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Thursday, September 1, 2016

Still in Mo'orea

Turns out, we still have some friends to hang out with, Rick and Jasna on Calypso!! They have already been in French Polynesia for 2.5 years! Of course anyone with a European visa can stay as long as they like. But the catch is, if you stay longer than 3 years with your boat, then they want you to pay to import your boat. So usually that is when it is a good idea to leave.

We hung out at the head of Bay D'Opuaneau inside the reef, right off the white sand beach park. The rainbows were breath taking! This place is incredibly beautiful!! There are several trees that grow flowers in them. When the wind blows the flowers blow away and land in the water, floating by the boat. It kind of just adds to the beauty, really!

Little Sophie likes going everywhere with us and we took her on several kayak rides or paddle board rides, since she could not go ashore. On a snorkel right near the boat, over by the beach, I saw some amazing sites. There was one rock that was completely covered with Anoemonies. These are slimy, 1000 finger looking creatures, that wave in the current. And usually there is some type of clown fish, or Anoemone fish who lives there and guards it. The first one I saw only had a baby, a little blue and white spotted fish. But one had a fairly large, Yellowtailed Orangefin Anemonefish. He even dashed out in front of me, but never far from his guard spot. I saw Raccoonfish, which have a mask too. The Sixbar Wrasse has a pink star around his eye. The Moorish Idol, which is our favorite, has a long dorsal fin on his black and yellow body. Then, I saw a turtle!! I followed him on the bottom for a bit, then watched as he surfaced to take a breath of air. I think that is when he saw me, and he darted off with just a few flips of his flippers. It was an amazing snorkel and right next to the boat!!

We were all invited to ATMOS from Amsterdam for a Bastille Day (July 14) party. This is France's Independence day and there are always big festivals. But this was just a potluck anchorage party on their lovely 60 foot yacht. She is a very Dutch looking boat with a canoe stern and flush fordeck for dance parties. There were quite a few people there and we all had a fabulous time. Not to mention the boat was immaculate!

Calypso and we decided to head back to Tahiti to see the rest of the Heiva festival, which goes on all month of July. Also they were going back to pick up a part for their engine, a new head! Rick has his work cut out for him. So on the way it was so gorgeous, we took photos of each other. They look so lovely with Moorea in the background! Sophie was driving the boat and asked us, when are we going to get this autopilot cable fixed so I don't have to steer all the time? Then Calypso caught up to us, and we noticed Jasna up the mast, underway!. She and Rick are both professional writers and photographers. (At the moment they have the best selling sailing book on Amazon!!) So she took some amazing photos of Avatar undersail for us. It was so awesome of her! We thought the race was on from there to Tahiti, but we found out later they were trying to fly their Parasail (like a big kite that goes out in front of the boat when sailing downwind). Unbeknownst to us they were not being successful, and we zoomed away from them. Think the wind may not have been cooperating.

As we approach Tahiti, we are back in the big city and we have to duck for airplanes! We saw a big dead head (a floating tree) made of a huge piece of bamboo! Who knows where that came from! This is why we must always keep a sharp look out! Not a good idea to run into one of these things. As we entered the channel, a young boy on a sporty paddle board paddled like mad and caught up with us and grabbed ahold. Mike announced, “we have a hitch hiker.” He was a pretty cute Polynesian kid! I think he thought he was cool because he was waving to his friends like, “see ya”!! We all had a good giggle and then he went on his way.

Rainbow over beach park

Flowers in the trees on the hill

Flowers blow all the way down to the bay

Many kinds of flowers float by the boat

Miguel takes Sophie for a paddle

Anemone

baby clown fish

Same fish

Grown up clown or anemone fish

Fish away from their posts at the anemone

raccon fish

Six bar wrass

Moorish Idol

Sea Turtle!!

Sea Turtle looking for a bit to eat

heading up for a breath of air

Sea Turtle swims away

Atmos from Holland

She is a lovely boat!

Potluck party aboard Atmos

lots of people

Rick, Jasna & Shelly

Jasna and Rick dance on the fordeck

Shelly and Miguel dancing

Everyone enjoying the party

Calypso sailing past Moorea

close up can you believe the mountains?!

Monta Puta in the back ground looks like a woman blowing up to the sky

Sophie at the helm

Jasna up the mast of Calypso

The photos she took of Avatar

From up the mast it looks like an aerial photo!

Shelly on the bow

I love this shot with Moorea in the background

Shelly on the bow still

Sailing towards Tahiti

Calypso under full sail

duck for airplanes!

huge bamboo log

our young paddle board hitch hiker

he was a fast paddler!!

Bon Voyage Party

Our friends and family all flown back home now, it was time for the gang to get ready and have a good old fashioned raft up. After getting stocked up on fresh foods, we sailed back to Moorea where we all met up in Bay D'Opuneau. This place epitomizes the South Sea dream with giant cliffed mountains and deep green growth on everything. We were greeted with our arrival of a lovely rainbow, first pointing at Morning Light, then at Jade. I was sure it was a sign our friends will be watched over on the next part of their passage. You see, they all only got 90 day visas and by 2 weeks from now, they will all need to be checked out of the country and moving on. But we went through all the paperwork and hoopla back in January and we got the one year vias, so we were staying behind.

The next morning everyone's boat was glistening in the morning sun in this spectacular backdrop, so Mike went out in the dingy and took shots of all of us. The sea was like glass so we got out the kayaks and paddle board to get some exercise. These are some of our toys be brought, which deflate and store in the V-berth. Talion had made it late the night before, and was rafted to Jade. Pasty had her new crew aboard ready to head of to Hawaii the next day. Mike, Patsy's crew and I, all volunteered to help with the bottom cleaning before they left for passage. It was amazing to me how much more underwater surface Jade had than Talion, but that is a full keel for ya. So the party was on, pot luck dinner on Talion! It was a reunion of sorts with Nana, one of the Jade crew from the crossing was able to be there as well. Yes I am sure we all drank a bit too much that night, but old friends who crossed an ocean together were parting ways and who knows when or where we will see each other again. This is the hard part of cruising, letting your friends go, so you can meet up again and swap some salty yarns. Sophie was tired the next morning, of course we had to have her at the party, she made the crossing too!

The next morning Scotty went on an exploratory paddle board and kayak with Mike and I, under the bridge and up the river. Lots of people live up stream and there is plenty of jungle growing along the banks. The glassiness of the water was reflecting the jagged peaks on the bay and was a spectacular sight. Seriously drop dead gorgeous.

The good byes are always hard, but so important. Never forget to tell your friends how you really love them and wish them safe passage. Whether by sea or land! As Pedro on Jade and Scotty on Morning Light hoisted anchor and sailed out the bay, we tried to blow our Conch horn. It looks good, but did not sound too good. We gotta practice this more! The sun has set as our friends sail away over the horizon. It is a new start for us too. We got 9 more months to spend in French Polynesia! Woo Hoo!