Tahanea to Tahiti

After spending a good month in the Tuamotus it was time to move on
to Tahiti for a change in pace and lifestyle and to indulge in some
restaurant and cafe culture, we were both needing a break from the
galley.

We had been checking the weather regularly and there was nothing
appearing on the forecasts that said we shouldn't go, however,
around 6am on the morning that we planned to leave the sky was very
red and looked extremely dark and very squally to the south. We
figured maybe it was just a morning thing and that we'd sit and
watch it for a few hrs and check the weather once again. Still no
warnings appeared on the forecasts so we decided to up and leave.
The forecast was for lightish winds for the 290 miles to Tahiti.
Once you make your mind up to leave, it's kind of hard not to
go....don't you just love hindsight though, if we knew what we were
in for - we definitely would have sat it out for 3 days.

So out we went through the pass, still quite lumpy, although no
where near as bad as what is was when we arrived. The sun was out,
but it was still looking pretty ominous further south, we had about
15 knots of breeze which was nice sailing. Our course was to head
north up the eastern side of Tahanea before turning west for Tahiti.
After a few hours of sailing the wind totally dropped out to the
point that we had to turn the engine on..hmmm not in the forecast.
And the sky looking both east and west looked jet black, probably
the darkest we've ever seen in the middle of the day. We turned on
the radar to try and find the best possible gap to make a run
through it....and then bang the fishing lines went off...hooked a
massive tuna, and quickly did some rushed filleting before the rain
came...and did it come...it bucketed down, but strangely no wind -
the boat got a good wash and the freezer was full of tuna.

Given that we had seen no improvement in the weather we thought
maybe we could alter course slightly and make it into the small
atoll of Faaite before it got dark. Unfortunately darkness was
approaching faster than we could sail, so we had no choice but to
continue on.

After the massive dumping of rain that we had the wind came back and
filled in to around 15 knots - Reverie was moving along really
well - throughout the following day (Friday 13th June) the wind
continued to build into the 20's and by early evening was in to the
25's. Now it was starting to get dark and the wind as seas were
building - this was definitely not in the forecast!!

The seas were building up as a storm somewhere south of us was
pushing up a HUGE ground swell - Must have been a 20-30ft swell.
Long period still between them so that was ok for now. We reefed
the sails down and pushed on.

The wind then moved upwards of 30 knots and into the 40's. Now this
was not much fun, as the huge ground swell with the 30+ knot wind
waves made sailing "interesting" to say the least. We had it all
on the beam (side) so it was not ideal. Reverie was going quite
well, but we took a massive amount of water on the deck, cockpit,
and all over Jason who spent all of the night in the cockpit on
watch. Given that conditions were not easing we decided to drop
the mainsail as we needed to slow the boat down. We continued on
with just the tiniest amount of jib, in huge seas and winds.

As it was so rough and we only had one night to go we couldn't
muster the energy to cook dinner, not even the simplest of things
like pasta, instead we managed to munch on some biscuits and then
resorted to sharing a tin of baked beans.. yes out of the
tin!!!...we figured we would make up for this pathetic meal when we
arrive the following morning. For the rest of the night Jo was
bundled up on the couch, seasick, and Jason was fully decked out in
wet weather gear, freezing his butt off out in the cockpit. It was
surprisingly cold given that we were in the tropics. All of this
continued on for most of the 24 hours of Friday the 13th!!. Typical!

The following morning the sun came out and we could see Tahiti in
the near distance, not long to go now, the wind had eased a little
and was in the mid-high 20's. After having 30-40 knots for so long,
high 20's was now a breeze - we still had to watch the big waves on
the beam, but we only had to endure this for a few more hours and
then we'd be through the pass into Tahiti and into calm waters.

As we approach, the coast of Tahiti looks amazing with the morning
sun, the winds have now eased and the swell has almost dropped out
completely as we are in the lee of the island. The temperatures
have soared back into the high 20's and last night now seems as if
it didn't even happen.

Once through the main pass of Papeete we get clearance from the
harbour master that we can proceed past the airport (we don't want
any taking off planes bumping into us at this point, or any point!).
We continue motoring through the marked channel making our way to
the anchorage. On arrival the anchorage is very busy, lots of
boats, however we find a great spot in about 5m of crystal clear
water - and right next to our Aussie friends on "Sabalo".

It's great to have the boat still, and not moving! We've got a big
afternoon ahead of us cleaning all the salt off the boat - and then
it's going to be a well deserved beer o'clock.....and long sleep!

More coming soon,
J&J

14 Days in Tahanea

Around 6am we were up and with coffee in hand looked out through the
Atoll and toward the pass, it looked like a good day for a sail.

Trick was we had to get out of the Makemo pass, sail 50 miles
towards Tahanea and make it through the pass at slack tide. Problem
was also that slack tide was in 6 hours, so we had to make an
average of 8 knots, not impossible if there was good wind but we had
light wind!

Bugger it we'll go anyway!

So out we went, the pass was unbelievably calm, like a sheet of
glass, there was a bit of current running but it was quite light.
As we exited the pass out went the fishing lines as we were sure we
would hook that elusive Mahi Mahi on this trip.

The sail was not as quick as we wanted, the wind was light and a
little shifty so our speed was not what we needed to arrive at the
Tahanea pass at the right time. It looked like we would turn up
exactly at the wrong time, halfway through an out flowing tide, we
were not sure how we would handle it but we decided to work that out
when we had a look at the water when we arrived. We only had two
options, go for it ( could get quite ugly) or wait outside for 12
hours through the night for the tide to change and sun to come up,
and neither of us wanted to do that.

Arrival at Tahanea was right on cue, half way through an outflowing
tide - great. We were trying to squeeze every bit of speed out of
the boat but there was just not enough wind. About two miles off we
could see the rough water from the pass um.......

We approached the pass from the side so we could have a look at it,
as we got close it was NUTS!, we both have never seen water like
this, there were standing waves on the outside that seemed to go out
forever and they were HUGE, they looked to be around 3m high!.

Three years ago we were lucky to have snorkeled through the pass
and we knew that the water on the left side was deep and free of
coral heads. We also exited on the left side three years ago when
the pass was looking a little ugly.

This time the edge looked much less violent than the center of the
pass. We both figured that if we gun it ( there will be a strong out
flowing current) hug the left edge as close as we can and stay in
about 10m of water we should be ok.

Jo went up front to keep look out and Jason sat back and gunned the
engine. Coming up looked ok but as we got in the middle we found
Reverie making about 3 knots over the ground and driving up and down
huge swells. Looking over towards the middle of the pass was an
unreal site, the massive standing waves were dwarfing us on Reverie,
it's hard to describe the sight but if you were caught in the middle
of this on a boat twice the size of Reverie you would be toast, you
would be spun, rolled and broken in two in a minute, not kidding.

Good news was that we were making progress and our plan of sticking
on the edge has paid off, we were through the lumpy bit and now it
was just a matter of pushing forward through the rest of the pass
before we could turn and head to the anchorage spot.

We came around the corner into the small cul de sac which is a nice
protected anchoring location there were about 5 other boats there
( we're sure they were all looking at these two idiots coming
through the pass!) didn't matter we were in, anchor down, no fish to
clean - bugger!, but look on the bright side it was right on
Beer-O-clock!

The next day we planned to head down to the southern part of the
Atoll but the wind started to shift a little to the north and this
may make the anchorages a little lumpy so we thought we would head
up the NE corner of the Atoll and have a look.

The NE corner was lovely, similar to some of the eastern areas,
the water was clear but not as clear as the south and western side
of the Atoll. Guess it has to do with water flow over the reef,
where the southern and western sides get a LOT the east and NE areas
get little as the outer reef and the Motu's are much larger and
offer more protection to the inside water.

The nice part of the being away from the pass is the lack of sharks,
we are both gutless and sharks of all sizes seem to bring out the
wimp in us. George Lucas ( was he the director of Jaws?) should
have a huge law suit against him for passing on a life time fear of
sharks - even harmless ones! maybe there is a shrink we could see
about this.

That night we decide to take a trip ashore to try our luck at
Coconut crabs and lobsters on the reef.

Good hunting on the crab front, two nice large ones, we see a few
smaller ones but leave them and leave happy with the two big ones
that we caught. No Lobster hunting though as the torches are running
out, that will have to wait for another night.

Looking at the weather the next day we thought it would be a good
idea to head down to the south eastern side of the atoll as the wind
looks to be building up again from the SE, so we decided to get
a wiggle on and head down there.

Later in the day we dropped the anchor about 30m from where we were
three years ago for Jason's birthday.

Celebrations were much more low key this year, well at least in
numbers anyway, but you can't beat the location and we also managed
to catch a few more coconut crabs and lobster from the reef!!

After Jason's birthday we decided to continue moving around the
atoll to revisit some of the south western anchorages that we loved
last time. This part of the atoll has beautiful white sandy beaches
and palms, like the pictures that you see on postcards, and water so
clear that you can see the coral heads and fish swimming beneath the
boat...lovely! - so our plan was to get over to these spots before
the wind wouldn't allow us to.

We spent the first night in an anchorage where we have great
memories with our good friends "Ocean Breezes" and "Nowadays",
however this time we were the only boat there - so we had the
beaches and coconut crab hunting all to ourselves. Unfortunately
the wind continued to build from the SE which made this anchorage
start to get a bit sloppy, so we decided to pull up anchor and try
to find somewhere a little more protected, whilst keeping on the
same side of the atoll - we really wanted to get up to some of the
more western anchorages that we missed last time.

We managed to move a few miles further north west within the atoll
and stumbled across a reef that gave us protection from east to
sth-east winds....wonderful! We tucked up behind it, and spent the
afternoon snorkeling and exploring the nearby deserted motu's
(islands). Going ashore we saw a somewhat abandoned fishing camp,
and lots of birds hovering close above us protecting their furry
young babies that we nearly walked in to. But these things aren't
normal small birds - they were actually really large for
babies!...anyway so not to make the parents angry we headed back to
the dinghy and back to Reverie.

The following morning the winds were still blowing in the same
direction and building so it was time to abandon our original plan
of moving to the most western anchorages and head back over to the
main pass for some better protection and dead flat seas. We stopped
for a couple nights off a motu that was in the middle of the atoll
that offered some protection and awesome snorkeling...but too many
sharks!

The next morning we headed back up to the pass and motored into 20
knots of wind and some pretty steep waves, Jo drew the short stick
and was up front keeping a look-out for coral heads and getting
sprayed and drenched with the oncoming waves. After 2 hrs we
arrived to a flat protected cove just inside of the pass, and spent
a great afternoon snorkeling in the shallow, shark-free!
waters...nice!!

So after spending almost two weeks here in Tahanea it was time to
consider moving on...each day was becoming more difficult to leave
as this place is truly how you'd imagine paradise to be. Our plan
was to check the weather and then make the call.

More coming soon.....

Cheers
J&J