Orange/ red is the color we are seeing on the weather charts for the next few days, meaning we can expect sustained winds of 30 knots, and waves of 5 meters (15 ft) in 9 seconds interval on the ocean. For sailors that means time to find a good anchorage, stay put and don't go out on the ocean if you don't have to! Winter started here on June 21st, and these are months for the Maraamu, strong local winds. We are happy to have our wind generator putting back a good amount of amps back in our battery bank, as our solar panels are less effective with the heavy clouds.
We arrived on the laid back island of Huahine a week ago, and are at an anchorage we like. It's of the town of Fare, and we can see the islands of Bora Bora and Raiatea 20 miles away. These islands are part of the Leeward islands of the Societies. All islands of the Societies have a big reef around their land mass, and you have to go through passes to enter the blue lagoons. Google earth has some amazing pictures of them from above to really get a feel for these surroundings. Once you are inside the reef, like here in Huahine, you see the crashing waves of the Pacific from your anchorage. We are anchored in 12 ft of water, on a sandy bottom, a first shallow anchorage for us, and quite unique in the Societies, as most anchorages are deep, 60 ft or more is not uncommon.
Tahiti was our first stop in the Societies on June 10th, and we stayed in a marina for the first time after months. Right in the midst of Papeete, its capital. Although it was quite nice to step off your boat and not have to jump in our dinghy to go to shore, we called it quits after 3 days. Papeete is busy, touristy, and feels a bit grim and even grimy. We indulged in ice creams, visited the food trucks one night, and loaded up on fresh groceries. We hadn't seen a big grocery store in a while, so we felt like kids in a candy store. It was only a 15 minutes walk to the store, and we came well prepared with our little foldable trolley. Of course we bought more than we planned, so I asked for a taxi. When they asked $90 for this very short drive back to the marina, we politely declined and slugged our stuff back.
The island of Moorea is just 7 miles off Tahiti, and feels a world apart. You can take a short ferry ride there, and it has become a destination for vacationers who want to experience a lagoon-like setting. We anchored close to a beach/park in Opunohu Bay, next to Cook's Bay. Both bays are jaw dropping beautiful, with high volcanic mountains. We liked the bay of Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas better, but only because it's smaller, and we had fewer boats there. In Opunohu Bay there were at least 30 boats anchored, a fair amount of French boats, and Tessa got to play "sign language style" with French boat kids on the beach.
One highlight in Moorea was swimming with sting rays and black tip reef sharks at the same time. There is an area called Sting Ray City, and tour operators go there with a bunch of boats. The operators feed fish to the sting rays, and the rays come up to you very close. Pictures and videos just have to wait with the almost non existent internet here, but it for sure was memorable. We saw several sting rays crawling up the back of the local tour operators, they just must recognize them. Another highlight was the hike up to Belvedere, where you have a beautiful view point of both bays. We partly hitch hiked to the top, then wandered for a couple of hours through dense rain forest back to the valley.
Orange/red, green and many other colors are the ones we saw during the start of Heiva yesterday. Heiva is a month-long, local, and non-commercial celebration of Polynesian culture, including dance, drumming, singing, and traditional sports (outrigger canoe races, coconut tree climbing among others). It was a joy to see the flower parade, with many different groups dancing and drumming. There is something on the calendar every day, so in between schooling, boat projects and rain showers, we jump in the dinghy to be part of this celebration.
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At 2019-July-01 01:14 UTC the position of Bliss was 16°43.25'S 151°02.39'W, at the village Fare on the island Huahine, in the Society island group of French Polynesia
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Saturday, June 1, 2019
loving the Tuamotus
Rain showers and wind, love them both at anchor! We are visiting our last atoll in the Tuamotus, Toau, and we have chosen the North part of the atoll, which has a fake pass, Anse Amyot. It's a slot in the reef what appears to be a reef, but it's really like a cul de sac blocked by coral. It's a small, lovely anchorage, and within less than a 0.5 mile you go from the 3000 ft depth of the Pacific to the mooring ball of 25 ft. It's also the place where we found the trimaran of a fellow cruiser family we met in Mexico in 2018. We don't know all the specific details, but last year they had to abandon ship when they hit coral heads in Fakarava, and the boat was no longer operable. It's sitting here,floating again on a buoy, apparently in exchange for the help they received from the locals.
Today both Tod and I had an amazing snorkeling experience. We each were surrounded by thousands of white 8 inch fish, huge schools. Which ever way you looked you were in the midst of it if you stayed still. Once you started to move, the cloud of fish would open up, separate, and you could swim through. Memorable, we try to do it again tomorrow and see if we can get it on camera. Beautiful colorful fish here too, live aquarium before your eyes. Just one hour later, Tessa and I had an unforgettable experience: petting a male frigid bird. We have seen these majestic birds with wing spans of 1.6 m on a remote island in Mexico, and did not expect to see one here. The couple Valentine and Gaston, who make this atoll their home, have been nurturing it from a young age. It's free to fly anywhere, but apparently it appears to prefer to stay close to their place, and will fly on Valentine's arm when she calls his name. It sings, and loves to be kissed and touched by Valentine. An interesting pet to have.
By the time we leave for Tahiti next week, we have spent almost a month in 3 of these low laying atolls. We spent most of our time in Fakarava, a world heritage site. It's been relaxing, swimming and snorkeling in azure blue lagoons surrounded by evergreens (!) and palm trees, taking beach walks, and meeting new cruiser families. It's been a joy to see Tessa so comfortable swimming and diving down in waters up to 60' deep, she is a natural. I see scuba diving with me in her future.
So far we have noticed how clean and quiet the Marquesas and the Tuamotus are, in comparison with the Pacific Mexico cruising grounds (the quiet Sea of Cortez in Mexico being a whole different, awesome world in itself). Not much grows in the unfertile, shallow, sandy soil of the Tuamotus, so people rely on the supply ships coming in weekly or biweekly, or even less frequent for the more remote islands of French Polynesia. It seems like the whole town comes out when the supply ships arrives. We cruisers know of it too, so it was a hoarding frenzy last Wednesday at the Magazine near the non working gas station. And mind you, nothing is cheap here. I was a bit late, and saw that many bell peppers were still there, well at $20/kilo even cruisers are holding back. Not me though, as we are really needed some fresh stuff. I paid $10 for a cabbage, Tod has been making great cole salads. I don't have to feel bad that we cruisers take all the fresh food away, as I noticed that several bags of fresh produce was not available for the cruisers,and I assume it's reserved for the local families.
In Rotoava, the main little town in Fakarava, locals are using beach bikes to ride the single paved road, no need for traffic lights here. There is a school as well, but like other places in FP, for higher grades kids would need to go to Tahiti to finish school. We didn't go to church, but on Sunday saw the local nicely dressed up for the service. Our French is not very good, so we do not get to interact as much as we would like, but a friendly ia orana is always appreciated. Most bigger atolls have tiny airports, and are not as remote as they used to be. A fellow cruiser bought several cases of wine in Tahiti when he arrived there by plane, then had the cases fly out to Fakarava for just an extra $1.50 per bottle. No need for us, we are still working on our bildge liquor supply from Mexico. Very small cruise ships visit larger atolls as well. They are welcomed ashore with music and locals offer their crafts and jewelry (pearls are big here), than leave a few hours later.
Finishing school soon for the day, then back to hopping in 85 degrees water. Someone has to do it! But believe us, paradise has it's limits and tropical island living isn't for everyone. We know we couldn't do it full time, and are looking forward to the change in weather and environment in a couple of months, and off course seeing our family and friends again!
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At 2019-Jun-01 21:56 UTC the position of Bliss was 15°48.22'S 146°09.09'W, at Anse Amyot on the atoll of Toau, Tuamotus group of French Polynesia
Today both Tod and I had an amazing snorkeling experience. We each were surrounded by thousands of white 8 inch fish, huge schools. Which ever way you looked you were in the midst of it if you stayed still. Once you started to move, the cloud of fish would open up, separate, and you could swim through. Memorable, we try to do it again tomorrow and see if we can get it on camera. Beautiful colorful fish here too, live aquarium before your eyes. Just one hour later, Tessa and I had an unforgettable experience: petting a male frigid bird. We have seen these majestic birds with wing spans of 1.6 m on a remote island in Mexico, and did not expect to see one here. The couple Valentine and Gaston, who make this atoll their home, have been nurturing it from a young age. It's free to fly anywhere, but apparently it appears to prefer to stay close to their place, and will fly on Valentine's arm when she calls his name. It sings, and loves to be kissed and touched by Valentine. An interesting pet to have.
By the time we leave for Tahiti next week, we have spent almost a month in 3 of these low laying atolls. We spent most of our time in Fakarava, a world heritage site. It's been relaxing, swimming and snorkeling in azure blue lagoons surrounded by evergreens (!) and palm trees, taking beach walks, and meeting new cruiser families. It's been a joy to see Tessa so comfortable swimming and diving down in waters up to 60' deep, she is a natural. I see scuba diving with me in her future.
So far we have noticed how clean and quiet the Marquesas and the Tuamotus are, in comparison with the Pacific Mexico cruising grounds (the quiet Sea of Cortez in Mexico being a whole different, awesome world in itself). Not much grows in the unfertile, shallow, sandy soil of the Tuamotus, so people rely on the supply ships coming in weekly or biweekly, or even less frequent for the more remote islands of French Polynesia. It seems like the whole town comes out when the supply ships arrives. We cruisers know of it too, so it was a hoarding frenzy last Wednesday at the Magazine near the non working gas station. And mind you, nothing is cheap here. I was a bit late, and saw that many bell peppers were still there, well at $20/kilo even cruisers are holding back. Not me though, as we are really needed some fresh stuff. I paid $10 for a cabbage, Tod has been making great cole salads. I don't have to feel bad that we cruisers take all the fresh food away, as I noticed that several bags of fresh produce was not available for the cruisers,and I assume it's reserved for the local families.
In Rotoava, the main little town in Fakarava, locals are using beach bikes to ride the single paved road, no need for traffic lights here. There is a school as well, but like other places in FP, for higher grades kids would need to go to Tahiti to finish school. We didn't go to church, but on Sunday saw the local nicely dressed up for the service. Our French is not very good, so we do not get to interact as much as we would like, but a friendly ia orana is always appreciated. Most bigger atolls have tiny airports, and are not as remote as they used to be. A fellow cruiser bought several cases of wine in Tahiti when he arrived there by plane, then had the cases fly out to Fakarava for just an extra $1.50 per bottle. No need for us, we are still working on our bildge liquor supply from Mexico. Very small cruise ships visit larger atolls as well. They are welcomed ashore with music and locals offer their crafts and jewelry (pearls are big here), than leave a few hours later.
Finishing school soon for the day, then back to hopping in 85 degrees water. Someone has to do it! But believe us, paradise has it's limits and tropical island living isn't for everyone. We know we couldn't do it full time, and are looking forward to the change in weather and environment in a couple of months, and off course seeing our family and friends again!
-----
At 2019-Jun-01 21:56 UTC the position of Bliss was 15°48.22'S 146°09.09'W, at Anse Amyot on the atoll of Toau, Tuamotus group of French Polynesia
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