Our final passage of our amazing year

Once we cleared Savaii we had fairly big seas and good winds, so we made good time until we hit Fiji’s waters.  Then we had glassy seas a wide open passage, beautiful sunrises and breathtaking sunsets with Fiji’s gorgeous green hills welcoming us to it's  island.  After another 700 miles and 6 days at sea  and no fish, even though we sailed through a fish boil for an hour without even a nibble, we picked up a mooring ball outside our marina and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate our passage.  We settled in for the nigh, we would check in with biosecurity, immigration, health and customs the next morning. 

Our first greeting was a huge Bula (means Hello) from the officials and after doing our paperwork and laying out about $200 we are now allowed to step off the boat.

Now that the year is really over we planned a menu to go with the bottle of Cliquet Veuve that Jennifer had given us to celebrate the year.  Champagne requires smoked salmon and fois grasse!  A lovely way to celebrate a year of travel!

We then spent a week getting quotes for work we needed to have done.  This meant staying in the water in an area with 2 meter tides and fixed docks.  At low tide we could get off Interlude easily, but at high tide we couldn’t climb up!  We had great neighbours, we used whoever’s boat was easiest to get off and on our boats. (Just imagine having your legs over your ears, BEFORE coffee.  Or walking a tightrope after a glass of wine.)   So we were happy when we went on the hard and into the cyclone hole!

Now the work begins to put Interlude to bed. Fiji is right in the middle of cyclone area.  So what does it mean putting the boat to bed,  well  first thing is they haul you and place you in a hole completely surrounded by tires,  then you start to take everything off the deck.  It is amazing how much stuff we have on the deck.  We dropped the rudder as we had a continuous leak in the stuffing box, (found that coral had made its way up the rudder post and had scored the post and making a rough edge which tears up our packing). Since we have our steering apart we decided to check our steering system and have now replaced the steering cable as we found a couple of burrs it. We fixed Trouble again and found a tiny pin hole it looked like a staple hole, okay leak found yeah.  Then as we put her back together we find she is still leaking.  So we patch the new spot and continue putting her back together.  Painted and put 5 coats of varnish on the V-berth cabin and bathroom.  Aft bathroom was painted and varnished.  5 coats of varnished was done on the engine mounts, cockpit table, flowerbox.  Karen  sewed, not exciting things, but strapping, re-stitching the sunscreens as after 4 years the sun had eaten the thread, new cover for the horseshoe ring, cover for the door…Cheryl scrapped and put 2 layers of primer and 3 layers of top paint on the fridge, now it has 3 months to dry.

With Interlude put to bed we got ready to head to New Zealand for our 3 month vacation.

Off to New Zealand!

 

 

 

Savaii, the big island

What can we say about Savaii?  In a word, Awesome.

We left Apai Somoa for Savaii, no wind, we motored, charged the batteries and made water.

We anchored in Matautu Bay, nicely positioned between two reefs.  This made for some good snorkelling.  We decided not to go ashore as we couldn’t really see a place to land the dinghy.  So we stayed aboard and snorkelled twice each day.  Some new fish identified, always a good thing.  The bad thing was our first siting of the crown of thorns, a member of the starfish family that is out of control and damaging the reefs.  We saw more than one!

Sonsie of Victoria (Jim and Isabel) joined us in the anchorage and snorkelled with us.  We went to their boat for drinks and appies, we got rowed over and back (we had not launched trouble), which was a treat.

Then we headed down the coast to Asua Bay.  We had the waypoints from the compendium and had read tooooo many guides as the entrance was a treaky one and the charts are wrong!  We followed Sonsie in, which always makes things easier, not more than a .5 knot current, but it is really the side on waves and swell before you are actually in the channel that is the issue.  But we got in with no problems and anchored in 7 meters.

We arranged a tour with a guide named Sam.  Unbelievable!  We started going counterclockwise around the island, the first stop was the canapy tour.  A walkway has been built between 2 bayon trees, and then kind of a tree house in the tallest so you can see to the coast.

  Next we stopped at the gaints foot print.  This is the right foot print, apparently the left is in Fiji! 

 

 

 The coast road is really very beautiful.  We long ago gave up counting the number of churches, as they are one, two or three, max 6, in each village!  (The good news is that they are also cyclone shelters.)  The fales and lands were very well kept, such flowers, such colours.  We went to the blow holes, now this is a calm day, but Sam timed it just right when he threw in a basket of coconut shells and they flew at least a hundred feet in the air! 

 

We skipped the waterfalls as a tour coming down said it was muddy, so we were onto lunch.  This was at a lovely place called Louisa’s cabins.  Very relaxed and lush setting.  After lunch we went to the local market and Frankie’s supermarket, something cruisers always need to do.  We carried on by the ferry dock and onto John Williams tomb.  He brought Christianity to Samoa and is well regarded.  Our next stop was the church and virgin’s grave.  The storey is that when the volcano erupted in 1905-1911 the lava flowed past the church and went in the front door.  As to the virgin’s grave, everything else was covered in lava, except her grave.  As we were passing villages Sam was saying this is a marine reserve, see the stakes.  Then the same thing at the next village, until we finally figured that they are voluntarily conserving their resources!  These people should be running the UN!  Our last stop was Sam’s home.  A major Fales in Avao, the town we had been anchored in front of when we were in Matautu Bay!  Beautifully kept grounds, they have a normal house lived in by the extended family and a round fales in front for the family gatherings and a place for guests to sleep.  We finished the circum navigation of the island just before sunset.  A long but very good day.

Cheryl got a year older!  This was celebrated with blueberry pancakes for breakfast and stuffed porkchops with callalou stuffed with coconut milk on the barbeque.  Not to mention the last bottle of Palo Alto!

We prepared a picnic lunch and took our snorkel gear to the moto beside the entrance to the Bay.  We walked around the moto (that didn’t take long) then went for a snorkel.  Very shallow water, so easy to see the fish.  Some lovely stag horn coral, hosting many fish, but we didn’t stay there long as the current seemed to want to pull us out the pass.  We had some picnic foods and our last bottle of rose for lunch!

We had to send a form off to Fiji and the local telephone company has such poor internet that we had to take a bus into town to send it off.  This was a lovely 3 hour bus ride!  We got to see the entire west, south and east coasts again.  And again on our trip back!  We also bought Noni and Somoan coffee, so not a wasted trip!

The resort we were anchored in front of Va-i-monoa Seaside Lodge was very accommodating.  They were happy to let us leave our dinghy on their dock or beach.  The staff was lovely!  And the food was good, the wine even better!  On our last Sunday they did an Umu demonstration, which is a traditional method of cooking. Cheryl got to help make a basket, we made packages of Callaloo, stuffed with coconut milk and onions, which is then wrapped in a banana leaf, then wrapped in a breadfruit leaf.  If you do it right, it all stays together and they it ‘thrown’ on the fire.  A variety of lamb pieces and taro where also put on the fire.  These things were then covered with layers of banana/palm fronds/breadfruit leaves and are left for say 45 minutes.  Then all the leaves are removed and the food is ready!  The taste of the fire is part of the food.  We put the callaloo on slices of taro, lovely.  And tried lamb flaps!  Tastely, but not much in the way of meat.

 

One evening we had some questions to ask Sale, the owner, he invited us to join him and a friend of his for a glass of wine and sashimi of yellow finned tuna caught that day!  We had a great conversation.  Turns out they know people in the cultural show in Apia and we went on from there!

We met a lovely lady, Jacqueline, a Kiwi doctor getting away for a bit.  We shared many fish stories, Jacqueline has tried to impart more knowledge to us.  She laughed when she heard how we were gaffing fish, then she explained how we should do it.  We don’t know if we will be any better as we didn’t catch any fish on the passage to Fiji, even though we spent probably an hour in a fish boil.  Jacqueline came on board for lunch one day, Callaloo Soup and rum punch.  Both were enjoyed by all of us. 

We have been watching the weather each day and it looks like we will leave for Fiji on Monday.  Until then we will continue decreasing our wine supply, it has NEVER been so low.  We get the shakes worrying about finding some in Fiji, but we are only allowed to take in 4 bottles of wine OR 2 liters of alcohol.  Hmmm.

Somoa means SMILE!

SAMOA really should change their name to smiles, or island of smiles, as it seems everywhere you go you get a smile.  The people here are the most friendly we have experienced in all of our travels this year.  Not to say that the islands have not been friendly, in fact the opposite, from the moment we entered French Polynesia we have been welcomed.  But Samoans really tops the bunch! Wow, you can be walking down the street and a teenager will ask “how is your day going” and he really wants to know and the big thing he just wants to walk and talk with you, nothing else, and as you part company he says ”have a great day” .  That was our experience everywhere from the market to the taxies.  The children on the roads wave and give you a big grin.  Yup SAMOA really means smile.

WE LOST A DAY.

Well we arrived thinking we had arrived on a Friday, but some time ago, who knows when, SAMOA decided to be more in tune with the trading partners New Zealand and Australia so they changed the date line to between American Samoa and Samoa (western, they don’t like to be called western Somoa anymore).  All of books and all the information we had said we would not cross the date line until we entered Fiji, but what do books know.  You cannot check into Custom and Immigration, not to mention health and quarantine after hours or on weekends.   So we sat out at anchor for 2 days in the bay with 4 other boats, not really such a bad thing as the passage from Suwarrow in the Cooks was 4 days, so we had time to clean and sleep.  On Monday morning the parade started, as we did not drop our dingy, we were lucky that the two Cats by us volunteered to ferry the officials out to the boats.  First on the list:  Biosecurity.  Yup a guy in a skirt (most men here were skirts) climbs on our boat!  Okay ladies, think about climbing on a boat wearing a below the knee skirt!  He did it, he even removed his flip flops, oh yeah, another thing, everyone wears flip flops.  (They even use the cut-out for the soles which there usually 20 cut out to a piece as a way of holding down their palm frond roofs).  Anyway we pass bio security, he even said we have a clean boat.  Then customs and immigration together, we are in the country, almost, the last group is quarantine.  Well the two ladies didn’t even get out of the dingy, they sat there too scared to climb up so they just handed the paper to sign and left.  Yeah we are now free to come ashore so we haul anchor and go into the marina.

Somoa is made up of two big islands, with some little islands between the two.  The two big islands are Upoulo, which has the capital and administrative centre, Apia and Savaii.  Savaii is called the big island.

As we haven’t had internet for a time we go to the ice cream shop, some excuse, eh!  But really that is the closest internet hotspot!  It is also the place for fire dancing, go figure.  On Tuesday nights they have a local dance show, showing dancing styles of various Polynesian Islands, including fire dancing, a local dance.  The ice cream shop is associated with a local charity that is teaching dancing to kids dancing to keep them off the street.  The youngest fire dancer that night was probably 8 or 10 at the most!

On the Thursday we went to a local hotel for a further display of dancing and culture, not to mention a buffet of local foods.  We went early to enjoy a day with Joni (from Dancing Walrus) and Di from (Matira), a girls day out with a fresh water pool!

Thursday was also an event at the cultural centre.  The Somoans thought that most people only venture to their island for a week and they wanted the tourists to leave with an understanding of Somoan culture.  So they put on a show, they:  make coconut cream, prepare an umu (local cooking using a fire pit) local dancing, making tapa from Mulberry bark, tattooing and wood working.  All the while you can ask any question you want, just lovely!  And at the end of the show you get to eat what you saw being made.  And this is free, although they do ask for a donation.  We went twice, as we missed the beginning the first time.  The second time, as we were there early, we got to make a hat and plates out of palm fronds.  On top of the plates they put a section of a banana leaf and there you go, an organic plate!

 

We toured the island with Dancing Walrus (Ken and Joni), which was great.  First we went around clockwise.  We saw a hydro plant, Ken said lets go there.  We checked out the dam, then a worker came to see what we were doing and we drove with him to walk the tunnels through a mountain that the water takes to the turbines, lovely.  Next we saw a sign for Treehouse resorts.

  While we didn’t stay in one, they would have been lovely. We finished the pass through the centre of the island, taking pictures of waterfalls and the shoreline.  We lunched on the beach at a small resort.  (Most of the resorts have Fales that they rent, often not much more than a roofed platform, with palm frond walls if you are lucky.  Usually with shared bathroom facilities.  This would be very much how most Samoan’s live.)

Once back at the boat we had time to shower before we went for indian food.

The next day we crossed the centre of the island and then carried on clockwise.  We went to the sliding rocks, which is a series of waterfalls, which are worn enough that you can slide down them.  As it was dry season, there was only one falls that Karen and Joni slid down, but it was fun!

 

 

Early one morning Karen, Joni and Di hiked up to Robert Louis Stevenson’s tombe.  A nice walk up and down.  Mating snails on the trail, many birds and bats flying around at the top!  The view of Apia from the tombe was lovely.  We made it back in time to get to the cultural centre for the show.

 

We went to the market and all we can say about that is that no one could eat as much Taro as they have Taro to sell!  (In the Caribbean it would be called Dasheen and here they eat the root and the leaf.  Can you say Callalou soup!)

We found a place were you could get a therapeutic massage, which turned out to be awesome.  So we went back two more times!  It was funny, an hour massage was 60 Tala (just less than 30 dollars) and a hair cut was 30 Tala, go figure!  We put all the other boats onto this place!

We took one last drive with Joni and Di.  Dancing Walrus and Matira had gone driving and ended up in a different place from where we did.  It was bugging Joni that she couldn’t connect the two roads in her mind.  So we went to see where the road went.  We drove to the end of the road they had been on before and then walked for 15-30 minutes to see if we could get to the road that we had been on.  If we walked another hour or so the two roads would probably have joined up.  In the end the issue is that the map was wrong.  What we walked was a hydro right of way, which was shown on the map as a sealed road.  At least that puzzle was solved.

And then it was time to move on.  So we went to the Prime Ministers office and got permission to go to Savaii, cleared out with immigration and customs and headed for Savaii.

SUWARROW

We took the weather window to go to Suwarrow (500 miles), forecast was 10 knots, picking up on the last day.  This is not really what we look for as we generally don’t think of ourselves moving in 10 knots, but we had enough diesel, so off we went with Somerset, Pacific Flyer and Monkey Fist. 

We drive/motor sail the first day, charging the batteries and making water.  Then the next day we put up the gennicker and with 10-12 knot and flat seas we made good speed, we averaged almost 6 knots.   We took the gennicker down at night and flew the full main the first night, then a reefed main the next night.  This too worked well.   Still once Pacific Flyer caught the wind she was gone, or as Paul on Monkey Fist said “now you know why she is called Pacific Flyer”!  The last day the wind did pick up and the seas came from 3 directions and it was sloppy, so we were glad to get in.

The flat seas made not only for a good passage, but good fishing.  Or maybe the good fishing made for a good passage.  “Fish on”!  The rod holder breaks, so it must be a biggie!  Cheryl is working the rod and reel, I am handing the line in two feet at a time.  We bring it in 50 feet, let it run.  Bring it in 50 feet, let it run.  Then bring in the fish.  I hold it by the leader, out of the water, while Cheryl gets the gaff.  A swing and a miss.  A swing and Interlude.  A swing and a hit.  We get the fish on board, a 48 inch (yes, 4 foot) Wahoo!  WAHOO!! is shouted many times over the next couple of days!

WAHOOOOOOOO......

Suwarrow is a marine park, part of the Northern Cook Islands.  They have 2 rangers on an atoll, who among other things do your paper work and collect the fees.  The atoll has fresh water and someone has donated the shell of a life raft so you can do laundry, one half for washing and one half for rinsing!  The agitator is your feet, so you do the laundry dance, which is cha-cha-cha-swish, cha-cha-cha-dip!  The line was in the sun and wind, so the sheets were dry in an hour!

Clean sheets Yeah!

The bad weather we came in on stayed for our whole time there.  So we spent much of our time on the boat.  Each night was either drinks on shore or a pot luck if you wanted.  Oh my God, someone brought a salad, greens, fresh stuff!  After 2 months when you see a salad elbows came out and forks dig in, a riot broke out in the pot luck line!

When the wind finally dropped below 20 knots (to say, 19) we went for a snorkel.  The visibility was great, despite the wind.  Lots of corals and lots of fish.  So the next day we went to the manta cleaning station.  We spent about an hour and a half with the mantas, just amazing.  There were three in total, the one kept coming back.  They did not mind us being there, watching the cleaning and the dance was priceless.

 

Cheryl dancing with the Manta

 

You meet some very gifted people on boats.  We crossed the Pacific with a boat called Full Monte, in fact they were one of the ones we saw and spoke to on VHF during the crossing.  The daughter, Jessica, age 13, is a poet.  She had written a poem about the crossing the Pacific and we had a long awaited date for her to read it to us and for us to have cookies.  Her poem was amazing; she really captured the feeling of crossing the pacific.  And the brownies were great too.

Three boats presented:  Movie night under the stars.  Somerset with its screen and projector, Monkey Fist with its amplifier and Interlude with her generator showed Master and Commander on anchorage island in Suwarrow.

We have been travelling with Somerset for a while and Sunday was Jim’s birthday and our last evening together.  So dinner was on Interlude with all of Jim’s favourites.  Cheryl made bacon wrapped water chestnuts as an appetizer.  Carol brought a bottle of Moet Chandon!  Dinner was stuffed lamb with massive amounts of potatoes (for Jim and Cheryl) and roasted vegetables.  Desert was Blueberry Crumble.  It was a great way to celebrate Jim’s birthday and the time we had spent together.

The weather window for our trip to Somoa, 507 nautical miles was 20 knots for the first few days, then to diminish to 15 knots.  Lets see.  We had squalls the first night, sustained 35, so we had only a kerchief up and still averaged in the high fives, in fact did 10.5 knots at one point.  Basically the wind speed for the passage was 25-30, plus squalls.  At times on the passage we did have the whole head sail up, but really not that long.  And the seas, confused, which is not fun.  (Our friends who left at the same time going south to Tonga had it way worse, because of their angles to the waves, more wind, squalls for longer and the passage was longer!)

We arrive on Friday morning, we thought.  It seems that the date line has been moved!  And it is Saturday in Somoa.  No one works on the weekend so we stay on anchor on the boat as we have not cleared:  Health, Immigration, Customs or Quarantine!

 

 

WOW and DOULBE WOW

We started French Polynesia with a WOW as we arrived in Fata Hiva after our Pacific crossing to a truly amazing site with towering pinnacles and lush green landscapes.  Then we finished French Polynesia  with 2 breathtaking atolls.  The first atoll was Maupiti, just 30 miles from Bora Bora.  It has a reputation of having a rather challenging entrance.  As we are coming in we see Somerset in their dinghy, having finished a snorkel, waving and welcoming us in, the pass was calm and the anticipated 3 knot outgoing current was not there, but still Karen had to add a little extra throttle to get us in.  As we entered we saw a stunning cliff ahead and on both sides we had beautiful aqua marine water letting us know we were going to have a sandy bottom to anchor in.

The next day we went with Somerset to play with the giant mantas.  The mantas hang out at this coral area where the tiny cleaner fish come out and do their job, sort of like a manta swim through car wash.

 














We head back to the boat and since we were wet we thought why not do a little cleaning of Interlude, so Karen and I started to clean the sides and a call came out that there are humpback whales just outside the pass.  Okay it was a hard decision …clean the boat or go swim with whales….yup the whales won.  Somerset, Carol and Jim, in their dingy called “Clyde”, a very appropriate name as Clyde is a much bigger dingy then Trouble, picked us up and off we went with 2 other dingies.  We saw a spout, then another and off we rush to the spot where they were, we jump in but we missed them, then we see a tail off in the distance and off we race, missed again, then right in front of our friends dingy on Saliander a whale leaps up and does a spiral, amazing.  We chased around for 3 hours watching these magnificent creatures entertain us. 

Finally with a flap of it’s huge tail the whales were off out to sea.  Thank you guys.  We figured there were 3 separate groups of whales and sometimes you could hear them talking. 

Sunrise in Maupihaa 

WOW WOW my friend from home gave me this book “50 places to sail before you die” and Maupihaa (or Mopelia) was on the list so off we went.  (Thank you Michelle!)  Maupihaa has a reputation as a very difficult pass to get into the lagoon.  In fact in the book it states the guy who wrote about Maupihaa had been there 4 times and only been able to get through the pass once.  We left Maupiti for the 100 mile passage to Maupihaa and the seas were calm so we ended up motoring most of the way so when we arrived at the pass the pass was easy, but it was still a little scary as it is only 65 feet wide with a sharp coral wall on either side no room to change your minded as there is a current.   Our first anchorage is in the north part of the atoll where we try to pick a spot that we think has the least amount of coral heads for us to get caught on, or not get caught on. We are still gun shy around coral heads as that is how we damaged our bow.  But after finding the perfect spot and the anchor is firmly planted in sand we look up and see a beautiful white sand beach, beautiful blues and turquoise coloured water around you and palm trees.  Pretty hard to take! Oh yeah and a few black tip sharks there to welcome you.

The next day is another calm day and off we go with Jim and Carol on Somerset for a snorkel through the pass.  Can you saw shark, okay lots of sharks and some of the biggest fish we have ever seen and they are all so different and beautiful.  We went ashore and met one of the families and they gave us a fresh coconut and showed us around their home and copra operation.  Copra is the process of taking coconuts that have fallen off the trees, removing the white meat and letting it dry in the sun and then it is shipped every 8 months to Tahiti where it is eventually makes it’s way into perfumes and skin products. Okay just some facts about the area: there are 13 people here spread out along the shore most of them women and the used to do pearl farming but now mostly they do copra.

 

The wind picked up and from the wrong direction so this time we moved right away and went to the other end of the atoll and once again picked our perfect spot to anchor between coral heads.   One of the boats Monkey Fists had befriended one of the local women at this end of the atoll and she invited us all to have a pot luck at her place the next night, but first we needed to help her go and hunt for some lobster and crab.  So off all 6 boats went lobstering in the dark with just a flash light and a bucket.  Okay Hena and Kevin, the 2 locals where successful, us, not so much.  The Lobsters didn’t have to worry about us finding them that night.  The next night was the feast and what a feast, fresh lobster, coconut crab, lamb, pork, scallop potatoes, salad, fresh bread and so much more.  Paul on Monkey Fist and Gavin on Pacific Flyer started playing the guitar and harmonica, soon Hena and Kevin provided the beat on an old plastic barrel and with spoons.  We all sang along or tried and we even got Hena and Kevin to sing their native songs.  What a great evening.

The Feast with Kevin and Hena

 

So what do you do on an atoll for 2.5 weeks.  Pot lucks, Birthday parties on the beach, sing and play music, snorkel and dive, do bonfires on the beach and watch beautiful sunsets. 

One day Saliander (Pete and Rae) invited all of us for an excursion for the day.  They have 55 ft mono hull.  First on the agenda was a dive of the pass, in a word WOW.  Rays, huge fish, with an occasional shark, just for fun.  We sure have to get use to the amount of sharks.  Hena and Kevin our new local fiends came with us and they caught a dozen fish spearfishing, so lunch on Saliander was fresh fish and buns.  (When Hena or Kevin caught a fish, they immediately held it above the water and slapped the water to keep the sharks away.  It seems to work, but we are not sure that we want to try that!)  Then off we went on Saliander out the pass to go fishing and whale watching.  With 4 lines out we finally got a hit on 2 of the lines but after a minute or 2 we lost them along with the lures.  Oh well, the fish get to live another day.  Then we spot a whale, no it’s 3 whales, they play and flap their tails for us and give us a show. Mother Nature is so cool.  After a wonderful day we return through the pass and back to our boats to watch another sunset in paradise.

 

One day we took the dinghy’s to bird island were we saw birds at every stage:  eggs, chicks, featherless and downy, and parents dive bombing us.  There were shore birds, bobbies, terns and…?  (We need to learn more about birds!)  We walked the lava rock around the island finding many marine creatures.  A truly educational day.

Who needs a movie theater when we have Somerset!  Jim and Carol invited the gang to their boat for a movie night complete with pizza and popcorn.  With a big screen made out of sunbrella fabric and surround sound we all sat back on Somerset’s bench seat, 12 of us, yup it is a catamaran and enjoyed watching the Life of Pi. 

For exercise, other than lifting a fork to eat, we played Bocce on the beach and we spent 2 days as copra farmers.  Yup the gang went and helped Hena for a half of day gathering coconuts that have fallen in the bush about 400 of them, cracking them open with an axe then removing the meat with a special copra knife, then the  hauling them to her place to be washed with sea water and placed on a drying rack.  It was not easy but it was fun and we all had fun trying and concluded that this was hard work. 

Yup Karen hard at work with Paul from Monkey Fist

A couple of days later Hena asked if we would collect coconuts for the cooperative (which is all 13 of the people on the atoll), so of we foraging for a couple of hours where we probably gathered 3000 coconuts.  We even got a few other boats to join us.  We had a goodbye party with Hena and off we went to anchor by the pass and get ready to leave this beautiful place as it seemed that there was a weather wind forming to allow us to move on.  We had another excursion outside the pass, this time on Somerset.  First we  went for a snorkel/dive of the pass, (we opted to snorkel so that we didn’t get our equipment wet before a passage)  the current at the pass this time was really moving so it was a 5 minute snorkel or dive!  After the snorkel Carol and Jim took Somerset out the pass where we traverse the shore line, of course our fishing lines were out, but no luck on the fishing front.  But we did get to see 2 turtles mating at sea and 3 whales putting on a specular show of tail slapping.  A final bonfire and pot luck on the beach and another beautiful sunset to say goodbye to a magnificent place.  The next day 4 of the boats prepared to leave for Suwarrow.  As one boat said, it takes three things to make a place:  the place including its people, the people you are there with and the weather.  Maupihaa had all three.  Thank you Maupihaa, you really were a WOW WOW! 

Interlude in Paradise

 

 

Tahiti, Moorea to Bora Bora

We tied up at the town quay, safe and sound!  Now we have to go about fixing Interlude.  It ended up that there was only 1 facility that could do our work, at least in our timeline.  The yard, Technimarine has a great reputation, so we were happy.  So now we have a plan and we are in Tahiti after all. 

They have an annual festival called Heiva:  we went to a night of the dance and chanting competition,  to a sports day, with activities such as javeline throwing, coconut husking and rock lifting! 

40 kg No Problem right?

 


Just aim for the coconut on a pole 100 feet away?

 

Even cruisers tried the traditional dancing

We took two days to tour the island, which was nice.  Most of the time you are at water level, pretty, but not spectacular, the highlights would be the waterfalls, view from Belvedere and for Cheryl the size of the fiddleheads!   We spent a day doing a walking tour to Papeete, which was a good deal of fun. 

Other than that we have been walking the town, going from hardware store to hardware store, chandlery to chandlery.  And eating some amazing food.  Somerset found an awesome restaurant that we have greatly enjoyed.  They have Roulettes, which is a chip truck on steroids, and they have a great range of food.  Cheryl came up with the best meal so far, a crepe with potato, sour cream and bacon!

We have been on the town quai three times now.  The location is great, right in the heart of Papeete.  As always life is interesting, we took out our below deck showers many years ago as it brings in too much humidity to the boat.  This really is normal for most warm weather boats and then you shower on the stern or in our case on the side of the boat.  Most people shower, in privacy, behind closed doors.  We shower on our deck, which is fine in an anchorage, but now we are in downtown Papeete, beside the boardwalk, showering in our cockpit!

We also spent time on a mooring ball at Taina marina.  You have an amazing view of Morea every morning and evening!  And great provisioning right around the corner, as there is a large Carrefour in walking distance.

We were hauled on Tuesday, with a scheduled splash time of Friday.  As is usually the case thing don’t always go quite according to plan.  They are putting the new anchor sprit on on Friday when they realize that they had not finished the bottom side.  So we were there for the weekend, as they don’t work on weekends!  On the Monday they have the anchor sprit ready and put on!  Now you have to reattach the forestay and it is blowing 30 knots!  There is such a curve in the forestay, due to the wind, so that there is no way of attaching it.  So they move us so we are facing down wind and it was much easier.  At 4pm they put in the 5200, which then needs to dry before we can test the windlass for alignment.  So we stay in the sling overnight and are launched by 7:15 the next morning!  This was the first time we were on the hard in winter, a much nicer experience than the heat you get in the summer.  And the view left little to be desired!

We head off to the town quai, again, to clean the boat as a yard is never a clean place and the water is a fixed charge.  Then onto a mooring at Taina Marina. 

As Karen was trying to wire the deck level running lights she noticed that a weld was missing on our new anchor sprit!  She takes pictures and sends off an email.  On Monday she calls the yard owner, no problem, will take an hour to fix.  So we let go of the mooring and head the 10 miles to the haul out.  They put us in the big boat haul out, put a barge in front of us as a work platform and do the weld, in just over 4 hours!!

We go back to the mooring at Taina Marina, to enjoy our view again.  Then back to the town quai as we have someone who is going to look at our SSB.  We can transmit 100 miles, or 1000 miles, but not inbetween!   So they fix a few connections and now we can only tune on the 2, 4 and 6 meg frequencies!!  We decide to move the tuner, that part of our installation is the problem, so half a day of part shopping and half a day to reinstall the tuner and now we cannot tune at all!!  The joys of boating!

On Monday the SSB guy returns, concluded that our fixing was OK, but our tuner is dying.  Yeah, we have a plan!

Tuesday we finish with water and move to Morea.  We go to Opunohu Bay, which has an extraordinary view.  We go snorkelling with the stingrays and black tip sharks, have dinner and head out for Bora Bora, an overnight passage.

We pick up a mooring ball in Bora Bora at the Mai Kai marina, which is really a restaurant with mooring balls.  Food at the restaurant is great, we have dinner there twice and lunch once!  We bike around the island, some 30 add kilometers.  Can you say bike butt?!  Some amazing views, but not the traditional Bora Bora views as the wind is too high and the coral of the water is very different.

We did do two dives in Bora Bora.  One just outside the path, while the coral was dead (thanks to a hurricane several years ago) the fish life were plentiful and varied, not to mention the large lemon shark!  Lionfish!!  Where is my spear?   But they are not a plague here (and not large enough to eat!)  The second dive was with the giant mantas, a worthwhile experience.

We walk the town, look at pearls and ready ourselves for the next passage.

Just a bit of math.  We did 1000 nautical miles from Panama to Galapagos.  Then 3000 nm to the Marquesas.  So we should be done, right?  Marquesas to Tuomotos is another 500, Tuomotos to Society Islands is another 300.  Now we have to go 700 from Bora Bora to Suwarrow, then 500 to Somoa and another 700 from Somoa to Fiji.  Added quickly, we have another 1900nm to go this season.

Tuamotos to Tahiti

Crossing the Pacific really changes your attitude toward distance.  (This is good as we still have a long way to go this season!)  From Nuka Hiva to Kauehi in the Tuamotos is just over 500 miles.  We left with as much prep as we normally would have for a day’s sail.  Which could also be that we never ‘unpacked’ the boat as the anchorages were rolly.

While we caught several very yummy fish crossing the Pacific, the Big One had eluded us.  As we approached Kauehi we had the line in and managed to catch a 24 pound skip jack tuna!  We did it all right this time.  Karen had the reel and Cheryl was ‘handing’ in the line.  We brought the fish in 50 feet or so, then let it out, brought it in, then let it out and only brought it in on the third try.  (Yes we finally heeded the fishing advice we had been given!)  Then Cheryl held the line with the fish almost out of the water while Karen got the gaff we had yet to use.  A swing and a miss, oops.  Second time lucky.  Gaffed the fish was on board!  Cheryl was using all her weight to hold the fish down.  Karen does the “Dexter” thing and puts a knife through its skull, hopefully through the brain so it is dead.  As we are too close to the Moto to clean the fish before entering we tie it up on the engine lift and put the 5 gallon bucket under it.

 

We made the passage with Somerset.  The Tuamotos are sunken islands surrounded by a coral reef.  So there is a coral ring around relatively deep water.  Most have passages in.  The wind and currents try to force water over the edge into the Moto, the current adds and subtracts from the flow.  As most of the entries are not that large the currents can get quite strong.  Kauehi is supposed to be a good training started Moto to go into, normal current is only about 4 knots.

Cheryl drove us in very nicely.  We did a wiggle as we hit the edge of the current, an eddy, but other than that it was fine.  We had 2 knots of current against us, but a little more throttle and we were through.  We drove to the South East anchorage and put the hook down.   A sandy bottom, no swell.  Jim on Somerset had been saving a bottle of Dom Perignon to share with us and this seemed the perfect time to pop the cork. 

We were in a beautiful anchorage and we could use our champagne flutes without worrying that the rolling of the boat would spill our wine!

We got many boat projects done, to the point that Cheryl has finished everything on her list that she has parts for!  We snorkelled and did one dive.  We will be a long time learning the names of the fish, there are so many, more colourful than in the Caribbean and more plentiful.  We walked into town, which was a great day.  We walked the beach, picked coconuts off the ground, burnt garbage and had many, many awesome meals with Somerset.  More importantly the morning was started with coffee and entertainment provided by mother nature.  As we were there for 2 weeks, we became a sanctuary for small fish, which means that each morning at feeding time for the tuna and mantas we had a good deal of activity around the boat, and the birds were there to pick up the spoils.

Then one day the forecast was from the North, that would give us 4 miles or so of open water, and it was forecast to move to the west, that would be 8 miles of open water.  This was forecast to not go above 20.  We thought that we could deal with this, but by mid-morning we were in 5 foot seas, so we decided to weigh anchor and go up by the village.  Karen starts to bring the anchor up and hears a crack. She goes back to tell Cheryl (too much wind for Cheryl to hear otherwise.)  Then goes back to the bow to continue bringing up the anchor.  The bowsprit cracks completely, the delta bow roller falls into the water!  Twice Karen lifts the chain back onto the windlass, but without the bow roller to guide the chain onto it it won’t stay.  All the chain goes out, no way to stop it!  Karen takes the Bruce off the bow, walking it back to the cockpit and calls Somerset.  Carol is already lowering the dinghy; Jim is over in a flash!  Karen now drives and Cheryl and Jim weigh anchor by hand!  Sore muscles prevail but all fingers accounted for!  300 feet of chain and a 45 pound delta weighed in 5 foot seas!  And no one was hurt! 

Now what do we do?  We could go to a moto with moorings, as we can’t anchor, but really we need to get Interlude fixed, so we deciding in 5 minutes to head 300 miles instead of the 30 mile passage to the next moot that we had been planning.  The forecast is max 20 knot winds, from a variety of directions.  Sounds reasonable.    We secure the boat as we drive out of Kauehi, Trouble is still in the davits along with its engine (we normally put Trouble on the foredeck for long passages, engine on the stern railing.)  Well that night we had over 40 knots.  We had only the head sail up and it was reefed to maybe 50% and we were still doing over 8 knots, once reading 9.6 for 5 minutes!  Then the wind moved to our nose and we spent about 2 hours going 3 miles.  Then the wind shifted again and it was on our beam for most of the rest of the trip, in the 20-30 knot range.  We made our way very quickly to Tahiti and paraded back and forth in front of the harbour in flat seas until daylight, when we could enter safely!

Now we are tied up at the town quay awaiting a quote to fix the bowsprit.  It will be stainless steel, so Interlude will be stronger than ever!   On the bright side, we are in the land of baguettes and brie, with boat stores full of exciting boat parts!