Wow, seems like just yesterday we got here. Oh well, time to say; “au revoir” to French Polynesia and move on to the Cook Islands. They promise to be more primitive with longer passages in between. We’re looking at Aitutake, Palmerston and Niue. Maybe Raratonga but have heard there may be issues getting in there. For some unknown reason they have chosen the height of the sailing season to dredge the harbor. There have been rumors that it’s closed and we’re trying to ascertain first-hand knowledge. Anyway, for now we leave tomorrow and go to Bora Bora for fuel, then maybe a little island called Maupiti, which is a bit west and north of Bora Bora and then we’re off on a 500(ish) mile leg to one of the Cook islands depending on weather and what we find out about Raratonga. Just for information, Charisma averages about 120 miles a day in normal winds (10-15 knots). So long trips ahead.

Today along with getting our official clearance out of the country, we also bought some more groceries (important stuff like papaya, beer and rum) and Ann’s now doing laundry at a machine we found in the boatyard. By the way, we hitched into town again. Once again, it took about ten cars before a nice Frenchman in a Citroen kind of small panel-van picked us up. He didn’t speak any English and our French is still on the beginner side, but we had fun communicating with the few words we could all muster up. Fun.

By the way, Gato Go (Craig and Bruce) showed up yesterday. We haven’t seen them in quite a while so we had them over for cocktails and dinner which then led to games and how do I say this- lots of drinking. We went pretty much through a 3 liter box of wine and at 0030 they poured into their dinghy for the 100 yard ride back home. Lots of fun but minor hangovers for most this morning. Great to see them and catch up. For future cruisers-getting to know people as you sail has been one of the most fun parts of this trip. Always, always, get to know the folks in your anchorage. Many are great people and you will likely be seeing them for months if not years as you move along. One thing that’s useful is to make boat cards. They are just like business cards but have your personal and boat info on them. That way you can easily pass your personal email, boat email, cell phone, blog, etc. Almost everyone has one that they will give you when you meet.

Well that’s it for now. A slow day, so I’ll add that for dinner, we bought duck legs already spiced and marinated ($2 each for very large legs) that I’m going to roast and broccoli since we’ll not likely see that kind of veggie for a long while.

Kind of like gardening and home maintenance combined. Some stuff you need to maintain, and other stuff you need to fix.

Today was a mixture of both. Sitting at our mooring, today I rebedded a chainplate that’s been leaking into the food storage cabinet I “fixed” it in Hiva Oa when we got to French Poly, but the fix didn’t last. Looks like the heat there created a bubble in the bedding compound and it popped leaving a nice hole. This time it’s cooler and the bedding went on nicely. I think (cross fingers) that this one will work for a while. In any case, they never last much over a year or two before you need to do them again.

Then, while Ann went off to the store, I changed the oil. Not a bad job this time since I just did the filters in Mexico, so this change was oil only. Nice to do it here, since we’re right off a little boatyard where they have oil disposal. That way I don’t have to carry the old oil until who knows when-probably New Zealand before we see another yard like this.

Once Ann came back, she jumped in the dinghy to scrub the green slime that grows on the hull at the waterline. I’m sure it slows us down a bit, but it also looks unsightly. Everyone gets it and we’re always either in the dinghy or swimming in the water scrubbing the waterlines of slime and barnacles. The anti-fouling that KKMI put on is working great though. There’s nothing on the bottom at all. I don’t have to touch it, whereas I see some other boats that are scrubbing their entire boat underwater. Great Job KKMI (call Bob Hennesey at KKMI in Richmond, Calif) if you want great service from a great boatyard) putting on the “good stuff” that really works (I think it was “Trinidad”) for those who want to know.

A big squall just pushed through both cleaning off the boat of salt water, but also soaking everything on deck. Unfortunately I had emptied the lazarette into the cockpit to get at the oil and changing pump so now it’s all wet and I have to wait for it to dry out to put it back. Which reminds me. Future cruisers: buy one of those self-contained oil change pumps and make sure you know how to change oil and all filters (oil and both diesel ones) by yourself. You’ll have to change oil and filters in some remote places. Carry enough oil for at least one full change if not two as you will not always find the type of oil you use (if you find oil at all). Obviously lots of filters too, you’ll never find those. We use a great product. I don’t know the name, but it’s a five gallon plastic jerry type jug with an electric motor, alligator clips for power and a ¼” hose that you can put down the dipstick tube. Takes about 10 minutes to empty the sump. Priceless when you’re in the middle of nowhere as the thing is also plenty large enough to carry/store your used oil through several changes until you find a yard with a recycling bin where you can dump it. OK, we’ll close this now. It’s 0030 hours. Craig and Bruce from Gato Go just left. We had a delightful evening catching up. It was great getting a radio call from them when they showed up in the anchorage this afternoon, but it’s time to get this blog out and go to bed.

A slow day. Slow in that we didn’t do too much. Slow in that it takes forever to not do too much in the South Pacific. First we had to hitch-hike into town, which is about 10 miles or so away. Fortunately that is a very accepted way of getting around the islands and it only took about 10 minutes before a very nice gentleman named Simon (his English name) picked us up. He was Tahitian, lives on Raiatea and works the Travel Lift at the Moorings base here (i.e. he drives the big crane that lifts boats out of the water). A very responsible job. He considers himself very lucky as in an area where there are not a lot of jobs he’s had this good one for 24 years. He’s also a musician and plays Tahitian drum and ukulele in a local troupe. He goes to Japan for vacations with his group to demonstrate Tahitian music, presumably along with the hula dancers. Anyway, a very nice man and we were so glad to get the ride.

Simon dropped us off at the Gendarmarie so that we could “check out” of French Polynesia since our 90 day is complete. After waiting for almost an hour, we were chagrined that the Gendarme didn’t speak English at all. He also would not process us since we wanted to get a short waiver for the weather ( It’s very windy, into the 30’s and we’d like to have a more comfortable ride when we depart) as well as wait for a part for the engine we’ve ordered for safety. It’s a spare impeller and they are sending it via air from Tahiti. It’s due in tomorrow. He also was not interested in dealing with that and sent us across the street to the Ministry (I’m not sure of what). I guess they trump the Gendarmerie. They were very friendly, spoke English and when we said the Gendarme wouldn’t let us wait two days, in typical French fashion then snorted in the air and rolled their eyes to indicate the Gendarme was being, um, French? Anyway, they were very nice and after many considerations they decided what would be best is for us to get the receipt for the parts and THEN just go to the Gendarme and check out, even though we’ll be a couple days later than our 90 days. When we asked if that would be a problem, their answer: “If you were in France (snort, roll eyes) you would have big problem, but here, nothing!” OK, so we’ll check out in a couple days. To be on the safe side, we’ll bring our paperwork for the part as well as the broken part itself just in case. If you don’t hear from us, call the U.S. Embassy please.

Since that took most of the morning, once we were done, we decided lunch would be in order. Don’t have lunch here unless you have at least two hours. I won’t go into the whole story, but more of the day, gone. Finally the store and then a taxi ride back with four bag and two backpacks of groceries. Not enough beer yet, so we’ll go back tomorrow sometime I think-although we have a couple boat projects including changing the oil, so that takes priority.

We’re back on the boat now. Ann washed all the vegetables and fruits that we bought in anti-something-or-other and I took apart a winch that has been squealing in order to grease it. Turned out it was full of water and all the grease was washed away. Hopefully that’s now fixed. I also checked our mooring (future cruisers, do this many, many times/day for moorings and anchors-chafe is you enemy) and found the shackle I put on the harness was unscrewing itself. I neglected to safety wire it and in about 12 more hours it would have unscrewed and we would have gone walkabout in whichever direction the wind was blowing at the time. I hate it when I don’t do something I know I should do and then find out I should have done it. What do you call that? Oh yeah, lazy, I think. Boy, you can’t be lazy out here, the consequences are too high.

Position: 16 degrees, 36 minutes south; 151 degrees 33 minutes west

View of Bora Bora in the distance from where we're anchored

Sunset with Bora Bora in the background our first night at Tahaa

(It’s pretty cool where we’re anchored right now. We’re a half mile off the island in about 12 feet of water up against the reef. In the distance, on the island we can hear drums beating marking the rhythm to the hulu dancing. I get the same feeling listening to this and seeing the surf, sky and stars as Captain Cook must have when he first showed up those hundreds of years ago)

We had a lovely sail today. We headed north on the passage inside the reef on the eastern side of Raiatea, up the island and then across to Tahaa and up the west side inside its reef. Two things made it great; it was flat water all the way and it was downwind. After pulling up anchor at about 0830, we unfurled the jib and headed downwind with just the jib at 5 plus knots all day long. All we had to do was watch for the channel markers which were spread about every mile or so and watch out for reef markers which from time to time were right in the middle of the channel. You definitely had to be on your toes or you could hit a reef doing five knots, but for the most part it was just a tremendous cruise.

We followed Astarte and Ladybug (AKA Charisma – Victoria -once you check out of French Polynesia as they did, you need to travel incognito and they decided that there were enough Charismas around that they could just “blend in”) followed us. Each vessel was about a half hour behind the next so we were in very loose formation. We ended up sailing 17 miles and are now in a spectacular spot with a view of Bora Bora in the distance. At twilight the view was amazing. Many shades of blue with the outline of Bora Bora in the distance and the outline of a motu with coconut palms tracing the sky in the foreground.

We’re anchored at the northern end of Tahaa right up against a sandy reef. When I say “right up against” I mean it! Both Ann and I dove the anchor to make sure it was dug in sufficiently. The anchor is in about 25 feet of water. Charisma is in about 12 feet of water, but her rudder (at the back of the boat) is only about three feet off the bottom. We’re in the “blue water”, but right up against the light blue water. It’s amazing to look at. The “treachery” of these waters was apparent when I dove the anchor the first time. What I saw was the chain wrapped around a “bommie” (a big coral rock that sticks up and can pierce the bottom of your boat). There was another big chunk of chain also wrapped on the bommie from someone who had been here before and had to cut theirs loose to get away. I debated leaving the anchor “as is” but decided it was a bad omen to allow it to be wrapped on a piece of coral that had a broken chain already wrapped on it. So…after diving the anchor the first time, we pulled in the anchor chain and moved a bit, then reset. Now we’re out of bommie territory. I also have a float on the chain to hold it off the bottom and above the bommies if we swing.

So, that’s our day. We’re also starting to plan our post-Polynesian trip since we have to exit these waters within the next week having been here for our allowable 90 days. Wow, it went fast. We’re currently thinking of the following rough itinerary: First the Cooks: Aitutaki and/or Raretonga, then Palmerston and finally Nuie. Then possibly Samoa if the weather permits and Tonga. That’s today’s plan anyway.

Tomorrow, weather permitting we’re going to dinghy across the shallows to a spot that’s supposed to be great for snorkeling. It’s called the “Emerald Garden”. We’ll see and report back in the evening.

Position: 16 degrees, 49 minutes south; 151 degrees, 21 minutes west

We’re currently anchored just inside the reef at Raiatea. It’s both unnerving and spectacular. The ocean waves of up to 10 feet and the winds in the low 20’s are hitting the reef and making for a lot of noise. However, all the energy gets expended when the wave breaks on the reef, so it’s relatively calm where we’re anchored. We’re on a “shelf” between the shallow reef and a deeper inner reef passageway that goes all the way around the island. The reef protects the outside and is very shallow and the passageway is like a lagoon around the island protected by the reef. The shelf is a very narrow transition zone that allows us to anchor in reasonable depth. As we approached the spot we wanted to use, the depth went from 100 feet (deep blue) to 20 feet (turquoise) to 10 feet (light green/blue) in about two boat lengths. We dropped anchor in 20 feet, but once the chain was out, Charisma was sitting in 45 feet (the anchor is still at 20 feet) and a boat length behind us is 100 feet. The anchor alarm is set, but less of an issue over here since if we drag it will be into deeper water in the lagoon and we’ll have plenty of time to do something about it versus over at Huahine were we would drag right onto the reef if the anchor let go.

We had a nice sail over the 20 mile channel between Huahine and Raiatea. Deep blue water, 10-15 knots of wind and four foot waves. We did 5 knots most of the way with just the jib (yes, I’m lazy and didn’t want to put up the main for such a short sail).

Coming through the pass was an experience. It’s pretty narrow and the surf breaks aggressively very near the boat on both sides. You feel like if you are a few feet to either side, you’ll run up on the rocks, but in reality there’s probably 100 yards of room. Still, not much when you’re talking about powerful Pacific waves crashing down.

Once anchored, I dove on the anchor. Not as solid as I’d like to see. It’s laying on its side, but we backed down very hard on it and it held. We have a lot of chain out so we should be good.

Once we were set, we joined up with the other two boats here-Astarte and Ladybug and went ashore to see Marae Taputaputea, which is held to be; “the most important religious and historical site in Polynesia”. Indeed it was very impressive. The number and size of the rocks that were brought here and put into place to make the platforms and monuments where religious ceremonies were held centuries ago, is truly amazing. After visiting the site, we walked around the little village and then back to the boats for…what else at that time of day? Charismas! Yes, everyone came back for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. A lot of fun sitting in the cockpit watching the sunset and swapping stories. Ann is cooking a light dinner of scrambled eggs and bacon and then we’ll sit in the cockpit listening to the wind and waves crashing on the beach before crashing ourselves into the bunk.

Another fun day. Did I say “fun”? Yes, we are having fun again now that the “wind event” has passed.

event” has passed.

Today’s big event was a trip over to the reef to go snorkeling. We picked up Chris and Rani on Ladybug and went by Orcinius and The Rose. They came in their dinghy and we all went over to the the reef for some “fish sighting”. There were lots of fish, a couple sharks and I saw a couple Octopus. One that everyone was looking at was just hunkered down in a piece of coral. But I lucked out and ran across another that didn’t see me. He was meandering across the bottom from coral to coral and changing colors along the way. When he was over the sand, he turned white with some black flecks. When he was over the purple coral, he turned purple and when over some other coral, he turned brownish. Amazing to watch. He literally would “disappear” into his environment. But, now that I have a visual image of what he looks like, I can find more. Just like some of the seashells that we look for (especially the cowries). Until you’ve seen one, you can’t find them, but once you have the sight picture, you can see them everywhere.

We might leave for Raitea tomorrow, but we might not. Orcinius and The Rose want us to stay another day. Among other things, they are going to dive one of the passes and Ann and I can act/snorkel above them as safety guides. Plus it’s really beautiful here and why move?

We’ll see.