Making our way to Bora Bora. The route being Moorea, Raetia, Taha’a, Bora Bora.

Left in the AM. Iris came by to say goodbye again. Don’t think I can take too many more of these goodbyes. Its Sunday morning so the harbor and the airport are pretty quiet. You have to get clearance to leave the harbor under the fight path. If you time it wrong they have to do a go around so they don’t hit your mast. Seems like there is more airspace than that but that’s the rules. When they find the necessity to apply them. This morning they said have a nice trip.

Wind has died. Again. Seems every time we want to head out the weather stalls on us. Two days ago we were pinned to the dock with 25 knots. Could have sailed our asses off. But it wasn’t time yet. Last two days nothing. Looks like the next couple will be dead calm as well. And when there is no breeze its HOT. I mean like Africa HOT. I have a white bandana that has been with me for a while. Well, not white anymore. Kind of a yellowish. Like jaundice. I have no idea how much sweat that thing has taken off me but it must be, roughly…..  a lot. Sometimes it has salt crystals coming off it. Then I know its time to wash it. Smells so nice after that I wonder how I could have stood it before its bath. Sometimes at night I think it crawls around the boat looking for a mate. Kind of hope it finds one. I could use the little bandana babies later on in the trip.

So we do a hop over to Moorea for a swim and a stop over before an over nighter to Reatea. Pretty tight anchorage. Surrounded by coral. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Pretty anyway. Anchor alarm going off all night. Drug anchor till we were about 20 feet from the coral by the time the sun came up. No sleep that night.  Raetia is just down hill from Bora Bora. 110 miles or so from Moorea. Probably motoring. Which I am very tired of. But at least we will be at a nice trolling speed for fishing. A couple of nice fish would be welcome in the freezer.

Some weather coming over the reef.

A sunset on Bora Bora

Going to sidetrack a bit here. A discussion of the island geography. Skip it. It’s just something to keep me occupied on passage. It’s a compilation from many different sources.

So, I have been thinking about what I am learning about the geology and geography of this area. Seems to boil down in an interesting and simple way. This is with regard to Marquesas’, Tuomotos and Society islands. The ones we have been to so far. The process is thus…. Three phases, a volcano breaches the surface, grows up a few thousand feet then peeters out leaving the land mass. That’s phase one. The Marquesas. Then reefs form around the islands creating a barrier ecosystem. That’s the Society’s. Then the volcano sinks under its own weight right out from inside of the reef ring leaving the leftover to exist on its own and forming a sheltered saltwater lake. The Tuomotos. Each rather amazing in their own and different ways. Last night we anchored inside of the barrier reef on Moorea with the sea crashing over the reef a couple hundred yards to one side and the rugged shoreline a couple hundred yards the other way. And there is a route, known to the locals, inside of the reef all the way around the island. Weaves in and out between the coral growths. The development and settlement of the islands goes right along with the geopgharphy. Marquesas’ has a very rugged shoreline, no barrier reef, with few breakwaters. Makes getting ashore difficult and dangerous. As a result they are not very populated and the places where people do settle are near some form of natural or manmade breakwater. In the Societies the islands have their natural reef breakwaters. But there is always some pass or another through the reef. Couldn’t figure out how that would occur until a local Dolphin researcher told us that if you look back to the island from any pass in the reef you are going to see a steep valley. Every time. The valley will naturally discharge fresh water into the sea when it rains. Which is often. Coral cannot grow in fresh water so the periodic outflows of fresh water keep a path open through the coral reef. Without the passes the islands would not really be habitable. Crossing the reefs is about impossible. You need the passages. The same passages are left behind when the volcanic mountain slips under. Leaving the passes we used to enter the lagoons on Ahe and Rangiroa. I thought it was pretty interesting anyway.

The same holds for the peoples and their ways of life. Very different. Marquesas is rugged but bountiful. Proud, tattooed people. Small populations. Generous and outgoing. Fresh food. Water. Natural resources. Makes for a very stable system. The Tuomotos, (our next stop), quite barren. Atolls. All sand and coral. Not much will grow there. No fresh water other than what can be caught with the rains. Or brought in by boat. Only things that grow are coconuts and some bananas. Everything else brought in. You can’t hike up a mountain, much less a hill. You can’t go more than maybe a mile or so without running out of road. Nice people but you can tell their existence is a little bit strained. Then the barrier reef islands like Tahiti, Moorea, Raetia, the Societies. They have the best of both. Sheltered barrier reefs and a wonderful mountainous island. Tahiti is too much for my taste but the rest are paradise. Just looking at the differences in the design of the boats they use and the fishing teqniques is fascinating. Anthropologists must have a field day here. Maybe they already have.

Here is another dull one for you. Vivo (The name of our catamaran) means, “to live” or just “live” in several languages. Ryan came up with it. We goggled it to make sure it didn’t mean something else like “to live with a rash” or “to live with a gopher”. Nothing came up. However, unbeknownst to Google, Vivo, in some of the Marquesas Islands and in Tahiti means “nasal flute”.    I s$%t you not!    Nasal flute!    So we were on a mission to find one. I had actually seen one in an artisan shop on Hiva Oa but I didn’t know what it was. It was not labeled a Vivo. Just looked like a flute. Looked all over after that and finally found a guy sitting on a curb in a parking lot in Moorea making and playing them. I bought three. Lorenzo bought one. Actually Lorenzo borrowed the 1000 francs (ten bucks) and has not paid me back to technically I bought four. You can never have to many nasal flutes on a boat called Vivo. Lorenzo can play Hawaii Five O on it pretty well. I’m working on it. Nasal flute duet. Guarantee first time in ARC history for that one. Sometimes when calling one of our friends on the VHF we will call as Nasal Flute.

Rough passage to Raetia. Weather outlook was for 1-meter seas and 10-15 knots wind. We have had 30-35 true and 2 to 3 meter seas across the wind on the beam. Like a washing machine. Not to comfortable. A couple of us are a bit queasy tonight and that has not happened in quite a while. Second night of no sleep. Made it and found some fuel. Stopped in a couple of anchorages. Not finding anything very nice that first day.

Found one bay that went fairly deep in inland. Not to deep. 50 foot. Steep canyon. A small river fed into it. Which we like because it usually means sandy mud bottom and no coral growth. Sand and mud sticks an anchor well and no coral heads to foul on is a plus. Anyway after a couple of days of not much sleep it was a very welcome anchorage. Slept like a log and we all slept pretty late the next morning. Everyone was up a notch or two after that. I was up about seven! Notches that is. I slept till 8:00. Unheard of.

A couple more days putting around Raetia and its sister island to the north, Taha’a. Helped a friend bend on a new mainsail while on anchor. Fun project. Worked on a spare engine for the dingy for a couple of days. A loaner. Finally gave it back. Got it to sputter a few times but all we had were old fouled plugs. I can get the carb off an 8 horse rusted Yamaha two stroke in 12 minutes now. A skill I am certain will come in handy one day. My POS Honda is still giving me grief. One of these days its going to leave us in a bad spot. I carry 6 paddles as regular equipment on board. Also some flares. The flares are to toss onto the gas tank one of these days and then I will be done with it. Searching for a replacement for the Honda as we go but there is not much out here. Bring it with you or go without. Repair or fabricate is the order of the day.

So off to Bora Bora. Only a few hours away. Beautiful place. On a mooring ball in front of a marina called Maikai. In 100 feet of water. All the anchorages are very deep.

We rented a car so we could do some running around. Rented it for 4 days. The gal said’ “are you sure?”, “four days?”. Then she got out a map and showed us how you can drive around the whole island in an hour. And that aside from the small town we are moored at there is nothing else to see. Sure, four days. What the heck maybe we drive around it 74 times. Clockwise. Then 74 anti to unwind the little FIAT. We will be here for a few days. Might as well wear out a rental car while we’re here.

WiFI is a bit slow here. Was going to post some more pictures but at about ten minutes per download my ADD prevents me. 

All for now

M