On the road again 27 Sep 19

17º 51.836s 148º 34.012w

Sat Sep 28 2019

With apologies to Willie Nelson . . .

Tahiti and Moorea are now in the rear-view mirror. We came, we saw, we spent heaps of money on repairs, provisions, and generally having a good time. Isabel is now a certified yoga instructor! Mark took a couple more kite boarding lessons and dropped a wad of cash on new equipment we can both use. For the next year or so we’ll each be the other’s “kite bitch”, chasing around in the dinghy rescuing the one of us who is doing the kiting. If all goes well, we’ll drop another heap of $$ on more gear so we can both have fun at the same time.

We spent 5 days in Marina Papeete investigating the town and making arrangements for a major repair on our water tank and some canvas work to keep rain out of the cockpit. We spent 13 days in Marina Taina while the work was being done. There’s a giant Carrefour grocery store about the size of a super Walmart about a 5 minute walk from that marina. There’s a craft brewery called “Les Trois Brasseurs” about a 10-minute walk from Marina Papeete. Both marinas were good experiences, but we don’t like being in marinas unless we absolutely have to be there to get work done or secure JollyDogs for storage. Our favorite anchorage was up by Point Venus; black volcanic sand, a nice park nearby, kite boarding location around the headland, and great provisioning about 1 kilometer walk from the park where we could secure the dinghy.

We anchored in several spots near Marina Taina, on the reef and in a lagoon. It’s an easy walk to the airport from the lagoon near the runway end, about a 20-minute dinghy ride from downtown Papeete where we discovered a shop called Maxi’s. You can buy Kirkland brand stuff there! We provisioned for all we were worth, and now we have our favorite French Roast coffee, mixed nuts, crackers, and other things that make life worth living.

Shawnee arrived about 8 days ago, toting 2 suitcases full of repair parts and “improvement” materials. Since then, I’ve been installing said parts like a madman, while Isabel and Shawnee have been completing all our provisioning needs for the next 9 months, as well as hunting gifts for everyone looking after Shawnee’s house and cat and whatnot back home.

Moorea was good to us; we spent time anchored in Cook’s Bay, Opunohu Bay, and on the sandy shelfs near the reef outside each bay. For the last several days outside Cook’s Bay we were anchored on the sandy shelf with about 5 feet of water under the keel. We had our own pet turtle who was constantly tooling around, and we had a spotted white puffer fish who seemed to want to help me clean the boat bottom. Nice to have aquatic friends! We dinghied down to Stingray City to feed and swim with a whole heap of stingrays. We hoped to swim with a momma whale and her calf like Isabel had done the previous week, but that opportunity eluded us, so we’ll look to do that somewhere else along the way.

We’ve got flights booked out of Nuku Hiva on October 16th so it’s time to move in that direction. The weather forecast made it look like we’d have to motor for around 12 – 16 hours before the wind filled in, so we launched out from Moorea around 0600 today (27 Sep 19). So far we’ve sailed around 2 hours and motor sailed the rest, and right now we’re just dragging the main sail along. New weather data is downloading, so if it’s going to be light the remainder of the night I’ll be dropping the main to rid us of the drag.

We’re aiming to hit one or 2 atolls in the Tuamotus, and just to be ambitious we’re aiming for Tahanea but that’s a “stretch goal”. Likely we’ll end up at Fakarava and then continue working our way East from there, with the ultimate objective of getting up to Fatu Hiva and the rest of the Marquesas by around October 8th. We need to be at Nuku Hiva by October 12th or so to prepare to secure JollyDogs for about 7 weeks of caretaker storage on the hook, as there’s no opportunity to haul out.

It’s pitch black out tonight – supposedly a 1% moon but it’s hiding well. Stars are spectacular, so time to plug in my favorite Motley Fool podcast and enjoy the night sky. Shawnee and Isabel have crashed, and I’ll do my best to let Izzy sleep until -0100 or later before rousting her out. The first night of a multi-day passage is always hardest and given this is a short one we’ll just about hit our rhythm when we arrive. 

Nuts.

Still, it beats working for a living.