Tainui Internet Log
July 2000
Recorded by Brian Fairweather
We spent the beginning of July cruising the Society Islands (Tahiti) with Kathleen and Abi, then returned to Papeete for their flights home and to greet our new crew, my parents Bill and Elaine Fairweather and Dan's friend Jasper Latham. Thus began our trip back Westward towards Australia - but there is still a long way to go! As always, I took lots of pictures...
July 1 Kath and Brian moved the boat over to Opunohu Bay in the morning and went for a walk towards the centre of the island, heading for the Belvedere, a lookout point that was reputed to have a view over both bays on the northern coast. After a short while, we were picked up by a truck full of young American tourists whose driver offered to take us to the road to the Belvedere - unfortunately, she forgot and drove us almost all the way back to Cook Bay! We jumped out and caught another ride back - a honeymooning French couple, who were heading right to the top of the lookout. They drove us up and we spent a while admiring the excellent views, before heading back down, stopping at one of the famous marees (outdoor temples) on the way down. Kath and I decided to walk back to the boat and got back just in time to find Dan and Abi returning from their hotel stay.
As we were leaving to sail overnight to the island of Raiataea, Abi decides to bake a chocolate cake to celebrate our departure - it's great, but the girls see it twice, as our new crew follows the TAINUI tradition and both ladies get seasick once we depart. Now we have chocolate jib sheets. The girls sleep in the cockpit and are not at all comfortable...
July 2 After sailing all night, with cruise ships and islands visible in the distance, we arrive at Raiataea in the morning and drop anchor within the reef, having entered through Passe Moa. There are small houses built out in the water in the shallows near the reef - we can't figure out if they are residences, fishing shacks, or what!? Some are quite elaborate and seem to be too involved for simple fishing shacks - we later learn that they are pearl farm buildings... After a lunch on the reef, we begin to motor north towards the Island of Tahaa, staying within the reef that bounds both islands. We arrived at the north end of Raiataea in the late afternoon, where there where several cruise ships in view - one of them (R3 or R4) was leaving its berth just as we passed - they blew their horn several times to declare their intentions and basically charged out into the channel. I decided that it might be wise to let them go first and turned hard to starboard to signify that I would yield... probably a good move, as a ship like that could run right over us and not even notice.
We took a mooring at (appropriately) The Moorings Marina and Dan and Abi went in to talk to the manager about getting a space at the dock - they found him aboard his Peterson 44, with an empty space next to him, which he offered us gladly, once he heard that we had a similar yacht! Jean-Michel was quiet, but showed me through his yacht, which he was totally refinishing - similar layout to ours, with a few changes in the aft cabin... We ate at the excellent restaurant attached to the marina, after some drinks at the nearby bar.
July 3 We left Raiataea and crossed the small channel to head to Tahaa, going up the eastern coast. We arrived at a small motu just north of Passe Toahotu, which was another recommendation from the Namastι guys - in fact, they have marked all of our charts with some 'local knowledge,' including good anchorages, provisioning and entertainment! We knew that the owner of the motu is named Daniel and that the local keeper is Dana - we want to ask their permission to use the motu, as is the custom - plus we heard that he was so happy that the Namastι guys asked permission that he treated them to a nice lunch! No free food for us, but Dana's grandson told us that we could camp overnight on the motu for a very small fee.
I rigged up a bit of a swing off the spinnaker pole and Kath and I swam arund the boat and up to the motu, while Dan and Abi went for a lie on the beach... Imagine this - a flat coral-sand island, only a few hundred metres wide, with coconut palms, sand crabs and reef fish all around - there is a small hut in the middle, with a covered picnic area and some fishing spears and other bamboo poles leaning up against the trees - the surf crashes on the fringing coral reef and the water is crystal clear...
We met a young Aussie from Perth who is working as a crewmember on a large power yacht, which belongs to the US Ambassador to Singapore - he has come to the motu to have a smoke, as he is not allowed to do it aboard! His captain has been aboard for seven years, getting paid to move the boat from one tropical port to another, so that it's ready when the owner wants to use it! At the moment, he has his Brazilian girlfriend on board with him. Life is tough.
At the end of this season, this massive boat will be loaded, along with a dozen others, onto a larger ship that will freight it back to California! It apparently costs a fortune, but hey - it's only money... The boat is pretty impressive at nearly 100 feet, but it is dwarfed by the next one that pulls up - a power catamaran that looks like a Sydney Harbour jetcat, refitted into a private yacht (with much more attractive lines, but you get the point, I hope...)
July 4 We spent the day relaxing around what we have already decided is our favourite motu - we have to share it with some sightseers from the other yachts and powerboats, but as night approaches, everyone else disappears, while we have rented the motu out for the night! We bring out some canvas covers and rig up two camps at opposite ends of the motu - there is a spot for a big campfire near Dan and Abi's tent, so we start one using coconut husks and some wood from the local fallen trees - I get to use my new machete to trim off some tree limbs - it's also good for opening coconuts and has gotten a lot of use on this motu.
We have a few beers with our friend from the powerboat, then he returns to his air-conditioned cabin, with four deep-freezers, three refrigerators and a launch that has a bigger engine than TAINUI. The four of us have a curry dinner by firelight and retire to our camps - it's a great night and one of the best memories of the Society Islands!
July 5 We pulled up anchor after noon and motored to a nearby inlet, Haamene Bay, to take a mooring near the Hotel Hibiscus - it's a restaurant, but they also have a small series of fenced-in areas within the bay, containing turtles, sharks and other fish - apparently the owner saves the turtles from the local market and releases them after some rehabilitation. We have heard that they have good food and music, so we go in for dinner - we are not disappointed, as the buffet is excellent and the live band is playing local Tahitian music with all their hearts! We especially like the guy playing the bass - it's actually a huge rubbish bin with a stick and a piece of string, but he is working it like crazy and getting a lot of sound and rhythm out of it. A few bottles of wine go by and the dancers come out - grass skirts and all. Turns out the owner is a French national, who married a Tahaa girl, had a few kids, etc... he's been here for a long time - his wife and daughter both dance for us, too - everybody has a great time and we don't even mind when the check comes and it's a small fortune - he has to pay the band, you see...
July 6 As we are getting ready to leave the Bay, we are surrounded by about a dozen sharks! Small ones, with rough patches on their heads, they devour bread that we throw into the water. At one time, they are just swarming around feeding, then lose interest and we see them intermittently. We decide not to swim today.
At noon, we drop the mooring and head off to circumnavigate Tahaa - we leave Haamene Bay and head counterclockwise around to Hurepeti Bay - we stop in to the main town of Patio and Dan and Abi go shopping for some fresh food. After a lunch at anchor, we continue - well, we start to continue, but the windlass (thing that pulls the anchor up) has finally died. Great - it had been giving us problems, but now seems to have siezed or burned out the moter completely. We haul the anchor by hand out of water that is 60 feet deep - we have 200 feet of chain, so this is a bit of work! Once it's up, we curse the windlass and keep heading around Tahaa. As we approach, there is a beautiful red and blue church before the entrance to Hurepiti Bay, looking out to the many small motu that fringe this part of the island. The bay itself it absolutely tranquil, with only a couple houses hidden in the foreshore - I have now found my favourite harbour! Abi and Kath take the dinghy to a local dock and discover that the owner gives botanical tours of the island in a four-wheel drive. We are leaving the next day for BoraBora, but make a reservation to return to Tahaa later for the tour.
As the stars come out that night, I contemplate setting up my telescope on the shore, but the ground is wet from recent rain - I could have set it up on the boat itself, it is so still!
July 7 Dan and Brian get very messy trying to fix the windlass, but with no success - we even hit it with a hammer, as Brendon taught us, but it didn't work. We find the big hand crank that attaches to it and later decide that this is actually a pretty efficient way to raise the anchor - at least it's reliable. We leave at noon to head to BoraBora - so far, we have been doing a lot of motoring, as there is not much wind in these latitudes... it's actually in sight from where we are and we head straight out of the reef and are moored at the BoraBora Yacht Club in a few hours.
I have heard a lot about BoraBora being overdeveloped and touristy - for this reason, we have decided to spend only a couple days here, prefering the less-travelled, more natural islands. However, contrary to my expectation of high-rise hotels and tourist traps everywhere, it seems quite simple and remote. We watch the sun set while enjoying a cold Hinano beer or two from the waterfront restaurant at the Yacht Club de BoraBora and wonder what our friends with jobs are doing now...
July 8 We all decided to rent bicycles for the day and see abit of BoraBora. Dan really enjoyed the level of service given by the French lady at the bike shop - NOT! It has been interesting to speak french, but it does get a bit frustrating sometimes, especially when you mix French/Polynesian laidback work ethics with trying to actually get anything done. Finally, we all get our bikes and go for a ride - there's not much to the main little town, so Kath and Dan head off to circumnavigate the island in one direction, while Abi and Dan go the opposite. Somehow we all missed each other on the way around the opposite side! This is strange, since there is only one road on BoraBora, and it's circular... we must have been in a shop or something - very mysterious.
After one trip round - about 20 miles (?) - Kath and I rode on again to visit one of the nicer beaches on the far side of the island - having had a good sleep on the beach, we cycled back, figuring that was about 40 miles of riding for the day. We slept soundly after a dinner at the yacht club - I recommend the fish in vanilla sauce! Everyone thought that it sounded disgusting, but the other meals were mediocre and everybody had a bite of my fish and really liked it...
July 9 Another day in paradise, all agreeing that BoraBora was not as crowded, developed or touristy as we expected - there are actually several spots where tourist hotels were half-built, then abandoned. Hyatt ran out of money to burn for one place and it just sits there now, with palm trees growing out of the cinderblock frame of what would probably been a very nice suite with an ocean view...
Our tour of Tahaa is scheduled for tomorrow, so we are heading back to Hurepiti Bay (my favourite!) this afternoon - it's again a quick trip and we get there and take up a mooring before nightfall, manouevering around the small, unmarked reef in the middle of the bay. Note the word unmarked. There is a beautiful big rental catamaran on one of the other two moorings, which turns out to be the rest of the people going on the tour in the morning.
July 10 An early morning rise to meet the tour group, led by a very likeable man named Alain - we are a few minutes late, but get a quick tour of Alain's house - it is sort of Balinese-style, with several different buildings in an open garden - the living/dining room is a large thatched hut, while Alain and his wife sleep in another hut across the garden - the kids have there own bedrooms in yet another hut. The walkways in between the huts are paved with small concrete flagstones, with shells and patterns embedded in them. We get a quick start to the tour just by looking around the garden - Alain has a large yard with lots of varieties of the native and introduced plants - he tels us that Tahaa had about 60 'native' plants, like coconut palms, mangroves and some flowers, which migrate by floating on the ocean or are brought in birds' stomachs. Another 200 or so were brought by Polynesians who arrived in canoes and populated the island ages ago. Another 2000 species were introduced by Europeans a few hundred years ago when they arrived.
The 10 of us jump into the Land Rover and off we go - we start off with a drive up into the hills and visit a vanilla plantation - Alain shows us how they hand-pollinate the flowers to get the vanilla beans to grow. Turns out that vanilla originated in Mexico, which is the only place that the bees naturally pollinate the flowers. They introduced vanilla into Europe and the South Pacific, but the local bees won't do it. When they brought the Mexican bees over, they didn't like the place and all of them died! Even in Mexico, they do some hand pollination, since the bees don't always get all the right flowers. One person pollinates about 3000 flowers every day - tedious, I would think... After a bean grows (9 months), they are dried (3 months), which involves bringing huge bags of beans out into the sun every day, then storing them overnight in sheds under wool blankets. Each bean is 'massaged' regularly to bring out the flavour. The process of buying a farm, planting the 'stock' trees for the vanilla vine to grow on, planting the vanilla vine (an orchid), growing the vine, pollinating the flowers, drying them and getting them to market takes about five years. Not many people taking up vanilla bean farming, it seems, especially when they can grow nono. Nono (or Nona) is a fruit that supposedly has great healing qualities, etc. It is a natural anesthetic and has become a hit in the US - now, a lot of vanilla plantations are turning into nono plantations. The fruit looks like a pineaple with the husk cut off, and it smells absolutely horrible. Sort of a cross between really bad cheese and soap. They say if you drink some juice every morning, it will really keep you healthy - not sure if it's worth it.
The tour is great, we see the whole island and visit a pearl farm, where we learn how they implant oysters with mother-of-pearls balls from Mississippi River shells. The oyster then coats them with nacre, the stuff they make shell out of. We visit the shop, where you can get some very pretty (and pricey) pearls, but there's no pressure to buy. By the end of the tour, it's after one o'clock and we need to hurry to get to Huahine Island before dark, as Dan and Abi have horse-riding booked for the next day... We hastily depart from the tour and Alain's house and head out to the boat to get out of the bay quickly. We are ready to go in a few minutes and are making six knots straight out of the mooring.
Remember the unmarked reef?
I didn't...
Suddenly, the whole boat came to a sliding (not grinding, fortunately) halt and we found ourselves HARD up on the reef, sitting with the weight of the boat on the keel. The next several hours were spent trying to pull ourselves off with the mooring line, unloading things, diving over the side and finally, tying a rope to the reef about 100 yards to the beam of the boat and attaching it to the halyard from the top of the mast. By winching in, we tipped the boat far enough over to take the weight off the keel. The boat slipped out and back, and we were free!
What a pain - that's what you get for hurrying in the tropics. I guess that's why everybody takes things easy up here. Now, we can't really go to Huahine, since we have never been there and don't want to enter unfamiliar reef at night. Instead, we'll leave early in the morning and try to get there by 8 am so that Dan and Abi can meet the horse-riding group. We are pretty familiar with the reefs and channels of Tahaa and Raiataea, but we plan to go around Tahaa inside the reef, then exit on the Huahine side. (Looking back, I wonder if we couldn't have just gone straight out the Bay and leave the reef, then sailed around the whole island, which would have been longer but safer. Oh well, we didn't think of it at the time and you're reading this log, so we obviously made it OK...)
It had been a long day and we had to get up early - I declared that I had won the first "Wessel" award, named after one of our first crew members who distinguished himself by spilling lentils all through the cabin and by pulling the fishing line up by hand and tangling it all up. From now on, if you really screw something up, you are Wessel. (Sorry, Wessel, but we're still finding lentils in the damndest places...)
July 11 At a very early hour (3am?) we pull up our mooring again and CAREFULLY navigate our way out of the Bay. There is a channel that goes all the way around Tahaa and past Raiataea to the reef exit near Huahine, and the big cruise ships use it, so it's very deep and wide. This is good. It is also not lit at night. This sucks.
With two of us on the bow, sighting channel markers with flashlights, we slowly pick our way through the reef. Here and there, we have some interesting moments, but eventually get to the opening and head out for Huahine... it's not far and we get in just in time to drop off Dan and Abi - they will be staying in a hotel tonight, so we'll catch them tomorrow afternoon. Kath and I go back to anchor the boat and get it set in nicely. We go ashore to shop and get some breakfast and find a very nice, clean little port, with clear water. I buy some t-shirts and Kath gets some pareu (cloth skirts) with nice patterns. I actually have one, too and it's quite comfortable thank you very much.
We go for a snorkel on the beach in front of yet another closed hotel, which the locals use as a hangout. It's a nice night and we decide to sightsee Huahine tomorrow.
July 12 It seems like a nice day for a scooter ride, so we get one for four hours and decide to go all around the island. There are actually two connected islands, Huahine Nui ('Big' Huahine) and Huahini Iti ('Little' Huahine). We are told that we can make it all the way around in a few hours, with time for lunch and a few stops - sounds good.
The island is very pretty and a scooter is a great way to see a lot of it - we often saw three or even four people on a scooter! (Mom and Dad with a kid standing between Dad's legs and a baby in Mom's arms...) The rule seems to be: 1 to 4 people - use a scooter; 5 to 8 people - get a small car; 9 to 14 people - get an open truck! I have counted 14 people casually climbing into a pickup truck or ute, then driving away. Not a lot of traffic cops here.
Kath remarks that she likes this island best, because it is very tidy! I laugh, but it is true, the roads are well-maintained and paved almost all the way around the island, which is sparsely populated. The poor scooter does have a hard time climbing one of the big hills in the middle of the island - Kath obligingly jumps off and walks up the hill while I practice weaving from side to side up the hill, to decrease the angle of incline and give the poor 50cc motor a fighting chance. Having mastered this skill and only nearly going off the road, we are now able to both go up steep hills by weaving drunkenly side to side. Kath discovered that the exhaust pipe does actually get very hot by testing it with her leg - she wets a little paper towel when we stop to eat and seems OK when the scooter is moving and the breeze cools the burn.
A nice lunch at a nearly deserted and slightly run-down hotel and we are off again - we stopped at a few sights and a 'Marine Museum' which consisted of a bunch of model ships, with some typed historical notes. Very informal and cute and they get a few bucks in the donation box for their efforts. On the way back, we are doing about 50km and I have a half-second glimpse of a big wasp, right before it plows into my face and, rather upset, stings me in the ear. Those scooters can stop fast if you want them to. It hurt a lot, but I'm not allergic, so I just get a bit of a red ear. Kath finds a red hibiscus flower, which we discovered on our tour, has a natural antibiotic in it! She still has her wet towel - Kath is very good with things like that - so we make a little crushed-flower balm and apply it. I feel better just for the thought of it and we continue, dodging anything that is flying in the air in front of us.
We are very glad to have seen this island and now think it's one of the best. It's nice to get a feel for a place like this...
Unfortunately, it is approaching time for the girls to leave and we need to get back to Papeete - Dan and Abi show up in the afternoon with stories of riding horses on beaches and through rivers, as well as a somewhat dodgy hotel stay... another overnight trip ahead of us, so we pack up a bit and head off again for Tahiti.
July 13 Arrived at the Yacht Club de Tahiti early in the morning after another bit of motoring - still no real wind here! We get settled easily into a slip and notice that the Yacht Club has been knocked down! The office, restaurant and bar are being renovated and the whole thing is knocked to pieces and fenced off!
As we sit at the dock, Dan's friend Jasper Latham arrives - he got in on the 5am flight and will be joining us for about five weeks, all the way to Tonga. My parents are also due to arrive today, so I call the hotel to see if they got in. The message: flight delayed 24 hours! Jasper and Dan hang out a bit and do a little work on the steering, while Kath and I head into town to shop and pick up some supplies. When we get back, Dan and I replace the steering cable, which was a bit old and worn. Dan actually managed to coordinate three different suppliers of cable, hydraulic swaging and other bits and pieces, to get us a cable cut just the right length. He was really annoyed by the fact that each of them knew where the other necessary parts were, but couldn't coordinate themselves to just get it done, so Dan had to run around and figure it all out. He mumbles something about how Tahiti needs a Thatcherite Revolution, so that everybody works more efficiently. I convince him that we should simply have a beer to celebrate our new steering cable - it never takes long to convince Dan to have a beer, so we are all happy.
We have dinner out in town, as it is Abi's last night - she has a 1am flight, which seems ridiculous. All the planes seem to go and arrive at odd hours of the morning...
July 14 The folks are scheduled to finally arrive on the 5am flight, so Kath and I head in to meet them at their hotel in town at 10am or so - they're out for a walk, so we catch them for lunch at noon. Since it's Bastille Day, we were expecting all sorts of big events for the major French holiday, but it turns out that Polynesians aren't quite as keen on the French celebration... Or the French occupation for that matter... Or the French, really...
The parade consists of most of the islands' fire trucks and emergency vehicles driving up and down the main street slowly with their lights and sirens on. We watch from the comfort of the Three Brasseurs Restaurant and think that it would be a bad day to have an accident on the far side of the island! Most of the day is passed looking around and walking from restaurant to restaurant and drinking beer, catching up and talking.
That evening, we went to see the dancing show that is part of the Heava (festival) in Papeete - there were dance and singing exhibitions from various islands around the South Pacific, including the Australes, which I thought was great, since we had liked Raivavae so much... the singing was less interesting, as it was mostly long, drawn out, but melodic chanting. The problem was that it was the same lovely melody with no variation but the words, time and time again. Maybe it was a fascinating story if you spoke Tahitian, but for us it was like, 'second verse, same as the first!' That quote from Kath really made me laugh - I really like that about her, you know? I was starting to get sad that she would be leaving soon and I'm writing this log now that she's gone, so I'm really missing her while I think back on all this... I told her she should go home, quit her job and come join us again - we'll see.
July 15 After the excitement of Bastille Day (not) we decide to rent a car and see some of the normal tourist attractions - we drive down the coast to the Lagoonarium, which is a bizarre place, where you walk down into a big underwater viewing room and look out at fish swimming in the surrounding enclosed area. We got there just in time to watch a guy hand-feed the sharks and stingrays, which come up and eat out of his hand like trained dogs. He pets them and rubs their heads like pets and feeds them raw fish...
Next is the 'Musee de Tahiti et ses Isles' which documents both the natural and cultural evolution of the island. Interesting and we got a picture of us standing with Captain Cook's anchor. You had to be there, I guess.
The Gaugin Museum is also interesting and documents his life, but all they have are reproductions, since the paintings have been hoarded by museums in Paris, the US, the rest of Europe, etc. It's still a good exhibit and the buildings are set in a nice waterfront location with a botanical garden surrounding. A few more cheesy photos and we're off again!
We drove down to the end of the road on Tahiti Iti, with a rainstorm making us glad that we got the car and not more scooters! As night falls, we head back around the other side of Tahiti Nui and stopped at Point Venus to have a look at night. Then, back towards the Yacht Club and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant - it's interesting trying to order Chinese food in French, you're never exactly sure what you're going to get.
Kath and I had managed to get a free night at the Le Meridian resort, since I had a bunch of leftover bonus coupons from my consulting days in Melbourne, so we dropped the folks off and drove down to check in. They were really agreeable and nice and the place was excellent - having not slept in a really good bed for a few months, the king-size one in our suite was paradise! The hotel suite had a bathroom about as big as Kath's bedroom at home and the swimming pool had a sand beach and bottom - you could walk from the ocean, go up the beach and walk right down into the fresh-water pool - very cool.
We celebrated the night with a walk around the gardens and a couple of tropical drinks at the hotel bar.
July 16 Up early for a swim in the pool, then back into town to drop off the car - we decided to stop at the Artisans Fair on the way back to the boat. They had dozens of booths with various artworks from around the islands and I was glad to see that the hand-made outrigger canoe model that I bought in Raivavae was selling for more than twice the price here! I even met the niece of the man who made it and she gave me a big hug... There were tattoo artists doing their handiwork on locals and also on a few tourists, who will probably spend a fortune on laser removal when they get back home...
Tonight is Kath's last night in Tahiti and we have to go to the airport for the 1am flight - we hitchike a ride with another nice family who drives us all the way there in the back of their truck and drop us at the departure gate again. We sit around for a while and talk about the things you talk about when you know you won't see each other for months - it's not going to be as much fun without her, but Kath has a great way of making me feel like I'm doing the right thing even when it's not exactly what she might want. I am very convinced that when I am done with all this sailing stuff, I want to get back to Sydney and be with her. In case you haven't noticed, I do like Kath quite a lot...
July 17 - 20 Everybody is now moved aboard the boat and we start doing the prep work for the next voyages... there is a list of things to fix, including the HF radio, depth sounder, wind meter, the fridge compressor, some pumps, solar panels, as well as other things to do, like caulk the decks and service the diesel engine. We did manage to track down new solar panels and get them installed, serviced the engine and did the other small chores, but still don't have a working HF radio or fridge compressor - we can still use the electric refrigeration, but it takes a lot of battery power! Time to go, though, so we will head off and try to get more stuff fixed on the road.
After a total of five days at the Yacht Club de Tahiti, we had to head out to make room for a returning yacht, so we went to anchor again at Point Venus, as we had a few weeks earlier. Once again, we had it all to ourselves and enjoyed a quiet night.
July 21 We raised the anchor at 12:30pm to head for Cook's Bay, Moorea. The distance between the two islands is only ten or fifteen miles, but it's about 20 miles to get out of the anchorage, around the island a bit and into Cook Bay. It takes us a few hours to get there - we actually had enough wind to put up the staysail for a bit... Elaine, Bill and Jasper all break with TAINUI crew tradition by NOT getting seasick, although there is a green face or two.
Once at anchor off the entrance, everybody dove in and had a good snorkel around the reef, which was very well populated with brightly-coloured fish. I even found a big white fish with a spot that was a bit slow and let me whack his tail with my hand - if I had thought to grab him instead, we might have had fish for dinner. Of course, maybe he can afford to be a bit slow because he tastes horrible and nobody ever tries to eat him...
Had a reservation at Alfred's restaurant - looking forward to a nice dinner of Italian pasta! Called for the van to pick us up at the water's edge at Dan piloted our very small, very full dinghy, with all five aboard, straight in towards the shore.
There are a lot of reefs in French Polynesia.
We stopped short of actually poking a hole in the inflatable - which would have been fairly disastrous - and only hit the reef a little bit here and there... after a while, we stopped trying to find a path through the maze and resigned ourselves to going around, which was the long way. Half an hour later, we made it ashore and started to walk towards the restaurant, when the van came by and found us... had dinner and a few drinks (yet again) then made our way back, avoiding the reef this time. At some time during dinner, Dan agreed to let me give him a haircut the next day...
July 22 Finally said goodbye to French Polynesia and I lowered our trusty french courtesy flag with due ceremony - we all hummed the french national anthem and expressed how glad we were that we could now just speak english to everybody on the next island. (Although I still find myself hesitating from time to time, or saying 'Bonjour' instead of 'Hello.')
Dan was reminded of last night's agreement and I got out the kitchen scissors. As I had never cut anyone's hair before, I decided to go for something simple - abbey monk. (You really must look at the pictures to appreciate this one.) The razor then came out and Dan got the full treatment - I can't believe that he left it like that for a day or two before shaving it off completely!
We had started out under sail, but ended the day motoring quite a lot, as the wind died yet again... Mom and Dad had their first night of open ocean sailing, with me sleeping (not really) on deck just in case. Of course, in overnight ocean sailing in the South Pacific, you don't usually even see another ship, land, or anything else except lots of shooting stars and satellites. We studied the constellations and steered by the stars.
At 11pm, I was startled to suddenly see a very wide, bright light just behind us - it looked like the bright lights of a cruise ship bow, bearing down on us, having appeared out of nowhere! As I contemplated hailing them on the radio, I took out the binoculars to get a better view and found that the lights had changed - they looked like they were coming from the sky! Secret government spy plane? A spaceship? No, just the full moon rising through the cloudy horizon, making strange shapes of the bright white light... I'm glad I didn't try to hail it - don't know what I would have done if it responded.
July 23 After some storms passed, we managed to turn off the motor for a while, but spent most of the day under power, reading books and basking in the sun. I read the biography of Captain James Cook over the next two days and was amazed by the way he sailed around these islands with no GPS, no radar, no charts, no depth sounder and no lights! In fact, he drew the charts, using his awesome astral navigation skills and his measurements were so accurate that many of his charts were used for navigation for hundreds of years... I am still trying to work out how to calculate my longitude with the sextant. My Dad amazed me by shooting a sun sight and quickly getting the longitude right, almost to the minute... we discussed why the latitude was harder to figure out, drew some diagrams and worked it out. My Dad is pretty good at puzzles and things like this and I remember as a kid when we used to try to work out these mind games. He's a statistician, so I guess that's where I got my focus on logic and analysis - I can still calculate the sum of a string of any consecutive integers in my head, using a trick he taught me when I was about 12... it's nice to have the folks around, as I have spent the last 14 years living fairly far away, always calling or visiting, but not spending a whole lot of time together...
July 24 Another quiet day with no wind - I'm starting to worry that my parents won't really get to sail at all during their sailing holiday! We got the watermaker turned on and filled up one of our water tanks, but spent most of the day just cruising along on autopilot. I think we even had some beers with lunch, as there was almost no wind. Finally, at 6pm the wind came up and the motor went off - tonight would be a sailing night! We again studied the sky, now in peace, and even saw two satellites, moving side by side and crossing paths - something I have never seen before!
July 25 Today was fun, as we sailed downwind in decent breezes and tried something new - TAINUI has a great big spinnaker that we had never flown before and this seemed just the right time. We had been sailing along with the jib and main, getting about 5-6 knots in 10-15 knots of wind. With help from all hands, we worked out the spinnaker lines, hoisted the sail in its sock and then opened her up - what a sight! We practised balancing the sail out in front of the boat, with everybody pitching in a few ideas on how to get it just right. We tried everything and finally settled it out there, floating above the bow of the boat, taking the mainsail down completely... With spinnaker alone, we were being pulled along at well over 7 knots, with each of us trying to get the highest reading on the knotmeter - then, the thin line we had been using for sheets suddenly parted on the port side and the sail was flapping out in front of us. We managed to pull the sock down, drop the sail and attach new sheets, much heavier. This time, it went up quickly and cleanly, having worked out all the twists and turns in the sail on the first attempt. I don't think that sail had been raised in many years and I know it's probably 20 years old, as it is the same sail with a big apple on it, that Hedley Calvert (a Tasmanian apple farmer) used when he owned the yacht in the early 80's...
Now we're flying, looking at the knotmeter - 7.55, 8.78 and I finally got it to read 9.28 in increasing winds, when suddenly there was a noise (there's always some sort of noise when things go wrong...) and the sail shifted a bit. At first, I feared a tear or some failure in the spinnaker pole, but it was just the halyard slipping - our thin line had pulled through the locking brake and let out about ten feet - the sail had dropped down considerably and was in danger of being dragged in the water in front of the boat! We quickly hauled her up again, letting out on the sheets and locking off the halyard securely on a winch. Having had a really good time with this massive sail, we decided that the winds were actually getting a bit stronger and that we would put away our new toy...
By midnight, the wind was getting fairly strong and we were sailing on a reach, in rougher seas.
July 26 At four in the morning, we passed between two small islands of the Cook Islands group, Mitiaru and Mauke - the GPS allowed us to sail through the rain squalls in absolute darkness, navigating our way right through the passage - it's about 25 miles across, so no real difficulty here, but a bit of anxiety from the newer crew, who didn't like the idea of not seeing land when we shot the gap on the open ocean!
By 11 am, the winds were very strong and we were sailing under the storm jib and double-reefed main. Well-balanced, TAINUI steered herself with the helm locked down and no autopilot, just cruising through the seas... All day was spent in storms and strong winds - I was glad that Mom and Dad woul now appreciate a bit more what we went throught to get thie boat here from Sydney!
July 27 Saw the lights of Rarotonga at about 3:45am, and saw land at 6:20am - we contacted the Harbourmaster and pulled into the small Avatiu Harbour, which is only wide enough to hold about 12 yachts at the quay! There are already about 15 in there and we are lucky to get a space that is normally filled by a charter vessel - the Harbourmaster says that the boat will be out for 5 days, just long enough for us! The customs lady comes by and clears us without even coming aboard - normally, they spray the cabins of incoming boats with some kind of insecticide, but she has just run out and doesn't seem too concerned. She even made some restaurant recommendations and told us to go to the Staircase Restaurant for dinner and the dancing show...
We spent the day walking around a bit and caught a few emails at the local internet shop... that night for dinner, we went to the Staircase and the customs lady was our waitress! Now I know why she recommended it... the dancing was good, but a bit tame and touristy compared to the stuff we saw in French Polynesia. Mom and Dad went back to the boat and the boys stayed out far too late and drank far too many Cook's Lagers, which were dirt cheap at $3.50 NZD for a wine-bottle sized beer.
July 28 After the morning hangover cleared, we planned to move the boat a short ways out of the berth we were in, as the Harbourmaster told us that the charter boat would be coming back early. What a pain. At about 9 am, Dan went off to do some errands and see about getting our radio fixed. Wegot ready to move and started pulling the boat forward slowly on the anchor chain, letting off on the stern line that was attached to the quay. We had planned to do it without using the engine, but at one point, needed to get a bit of thrust to avoid drifting against the neighboring boat - this is when we discovered the maze of mooring lines that tangled through this crowded harbour. One line got caught in the prop and quickly stalled the engine out. Now, we were halfway out of the berth, with our anchor holding us, along with the fouled line. At least we weren't going to drift anywhere, I guess...
I dove down with Jasper to look at the prop and saw that there were a couple of turns around the shaft. After a bit of tugging, a few loops came off, but then it became apparent that it was worse than it looked - the line was jammed in nicely between the prop and the hull, with several turns of the thick line compressed into a solid tangle that was not going to be pulled out. Time for the swim goggles and knives!
We tied the stern up again, so that we wouldn't drift off and I cut the mooring line from the prop, remembering to hold both ends together with a bit of rope, then tying them together so that the mooring line was complete again. Now to work on the prop. Jasper and I took turns at diving with a saw, knives, marlin spike, pliers and other various tools, trying to cut, unwind and pry the rope lose. After an hour or so, we started getting cold and took a break to don wetsuits. Even after we cut through the line and saw the shaft, we couldn't pry the rest of the rope off, as it had compressed against the shaft so tightly! Another hour and we were making progress, sharpening knives after every dive - by noon, Dan returned with the electronics guy to look at the radio, which now failed to demonstrate any sign of being broken! Previously, it would stick in 'transmit' mode, so that you could not change channels or otherwise use it. Now, it was simply working, although we couldn't seem to tune it. After a while, we decided to just use it the way it is and see how it lasts...
Back to the rope-cutting, we finally got through the end of it at about 1pm, after over three hours sawing. With all aboard, we started the engine again (not engaging the prop!) and moved the boat into her new space, about 20 metres away!
The really annoying thing is that the damn charter boat did not show up that day, and has not shown up yet!
Jasper and Dan went off to do some serious drinking, while Mom, Dad and I took it a bit easier, went to the local festival and rented a scooter. You are supposed to have a Cook Island drivers license to rent scooters here - purely a fundraising exercise for the local council, but it seems like a good souvenir, I think! The Budget lady wouldn't give us scooters until we got our licenses, whereas you supposedly need a scooter to do the license test. A bit of a catch-22 that was solved by going to Avis, who rented us a scooter and told us to go get a license... we got the last one, so Mom & Dad will go back tomorrow to see about getting another.
We all caught up back at the boat, planning to go to dinner at Trader Jack's, the local tourist trap - Dan and Jasper stayed behind on the boat for a while and never actually made it to the restaurant, falling prey to one of the bars on the way there. We waited two hours for a table, then the food was OK and the music blaring. This is where all the tourists go to hang out with the locals who used to be tourists, but decided never to leave. There were guys there who looked like they got off a cruise ship (or were shipwrecked, maybe) about forty years ago and just stayed here, dancing with the local women or who ever was willing...
July 29 I got up early to finish this log and go to the Internet Cafe again - however, it took me so long to get caught up that I missed their open hours. Everything closes down in Rarotonga at noon on Saturday and then is closed all day Sunday - even the touristy restaurants! Dan and Jasper left early to go windsurfing and Bill, Elaine and Brian had lunch (mmm... goat meat) and then took a ride all the way around the island on the scooters, catching up with each other at Muri Beach, which is probably the nicest spot on Roratonga. Dinner was at Portofino, a little Italian restaurant in the main town. A nice Australian Shiraz, from McGuigan's Hunter Valley Winery reminded me of home...
July 30 Dan and Jasper got up to go to church in their Sunday best, while Bill went diving for the cover of the outboard engine, which had managed to get knocked off during some wave activity. Donning my wetsuit, he plunged in and found it on the very first dive - quite an improvement over the efforts we had to put in for the tangled prop! I am still updating the log and pictures, so I will go tomorrow and try to post all this stuff...
It's been a busy month in the South Pacific!
Hope you enjoyed reading - please feel free to send news from home to [email protected] - catch you soon and don't forget the pictures!