French Polynesia « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

River Ride, Gardens, Bananas and more

by steve, on July 27th, 2010 (Society Islands)

Yesterday was another one of those days that ended up better than we could have ever expected.

Our main trip of the day was to explore the nearby river. The wind in the bay we were in was whipping up the water so getting to the river mouth got us a little wet. But soon we were in the river and all was tranquil.

There was not a great deal of wild life to see but Helen was totally thrilled (not) when Ben thought he saw a snake in the water. We made our way up river about a mile or so before coming to a shallow section. While Helen and Ben waded ahead to see if the river improved around the corner, I dragged the dinghy up a couple of the shallow sections. In doing so I developed a huge hole in the seat of my shorts.

In the end we all agreed with Helen’s early conclusion that it was not worth carrying on so we reversed and dragged the dinghy back over the shallow sections. For a while we paddled the dinghy to enjoy the peace and quiet of the surrounds. At one point we passed a collapsing jetty with a man working. He called out to us and asked us if we wanted to see the botanical gardens which was by the jetty. We were keen to do this and quickly agreed.

We soon learned the chaps name was James, although not James Bond. He had a reasonable command of English. Near the river the gardens, if they were the gardens at this point, were very overgrown. As we progressed, though, the gardens became a lot neater. We were followed by a young chap and a very pretty young girl who smiled a lot. They didn’t say anything and weren’t introduced. Being in the company of a pretty girl (followed) while having a gaping hole in my shorts reminded me of the worst disasters of my youth.

James was a good host. He explained the names of the plants in English and French and sometime in Tahitian. At one point he showed us how to climb a palm tree although Ben and Helen’s attempts to copy were less than successful. I declined to try owing to the trouser situation.

At another time, James also opened up a coconut for us to nibble on the contents.

Throughout his guided tour he kept offering us bananas. When we reached the river he again offered us some and we accepted thinking we must tip him for his kindness even though it was uncustomary. The young boy and girl joined him in his skiff and they crossed the river and headed downstream a short way. James went ashore and soon came back with a big bunch of bananas. Despite our offer, he refused to accept. We thanked him in Polynesian using the words he had taught us during the tour.

Loaded with bananas we headed back down river and back to Dignity. On arrival we hoisted the dinghy in readiness to leave the bay. A few moments later a couple on a nearby boat passed our stern in their dinghy which promptly cut out leaving them adrift. We lowered the dinghy again and I headed off to their rescue. I took their bow line and towed them back to their boat. I offered further assistance which they declined.

We soon had the dinghy raised and were underway headed for Ile Tarou. Having been off the internet for a few days I checked around for signals and to our great surprise found a faint but open one.

All thoughts of getting in the water were soon dismissed as we all took our fill of this free resource. For that last couple of months we’ve had to be careful with our time as it costs several $$$ per hour. Now we could catch up on the things we wanted. Over several hours I downloaded all the updates for my old laptop. Finishing this morning I have gone back and checked all my old blog entries back to the Galapagos. I have fixed all the categories and embedded all the photos into the appropriate entries. That took a lot of time.

Ben and I did go out snorkeling for nearly two hours. We took the spear gun hoping to find some big fish. Near the channel drop off we found some very interesting sites including a whole area of anemones complete with clown fish (of Finding Nemo fame). We did shoot a few fish which we fed to moray eels.

In the evening we carried on with watching 24. During this we heard this ever increasing beeping/chirping. At first we thought it was from the show but after a while we figured out it was coming from the bananas which we had hanging up. After we had finished watching the TV I examined the bananas and found a small cricket which I dispatched. We heard no more chirps.

We’ll probably all go snorkeling later this morning to catch the incoming current before moving on.

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Marae Taputapuatea, Hike, Baie Faaroa

by KC2RIY, on July 26th, 2010 (Society Islands)

Before our shoreside activities we spent some time refining our plans (which may of course change) for the next month or so. The main change is that we now plan to visit Aitutaki in the Southern Cooks and skip Rarotonga. Our path to Tonga is now Raiaritea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, Maupiti, Maupihaa, Aitutaki, Palmerston, (possibly) Beveridge Reef, Niue and then the Vava’u Group in Tonga.

Around 9am we all went ashore and first headed east to visit Marae Taputapuatea which Ben and I had walked past the previous day. The Marae was similar to but larger than the one we saw in Huahine near Maeva. Again there were some interesting signs to read explaining the ruined site. Seeing these vast abandoned stone areas gives some small sense of the population loss these islands suffered when European diseases first made it here (in Europeans of course). Very sad but unavoidable.

Having seen the Marae we headed back in the opposite direction and followed a road inland. We walked past a couple of hydroponic farms and past the ever immaculate houses of the locals. In a few places fruit trees were right beside the road/path and we helped ourselves to any ripe overhanging fruit. We came back with papayas, guavas, star fruit and pampelmouse.

We arrived back on the boat around midday after some good exercise and had lunch followed by a brief rest. Soon we raised the anchor from 90ft, raised the head sail and made our way north to Baie Faaroa where we’ve heard there’s an interesting river to dinghy up.

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Upon arrived we discovered the windlass motor unresponsive and had to drop anchor manually. Once we had the boat settled I troubleshooted the problem. I discovered that the screw connecting high amp cable to the windlass relay was slightly loose. Over time this has been heating up and cooling down gradually melting the top of the relay. In turn the relay contacts have been gradually moving out of place each time the plastic softened. The recent deep water anchor raises placed a heavier and longer load than ever and must have tipped it over the point of failure.

Fortunately I had a spare which I used to replaced the broken relay. The only complication was that it was a different shape and the wiring had to be reconfigured. I made sure the screws were in firm and will now add inspecting this component to my long period checks.

At this point it was too late to go to shore. The evening was concluded with a couple more episodes of 24 and a nice curry.

Baie Opoa, Raiatea

by KC2RIY, on July 25th, 2010 (Sea Mist, Society Islands)

After the net and picking up fresh (but not so nice) bread we set sail for Raiatea. We raised sails shortly after raising the anchor and left the sheltered waters behind the reef under sail. We left behind our ‘friends’ on the customs vessel who had just started boarding some of the other vessels in the anchorage. We have nothing to worry about but we’ve had enough of boardings/inspections.

For the first hour of our passage the winds were flukey as a result of the mountains on Huahine. We eventually settled into steady winds although the seas were quite high making for a bumpy passage. About half a mile outside of Passe Teavamoe we dropped sails and motored in. Visibility dropped as we entered the pass, the result of a badly timed squall.

We soon found Sea Mist anchored in Baie Opoa. The anchorage was pretty deep. We first tried anchoring on a mound at 30-40 ft but we weren’t able to stick. We ended up anchoring fairly close to Sea Mist in 80ft of water in a position a little too close to the reef than we’d like. We’d need a large swing in the wind direction for this to be an issue but it’s now something to watch out for.

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We invited John, Cheryl and Ian over for nibbles and drinks in the evening. That meant Helen needed to make the boat spick and span. We Ben and I helped by first helping with the easy things then heading off for a walk together to get out of the way. Hoping, but not succeeding, in finding a trail to the summit we walked around the peninsular to our south and back again. We managed to catch a sand crab allowing me to show Ben how to hold them without being nipped.

The evening’s company, as ever, was great fun going on well after 9pm, boaters’ midnight.

Today we plan to go and see the archaeological site at Taputapuatea which is allegedly the most sacred of the ancient sites in Polynesia. We may move on afterwards. Not yet sure.

Back to Fare

by KC2RIY, on July 24th, 2010 (Society Islands, The Road)

Mid morning we upped anchor and quickly raised the head sail to plod slowly up inside the reef. We had about a knot of current so despite less than ideal sailing conditions we managed to average around 4 knots. We were on the lookout for a spot to go snorkeling before lunch. In the end we decided to anchor near the green marker south of Motu Vaiorea – that’s the little island to the west of the gap between the north and south islands comprising Huahine.

After waiting out some rain we headed over to the green marker to see what the conditions were like. The bottom looked fair but the current made the spot untenable. Should have thought about that. We headed over to our plan B which was on the south side of Motu Vaiorea. Here we found a nice shallow area with plenty of living coral and fish. We had the spear gun with us which Ben and I shared. There were no suitable fish to eat so as usual we ended up taking the odd pot shot. Ben managed to bag a fish which was promptly scoffed by an eel which yanked it right off the spear. While out we saw the largest and most fascinating sea slug we’ve seen to date. It was nearly two feet long and covered in star shaped protrusions. It’s underside had thousands of little red legs. I have no books to look this creature up but hopefully one day we’ll be able to identify it.

After lunch and a rest we again raised the anchor and hoisted the head sail only and sailed to Fare. We had a little mishap on arrival. We hadn’t raised the dinghy and had towed it from our dive spot. When close maneuvering on the motors we pull the dinghy in and tie it close to prevent the line from getting wrapped in the props. Once we had anchored I asked Ben to release the dinghy. Which he did. While focusing on other things we received a call on the radio from Shirley on The Road to say our dinghy was adrift. Her husband Taffee was already in his dinghy and chasing ours down which was rapidly making distance as a result of the winds we were in. Fortunately all ended up well.

We met Shirley and Taffee again at Happy Hour. We learned that the dancing we’d been told about was live music instead which we weren’t so up to. After Happy Hour we went for some local food before heading back to the boat for the evening.

Weather permitting, today we’re heading over to Raritea. We managed to speak to Sea Mist on the SSB yesterday and have agreed to rendezvous where they are so we can hand over a dive computer Ben brought from the US.

Alone then not so alone

by KC2RIY, on July 23rd, 2010 (Kamaya, Renova, Society Islands, Victoria)

Overnight there had been only two other boats in the anchorage. By the time we were up there was only one.

The tides here are less than a foot but even so they were rising in the morning so Ben and I decided to go and snorkel the pass around the corner hoping to get some sort of drift dive into the island. When we got there we found the currents were sweeping us out to sea which is not a good thing to do in case of a dinghy motor failure. We tried about four or five different spots but didn’t find anything exceptional. We saw a few more fish than the previous day but they were all quite shy.

Back at the boat we were down to just us in the anchorage which is a very pleasant state of affairs. This didn’t last too long though as for whatever reason quite a few folks decided to make it down here including a few we knew: Renova, Kamaya & Victoria.

We went for a walk on the beach in the afternoon and soon ran into the guys from Renova up to much the same. We agreed to join up and ended up in a quaint bar on the beach for a beer. When we parted it was slightly deeper goodbyes as the Renovas are going on the hard in a few days and it’s unlikely we’ll see them again – at least in this lifetime.

Back aboard we grilled up some ribs which were delicious and made our way through three episodes of the recent series of 24.

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Marae Taputapuatea, Hike, Baie Faaroa

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Alone then not so alone