Lyn's Log, 23rd July 2009
Tahiti

Maeva Beach, Tahiti
S17º35', W149º37'
25,043 miles.

At 9am on 5th July the yachts Mainly, Balu, and Ketchup II left the southern pass of Fakarava in that order, closely followed by Sentinel. There were no problems leaving and soon we were making five to six knots with the wind on the beam. It was 250 miles to Tahiti and there was hope that we might get there in a couple of days. The boats ahead of us were going faster and were soon out of radio contact, but not before Ketchup II had a fish take away their best lure and Mainly caught such a large fish that they could not keep all of it and threw some away. We, of course, saw no sign of any fish. On the second day at sea the winds dropped until we were totally becalmed with 70 miles still to go. Not wishing to motor continuously for twelve hours or so, we resigned ourselves to another night at sea and did not arrive in Tahiti until a day after Andrew’s birthday. Whilst becalmed, the swell died away and it was as comfortable as being in harbour while we did some laundry, bathed ourselves and read a lot. We drifted along at between one and two knots. By dawn after the third night we were only 20 miles away and motored in. We found the pass leading to the town of Papeete and then had to traverse a long buoyed passage around the airport to get to the main anchorage. It would have been difficult had we arrived in the dark, and we had not used up anywhere near the amount of fuel that those three yachts ahead of us had used in order to arrive the day before.

Tahiti has some dramatic, rugged mountains, the remains of the central volcano, with all the habitation around the shore. Papeete is the main town and with its many shops, stores, light industries and markets, reminded me of Port of Spain in Trinidad. The main anchorage at Punuaauia was also dramatic, protected only by the coral reef that you can't see, on which huge waves crashed innecessantly throwing spume into the air just a short distance away. There was a nearby marina with a good dinghy dock we could use. Downtown Papeete was a half-hour bus ride but a large Carrefour supermarket and shopping mall was a short walk away. There was drinking water from a hose at the dinghy dock, and a laundry room with washing machines we could use for about £6 a load. We hadn’t had this amount of civilisation for months!

One consequence was we initially spent a lot of time shopping and sourcing materials for repairing or restocking the boat. Some of the larger things we wanted done proved to be impossible and the main chandlery was mostly out of stock of items we needed. But there was an excellent Ace hardware store where we found things that would do. Andrew spent a day getting all the chain out and repainting the anchor well. We cleaned out the main bilge - a smelly job which we had put off too long.

We recognised many yachts in the anchorage that we had seen in the Marquesas and Tuomotus. In anchorages like these the dinghy is our essential run-a-round, and an outboard especially useful when it is windy. Yachties communicate through the VHF radio and are always getting together in small groups. When the sun goes down and any work on the boat stops, it is happy hour, but the yachties provide their own drinks and nibbles as it is mostly too expensive ashore for eating and drinking

We needed a break from the work. A group of us bought tickets for an evening of "Heiva", traditional song and dance at the main open-air stadium in town. It was part of the island's Bastille Day celebrations and the annual inter-island dance competition. The production left something to be desired with us suffering long gaps between events and the whole thing overrunning by an hour, but the dancers were amazing. The gyrations of both the male and female dancers were incredible and the professional way they were attired and moved together made a spectacle not to be missed (pic above). The accompaniment was on drums and split logs as described earlier, together with ukulele and guitar, with some voices and a pipe at times. It is not easy to describe and has to be seen and heard to be appreciated.

Papeete, Tahiti

One day we took a day trip in a 4-wheel ‘safari expedition’. We shared our vehicle - a small truck with bench seats - with Mary Anne and Larry from the yacht Traversay III and an American couple who were staying in a hotel. Mary Anne was a concert pianist and had a top of the range electric piano built into her bunk. (It gave new meaning to the expression "Come into my bedroom and let's make music!") Our driver/guide was rather a character, dressed in nothing but a native pareu, long hair tied up with grass, showing off his muscular body and very elaborate Polynesian tattoo, which he explained, symbolised the story of his life. We visited an ancient religious site, or marae, terraces of rocks, where reputedly cannibal ceremonies were held. It is still sometimes used ... for dancing. We had a swim in the cool fresh water of a river and dressed ourselves with hibiscus flowers

which grow plentifully in the hills. Dams were made across the river making reservoirs. In one, the guides made popping noises in the water and encouraged the eels to come and take some bread. We lunched well at a Relais hotel in the crater and then took a track right up into the central crater of Tahiti, which badly needed the four wheel drive. It wound its way up, through a roughly hewn tunnel through the crater wall, and then continued winding steeply down until we came to a central lake. Then it was back again, a long day from 8.45 to 5.30, but at least we had now seen something of Tahiti outside Papeete.

On what was intended to be our last night Mary Anne invited us to dinner along with a lady from another yacht, and we performed four pieces we had been practicing on the clarinet and piano for the company. After eating we talked for hours over glasses of wine. In a couple of days, Larry and Mary Anne were sailing directly to Australia for renovations to their immaculate steel yacht, and we hope we may meet up with them later in New Zealand.

It blew hard the next day so we didn't leave. On 23rd July we refilled our tanks with diesel and headed off to Moorea. The pass out of the anchorage was dramatic, little more than a boat's length wide, with surfers pipelining the huge waves on either side. It rained on and off all day and we motored the fifteen miles to Cook’s Bay on the north side of the island. In the rain it looked inhospitable. so we left and instead headed to nearby Opunohu Bay three miles further on. Once through the narrow pass we found old friends Ketchup II, Balu and Vindle in the anchorage. The ragged mountains coming down to a park of coconut trees shading picnic tables by a white beach was quite beautiful. The view out from the beach was equally pretty. Between the yacht anchorage and the shore, a wall of coral rose to within a few feet of the surface where we swam with a multitude of colourful fish.