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!