Huahine

2008-7-16 to 20  Wednesday to Saturday

Title: Huahine

Latitude 16.48.626S

Longitude 150.59.62W

The 93 mile overnight passage was easy.  Seemed like most of the boats anchored at Opunohu Bay decided to leave at the same time we did.  Eleven boats departed at about the same time, just before sunset Tuesday.  Two boats set course for either Raiatea or Bora Bora and the other nine headed for Huahine, so we had a little flotilla.  This was the first time we have made a passage accompanied by so many boats and I have to say that I did not really like it.  Some of the boats passed us much too closely during the night for my comfort level.  The winds slacked off during the night and we ended up motoring 49% of the passage, including the motoring a long way inside the lagoon to where we are now anchored.  We went over the north side of Huahine and entered at Avamoa Pass near the NW tip of the island and then followed the lagoon all the way to the very SW tip of the island and anchored in Avea Bay.  This was a bit different for us because our charts ended a mile or so before this anchorage.  The electronic charts and the sailing guide books all indicate that it is not possible to navigate to this area; they show it as all coral reef.  But I had saved The Moorings charts and guide that they give to their charter customers for the Tahitian islands and we followed those.  This is a great little anchorage behind a very wide reef.  Long very white sand beaches all along the bay at the base of the mountain make a beautiful setting.   

Must say that French Polynesia has done a marvelous job of placing navigation markers in the past couple of years.  If you pay attention it is very easy to follow the navigation markers and buoys.   Their system is the ILA-A which is opposite of the US system.  Upon entering a pass from the sea you have green markers to starboard and red to port.  No more “red-right-returning” as used in the US and Caribbean.  Once you enter a pass the lagoon is marked with red to land side and green to reef side.  This is consistent throughout French Polynesia.  So if you are following a lagoon to the right  (counter-clockwise) after entering a pass then the green markers remain on your right.  But if you turn left after entering a pass then the red markers will be on starboard and the green on port.  This did take a bit of getting used to, but now we are old hands at it.  This is a buoyage system unique to French Polynesia, and we think they have done a very good job at placing these navigational aids.

The island of Huahine is approximately 9 miles from north to south and 6 miles from east to west.  Like Tahiti, it is actually comprised of 2 islands.  Huahine Nui is the northernmost and larger of the 2 islands; and Huahine Iti is to the south.  The 2 islands are separated by a shallow narrow channel and are joined by a bridge.  It is possible to navigate this channel by dinghy if done slowly and carefully to avoid the numerous coral heads.  On the western side of Huahine Nui at the location of the beginning of this channel is very deep Port Bourayne.  The large Port Bourayne with high mountains surrounding 90% of it looks very much like a Scottish loch. 

Captain Cook was the first European to visit the island of Huahine.  He made several visits between 1769 and 1773.  In 1777 he stayed here 7 weeks.  An island native stole his sextant during his last visit here.  The guide books do not say what Capt. Cook did in retaliation for this theft but I imagine it was not too pleasant.  Cook had a real hatred of theft and usually was quite violent in his retaliations.  Missionaries from the London Missionary Society arrived on Huahine in 1808 and converted the inhabitants to Protestantism.  (Bill says they ruined everything.)  Huahine was the last of the Leeward Islands to become attached to France in 1888, forty years after Tahiti.  Huahine presented strong resistance to French control and there are monuments to the dead located at various points on the island.  Huahine was the religious center and cultural center of all French Polynesia prior to the arrival of  the Europeans and they did not forfeit their society and religion easily.  Huahine was annexed into French Polynesia in 1897, but French citizenship was not accorded the inhabitants until 1946.  Sounds to me like France wanted to make certain that all the inhabitants who resisted French control were dead before allowing the remaining inhabitants to have French citizenship.

The guide books recommend renting a car and touring both islands.  Since this was the ancient religious center there are many, many marae and some have been restored.  Supposed to be a couple of small museums which might be interesting.  But Bill is not interested in driving around so I do not think we will be renting a car to see the archeological sites.  Winds picked up to 20+ knots last evening and are predicted to remain high for another few days.  Think we will stay on the boat.  Friends are also anchored here and we will do pot luck dinners and visit and just enjoy the scenery for a few days before moving on to the next island. 

Our tentative plan is to leave French Polynesia from Bora Bora around mid-August, weather permitting, of course.  We already completed the departure clearance paperwork in Papeete, Tahiti.  All we have to do for clearance formalities is mail a signed form to Papeete 10 days before our final departure and then get a stamp in our passports at Bora Bora just before leaving.  Our 90 days in French Polynesia is up on August 26 and we could stay until then, but there is still so far to go to New Zealand that we would prefer to start moving again by mid-August.

Opunohu Bay, Moorea

Last Friday we moved over to Opunohu Bay on the northwestern tip of Moorea.  The French sailing guide states that this bay is prettier than Cook’s Bay which is 2 miles to the east, so we wanted to check it out.  Sorry, French guys, but Opunohu Bay does not begin to compete with Cook’s Bay.  Cook’s Bay is far prettier and more dramatic.  We anchored behind the reef not too far from the Sheraton Resort.  There was a pretty beach and a nearby park and they were having a summer day camp where kids participated in every water sport known to man.  There were kids sailing by our boat all day long.  Sounded like a couple hundred Zacharies and Elisabeths.  But it provided entertainment and we did not mind all the kids.  At least they did not run into our boat; some of the other boats were not so lucky and were bumped by hobie cats being sailed by little kids.

Bill went out and swam with the rays on a couple of days.  I did not get into the water but did go there one day and watched the rays from the dinghy.  These rays are just amazing.  They are so docile and gather in one spot because the guides from the local resorts go there and hand-feed them several times daily.  You anchor your dinghy and jump into chest-high water.  The rays swim all around you.  If they think you have fish to feed them, they will come right up to you and even stick their heads and mouths up out of the water to try to get the fish.  Look at the photos of Bill standing up and taking photos of the rays.  The rays were all over him because they thought the camera was a fish that he might feed to them.  There were also black-tipped reef sharks swimming all around and among the rays.  The sharks do not bother the people in the water because they are so accustomed to being hand-fed daily by the resort guides.

We have been waiting since last Friday for a proper weather window to sail to the next island.  Today is good sailing weather.  Just before sunset today we will leave and head to either Huahine or Raiatea.

Cook’s Bay, Moorea

July 8, 2008  Tuesday

Minutes after I updated the previous log entry to this website Bill got “herd mentality” and we followed all the other boats into Cook’s Bay.  Probably a good thing that we did move because our anchor popped right up with no resistance whatsoever because the bottom sand is so silty and soft out near the reef.  Bottom inside the bay is sticky mud and really grabs an anchor.  The holding is so good in here that we will have difficulty raising anchor when it is time to move on.  Good thing that we have a heavy-flow anchor/chain wash-down on the bow.  Wouldn’t want that icky stinky mud down inside the anchor chain locker.

Cook’s Bay is breathtakingly beautiful.  Bora Bora has a reputation as Polynesia’s most beautiful island, but Moorea seems worthy of this distinction from what we have seen.  The only negative aspect about Cook’s Bay is that there is no internet service in here.  Moorea is a heart-shaped 125-square-kilometer island with 2 large bays on the northern side; Opunuhu Bay to the west and Cook’s Bay to the east.  Captain Cook visited Opunuhu Bay but never visited the bay named in his honor.  The island of Moorea is the surviving southern rim of a shield volcano once 3,000 meters high.  Moorea is twice as old as her sister island of Tahiti and weathering is noticeably advanced.  There are several mountains on the island and the jagged peaks facing the 2 northern bays form superb scenes.  Polynesian chiefs were once buried in caves along the cliffs of Mt. Tohivea.  The top edges of Mt. Mouaroa are shark-tooth-shaped.  The high peaks of the island protect the north and northwest coasts from the rain-bearing southeast trade winds.  This drier climate and the sheer beauty explain the profusion of hotels along the northern side of the island.   The interior valley slopes of Moorea are filled with large fruit and vegetable plantations and human habitation.

Moorea was called Aimeho at the time of Capt. Cook’s visit.  Legend claimed that the island was formed from the second dorsal fin of the fish that became the island of Tahiti.  The present name of Moorea means “yellow” (rea) “lizard” (moo).  This name derived from a yellow lizard that appeared to a high priest in a dream.  The island has also been called Fe’e or “octopus” for the eight ridges that divide the island into eight segments.  A very small hole through the top of Mt. Mouaputa is said to have been made by the spear of the demigod Pai when he tossed the spear across from Tahiti to prevent Mt. Rotui from being carried off to the island of Raiatea by Hiro, the god of thieves.  Gotta love some of these legends.  We can see 2 small holes in 2 separate mountain peaks from where we are anchored and cannot tell which one is Mt. Mouaputa and have no idea if there is also a legend for the unidentified hole.

Capt. Samuel Wallis was the European “discoverer” of the Windward Islands in 1767.  Capt. Wallis stopped in Tahiti but sailed past the northern coast of Moorea, which he named the Duke of York’s Island.  The first European visitor was botanist Joseph Banks, along with 3 other crew from his ship.  Capt. Cook anchored in Opunohu Bay for one week in 1777.  His visit was brutal; he smashed the islanders’ canoes and burned their homes when they refused to return a stolen goat.  If you have read any books about Capt. Cook, you soon see a pattern to his behavior regarding what he looked upon as thievery.  He never understood the Polynesian concept of communal ownership of certain things, like food available for the taking as needed or desired.

In 1792 King Pomare I conquered Moorea using arms obtained from the BOUNTY mutineers.  Moorea had long been a traditional place of refuge for defeated Tahitian warriors.  In 1808 King Pomare II fled into exile on Moorea after his failed attempt to bring all Tahiti under his control.  A party of English missionaries established themselves at the village of Papetoai, Moorea, in 1811; and Moorea soon earned a special place in the history of Christianity.  In 1812 the missionaries finally managed to convert King Pomare II after 15 years of trying.  This led to other conversions until finally on February 14, 1815, Patii (the high priest of Oro) publicly accepted Christianity and burned the old heathen idols at Papetoai.  Today there is an octagonal-shaped church built at the place where the idols were burned.  Shortly afterward the entire population followed Patii’s example.  The marae of Moorea were abandoned and the Opunohu Valley depopulated.  The first Tahitian translation of part of the Bible was printed on Moorea in 1817.  From Moorea, Christianity spread throughout the South Pacific.

After King Pomare II finally managed to reconquer Tahiti in 1815 (with missionary help – the main reason for his “conversion”), Moorea again became a backwater place.  American novelist Herman Melville visited Moorea in 1842 and worked on a sweet-potato farm.  His book “Omoo” beautifully describes Moorea. 

Today Moorea is booming with tourism.  There are many hotel resorts but most have the thatched roof type construction and blend well with the topography.  The islanders continue to fight against golf courses and the chrome and glass type large hotel construction.  One hotel in Opunohu Bay does a daily feeding of rays and you can walk and snorkel among the feeding rays.  Don’t think we will do that activity because of my bronchial infection.

We had planned to leave today for 90-mile passage to the island of Huahine but it is raining and the wind predictions for the foreseeable future are not favorable for sailing.  We really don’t want to have to motor for 24 hours.  I am still sick with upper-respiratory crud and don’t want to smell diesel fumes for the entire passage to either Huahine or Raiatea.  So we are staying put for a few days.

Something that I keep forgetting to mention are the native outrigger canoes that we have seen at every island since arriving in the Marquesas. These things are amazingly fast!  The outrigger canoes range in size and capacity.  Even a single-seater outrigger is pretty long, around 15-feet long.  A 5-person outrigger can easily be 35-feet long.  The canoes are very, very narrow.  A female American friend had the opportunity of paddling one of the single-seater outrigger canoes recently.  She wears tiny size 2 shorts and her hips were too wide to fit down into the seat!  Which makes me think that each canoe is made to individual measurements because some of these native women are pretty large.  When we were in the marina near Papeete the locals were practicing every afternoon for their annual outrigger races and we saw several racing crews that were all female, although by far most of the outriggers are paddled by men.  Anyway, the women were far from a size 2 yet they correctly down inside those canoes so that leads us to assume that the canoes are built to individual measurements.  Some of these things look really slick.  When they paddle they use their entire bodies, not just their shoulders and arms.  Looks like great exercise.

Most of us are beginning to make plans for New Zealand even though there is another 3,000 miles and 5 months before we will reach there.  More than 600 cruising boats annually arrive in New Zealand during November to very early December and stay there until late April or early May of the following year.   Every boat will need to be hauled out for a bottom job and many of us will fly home for a month or more.  People are usually tired of sailing by the time they reach New Zealand.  Certainly Bill and I are really looking forward to that 6-month break.  Like many other cruisers we hope to buy a used car and possibly tour inland in NZ for a couple of months, depending on cost, of course.  We have already purchased our airline tickets from Auckland to Los Angeles and hope to be able to use air miles for the LA to Houston part of our trip.  We are now looking at marinas and boatyards but have not yet made any reservations.  New Zealand allows US visitors to stay for 3 months without a visa.  Since we will be staying longer, we will need to obtain 6-month visas at the NZ embassy either in Niue or in Tonga.  Seems like we are planning and reserving things early but better to be prepared than to arrive and have no place to leave the boat while we fly home.  We fly back to the US on December 10 and will return to NZ on January 9.  Looking forward to seeing everyone during the holidays.

BTW, I have decided that I prefer making one 1,000-mile passage instead of making five 200-mile passages.  It is tiring to make the short passages.  It takes several days to get into the rhythm of watch schedule and it is just easier on the longer passages.

Another thing that I keep forgetting to mention is the McDonald’s in Papeete.  There is McDonald’s in downtown Papeete and another location out next to Marina Tahina where we were docked.  We visited the location by the marina several times.  We weren’t after the burgers but I wanted a chocolate milkshake and Bill wanted French fries.  Neither of us is a McDonald’s fan and I am not familiar with their menu, but I was surprised at what we found.  They had 3 Happy Meal combos for the kids.  The most popular one appeared to be a salad, small French fries and orange juice.  Another one was the Croque McDo, which was a ham and cheese sandwich that was heated on a grill but no butter or oil added so it was lower fat than normal fast food.  Another surprise was the Royal Burgers – bet they don’t sell Royal Burgers at any McDonald’s in the states.  Another unusual item was the pannini sandwich.  A Happy Meal cost $9.20 USD.  A Boss Burger with no fries or drink was also $9.20.  My medium-sized chocolate shake was $3.60.  The place was filled with locals, not tourists; so you can tell that they must make decent wages in Tahiti to afford those prices.  BTW, the McDonald’s next to the marina had its own private beach and a playground that looked like a park.  Wonder if any other McDonald’s has its own beach?

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.