Moorea, Tahitian Windward Islands

17⁰ 30’ 231 S
149⁰ 49’ 232 W

09 May 2014

Fakarava Tuamotus to Moorea 250 nautical miles

We decided that for us passages must be a bit like child birth – you never know for sure what you are going to get and how long the pain will last and afterwards (I have been told) you somehow think it wasn’t so bad….and that yes you really could do it again!

Exiting the atoll of Fakarava through the North pass on a Friday afternoon in light winds was very nice to say the least. The current through the pass was barely a knot and we shimmied through into the ocean swells and light trades.

250 miles at 5 knots would get us to Moorea around 9 in the morning in two days, daylight arrivals are still mandatory for us. We had light winds throughout the afternoon, and into the next morning. Our average speed was closer to 3.5 knots as opposed to the estimated 5. Things again were not looking good for the planned daylight arrival.

GRIB files

We now have access to digital weather information thanks to the SSB radio. GRIB weather files are downloaded and interpreted with software. It means you think you can anticipate the weather and make the appropriate plans. In our case this was 17 knots of wind from the east, and while 17 knots is a little more than the average husband and wife cruising couple would ask for, at least it was coming from the right direction (from aft of the beam) and 17 knots is normally no problem. Now this tale ends happily and we were never in any danger – still it’s fun to tell the story.

Around 10 the rather large black cloud began to encroach toward us from behind. Pretty soon we had 30 knots + and just about no visibility with torrential rain. Waking up Carolyn who had only just put her head down was no fun. She rallied and together we reefed the yankee head sail (much easier to reef than the lager genoa which was removed at the Marquesas). In these conditions one has to hand steer at least until the sails are reduced enough in order to engage the autopilot or the wind vane. After reefing the main sail we felt the boat was under control of some sort.

Trouble was you couldn’t see 50 meters as the rain was so heavy and we were approaching Tahiti – yep what about the ships? In the end Carolyn managed to get the radar powered up and scanning every 10 minutes, we only saw small dots so theoretically no ships. Fortunately the sky lightened and the wind dropped to a respectable 22 to 25 knots and there it stayed and the sun came out. However this sort of wind does increase the size of the swells. Meant a bumpy ride and sometimes wet into Moorea, but we really can’t complain as the wind was behind us.

On our approach, we spotted the island of Tahiti in the distance. It’s very easy to spot as it’s so large and has mountain ranges of 1700 meters or so. I don’t have the exact altitude, but you get the idea. We decided earlier not to visit Papeete, Tahiti since it’s such a ‘big city’ and re-provision instead in the outer islands. In the end we arrived at Cooks Bay, Moorea around 1430 on Sunday, May 11^th. Surprisingly, we made it according to schedule thanks to the increased wind on the final day.

Approaching Tahiti

 Approaching the Avaroa pass on the northern side of the island was effortless. The pass has many channel markers making the traverse quite simple. Hooray! (Each of the Society Islands are surrounded by coral reefs navigable through passes. I guess it can be likened to the island as a castle, the reef forms the moat, and the bridge as the pass. Once through the pass, you can navigate with caution between the island and the protective reef – I just thought that deserved mentioning.) After entering the bay, we dropped the main sail and made for the protected areas in shallow water. There weren’t many boats in the bay, but much to our delight we spotted Discovery, a boat that we had been in radio contact with during our Pacific Ocean passage. They were the closest boat to us during the passage at about a week ahead of us. We’d followed their progress, course and weather reports along the way, and it was always so nice and even a bit comforting to hear them on the radio. We’d hoped to meet them somewhere in the Marquesas or the Tuamotus – but as I said – they were a week ahead! Anyway, back to Moorea, there they were at anchor in the very same bay. Ooooo, happy days – we had some company! They weren’t aboard at the time, so we had to delay our excitement.

The pass to enter Cooks Bay

sv Discovery in Cooks Bay

We found a nice little spot in the bay close… but not too close… to Discovery and quickly set about dropping the anchor and setting the boat up for some serious relaxing time. The weather was perfect – sunny with just a bit of cloud and 28⁰C. The bay is a perfect anchorage, a muddy bottom in relatively shallow water with high protective peaks on the three of the four sides of the bay. Bill could finally relax! No more coral heads to worry about! And there are facilities close by; two little markets that carry all the basics and a Mobil gas station that also sells bread and pineapples.  But the best part is that we’re anchored in front of the Bali Hai hotel. I’m so over the moon about that! I can’t stop singing the silly song. And the icing on the cake is that they’re friendly to cruisers and allow use of their dingy dock and a few other luxuries.

Kailani in Cooks Bay

At the Bali Hai

Pool at the Bali Hai

Kailani was anchored just to the left of here

So there we are, giving the boat a fresh water wipe down to get rid of the salt following the 2 day passage – and Andy and Betty from Discovery roll up in their dinghy. It’s such a great thing to finally meet people you’ve only met by voice and finally put a face to the person. They looked exactly as we’d imagined – fun loving and relaxed…PERFECT! They hail from Seattle and are some of the nicest people we’ve meet. They fit like a comfortable pair of old shoes. We were lucky to enjoy two nights with them before they headed off for Raiatea to pick up some guests. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to cross paths with them again…

Andy & Betty from Discovery

Once again, we rented bicycles and had the ambitious idea to ride around the 70km island. Man, did our arses hurt by the end of the day. Bicycle seats are a lot different to our nicely cushioned cockpit seats! The bikes were in pretty poor condition – but you get what you get! 

 

On the west coast, we passed the camp ground that Suzy and I stayed in back in 1996. Sounds a shockingly long time ago, but it is what it is. So Suz – these pics are for you….

Yes, it was 18 years ago that we were here!

Camping Nelson

The beach at the campground.. just down the road from Club Med!

Our bungalow

It was a really nice place to stay and is just down the beach from Club Med. Anyway, we continued on our ride and made various stops to slug a Hinano (local beer) or two and stopped for a little picnic of baguette and cheese using the Swiss army knife we received as a departing gift from our neighbors in Binningen, Franzisca and Kees. Thanks again you guys!

It sure isn't Swiss cheese, but it still tasted good!

The west and south coast of the island are known as surfing spots. You can see the waves crashing against the reef offshore – not at all suited for a sail boat but it was great to see another side of the island. There were loads of little ‘villages’ along the way, but really the island is mostly populated along the north coast.

Stone carvings

See the fishing nets drying in the tree?

Small fishing village

 

We passed a veggie stand and decided to stop and have a look. Veggies here are outrageous. Tomatoes cost a whopping USD$10 a kilo or $4.50 a pound. We decided not to buy veggies but bought a “Coconut Glace”. I expected it to be ice cream and was surprised when the fellow came back with a cold coconut with a straw sticking out of it. I was disappointed at first, but after drinking it we were delighted. There is so much milk in them and it is so refreshing and filling at the same time. We cracked the nut open after guzzling the milk and ate the flesh which was thin – less than 6mm or ¼” thick, but equally delicious and filling.

Coconut glace with the veggie shop man

Other than the bike ride, we’ve really just spent the rest of the week chilling out. The snorkeling here is surprisingly good. The water is not clear in the bay so we took the dinghy and anchored it near the pass to have a look at Moorean life under water. We were amazed at the colors and variety of fish. It was much better than our experience in Fakarava which was totally unexpected. We fixed a broken sail slider on the main sail, and also did more laundry – the novelty of hand washing is getting old pretty fast. Bill decided to attack the leaky mast post issue. He’s ingeniously configured a strange drainage system to divert water that leaks through the 4 bolt holes into the compression post where it’s supposed to go. Looks a bit like the Borg from Star Trek. We have no idea if it will work, but we’re supposed to have ‘torrential rain’ next week which will pose a challenging test.

The compression post "Borg" fix

On a final note, on the day we left Fakarava we snapped a shot of the local shark that patrols the shore. He’s recognizable by an odd green growth near his mouth which you can’t see in the photo, but we wanted to share it with you all.

Shark at the dock in Fakarava

And also, we had a few ‘pets’ in Fakarava – a group of Pilot Fish attached themselves to our hull. Bill enjoyed feeding them bits of bread each day. You can see the flat areas on the tops of their heads where they ‘suck’ onto the hull. They deserted us on our way to Moorea and I don’t blame them!

Our Pilot fish pets

Crab