Tuamotu to Morea!

(Received on 5.19.10)
14.5



Well internet has definitely been more difficult than anticipated, particularly on Tahiti. The issue aside from being impossibly slow was also that every time I tried to load a letter it couldn’t translate it because it was looking for French the letters would load of only numbers and symbols. I will catch you up on where we have been since the last letter.


From the Marquises we went to Rangaroa in the Tuamotus. This was a 5 day sail, so it felt like nothing compared to the month at sea but we were both still eager to be anchored again. The Tuamotu Archigelago are a group of 76 atolls that span a distance of 1000 miles! For those of you who may not know atolls are much different from islands, they are volcanic ruins. There used to be a volcano in the center of each remaining atoll which has throughout centuries sunk leaving only a large ring of coral with a strip of land. Something really amazing about atolls is that as you approach them by boat all you see at first are palm trees that look as though they are growing straight out of the ocean!! The atolls are only about 1 to 2 meters above sea level. We had planned to see a few of these atolls but as we researched and studied charts we learned more and more about how very treacherous they are for boats to get in and out of due to fast currents of 8-9 knots and lots of shallow coral heads. Because of this we chose only one to visit, one that we heard was somewhat easy to get in and out of, Rangiroa. We made it in alright but it was quite the rush! The current was confused and breaking on the way in, we came in during the start of the outgoing tide so we had about 3 knots of current against us getting us through the pass at only 1 knot! The biggest dolphins I have ever seen in my life swam along side us playing in the rough passage, if only it were that easy! Getting through was a big relief because it was nice and calm just inside and this atoll is just humongous! From the bay we anchored in (next to Windswept) just inside it looked as though there was only sea around us because the atoll was so big (20 miles across) you can’t see the other side. It felt like we were anchored in a massive, clear lake! Although Rangiroa is beautiful we only spent 2 nights there. This was the first spot on our trip we have had extremely clear beautiful water where even on the dinghy going to shore we could see tropical fish just below us everywhere. We went to an amazing restaurant on the water that over looked the pass we had entered, I think the most scenic restaurant I had ever been to! I just could not get my head around life on an atoll. They live there with only one road that goes around the atoll, and have this thin, maybe ½ mile strip of land all the way around. It is absolutely beautiful but there was not too much there. We could have stayed longer because the snorkelling was great and Louie wanted to have a dive but Windswept was heading on to Tahiti and we heard the weather was turning so we wanted to get there too. If we do it again we will spend a bit more time in the Tuamotu... Tuamotu is also were they grow all the black pearls!


When we left Tuamotu we thought we were going to beat the bad weather, we were wrong, we ended up in the heart of it. Our day and a half passage from Rangiroa to Tahiti was the worst nearly 2 days we have had on this whole trip!! We got slammed by the low we were hoping to get in front of, even Windswept said it was the worst passage in their 30 years of sailing experience!! The wind ended up on our side and at times nearly on our nose when it was supposed to be behind us, the swell was massive, up to 15 foot seas! And the wind sat around 25 knots at times gusting to 35... for those of you who don’t know a nice sailing wind is from 12-20 knots... and you don’t really want the sea much more then 3-6 feet, flat is the best! This weather we have seen before, but only behind us which is much more comfortable, not on our side/nose. We were wet the entire time, waves... really big waves were constantly crashing all over Tar Baby. When I tried to get our beds ready as we were starting our shifts we had the hatch cracked only a couple of inches for a little air and a huge wave crashed over the boat spilling buckets of water through this little crack wetting all of our dry towels and blankets, we were not dry once!


Tar Baby once again handled it like a little tank, ploughing through the waves, not letting anything really disturb her, it was just us that were uncomfortable and a bit scared a rogue wave would come and take us out!! There was a Pan Pan warning issued over the radio at one point that worried us as well but we had no idea what it was about since it was only in French!! We were to say the least very happy to finally spot lights from land around 10p on our 2nd night. We pulled in exhausted around 1am, anchored in a place we weren’t supposed to and passed out asleep, not wanting to worry about moving the boat until morning.


Tahiti, what to say about Tahiti... such a disappointment!! From my understanding of the islands we were to visit, the only ones I was familiar with were Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Fiji... the rest I really hadn’t heard of so I had been very excited for these few and Tahiti was the first of them we came to. I had expected clean civilization, beautiful white sandy beaches, good facilities, and supplies... I got none of these things except the supplies!! We stayed in Marina Taina which is just a 20 min bus ride outside of the city of Papeete. The marina was ok, the restaurants were good but over priced and the city itself was just gross! People say if you go to Tahiti and stay exclusively in a resort you’ll love it, but I’d say that would be the same anywhere, resorts are typically nice... so why Tahiti? They don’t even have sandy beaches!!! It was just another city to me so to give it more of a chance we rented a car along with Kevin and his brother Kyle and drove to the other side of the island to see the famous surf break that Louie has a picture of framed in his living room “Teahupoo.” We met Kevin in the Marquises, I’m pretty sure I’ve previously mentioned him... he’s 24 and from Tacoma WA, not far from my hometown and he single handed (sailed by himself) in his little 28 foot boat “Pahto” all the way to the Marquises where his brother Kyle joined him... Kyle is 26 and just recently returned from Iraq and is very excited to be done with the Marines! Anyway, we are very glad we rented the car to drive to the other side of Tahiti because it was much nicer the farther away we got from Papeete. It was an interesting day... our rental car broke down half way to Teahupoo so we waited on the side of the road for 2 hrs for a replacement car. We were lucky to have a road worker come and give us a bag of rumbutans to snack on (a lychee like fruit). By the time we got down to the infamous surf break Louie was just itching to get out to get a closer look, but not surf it, it’s really just a pro surf break.


We didn’t have a lot of luck finding a water taxi, they were all busy or MIA so Lou was flagging down every boat that went past... a couple fishing boats stopped, didn’t speak English but picked up their fish to show Lou and pointed to shore, we assumed they needed to get their fish to refrigeration. Finally we got lucky... Lou got the attention of a guy who came over and agreed to take us out for a look at the surf break. It turned out that he was an American who had been living there for 10 years with his wife and kids. He is a professional surf photographer and was going out to shoot pics of the pro surfers (sponsored riders) that were out on the wave, there were about 10 of them and they were all from Hawaii. Even pro’s from Hawaii come out to ride this very fast hollow wave, said to be the most consistently perfect wave in the world!! The photographer’s name was Josh, he took us out to the break and jumped off to go get his shots telling Lou to just drive his boat around and not get too close to the break or the surfers. We were out there for an hour or so, it was really cool, particularly for Lou but it rained half the time and we all ended up soaking wet and cold. On the way back in with Josh we discovered his wife writes cruising guides, one of which we use on the boat! He also has a pearl farm on Ahi in the Tuamotu and said he had some pearls at his home if we would like to buy any. Lou had bought me a black pearl necklace in Papeete the day before but we thought we might as well check it out. It was dark by this time but we went to Josh’s house in the back of his pickup truck and picked out a couple of pearls so I could make earrings while Josh showed us the photos he took that day. It was a good day, long... but really great to see more of Tahiti and talk a bit with a local. The downside of the day was that we were really worried about Kevin all day. When we did the waterfall hike back in Nukku Hiva Kevin cut his leg really badly and didn’t do anything about it. Now nearly 3 weeks later it hadn’t healed at all and was badly infected. He was having a hard time walking and his lymph gland in his groin was badly swollen and even more painful than the actual cut at this point. We’d told him for days to go to the doctor but he’d resisted. I was watching him very carefully all day, when we ate he didn’t eat, when we walked he limped, he’s normally as if not more active than Lou and was having a really hard time catching up, but tried to play tough guy all day... admitting to the pain but insisting he was fine. By nightfall on our way home we were all hot and he said he was freezing and couldn’t get warm... yet still told us he won’t go to a hospital, he said if he’s not better in the morning he’d let us take him. AGH! I was beyond worried... thinking it might not just be an infection but possibly staff since it is very easy to pick that up if you have an open wound in the tropical waters here. I went to bed so worried but told his brother we’d leave our radio on all night and if he needed anything at all to call us, I also told his brother that if he got sick even one time I don’t care what he says he’s going in.


The next morning he was actually a lot better, although I still thought he should go to the hospital. All three boats, Tar Baby, Windswept, and Pahto had all planned to head from Tahiti over to the next island over, Morea, which was only a 3 hour sail. We were all over Tahiti plus heard about some nasty weather coming in and wanted to get to a more sheltered, less crowded anchorage. After some last minute supply shopping we all pulled up anchor and headed out. Something I forgot to mention earlier was our little stow away. In Tahiti, on the dock in the marina we picked up a hermit crab, the biggest hermit crab any of us have ever seen!! We found him one night on the way back from dinner... we figured a kid must have found him somewhere and dropped him off there because there was no living environment anywhere around for a crab like that! Lou said I could keep him and I decided I would until we found the perfect beach to set him down on. His name is Ray, and when I say he’s a big hermit crab I mean it, his body minus the shell is nearly the size of my hand, he’s actually in desperate need for a new shell because when he is startled he can’t even fit all the way inside, nearly half of him still sticks out! Kevin said “you could eat that!” No way, I quite like having him around... he lives in our bathroom sink now and during the day I take him out and he wonders around on top of the boat. He is not shy anymore; I can’t even make him hide in his shell!


We are at Morea now in Cooks Bay; it is 1000 times better than Tahiti! The island itself has beautifully shaped volcanos, green velvet mountains, and only a handful of boats in the bay. We came in at night and spent our first whole day here yesterday. The weather did get bad by 1pm it was pouring down rain along with thunder and lightning and strong wind until morning. There wasn’t much we could do but we had another fabulous spaghetti dinner on Windswept along with Pahto. Today we went snorkelling and found big shells for Ray... I haven’t found the perfect beach for him yet but I am hoping to get him a new shell, one he can actually fit all the way into. Because at this stage, if a bird finds him he’s a goner! There will be more to say about lovely Morea but I’ll leave that for later. Oh, Kevin did end up at the hospital here on Morea, he did continue to get worse and finally gave in. He’s now on strong antibiotic and something for his fever, he is looking and feeling much better!!!


Hopefully we will find a good internet cafe in our next bay over and be able to send this soon.


Your devoted travellers,


Louie & Alicia