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…
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