The True Sailing Adventure Begins

 Day 5&6 - Tuesday & Wednesday,August 29-30

Our plan was to depart as close to 8:30 am as possible as we needed to return our gate keys and check out of the slip at the marina, just like a hotel.  A little before 9 am we were off and as we left the harbor, performed a traditional boat blessing ceremony of receiving ceremonial shell necklaces from Vatea and tossing overboard a lea of white flowers called “Tiare”.

Our sail plan was to sail overnight for 24 to 28 hours to Maupiti, a beautiful atoll island west of Bora-Bora.  While Bora-Bora self proclaims itself as the most beautiful island in French Polynesia, most natives say Maupiti is. Maupiti is smaller and not as commercialized which explains the difference of opinions.

Before we set sail Carol and I finally felt we had moved in and made our berth and head (bathroom) our own for the next two months.  Xavier was impressed as we organized and stowed all of our 8 bags of luggage.  Yes, 8 bags full of sailing equipment, clothes, personal items, electronics and dehydrated food.  We also added our own touches of suction cup wall organizers shown here:

Once we started to sail Xavier announced it was going to be a Spinnaker day.  We spent the next 30 minutes rigging up the “kite” foresail and it flew majestically.  Every sailor takes pause at the beauty and effort it takes to fly spinnakers.  We were able to sail the spinnaker for a good part of the day and flew it again in the evening.  Unfortunately the wind speed through the day was not as much as expected and we were falling behind schedule.

 

Night sailing is an entirely different experience with watch shifts agreed upon and scheduled.  This was Carol’s first night sail and she was rightfully anxious about night watch duties.  We scheduled 2 hour shifts from 6 pm to 6 am with Mickey, Vatea and Xavier taking two shifts.  Carol would work and train with Xavier on the 4 am to 6 am shift. 

Carol’s anxiousness was exacerbated when on Mickey’s first 2 hour watch we sailed through several storm squalls which created a number of challenges, including damaging the spinnaker’s sheet clamps and not allowing the crew to douse the sail.  This meant the spinnaker was in jeopardy of being lost without the use of the sheets (lines controlling the sails). {You’ll get used to the sailing vernacular}.  Mickey’s 2 hour shift became 4 hours as Xavier and Vatea rectified the issues at the bow and got everything in order.  

During the repair activities Carol whispered to Mickey with wide eyes that there was no way she would have known what to do and he replied the only thing you need to know is know when to call for help, and this would certainly have been one of those cases.

After the storms left us everything calmed down the rest of the night and shortly after Carol began her shift with Xavier and he provided her the appropriate training she told him she felt good and for him to go get some sleep.  Carol watched the majority of her first night shift SOLO!!  She even captured this image of the moon on her watch.

The end of Carol’s shift meant the end of night watches so Carol and Mickey enjoyed coffee watching the sunrise while rounding Raiatea.  

Overnight our speed and the wind had reduced such that we began to motor sail around 7:30 to make up time.  We needed to be at Maupiti before 3 pm so Vatea could catch his flight back to Papeete.  

5 hours later around 2:30 pm we made it through the passageway into the Maupiti atoll.  The final ceremonial tiare was tossed to the sea in gratitude for the safe passage.  

Vatea was from Maupiti and called the Mayor (a friend of his) for a favor to help him catch his flight.  The Mayor arranged for a motor boat to fetch Vatea from our yacht Kanoa and take him to the air strip across the lagoon.  We had no doubt he also delayed the plane to ensure Vatea would catch his flight. Here is a parting selfie of all four of us as Vatea steps onto the motor boat.

While anchored near the Mayor’s office, the remaining three of us dinghied over to shore and strolled the main Maupiti village.  There is only one road and one cannot get lost.  It was a pleasant village with a few small home stores and cafes strewn about. 

We returned to Kanoa and headed to an open coral and sand bank just inside the atoll’s outer rim to anchor for the night. There we relaxed, the only sailboat in sight, and watched as both the sunset and the moon rose simultaneously.

Tomorrow we plan to enjoy a morning snorkel, make some repairs to Kanoa and sail to Bora-Bora in the afternoon.  Until then…

Local Friends Visit Kanoa

Day 4 Addendum, Monday August 28

After cleaning and preparing to sail tomorrow, we entertained some of Xavier’s French friends he has meet over the past two months, Vatea and his wife Sophie brought us a very traditional French meal of cheeses, meats, pate, bread and wine. They brought fresh kiwi for dessert and taught us the “correct” way to eat it, cut it in half and scoop the fruit out of the skin with a spoon. Who knew that it could be so much easier than slicing and peeling it. Vatea will be joining us tomorrow for the leg to Maupiti.

Lastly a curious fact shared by another of Xavier’s local friends is that all the shops and businesses close at 3 pm local time.  Carol and I thought it was just an extension of Europeans, mostly in Spain, who close up shop at 3 pm (for siesta) and re-open around 6 pm.  However here in Tahiti they do not re-open, why?  Because at 4 pm the television program Dallas is broadcast and apparently the entire country is obsessed.  Carol and I always wondered why there was a large cop unity of Polynesians living in the Dallas area.  Now we know why!

Preparing to Sail

 Day 3-4, Sunday & Monday, August 27-28

Much of Day 3 was spent preparing to sail. In addition to more minor repairs, we took inventory of all provisions on the boat and went shopping at a local supermarket. Because this is our last time to be in a main harbor, we wanted to make sure we have what we need on board. Xavier had made friends with a local who manages all of the boats in the fleet for the government of Tahiti. He, his wife and daughter drove us to the supermarket where we loaded up on essentials (and chocolate, which I consider essential). Afterwards, they joined us for some appetizers aboard Kanoa.

In Papeete, it is a local custom for the police to cordon off the main street along the harbor to vehicle traffic on Sunday afternoon. Families come out with all manner of non-motorized vehicles - skateboards, bicycles, tricycles, scooters, roller blades - and ride through the street. In the nearby park, they taught fitness classes. I caught the tail end of the Zumba class - no, I didn’t participate :-)

Mickey and I headed to the market this morning (Monday, Day 4). There are stalls full of flowers, jewelry, trinkets and clothes. The other side of the market has food. We had added a few items to the list that weren’t available at the supermarket, so this gave us a chance to shop and enjoy the local market. We bought a loaf of bread and a croissant from a local baker - very yummy.

This afternoon, we’ll give Kanoa a good cleaning, work on our safety briefing, fill our water tanks, exchange money and a whole host of last minute details. Xavier has met with customs and immigration and all of our paperwork is in order. According to weather predictions, tomorrow will be the best day to set sail. We are heading to Maupiti, which is about a 24-hour sail from here. 

We might not have Wi-Fi for a few days. But we’ll post again as soon as we can.

Cheers! Carol & Mickey

Traveling to Tahiti and arriving in Papeete

Day 2, Saturday August 26

In Papeete, Tahiti. This is the launching point of our 2-month sailing journey in the South Pacific. 

We flew from SFO to Papeete on French Bee Airlines and they had mounted video cameras on the exterior of the plane so you could view outside the plane while flying.  Pretty Cool!  Here is a link to the video from underneath the plane as we landed in Tahiti:  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f7Ol6OlXtYfRr9EIHUw7X5b16yr9UqNN/view?usp=drivesdk

We were greeted at the airport with native Polynesian dancers. 

We made our way to Marina de Papeete, where Xavier had docked for a few days while making some repairs. It was much easier for us to load our gear onto the yacht from the dock versus from a dingy. So that small detail was much appreciated. Xavier is very gracious and courteous and truly wants to make this a wonderful experience for everyone. And he is not a novice at making friends and engaging them on his sailing adventures.

Xavier and Mickey replaced the Windlass yesterday, the mechanism for raising and lowering the anchor. For anyone who has ever owned a boat, there is always some maintenance or repair to do.

We had some time to explore Papeete. Most of the town is centered around the marina area, which is full of sailboats, catamarans and large and small cruise ships. The town centers around the local church and the streets are small, narrow and spider out from the church. There are many restaurants, bars, clubs, and shopping. Remember, this is French Polynesia, so if you want to buy cosmetics and perfume, you have come to the right place!

After a lovely dinner on the beach, Mickey and I “crashed and burned” to catch up on 2 days without sleep. 

We plan to leave Papeete on Tuesday, weather permitting. See you next time.

Adventure #3 - Sailing the South Pacific

Welcome to Adventure #3: Sailing the South Pacific

Our adventure begins in Tahiti, where we’ll board Kanoa, a 49 ft yacht and begin our sail west to east towards New Caledonia. There are hundreds of islands between those two points and we don’t know exactly which islands we’ll visit. But suffice it to say that we’ll enjoy wherever the wind leads us.

We will land in New Caledonia at the end of October, when we’ll fly to New Zealand and explore the north island for 2 weeks. Our scheduled date to return to Colorado is November 11th.

Leg #1: Travel to Papeete, Tahiti via San Francisco. We landed in San Francisco with a 6 hour layover. Enjoyed a glass of wine where our German/Italian waitress entertained us with stories as she “waved her arms like a crazy woman” (her words). After rechecking our bags with French Bee airlines (because United has a 4 hour limit for a layover without having to claim and recheck bags….whatever), we hung out until our flight to Tahiti. 

Andy, our little Alpaca, joined us for the entire Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. We decided to bring him along to the South Pacific. He’ll add some commentary and fun along the way.

We’ll meet up with Xavier, the French captain and owner of Kanoa, and move onboard tomorrow morning. You can take a look at pictures and videos of Kanoa on its Facebook page 

If the hot link above doesn’t work, click the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/ODCMarineSailing15mXDM48/?wtsid=rdr_08WRvNxXkaIwZ0Pd7

Will post again soon. Keep the wind in your sails!