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

 

Still in Fakarava!

After our last post, we did another check of the weather and.... it changed for the better! So, we decided to hang out in the atoll a little bit longer.

Unbelievably, a catamaran anchored near us in the bay which is registered in Basel, Switzerland! We had to dinghy over to introduce ourselves and say "Gruezi". Ends up Kurt and Brigit are from Zurich and spend half the year on their boat and the other half in Switzerland. We had a few laughs together and decided to do a 'tour' the next day.

We rented bicycles and rode the 10 km to the northern pass of the atoll to do a bit of snorkeling. The weather was hot and sunny - perfect for a ride and swim!! Here are some pics.

 

I wouldn't mind living here for a while! See the kids playing in the water?
"Kids, go play in the backyard" has a totally different meaning here!

On the way out of 'town' Bill, Kurt and Brigit take a break in the shade.

This is the main entrance at the airport in Fakarava.
It's a far cry from LAX or Frankfurt airports!

Kurt just had to ride his bike on the runway. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift off...

We passed a small kiosk and had a cold drink. What a treat!
Unfortunately, they ran out of Hinano beer so a cold coke had to do.

Bill and Brigit chatting with the proprietor. He spoke a bit of English as well as French and was a proud new father of a baby boy!

Brigit and Carolyn nearing the pass.

We found a snorkeling spot and decided to give the bikes a break

Aaah. The beach and reef for a good snorkel.

Kurt, Brigit, Carolyn and Bill in paradise

Just us this time....

We don't have an underwater camera so no pics of fish. At least you can see how nice the water is.

 We had a great snorkel on the reef. There were loads of colorful fish and coral. We even saw a few sharks - they weren't interested in us... thank goodness!!

We got back on our bikes and rode to the actual 'pass' to check it out. Bill and I will be traversing it soon so thought it would be a good idea to have a look. It didn't look very welcoming, and in the shallows we saw more black tipped sharks.

Black tipped sharks in the northern pass. See their fins?

Carolyn making a run for it after spotting the sharks!
Just kidding :)

Fakarava - heading north to Rotoava village

Our anchorage in the south west corner was lovely, but cut a bit short due to a weather system approaching from the west and north. We were fortunate to meet Livia and Carol on Estrellita who have been cruising the Tuamotus for about 2 years. We followed their track to the south pass where we'd hoped to hang on a mooring for the bad weather. Unfortunately, the mooring had sunk and wasn't there, so we decided to remain in the atoll and head for the north pass. An anchorage about half way up the atoll seemed a good idea to stay for an overnight.

We anchored near a channel marker. This ended up being very fortuitous. Bill changed the oil in the engine while I prepared dinner. During the night, we had heavy rains with thunder, lightening and wind. We kept a minor watch. It was difficult to discern where anything was- the ocean and the sky seemed to merge into one and the shore was not visible so our bearings were obsolete. The beacon was our only point of reference plus the GPS. When the sun came up, we fired up the engine and had a quick look to make sure all was well following the oil change - and discovered a leak in the saltwater pump. Major bummer! Together, we quickly dismantled the pump replacing the seals. All in all it took about 2 hours to complete. Not sure why the seal failed as it was replaced in Ensenada and only had 100 hours of use. Spike (friend) warned that the new style of seal supplied by Westerbeke wasn't trustworthy and gave us some original seals as a precaution. Ended up, he was right! But that's no surprise if you know Spike.

Squalls

So, we pulled the anchor without incident (didn't get hung up on any coral) and went north. Sure enough, we had lots of rain. It's ok - we still managed to enjoy our coffee! We made it to the northern anchorage and dropped the pick. That's where we are now! Here's a nice sunset pic:

Sunset at Rotoava

 Again, we had heavy rain from 1630 till sometime after we went to bed. The dinghy was half full of rainwater by morning. We washed some clothes and filled the solar shower with the fresh water!

Filling buckets and the solar shower

Shops at Rotoava

Bill securing the dinghy to go ashore

The exposed ocean side of the atoll. Bill made a new 4 legged friend along the way.



Bill finally got ahold of the camera!

Took a walk along the lagoon.

Looked like a good place for a cold drink!

Bike? Velo? Ours are still in Switzerland!

Aaaaah. Cold Hinano beers...

The tables were in the ocean. Nice and cool!

Aaaaaahhhhhh

That's us!

 

Standard activity following beer drinking.

 We are leaving tomorrow, the 6th of May to head for Tahiti/Moorea. We feel the atolls are a little to precarious for our comfort. Anchoring is difficult (we've had ours tangle twice) and there's no easy escape route in the event of bad weather. The prevailing SE winds are not present and we continually find ourselves wondering where the wind will come from next. So.... we're outta here! Tahiti - here we come!

The local church in Fakarava - shells were strung everywhere with had sewn tapestries. Very pretty.

Fakarava and the Tuamotus

We made it to Paradise!! NOW we remember why we’re doing this!

The Tuamotus are stunning. We arrived at the Fakarava atoll during slack tide at 10:30 and cleared the pass without incident. Being our first entrance into an atoll on our own, we were apprehensive. The guide portrayed the pass as something quite long and treacherous. Bill was at the helm while I was on the bow with binoculars and keeping an eye out for coral heads.  Then… almost as soon as we entered the pass - it was all over! It only took about 3 minutes and was surprisingly simple. All that worrying for nothing! There were a few picturesque thatched huts in the entrance luring us in and we passed a fizz boat filled with tourists. I’m afraid we’ll be in a lot of unknown people’s trip photos!

Approaching Fakarava's south pass

Looking out

Hotel bungalows in the southern pass of Fakarava

Inside the atoll

Once inside the atoll, we had to clear a fish farm and choose where to go. The guide book explained the eastern half of the atoll was charted, but not the west. The prevailing winds here are from the south east, however on arrival they were from the south west. On the western corner of the atoll, there was an inviting area of particularly beautiful crystal clear water and a cluster of sailing boats and catamarans just to the west… so what do we do… we went west. It was like chocolate, we just couldn’t resist the temptation! We thought, “heck, if they can get there, why can’t we?”. Well, they must have had some local knowledge that we didn’t have. It was probably the craziest bit of maneuvering we’ve ever done, and I hope we never have to do it again! Bill was at the bow looking out for coral heads while I helmed the boat. We zigged and zagged our way through a garden of flowering coral. Bill was giving some crazy arm signals as though he was an overzealous referee giving penalties at a foosball table game! Left arm UP, right arm UP, left… right… right,right,right… straight, LEFT, etc. I stole an opportunity to look at one of the passing heads and man, they were barely under the surface. Yikes. Then I couldn’t look anymore since I had to keep such a close eye on Bill’s arm signals! Fortunately, the conditions were perfect with no wind and the sun high in the sky which is optimal for reef navigation. Once we made it to the other boats, we realized there wasn’t a lot of room to anchor amongst the coral and decided it was too tricky for us and wanted to get the hell out of there. A French couple approached us in their dinghy and explained that we way we came was “too dangerous”. We got that information a little too late. Because we couldn’t reach the safer route out, we had to go back the way we came! Aargh! They were really nice about it and wished us luck. So, off we went – zig zagging our way back. What a bunch of dopes! Although it was dangerous, it really was quite comical.  

Once we were back at the entrance to the atoll, we sighed in relief and vowed not to do something so incredibly stupid again! Knowing us, we probably will though J. So, now we were heading east – where we were supposed to. We tried anchoring near the entrance at the southern end of the atoll, but had trouble finding a clear area of sand to lay the anchor without fouling on a clump of coral. We made an attempt, but sure enough it caught. We managed to hoist the anchor with some difficulty – the bow was being pulled down instead the anchor going up – it’s supposed to be the other way around! It finally freed and off we went again to the far eastern corner of the atoll where we found a beautiful sandy anchorage. We finally paid attention to what the guide book said. En route, we did discover uncharted coral reefs so had to really pay attention during the hour long crossing. Now here we are anchored in crystal clear turquoise water with a white sandy beach covered in coconut palms. Heaven.

After securing the anchor, we stripped off our clothes and immediately jumped in the water (sorry to put that image in your heads!). There are loads of little fish, and the water is a warm  28 C. This anchorage makes it all worth it. And we finally opened the bottle of champagne! We were supposed to have it when we crossed the equator - but it was too rough. Then we thought we’d have it when we arrived at the Marquesas - but it was too rolley. But now… it’s JUST RIGHT!

Navigating in the atoll

The beach from a distance

After a swim and a bit of champagne

Cruising is pretty great!

 Note: We ended up leaving this bay before we could take photos as bad weather approached and we had to get outta there!

Leaving the Maquesas for the Tuamotus

Seems 4 boats in the bay at Nuku-Hiva decided at the same time to pull up anchor and head for the mouth of the bay, a Swiss from Basel, an Australian and a Swedish boat. The Swedish boat swung by and told us he was also off to the Tuamotus. The other was a Bavaria with an Australian flag whom we didn’t communicate with.

We watched them power out ahead while Carolyn dodged around some outrigger canoes, the other 2 boats hoisted their main sails. By the time we cleared the outrigger canoes a rain squall hit us so we waited….big mistake. By the time the squall passed we had reached the mouth of the bay where we encountered the full force of the ocean swells driven by the trade winds. In order to hoist the main sail one has to point the boat into the wind and hence into the ocean swells. It makes for an up and down sloppy uncomfortable ride which requires total concentration for every movement especially once you leave the safety of the cockpit and move forward on deck.

OK back to the business of hoisting the main sail. It requires attaching the halyard (this is the rope that is used to pull the sail up) to the clew (a reinforced hole at the very top of the sail). Times like these you really could use a Brand or a David Andrews or a Jimbo Oberst IE someone with more height. Having none of those on board means yours truly maneuvering his 51 year old bones up onto the granny bars. OK granny bars are like a 3 foot high gate designed to prevent you falling while you work on the mast). Once standing on the granny bars the halyard can be attached to the top of the sail.
The above was completed without much elegance and plenty of grunting and no doubt would make a funny movie, as we watched the other 2 boats disappear over the horizon, both having missed the squall and no doubt without the gymnastics we experienced hoisting the main sail. Still once we set the mainsail with one reef (a reef is basically a reduced sail in that the whole sail is not used) and just the staysail (the staysail is the middle sail between the main sail and the sail at the very front the yankee) we were sailing at 6 to 7 knots. With about 440 n miles to go we estimated 4 days and hoped to make a landfall in Mahini an atoll to the North of the Tuamotus.

Best laid plans
Well an estimated 100 miles a day turned into about 150 + miles a day with beautiful sunny days and long ocean swells, the first we had experienced and by far the best sailing conditions so far. In fact other than rolling out the yankee genoa we never touched the sails. But and isn’t there always? We now faced the predicament of arriving at night as we were sailing too fast. One thing should be mentioned about night arrivals – it’s a no no unless you know the area, and also that the area has no hazards.

Atolls
Atolls are like a coral necklace of reef in the middle of the ocean and in this case the trade winds. Parts of the necklace are high enough to support palm trees and these parts are where the people live, not that there are many! Of course there is a break in the necklace where the ocean can flow in and out called a pass. We do have a guide book thanks to the helpful Kevin in Nuku-Hiva and it describes a number of atolls and their passes. The passes vary in characteristics some can only be entered at slack tide (when the natural flow of water in or out of the atoll is at its minimum). The flow of the tide in or out in some passes can exceed 5 knots…..and our boat under motor barely does 7 knots. Bit like trying to overtake a Mercedes with a Fiat 500 or a 3 wheeled Gremlin.

Change of plans
Given our original destination Mahini was out of the question due to the night arrival we decided to head about 100 miles south west to make the South West pass of the atoll called Fakarava. According to the guide this was an easy pass with only a 4 knot flow in the worst conditions. C bless her heart had downloaded tide tables and calculated the best time to enter the pass. We calculated we needed to maintain a boat sped of about 3 to 3.5 knots for the next 30 hours in order to arrive at the best time to enter the pass, around 1030 in the morning. C made fresh bread and corn bread and bean spouts our only fresh source of vegetable – yummmm.

We were able to reduce sail and maintain about 3.5 knots through the night and into the next day. But the wind died requiring the engine, not only that we had to navigate between 2 atolls to the north west of Fakarava. It meant passing within 5 miles of each atoll in the pitch black of night. Thank God for modern GPS, chart plotters and radar. The French charts were accurate and clearly matched the physical position of the boat according to the radar image which gave us a lot of confidence. There was no evidence of the atolls as we passed by, C smelt smoke (not from us) as often is the case in the Pacific Islands or Atolls.

Daylight found us within sight of Fakarava atoll with the wind on the nose – still motoring.

Last days in the Marquesas

On our last eventful day in the Marquesas, we decided to take a hike to a waterfall. These are a few pics we took along the way. You'll notice we never made it to the waterfall - we lost the trail in the 'ancient village' and decided we'd had enough anyway.

Really, a phone booth here?

A typical home. Few windows let alone walls!

There are lots of wild pigs. The locals hunt them on horses with their dogs.

It's not all palm trees! It was really warm in the interior of the island with lots of bugs! We also managed to find wild mangos (not pictured here, just thought I'd mention it)

We met a local, Augustine who took us to his 'house' and sold us 16 giant pampelmouse (local grapefruit) and limes. Notice all the Hinano beer cans, the sculls, etc. What a different life!

His horse aptly named "Iron"

Augustine and Bill.

The cows get hot too!