. More and more boats are staying in French Polynesia through the cyclone season, and there just isn’t marina space for all of them. Our preference would be to stay in Tahiti, since we have to fly out of here, but so far we’re not having much luck. We could leave the boat at anchor and pay someone to watch it, but we’ve never done that before. Or, we could possibly travel to Raiatea or Apataki, but neither of those islands are very close. It would take flying or possibly taking a commercial boat back to Tahiti if we did that. So, we’re still on the hunt for a space, but we’re sure it will work out one way or another. We’ll keep you all updated with our plans.

~katie

Equinox

Today is the September Equinox (or vernal equinox here in the Southern Hemisphere) where the sun moves from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere. That means it is the end of winter and beginning of spring. Of course, winter is relative here in French Polynesia – it means I have been wearing my full 3 mm wetsuit in the water instead of my shorty spring suit. The change in seasons also means we have to start thinking about where we will be in the summer, which is cyclone season. Cyclone don’t often hit French Polynesia, but it can happen. And, with climate change and the chance that this year may be an El Niño year…who knows.

We’re to head back to the States on November to spend the holidays with friends and family. We’ll likely leave Adagio tucked away in Tahiti and keep our fingers crossed that no cyclones come this way while we are gone. Watching the devastation that Hurricane Florence just inflicted on North Carolina reminds us that tropical cyclones (which is what a hurricane is) are no joke. Our tentative plans for now are to head down to the Gambiers in January when we get back to Tahiti.

In the meantime, we have been enjoying ourselves in Huahine. It’s been nice to stay put somewhere for a change. So often in the last 2.5 years we have been constantly on the move, not really getting to know a place. But, we’re starting to know Huahine.

Mike has been surfing any chance he gets when the swell is up and has gotten to know the familiar faces on the surf break. For the most part, the locals have been really friendly to him even with a bit of a language barrier. But, as any surfer knows (or anyone who has watched a surf movie) there is always going to be some territorial jackass who doesn’t want anyone else on the waves but him. Mike’s only had one such encounter here.

We’ve also done the hike up the ridge line to the top of the mountain 3 times. It completely kicks my ass, but it’s all good fun. And, we’ve gotten in more diving which is always fun with huge schools of different fish each time. On our last dive, we had a school of hundreds of barracuda swim all around us. Very cool.

We keep finding excuses not to move on from this place. Sometimes it’s the weather, or a coming swell which will bring the surf. Last week our friend Dan on Kini Popo showed up, so we decided to stay a little longer. But, as the seasons start to change, we have to seriously start thinking about heading back toward Tahiti if we want to get any boat work done before we leave in November. I’ll be sad to leave here, but I know we’ll get another shot to return next year.

Sunset in Huahine…

-Katie

Mantas and Whales and Fish, Oh My!

I don’t think I really considered myself an environmentalist until I was (literally) living on and in the ocean everyday. Of course, I always thought protecting the environment was important, but I didn’t feel a true connection to the environment until we went sailing. That got me thinking about why it seems like it’s such a struggle right now to get our society and governments to take action to protect this planet we call home.

It’s disturbing to hear reports of illegal fishing here in the South Pacific, governments (including ours in the States) that want to roll back clean water and air regulations and people complaining about new rules to reduce use of plastic such as grocery bags and straws (that end up in the ocean!). You hear talk of freedom and too much government involvement that just don’t seem to grasp the reality we live in. In a perfect world, we would all “choose” to do the right thing for the environment, but unfortunately we just don’t. The desire for cheaper goods and services and more money in our pockets seems to overrule protecting Mother Earth.

My theory is that it is easy to look the other way when you don’t see it first hand. If you live in the city, drive on concrete roads and sit in air conditioning all day, the environment seems like this far away place that isn’t connected to your daily life. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but it is hard find that connection, that experience, that could actually make you stop and think about how much water you are using, where your electricity is generated, how much plastic you throw away or how your clothes are made. (Side bar: Check out a great documentary called The True Cost about the social, economic and environmental impact of the fashion industry. It is really eye opening.)

So, for those of you living far away from the ocean, I want to share some experiences I have had lately that I hope will encourage you to explore nature where ever you are, think critically about your own individual impact on the environment and encourage your politicians (including voting!) to take actions which make our planet habitable for many generations to come.

Giant Manta in Avea Bay:

We were still in Avea Bay on Huahine one afternoon when Mike headed off with the surfboard in search of waves. The sun was out and the bay was flat calm. With those conditions, and the clear water, you could see the bottom 30-40 feet down throughout the bay. It was a perfect day to enjoy the paddle board. I dropped the board in the water and headed toward a channel marker at the head of the bay about a half mile away. It was incredibly peaceful as no one else seemed to be out for some reason, and I had the water all to myself.

I reached the marker and turned around to head back toward the boat. But, I decided to take a different, more indirect, route back as I wasn’t quite that tired from paddling. I decided to paddle right at the edge of the reef that surrounds the bay where it drops off into deeper water. As I started down the edge of the reef, something caught my eye. I large black mass was just under the surface of the water, and I quickly paddled over to take a closer look.

Gliding right next to my board was a giant manta ray. His wing span was about 8 feet across, and his large mouth was open to feed. Mantas are filter feeders that take in large quantities of water and filter out the small plankton. I tried not to get too close and disturb him, but he didn’t seem bothered by my presence at all. He continued slowly back and forth along the edge of the reef. The best part was when he did a series of backflips next to me, almost as though he was showing off. For the better part of an afternoon, the bay belonged to me and my new manta friend. I had to finally tear myself away before the sun headed below the horizon. It was quite magical.

Diving in Huahine:

We headed back up to Fare and were excited to see a boat that we briefly met in the Tuamotus earlier this year. Ken, Edith and their two daughters live aboard s/v Alondra. Ken and Edith are both marine biologists with lots of diving experience, and they asked us if we wanted to do some diving with them. We hadn’t been diving since the Tuamotus and were excited to check out what was below the surface outside the reef here in Huahine.

The dives were fantastic. We saw lots of healthy corals, colorful reef fish, turtles, schools of trevally and some large milkfish. The best part of diving with Ken and Edith is that they would find interesting little fish and crabs to point out to us that I had never noticed before. And, afterward, we went through the fish guide to identify some of the species we hadn’t seen on other islands.

If you’ve been reading this blog from the beginning, you may remember that I struggled a bit when I was first learning to dive, and it has taken me many, many dives to feel completely confident diving. But, now it is one of my favorite activities. Diving has opened up a whole world under water. Snorkeling is great, but you see so much more when you can stay under water and go to different depths. After a really great dive, I feel like I’m on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

Humpback Whales:

We headed out one day with Alondra to find a dive spot up near the airport. It was flat calm out so we weren’t too concerned about a long dinghy ride outside the lagoon. We knew it was whale season when the humpback whales come up from the south to calve and mate. Ken explained that when the calves are born, they don’t have that much fat on them, so the whales give birth to them in the warmer water before heading back down south.

We were hoping maybe we would see some whales as we left the lagoon, and got really excited when we saw a blow not to far in the distance. Then, we saw a whale completely breach out of the water. As we started to approach the whale, we idled the dinghies and threw on our masks and fins. We didn’t want to spook the whale. When we got pretty close to him, we turned off the outboards and slipped into the water where we could see nothing but blue as the water continued several hundred feet below us.

We towed the dinghies as we slowly swam toward the whale, letting Ken be the lead on how close we could get. The whale was a good 40-50 feet long and could do some serious damage if it accidentally hit us or our dinghies with its powerful tail.

The water was really clear, and we could see the whale just in front of us. Suddenly, it turned toward us, flipped its tail up out of the water, and turned to head down into the deep ocean below. Ken caught it all on video (see our Facebook page). It was awesome and the first time we’ve actually seen one while we were in the water. We’re hoping to see some more whales as we head back to Moorea and Tahiti. They should be around for the next couple of months. Anyone who witnesses one of these whales in person and isn’t in complete awe and appreciation of God’s creations needs their head examined!

So, there are my three stories from the last couple of weeks of my nature encounters. I hope you find your own nature stories, even if it is just to go sit at a local park and watch the birds or go for a hike at a local greenbelt. I hope you get inspired to think critically about the impact the dollars you spend have on the environment. Our society is capable of great things, great scientific and technological advancements and innovation. We do not need to rely on old ways of doing things that are harmful to the planet we live on. We have the capacity to transcend the current, outdated way of doing things…if we all want it.

~katie

Fish in a Barrel

We waited for a calm weather day to make the trip from Raiatea to Huahine, knowing that it would be an upwind sail. We timed it right and had a beautiful day sailing in light winds and calm seas, the latter being a rarity for us here in the South Pacific. So, we were on a bit of a high when we came in through the pass. Mike’s eyes lit up even more when he saw all of the surfers catching the nice waves on the reef as we came in. We immediately knew we were going to like this place.

Our first night we anchored outside the main town of Fare. There were quite a few boats there, and our anchoring position had us sticking out a bit into the channel where the boats come through the northern pass. We weren’t blocking anyone from coming in, but it would have been better to be able to sneak in closer to shore. That was definitely evident that night as two supply ships came in, and I woke up to the bright lights of the ships traversing pretty close to our stern. The next morning, we moved.

We reanchored off the reef not far from Fare but between the two passes where you can enter the lagoon. It was the perfect place for Mike to get a good look at the waves in the morning and head out to join the other surfers. Mike was told by a some other people that the locals could be a bit territorial about their waves, but he had no problem making friends quickly and catching “epic” waves (his words). For the next two days the swell was perfect for Mike to spend hours in the water while I had a chance to relax and catch up on some reading.

Unfortunately, the swell died out the following day leaving all the surfers staring longingly out into the water. We happened to look out our companionway and saw our friends Liam and Annie on Gone with the Wind passing by at the same time as they hailed us on the radio. They were heading down to Avea Bay in the south part of the lagoon and planned to go to a traditional Polynesian lunch buffet the next day. Because the surfing had died out, we decided to follow them down to Avea Bay.

Avea Bay is a big, beautiful bay with clear, turquoise water all around us. We’ve seen huge sea turtles in the anchorage and lots of rays. We could see staying here for quite a while.

Adagio in Avea Bay…

Our Polynesian lunch was great with poisson cru, roasted pork, fish cooked in banana leaves, chicken and spinach, and lots of other traditional foods. We had a fun day hanging out with our friends with good food and drinks.

Time flies when you are somewhere really lovely, and it has for us here in Avea Bay. We’ve been snorkeling, paddleboarding, surfing (Mike found another break down here) and touring the island. I think I’ve lost track of when we even arrived here!

A few pictures around Huahine…

But, I think the most hilarious experience we have had here has been what I’ve termed “fishing in a barrel.”

We hadn’t had much luck fishing lately. We hadn’t caught anything on the troll between the islands, Mike hasn’t found anything to spear, and even jigging in the pass didn’t yield any fish. So, Mike and Liam came up with a new strategy. We were hanging out for dinner one night on Gone with the Wind, a beautiful catamaran with blue underwater lights between the two hulls at the stern. After dinner (and a few cocktails) we all noticed a lot of good size trevally swimming off the transom, chasing the baitfish that were attracted to the lights.

The boys decided the next night that they were going to go after the trevally. Mike seemed a bit overly confident to me. Yes, there were a ton a fish swirling around in a small space, but that didn’t mean they were going to go after your lure with all of the baitfish around! And, we never fish at night, so who knew how this was going to go. Liam jumped on Mike’s enthusiasm and even reported on the SSB net what he was up to that night. So, now the pressure was really on to catch some fish.

As soon as it got dark we flipped on the underwater lights and waited for the fish to arrive. It took a bit of patience, but soon the little baitfish showed up and the trevally followed. Mike cast his lure in the mix trying to con the fish into thinking he was just another baitfish. At first, there was no action. But, then Mike snagged the first trevally, and then another and another. Pretty quickly we had five nice fish in the bucket! It was a bit comedy to watch Mike pull the flailing fish up out of the water and Liam try to get it into the bucket. Those fish do not give up without a fight!

We don’t know whether it was the rain the started to come down or if the fish just had enough, but the fish action shut down after that. We had enough fish for each boat to get a couple of meals out of them, so everyone was pretty happy. I guess sometimes you just have to think out of the box to try and outsmart the fish!

We’re back to surfing, swimming and paddle boarding. It’s pretty nice to just stay put somewhere for a while. So, we think we’ll spend a couple more weeks here before heading back towards Moorea.

~katie

Something Special

There have been a few places we have anchored that just gave the feeling of something special. It’s hard to put your finger on what makes a place feel that way, perhaps it’s not the place at all – maybe it’s just the day or something else going on that is evoking that emotion. Whatever the cause, when we pulled into Baie Vairahi on Raiatea, I thought it was special.

We left Bora Bora after saying goodbye to many boats we had met over the last few months. Now is the time of year where boats that want to make it down to New Zealand before cyclone season need to leave French Polynesia and start heading west toward Tonga. We had a last, fancy dinner at the Bora Bora Yacht Club with a large group of people to say our goodbyes and headed out for Raiatea and Taha’a the next morning.

Raiatea and Taha’a are unique in that they are two islands inside the same lagoon fringed by reef all the way around. We stopped first at a couple of anchorages on Taha’a, did some snorkeling and got to see another pearl farm, where we actually got to see the grafting of the oysters and removal of the pearls (very cool!). But, we really wanted to head down to Vairahi on Raiatea where we heard that there was an awesome hike called Les Trois Cascades (The Three Waterfalls).

We pulled into Vairahi Bay and were the only cruising boat in the anchorage. Aside from some unoccupied, small local sailboats on moorings, we had the bay to ourselves. That might have been part of the allure of this secluded place. Or, perhaps it was the calmness of the water, or the misty clouds on top of the hills at sunset. Maybe it was the fragrant smell of flowers after a brief rain shower, or the the sounds of the birds at sunrise. I don’t know what it was, but I wanted to capture the feeling in a bottle and take it with me.

Vairahi Bay at dusk…

We set out to try and get some information about the Trois Cascades hike, as we really didn’t have a lot to go on. We wandered into a small hotel called Pension Les Trois Cascades, so we figured they must have some information based on their name. We met the French owner who told us that yes, we could do the hike on our own, but the trail wasn’t well marked and it might be hard to find. He recommended we hire a guide and gave us a name and number. The next day we joined our guide, Kiam, and a group of French tourists and set out for the waterfalls.

After our last hike in Bora Bora, any hike was likely to be a breeze, and we knew the hike would only be about three hours. The trail was obvious for parts of it, but other parts not so much. I could see easily losing the trail and missing the waterfalls (or having to backtrack a few times to find it.) The hike itself wasn’t too strenuous, but we did have to use ropes in several places to climb up a bit.

The terrain and vegetation were completely different than the Bora Bora hike. This hike was basically in a rainforest. We followed the river, and there were moss and ferns growing on every surface. Bamboo and the Polynesian Chessnut Tree dominated around us. We got to see waterfalls both big and small. We stopped at each one to marvel at the flowing water and soothing sounds. At the highest waterfall at the top, there was a pool you could swim in and cool off from the hot, humid hike.

The hike was nice, a bit relaxing after our last one, and the waterfalls were beautiful. But, I was just as happy back on our boat looking out over Vairahi in this little special place we had found.

~katie

Good, Bad and Ugly

After a rainy week with our guests getting to Bora Bora, the sun reappeared right after their departure…figures. A couple of other boats wanted to hike to the top of the peak on Bora Bora. We excitedly agreed not exactly knowing what we were getting into. The tourist center said we needed a guide, but no one in the group was up for paying a guide to take us up there. From the looks of it, we were going to have to climb a mountain, and that’s just what we did as it was over 2000 vertical feet.

We started the hike following a dirt road that led to a well marked trail. Because it had been raining all week, there was quite a bit of mud but not enough to deter us. However, as we started to ascend, the trail became more of a climb. Using hands and feet, looking for ledges to step on and tree branches to grab onto, we had to pull ourselves up higher and higher. Soon, the need for ropes was apparent, and luckily some hefty ones had been left in the appropriate places. The climb got more and more challenging as we went. Toward the top, we had to pull ourselves up using a rope on an almost vertical (or so it felt like) slick wall with only minimal foot holds. The guys with their long legs had a much easier time with it than I did. There were more than a few occasions where I had to get my foot almost up to my shoulder and just use my arms to pull myself up with a rope or tree branch.

I have to say of all the hikes we’ve done in the last 2.5 years, this one was definitely the most challenging one for me. But, three hours later sitting at the top of the mountain with gorgeous 360 views of Bora Bora, it was definitely worth it. Of course, then we had another 3 hours trek down which was probably more difficult than going up!

The next day our friends on Bare Feet let us know that they were moving to an anchorage on the southeast corner of the lagoon. We were eager to follow them, but the passage looked a bit tricky on the charts. Bare Feet left early in the morning, and we were a couple of hours behind them trying to make our own way down. Our friends are on a catamaran that only draws about 3 feet. We, on the other hand have a 6 foot draft. In looking at the charts, that three feet makes quite a difference. All around the outside of the lagoon along the reefs and motus, it is shallow, starting at about one foot on shore to about 10 feet at its deepest. Inside, toward the main island, the depths are in the 70-100 foot range, but there is a small, narrow reef that separates the two areas.

On the chart, there is a narrow, marked channel to go through the reef so that you can (presumably) stay in the deeper water. We contemplated taking the shallow route but ultimately thought a marked channel would be safer. Unfortunately, we were wrong.

The first part of the trip was no problem, but we came up to the red and green channel markers showing the very narrow break in the reef where you were supposed to cross. We were going VERY slow at this point peering over the side of the boat at the coral and rocks below. It looked awfully shallow and the depth sounder only showed about 1.5 feet under the keel. We put the boat in neutral and coasted as slowly as we could right in the middle of the marked channel when we suddenly heard a crunch and the boat stopped dead.

There was a bit of panic and a lot of curse words as we realized we were on top of the reef. Mike put the boat in reverse and hit the throttle hoping to get us off. Luckily we were off quickly and were able to transit the rest of the channel (not without a few more challenges).

Bare Feet had seen us on AIS and radioed to make sure everything was ok. We gave them the bad news of our predicament, and they met us in their dinghy as we approached the anchorage for some moral support.

We barely had the anchor down when Mike & I both grabbed masks to jump overboard and survey the damage. Worst case scenario would be a hole in the keel requiring some immediate patch work and a quick departure to probably Raiatea to haul out. Thankfully, no such action was necessary. We had a few scrapes on the keel, but mainly it just scraped off some of the bottom paint. If our keel had been six inches shorter, we wouldn’t have had any problems. It might not look pretty, but we can live with it until the next time we have to repaint the bottom.

In 2.5 years of cruising, we had never hit anything or gone aground. So, we’re actually pretty lucky compared to a lot of boats. But, shit happens, and it happened to us in Bora Bora. We’re just happy it wasn’t worse. The lesson learned is to go with your gut about which route should be taken. Even a marked channel may not be the safest route.

We’re still in Bora Bora enjoying the beautiful scenery. There are lots of hotels, tourists, jet skis, etc. that we try to avoid. But, nothing can deter from the view of majestic mountain and turquoise blue water.

~katie

Rendez-vous

We left Anse Amyot on Toau for a 36 hr passage to Tahiti. Leaving at sunset, we hoped to have an easy and quick passage. Unfortunately, what we got was a squally passage with messed up seas. Wearing foul weather gear for the whole passage, we were happy to peal off the wet clothes when the sun started to rise on our approach to Tahiti. The heat of the sun had not yet hit the misty hillsides of the islands, and even from a distance we could smell the perfume in the air as all the plants and flowers woke up. It was magical.

Our initial stay in Tahiti was short-lived however. We had timed our arrival to participate in the annual Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendez-vous. Most of the boats participating in the rally are like us who had arrived in French Polynesia this year and were just now making their way through the Society Islands.

The first day of the rally was a “race” of sorts from Papeete to the island of Moorea, about 15 miles away. We are not racers and the chaos of the boats jockeying for position at the start was a bit amusing. The start of the race was delayed a couple of times due to the light winds, which made it even more chaotic. The woman on the radio giving the commands for the start had such a heavy accent and held the microphone so close to her mouth that it was almost impossible to make out what she was saying. But, eventually the race started, we raised the sails and took off for Moorea.

I said we are not racers, and we definitely don’t have a race boat. We started out the race just in front of our friends on Kini Popo (who definitely have more of a racing boat), and our only goal in the race was to try and beat them. And, I know Dan was thinking the same thing about us!

The winds were light, but we had the advantage with the wind being forward of the beam for the first half of crossing the channel. But, then the winds died down and started to clock aft making it impossible to sail with the jib and staysail. We couldn’t keep the sails full, and they were flogging like mad. We started to see the spinnakers going up around the race fleet, and Dan already had his up behind us. We weren’t anticipating flying the spinnaker and didn’t have it rigged to go up right away. So, we had to furl the jib and staysail, sailing only with the main, while we got the spinnaker ready. Kini Popo zipped by us as we hollered at each other.

Finally we got the spinnaker up, headed to the outside, and soon passed up Kini Popo. The winds dropped even more. I was at the helm steering while Mike was handling the spinnaker lines by hand, constantly pulling in or letting out just trying to keep the sail full and us moving forward. The race became a snails’ race, and we were happy when we could get 3 kts of speed in 5 kts of wind. At times our speed dropped to below 2 kts and I think the current was all that was taking us to Moorea. Boats started dropping out of the race one by one as they came on the radio to say they were starting the engine and going for early happy hour.

We were still ahead of most of the race fleet, so we decided to stick with it. But, then we got caught between another boat and the reef. With very little speed and almost no maneuverability, we couldn’t do anything but squeak along. We saw Kini Popo go outside of our stuck position and pass us up. Ugh! Kini Popo came in 2nd, and we were just behind him in 4th. (The 3rd place boat was the one that pinned us up against the reef!). It was all good fun.

That night there was dinner and traditional Polynesian Dancing at the old Bali Hai Hotel. But, the next day we entered another kind of race. The boats that participated in the rally could sign up as a team for the traditional outrigger canoe races. Dan, Dan#2, Mike & I were a team. The six person canoe had our team of four plus two locals who would guide us in the race in the #1 and #6 positions. I was in #5 just in front of one of the local boys who would call out to us when we were to switch sides paddling, when to paddle harder, etc. The race was a short out and back course in Cook’s Bay, and we paddled like our lives depended on it! The locals make it look easy, but it’s not. We somehow won our first heat and made it to the semi-finals. Drenched and a bit tired, we were wondering whether or not this was a good thing when we saw the losing boats head to the bar for a cold Hinano. But, we entered the semi-finals with enthusiasm. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your outlook) we lost that race and could sit on the sidelines watching the final boats race for the trophy.

We had a fun day meeting with other boats, some we had run into earlier in our travels and some we met for the first time. There were more dance performances and good Polynesian food. By the end of the day, we were exhausted. We had been running non-stop for days and were looking for a bit of downtime.

Moorea was the perfect place to relax after all the recent activity. The island is beautiful. You can drive around the island in about an hour, there are scenic hikes in the hillside, and plenty of gorgeous anchorages. Pictures and words don’t really capture the allure and beauty of the island. If you are looking for a picturesque island where you can unwind, Moorea is your place.

We’re currently back in Tahiti getting our boat cleaned up and ready for our friends to arrive. We’re hoping for good weather so that we can explore some other islands with them here in the Societies.

~Katie

The Big Tuna

The weather forecast from Fatu Hiva to Raroia looked pretty good. The winds were not predicted to be that strong, but it was forecasted to be about 15 knots on the beam. Perfect. It was 400 miles from Fatu Hiva, and we wanted to time our arrival for early morning. We decided to leave at sundown on Monday evening and hoped to arrive Thursday morning.

The sail started out beautifully. We had winds as predicted and a comfortable sail through the night. But, by mid-day the next day, the winds started dropping and shifting more from the north. That put the winds aft of the beam. When the wind is behind us, we need stronger winds to keep the sails full and the boat moving forward. So, this combination was seriously slowing us down. We used the spinnaker when we could and altered course to head into the winds a bit and hopefully get more apparent wind.

As Tuesday was coming to a close, and we were seeing our boat speed dip down to under 4 knots, we realized we were not going to make landfall during daylight on Thursday. We would have to push for arriving Friday morning. The timing on arrival into an atoll is pretty critical. An atoll is a ring of islands and reefs with a lagoon in the middle. To enter the lagoon, you have to find a pass in the reef deep enough for the boat to enter. Luckily, these have all been charted by many others long ago.

Because the tides will have to push all of the water in and out of the lagoon through the small pass, the currents in the pass can be quite fierce. If you are coming into the lagoon through the pass when the tide is ebbing, you could be fighting a current that is stronger than your boat is able to overcome. And, if the wind and tide are opposing, it can create come standing waves in the pass. Therefore, it is critical to try and time your crossing into the lagoon at or near slack tide when there is the least current. Based on the best information we had, the slack low tide was about 8:30 on Friday morning. (The tide information is sketchy because there are not tide stations at every atoll, so you have to extrapolate from tide stations elsewhere in the Tuamotus.)

Now that we had resigned ourselves to arriving Friday morning, we could relax and sail as much as we could, even when we weren’t making great speed. We’re still in the trade wind belt, so when the winds dropped to under five knots it was not only frustrating but quite surprising. We had to motor the last twelve hours just to make our Friday arrival.

The benefit of the calm winds and seas meant that it was perfect conditions for fishing. We hadn’t caught anything since the two tuna off Nuku Hiva some weeks ago. In the spirit of friendly competition, we made a fishing bet with our friends on Kini Popo who were traveling with us. The winner was the one with the largest fish. The losing boat would have to make cocktails for the winning boat.

It was late afternoon on Thursday, and we hadn’t caught anything. We hadn’t even had a single strike. Kini Popo caught a 7 lb skipjack, so they were in the lead. Mike & I were sailing slowly with the spinnaker up when I spotted dozens of birds circling around and diving about a quarter mile off our starboard side. We quickly doused the spinnaker and started up the engine to head in that general direction. As we got closer, we could see huge splashing at the surface and the occasional fin. From a distance, we were sure it must be dolphins feeding. I got up on the bow to get a better look and quickly realized that the fish on the surface were not dolphins. They were as big as dolphins, but the spiky yellow fin breaking the surface gave away the huge yellowfin tuna school in front of us.

Just as we seemed to be approaching the school of tuna, our line took off. The line peeled and peeled even as Mike set the drag and we slowed the boat down. We knew we had a big one on the line. I quickly moved everything I could out of the way so Mike could work on reeling in the fish in whatever direction it took him. I could see Mike struggling and ran to get his fishing belt that holds the butt of the rod. Mike worked and worked on that fish for about 45 minutes. He was now circling off the port side and getting close to the surface. We couldn’t believe the size of the tuna! He was 5-6 feet long and clearly over a hundred pounds.

Mike gave me the rod to hold while he got ready to gaff the fish. The force the fish had on the line was immense. I was praying I wasn’t going to drop it! Mike took a first grab at gaffing the fish but didn’t get the gaff in very deep. He knew if he pulled up, it was likely to pull through the fish. So, he tried to redo it and gaff again. But, as he tried this, the wire leader got wrapped around the gaff and snapped. Bye, bye fish (and lure). Mike was completely dejected. It was the biggest tuna of his life, and he couldn’t believe he blew it. I’ve never seen him so depressed over a fish!

So, I was not surprised that early the next morning Mike had the fishing lines in the water before sunrise. It was about six o’clock and we had two hours left to Raroia. I had gone to sleep at 4:30 ending my night watch and was dead asleep when I heard Mike yelling.

Half asleep I ran up the companionway stairs to the sound of the fishing line peeling out and Mike excitedly barking orders. Before long, we had the fish at the gate ready to gaff again. It was another yellowfin tuna and just as big as the one from the day before. Mike gave me the rod again as he got ready to gaff. He was determined not to mess it up this time, but I was wondering how the heck he was going to pull this fish up on the deck that looked bigger than him!

Somehow adrenaline must have kicked in, because before I knew it Mike had that fish up on deck in one big pull. I think we were both shocked at the size of it now that we saw it out of the water. It was an incredible fish.

I grabbed our giant fillet knife to give to Mike. He wanted to make sure he killed the fish so that it didn’t thrash around and get off the boat. He stabbed the beast in the top of the head, but for some reason that just did not kill the sucker. The fish started thrashing like crazy beating its tail up and down. Mike jumped on top of it, and it was like he was riding a bucking bronco!

Eventually the fish finally gave it up, and Mike got to work filleting the fish. Although, he said that this was more like butchering than filleting. I took bowl after bowl of tuna steaks downstairs to package into ziplock bags and put into the refrigerator and freezer. I had no idea how we were going to eat this much tuna! Luckily, there are always people around who love tuna. We gave tuna to four other boats and some of the locals in Raroia. And, we still had a freezer full. So far we’ve had tuna sashimi, tuna poke, poisson cru, seared tuna, and tuna salad. I’m working on how many other different ways I can make tuna.

As fishermen are proud of their catch and excited to show off the exploits, Mike cannot stop talking about the biggest tuna he’s ever caught and showing all the other boats the photos. When I went to take a photo after the fish was on deck, Mike couldn’t even lift it completely off the deck. The tail went up past his chin (and Mike is 6’2”). We originally thought it must be a hundred pounds, but I think it must have been over 150.

Here’s the video of our tuna!

We won’t be fishing for a while, until we eat all this tuna, but Mike is already working on his next project of hunting coconut crabs.

~katie

Cruising Blues?

We arrived at Baie Hanavave (also known as Baie des Vierges or Bay of Virgins) on Fatu Hiva mid-afternoon and were immediately struck by the dramatic scenery. The bay lays at the edge of a canyon with towering rock spires and green steep mountains. As the afternoon sun reflected off the greenery, it looked like something out of a movie scene. And, I’m sure it has been in more than one movie scene, as Fatu Hiva has been featured in numerous books and movies. It is rumored that the bay was originally called Baie des Verges (basically, bay of penises, or as one boat put it…bay of dicks) but that the French missionaries thought it was inappropriate and inserted an “i” into Verges, making it Vierges or Virgins. I have no idea if that story is true, but it is pretty funny. Looking at the geography, you can see how the story took hold.

Our friends on Kini Popo had caught a fish on the way over from Hiva Oa and had us over that evening for dinner and cocktails. As the boys were filleting the fish on deck, a local boat approached us to inquire about fishing gear. He wanted some bait rigs, which we had on our boat. We don’t catch bait much and Mike was fine parting with them, so he got a ride back over to Adagio to get the gear. In exchange, we negotiated to get some chicken. There was a bit of difficulty in the communication, but we were supposed to meet our new friend Poi in the morning the next day. He also offered to give us a tour over to Omoa on the other side of the island.

We arrived the next morning and were taken to Poi’s home. It was a open air home with very little furniture other than some plastic chairs, a table, and what looked to be a mattress on the floor in the next room. There was a crude outdoor kitchen, grill and fire pit. Poi lived there with his wife and two sons, age 8 and 1. His mother-in-law lived in the small home next door. Although the homes were quite modest, the grounds were beautifully maintained with tons of fruit trees and tropical plants and flowers. From what we can ascertain, most of the people on the island are subsistence based, and live on fruit, local animals, and what they can trade. I don’t know if they receive any assistance from the French government, but some people did have some nice pickup trucks.

We learned that the offer of a tour wasn’t for free, and Poi wanted to charge us $150 for the day. We thought that was a bit pricey, but we wanted to see more of the island so we agreed. The drive up the mountainside was definitely worth it, as we were treated to the most fantastic views. But, we did not find that much to see in Omoa. Poi took us to a “petroglyph” which was a crude carving in a rock and could have been made anytime, and a “tiki” which was made of concrete and probably 20 years old. We took any disappointment in stride.

We did some exploring the next couple of days, heading out to uncharted bays out of the anchorage in our dinghy. We found a local boat at the head of one small bay with swimmers in the water, so we put on our snorkel gear and jumped in. Mike followed the local guys around to see what they were doing. The one guy had a small speargun and was hunting for octopus. There must be some technique to this, as we hardly ever see octopus, they are so good at camouflaging themselves. But, this guy knew what he was doing. He kept diving down to look under rocks, and repeatedly came up with octopus.

But, the highlight of our time in Fatu Hiva was swimming with the manta rays. Mike and I had taken the dinghy out toward the back of the anchorage to say hello to a boat that had just come in. As we were looking around, we saw the tips of the wings of a couple of giant mantas. We watched them for a few minutes and decided we really wanted to jump in. We ran back to the boat to get our snorkel gear and to alert our friends on Kini Popo. Both boats raced back out and jumped in the water with masks, snorkels and cameras. The mantas were about six foot across and clearly feeding as they had their wide mouths open to filter out the plankton and were doing circles around in the same area. They weren’t too bothered by our presence and swam around us for about a half hour. At one point we had about six of them all around us. Very cool!

Pretty soon we were starting to look at our next destination and the upcoming weather forecast. We were headed to the Tuamotus, roughly 400 miles away, and had several different options of our first stop. After doing a little research, we decided our first destination would Raroia. And, it looked like the next few days would be a good time to go (or so we thought…)

As we were preparing to leave, Mike and I were asking each other if we were excited to get to the Tuamotus. Both of us kind of had a “meh” response, and we weren’t sure what our lack of enthusiasm was about. In over two years of cruising, I don’t think we had ever felt this way before a passage. We had read an article a while back in a sailing magazine called “Cruising Blues” that talked about how many people worked for years to be able to take off and sail the world only to be disappointed and end their adventure nearly before it began. For the first time, I think we understood how that could happen to people.

For years we talked about being able to do what we are doing now, and it was a dream of Mike’s before we even met. After all the sailing magazines, blogs and videos out there showing how awesome it would be, cruising French Polynesia always seems to be a highlight, kind of a bucket list item. I think it had been built up as such a fantasy in our minds, that we couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when reality set in.

Of course, it is beautiful. And, Fatu Hiva is definitely at the top of that list. But, you can’t ignore the realities of what is here also. There were numerous local people waiting at quai for the cruisers to come ashore so that they could offer to trade fruit for something they wanted or needed. One of those things was alcohol, as booze is both expensive and difficult to obtain here. We said no when the young men asked us for alcohol. While with another boat, we met a woman who was in distress looking for her husband. Apparently one boat had purchased so many of his carvings that he blew all of the money on alcohol and was on a multi-day bender drunk somewhere in town. Even on a beautiful, remote island, real world problems still exist.

We soon got out of our funk and started looking forward to something completely new, as visiting the Tuamotus would be the first time we would have to transit a pass into a lagoon in a atoll. As the sunset one evening over Fatu Hiva, we pulled up the anchor and said goodbye to the Marquesas.

~katie

p.s. I have video of the mantas, which will someday make it up on Facebook. The lack of internet capability is cramping my style on this whole blogging thing…