Huahine

 

I woke early this morning and decided to update you all on what we’re up to.
There’s quite a bit of blustery wind and cloud, but the sound of the birds and calm in the bay is lovely. Well….except for the cacophony of the roosters and chickens. In every bay in the South Pacific, we wake up to the cuck-a-doodle-doo of our fine feathered friends. It’s something I’ll always remember – the sound of chickens, and the smell of burning coconuts and rubbish.

We’re anchored in Avea Bay on the southern end of Huahine. We arrived on the 21^st of May approaching the island at 0800 or so in the morning. It was a 90 nautical mile passage. We left Cooks Bay in Moorea around 1500 on the 20^th. We’d planned to leave a bit earlier, but Bill decided it was prudent to inspect the rig before departing. We’ve done a few miles now and haven’t checked out what’s going on up the mast….so…..up he went. It ended up being a brilliant idea. The staysail halyard has been rubbing against a cotter pin at the top of the foil causing bad chafing of the rope. You’ll see from the photo, there wasn’t much life left in the halyard – if it had broken we would have had a hell of a time re-running the line through and out the mast again.

Bill up the mast

 

Damaged halyard

We cut off the damaged end and re-attached the snap shackle, then repositioned and replaced the cotter pin. It really didn’t take long to do, but it saved us a lot of misery.  I’m so grateful Bill is so thorough – even though it drives me crazy sometimes!

So back to the trip. The overnight passage was pretty nice. I know we’ve been complaining about discomforts on these passages, but this one was pretty good except again our 17 ton boat was going too fast, 6 to 7 knots instead of 5, so Bill rolled in the genoa to reduce our speed. Even then we managed to stay ahead of a catamaran which remained on our stern for the night. We had a nice 15 knot wind from the ESE for our 308⁰T NW heading. We had clear skies and lots of stars, with the half-moon rising around midnight lighting our way to Huahine. We passed a lot of ships so had to keep a diligent watch but it kept it interesting.

Approaching Huahine

We approached the island at the northern end then turned south to enter the Avapehi pass on the western side. We were greeted by a pod of dolphins. They’re much smaller here than in the northern Pacific and the ones in New Zealand. Sorry, no pics – we were too busy navigating the pass! There were quite a few catamarans moving about as we entered the reef. The leeward islands are a popular cruising ground where Moorings, Dufour, Sunsail and other charter yacht companies all have bases nearby. So we’ve left the remote areas of the Society Islands and are now in the “Club Med” region. One cat we passed was full of people around 50 years old – they were men (wearing shorts) and one woman (wearing nothing at all). Hummm. Mind boggles.

We headed south after clearing the Avapehi pass more nerve wracking for me than for Bill for a change. Some places on the chart showing depths of a mere 3 meters. We draw 1.8, but it’s still too close for comfort. You never know how accurate the charts are for these areas. For example, some of the shallow 3 meter spots didn’t exist at all. Makes you wonder about the ones that DO exist but aren’t’ marked. Bill suspects they indicate a rock or coral head, but whatever! It still makes me nervous!

 

We checked out the island along the way since we were transiting the entire west coast. There aren’t really any other anchorages here to our liking. They’re all 25+ meters deep without landing places for the dinghy, or a sandy bottom with lots of coral heads to catch the anchor on! It’s a beautiful island though which isn’t very populated. The main town of Fare has a mere population of 650 inhabitants. The island itself is actually made up of two islands; Huahine Nui in the north and Huahine Iti in the south separated by a narrow shallow channel contained in a reef. (Remember the castle, moat and wall analogy). Overall, the island is about 9 miles from north to south, and 6 miles east to west.

It seems Captain Cook came here a couple of times. On one visit in 1777, his sextant was stolen by an islander. Then the missionaries appeared in 1808 to teach them some manners in the name of Protestantism. Huahine put up quite a fight against the French as they wanted their island to be theirs – not someone else’s…. What a surprise! They did a pretty good job of fighting them off. It was the last of the leeward Islands to become attached to France in 1888 – which was 40 years after Tahiti. The island was annexed in 1897 but the French didn’t accord citizenship to the inhabitants until 1946 – I guess they had to make them pay for all that resistance somehow.
 

Enough of the history lesson and back to sailing! We passed a number of lovely islets and golden sand beaches. The protective reef here is quite vast unlike the Tuamotus and inspires a feeling of safety. This island is typically known for surfing, not boating. The waves are quite dramatic crashing off the reef 1500 meters away while we’re anchored in calm waters.

We made it to our bay around 1100. With only two other boats here, finding a spot wasn’t difficult. Later, a charter catamaran came in and anchored very close to us. There were 4 German couples onboard. Too funny, playing German Schlager music and having loads of fun (all in the nude) before dinghying off to one of the two restaurants in the bay (not in the nude). We considered following them (also not in the nude), but decided against it since it was my birthday! In Moorea Bill asked what I wanted for my present, and I said “A FISH!” And that’s exactly what I got! Yummm. Bill purchased it the day before from the Bonito Boats so it was as fresh as you could get. We had filets for the BBQ and prepared Poisson Cru (fish marinated in lime juice and coconut milk). It was beautiful. There was even some left for sushi the next day. Great present, eh? 

Tourist outrigger

Kailani at anchor in Avea Bay



Sunset in Avea Bay

There wasn’t much in the bay, just an expensive hotel and a little restaurant called Chez Tara. We ended up spending a bit of time there, you can see why…

Bill at Chez Tara

View of Kailani at anchor from Chez Tara

May 25^th was the Fete du Mer. We didn’t know what the heck it was, but we reserved a table at Chez Tara for the event. They advertised a buffet of Polynesian cuisine which was fantastic and bountiful. We ended up joining another couple who we thought were from Australia from their accents. Ends up they’re from Zurich! What is it with us running into Swiss people all the time! Anyway, someone explained that Fete du Mer was a type of mothers day, and mothers are really celebrated here! In addition to the food, the ‘mothers’ paraded themselves through the restaurant in their self made gowns. There was also a competition for the prettiest head flower wreath. I don’t know how they judged it, they were all so spectacular. And each one was hand made too. Clever shielas!

 

 

Chez Tara decorated for the festival

The buffet

Kids playing in the bay

Yea, we were pretty happy

We walked to the store one day hoping to get some fresh food. Ends up they only had basic dried goods and beer. Well, we enjoyed a beer.

The general store near Avea Bay

We had to bake our own bread... the shop had none left!

The "bus depot'

The headland in Avea Bay

A few days later we left Avea day and headed north Fare – we were ready for more life. On the way, we ran into Toni and Steve on Knot Tied Down who we met in Cooks Bay, Morea.  They were heading south to join us, and there we were heading north! They turned around and both boats anchored outside the “town” of Fare. We had a fantastic night feasting on perfectly BBQ ‘d rump steaks from NZ and managed to demolish a few bottles of red. When we finally noticed the time, it was after midnight. Next morning the neighboring boats gave us a good natured hard time – and we deserved it!

Hoisting the anchor in Avea

Motoring north. Raiatea and Tahaa (our next island stops) in the distance

A house on the island

 

Knot Tied Down

Next day we spent a bit of time in Fare. Here’s a few pics to give you a flavor it. I’m not in the mood for typing anymore!

Bill and Toni at the burger stand

"Main Street" in Fare, Huahine. This has been our favorite town yet!

Veggie stand - not too much on offer!

Bill's new truck. Like the lights?

Little shop

A shop owners house. Notice the outdoor kitchen!

Fishing on the dock

 

 

 

 

 

Pangolin and Yotreps

We finally got the Pangolin / YOTREPS tracking working.

 

You'll find Kalini in the boat list which is organized by call sign – ours is ZMG2957 which is near the bottom of the list. Here's the info:

Link:  http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps_reporting_boat_list

Call Sign:  ZMG2957

Boat Name:  Kailani

We have this working in that we can post our position, BUT its dependent on weather, sea conditions and battery power, so please do not expect a position update or WORRY if the position does not update at all.

Remember the boat is equipped with an emergency radio SSB AND EPIRB so if something does happen the signals from either or BOTH of these devices will be intercepted and a rescue will ensue – so Summer no more alarm bells please.

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 :)