Bora Bora, August 18th. ’05 (edited 01-31-2021
This covers more of Tahiti till departure
and Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea- Tahaa and Bora Bora.
The photo album for this
section is at: Pacific
through Philippines
I have just cleared out of French Polynesia, with the
gendarmes here. This being my last port of my 3 months stay in French
Polynesia. I need to get going in order to avoid the cyclone season in the
Central South Pacific, which starts in November. My next stop should be Suvarov in the Northern Cook
Islands. Then I am off
to Pago Pago in American Samoa.
When I arrived in Tahiti on June 17, I had expected to
stay from 10 to 14 days in Papeete. But engine work and waiting
for parts stretched this till August 2nd. In
this waiting period I did visit the nearby island of Moorea,
from July 5 till the 9th. But the extended stay was well worth it,
in no small part due to the fine mooring arrangement I had at the Yacht Club de
Tahiti in Arue. Other than one Swiss and several
semi-permanent French visitors, I have been the only foreign visitor. Having
the bicycle made all the difference to do the 8 kilometers to Papeete.
Public transportation was spotty and not available after 5 p.m. on
Saturday till Monday morning. The yacht club has a very active racing program
and junior training in Optimists, Lasers and Hobies.
The assistant manager, Thierry Bride and his brother are world champions in
the Hobie, at Guadeloupe in
2000. Tierry was away, when I left Arue, to Switzerland with a team of juniors
to compete in the Optimists world championships. I made many new friends at the
marina and I was treated like an honored guest by everyone. Most of the foreign
visiting yachts anchored in front of the Taina Marina,
which is about 5 k.m. south of Papeete.
And then they were dependent on public transportation to get to
town. The “Heiva” festivities ran
for nearly a month from June 24. There were traditional dances, outrigger canoe
races, “Himine” singing, stone lifting, fruit
carrier races, and so on.
I ruined my digital camera by giving it a float test off the boat.
Awaiting the replacement, I have been using my old Pentax still
camera. The shutter sticks at time and I apologize for the quality of
these pictures in the accompanying album.
My weekend routine was to go to the French mass at the Papeete Cathedral
on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning to the Arue church,
across from the marina, where the mass was celebrated in Tahitian and French.
The singing, in particular in Arue, was such
a treat. I managed to get better all along in joining the men in the
harmony parts of the Tahitian songs. Last Sunday, on Raiatea, my pew
neighbor made my year. She complimented me on my Tahitian singing....
That is not unusual in the U.S. where I am a one-eye in the land
of the blind, brought up in the Netherlands protestant singing
tradition, but here I consider this a major compliment. I will dearly miss
sharing mass with my Polynesian brothers and sisters, but who knows what is in
store beyond the western horizon.
The weather on my visit to Moorea was not ideal. I
stayed two nights in Cooks Bay and one night in Opunohu Bay. I watched the regular Wednesday night
traditional dance performance at the Bali Hai resort
in Cooks Bay. I walked from the far end of Opunohu Bay to
the village of Papetoai at the
bay’s entrance. It has the oldest Christian church building in French
Polynesia. It was founded by British protestant missionaries in 1822.
It was a long walk. I had left the bike back in Arue. On the walk back, my heart sunk seeing
“Fleetwood” slowly drifting down the bay. Fortunately, two fellow cruisers
had already hooked on to her and were pushing her back with their dinghy.
Before I left the boat, she appeared to be well anchored. It turned out that a
tree branch had become caught in the anchor flukes, in the mud bottom.
The sail back to Tahiti was very rough and when I
checked my oil I noticed that I once again had water
in the oil. I did not dare to run the engine, so, I decided to sail in to the
main anchorage at the Papeete quay instead of trying to slalom
through the reefs at Arue. Commodore Tompkins
was just starting to tie up and saw me sailing in. He immediately offered to
tow me to a tie up. He had just sailed in from San Diego in a 21-day
fast sail. A day later I had the opportunity to visit Commodore Tompkins and
his wife Nancy. I had read about him and his growing up aboard “Wanderbird”, a pre-war German pilot schooner.
The other boat I got to know the crew of, on the quay in Papeete,
was “Tournesol”. They spent extra time in Papeete awaiting
parts for their engine water pump. I had spotted Scott Duncan at the
internet cafe where he was scrolling up and down the screen with very
large letters and at the same time comparing the West-Marine catalog, with
a strong prism. I assumed that he was a crew member on one of the boats in
the harbor. But then I got to talk to him and his companion Pam Habek and learned that both are legally blind and
sailing their “Tournesol” from San Francisco via
Mexico on the milk run to New Zealand.
They have a web site at www.blindsailing.com . Pam is a beautiful
woman, always a bright cheery smile and a Tahitian Tiara flower behind one ear.
Scott is also a very handsome man. Whenever things get a little rough for me, I
just think of these two heroes who manage under such a handicap. As a
single handler I have to be a little better prepared than on a crewed boat. I
try to have a backup plan and an escape route. But their options are much
more limited. Last week I had a chance to sit down with them at happy hour at
the Huahine “Jimmy Buffet” bar. These
people are precious and very special.
I left Tahiti on August 2nd., for
what should have been a one day and one night sail. But the winds were
extremely light and the night of the third it turned in to a howler. But
the next morning, tucked away in the Huahine lagoon,
these hardships were soon forgotten. This island was delightful. Clear
deep blue lagoons and white sandy palm lined beaches. The main town on Huahine, Fare, has a typical vacation
atmosphere because it attracts many tourist that come
in by inter-island ferry and by air.
Sailing from Fare, in the lagoon, to Avea Bay,
I met Jim Marco on “Intention” and his friend Karla Jacobs. Both are from the Bay
area. We have stayed in touch and buddied up again, last week,
on the next island of Raiatea. Puturoa,
the main town on Raiatea has a nice mooring basin where one can
moor for free for 24 hours. I did this three times and from here went into
different directions. Last Monday, I stayed with “Intention” on a mooring buoy
in Faaro Bay and went with Jim and his
friend John up the Faaro river, in their
outboard dinghy. On Tuesday I rode the ten-mile, along the beautiful coast
line, from Faaro Bay to the Taputapuatea marae. This is one of the main maraes from
which the early Polynesians spread their influence to the other islands. They
are large volcanic stone structures that served for religious and social
gatherings. On several of these, human sacrifices were offered to their Gods. I
spent the night before last in Hurepiti Bay on
the island of Tahaa. I was the only
yacht in the bay that night. Tahaa and Raiatea are
both enclosed by the same reefs and in the same lagoon. This the nicest
way to cruise here. The water is smooth, protected from the ocean swells by the
reefs, you sail along this magnificent scenery of palm lined beaches and clear
blue water. There are many quiet protected anchorages and a chance to
snorkel or dive on the reef where you are in a virtual tropical aquarium.
I had a very nice broad reach from Tahaa to Bora Bora.
The guide showed that the Bora Bora Y.C. offers buoy
moorage and advised to call ahead on channel 16. It turned out that they did
not monitor the VHF at all. I rowed ashore with the bike and found that
the buoy moorage was close to US$25 per day, unless you ate at the restaurant.
The menu was in the $35/50 range. Showers were $ 12.50. So, I pulled up
stake and moved closer to town in an anchorage. Other than a bar
and restaurant the Yacht Club portion of the restaurant was a misnomer.
The “bible” cruising guide “Guide to Navigation and Tourism in French
Polynesia” calls this a “must” stop for yachters.
I promised to report the final outcome of my bond posting issue
here in Polynesia. It looks like I may be the only or very
rare U.S. sailor who managed to avoid this complicated and
costly procedure. The issue is as to who sets this rule and who enforces it. I
am still not 100% certain as to how this works. We are dealing with the
Gendarmerie for keeping track of the boats, the Douane and
Immigration (who both only have an office in Papeete) for the boat
and goods coming and to be sure we do not overstay our welcome. In Hiva Oa the
bond issue was not brought up. In Nuka Hiva, which is for most the second
port of call, the Gendarmes insisted on having the bond posted. I wrote
earlier about Nuka Hiva. In Papeete I told the douane/Immigration
that I wanted to try and avoid posting the bond. They suggested that I do
a check in and out at the same time, on leaving. This time period was stretched
from 10 days to nearly a month because of my waiting for spare parts. When I
finally came in they did raise their eye brows some. I
might just have gotten lucky. But it might be worthwhile to tell the
Gendarmes in Nuka Hiva that you will deal with the bond issue
in Papeete, which is what I did