Back to Papeete

With time drawing short for our arrival in Papeete, we left Tapuamu Bay early on June 15th for the130 mile overnight passage to Moorea, our stop over on the way to Tahiti.  We knew it was going to be a bumpy ride given the high seas churned up by last week’s storm and we weren’t disappointed. We had hoped for a little more easterly component in the wind, which always magically seemed to be right on our nose. We motored out the pass Teavapiti Pass on Raiatea and sailed close hauled for the tip of Huahine, even though it was about 30 degrees off our intended course to Moorea. Around 5:00 pm we threw in the towel and started the motor, turning on a more southeasterly rhumb line course for Openua Bay on Moorea. Motoring into stout seas seems to be our forte lately, and while not terribly bad it was still an uncomfortable night. 

This graphic from our MaxSea Navigation software shows Flying Cloud (large red image) surrounded by ships at 2:00 am.

We set an alarm for every 20 minutes to remind ourselves to scan the horizon and check the AIS for any ships in the area. During my watch the AIS lit up like a video game with activity, including the 504 ft. cruise ship Paul Gauguin and three inter island freighters. Somewhere out there was another sailing vessel but I never saw him on radar. I called the Paul Gauguin to make sure they saw me even though I was about 10 miles dead ahead. The very courteous captain replied that he saw me on AIS and mentioned he was just killing time on his passage to Moorea as he didn’t want to arrive in the dark given the narrow pass into Opunohu Bay. 

To help pass the time on night watch I have been listening to the audiobook Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo, but over the last five months I never seem to finish it. I probably hold the record for the longest time to complete an audio book (and trying to remember the characters and plot line of the book).

A 130 ft. custom Wally yacht dominates the anchorage at Opunohu Bay. The speed boat in the foreground is their "dingy."

This iconic Pan Am poster has been the impetus fro many a sailor to head to Tahiti.

Around sunrise we could make out the towering mountains of Moorea and enjoyed breakfast in the cockpit as the mountains grew closer and closer. The peak behind Opunohu Bay is famous for having appeared on the iconic Fly to the South Seas Isles poster with the Pan Am flying boats. Just after clearing the pass we turned left to a small anchoring area between the shore and the reef. Our singlehanded friend Franklin was patiently waiting for us and soon came over with the Honda genset we had loaned him a month earlier. It was great to see him and he was very appreciative of our generosity, but that’s what you do when another cruiser is in need. 

Our Tacoma friends on Huzzah showed up the next day. Their wives had recently arrived in Papeete and were anxious to see the outer islands. After three months of “just the guys” on the boat we could tell they were very happy to be able to show off the South Pacific to their wives.

We had hoped to dingy over to the Intercontinental Hotel to visit “Stingray City,” a place off the hotel where guides feed the fish resulting in stingrays and black tip sharks swimming close to the tourists. Unfortunately a persistent 23- to 30-knot wind was wapping around the north end of the island and screaming right down the line of anchored boats.  We did manage to get ashore and doing some walking, including a short walk up to the Hilton Hotel for some $5 Cokes on the beach. 

Since our goal was to get to Papeete for the start of the big Pacific PuddleJump Rendezvous on Friday the 24th, we decided we’d better get going if we hoped to score a spot in the marina.  Naturally we were a day too early weatherwise and had an uncomfortable crossing with the omnipresent headwinds and 2.5 meter swells off our port bow.  When we arrived in the harbor in Papeete in a blinding 30-knot squall we could see there were only a few slips left and we headed for one at the eastern end of the marina. Even though it was still blowing 17 knots when we arrived we managed to snuggle up to a windward finger pier thanks to the help of a petite blonde on the boat next to us who was from Seattle, of all places.

I looked for months for a can of this excellent varnish, finally finding it at the Ace Hardware store in Papeete.

The next few days were spent walking around town, taking our old anchor windlass motor in for repair, scoring some of the great V33 Bateau Varnish that I love, and beginning to wet sand our cap rail for it’s semi annual coat of varnish. Oh, and getting chocolate sundaes at the local McDonalds.

John and Deb Rogers who own the beautiful 62 ft. Sundeer, Moonsha

Walking around the back streets of Papeete we ran into John and Debbie Rogers off the 62 ft. Sundeer called Moonshadow. We’d last seen them in Portsmouth, Virginia in 2012 and had followed their blog ever since. We ended up sharing a bottle of wine at the Retro Restaurant and then going over to the “roulettes” food trucks for dinner in the light rain. It was great to get caught up with them and hear about all their adventures for the last five years.

The next couple days leading up to the big PPJ Rendezvous were spent finishing the varnishing, exploring the back streets of Papeete, and finally getting the stamps in our Carte de Secour, our French visa that allows us to stay in French Polynesia for one more year.