The Ones that Got Away

0800 Position 16-49S 150-59W.  At anchor in Avea Bay, Huahine

The wind never did fill in as forecast yesterday.  It only got up to about eight knots from right behind us, not too good when we are motor sailing at eight knots making the apparent wind strength zero.  We powered all the way to Huahine and arrived in Avea Bay just after 5PM.  We found a charter catamaran moored in our spot off the Relais Mahana.  The nerve…  We anchored behind him but are still close enough to get wifi from the hotel with the extender.

I had three fishing lines out yesterday, and at noon something big hit my long line.  It broke the 300 pound strength monofilament leader right at the swivel and was gone before we could see what it was.  The lure that I had out there was a hideous resin plug that I had butchered in the '80s with a hack saw to get more action out of it.  Unbelievable.  I dug through my bag of reject lures, found another the same size and color, and put it out on the same line.  Just as we were approaching Huahine it also got hit by something big and the leader broke again right at the swivel.  Damn.

We typically land more than fifty percent of the fish that strike our lures.  On this voyage we are well below ten percent.  I have probably lost seven or eight lures to fish strikes, and most of the time the fish aren't hooking up if we don't lose the lures.  I can't figure out what the problem is.   It could be that Van Diemen is much faster than other boats I've sailed on and the shock loads on the gear during a fish strike are greater.  Van Diemen's hand lines are made from a woven line that is not as stretchy as the monofilament nylon that I've used on my boats.  We are using bungee cords to absorb the shock loads of the strikes, but perhaps they are not long enough.  I will keep working on it.

The Relais Mahana Resort seen from Van Diemen's saloon table

The Van Diemen

0800 Position 17-23S 150-02W. Underway headed for Huahine

On an earlier trip to Tahiti some other cruisers told me about duty free liquor from Kim Fa, a Chinese store in Papeete. Liquor is about half price there when it is duty free, and it can be obtained that way if it is purchased after clearing out of the country. I've never been there myself, but the boys were intrigued by the story and headed over to Kim Fa first thing yesterday morning to check it out. Renee did some more vegetable shopping, and after everybody returned we departed Papeete Marina and headed around to Marina Taina to the gas dock.

Van Diemen holds seven hundred gallons of diesel in five separate tanks. Filling them all is a slow and tedious process and it hadn't been done since we departed Newport two and a half months ago. It took over an hour, but we got her topped up and then moved across the channel to another dock where we could fill water. While we were moving Mark and Blossom Logan came by in their dinghy. They are anchored off of Marina Taina until Kana arrives Saturday night.

Shortly after we finished filling water the delivery truck from Kim Fa arrived. The boys really went wild there. Cases of beer, rum, wine, and coffee were loaded aboard. We got it all stowed and cast off for Moorea.

There wasn't a breath of wind on the crossing to Moorea, and it was hot. Van Diemen dropped the hook in Oponohu Bay on Moorea at 5PM and everybody went for a swim.

The crew has been working diligently for some time now on the ultimate rum and juice cocktail. Last night we believe that we stumbled onto the perfect recipe, which includes fresh passion fruit, and decided to call it "The Van Diemen" in honor of this epic voyage and all our hard work. We will likely be enjoying more Van Diemens tonight.

This morning at 630AM the mighty Van Diemen got underway for Huahine. We are still motor sailing as I write this, but the wind should fill in once we get out of Tahiti's lee. The forecast today calls for fourteen knots right on the quarter, ideal conditions.

This ninety plus mile passage is one of my favorites. It is always down hill, and the destination is the Leeward Society Islands, four of the most beautiful islands on the planet. On my little boats it has always been an overnight trip because we were so slow, but Van Diemen can easily make the crossing in daylight hours, a much more enjoyable experience.

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Immigration

0800 Position 17-32S 149-34W. In a slip at Papeete Marina, Tahiti

If you have read this blog for a while, you will know how tedious and bureaucratic the immigration formalities are here in French Polynesia for sailors on cruising sailboats. The government wants to ensure that any foreigner arriving in French Polynesia has the means to get home, so they require that a return airline ticket be presented upon arrival or, if not departing by airplane, that a bond equivalent to the price of an airline ticket be deposited in a local bank until that individual leaves the country. A cruising sailor planning to depart by boat has to post the bond which is expensive due to fees and conversions, and the process is tedious. I've sailed to French Polynesia five times now, and have figured out the perfect work around for this problem. I buy a fully refundable one way ticket from Papeete to the US scheduled to depart two months after I am going to arrive in French Polynesia. This is done well before I ever leave the USA. I print out the itinerary which shows that the ticket is confirmed and paid for. Next I immediately cancel the ticket and within two days the full dollar amount of the ticket is credited back to my credit card account. I hang onto the hard copy of my itinerary to show to the immigration authorities when I arrive in French Polynesia. This satisfies them that I have a return ticket. Problem solved at zero cost.

Yesterday the whole crew was required to go to the immigration office at the airport to clear out of the country. The head cheese there had Rob sitting in his office while the rest of us waited in the hallway. He was examining the ship's papers and our passports and asking our skipper questions. After fifteen minutes of paperwork, comparing the passports to computer screens, and loud stamping sounds, the big man asks Rob with a frown, "And where is William Leary?"

Now, he hadn't asked about anybody else on the crew. Everything seemed to be going fine up until that point. I figured the jig is up. They must have caught on to my fake return airline ticket ruse. Piers had jokingly pointed out the holding cell in the hall way a few minutes earlier. Now it doesn't seem so funny. I step into the immigration manager's office expecting the worst. He smiles and holds out his hand, "Happy Birthday!" he says.

We all have a laugh and our business with Immigration is done. Our next stop is the Socredo Bank branch there in the airport to recover Mike and Rob's bond. That also goes without a hitch. They get their money back and we head back for town. Mike ducks into the Air Tahiti office to check on his ticket to California. Piers and I get thirsty and head into the brew pub for a cold one after buying limes for our evening drinks at the open market.

The rest of the Van Diemen crew said goodby to Mike at 8PM last night when he caught a cab to the airport. He was a great shipmate and will be missed.

At 10PM Rob realized that he hadn't told Doc where to meet the boat when he flew into Papeete. The only solution was to meet him at the airport when his flight arrived at 5AM today, so Rob and Piers made a party of it and took a taxi there before dawn's early light. When I woke up this morning the three of them were back aboard and ready to face the day.

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The Big City

0800 Position 17-32S 149-34W.  In a slip at Papeete Marina, Tahiti

We waved goodby to Mark and Blossom and powered out of Oponohu Bay at 830AM.  The wind and sea out in the ocean was even calmer than the day before and we had a lovely motor across the nine mile wide channel to Tahiti. 

Papeete can be accessed through either of two channels through the barrier reef.  The main entrance channel is right downtown, and is very busy with container ships, ferries, fishermen, other commercial traffic and yachts.  It is so busy that all vessels are required to obtain clearance over the VHF radio from "Papeete Harbor Control" to transit the channel.  The other entrance is five miles to the south.  It is too narrow and shallow for vessels longer than 100 feet, but it is far less busy and is closer to the region's primary mooring facility, Marina Taina.  We entered at the Marina Taina entrance and picked up a mooring there at1030AM.

Rob and Renee dinghied ashore to do some provisioning at Carrefour while Mike and I stayed aboard.  Rob and Renee returned a few hours later loaded down with provisions, and we powered north in the lagoon to the Papeete Marina where we found an empty slip just after 5PM.

Our newest crew member, Piers Akerman, was flying into Papeete to join the boat, with his plane scheduled to land at 11PM last night.  With flight delays, customs, immigration, baggage claim and a taxi ride, it could be well after midnight before he got to the boat so it made sense to be in a slip where he could find us easily. 

Mike and I walked up to the food trucks for dinner.  Rob and Renee had a bad experience the last time around there and decided to stay on the boat.

Piers had no problems with the arrival formalities, and he found us at 1130PM.  He got settled into the guest cabin with Mike and we were all asleep by 1AM.

The next couple of days should be interesting.  Our final new crew member for the trip west to Tonga, Doc Greenaway,  arrives tomorrow.  Rob is going to complete the formalities to allow us to depart French Polynesia and hopefully get the $1,500 bonds back for him and Mike.  We see a potential problem though.  Rob's and Mike's bond receipts are on the same piece of paper but Mike is flying back to California and Rob is departing on the boat.  Hmmm.

A canoe decorated for the evening parade in Fare, Huahine
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Old Friends

0800 Position 17-30S 149-51W. At anchor near the mouth of Oponohu Bay, Moorea

Huahine was apparently responsible for what little confusion there was in the sea early yesterday because the water flattened out as we left the island behind. The wind continued to back and build, and at 10AM we set the jib and killed the engine. Van Diemen was in her element, screaming along at eight knots in the same amount of wind headed right for Moorea.

Much of the Pacific Puddle Jump fleet chose yesterday to make the crossing from Moorea to the leeward islands. We passed at least six sailboats headed in the other direction. At 4PM the wind started to die off and head us, so we fired up the engine and motorsailed for the final hour into Oponohu Bay. Ninety three miles in eleven hours. Not bad.

No fish again today. Truth be told, we took the time to troll a terrific trio of tantalizing tidbits intended to temp the taste of even the most temperamental tuna, but we couldn't get one to take the tackle. It was terrible…

We found a fleet of twenty four boats in the shallow anchorage at the mouth of Oponohu Bay when we arrived. We were hoping to anchor there, but it looked pretty crowded. I was surveying the anchorage with the binoculars when I saw a boat I recognized. It was Puanani, Mark and Blossom Logan's Beneteau 39 from Kaneohe Yacht Club! We powered up to them, yelled greetings, and invited them over for a sunset cocktail.

It was great to catch up with Mark and Blossom. I spent a couple of months buddy boating with them through Fiji and on to New Zealand at the end of last season. They had a challenging trip from New Zealand to Tahiti a month ago, and we got to hear all the details. Mark dinghied over to Van Diemen again this morning so I could show him where all of the best anchorages are in the Leeward Islands and give him a copy of the GPS track from my 2014 cruise there.

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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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Coffee

0800 Position 16-49S 150-59W.  Anchored in Avea Bay, Huahine

 

My wife Lori Lloyd gifted Van Diemen with fifteen pounds of Keopu Coffee before we departed California.  Keopu is 100% Kona coffee grown by the Gillette family on the slopes of Hualalai and it is good stuff.  Every morning aboard Van Diemen a ritual takes place in the brewing of the coffee, and there is often discussion on the proper method.  Our new French press came with instructions on how to use it including grinding procedure, proper water temperature, stirring at just the right time after adding the water, and brewing time.  We are getting pretty good at it, but still discuss tweeking our process in pursuit of the perfect cup.  This morning's discussion concerned stirring the mixture after adding the hot water.  Renee said we should stir it gently so we don't "bruise" the coffee.  That's one I hadn't heard before. 

 

We have WIFI here from the hotel, but the signal is poor at this distance.  I brought along a WIFI extender that I've used successfully on my boat in the past, and it is helping improve the signal for me here as well.  It hangs under the boom and is hard wired to my computer at the saloon table.  With the extender on my signal has been great, but the rest of the crew on their phones and computers were struggling with the weak signal from the hotel.  After many days of trying, yesterday I finally figured out how to turn my computer into a WIFI hot spot so the rest of the crew can connect to the internet using my stronger signal. 

 

We are finally getting off of our lazy butts and heading eight miles north inside Huahine's lagoon to the town of Fare today.  We'll do a bit of provisioning there (we are out of beer) and get ready for an early start Sunday on our sail back to Tahiti.

Renee and Rob SUPping in the lagoon

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