Day 11 (August 2, 2011):
I slept through another night!! I was so glad we found another quiet anchoring spot and was looking forward to our last full day on the boat. Curt wanted to sleep in until 8AM, but I forced him out of bed at 7:30M so that we could head into the village & search for his wallet. I decided it was absolutely necessary to get the wallet before we had breakfast just in case the hotel owner had morning excursions she planned to take her guests on. I would have been so upset if we got there and she wasn't around.
We headed out to the quay at about 8AM & walked over to Hotel Atiapiti. Curt spoke very broken French/English with Marie trying to get her to understand what he was looking for. After a little back and forth & using my wallet as an example, Marie understood what we were looking for. She had someone from her staff show Curt to the bungalow & I waited out front.
Curt returned empty handed and my heart sank. What were we going to do? We didn't even have internet to get in touch with the banks & credit card companies. I was so irritated and upset on our walk back to the dinghy. Curt insisted that everything would be fine, but I began to resent any man that puts their wallet in their back pocket. I kept this to myself, as I knew it wasn't Curtis' fault. It was a complete accident, but I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs anyway. We searched the area around the quay just in case the wallet was at the bottom (it was only a few meters deep so we could swim down if need be). No luck!
I feared that we'd need Francs at some point during the next day and a half and would be nowhere near a bank or ATM (since they are only in the capital city which was about 30 miles from us). When we got back on the boat Curt asked if I was about ready to start making dinner & I quietly lost it (I didn't scream...I just silently walked to the trampoline to sulk). Was he kidding? We were in the midst of our own financial crisis, on a boat, in the middle of nowhere & he was wondering if I could start breakfast!! I sat on the trampoline & soaked in the sun's rays, as if they were giving me the strength to head back into the kitchen and figure out our game plan. Half an hour later, Curt joined me on the trampoline & told me that he'd used our emergency phone to cancel all his cards.
While I sulked, Curt took out all my credit cards (we have 1 joint card & the others are with the same companies – Chase & Bank of America) to figure out the 1800 numbers and then successful cancelled his Chase cards, Schwab bank card & was in the midst of canceling with Bank of America when the phone ran out of prepaid minutes. I was really glad that he cancelled the cards but still worried about not having any Francs. Curt assured me that we didn't need the Francs, since the rest of our trip would consist of anchoring in locations that were so remote we wouldn't even be able to find a store. Feeling much better about the situation and letting go of any resentment towards all male that keep their wallets in their back pockets, I headed in to start breakfast.
Breakfast was delicious!! I whipped up a chorizo & swiss scramble, with grilled papaya & cooked the remainder of our bacon. Curt brewed a pot of coffee & we finished off our coconut milk. Breakfast was just what I needed to get out of this early morning funk, so that we could continue on our adventure with positive attitudes. Curt did the dishes & we were ready to leave Baia Opoa.
We pulled up our anchor, let out the sails & went downwind towards our next anchor location. We took our time sailing down to Motu Nao Nao. I snapped some pictures, tanned on the trampoline, helped trim our sails & enjoyed the rest of the morning. We got to Motu Nao Nao at 1:30PM, surveyed our anchor options & decided on 3m spot near shore. My guidebook told us that we'd be able to picnic on this motu. I noticed instantly that there was a house on the motu with about 7 people outside working away & near there house was a white sign with red lettering (we assumed it was – NO TRESPASSING). I was now skeptical about being able to picnic or explore this motu, but hoped that maybe on the east side of the island there would be open land.
Once we were certain that our anchor was not dragging, Curt prepared lunch. For himself, he poured a bowl of muselix cereal & for me he put together a nutella & banana sandwich. We drank wine & finished our lunch on the trampoline. The afternoon was beautiful, so we decided to tan/read our books for about 45 minutes before taking our dinghy out to explore the motu.
Once we were nice & toasty from the heat, we loaded up the dinghy with all our snorkel gear & the underwater camera. I was really hoped that we'd find a location to explore on the motu, but as we rounded the southern tip of the motu the beach was lined with signs that read: TABU (No Trespassing). We explored the coast line in our dinghy – dodging coral all the way down. We made it to the northern tip of the motu & couldn't go any farther. There was a ton of coral & the water was really shallow in parts, so we decided to watch the waves crash a bit before heading back to find a great snorkel location.
On our way back down the east coast of the motu, I was our lookout. The sun was hidden behind big, billowy clouds, which made it nearly impossible to see the coral until you were right up on it. Eventually we made our to the southern tip, dropped our anchor & swam out in search of colorful fish. We were fortunate enough to find a wide range of fish: a large rainbow colored fish, many schools of tiny electric blue fish, aggressive black fish, tiny irridescent fish & many others. The sun kept hiding behind the clouds, which made it very difficult to see certain types of fish.
We headed back to our boat as the sun began to duck behind the mountains. Curt read a bit, while I did my Core Kettle Worx DVD. After sunset, we prepared an early dinner & settled in for an early night. Since this motu was far away from villages, it got really dark when the sun set – very relaxing for our last night on the boat. The waves were calm, the boat was really still all night & the temperature was perfect!
I wanted to use up our provisions without having pasta, rice or bread (I was carb'd out!), so I sauteed our remaining veggies (peas, carrots, corn, onion & garlic) in a large pot. Curt prepped our tuna salad – using the last can of tuna in oil, curry powder, mayo & onions. We settled on our deck with our very last bottle of wine & our nosh of leftover provisions. Dinner was actually very tasty & filling (Curt fed his leftover veggies to the fish).
I wondered what we were going to do with ourselves now that dinner was finished. It was 8PM, pitch black & we'd watch the both movies that Curt downloaded for our sailing trip. We decided to veg out under the stars & chat about what it will be like when we're back to reality in the USA, where we'd like to charter a sailboat next & what life will be like after we're married. I don't think either of us was ready to leave paradise at the end of the week, but we both agreed the following week's wedding festivities would fill the void. We headed in for an early night, since we planned to pull up our anchor by 7AM to head back up the coast.
5 days on a boat were about to end...just when I was getting accustomed to living on a boat. I'm definitely going to miss the Mahana (although next time I'd like a larger kitchen to cook in).
Monday, August 8, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Life on a boat
Day 10 (August 1, 2011):
I actually slept through the night!! I was so happy!! I woke up at 6:30AM (which is super early for me under any normal circumstances without any alarm), but felt rejuvenated. I think I am finally getting used to living on a boat (as long as we are anchored in a very sheltered area that allows me to get enough sleep). I woke Curt up and encouraged him to get moving so we could check out the Apoomau River with our dinghy. We set off for the mouth of the river at about 7:30AM.
The river water was a bit murky and we had to be careful of shallow waters, but the fauna was incredible. There were many coconut trees, papaya trees, breadfruit trees and hibiscus growing along the shore. I manned the camera, while Curt handled the motor. I kept trying to convince him that I'd seen “river monsters,” but this didn't startle him at all (if anything I only made myself nervous that a giant river monster would take a bite out of the dinghy & gnaw on our calves for breakfast). We went up the river as far as we could, but passageway grew narrower and more shallow the further in we went. We turned back & headed to our boat for a leisurely breakfast.
By the time we reached our boat, all the other sailboats that anchored in Faaroa Bay had headed out to the lagoon. We decided that we needed to tackle some of the fruit we had purchased, since we only had a few more days on the boat. We grilled our pineapples & topped them off with a bananas sauteed in a coconut milk glaze. This was an incredibly sweet & scrumptious breakfast, with a side of bacon to balance out the meal (more like dessert & bacon for breakfast). Curt helped me brew a pot of coffee & we used coconut milk instead of cow milk (this is very Tahitian & done by all the locals).
After we'd cleaned up breakfast, it was time to pull our anchor up and head out to Motu Iriru. This motu was a public park and you could snorkel up to the motu & picnic. We set a perfect anchor just inside a huge drop off point near the reef and decided we'd put on our snorkel gear and swim for shore.
I was so glad that we rescued our snorkel the day before, so that we both were able to snorkel properly and check out all the colorful fish swimming around the coral.
On our way into shore we noticed what appeared to be a boat shipwrecked near the reef. We decided that on our way back to the boat we swim out to check it out. Once on shore, we saw a family of locals barbequing. We said hello & went about exploring. There is a small hut on the motu that the caretaker must live in, which is set near the barbeque pit, shower stalls & bathrooms. Most of these buildings were clustered together, which left the remainder of the motu untouched. We wandered about checking out the crabs, shore and different reef points. I was surprised at how hard the motu's ground was (lots of coral loose on top & hard packed coral below), as I had expected it to be more like powdery white sand.
Curt spotted a couple kittens (their mom was being fed by the locals). Once the kittens spotted us they ran over to us, meowing & purring. They definitely wanted us to pet and feed them. Curt was freaked out at how close they were getting to him & went down by the water to escape them. I on the other hand wanted to play with them (despite the fact that I'm allergic), but Curt warned me not to and said I'd end up bringing fleas back to the boat. The caretaker on the island must take care of them because the didn't look mangy like many of the stray cats and dogs on the main islands (although these kittens were scratching and awful lot). I shot some video & was stunned at what I caught on tape. You'll have to check out the video posted below, as the kitten made itself a toilet, used it and then carefully cleaned up after itself. It was hysterical.
We said na-na (goodbye) to the locals and headed out for the shipwreck. As we got closer we saw that it was a catamaran. We thought it wrecked out in the ocean and up onto the reef, eventually getting stuck on the coral near the motu. It had been there for quite some time as the interior had decayed quite a bit. Curt took some pictures with the camera and I swam back to the boat.
Back aboard the boat we decided spend the rest of the morning reading on the trampoline. The sun was shining brightly and the wind was pretty mellow – perfect conditions for relaxing. We pulled up our anchor at 1PM and headed towards Marae Taputapuatea. This was the site of one of the largest Polynesian temples discovered. Our journey from Motu Iriru to Marae Taputapuatea was quite far, so we motored to save time (since I wanted to spend the afternoon discovery this large archeological site).
As we neared the Marae, Curt & I debated where we should anchor. Our Sunsail charter information warned us that Baie Opoa was difficult to anchor in, unless you anchored in one small area at 20m. The other option was to anchor on the other side of the Marae at Baie Hotopuu, which was right near the Hotel Atiapiti where we wanted to have dinner. We decided to first check out Baie Hotopuu to see if there were any moorings near the hotel, since we'd be headed back in the dark after dinner (it would be better to be close to the boat, since there was a lot of shallow water with coral near the shores).
There weren't any mooring near the hotel, so we decided to attempt the difficult anchor in Baie Opoa. If we anchored in Opoa, we could easy tie our dinghy up to the concrete quay that is 5 minutes away from the archeological site. I prepared myself for what could end up being another squabble during our anchor attempt. However, I was pleasantly surprised that we anchored successfully without any trouble at all. We've anchored so many times in the past few days that we are pros now! Curt decided we should open up some wine while we waited to make sure we were set properly. Somehow he managed to take a huge chunk out of his thumb with the corkscrew & had to wrap it up with gauze and tape (he told me he nearly lost his finger).
Curt sat with his wrapped thumb for a bit to make sure he wasn't going to bleed out before we prepared the dinghy for shore. I packed our backpack with both guide books (huge nerd), both cameras, sunscreen & our travel info (just in case). We tied up at the quay and headed into town. The locals were very friendly, but there really wasn't much to the town (a few houses, 1 snack shop that had a pool table), the Marae & the hotel).
We came up on Marae Taputapuatea & was marveled at the site. I instantly broke out both guide books & used the walking tour (from one of the books) to explain what we were looking at. Unfortunately, neither of my books had a map of the Marae, which would have helped immensely because there were many temples & buildings that had different functions.
We entered the Marae from the beach & instantly saw a rectangular courtyard of black volcanic rock & assumed it was the main temple. We walked all around trying to find the markings and special rocks that my walking tour mentioned, but couldn't really find anything that stood out. We decided after sufficiently exploring this temple that we'd search the grounds to see what else was there.
We found a large area at the center of the Marae that actual had plaques with information (still not a map of the Marae) but helped give a better indication of what we were looking at. We went off again & found each spot noted in my walking tour.
This is one of the most significant temples in all of Polynesia. It is situated at the mouth of Te Ava Moa Pass & fires on the marae were beacons for ancient navigators.
Here are some of the sites we discovered:
Hauvivi – the welcoming platform. This is the most simplistic area in the entire complex & right at the waters edge. Guests would be led to the main temple from this platform to participate in rituals.
Hiti Tai – (we stumbled upon this site as it's really overgrown by fauna, but you could still see the outline of the building). This is a sacred temple where meals were served.
Opu Teina – Was the farewell platform. Departing chiefs would take a stone from this marae to be planted elsewhere, which would also receive the name Marae Taputapuatea. **We took a stone (even though this area was a replica) and will place it at outside the house we eventually buy/build in California (guess our home will have the name Marae Taputapuatea).
Oro's Shrine – this is at the main temple of Taputapuatea. It's an oblong shaped temple and was considered the home of Oro (god of war & fertility). Local lore has it that 4 men were buried alive in an upright position in the temple to guard Oro and keep him from straying.
The Sacrifice Stone – We think we've discovered the correct location, which is about 9 meters from the main temple. It's an obelisk-like basalt slab where unfortunate victims met their fate in a very bloody ceremony. The right eye of the victim was removed for the priest & the left eye was taken for Oro. If the priest deemed the ceremony unworthy, the poor victim was taken to a large upright slab of limestone (resembling an large gravestone) and was scraped against the rough surface until what was left of his body dripped in blood. A great number of human sacrifices took place here. In 1969, during excavation, 5,000 skulls were discovered at the temple site. **I was really surprised to hear of all the human sacrifices here because Tama had insisted that there weren't any human sacrifices in Bora Bora. I just assumed that they lived similar lifestyles, but had different chief & kings. I guess I was mistaken.
After thuroughly discovering Marae Taputapuatea, we went off in search of Hotel Atiapiti. Our guidebook said they had scrumptious lobster & I was really craving a lovely sit down dinner, after making due with what we had in our pantry. We found the small hotel (7 little, self sufficient bungalows) at the end of a dirt path). It was very clean & charming. The owner Marie was on the phone when we arrived, so we walked around the grounds for a bit & waited until she was finished (she was on “island” time and not to concerned that we were waiting).
I eventually sent Curt to ask her about dinner (since he was the one who “claims” to know French). He spoke to her in English (which annoys me to no end because I really wanted to take French lessons before we came on this trip but Curt said we didn't need to because he knew French) & she couldn't understand him (we knew she didn't speak English because the guidebook told us she spoke French, Tahitian and understood very little English). In any case, after their brief interaction, he came back and said she wasn't serving dinner but we could stay for drinks. Curt had Hinano (local Tahitian beer) & I had a glass of white wine. We sat & watched the sun disappear. After our drinks we decided to head back to the boat to make ourselves dinner. Curt paid Marie & used the restroom (their public toilette wasn't working so she let him use one in an empty bungalow).
We were off to the quay in the dark – armed with our flashlights. We made it back to the quay & boarded the dinghy. I held the flashlight while Curt tried to start our engine. It was a bit difficult in the dark, but after many attempts we were off. Back on board I quickly did a Kettle Worx DVD before showering & starting dinner.
After my shower, Curt told me that we had a slight problem. He couldn't find his wallet. He had it at the hotel because he paid for our drinks, counted his change and put it back in his shorts. He thought it may have fallen out of his back pocket when he used the restroom or perhaps it fell out when we were in the dinghy battling with the motor. He called the hotel & left a message for Marie. He told me not to worry about it tonight & that we'd go back first thing in the morning to check the restroom.
I put together dinner with what we had available. I really wished we had purchased fish from a local fisherman or had even purchased frozen fish from the supermarket on our first day. I pulled together dinner with spaghetti, tomato paste (Curt picked this out at the grocery store & told me it was tomato sauce), olives, ham, cheese & milk (my best attempt to turn the paste into a sauce). Curt said it wasn't bad & I instantly responded that it wasn't good either. Dinner was ehhh! I planned on grilling the white bananas with melted nutella for dessert, but we were full on the starchy pasta, so instead we settled in to watch Captain Ron.
After the movie, we turned in early since we had planned to head into the village bright and early in search of the missing wallet. I was so thankful that all our travel documents & passports were safely tucked away in my holding place. I was a bit panicked that we'd be in trouble without Curt's wallet because he had all our Francs & the only thing I had in my wallet was my checkbook, credit cards & debit card (which wouldn't help us a ton since most places only accept cash here since the villages are so tiny).
I actually slept through the night!! I was so happy!! I woke up at 6:30AM (which is super early for me under any normal circumstances without any alarm), but felt rejuvenated. I think I am finally getting used to living on a boat (as long as we are anchored in a very sheltered area that allows me to get enough sleep). I woke Curt up and encouraged him to get moving so we could check out the Apoomau River with our dinghy. We set off for the mouth of the river at about 7:30AM.
The river water was a bit murky and we had to be careful of shallow waters, but the fauna was incredible. There were many coconut trees, papaya trees, breadfruit trees and hibiscus growing along the shore. I manned the camera, while Curt handled the motor. I kept trying to convince him that I'd seen “river monsters,” but this didn't startle him at all (if anything I only made myself nervous that a giant river monster would take a bite out of the dinghy & gnaw on our calves for breakfast). We went up the river as far as we could, but passageway grew narrower and more shallow the further in we went. We turned back & headed to our boat for a leisurely breakfast.
By the time we reached our boat, all the other sailboats that anchored in Faaroa Bay had headed out to the lagoon. We decided that we needed to tackle some of the fruit we had purchased, since we only had a few more days on the boat. We grilled our pineapples & topped them off with a bananas sauteed in a coconut milk glaze. This was an incredibly sweet & scrumptious breakfast, with a side of bacon to balance out the meal (more like dessert & bacon for breakfast). Curt helped me brew a pot of coffee & we used coconut milk instead of cow milk (this is very Tahitian & done by all the locals).
After we'd cleaned up breakfast, it was time to pull our anchor up and head out to Motu Iriru. This motu was a public park and you could snorkel up to the motu & picnic. We set a perfect anchor just inside a huge drop off point near the reef and decided we'd put on our snorkel gear and swim for shore.
I was so glad that we rescued our snorkel the day before, so that we both were able to snorkel properly and check out all the colorful fish swimming around the coral.
On our way into shore we noticed what appeared to be a boat shipwrecked near the reef. We decided that on our way back to the boat we swim out to check it out. Once on shore, we saw a family of locals barbequing. We said hello & went about exploring. There is a small hut on the motu that the caretaker must live in, which is set near the barbeque pit, shower stalls & bathrooms. Most of these buildings were clustered together, which left the remainder of the motu untouched. We wandered about checking out the crabs, shore and different reef points. I was surprised at how hard the motu's ground was (lots of coral loose on top & hard packed coral below), as I had expected it to be more like powdery white sand.
Curt spotted a couple kittens (their mom was being fed by the locals). Once the kittens spotted us they ran over to us, meowing & purring. They definitely wanted us to pet and feed them. Curt was freaked out at how close they were getting to him & went down by the water to escape them. I on the other hand wanted to play with them (despite the fact that I'm allergic), but Curt warned me not to and said I'd end up bringing fleas back to the boat. The caretaker on the island must take care of them because the didn't look mangy like many of the stray cats and dogs on the main islands (although these kittens were scratching and awful lot). I shot some video & was stunned at what I caught on tape. You'll have to check out the video posted below, as the kitten made itself a toilet, used it and then carefully cleaned up after itself. It was hysterical.
We said na-na (goodbye) to the locals and headed out for the shipwreck. As we got closer we saw that it was a catamaran. We thought it wrecked out in the ocean and up onto the reef, eventually getting stuck on the coral near the motu. It had been there for quite some time as the interior had decayed quite a bit. Curt took some pictures with the camera and I swam back to the boat.
Back aboard the boat we decided spend the rest of the morning reading on the trampoline. The sun was shining brightly and the wind was pretty mellow – perfect conditions for relaxing. We pulled up our anchor at 1PM and headed towards Marae Taputapuatea. This was the site of one of the largest Polynesian temples discovered. Our journey from Motu Iriru to Marae Taputapuatea was quite far, so we motored to save time (since I wanted to spend the afternoon discovery this large archeological site).
As we neared the Marae, Curt & I debated where we should anchor. Our Sunsail charter information warned us that Baie Opoa was difficult to anchor in, unless you anchored in one small area at 20m. The other option was to anchor on the other side of the Marae at Baie Hotopuu, which was right near the Hotel Atiapiti where we wanted to have dinner. We decided to first check out Baie Hotopuu to see if there were any moorings near the hotel, since we'd be headed back in the dark after dinner (it would be better to be close to the boat, since there was a lot of shallow water with coral near the shores).
There weren't any mooring near the hotel, so we decided to attempt the difficult anchor in Baie Opoa. If we anchored in Opoa, we could easy tie our dinghy up to the concrete quay that is 5 minutes away from the archeological site. I prepared myself for what could end up being another squabble during our anchor attempt. However, I was pleasantly surprised that we anchored successfully without any trouble at all. We've anchored so many times in the past few days that we are pros now! Curt decided we should open up some wine while we waited to make sure we were set properly. Somehow he managed to take a huge chunk out of his thumb with the corkscrew & had to wrap it up with gauze and tape (he told me he nearly lost his finger).
Curt sat with his wrapped thumb for a bit to make sure he wasn't going to bleed out before we prepared the dinghy for shore. I packed our backpack with both guide books (huge nerd), both cameras, sunscreen & our travel info (just in case). We tied up at the quay and headed into town. The locals were very friendly, but there really wasn't much to the town (a few houses, 1 snack shop that had a pool table), the Marae & the hotel).
We came up on Marae Taputapuatea & was marveled at the site. I instantly broke out both guide books & used the walking tour (from one of the books) to explain what we were looking at. Unfortunately, neither of my books had a map of the Marae, which would have helped immensely because there were many temples & buildings that had different functions.
We entered the Marae from the beach & instantly saw a rectangular courtyard of black volcanic rock & assumed it was the main temple. We walked all around trying to find the markings and special rocks that my walking tour mentioned, but couldn't really find anything that stood out. We decided after sufficiently exploring this temple that we'd search the grounds to see what else was there.
We found a large area at the center of the Marae that actual had plaques with information (still not a map of the Marae) but helped give a better indication of what we were looking at. We went off again & found each spot noted in my walking tour.
This is one of the most significant temples in all of Polynesia. It is situated at the mouth of Te Ava Moa Pass & fires on the marae were beacons for ancient navigators.
Here are some of the sites we discovered:
Hauvivi – the welcoming platform. This is the most simplistic area in the entire complex & right at the waters edge. Guests would be led to the main temple from this platform to participate in rituals.
Hiti Tai – (we stumbled upon this site as it's really overgrown by fauna, but you could still see the outline of the building). This is a sacred temple where meals were served.
Opu Teina – Was the farewell platform. Departing chiefs would take a stone from this marae to be planted elsewhere, which would also receive the name Marae Taputapuatea. **We took a stone (even though this area was a replica) and will place it at outside the house we eventually buy/build in California (guess our home will have the name Marae Taputapuatea).
Oro's Shrine – this is at the main temple of Taputapuatea. It's an oblong shaped temple and was considered the home of Oro (god of war & fertility). Local lore has it that 4 men were buried alive in an upright position in the temple to guard Oro and keep him from straying.
The Sacrifice Stone – We think we've discovered the correct location, which is about 9 meters from the main temple. It's an obelisk-like basalt slab where unfortunate victims met their fate in a very bloody ceremony. The right eye of the victim was removed for the priest & the left eye was taken for Oro. If the priest deemed the ceremony unworthy, the poor victim was taken to a large upright slab of limestone (resembling an large gravestone) and was scraped against the rough surface until what was left of his body dripped in blood. A great number of human sacrifices took place here. In 1969, during excavation, 5,000 skulls were discovered at the temple site. **I was really surprised to hear of all the human sacrifices here because Tama had insisted that there weren't any human sacrifices in Bora Bora. I just assumed that they lived similar lifestyles, but had different chief & kings. I guess I was mistaken.
After thuroughly discovering Marae Taputapuatea, we went off in search of Hotel Atiapiti. Our guidebook said they had scrumptious lobster & I was really craving a lovely sit down dinner, after making due with what we had in our pantry. We found the small hotel (7 little, self sufficient bungalows) at the end of a dirt path). It was very clean & charming. The owner Marie was on the phone when we arrived, so we walked around the grounds for a bit & waited until she was finished (she was on “island” time and not to concerned that we were waiting).
I eventually sent Curt to ask her about dinner (since he was the one who “claims” to know French). He spoke to her in English (which annoys me to no end because I really wanted to take French lessons before we came on this trip but Curt said we didn't need to because he knew French) & she couldn't understand him (we knew she didn't speak English because the guidebook told us she spoke French, Tahitian and understood very little English). In any case, after their brief interaction, he came back and said she wasn't serving dinner but we could stay for drinks. Curt had Hinano (local Tahitian beer) & I had a glass of white wine. We sat & watched the sun disappear. After our drinks we decided to head back to the boat to make ourselves dinner. Curt paid Marie & used the restroom (their public toilette wasn't working so she let him use one in an empty bungalow).
We were off to the quay in the dark – armed with our flashlights. We made it back to the quay & boarded the dinghy. I held the flashlight while Curt tried to start our engine. It was a bit difficult in the dark, but after many attempts we were off. Back on board I quickly did a Kettle Worx DVD before showering & starting dinner.
After my shower, Curt told me that we had a slight problem. He couldn't find his wallet. He had it at the hotel because he paid for our drinks, counted his change and put it back in his shorts. He thought it may have fallen out of his back pocket when he used the restroom or perhaps it fell out when we were in the dinghy battling with the motor. He called the hotel & left a message for Marie. He told me not to worry about it tonight & that we'd go back first thing in the morning to check the restroom.
I put together dinner with what we had available. I really wished we had purchased fish from a local fisherman or had even purchased frozen fish from the supermarket on our first day. I pulled together dinner with spaghetti, tomato paste (Curt picked this out at the grocery store & told me it was tomato sauce), olives, ham, cheese & milk (my best attempt to turn the paste into a sauce). Curt said it wasn't bad & I instantly responded that it wasn't good either. Dinner was ehhh! I planned on grilling the white bananas with melted nutella for dessert, but we were full on the starchy pasta, so instead we settled in to watch Captain Ron.
After the movie, we turned in early since we had planned to head into the village bright and early in search of the missing wallet. I was so thankful that all our travel documents & passports were safely tucked away in my holding place. I was a bit panicked that we'd be in trouble without Curt's wallet because he had all our Francs & the only thing I had in my wallet was my checkbook, credit cards & debit card (which wouldn't help us a ton since most places only accept cash here since the villages are so tiny).
Rough Seas & the First Mate's Rescue
Day 9 (July 31, 2011):
After I finished yesterday's blog, I managed to get another hour & a half of sleep before Curt woke me up. At 7:30AM he wanted to get an early start since we were heading out of the passage and into the ocean. Our sail to Huahine would take 7 hours (and that estimate was with us motoring most of the way). We untied our boat from the mooring & Curt took us out towards the passage.
I started coffee & breakfast in the kitchen. I was preparing the white bananas to bake in the oven when Curt told me that we were about to hit our first ocean swell & I should just be careful in the kitchen. BOOM...we hit the swell, went up and over the wave and smacked back down pretty hard. “Curt, do you think you could take the waves from more of an angle?” He told me he was doing the best he could but the channel was really narrow, so I'd have to make due for a little.
We spent the next half an hour doing the exact same thing. The waves & swells came one after another & I was crouched in the kitchen doorway (in earthquake ready position) with my hands bracing myself on either side of the sliding door. “Honey, are you sure this is normal for ocean sailing? We're not even going to be able to put the sail up.” We were headed dead into 25 knots of wind, with dark rain clouds up ahead. The swells seemed to almost swallow our 40 foot catamaran (Curt said in actuality there were probably only 10-12 foot swells).
I tried to continue brewing our coffee but stopped when the entire pot almost ended up on the floor (we hit a huge swell while I was pouring the hot water in the pot). I did manage to bake the white bananas & we each had two. With about 6 & ½ more hours ahead of us, I didn't think this would be a very comfortable sail. I hadn't even changed out of my pajamas, brushed my teeth or washed my face yet (basically jumped out of bed to untie the mooring). I didn't think going below was a smart idea because I was still afraid of nausea (although even in the ocean swells I wasn't nauseous at all).
“Curt, will the swells ever let up a bit?” “Is this a smart idea?” “What if it starts to rain or storm?”
I was pretty nervous as our boat was approaching rain clouds up ahead. I imagined that we'd go into survival mode & it would play out like a scene from the Perfect Storm. Curt thought about all my questions for a bit longer and then told me that we were turning back. I told him if he was certain that we'd be safe I could suck it up (we both really wanted to go to Huahine, as it was supposed to be gorgeous). He said he didn't really want to spend the next 6 & ½ hours so uncomfortable & that he'd rather enjoy a relaxing sail.
We turned back & instantly things calmed down. We were now surfing the waves instead of smacking over top of the them. It was still not ideal sailing, but enough so that I managed to get out of my crouched position & climb next to Curt on the captain's bench. Once we were in between the two motu's and safely through the passage, the wind died down to about 15-18 knots. We anchored at the same motu that we successfully managed to anchor at yesterday.
We had anchoring down!! I manned the anchor & the lead, while Curt manned the wheel. Perfectly in sync & a million times better than our first attempt yesterday. The anchor was set & the rain cloud opened up over top of us. We headed inside to come up with a new game plan, since Huahine was out of the question. We decided to keep our anchor set here until after lunch, at which point we'd head back into Haameene Bay (where we anchored last night) & check out the town that was set to the back of the bay (about 10 minutes from where we anchored & completely out of the wind).
The first set of rain clouds passed & the sun came out. We put on our bathing suits, lathered up with lotion & took our books/magazines out to the trampoline. We spent about an hour working on our tans & catching up on reading. I headed inside & heated up our leftover tuna & macaroni. Once lunch was over, we fed the fish with our giant baguette. There were a lot of fish near the motu & they were coming in schools for bread.
After feeding the fish an entire baguette, Curt decided to go for a snorkel. We both couldn't go at the same time, since we lost our mask the day before, so I encouraged him to go and shoot some video of the fish. He was in the water for about 2 minutes when he came up franticly and asked me to guess what was at the bottom. I instantly got nervous that he was going to tell me there was a giant shark below us. He didn't wait for an answer & blurted out that our snorkel mask was directly below the boat.
What are the odds that we'd anchor over the exact spot where the mask ended up? We were in 5 meters of water & Curt thought he could dive down to retrieve them with our boat hook. He made three valiant attempts & almost had it but his flipper came off. I told him it wasn't worth it and worried that he'd smack his head on one of the pontoons when he swam up quickly.
He came back on board & I asked if he wanted me to give it a shot. He told me where it was and what I needed to do. I put on my flippers, my mask & swam in between the pontoons with the boat hook in my hand. I made sure there weren't any giant sharks waiting for me at the bottom, took a deep breath in and dove down to the bottom. I managed to snag the mask with the boat hook, but it slipped off. I swam down a little deeper, felt a lot of pressure on my ears & gave it one last shot before I came up for air. E VOILA...in my first dive I was successful. Curt was really impressed (& probably a bit jealous that I was the one to rescue our snorkel mask). We both couldn't believe our luck of anchoring directly over top of the mask. We pulled up our anchor & set off for our next destination. I was feeling super confident after my successful dive that I offered to take us in to the bay. I think Curt nearly fell on the floor. He told me I've come a long way from our first day on the boat & I felt really good about actually earning my title as “first mate.”
I took us all the way into the bay, dropped the anchor & we assessed whether we wanted to take the dinghy over to the town to check it out, another rain cloud was over top of us. We waited out the rain & chatted about the town, with a glass of white wine in hand. This rainstorm was really short and we decided that the town looked too sleepy to check out (it was Sunday and many places looked dark inside).
We pulled up the anchor and headed out to the mouth of the bay & another rain cloud was over top of us. I asked Curt if we should set the anchor again and he told me we were moving on. I gave him his foul weather gear (really just the poncho from the St. Regis) & he began to navigate his way back to the island of Raiatea (where we picked up our boat).
Our plan was to explore the east side of the island & anchor for the night in Faaroa Bay. Curt motored along because he said we had a lot of ground to cover to make it to our anchoring spot by sundown, so motoring was our best option...I was bummed we hadn't had the sail out at all today. I opened up our guide books and checked out things to do on the East Coast of Raiatea. For this afternoon, we wouldn't be able to do any of the fun things that I found, but we'd get an early start in the morning to check them all out. Somehow I thought we'd be able to see & do it all with our 5 day boat rental. I think if you actually wanted to see the 5 main Leeward Islands you would need about 2-3 weeks with the boat, which would account for long sails & days actually exploring land.
We motored past the capitol city. It was actually supposed to have some decent shopping, a variety of restaurants and seemed to have people bustling about (even on a Sunday). We decided we stop their for lunch on August 3rd, after we returned our boat to Sunsail. We passed Passe Teavaapati, which was supposed to have grey sharks, morey eels, barracuda & other fish swimming in it's dark waters. We didn't have time to stop and snorkel at the nearby motu, so I sat at the front of the boat with my toes hanging over (hoping to attract some sharks & sea life). I had my camera in hand & was ready to capture something...anything, but the only thing I saw bobbing around was a mooring near the motu.
I manned the wheel for a bit, which gave Curt some down time to take some pictures and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. The sun had been shining since we exited Haameene Bay & the afternoon was superb for sailing. I really wished that we could put our sails up for a bit, but it was already 4PM & we had to have our anchor set securely by 5PM.
We entered Faaroa Bay & the wind dropped to about 7-8 knots. This was an ideal spot to set our anchor for the night & essentially promised that I may actually get my first good sleep since we boarded the boat. We took our boat near the entrance of the river (the only river in the Leeward Islands) & set our anchor. We were in 10 meters of water & Curt wanted to make sure that we were properly set for the night, so I let out 140 turns on the winch. I set the anchor lead & we were letting out a bit more rode when we reached the end of our chain (not a big deal because we had 20m of rope after the chain). The only hitch was that the knot at the end of the rope was a bit large to go through the turn into the winch. We made some minor adjustments to the anchor lead & rode...e voila PERFECTLY set for the night.
I wanted to take our dinghy into the river to check out the hibiscus & the botanical garden, but Curt said the sun would set soon. Instead I prepared cheese & crackers, poured us some wine & we enjoyed the sunset. There were giant clouds over the tops of the mountains, so the sun set just shining it's light through the clouds. The light was beautiful, with lots of blues, purples & pinks shining through the clouds and onto the water. I took many pictures.
After the sunset, I decided I must squeeze a Kettle Worx workout in before dinner (I skipped the past two days – 1st day Marseille was on the boat & I really didn't want to work out in front of him & the 2nd day I got sea sick around the time I had planned to workout). Tonight's resistance workout was just what I needed to end the day.
While I showered, Curt prepped the veggies for our dinner. I made a delicious coconut curry sauce that I mixed with carrots, peas, onions and rice. It was very tasty & felt very Tahitian. Once our leisurely dinner was finished, we checked our navigation system to make sure we weren't drifting (I have been insisting we do this even though Curt is certain we won't drag the anchor) and settled on the trampoline to finish Avatar.
Even though it had rained periodically during the day, the night had beautifully clear skies & the stars were shining brightly. Even though we opted not to take the journey to Huahine, we both agreed that today was a huge success. Curt told me I was impressing him with how well I've adapted to life on a boat.
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