Fare

0800 Position 16-53S 150-57W. Underway headed for Moorea

Late in the morning yesterday we weighed anchor and powered up to Fare, the biggest village on Huahine. The engine overheat alarm came on after we were underway for ten minutes. Quick! Kill the engine and get the anchor ready! It turned out the cooling water intake valve was partially shut and restricting flow. We had it started again in five minutes and didn't have to anchor.

We found an empty ball in the Fare mooring field right off of the beach and picked it up just after noon. It was very convenient not having to deal with the anchor. The boys dinghied ashore, picked up supplies, and went to the Huahine Yacht Club for lunch. We figured we could get their WIFI password if we ate there, but found out that they don't have free WIFI for customers. That's OK, the fish burgers and Hinanos were great.

While shopping the fruit lady said that there was going to be some kind of dancing show in town later in the evening, and after returning to the boat we saw a couple of double canoes being decorated on the beach just inshore of our mooring. After a fantastic grilled lamb dinner aboard, the crew dinghied ashore to check it out.

The town was having what looked like a parade, except it was taking place on the water. Eight double canoes were decorated to the hilt with ti leaves, flowers, tiki torches, kahili, and loaded with dancers and drummers. It looked like the Rose Parade on the water. Some of the canoes only had a couple of inches of freeboard. Fortunately it was glassy calm. If a large power boat had come by and made a big wake a few of the canoes would have swamped. Each of the canoes passed in turn in front of the official viewing platform on the pier to be judged. An emcee using an amplified sound system so loud that the entire town could hear the proceedings spoke continuously in Tahitian. A large portion of the island's population was in attendance cheering for their favorite canoe. It was quite a spectacle with the torches, drumming, dancing, and cheering under the full moon.

After the parade ended we went back to the boat thinking that the evening's festivities were over. Wrong. A wedding was taking place at a resort directly inshore of our mooring. The party there started at about 830PM and their sound system was even louder than the parade's. They were playing an annoying pre-recorded mixture of Tahitian drumming and euro-techno-crappo. The music was so loud I couldn't sleep and it went on at full volume until 230AM this morning. Apparently they don't have noise ordinances here.

We let go our mooring this morning at 6AM and are on our way back to Tahiti. Van Diemen just slipped out from under the lee of Huahini and the winds are blowing at about six knots from just forward of the beam. Seas are a little bumpy, but there is no water on deck. Not perfect conditions, but close enough for a boat. The fish lines are out with some new lures that will hopefully change our luck there. We are still motor sailing and are headed right for Moorea. Our plan is to stop there for the night and continue on to Tahiti tomorrow.

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