July 4th in Moorea

Title:  July 4^th in Moorea

The 22 mile trip from the southern pass near Marina Tahina on Tahiti Nui to Cook's Bay on Moorea turned out to be directly into the wind.  So, yet again, we motored.  Didn't even bother to unfurl the sails since even motor-sailing was out of the question with the wind angle.  

There was a paperwork snafu at the fuel dock that delayed us for almost an hour.  We finally got our agent on the phone and he talked with the fuel dock attendant and got everything straightened out and we did receive the duty free fuel price.  Regular price of diesel in Tahiti now is 153 francs per liter; that converts to $7.85 USD per gallon.  Duty free diesel price is 103 francs per liter, which converts to $5.28 USD per gallon.  We needed about 75 gallons so you can see why we wanted the duty free price.  No reason to give up that additional $193 when we were legally entitled to the duty free price.  OTOH, gasoline is not duty free; and the current price of gasoline here is $9.15 USD.  And you think gas is expensive in the USA!!!  Good thing we don't use the dinghy very often here because it could quickly get expensive.

Cook's Bay on Moorea is very dramatic in appearance.  It is a long, deep bay and the high craggy mountains around it cause strong wind gusts.  There are a couple of places to anchor down at the end of the bay, but the wind often gusts 30 to 35 knots.  That does not appeal to us.  The best anchorage is actually outside the bay on the east side behind the very, very large reef.  There is a narrow finger-like "trench" between the island and the reef.  It is deep but it is still the best anchorage.  We are anchored in around 60-feet.  When the wind changes direction we sometimes move stern-to the reef and then there is less than 3-feet of water beneath our keel.  That should give you an idea of the narrow width of this trench.  There are about a dozen boats anchored out here.

Barbara & Frank on S/V DESTINY and Sandy & Andy on S/V IMAGINE coordinated a dinghy raft-up to celebrate July 4th.  (BTW, Barbara is from the Cy-Fair area of Houston and they are in a gorgeous Island Packet 480)  I will attempt to explain a dinghy raft-up for you non-cruisers and landlubbers.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  We went out very close to the reef; a few dinghies put down anchors; we tied all the dinghies together as tightly as possible; and we shared hamburgers, hot dogs, cake, and other good nibbles while visiting for a few hours.  We were treated to a gorgeous sunset over the ocean.  It was a fun way to celebrate the 4th.

Today the wind picked up pretty strong and most of the boats have left this anchorage.  Wind is from the right direction to sail farther westward in the Tahitian islands so several boats are taking advantage of it.  There are only 5 of us left this afternoon.  We are not in any hurry to leave since we just arrived here 2 days ago.  Our anchor is well set and we are not worried about dragging.  The WASI Buegel anchor is fantastic.  It absolutely does not drag.  Highly recommend it over any other anchor (except maybe the Rocna which is a knock-off of the Buegel).  We do not find the motion caused by the wind to be uncomfortable so we are staying put.
 
We had planned to snorkel on the reef today but that is out since it is only 79F and that is way too cold for us to get into the water.  Plus the wind disturbs the water too much.  So we are cocooning it today.  We were very surprised to find free WiFi service out here in this anchorage.  Life is good.

Tahiti to Moorea Rendevous

2008-06-27 to 07-03-08  Friday to Thursday

Title:  Tahiti to Moorea Rendevous

The tourism department of French Polynesia goes all-out to welcome sailors each year and sponsor the Tahiti to Moorea Rendevous.  The Rendevous is like a rally in that boats “race” across from Papeete Harbor to a tiny bay on the eastern coast of Moorea.  This is only about 10 miles in distance and only takes a couple of hours or less.  The Rendevous is also promoted by magazine Latitude 38 and several other well-known entities in the sailing community.  Last winter we had signed up with the Yahoo! Group known as the Pacific Puddle Jumpers.  The annual fleet of cruisers departing from Central America enroute to French Polynesia is known as the puddle jumpers.  Almost all the PPJ folks depart from Mexico and skip the Galapagos Islands.  As you know, we opted to depart from Panama and visit the Galapagos on our way to French Polynesia.  Only 3 of the PPJ group departed from Panama.  At any rate, we have all arrived in French Polynesia by now; so it is a good time to have a party.

There was a song and dance performance at Papeete Harbor and several exhibitors on Friday afternoon.  We received tee-shirts and a pack of tourist literature.  There was a large family from the Tuamotu who performed for us.  The men sang and played instruments while the women danced.  The two youngest men did a few dances.  The men’s dances are totally different from the women’s dances, as you would expect.  They also gave a Blessing of the Fleet for all of us who were to participate in the rally on Saturday morning.  It was a very Christian prayer led by the oldest male family member while we all stood in a large circle and held hands.  Then the women sang acapelo while we continued to hold hands.  Their voices were incredibly beautiful.  Would have loved to get that singing on a short video but could not do that since we were all holding hands.  I did get a few short videos of their dancing later, but nothing compared to their singing during the Blessing of the Fleet.

Then we left those festivities and walked around Papeete for a couple of hours before going to the Skippers’ Briefing and cocktail party.  Met a few new people, all of whom were from either Oregon or Washington.  There are a lot of cruisers out here who are from the Pacific Northwest of the USA.  They basically do a circle of the Pacific by visiting French Polynesia and then up to Hawaii.  Usually they then go up to Alaska and return to PNW.  Others go directly from Hawaii to San Francisco.  There was a dinner after the cocktail party and then dancing, but we opted not to participate in that. 

Instead, we joined another couple (one of whom was from Houston) and went to The Roulette.  The Roulette is the place to eat in Papeete – actually, it is the only reasonably priced place to eat on this island.  Dozens and dozens of food vans congregate around the outdoor performance area near the tourist center on the edge of Papeete Harbor.  They come there each evening.  You can find any type of food that you might want (no Mexican, of course).  They had various types of Chinese foods, sashimi, sushi, pizza, French foods, steaks – you name it.  Bill had a veal steak with Roquefort sauce for less than the price of a McDonald’s hamburger.  It was all very good.

Unfortunately, both Bill and I caught the cruiser crud from the other couple.  There is a respiratory virus going around and we both caught it.  That squelched our participation in the rally on Saturday.  I was disappointed that we could not attend because we had been looking forward to all the activities.  They had outrigger races and a traditional Polynesian lunch cooked in a ground pit on the beach, as well as other silly activities which would have been fun.  But neither of us was in any shape to deal with any of that on that particular day.  Bill recovered after only 3 days but I am still sick.  I developed an upper respiratory infection and am now taking antibiotics from our med kit.

So we have not seen much of Tahiti Nui and absolutely nothing of Tahiti Iti because we were sick.  We had wanted to attend one of the Polynesian dance performances at one of the large hotel resorts but just did not feel up to it.  As Bill said last night, “here we are in beautiful Tahiti and we are sitting on the boat doing nothing – we could do that anywhere – what a waste.” 

Today we are sailing over to Moorea.  Plan is to anchor somewhere in Cook’s Bay if there is room.  There probably will not be internet service available in Cook’s Bay, so we won’t be updating the website again soon.

A little about Tahitian Dance:

Like the tattoo, Tahitian dancing was associated with nudity and indecency and the Christian missionaries convinced King Pomare to ban both in 1819.  However, unlike tattoo which was documented by sketches by many sailors of that time period, the dances was not documented.  So no one really knows much about the ancient Tahitian dances.  Only oral tradition has preserved some of the dances.  The “renewal” of Tahitian dance dates from the 1950s when a woman named Madeleine Moua and her Heiva group began performed their interpretation of Tahitian dance.  This revived interest and grew with the tourist industry that also arrived in Tahiti since the 1950s.  Guess all those sailors who visited Tahiti during WWII went home and talked a lot about this place, because tourism started growing rapidly after that time. 

There are 4 major types of dance in today’s Tahitian dancing.  The Otea is performed by men and women and probably was originally a somewhat warlike dance.  It is one of the most famous Tahitian dances.  The Aparima is a dance wherein the hands mime a story.  It is like a pantomime and is usually performed kneeling and accompanied by a band.  Singing might also accompany the Aparima.  The Hivinau dance is thought to have derived from the English “heave now” that sailors of yesteryear called out while maneuvering the capstan or anchor winch.  Male and female dancers move in a circle and a male soloist gives a phrase that the choir takes over.  They are accompanied by a band.  The Pa’o’a dance seems to come from gestures used in tapa-making.  Male and female dancers squat in a semi-circle.  A vocal soloist gives a them that the choir answers to.  A couple rises and performs a short dance in the half circle while the other dancers chant sounds of “hi” and “ha.”  All the dances except the Otea have one thing in common:  the feet are kept together and motion radiates from the hips, either slowly or quite fast.

Sorry we didn’t get to see one of the elaborate dance performances while we were in Tahiti Nui.  But we can console ourselves with our memories of the Tongan dances at the festival we attended there back in 2002.  The dances were probably similar.

BTW, we were in the group photo taken at the Skippers Briefing for the Rendevous.  So we might be in a photo in Latittude 38 soon.   We were near the back row on the left side of the large group of people.

Papeete, Tahiti (and the strange outbound clearance process here)

Tuesday we managed to get Med-moored at the marina after the wind dropped back to normal levels.  They put us on the outside dock with the big boats.  Man, do we look small next to those guys!  Glad they put us out here because the inside docks of this marina appear quite tight and it would have been a challenge for us to fit in there.  As soon as we were secure at the dock we found the office for the agent we used to clear into Marquesas.  He will handle our clearance into Tahiti and then our departure from French Polynesia.

The departure clearance from French Polynesia is just plain weird.  Papeete is the only official port of clearance for either arrival or departure.  All the other “official” ports of clearance must mail the completed forms to Papeete.  When you leave Papeete to go visit the other windward islands of French Polynesia, you actually clear out of French Polynesia in Papeete.  They give you the departure clearance paperwork and then you take it to the Gendarmerie at your final island stop (almost always Bora Bora).  The Gendarmerie in Bora Bora stamps the departure paperwork, you mail back another copy of this departure paperwork to Papeete, and then you leave French Polynesia.  That entire process is so strange.  We have never heard of any other place where you clear out weeks or months before you really leave.  So we will be clearing out when we leave Papeete but will not really leave French Polynesia until many weeks later.  Our plans are to visit Moorea and definitely Bora Bora but we haven’t decided about the other islands in between those two.

Tahiti itself is actually 2 islands that are connected by a road.  The larger northern island is called Tahiti Nui and the smaller southern island is called Tahiti Iti.  I just love the name of Tahiti Iti.  The main city is Papeete and is located on the northwestern coast of Tahiti Nui.  We took Le Truck into the city of Papeete and walked for hours trying to find a few small boat items.  Le Truck is the local version of a maxi-taxi – the cheap mode of transportation.  Taxis are supposedly exorbitantly priced so no one uses a taxi.   Bill’s sneakers literally fell apart while we were walking in town; the soles separated and were flopping so badly he was having difficulty walking.  We think it is the extreme heat inside the boat that destroys the glue in shoes.  This is the third pair of sneakers that has literally separated since we moved aboard; and each pair was really in good condition when they fell apart.  So we found a sports store and bought him a new pair.  He was not happy when he later realized that he had paid $160 for a plain pair of sneakers.   Tahiti is an expensive place.   The only reasonably priced things in French Polynesia are baguettes, which cost only about 65 cents each.   The daily baguette is a ritual that we will miss a lot when we leave French Polynesia.

Polynesia is known for tattoos.  The Tahitian word tatau literally means “to hit.”  In ancient times the pigment was made from the soot of a burned candle nut, called “ti’a’iri”, and was thinned with water.  The mixture turned blue once it was introduced below the dermis.  This was done with a tattooing comb, called a “fa”, which was a kind of adze with sharp teeth on one end.  The fa was carved from fish teeth or bird bones.  A mallet was used to hit the fa’s handle and make the pigment penetrate into the skin.  The fa could have a few or a great many points, depending on how large a body part was being tattooed.  Ancient Polynesians believed that tattooing originated with the gods.  The 2 sons of the god Ta’aroa were the first ones to be tattooed; they supposedly did this to seduce their sister.  Men imitated the gods and began to tattoo their bodies.  Tattoos had aesthetic value and were considered sexually attractive, but that was only one aspect.  Tattooing marked the passage from childhood to adulthood.  In some areas it also was a mark of identification, or belonging to a particular group; and was also considered a protective barrier against evil influences.

Each island group does different type tattoos.  The Marquesas traditionally were the most heavily tattooed of any island group.  Marquesan men would shave their heads and tattoo their scalps.  In fact, they tattooed their entire bodies; sometimes even their eyelids and tongues and other ultra-sensitive parts of their bodies.   Marquesan women were more restricted in their tattoo options.  The most frequently chosen body parts were the earlobes and the space behind the ears, the lower back, and the arms and legs.  The Christian missionaries considered the tattoos to be erotic and they certainly could not tolerate any erotic; so the missionaries managed to get King Pomare to ban both tattooing and dancing in 1819 when he officially converted to a Christian religion.  This ban remained in effect until very recently when the Samoans did a tattoo exhibit during the Pacific Arts Festival, which was held in the Hiva Oa, Marquesas one year.  This exhibit rekindled interest in the ancient practice of tattooing and now one often sees young Polynesian men and women with tattoos. 

In the Society Islands it was traditional for both men and women to wear tattoos on the shoulders, arms and legs; but never on the face.  They would tattoo their buttocks uniformly blue and then tattoo the lower back to the hips with several rows of designs.  The Z-shaped broken line was the most commonly used sign and were worn by women on each joint of their fingers and toes.

In the Austral Islands marked their difference by the use of hand-width tattooed bands below the armpits.   Tattooing was much less practiced in the eastern Tuamotu  but was quite common in the western Tuamotu.  Men of Rangiroa (in the northwest Tuamotu) might be tattooed from head to toe with irregular designs such as curved lines, concentric circles or checkerboard designs.  In the Gambier Islands a tattoo was compulsory.  The special mark of that archipelago was a circled tattooed under the armpits of teenager boys.  It was divided into four parts and was progressively inked in during the young man’s lifetime. 

Because dancing and tattooing were banned for so long, no one is certain what the original Polynesian dances were exactly like.  But thanks to many sketched log books and sketches made by sailors back during Captain Cook’s visits to Polynesia, we know what the original tattoos looked like.  At least this tradition was not totally lost.

Rangiroa to Papeete, Tahiti

Rangiroa, Tuamotu, French Polynesia

June 20, 2008 Friday

The WiFi connection did not work for almost 2 days so Bill used our SSB to send at email to the company main office in Tahiti.  They immediately responded and explained that there had been an electrical problem at the local dive shop in Rangiroa where their server was located and that they needed a cable to connect and reset the modem.  Bill, being the handy guy that he is, loaded up a laptop and various cables and went ashore to fix the problem.  Two hours later everything was working again – plus we received an additional 600 minutes of internet time as a “thank you.”  This is great because we will be in Papeete, Tahiti next week at a marina and will appreciate the internet access.  Good to know that it was not a waste of money buying the 20 hours air time here after all.  We can use it in Tahiti.

Why didn’t someone tell us that Hillary was no longer in the Presidential race?  When we finally accessed the internet this morning we caught up on some of the news that we have missed since last having WiFi aboard back on April 12^th.  Looks like we have missed a lot of news in that time period.  Sometimes it is nice to be so oblivious to the things we can do nothing about.

Winds are very light and predicted to remain same for several days.  We have a reservation at a marina in Papeete, Tahiti to arrive on Monday so we can get our genoa repaired and also meet with a Furuno GPS guy.  We also definitely want to participate in the Rendevouz on June 27-28 that is being sponsored by the tourism department for French Polynesia.  More about that later.  Anyway, since the winds are so light we will need to depart Rangiroa late Saturday in order to sail the roughly 200 miles and arrive on Monday morning.  This should be another calm and slow passage.  Regret that we do not have more time to stay in Rangiroa.  We tried to arrange a tour of a pearl farm for tomorrow before we leave, but they are closed on weekends.  This should be the last place we will visit that does black pearl farming so it looks like we have missed the opportunity for a tour.  But we can watch a video about it at the Rendevouz.

June 23, 2008 Monday

Papeete, Tahiti

17.34.746S; 149.37.258W              Distance sailed 206.6 NM

Tides are so important when entering or exiting the passes in French Polynesia.  We departed Rangiroa through the Tiputa Pass around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.  It was supposed to be outgoing tide but there was 2.8 knot head current against us as we negotiated the exit through the pass.  Waters were swirling all around us in the narrow pass but it was uneventful.   The exit was much easier than the entrance because I could follow the track we had saved on the chartplotter from when we entered.  We very much enjoyed Rangiroa and wish we could have stayed here at least a month.

Slack tide for our destination of Papeete would occur at 10:00 to 10:30 on Monday morning.  This meant that we needed to average only 5.5 knots SOG for the passage.  Winds were light for most of the trip so it wasn’t too difficult to go that slow.  When we were about 75 miles from destination the wind changed direction and was directly on our nose.  A cold front was moving up from the south.  You have to remember that we are in the Southern Hemisphere and that it is now the Austral winter.  So we took in all sails and motored the rest of the way. 

Papeete is located on the northwest side of Tahiti.  As we approached the main harbor entrance the wind and sea was totally calm.  We radioed Harbor Control and received permission to enter.  Our route to the marina would be behind the reef.  We turned right and followed the marked channel around past the airport – requesting and receiving permission to pass by each end of the airport runway.  Would not want to cause a plane crash, and lose our boat in the process.  At times it appeared that we were following a channel that would send us directly into the reef; but the channel turned back toward the island each time, just as shown on the charts.  At times the reef was only about 15 feet from the side of our boat.  That is a little too close for comfort for me, especially in high wind.  As we made the final turn past the southwest end of the runway, the wind hit us full force.  It was calm on the NW side of this island, but it was wild as heck on the SW side! 

After passing the airport we radioed the marina and they informed us that it was too windy to attempt to dock right now.  So we found a spot to anchor and will wait until the wind dies before going into the marina.  We wanted to remove our genoa and get it delivered to the sail loft for repair this afternoon; but there is absolutely no way we can remove the sail in 25 knot winds.  There are a LOT of sailboats here and the anchorage is quite crowded.  Our boat actually swings into the channel a little bit but we are staying anchored in this spot until someone tells us to move out of the channel.   Not like there are a lot of options when it is this crowded.  There are some spectacular waves breaking over the reef in this high wind.  We were supposed to bring our paperwork to the agent to clear us into the Society Islands but it is so rough that we are not about to try to lower the dinghy off the mizzen deck and get the outboard lowered down to it.  The water is way too rough for that to be a safe project.  The authorities will just have to wait until the wind dies down.

At least we have WiFi out here in the anchorage so we can be entertained and catch up on news.

Left Ahe, now in Rangiroa

Raising the anchor at Ahe proved to be no problem.  It was laying on coral and just popped right up; no chain wrapped this time.  Four of us left at the same time; two came to Rangiroa and the other two left for other destinations.  The 89 mile overnight passage was calm and slow (on purpose to arrive at proper tide time).  We arrived about 1100 this morning and entered through the Tiputa Pass. 

Arrival time was planned for what was supposed to be the final hour of incoming high tide.  So the current in the pass should have been carrying us into the lagoon.  Well, the tide info must not have been correct because we had 3 knots of head-current.  The water was quite tumultuous.  But there are range markers on a spit of land inside the lagoon and they helped tremendously.  Bill lined up the range markers and plowed on through the entrance.  The ocean outside the pass was forcing us too far to starboard and he had to continually turn towards port (about 10 degrees at a time) to adjust course to enter in correct alignment with the distant range markers.  A few minutes later we were inside and all was calm.  This pass has 6 knots of current during normal weather and can have 8 to 10 knots of current during bad weather.  That is why it is so critical to time your egress during slack tides.  Most small boats cannot motor against a 6 knot current and make any headway, especially while being pushed sideways by the rough waves coming across beam of boat as when entering this pass.  We motored around the cardinal marker past the spit of land inside the lagoon and made our way to anchor near a ritzy resort.

Imagine our surprise to find The Maltese Falcon anchored here.  Last time we saw her was in St. Martin around February 2007.  We had no idea that she was currently in the South Pacific.  Shortly after we anchored the Falcon pulled anchor and motored off to another section of this huge lagoon.

Rangiroa is very large with a circumference of about 100 miles.  The interior lagoon is 45 miles long and 18 miles wide and is really more like an inland sea than a lagoon.  During a SE wind the waves inside the lagoon can reach 2 meters (6 ½ feet).  The ring around the lagoon is formed by 240 motus or small islands.  The motus are separated by about 130 channels which are called “hoas.”  The hoas are very shallow.  There are only 2 passes that are deep enough for boats to enter.  At the southwestern corner is the “Blue Lagoon” which I assume is from the movie of the same name.  The guide books simply say this is the home of the famous Blue Lagoon but do not mention why this lagoon is supposedly “famous” so all we can think of is the old movie with Brooke Shields as a young teenager.   Rangiroa is the most populated of all the Tuamotu.  There is a junior high school located here which they call a college.  I do not know what the normal school attendance is in the Tuamotu.  In the Marquesas, all children attended primary school on their home island and at age 10 had to go to live in a school dormitory on either Hiva Oa or Nuky Hiva to attend school.  They were only allowed to visit their homes during holidays.  That must be tough on kids that young to be separated from their families for such long periods.  I assume a similar arrangement is used in the Tuamotu.  The population on most atolls certainly would not support middle schools or high schools.

The anchorage in front of the Kia Ora Resort is very pretty.  This is a very nice resort and most of the guests are Asian, with a few New Zealanders.  The US hasn’t discovered this vacation area yet, probably because flying here is not that easy from the US, although it is only an hour’s flight from Papeete, Tahiti. There is WiFi internet access available.  We paid roughly $106 for 20 hours of internet service.  It worked the day we arrived but did not work at all the next day.   We will be leaving here Saturday or Sunday because we are supposed to be in Papeete, Tahiti on Monday and that is a couple hundred miles from here.  Hoping the internet starts working again so we can use up the pre-paid hours before our departure this weekend.  Another cruiser had dinner ashore at the resort recently and said a typical meal costs $90 - $100 per person.  That is not exorbitant.

Bill walked to the Gendarmerie and showed our clearance papers from Marquesas.  They don’t do anything with these papers but you are supposed to go to the office and show them that you are properly cleared into French Polynesia whenever you arrive in Rangiroa.  I was supposed to also go into the Gendarmerie but I fell and hurt my knee shore in Ahe and can’t walk so great right now.  It is nothing and should be healed in another few days.  Bill said the guy in the office was really nice and stamped our passports.  While Bill was gone I did laundry and ran the watermaker.  While I was hanging up the laundry on deck a couple of dolphin (porpoises) came right next to our boat.  Of course I did not have the camera on deck so could not get photos.  They slowly swam along the side of our boat and then slowly around the anchorage.  They were breathing very loudly and very often.  They were so pretty in this beautiful setting and clear water.  We are anchored in only 35 feet depth water here so we can actually see the bottom.  Of course there is coral down there to foul our anchor but we hope raising it won’t be a problem when it is time to leave.  There are supposed to be a lot of sharks in this lagoon but we have not  yet seen any.  The presence of sharks does not prevent anyone from diving or snorkeling.  The dive operators are quite busy here.

While Bill was ashore he visited a store and bought some fresh produce.  He got a head of lettuce, 4 tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, 2 bell pepper, 5 carrots and 3 peaches, plus 4 freshly cooked egg rolls.  The total cost was $52 USD.

This place is so nice.  We could stay here for a couple of months, just exploring around inside the lagoon.  But we don’t have the time to spare, as we are supposed to be in Papeete, Tahiti on Monday.  Will enjoy our short time here.