Author: richwest3

July 24, 2012

The scenery was great, see for yourself.

July 24, 2012

We enjoyed our Safari trip in Tahiti so much that when we found one here; we signed up with our friends from Diamond Girl. We had a great day seeing this beautiful island.

Here’s what we rode in with Edna as our guide.  She was great!

Some of the roads were a bit scary – this doesn’t really show just how steep this was.

But the views were worth traveling on the harrowing roads.

And so was the food…

And ice cream!

July 22 – 26, 2012

We headed into Oponohu Bay to wait out the coming winds.  All around us the hills and mountains were lush and green; it was truly one of the most beautiful places we have seen.  We practically had it to ourselves as most other boaters tend to prefer the “blue water” just outside the mouth of the bay.

There is nothing wrong with the “blue water” area – blue because it has 15 to 30 feet of crystal clear water over sand and coral plus it’s next to the reef loaded with tropical fish.  But boats tend to bunch up there and anchor a bit too close to each other for our liking, especially when the wind picks up.  We’d rather take the dinghy out there for the day, then sleep well at night tucked into our secure anchorage.

In our bay, the water was brackish with a mud bottom and too murky to swim in. Actually, there’s no reason you can’t swim there, but I think most of us like to have a clear view of what we’re swimming with.  But the water is still beautiful to look at, ranging from a deep emerald green to almost black.  Where we anchored, the water was strewn with wild yellow hibiscus flowers.  Just as we were setting the anchor, it started to rain lightly, making sparkles where a shaft of sunlight hit the water.

We were heading below decks and closing the hatches when the tropical downpour began. We put on some rice for dinner, poured ourselves some wine, and listened to the rain outside.  This, to us, is just as much paradise as is being in a spot where you can snorkel right off your boat.  Most people don’t feel this way, and many never see the astonishing beauty in some of these deep bays. But it’s all good, and that just means more room for us.

We stayed in this bay for about a week, visiting the blue water by dinghy and one day taking our boat out there to anchor and visit our friends.  It was beautiful, but when the afternoon breezes came up, we headed back to our bay. -Cyndi

July 21-22, 2012

During our time in French Polynesia, some things have met expectations, some have exceeded expectations, some have been a surprise, and some have been a disappointment. Coffee and coffee drinks have been disappointing.

I knew there would be no Starbuck’s but thought the Society Islands, being a French territory, would excel in coffee and coffee drinks. Sadly the coffee has been, to put it bluntly, terrible. We have tried several brands from the store and at best they are tolerable. Coffee drinks (cappuccino, lattes, cafe au lait, etc.) are practically nonexistent. We actually resorted to, horrors, a Mc Cafe (a Mc Donald’s with coffee drinks) in Tahiti. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and after weeks of almost no coffee drinks, it hit the spot.

When we got to Moorea and had access to a couple of hotels in Cook’s Bay, we hoped that in catering to tourists, they might have acceptable coffee drinks. They did serve “cappuccino” but here it’s often espresso coffee with whipped cream on top. Well, it’s better than no cappuccino and actually isn’t bad. I will say one thing that spurs us on to brave what might be a rough passage to New Zealand is the fact that they have Starbuck’s. I think perhaps I’ll tape all our Starbuck’s cards to the wall and if the weather gets rough I’ll stare at those cards to remind myself of why we’re enduring this particular ordeal.

Until then, we’ll continue to look hopefully whenever we see a green awning over a restaurant (always to be disappointed), keep trying different coffee from the stores (can they all be this bad?), and keep seeking out an eatery that might make a good cappuccino. There must be one here somewhere! -Cyndi

Bali Hai Restaurant in Cook’s Bay

From the deck of the Bali Hai.

Hotel Kaveka in Cook’s Bay – at least the scenery was beautiful!

Cappuccino here = Espresso with whipped cream.

July 21 – 22, 2012

One of the things we learned as we got closer to the Society Islands (the islands around and including Tahiti) is that here, timing is everything.  We cut short our time in Rangiroa because strong winds were expected, and we decided if we were going to be stuck on the boat for days, we’d rather it be at a marina, and better yet a marina near a big city.  Luckily, the marina in Tahiti had room and we were able to make that happen (although the many boats who were anchored outside the marina were also very comfortable as the nearby mountains blocked the winds).

So while the boaters who opted to stay back in Rangiroa were dragging their anchors, stuck on their boats and generally having a rough time of it, the boaters who fled to Papeete were eating at restaurants, sampling new cheeses and wine from the huge grocery store, sightseeing in the city, catching up on laundry and boat chores, and generally having a very nice time.

As the winds lasted a good week or more, we thought we had really dodged a bullet with what we thought were unusually strong winds.  But we’ve since learned that these winds happen here on a regular basis, that the winds we had just experienced were simply a little longer and stronger than the usual.  It seems that much of our planning here would be affected by these weather systems.

As it happened, another round of winds was coming, but the timing was good in that we had planned to head on anyway.  Our next island: Moorea, and specifically Cook’s Bay, maybe the most famous and photographed anchorage in the Society Islands because of the spectacular peaks at the head of the bay.

These same peaks make for something called the “Venturi” effect where southerly winds that come over the island funnel through them, making for some violent gusts. Our plan was to stay for just a night, then head for a deeper, more protected bay about a mile west before the stronger winds arrived.

We pulled into Cook’s Bay that afternoon, and it was beautiful.  It felt great to be back in nature after being in a city and marina environment for over a week.  We had a relaxed night, then the next morning went in search of good coffee drinks.  We found them at the Bali Hai hotel, which had an old Polynesian ambiance and an amazing view of the bay.  Many restaurants here have a cat or two wandering amid the tables; this place has a chicken.  This was my kind of a place, and the cappuccino wasn’t bad (although admittedly our standards for this have been lowered quite bit)!

We actually felt inspired to head further up the road to another hotel with a deck and try their cappuccino, but the Bali Hai was our favorite.  I could have happily sat on that deck every day.  I wanted to stay longer, but our friends on Diamond Girl would be arriving that evening and they would be closer to the next bay, plus we wanted to avoid any possible venturi effect from the winds due to arrive the next day.  Still, I was very sad when we pulled up our anchor and headed on.  Mostly, when the time comes to leave a place, I feel satisfied and ready to go, but once in a while leaving is very hard. -Cyndi