AdventuresAboardAvatar: Sail to Tahiti

After waiting several days for the winds to lay down below 25 knots, we finally left Fakarava on June 11. The conditions were still not great, but we had to get to Tahiti for paperwork. We motored out of the North entrance, based on the tides I had gotten in Nuku Hiva, but we were about an hour late, as we had our anchor chain wrapped around a bommie! The current was making fairly large standing waves in the center, so we tucked over to the West side of the channel and missed most of the big waves. I did not get a picture of those waves because we were too busy making sure we did not get too close to shore and were driving up and down the waves best we could.

Once outside the channel the sea state settled right down and we rolled out the jib and started sailing. Jade and Morning Light were ahead of us. When we got to the end of the atoll and were entering open ocean, the seas got a bit bumpy again. Under jib alone we were sailing 7.5 knots in 15 to 20 knots of wind with a SE swell of about 10 feet. We could not used the main sail because several of the rivets holding the sail track to the mast had broken. We were afraid if we tried to use it, they may all have come off like a big zipper and we could loose not only the track, but our brand new main sail as well, so in the bag it staid! About 10pm that night we tried to roll up some of the jib, but the wind was strong and tangled up the jib sheets (lines to pull it in and out with). The wind had picked up to 30 and we only had a small amount of sail rolled out, but no way to bring it in, so we just prayed the sail did not shred in the night. Both Jade and Morning Light decided to heave to (a way to stop the boat when conditions get really bad), but because we had no main sail, we could not make that maneuver and had to keep going. This was the most wind we had seen since leaving Mexico! The gimballed stove, rolls with the swells and a few times it swung up in the air, but always staying level. It does show how far over the boat was healed as some of those big SE swells rolled under us!

In the middle of the night we had one big swell that rolled us pretty good and got water all over the deck and splashed the cockpit. By the next morning the wind had subsided back to 15-20 and we were doing 4-5 knots with our flogging piece of sail out that would not roll up. Thank God, Fritz, our windvane was steering the boat quite well. By the morning of June 13 we were 30 miles off Point Venus in Tahiti. As we approached the island at sunrise, we saw all the lights of the city. As we got closer we could see all of the people traffic, Ferries going to other islands and planes taking people back to where ever they came from. There were also several ships waiting for the pilot boat to take them into the harbor.

We motored around to the pass near Marina Taina. The surf on the South side of the channel entrance is apparently world class and there were boats anchored just outside the channel with no people, just surfers in the water. The North side also had some waves, but the pass was relatively flat and easy to pass through. The French do a great job of keeping up all the channel marks and it was easy to follow the path around the reefs and shallow waters toward the Marina. We passed one lovely home with a nice trawler anchored out front. Wondered how long ago he had come here with his boat?! At the marina there were several VERY large sailing yachts. They had anchored out as well as lines provided by the marina and were stern to the dock, Med Moor style. All the slips in the marina are that way. No finger piers to tie up to, just lines from their heavy anchor chain and backed into the dock. The marina was quite full and we anchored just past it on the inland side of the channel. We watched the sun set behind Mo'orea as it turned the sky a glorious orange. Jade and Morning Light made it in the next evening.

We got all our paperwork done right away with Tahiti crew. Then we headed downtown to Pape'ete (which means water basket) to the Haute Commissioners office where we dropped off our papers for our “Carte de Jour” (our one year visa!) This was already approved, from when we applied back in January at the Embassy in Mexico City. All we had to do was drop off the appropriate forms and photos and in less than a week we got our papers, yea!!

We toured a bit around Pape'ete and took photos of some of the sights. There was a statue of a tattooed man at one of the shopping areas and some of the streets are blocked off from cars, only for walking. They were done up in mosaic tiles showing off some of the fish and critters we had seen when snorkeling. The big red glassed structure is the open air market. This is a well known place with fresh veggies and meats, places to eat lunch, and shop for arts and crafts. It was a lovely place and the prices quite good compared to the grocery stores. Several of the downtown houses had lovely carved doors too, with a sea turtle and a lady preparing bread fruit. We stopped in at the well known sailor hang out, the Bora Bora Bar. I had my photo taken with one of the pirates and Scotty took a photo of us behind the face board structure. We saw many fabulous arts and crafts made from wood and pearls. There are several stone carvings and murals painted on buildings down town which make it very festive. One of the whale, reminded us of the Waylan whale painting in La Paz. The other is of the asleep and awake god. At Marina Taina, they have several cool ship artifacts, including this big old anchor and cannon.

The day Sea Otter Jimmy arrived, we had a big reunion dinner aboard Patsy's boat Talion. All of us had come from La Paz, and Jimmy flew in to welcome us, with much needed outboard parts for all of us! Thanks Jimmy!

Before heading to the downtown marina to do our mast repair, we went back to the pass to check out the very impressive surf. The waves had increased in size since we got there and were loudly pounding on the reef. The waves were spectacular, especially with Mo'orea in the background.