Author: richwest3

July 11, 2012

We made it in to Papeete, Tahiti yesterday afternoon, before the bad weather got here. And it still isn’t here this afternoon – it’s sunny, warm, and the wind is still.  More soon.

July 10 – 21, 2012

OK, we’d made long,  slow, two-day passage from Rangiroa to Papeete, Tahiti and all that was left to do was to tie up.  What could go wrong?  It turns out we were to tie up to a wall that faced the harbor, dropping our anchor first to hold us off the wall, then backing in to tie the back of our boat just feet from the wall – all this in about a 15 knot wind from the port side of the boat.

We had a lot of help though and all we really had to do was to follow their directions. They had this little boat out to push us around and two guys on our boat and the dock behind us.  By way of extra explanation to those who have never had the pleasure of trying to get a sail boat to back up, when we put our engine in reverse, we move back and to the port (left) side, and there’s almost no way to get the boat to move directly backward.  When there’s wind from the side, it becomes almost impossible to get the boat to do anything except move in unwanted directions.

Once finally tied up, the only way on or off the boat was via this long, wobbly, 2 by 12 plank.

I tried it once on foot, and from then on, it was strictly hands and knees.  If I had something to carry, well, see the picture.

For some reason, this seemed to provide endless amusement for Larry and Nelda!

It was pretty rough out on the end tie with constant boat and ship wakes rocking our world.  The next day, a spot opened up inside the marina – a side tie.  Much better.

Marina Taina is really a pretty place.  It isn’t the same kind of marina as those we have on the west coast of the States.  Here there are no slips and boats just pull up forwards or backwards to a dock and tie up to floats.  Boats stay off the neighboring boat with fenders and are sandwiched in pretty close together.

Note from July 21: This turned out to be a really a great place to spend almost two weeks. When we left for Moorea and we knew we’d miss Marina Taina quite a bit. -Rich

 

July 10, 2012

Our first glimpse of this holy grail of cruising destinations.

July 10, 2012

The welcoming committee just inside the pass into the harbor.  This was special as we hadn’t seen many dolphins since the Marquesas Islands.

Paddling is a big recreational and competitive sport in French Polynesia.  This guy used us as a windbreak for almost the whole five miles from the entrance to the marina.  He was paddling along at over five knots.

And at the end of a passage – food!  Here we are at the Italian restaurant that’s at the end of our dock.  We caught up with Diamond Girl here in Papeete and it’s been great spending time with them.  From left to right: Rich (me), Cyndi, Nelda, Larry and their daughter who was visiting, Sara.  Great food, great company.

July 09, 2012

Near the end of our 40 hour sail from Rangiroa to Tahiti, in the middle of the night (of course), we hit the strangest squall.  Cyndi was on watch and I woke when the boat motion got very odd. It was pitch black outside, raining a little, a little wind and small waves coming from every direction.  We’d sailed into, well, motored into really as there wasn’t enough wind to sail, some kind of mostly windless squall that didn’t want to let us go.

We had about two to three knots of current against us and the squall was following us. It felt like the boat was caught in a fish net.  We couldn’t motor faster as we were low on fuel and trying to conserve what we had by running the engine at a low speed.  At one point, Cyndi turned to me and said “I wouldn’t be surprised to have this lift to reveal the New York skyline, in the year 1942!” (The funny thing is that friends got stuck in a similar squall the next night and said almost the exact same thing, right down to the 1942 part.)  We had to get out of this or who knew how far back in time it would drag us.  We reluctantly upped our speed and turned 60 degrees, away from Papeete, just to try to escape.

After about a half an hour of motoring the wrong way, we finally broke out and we could see these little, dense, pitch black cloud-cells all around us.  We spent the rest of the night dodging them as the line of these squalls moved with us, almost all the way to Papeete.

I can’t say exactly what made them so strange.  Maybe that there wasn’t much wind or rain inside, or that no matter which way we went, the current seemed to be strong and against us.  (Where was all that water going? Down?)  Maybe it was the incredibly confused seas for no apparent reason.  The result felt like a sail through the twilight zone.

Day broke with us about two hours from the main pass at Papeete.  From there on, it was pretty uneventful.  OK, I guess it was a little strange to have to call air traffic control to request permission to motor past the end of the runway.  It seems they have a problem with our big aluminum stick poking up into the air as planes are landing. But other that that, uneventful.  Relatively.

Getting tied up at the marina was another story.

(Simulated photo of the squall – we were too freaked out to get a camera!)

July 8, 2012

We left Toau atoll on Friday afternoon to make the 24 hour trip to Rangiroa. It wasn’t a bad passage with mostly light winds and a lot of motoring. The trip through the pass into Rangiroa was exciting but nothing like the trip out of Fakarava (more on that adventure later). We arrived here to unwelcome news.

It seems the long-range weather forecast is for some very strong winds here and even south to Tahiti. The winds should pick up on Wednesday and blow for maybe a week. We’re faced with either staying here in an anchorage that isn’t ideal, stuck on our boat for a week, or bugging out today to make Tahiti before the blow starts. We are opting for the later.

We’ll leave here at about 3:00 when the tides are right in the pass (we hope) to sail the 36 hours or so to Tahiti. We should arrive there on Tuesday morning. We’re going to try to find a secure marina there, or good anchorage, to sit in though the high winds. We’ll send an update when we get in. -Rich

This is the view of Rangiroa from our boat right now.  The hotel rooms you see over the water, as we understand it, go for 1,300 euros a night – and they’re view of us!  I like our view better. (Though, I guess if you wrote all the boat expenses down and did the math, we might be paying even more than that for our accommodations