Raiatea, French Polynesia

Sailing inside the reef in Raiatea

We had a choppy, rolly sail under whisker-poled genoa over to Raiatea. The weather was bright and clear.  Winds at 10-15 knts. We enjoyed our  French "hitch-hikers, Alex and Carol.

Alex and Carol

Maybe we'll meet again? We had no clue where was to be our first anchorage once inside the Pass at Teavapiti...and on the way in the pass,

a call from "Double Diamond" a catamaran we met way back in Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, called on the VHF to say "Hi, we saw you on the radar"...we chatted and they suggested an anchorage up the way, Marina Apooiti where we might take a mooring. Perfect. And it is...

View of  island Tahaa from  Marina Apooiti

Lunch is poisson cru of fresh raw tuna...my favorite!

Marina Apooiti is a small marina offering some dock space for traveling yachts and several moorings at a reasonable rate of $25 @night that included showers, laundry, Internet and restaurant. It's also the home of Tahiti Yacht Charters, so there are many catamarans waiting to be chartered.  What else do you need?  We immediately sat for lunch at the local restaurant...poisson cru was fabulous..but, the $7.00 beers turned us off!

Marina Apooiti

Time to explore... we rented a car and drove around the whole island of Raiatea.  It was tropical, wild and green with lots of shallow bays.  The only big town is Uturoa, where locals go for official offices; post office, gendarmarie and shopping... we checked out of French Polynesia today with the gendarmerie...stamped our passports...we are officially out of the country, but we will visit a few more islands on our way out...

The local open market

Next we stopped at the Marae de Taputapuatea. This is a stone structure, one of the preserved historical sites that was used in sacrificial ceremonies that has great significance, even to this day, the locals come to offer gifts and receive direction from the "gods".

Marae Taputapuatea

John inspecting the wood carvings that are offered to the "gods"

Standing in front of a still very used alter with modern "offerings"

Offerings 

Shells placed as offerings on a lava stone

Lots of power circling these ruins....Vahine Sue feels the power!

Trees were a very important element to the marae

Trees were a very important element to the ancient marae.  They were planted surrounding the stone structure to house the birds who were the messengers to the "gods".

Opoa Beach 

We stopped for lunch at Opoa Beach..and discovered the cutest, "whitest" hotel ever with good food!

Opoa Beach hotel

Very white...  

Tuna on baguette..yumm!

We leave for Tahaa in the morning...another island to explore! Then off to Bora Bora.

Huahine, French Polynesia

Anchorage off the town of Fare on the island Huahine

Who says you can't go to bed at 7:00pm ?  Because that's just what we did after sailing an overnighter from Moorea to Huahine.   We arrived at day light, as planned by super navigator, Capt John, crossing the 90 mile distance calculated at 5 knots boat speed.  We had following swells that pushed Wizard faster than we wanted sometimes surfing a rolling wave at 7.5 knots!  We were sailing and rolling along at a good speed.   We were not alone...there were four other sailboats traveling our course plus one tanker.  That's more traffic than we've experienced since the Baja Ha rally coming down the California coast back in September!

Perfect rainbow captured after a light rain on way to Huahine

At 4:00 am on my watch I saw the island of Huahine in the distance and slowed the boat down by reefing in the genoa sail.
We sailed up the north coast following the wind around the island with blustery clouds, some light rain. It's a remotely populated island with lush valleys and empty sandy white beaches.. We entered Pass Avamoa and anchored in shallow turquoise colored water off the village of Fare.   This is a popular anchorage well written up in cruiser travel guides so we were not alone.  There were well over a dozen cruisers making the stop here before hopping over to the next island, Raiatea only 30 miles away.  The usual sailing path is then on to the island of Bora Bora.

Turquoise water..it's clear and shallow!

We marvel at the amount of other yachts already anchored here...then try to anchor in what looks likes a sand reef, but is really coral and sand..it takes many tries to secure the anchor .  We both dive in the water to check what the anchor will catch?  Sand over coral, and rock.  Not the best combination for holding an anchor.  After so many tries, John takes the dingy  around for a " look see" and finds a perfect sand patch for anchoring.   My job is to drop the anchor in the sand while Capt. John backs down hard with the boat's engine until the chain pulls straight out pulling on a dug-in- the- bottom-anchor...good.  Finally, safe and secure.

Main street of Fare with a well-stocked supermarket...quiet on Sunday

We venture into town and find the most amazingly stocked super market!  We decide to forgo dinner out and spend the time  to re-provision for our next few months ...beer, sugar, coffee and beer...did I mention beer?  Its  a big item on Wizard and needs to be replenished most often!

Welcome dock at the village of Fare, Huahine

July 27-Sunday- Huahine
Do you know what cruising is?... boat maintenance in exotic places. It's so true.  We spend most mornings on small projects just to keep the boat running and well maintained. Today I scrubbed the waterline of the boat to rid the sludge-growth accumulated in Tahiti. Then I stitched some canvas tears in the dodger.  John re-patched the slow leak in the dinghy...hope it holds...nothing worse than a soft dinghy he says..haha!  We stay all morning on the boat to sit out 25 mph winds! Crazy!  We don't feel comfortable leaving the boat to go ashore.

We snorkeled the outside of the reef.   Its eerie dropping off into deep blue water over a blanket of coral that drops off slowly into deeper blue water nothing-ness.   I kept looking back to see if a shark had noticed us...but nothing...this was a very empty reef!  Hardly  any fish.  Later we learned that the locals have pretty much fished this reef out.

Dinghy ride around the lagoon, up the river and ended on the beach at the Lapita Village Hotel for a beer, toes in the sand and watching the sunset...a short walk down the beach led to the Pearl Treehouse...where we met Ray Marks, a transplant-American surfer-married-Tahitian-turned entreprenuer-pearl farmer.

My new Tahitian black pearl bracelet is hot!

He has a unique pearl store built in a tree house www.pearltreehouse.com filled with black pearls from his pearl farm, the only one in Huahine. Of course, I found a beautiful pearl bracelet with green colored hues that I really liked ..these particular greenish hued pearls come from the Gambier Islands. Ray says the water is colder there and grows these unique colored pearls.


We like this small town and plan to stay a few days exploring before heading on to Raiatea.  We just met a nice young French couple, Alex and Carol who need a ride over to Raiatea.  They have a boat  being repaired in Raiatea and wanted a ride over. This should be fun..more hitch-hikers!


July 30 Monday
Early morning sail away to Raiatea.  we have guests for one day, Alex and his girlfriend, Carol visiting from France.  Alex and partner had the misfortune of being dis-masted in strong winds in the Tuamotus and limped to Raiatea under  a jury-rigged mast. He and his partner have sailed all the way from France.  Check out their adventures on www.ideesdumonde.org.

Alex and Carol need a ride to Raiatea

Leaving Tahiti...Moorea next landfall!

Marina Taina

Today we set sail...time to say goodbye to Tahiti and  to friends  Per, Sabina and Ella on Breeze. We have enjoyed their company and will miss them!  We set sail across the Tahiti channel  to Moorea.

The Breeze family...Goodbye, again!

Gang plank over the water  to Breeze was a little scary!

This seems like an easy two hour sail, but ends up being a  long 4 hour sail with huge rolling cross swells and an occasional breaking wave! The winds are marginal 5 knots on the nose and even though Wizard can point really high, we can't get the direction we want to go, so we "tie a hankie" or reef the genoa and motor sail through the rolly swells to our destination Baie d'Opunohu.
We arrive in late afternoon through the pass negotiating to the anchorage past reefs and the yacht club sailing school in the mist of a regatta race! Lots to watch out for!

Moorea at sunset

We anchor is "swimming-pool-clear" water in only 20 ft! Amazing- I can see the anchor and chain all 60 ft as it lays straight out in white sands.

Opunohu Bay, Moorea

We chose Opunohu Bay, hoping it would be the least populated, but the majestic landscape with huge mountain canyons proved to be a favorite anchoring spot. The mountains look a lot like the plateaus in Arizona, only it's super lush and green.  We are anchored with a dozen other boats...we hear the shore noise and see floating hotels in the distance..certainly not a remote paradise,  because the cruise ships from Tahiti stop here too, but still pretty cool to be here.

Tomorrow we will paddle board around the bay and explore.

Sandy white beach with lots of boats in the anchorage...even a cruise ship!

Capt. John paddling in Moorea...  pretty cool!

c

The Yacht Club  was very active...summer camp for kids!

The water is clear, turquoise and shallow inside the reef

It's most amazing to enter the pass of these islands, through a marked channel and into a lagoon of shallow (10-40ft)  turquoise water with visible coral heads to navigate around, but it's good- you can see the where to anchor and where not to....most of the time.

Swimming with Sharks!

July 21-Nager Avec les Requins! (Swimming with the Sharks!)
We stopped in at the TOP DIVE center to see about another scuba dive for me while we are waiting for a "weather window" to sail out of Tahiti .
They said sure, how about now?  No,too soon ..I needed to get my mind set since I hadn't been diving in more than three weeks ago.  I scheduled the next morning, an 8:30 am early dive supposed to be the more interesting "shark dive".. cool...I think...now Ive got overnight to prepare myself.

Morning comes too soon. I'm picked up by boat and delivered to the dive center which is only a mile away by boat, through the channel, past Marina Taina. The driver is young, good looking, friendly and speaks some English!  All the dive instructors are personable and good looking at TOP Dive. All are good looking...did I mention that? They are pleasant and so accommodating .  They have to be as diving is one of the biggest tourist attractions in French  Polynesia.  People from all over the world  come to dive these waters. My dive "mates" were two women from the states,  one from Seattle, one from Colorado, not in the best shape, older, but adventurous,  along with four local Frenchmen who were advanced divers.  you could tell by all the gear they had; lights, cameras and stuff! Those divers jumped off the boat at a deeper dive area than we did, but we all ended up at the same event, the "shark feeding" arena!
At the start of our dive, the instructor explains the course of what we will be seeing...a shallow area outside the reef called the White Valley,  where the sharks and fish funnel through a pass with the currents over white sand . We will go to the bottom floor, hold onto a piece of coral and staying there to watch as the dive boat lowers a metal cage full of fish parts!   Of course,  this attracts the throngs of fish and sharks! I'm not a huge fan of this artificial feeding spectacular because I think it trains the sharks to interact with people where they wouldn't naturally. But, hey, I paid for this dive and didn't know this is what they do to make the "show"!   Anyway, it was spectacular!  Even though it was created.  The schools of colorful fish filled the valley, circling around them were about a hundred sharks, all sizes of black-tipped, grey and lemons. There was one big fellow, a lemon shark , who was enormous! ( This is when I wished I had a camera to prove how big!)  I'd guess 13 ft long?...he made me  nervous,  but they weren't interested in us divers glued to the sea floor, bubbling away...they were after the bits and pieces of fish parts only yards away from us. this is the best part to see how a " hunting, aggressive shark looks while feeding in his "pack". The body movements are quick, sharp and fast.  This you don't want to get in to the middle of!
We stayed watching this show for 20-30 minutes..a little longer than planned, because it was such a good shark show, the instructor later said.
I was getting cold so my mind focused on the beauty all around.  I marveled at just being in this underwater world.

After the  allotted time, our dive master signaled for the ascent, we moved slowly over the coral and away from the feeding grounds. Our dive time required a certain stop half-way to decompress before surfacing, so we held onto a buoy rope while waiting.  One of the older women disregarded the stopping place and continued to the surface... this was a NO! NO! As the dive master tried to retrieve her...but, too late..she was sea sick and needed to get to the surface where she could vomit! The dive boat rescued her and all I know is she was alive and barfing into a bucket when we all came aboard.  She was  a sport and laughing about it! I think the dive instructors were worried, though.
The boat trip back was a rough ride, but fun pounding through the swells. A good day.

Tourists in Tahiti...

Open market in Papeete

July 18
The Market (marche municipal) in downtown Papeete is awesome! Looks a lot like the open markets in Mexico with a multiple of vendors selling fresh fish, fruits, vegetables and tourist souvenirs. And the flowers! Wow! Everyday fresh flowers arrive from the hills to be made into arrangements or head wreaths as little old ladies string flowers together all day long… beautiful.

You can buy anything at this market; fruits, veggies, fish and souvenirs!

Fish, fish, fish!

This is the place to buy all things Tahitian. Poreas, ( Polynesian printed fabrics used as wraps) black pearls, coconut oils and shells. Mostly it is a tourist place. We see many locals,too shopping and visiting. The food But we enjoyed the scene. We are glad we bought our pearls in Tuamotus, but I am tempted to buy more. There are so many choices and prices!

Black pearls galore!

We’ve spent several days renting a car and driving around getting repair parts for  Wizard. Also, since our electrician we chose was too busy to get to our jobs, John was successful in the wiring  the depth sounder and the new windless! He was pretty proud of himself. We saved a lot of money and he learned a lot!
Since, we had repairs at the time our Visas expired( July 19th) we had to meet with the High Commissioner as ask for an extension. We gathered the necessary papers, receipts for the parts and letter from the electrician proving we really DID have repairs to the boat. The French are very strict about illegal immigrants staying over in their county. Anyway, we were granted an extra 10 days to get repairs completed and then off we must go…exit French Polynesia!

Stir-fried chicken with veggies is my choice!

Les Roulottes (truck dining) in Papeete

Roasted meat at the Roulottes

Last night, we stayed in town to visit Les Roulottes, the open dining trucks that appear magically at 6:00pm to feed the throngs of people wondering the waterfront. It was like a movie out of Thailand, with many vendors offering, French, Chinese and Polynesian cuisine in varying forms. We strolled the rows looking at menus offered while smelling the hot smoke and oils cooking duck, chow mien and crepes! How to choose? We decide on an a Chinese station with good looking pictures on the menu,…how else to know ..the food turned out to be great! Sabina chose a gallette (a crepe filled with vegetables, goat cheese and walnuts) from another roulette truck, while I ordered stir-fried chicken with veggies; John had sweet and sour chicken and Per had duck.  All were good choices.

But, I mustn't forget the stop at our first micro-brewery in French Polynesia...Les 3 Brasseurs (the 3 brothers)...the amber was awesome!

Now, that's a BIG BEER!

It's not the Kenwood Press, but ...

Bottoms up!

Wizard Hauled Out

Views from Wizard on our way to Papeete for a haul-out.

July 15 2013
We’re supposed to leaving French Polynesia in four days when our American Visa expires, but we are hauled out on the hard in Papeete getting our bottom painted!
After hitting the coral head last month, we decided to have the boat hauled out and really check for damage. Also, we needed to put in a new depth sounder.

Wizard in straps at Technimarine for a bottom job!

And the bottom anti-fouling paint was looking kind of thin in places. All these reasons added up to a haul out.  Another reason is we will be selling Wizard when we get to Australia- it will be a good selling point to have new paint on her bottom!

The coral damage...minor scrapes!

looks worse that it is...just paint flaked off at impact point...good news!

A large catamaran who also hit coral...more damage...some holes to patch!

Back in after paint job!

Yes…we are talking about the end of our journey!  The plan is to sail to Australia, somewhere near Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast to visit this wonderful country.