Bora Bora, August 18th.
‘05
This covers more of Tahiti
till departure and Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea- Tahaa and Bora Bora.
The photo album for this
section is at: http://www.cometosea.us/albums/albums/Circumnavigation%20Slideshow/PacificthroughPhilippines.pdf
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 back up 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 out board 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