New Zealand, Port Opua

All in all the trip from Tonga to New Zealand was good. Lumpy and smooth, windy and calm. We arrived at the customs dock in Port Opua at about 1:00pm on Nov 6 and after all of the "whoop-lau" amongst the boating community as to how strict they were with boats entering into their conuntry, a "few packages of chicken taken" later and some pleasant chatter, we were done with customs and pulling into our slip at the marina. Nice! Dinner out was in order as five days at sea left Paule and I very sick of holding pots on the stove. We can't stop from grinning, New Zealand is so very beautiful, but reminds us soooooo much of home, especially Salt Spring Island in the Gulf Islands of B.C., we seriously think we are back on the West Coast of Canada! People are friendly, there are things to buy in the grocery stores, there are clothing stores and restaurants that serve familiar foods and on and on and on. It's just nice to have the option to buy, doesn't mean we have too. Port Opua is in the area of New Zealand called the Bay of Islands. This whole area is on the north east side of N.Z. close to the top of the north island. It is considered the "playground" here. The towns of Paihia and Russel are very close by. We rented a car for two days and toured around. We found a couple of winerys and expect to discover more of these, a choclate factory, a cheese factory, some historical sites - this is where the first Europeans built in 1819 and where the treaty between the Maoris and the Europeans was signed allowing the White guys to live here and we've seen endless square miles of astoundingly beautiful landscape. The bridges in the country side (I mean the real rural areas) are one laned and we had to wait at one of these while a farmer and his dogs herded a bunch of sheep and lambs on to their next paddock. Kind of fun and of course the farmer on his quad stopped to talk to us for a bit. Local insite is always the best. We stopped for lunch at one little place and were tickled to find an antique Rolls Royce club had a ralley with this same spot as their destination. We always have time to admire beautiful old cars. We've checked out the "oldest" and therefore "biggest" kauri tree alive, 2000 plus years and 51 meters high (that's what the sign said!)
 
Tomorrow we will head south to the town of Whangarei, by boat, and will spend a week exploring that area. We think that most of our discoveries here will be done by car on land as opposed to by boat from the water. Many of our sailboat friends have arrived in N.Z. now so we've been busy greeting them and Oso Blanco is already in Auckland, so we'll be catching up with them again soon. A few of our aquaintances are yet to come, but soon all foreign boats will be in N.Z., away from the cyclone season in the South Pacific, enjoying summer in this gorgeous country.

Tonga to New Zealand

We are into day 4 of our passage. The conditions to begin with were not so great, 2.5 to 3.5 Meter swell, at 8 second intervals, with wind waves and 15 to 20 knots of wind. The four of us went through many packages of crackers in order to keep our stomachs settled (Glen and I just ate crackers because we were hungry). Yesterday and today, today especially, was/is beautiful. Currently we are running at 1502 RPM, getting speeds of 9 knots on the most fantastically smooth ocean water we have ever seen in the wide open. Granted the swell is still about 2 Meters, but the interval is about 12 seconds and the wind speed is 3 knots so the water is smooth, like driving over a gently rolling prairie. Perfect conditions for we power boaters, but not so great for our sail boat friends. We have roughly 36 more hours to go and we hope that this weather stays with us all the way. I've had to dig out my jeans though, as the farther south we go, the lower the temperature gets. Evening temps have been 17 degrees and day time has been 20 degrees. It is still just spring in the southern hemisphere.

We are stuffing ourselves as best we can with meat (and of course other things) as our freezers are still very well stocked and the New Zealand Customs will not allow fresh/frozen meats, vegis and numerous other types of food into the country. We will literally roll off the boat onto the dock for inspection. We also have a fair quantity of alcohol to declare (over personal limits by a lot - even with four of us) so we may have to have a binge drinking session prior to docking and in that case, we won't care if we roll, bounce or slide in, will we.

Our current position is 30.02.627 S and 178.21.308 W and and we have run out of satellite service on both our KVH and Iridium. So no emails and no weather reports. It is rather disconcerting to be so, so, isolated. Hopefully by tomorrow we will have some service again. We're just hoping that the navigation satellites have coverage way down here, or we may have to dust off our charts and manual navigation tools. (Now which compartment did I put those in for safe keeping?)

So a reflection on our season spent in French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga. It has been amazing to view these countries and their cultures from the street/sea as it is so different from visiting via resorts. Each country's landscape is different from the next and each is awesome in it's own right. All of the people have been interesting. The Samoans and Tongans are the most friendly and generous people we have met to date, everybody says Hello to everybody. The last time I was home to Calgary, I found myself greeting strangers on the street in the same way, only to be stared at like I had lost my mind! We North Americans could use a friendliness refresher course. We only met Api and James from Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, but if they are representative of their countrymen, then the Cook Islands rate right up there too. Now we are on to our next adventure in New Zealand.

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Weather Window Wait in Tonga

John, one of the fellows that helped us on our Pacific crossing, was supposed to join us here in Nuku'alofa and do the crossing from Tonga to New Zealand. He was looking forward to a bit of diving, sightseeing, warm weather and so on along with the ocean experience. BUT he got tangled up in a hockey game and somebody ran over his hand with a skate causing enough damage that he couldn't come out. So we recruited Don and Paule (husband and wife) recommended to us by our friend and travel agent Deb (Don is her brother). They are from the Yukon and are avid outdoor sports people well used to the waters of northern B.C. and Alaska. We get them all cleared in and out of the country, but we still have to wait for weather to calm so we all take an island tour.

Tiny will be our guide/driver, he is more expensive than the other taxi guys, but he speaks good English and he is a funny guy. He weighs about 350 lbs so his name is fitting? The island is small, but Tiny has a full 6 hr day planned for us. We see the King's palace from the outside, it is being renovated for his Mother to live in, the royal cemetery, the first church, the local business areas, some more cemeteries and the agricultural areas. As we travel, Tiny provides lively commentary about politics both old and new in Tonga, the people, their customs and current conditions and he answers our many questions and takes a good deal of kidding about everything, especially his rendition of traditional legends. He took us to a magnificent under ground cave with fresh water pools and then to see the famous "flying foxes" of Tonga, huge fruit bats that hang in trees during the day. We were going to do some four wheeling on the beach, but Tiny's truck decided that today was not the day and promptly sunk to the axles in the powdery sand, not 10 feet off of the road. So we all piled out to push and with the help of some passers by managed to get the vehicle back on to the road. We had a good time teasing Tiny about that. He made it up to us by taking us to a nice resort for lunch (we paid, but it was very good) and then we went to the "blow holes" the greatest feature of the day and they were truly amazing. We probably could have spent the day just there. The steep rock cliffs have been battered by the ocean for so long and water has formed tunnels through the porous rock such that when the waves pound against the cliffs, the water shoots high into the air through these holes. Beautiful and awesome to see. When our day of touring is done and we are busy thanking Tiny for our fun he invites us to a Sunday feast at his house. We are all genuinely touched and accept.

Sunday after church, we had to let Don and Paule experience the Tongan choirs, we meet Tiny and head to his house. We have a cooler full of cold drinks and excess meat that will be confiscated upon our entry to New Zealand. Tiny and his family may as well enjoy it. Tiny and his family set before us a true feast, roast suckling pig, sweet potatoe, taro leaves and corned beef (a must try), raw fish salad, sashimi of another type of fish, cucumber salad and papaya desert. Delicious! We are so honored to be invited to these personal gatherings. We are learning so much from our travels about the generosity of others. Our Thank you's seem insignificant in return.

Monday, Nov 1, 2010, we have a window to leave and we haul anchor and head for New Zealand. All things considered and God willing, we will be there in 5 and a half days. We're on the water again.

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Bits and Pieces of Tonga

While we were in Neiafu on Vava'u, we meet a colorful couple from Banff, Alberta. They are the owners of the "Giggling Whale and the Tipsy Turtle" a happening little restaurant and bar. Sandy and Cathy come to Vava'u every year for six months to run the restaurant and their small guest house while they ultimately enjoy the Tongan winter (30 plus degrees in tropical beauty - tough!). Then they rush back to Alberta, Canada to wallow in our winter months while they put their hands to the ski industry in Banff and Lake Louise. They certainly like extremes! Being the great Canadian advocates that we are, we quickly found them out by noticing the "Ski Louise" sticker on their restaurant door. Great people, fully engaged in their Tonga community, they offer the local school children an evening to perform their traditional dance and music at the restaurant, a very popular event for the traveling yachties and a great way for the kids to generate donations for their education (school is only free until 7th level). Meeting Sandy and Cathy broadened our experience of Vava'u which makes traveling that much more special. They came for a BBQ on the boat and we of course attended their restaurant. Cathy took us shopping, which is an adventure in itself, you go to one little shack with bars on the window/counter to buy hard to find North American products, you go to a store 6 blocks up and one over to get good meat, you back track 3 blocks for the store with best cheezes and yet another store for the best bakery selections. For fresh produce, the local market is the best place for selection of seasonal items and the best price, plus Glen really has a good time teasing all the shop ladies, young and old, as he searches for the ultimate tasting watermelon. Sandy just does everything and anything for anybody that needs help. You need it? Sandy can find it.

Upon arriving at Nuku'alofa on Tongatapu, we anchored the boat with the herd of sail boats off of the beach on a small island across from the commercial wharf. On the island is Big Mama's Resort, a rustic pole building with sand floors and a ceiling filled with flags from every corner of the world, signed by the boaters that presented them. Mama's strives to make everybody's life easy by providing free internet, garbage disposal and of course cold beer and easy pub food. They also have a water taxi service to the main island where the town of Nuku'alofa is. She held a big birthday feast for the resort while we were there complete with the traditional roast suckling pig. Very nice and well attended - the food was free, you paid for your drinks.

The weather is not so nice at this point in Nuku'alofa, the wind is a steady 15 to 20 knots and the water is constantly whipped into steep white caps. A trip by dingy to the main island is maddness and travel in the whaler is a guaranteed salt water bath, but we have to go there so you just do it. We picked up our boat parts and Jeff got the boat all tuned up. We are crossing our fingers, but so far the smoking is greatly reduced. Jeff really was loving life, we went diving and eating and checking out the town. We enjoyed having him on the boat too, he turned out to be good company and a knowledgeable boat hand as well as a talented mechanic (the reason he was sent here for). Arranging a taxi for his trip to the airport on his departure was easy as the drivers hang out at the dingy dock ready to offer their services as soon as you set foot on land.

This is our last port of call before New Zealand, so we have to clear customs, immigration and so on here. There are a lot of boats expected in the next short period of time, all preparing for the 1100 mile crossing. The ideal is to clear in and out of the port at the same time as you have three different stops to make in order to get all of the paperwork done and the offices are at opposite sides of the town. You also get your duty free fuel paper at the clearing out stage. The catch is that when the officials have cleared you out of the country, they want you gone within 24 hrs. But as boaters, we have to wait for weather conditions to be safe and they are a moving target, obsessed over at length by all boaters, we need to have everything done and prepared so that when the conditions are right we can leave on a moments notice. With clearance proceedures taking the better part of a day and fueling appointments the better part of the next day as you have to wait for high tide to access the fuel dock, there is nothing spontainious about the leaving process, thus we all strive to have everything done in advance. As it turned out it took two days for us to clear customs as the officer would not clear us in and out at the same time because we came in the afternoon, if we had come in the morning we could have cleared in and out, so we had to return the next "morning" to clear out and get our fuel paper. Diesel is $2.49/ltr normally and $1.53/ltr duty free, well worth the wait. So with all of the boring stuff done, we settle in to wait for our weather window (we need 5 good days) to begin our journey. As things unfold, we get to wait a whole week. But we won't have any problem filling the time.

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Home and Back and Plans Change

Our next two days out at anchor provide us with two very, very interesting dives. We decided to dive on the bump in the water that we almost ran into on our way to this anchorage days before. Being only 13 feet deep at the shallowest point, it was easy to secure the whaler as we could target the rock we wanted the anchor to hook on by sight from above. A truly amazing world unfolded before us on this little world of it's own. The fish and coral life was so astonishing that we dove the same location the next day and still came up thrilled with what we had found.

In this anchorage there is a small floating art shop and a small Spanish restaurant. We visited the art shop and came away with a cute little painting, lots of local knowledge and the promise of a banana and coconut delivery for the next day. We were getting tired of my cooking and I guess Glen's cooking too as he is the BBQ king so decided that dinner out at La Paella was in order. So we made our reservation by calling on VHF channel 11 and at the appointed time pulled up at the beach with the whaler, took a few minutes to tie it to a tree forward and stern anchor the rear, then headed up the hill for a flavorful and interesting evening. The Spanish family that owns and runs the restaurant have lived in Tonga for 30 years. They have a quaint little restaurant, rustic and charming that overlooks the bay for added ambiance. They keep life simple by offering a set menu which consists of a series of tasty little morsels served tapa style one after the other followed by a flavorful Paella and a locally inspired desert. You can buy wine or beer there or bring your own. The food was both good and satisfying, Mrs. is the cook. The proprietors are diverse and talented, when it came time for the entertainment (live music is featured nightly) Mr. came on stage, flamboyantly dressed with guitar in hand and serenaded us with a spicy collection of Spanish/Cuban/Latin music with a few old rock songs thrown in for measure (he definitely appeared like he had once been part of the "scene"). To our pleasant surprise, when harmony and added percussion were needed for the music, Mrs. and her cook's helper (a local man) came on stage and added their gifts to the mix. We had to leave early as a big rain storm was threatening and since we didn't have our "wet suits" on we decided to go. This meant that we were going to miss the second set of entertainment which was to feature their dancing nanny goat, but the young fellow serving us didn't think the goat would be performing well as she was hiding because of the impending rain. She did make a hasty appearance, trotting through the restaurant, giving us all a "wild eye" and promptly high tailing it again. What a great evening and we did make it back before the waters broke loose from the heavens yet again.

Next it was back to Neiafu harbor. I was scheduled to fly home for seven days (which I did) and Glen had a long list of little items to fix up (which he did) as well as wait for the diesel mechanic to come in from San Diego. Woo Hoo, we will finally be rid of the smoking and soot problems (we sincerely hope anyway). Upon my return, Glen is almost local now. As we walk down the street to the market all kinds of people call out to him and wave, he has stories and more stories to tell of all the things he has involved himself in. It sounds like he had a lot of fun. The parts for the boat did not arrive with the mechanic, Jeff, so the two of them have done the prep work on the boat and Glen has been showing Jeff around.

Here is the change of plans. The parts for the boat have been located in Nuku'alofa on Tongatapu (main city and capital of Tonga) so instead of risking further delay and loss, we have decided to head to Nuku'alofa, a 20 hour run, and pick them up personally. So with Jeff on board we head out. This decision means that we will totally bypass the Ha'apai group of islands in Tonga, which is sad as some very good diving is reported to be there and we really don't want to miss anything. But along with the parts thing, there is some stronger weather coming in and Ha'apai Group doesn't offer much secure/protected anchorage so it is for the best that we bypass this beautiful little piece of the South Pacific. So we'll compensate by exploring Tongatapu Group more extensively. Right now, I am watching a beautiful dawn transform the horizon from night to day.

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Beer on the Beach

Our jaunt to the beach for Happy Hour was a sweet change of pace. Once we figured out how to tie the whaler off so it didn't bash up onto the beach and become high and dry as it was a receding tide, all was calm and peaceful. To our pleasant surprise, the beach turned out to be two sided, beach on the side that we tied up and a very short walk (100 steps) up and over a bump and we were on a beach on the other side of the island. So we had a walk on the sunny side and then a quite beer on the shady side. A small herd of goats joined us in our relaxing.

We moved to a new anchorage off of the beaten track of the Moorings Fleet that plies these waters (charter boats) and were rewarded with a very serene and beautiful setting. The Vava'u Group here in Tonga is a collection of small islands joined by reefs and narrow waterways resulting in nearly 100 cozy anchorages. The landscape is high rocky cliffs next to white sandy beaches, a perfect play ground. The weather was calm and sunny and the water below us reflected the sandy bottom for a swimming pool effect. Only us in the whole bay. We snorkeled the nearby reef and spotted quite a few new fishes and coral species that we haven't encountered before. As divers, our greatest thrill is finding the rare, the unexpected and the new. I am convinced that this is the perfect location to find the elusive "frog fish", it looks like a yellow/orange sponge, so this is my mission while underwater.

We've moved again to another lovely spot. This one is a bit more boat populated. We have our most calm and perfect conditions to date. The water is truly "glass" calm, you can see the star fish on the sandy bottom as clear as day, the sun is shining and there is a "breath" of moving air. When it is like this, you can't imagine being anywhere else and because it is so fleeting, you absorb as much of it as you can. The clouds rolled in for the afternoon while we were out trying to find a suitable dive spot, getting lost in the labyrinth of surface crashing reefs, and the skys opened up and water poured forth. Good thing we had our wet suits on as we certainly got wet. Navigating in these parts, even in a small boat, is best done in high light conditions so that you can see the color variations of the water and therefore the depths. With the dark sky and rough water conditions, we definitely could not tell where the shallow spots were (don't want to run aground), we headed back to the big boat. Today it is still overcast, but we aren't complaining, it is still warm and wonderful. We'll use lat/long coordinates to get to our chosen dive site for today.

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Vava'u, Tonga

The last part of our crossing from Niuatoputapu to Vava'u was some of the smoothest water we have seen since our Mexico/Nuka Hiva trip. As close as you can come to "glass" in this huge undulating body of water, and three to four knots of wind. So we arrived rather fresh and made our way into Neiafu harbor. Not surprisingly, the charts for this area are NOT accurate (go figure, they were charted in the 1800's) so it is good we had good light to enter the narrow, dog leg passage. If we were to go by charts, we drove well over the land all the way in. The big bay was calm and smooth and packed with boats of all kinds. We anchored by Ammonite, dropped the whaler and made ready to go do our customs clearing process. First, find a dingy dock that is kind enough to let us tie up and walk through the small, but busy town to the customs dock. Customs is closed until 1:30 O.K. so we go have lunch and chat with a few lost buddies and go back to customs again. After two different stops and two different desks in one place, we are done. There is nothing hard about this, it just takes the better part of the day to do and the tedious part is that you have to check in and check out of each of these islands.

There are many small restaurants and pubs along the water front, all seem to be owned by different nationalities, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Italy and the U.S. It is however refreshing to be able to go out and mix with all of the other boaters. So this town is not culturally interesting or scenic, but very social. There are a couple of grocery stores, but don't expect to buy much more than canned stuff. The local market is not large, but has a very nice selection of good seasonal fruits and vegetables.

After a couple of days of eating and drinking too much, we head out to see what this group of islands is all about. They are a pretty collection, with little sandy beaches dotting all around and many reef systems that create protection from the elements, but are very tricky to navigate. There are also a million boats here, probably because of all the above. A million sailboats and from what we have counted, three power boats. We are a definite minority and that is one of the things that makes this adventure so special, because we CAN do it!. So we find ourselves a cozy anchorage to call base and set about finding some good diving. Wow!! The diving is actually fantastic! Not a lot of fish, but the coral gardens are amazing. Healthy, large, abundant and on and on. A virtual kaleidoscope of color greets your eyes. There is so much to look at, you don't know where to look first. So the next week is going to be spent underwater, filling our senses with color. We heard the whales on two of our dives, but no sightings yet, I think we are getting close to the end of whale season now.

We have found a tiny, private, sandy beach bordered by turquoise water where we are going to have Happy Hour tonight. We are looking forward to sand in our toes.

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Three Villages on Niuatoputapu

Our walk to the Western Union Bank is entertaining. First we have to power the dingy over to the main wharf (a long dirt embankment extending out into the lagoon) and find a parking spot. This simple task is complicated by the fact that the much awaited supply boat has finally arrived (three weeks late) and most of the island's inhabitants are on the wharf helping to unload the much needed everyday essentials, mail and donated construction materials. There is a baker on the island, but he has been unable to make any bread for the last week as he has not had any flour! This island is isolated! Anyway, we manage to find a rock to tie up to and head out for the bank. We have been told that it is in the last village, we are currently in the first village, then there is the middle village and the bank is in the third village. The villages of course all have names, but they are finger twisters (tongue twisters too) and the locals mostly refer to them as 1,2,3 to "palangi" (white people) like us. The hard packed white sand road is very busy with traffic today, but all vehicles are piled with goods or people. Finally one truck stops and offers us a ride which we gratefully accept as it is beastly hot out. Two seconds later he drops us off at two little white buildings that look like any number of other little white buildings scattered over the island and says the second one is the bank and the first one is customs. Now the bank does have a computer and there is a desk/counter, but they do not do cash advances on credit cards/debit cards, however they will convert U.S. dollars to the local currency. Very luckily for us we happen to have some of that stuff in our wallet (US $). Cash in hand, we pay our entrance fee to customs then wait for the health officer to collect us to go over to the makeshift hospital (old Methodist church) to pay the health fee. She thankfully gives us a ride back to the wharf with a side stop at the "store" (very loose term for small building with not much in it) for some water, which they are just unpacking from the ship. I say all of this in detail, boring as it is, to show that this simple task that we take so for granted in Canada, has taken us the better part of the day. We get back to the boat in time for me to prepare a "dish to share" for the pot luck dinner being held for the boaters at Sia and Nico's place tonight. Not their house, that was washed away in the tsunami, they have two small garden shed like buildings to sleep in. One has been built by the Red Cross and the other Nico has built from the roof of his old shop which he miraculously found intact in the bushes after the tsunami and other bits and pieces that he was able to scrounge from the litter that was once the lives of the people who live on this island. This tsunami happened at 7:30 am on Sept 30, 2009, the anniversary is this week, and just about everybody lost everything. We've seen "before pictures" of a very orderly and picturesque village and stare in disbelief at the shanty town it is today. But Nico and Sia and their three boys are generous to a fault. We all enjoy a lovely evening eating and visiting with them and the people from two other boats, learning of their lives and their ways. The family sings a beautifully harmonized song for us to end the evening.

We do our normal tourist activities here, go diving one day, go for a walk through the coconut plantation to the beaches another (stunning secluded beaches). Our friend Michele arrives in his sail boat from Samoa and we have him over for dinner on the boat. He is Italian and we have fun trying to understand what each other is trying to say, we have no shortage of conversation. Sunday we go to church and are happy when Sia and Nico invite us to go with them. The service is in their language, so we don't really get much out of that, but the singing......, Oh the singing. How I wish that we had a recording device with us. No instrumental accompaniment, only the finest strongest voices in all vocal levels - Perfect! Then we join the family for a traditional Sunday lunch of delicious local dishes under their "breadfruit tree". But the morning was not without a bit of excitement as our dingy decided to free itself as we were halfway through our walk to the church. Nico had to rush back and rescue it with his own boat as it seems all of the "yachties" were still sleeping and not answering their VHF radios.

Sia's boys picked and cleaned some fresh coconuts for us which we wanted to pay for, but they would rather trade for useful items like, flour, sugar, perfume, fishing lure etc. as these items are hard to come by here. WE also traded them a dinner on the boat in return for their generous sharing with us. The boys got the biggest thrill out of watching one of Glen's old racing videos. Things that we take so for granted, they are so in need of.
Our time here has been full and rewarding. We have made some more new friends.

We packed up bright and early today and are headed to Vava'u, the next island group in Tonga. The day is sunny and the water is relatively smooth.

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Niuatoputapu, Tonga

Our 24 hour, overnight trip from Samoa to the first tiny island in the country of Tonga, Niuatoputapu, went relatively smoothly under the light of a full moon. We arrived in the anchorage at 9:30 am. But the tricky part is that Tonga is the first country of the world to begin a new day, so we left Samoa on Tues and traveled our 24 hours and arrived in Tonga on Thursday. We lost the whole of Wed. Sept 22! But the good thing is that when we come home we will get another day back, so our lives aren't shorter by a day, whew! There is a wonderful "yachtmen's" ambassador on shore, named Sia. She saw us entering the area, contacted us on the VHF radio in perfect English and asked if we would like her to contact the customs officials to come down to our boat. Well that certainly beats the 2 km walk into the village to find the appropriate building for customs, health, etc. (no buildings have signs yet due to fresh re-builds from the tsunami) and then walk back to the dock and dingy back to the boat. We told her "Yes, Thank you." About 12:30 we hear the van honking on the dock and set out to pick up the 5 officials. We are beginning to understand how this part of the world operates and after sandwiches and cold soft drinks and lots of chatter, we have all of our paper work done and have delivered everybody back to the dock, with the promise that when the bank opens tomorrow, we will get the correct amount of "pa'anga" (Tonga dollars, approx $1.00 CDN to $1.80 Tonga). The balance of the day is spent cleaning the boat up and catching an early night to make up for lost sleep in our travels.

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More Samoa

We have found a beautiful, brand newly completed, high end resort on the tsunami damaged south side of the island. The Sinalea Reef Resort is back in business, better than ever. We were touring the island again in the company of our friends off of the boat "Ammonite" and we stopped there for lunch. So for those of us whose bones creak at the thought of sleeping on a mat in an open air "fale" (beach house), there is an alternative vacation destination.

We have met a delightful Italian couple off of a small sailing boat here in the marina and have spent several evenings being entertained by their animated ways. They met only 8 months ago when she was looking for a job on a boat and he was heading out of Panama single handing his sail boat. What small spaces will bring together!!

We went to church at the Cathedral on Sunday. Believe it or not, this is listed as a "must do" while in Samoa as these people love to sing, especially in church. We were not disappointed, the choir was fantastic. It was also refreshing to have the Mass performed in English. There are many different Christian denominations here so a person could pick any one they wished to attend services with.

Just a short story about our encounter with how Samoan culture can work. Solomon is one of the Port Authorities. He has befriended us after his heroic effort to get our boat into the marina. (remember the beer bride?) Anyway, we are minding our own business on the boat one day when Solomon appears at the side door (which means he has already invited himself onto the boat) and says "Can I come in out of the rain?" (as he is now also letting himself in through the side door), well yes I guess that is O.K. as I call Glen to come and take over. We've just come back from getting some groceries so while I put things away, Glen offers Solomon a Pepsi which is happily accepted. I am now finished my putting away and have shined the galley counters so I head down below to do some other errands while Glen chats with Solomon and waits for the rain to end. Next thing I know Glen is hollering down for me to come and make him a sandwich, ham no less. Now I'm steamed! But I can't go into "B...." mode with Solomon there. So I go mess up my recently cleaned galley and make Glen a ham sandwich and one for Solomon too which is only fair. They eat, the rain finishes, Solomon thanks us very much and leaves. Before I can "go off the deep end" Glen says to me, "I can't believe it, he actually asked if we had anything to eat! Can you (believe it)?" So now I get it and Glen doesn't have to die today. We marveled about this to some of the other boaters and found that many others had had a similar experience. So for the rest of our time at the dock, we kept our side door to the dock closed and the side door to the cabin closed so as not to leave and "open" invitation to anybody else.

This morning, we were up early and out of our dock slip by 7:00 am to take advantage of the high tide as the depth in the marina basin is very shallow. It would be very embarrassing to be stuck in the mud as we try to leave. Before heading out for Tonga, which is our next destination, we need to re-fuel, so we deploy our great big (exercise ball size)fenders (proper name, Scotchmen - not sure of the spelling) and belly up to the commercial wharf to wait for a fuel truck to come and dispense our diesel fix. Amazingly he arrives on time which is a pleasant surprise for us as "Ammonite" had to wait many uncomfortable hours for their fuel to arrive because of a number of "issues". We pleasure boats are tiny little ants compared to the container ships that regularly tie up to the wharf, kind of like a small child trying to peak over the edge of a table. We learned a new bit of nautical etiquette during this whole process. The harbor master radioed down while we were fueling and asked me to put up our "Tango" flag. What flag????? Don't we have "alphabet" flags? No! They must have excused us at this point as they didn't come back to me on the radio. But now my curiosity has been aroused, what the heck were they talking about? A quick reference to our proper seaman's book shows that the flag symbolizing "T" also serves as a one flag message saying "stay clear of me", to be used in times of taking on fuel and I suppose other dangerous situations too. So now, much smarter and full of fuel, we are headed for Tonga. We will be there in 24 hours.

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Apia, Samoa

We arrived O.K. to the Apia Harbor in Western Samoa at 9:00 am. They didn't have room for us in the marina, so we anchored in the bay. No big deal as we had 4.5 days of soot and smoke to scrape off of the boat (the engines are smoking big - Detroit's deal - and we had a following wind the whole way). So in the only sunny day that we will see for awhile, we get the boat sparkling again. We can't go ashore as this is Sunday and the customs officials do not work on Sunday so we can't get cleared into the country until Monday. Monday, it is raining heavily on and off and we begin the frustrating process of trying to get into the marina and to have our boat and us cleared into Samoa. Finally after a bribe of 6 Canadian beer, we get a spot in the marina (we reserved a spot 1 week earlier - God knows with who!). Then even though we have an agent hired to expedite the clearing process, we have 5 - very friendly - customs officials parade through our boat, each lounging while the other asks us to fill out the same pieces of paper that the person before him did. So by 2:00 pm we are now legally admitted to the country. Our friend boat Ammonite is still parked in the bay and their nose is a bit out of joint. But most of the sail boats that we met in Suwarrow are here. Finally dinner out, and pretty good food too. Tuesday is another rainy day but we have a car rented and head out to tour the island. Well we know why it has rain forests, this is the "dry season" and we've probably had 2 feet of rain in the last two days! And because of the high rainfall, and the temperatures of 30 plus degrees C, the humidity is extremely high - we dry little prairie people are suffering. It is like being in a "hot Yoga class" all day (and night) long. Which leads to the type of houses that the majority of the people in the country side live in - a roof, supported by posts over a raised concrete floor. The fancier ones have a low wooden railing around the pad and some type of chairs, but mostly they are empty with the occupants rolling out sleeping mats and pillows for the night and rolling them up again during the day. Wow, how do they get any privacy? They do have a custom that being "tribal" everything belongs to everybody so I guess that the less you have the less you have to share. That being said, everybody we have met is extremely friendly without a hidden agenda and they all for the most part speak very good English. Things are very inexpensive which is a pleasant change from French Polynesia and the market has plenty of vegetables and fruits and the grocery stores have a very good variety of anything else that you would need. On our tour, we come to the south side of the island, this is where all of the really nice beaches are found. Exactly one year ago, this island was hit with a tsunami that wiped out the south and west sides of the island. All of the little beach "fale" (roofs over platforms) were wiped out. They are slowly being re-built. It is still very pretty, the accommodations are going in exactly the same - a central reception area with a restaurant/bar and clusters of these beach fale. The rest rooms are a block of shared facilities, toilets and showers. For $90.00 tala per person per day (roughly $36.00 Cdn) you get breakfast and dinner, a sleeping mat and mosquitoe net and your fale (open room with roof on stilts) ON THE BEACH. This is extremely popular. Some of the places are putting in private "fale" with ensuite bathroom but all are still under construction. The few 4 and 5 star hotels are all found on the north side of the island in the city of Apia (not too large) and by the airport. But they don't have the beach! So we have seen the beach and we have tromped through the rain forest and seen some massive trees and stunning waterfalls and walked all over the town markets/craft stores/churches. We joined a bunch of the other boaters and went to an historic hotel here for a traditional "fiafia" evening, which is their version of Polynesian dance and some of the local food (tourist friendly) and it was a very nice affair. We've done our usual boat community socializing and all in all are very much enjoying our stay here.

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Suwarrow to Samoa

We arrived bright and early to the pass at Suwarrow on Sept 7/10 after 4.5 days on the rolling ocean. Suwarrow is a tiny little atoll in the northern Cook Island group. It is basically a narrow perimeter of sand and coral rock around a 5 x 5 mile lagoon. In several places the sand raises high enough out of the ocean to support a few coconut trees. But from all accounts, this is the cruising destination of the whole south Pacific! All of the boats passing through here say that it is by far #1 on their list of the best places that they have been. Many stop for a few days and end up staying a couple of weeks. This place is not unlike many of the other places that we have stopped so far with regard to topography and lagoon, beautiful yes, but what makes this place special is the two fellows that are stationed here as the rangers/customs officers for the Cook Islands, James and Apii. They roll out the red carpet for the boaters coming to visit their corner of the world. Sure they check you in and out of the country with a smile, but they are also great social conveners. They organize coconut crab hunting parties and fishing trips, then host delicious pot luck dinners with crab, lobster or the catch of the day as the feature food items. After so long at sea with just yourself and your mate for company, all boaters jump at the chance for some face time with a bunch of like minded people, good food (even if it is 15 different pasta salads) and of course refreshments of choice. James and Apii also know where all of the good spots are in the lagoon for diving and snorkeling and set up group expeditions for this or private trips if you wish. It really is in their best interests to be such gracious hosts as their government basically drops them off for their 6 month posting with a small boat (no extra fuel) and a fishing rod. So the boaters return all of their good will with food items (not fish) and jerry cans of fuel. After the cold un-friendly attitudes of the French Polynesian islands, the warm fuzzy community that these guys create is truly refreshing. So we lucked out, the day we arrived was a crab pot luck dinner night with 16 other boats in the anchorage. We did our check in and out the next morning and arranged for Apii to man the surface boat for us to do a dive in the afternoon. We attempted to snorkel on the third day, but the winds were pretty stiff so it kept blowing us over the reef. We have been monitoring the weather everyday for the last week and know that there is a big system coming in so we have to leave for Samoa on our third day or stay for at least another week and chance that things will stay calm enough in the lagoon for our anchor to hold. We choose to head on to Samoa. So here we are again rolling along in 2.5 meter seas with 20 knots of wind, thankfully all on the rear. Our current position 13.20.498 lat. and 165.19.446 long. We will be in western Samoa the morning of Sept 12.

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Good-by French Polynesia, Hello Suwarrow

If only the good-bye/hello could be so quick as speaking it! For the Google Earth followers, we are at 15.52.427 lat and 153.56.858 long. We got back to Tahiti on the evening of Aug 30/10, arriving to a lovely warm 25 degrees C from an un-seasonally cool 14 degrees C in Calgary. Our boat was waiting patiently at the dock for our return. Our agent, Laurent, had done a good job of making sure everything continued working properly in our absence. His attention to this was not without peril though as we had dropped the general information to several of our boating friends along the dock that we would be away and to keep an eye out for suspicious activity on our boat. So it seems that Laurent was called upon several times to prove that his intentions were legitimate - our friend Yasmin threatening him with her mop! Our final days in Tahiti were busy, one day to wash the thick layer of grime off of the boat - life just feels better in a clean boat, one day to fill the pantry and freezers up again and our third day was topping up the fuel (ouch - that hurt) and departing for Suwarrow in the north Cook Islands. You can tell that you are getting to be a "dock potatoe" when you obsess for days about what the weather conditions are going to be over the duration of a passage. How quickly we forget what our little boat can handle. The weather forecasts were calling for 2.3 m waves at 7 second intervals with 17 knots of wind - that sounded pretty intimidating while we were tied up, but now we are happily splashing along in all of that and it really isn't too bad at all. We are actually getting a big push along our route as the waves are coming from behind. This trip's duration is 4.5 days and it is the first for Glen and I to do more than one overnight in a row. It is pretty lonely out here by ourselves as the majority of the other cruising boats did this trip in late July. "Oso Blanco" is already in Tonga and we won't be there until October.

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Shinny Boats and Little Goats

Our parking spot inside Opunohu Bay on Moorea is very interesting in that it is the play ground of the large - and I mean large! - private yachts. In the three days that we are here there are two nearly 200 ft yachts, each with their harem of water toys and two elegant sailing vessels one nearing 200 ft and the other a very graciously styled three mast ship of 300 +ft. We are definitely slumming it here. These vessels are each so beautiful in their own ways, the sailing ships with their lines and style and the power vessels with their utter opulence. It's not really "peeping Tom" activity when you openly stand on your back deck with the binoculars and check them all out - Is it?

So here's the scoop on the "great restaurant" we were directed to for dinner. Chez Vina. Sunday is supposed to be their "Traditional Polynesian Oven" day. So I phoned on Sat. for a reservation.
"Alow?"
"Hello, Do you speak English?"
"A leetle beet."
"Are you open for dinner tomorrow night? Could I make a reservation for two people?"
"Oui." (Yes - in French - good I can understand that much)
"Could you pick us up, we are on a boat and do not have a car?"
"Oui."
So we manage to get that ironed out - we are never really sure that they have understood us or we have understood them, but we have nothing but time here so we are learning patience. 6:00 pm at the Protestant Church by the Papeotai Boat Quay is our pick up time. After I hang up I realize that they don't know our name or description and that we don't know what kind of vehicle to look for. Glen says - Relax, we'll be the only white, non French speaking, out of place looking, people waiting by the church. O.K. so now we are waiting by the church and it is 6:00 pm, we know to phone again as it seems they like to send a pick-up once they know you are there instead of arriving as planned (Go Figure!) The driver will be a bit late - no problem - we are occupied watching the Family day events wind down in the park area. The Polynesian people really do take their weekends seriously. They have organized picnics with sports competitions and music every free day, not just special occasions. Our driver arrives at 6:30 and it is dark now so he drives by us once and we stand in the middle of the road the next time by so he has to stop. He is Serge, the owner of the restaurant and we are riding in his vintage 1980 Volvo. Serge opens and closes the doors for us "Because they are a little temperamental!" Serge is French and has been in Moorea for more than 25 years and he has had this car for all that time. He has a little farm on the mountain side and he has just come from finishing his chores. When we arrive at the restaurant, we are the only people there (typically not a good sign). Serge gives us our menus and goes off to get us a couple of Hinano (Tahitian made beer). According to the menu, we have goofed up, the Traditional Polynesian Oven Feast is at noon, every Sunday - Now what are we going to choose? Serge plops our beers down and asks what we would like to eat and since I get to speak first, I whine that we had really hoped to have the Traditional Oven meal, but we see unfortunately that we have missed it. "Pas de problem, Madam" (No problem, Madam - whew, my high school French is paying off) Serge goes on to explain that the Traditional Oven is a great thing because the people cook the food in the covered pit and eat what they need then recover the pit and the food can be eaten like this for two days. So we indeed can have the Traditional meal and the feast begins. Six courses of wonderful flavors and accompaniments. We have special entertainment tonight - Serge has a little 15 day old goat kid that he is bottle feeding and the little guy has the run of the restaurant (only in French Polynesia!) The little goat follows Serge around like a little dog, because he thinks Serge is his Mama. He comes bounding sideways out of the kitchen, his little hooves spinning on the smooth tiles, then he bleats in complaint when his tether rope (which isn't tethered) gets tangled around some chair legs and holds him in one spot. He is hilarious. The food was great, the entertainment special and we have another good memory from our travels.

We are on the down stokes of our time here, getting ready to go home again. We spend our last lazy days in Moorea polishing the stainless and diving. We are going to need a holiday from our holiday (Not). Lucky for us we choose to head back to Papeete, Tahiti and Marina Taina very early in the morning on July 28 and get into the Tahiti lagoon just as the wind rises to 25 knots, thus missing the impending bad weather that is about to blow out in the open. We are happy to find that we get a standard side dock tie instead of the med moor we had last time. Back at the marina, our social calander quickly fills our remaining days - dinner with our South African friends, a BBQ with our neighboring sail boat and pizza with our Australian/Italian friends. We give the boat a good bath and ready everything to be closed down for the time period we will be gone. Things have been great out here, but we are actually looking forward to going home to Calgary for a while. We fly out on July 31 and will be back to Tahiti on Aug 30. When we return, we will be heading to Suwarrow in the Cook Islands and then on to Samoa. Our time at home will be spent researching where to go and what to see when we get there. Can't wait.

Moorea

Moorea still gets our vote for the prettiest of the Society Islands. Since we had traveled here 5 years ago on a holiday, we were not going to stop here with the boat, happily, we changed our minds. When we arrived, we anchored on the top, port side of Opunohu Bay in about 26 feet of turquoise water with a sandy bottom. This is noted as the prettiest anchorage in Moorea by all of the guide books, so as you might imagine, every other boat visiting Moorea is also anchored here. These sail boat guys are really teaching us about how to get cozy in an anchorage, we are like sardines here. Anchoring here is definitely not like the Canadian Northwest where if there is one other boat in the bay, you consider it crowded and move on, here there are so few other bays to move on too. But the weather is calm for three glorious days and this anchorage is picture perfect with the beautiful water, sandy beach, the crashing surf on the reef, the palm trees and the towering volcanic mountains covered in robes of lush green. This is what the tropics is all about, getting up in the morning and having your coffee on the back deck, no wind, water like a bathtub, air temp. 26 degrees, sun shining and then in the evening, having a glass of wine on the fly bridge, not a whisper of wind, under a full moon that lights the world around you. This is what we have been talking about! The diving has been quiet good, we did two dives with Top Dive and it was fun to find Nicholas is still a dive master here - we dove with him 5 years ago. Our first evening here we met a very nice South African couple on a 76 Nordhavn and had Happy Hour with them and a good visit. They of course have a very nice boat. The small village of Papetoai has a nice boat quay and we tied up there and walked around a bit. Our exploring netted us the locations of three small grocery stores and a good local restaurant for lunch - Snack Mahana. Today we rented what they call a "Bugster" - a go cart with signal lights - and toured the island a bit. Found a happy pizza place - Chez Luciano - for lunch, good pizza and very fast. We bought some local pineapples from a road side stand for pinacoladas later (maybe, I'm hoping!!!) and found yet some more little crafty things that we just had to have. We got the scoop on a good restaurant for tomorrow. When we got back to the big boat, the wind was really up, about 25 knots, and it seemed that we were dragging a bit. So because of the tight quarters, we pulled anchor and just went around the corner into the bottom end of Opunohu Bay where we found the protection we needed from the wind and surprisingly the elbow room we so crave. This move also exposes us to a whole new panorama of beauty, sometimes, you just have to be here!

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Weather Reports and Weather Reports!

It is July 19 and we have been in Bora Bora for 11 days now. This is a first for long term anchorages for us, but the weather will not ease up and let us out. We are going to be heading back toward Tahiti, to Moorea and this is part of the problem as we will be going against the waves/swell and currently also the wind. A rough ride to put it in layman's terms. So we pull weather reports off of the satellite at least twice a day to see any changes and hopefully spot a calming trend. Today is supposed to be the day. We have filled our time since Georgia left with boat chores, doing nothing and maybe an occasional dive. We hate to even take the whaler out to go to the main island of Bora Bora (only a short distance from the motu we are anchored by) as the wind howls through the open channel giving us massive salt water showers. I've had to dig my lovely "pink" plastic rain coat out to wear when we go someplace so that I can at least have some part of me dry. The little whaler has never had so many sponge baths in it's life. We went to dinner last night at Fare Manuai, a very nice restaurant. The eating establishments here will pick you up free of charge for a meal, which is nice as it saves a $30.00 taxi ride return. The dinner was pretty good. We had a farewell drink with the Oso Blanco group as on the 19 they head north west to the northern Cook's, a path we will take in Sept when we return from our trip home. So our paths will probably not cross again until the bottom end of Tonga when we both head into New Zealand in November to avoid cyclone season in the South Pacific.

So at 2:00 pm on July 19 (yesterday now) we made the break from Bora Bora. The going was pretty decent in the lee of Tahaa and Raiatea, but definitely lived up to all of the weather reports from that point on to Moorea. As always, the wind is steepest when you start out on a trip, thus assuring that when you reach your destination you will have to wash the boat as it has been completely and totally sprayed. The waves were predicted to be 7 ft at 7 second intervals and in the darkness they were all of that (and I think more - it always seems bigger when you take it on the nose). But here we are now, an hour out of Moorea at 7:30 am on the 20th and everything is pretty calm as the sun breaks brightly over the horizon. Not a rain cloud in site - just when we would wish for one the most (really helps in boat washing). Can't wait to explore this next new island of the Society Group.

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Bastille Day and Birthday Parties

The boating people are really a little floating community. They just travel from one island to the next, just socializing in a different setting all the time. So Bastille Day is a big thing here in French Polynesia, and the boat people are all excited about heading in to the parade (big event) and seeing all of the goings on. But there is a bit of a delema as to what time the parade should be as the President is supposed to attend the parade and he also has to attend the parade in Papeete, Tahiti. So will it be 8:00 am or 2:00 pm and this does not get ironed out until the morning of the parade. We heard the VHF radio sounding off at 6:30 am, but just rolled over and covered our ears (oops this was the general announcement of the parade time - 8:00 am),so we missed the parade! But from one of our friends, whose opinion we trust, we just missed standing in the sun, hearing one speech and then another speech. (so in other words - not much!) That's O.K. because we wanted more time for snorkeling and diving anyway. That evening there was a big pot luck deal at the yacht club (small lean-too on the beach with a dingy dock. Cyclone in Feb. nearly wiped it off the island.) and another general announcement over the VHF that it was Eric's birthday (Oso Blanco) and we already knew this, so were there for the whole thing. Georgia had a lot of fun as this event brought all of the people in from the surrounding boats and she was happy to find that there was a lot of young people her age to hang out with. It is lucky for us that she only discovered this on her last night here as we may have had to be party chauffers in her efforts to keep herself occupied on the boat. We did do a spa day at the Hilton - Georgia and I, it is not Glen's idea of a good time - and it was very nice to be pampered for a little while. Mind you the ride back to the big boat on the whaler and being splashed by the waves and sprayed by the wind pretty much negated all of the benifits. Our favorite sail boat - Dream Catcher is in the anchorage here at Bora Bora now so we had refreshments on their deck one night and took them diving another day. It is a lovely 82 foot "Swan", pure sailing elegance. The owners and crew are equally nice and very interesting people. Georgia flew home from Bora Bora yesterday and should be arriving in Calgary as I type this. The weather surrounding the island is going to keep us here at least until Monday or Tuesday so we have 4 or so days left to entertain ourselves here. It is time to move on though and Moorea will be our next stop on our way back to Tahiti.

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Bora Bora

Having Georgia on board insures that we don't just idle our time away looking at scenery. We have explored each island of the Society group that we have landed on - thoroughly, and Bora bora is no exception. We have done a couple of dives, one on a very healthy coral reef inside the lagoon and one with the "sharks" on the outside of the reef - the visibility was crystal clear and the fishes were large and numerous. The fish are also very used to being feed so gather as soon as a diver enters the water - this includes the sharks - which can be a bit un-nerving. What if they get upset because you didn't bring them a snack? Snack on you????? We tag along after the Lagoon cruise boats and get in on such easy thrills as feeding and swimming with the rays. T(hey feed them with their tourists (meaning they feed the rays with squid, not the tourists) and move on and we slide in and swim with the still expectant rays. Needless to say, this was one of Georgia's trip highlights. Bora Bora is a small island, the circling road is only 32 km. so our day rental of the car turned out to be only a half day (lunch time included) Most of the posh resorts are on the Motus surrounding the main island, which is O.K. as we can reach anything with our small boats. We have the Hilton Bora Bora just up the coast from our anchorage and they allow outside reservations for all of their facilities - nice. Of special note here in the Tahiti area was the total solar eclipse that happened at 7:13 am July 11 and lasted for roughly two hours. We bought our special solar viewing glasses, available at any store on any of the islands and were perched on top of the boat, waiting in giddy anticipation for this astrological event to occur. .....And the rain clouds rolled in! Then the mountain in the centre of the island seemed to be in the way, were we even going to get a glimpse? Yes, we saw the whole thing very clearly. In Bora Bora, it was only 90% coverage, but still very impressive. We are all shopped out, don't want to see any more pearl stores or paero stores (the universal wrap around dress/skirt/whatever) but we are still very happy to swim and dive in the beautiful blue water (good, because that part is free and shopping is getting pricey). The weather here has been pretty windy, but the rains come during the night or early morning and the days are sunny and hot. So no complaints on that.

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Oh My God!

We have done the ultimate Polynesian picture perfect thing today! We followed Oso Blanco over to the west side of Tahaa to the motu (small island) Tautau. The channel is 100 plus feet and the reef is about 8 to 12 feet of pure white sand. Oso Blanco bravely pokes his nose onto the sandy reef and reports that he still has 2.5 feet under his keel, so come on in. Wow - 2.5 feet under the keel!! This is picture perfect, these two, 100 ton boats, suspended on the turquoise water over the pure white sand, their shadows perfectly reflected on the bottom and mere feet away, the dark blue depths of the channel. We immediately don our snorkel gear and plunge into the water, yep, only 2.5 feet under the keel. It gives Glen goose bumps to see the boat's bottom so close to the ground (me too actually) big problems if we drag anchor. But it is too pretty to even contemplate this kind of problem. We find a ray gliding around on the sand, some large white puffer fish and a couple of huge cow fish. Our own swimming pool.
We spend the balance of the day snorkeling. We head over to the motu as there is supposed to be wonderful snorkeling there, but we must have missed the spot as mediocre is the best description for it. We try to get a reservation for dinner at the resort on the island (the best in all of Polynesia - supposedly) but they can't get us in so we have the Oso bunch over for snacks and drinks and a good visit.

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Sunshine At Last!

Whining works after all, we have some sunshine. In fact we have beautiful calm And sunshine. We awake in our precarious anchorage on the west side of Raiatea in "glass" calm water and a beautiful sunny day breaking. We lift anchor and head to the north of the island by going out one pass into open water and then in another pass to enter back into the lagoon and anchor by Marina Apoitit by Uturoa. being Sunday (hence the sun!) nothing is open in town, but we do manage to catch the dive shop guy and sset up a dive for tomorrow with them. When we say nothing is open, that means nothing, so no restaurants either, we have a quiet evening on the boat. Georgia seems to be going stir crazy?????? Our dive is on a three master sail boat sunk on the reef in early 1900. It is very well preserved and we see some new creatures living in it's shell. Georgia's first wreck dive. I have to admit, it was a good one. We stock with groceries in the afternoon and ready to head to Tahaa the next day. Tahaa is in the same lagoon as Raiatea, but is a separate island. Tahaa is a very beautiful little place. It is pretty windy the day we head up but we find a good anchorage in Haamene Bay, which is good as all of the touristy things we want to do here are located here. The first two numbers that we call for the sites we want to see don't speak English. Oooh, not a good sign. I muster as much French as I know for the next call - "Ahlo?" and it works as the lovely lady on the other end responds in English (as my French is obviously going to be bad). She was a good contact too as she set us up on a tour to see a Vanilla Plantation, a pearl farm (for Georgia) and the Hibiscus turtle foundation, everything we wanted on one phone call. As we were waiting at the dock for our ride, we see Oso Blanco anchoring up next to us in the bay and call on the VHF to see if they want to join in the tour - Yes, of course. So a little trucks comes for us with seats in the box and a canopy overhead and away we all go. the vanilla farm was very interesting. Tahiti produces the best tasting vanilla in the world, but not the most expensive and not the most available. It takes a very long time and a lot of hand work to get this exotic spice/flavor perfect. We of course buy a bunch of vanilla flavor products which are very yummy. The pearl farm turned out to be informative for everybody. When we were in the Tuamotus, we got to see the nets in the water and how the oysters are managed there, but at this farm, the fellow explained in classroom style the types of oysters, how the colors (black,green,purple) are achieved and how the pearls are created. Very interesting. The Hibiscus foundation rescues turtles from the fishermen (the turtles get caught in the fishing nets) rests them up and feeds them for a bit then releases them back into the wild. We had dinner at the Hibiscus restaurant (thankfully - no turtle on the menu) it was good not to have to cook ourselves for a change.

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Raiatea

The day we left Huahine for Raiatea was not the "best" weather day. It was rainy and windy and there were very large waves/swells in the small 20 mile channel that separates the two islands. It is comforting to know that this boat thinks nothing of this type of conditions and that weather watching is just a formality. Georgia is feeling the effects of not being on the boat regularly so spends the trip down below trying not to be too sick. It is not one of my better days either as through what I have done or what I have failed to do I leave a path of loss and destruction. I didn't put every thing away for the trip so there was a gouge in the teak floor from a falling object and "my" dive suit blew overboard because they weren't properly stowed and I burnt the bottom out of my frying pan making lunch. That's three bad things right? Well, no. I was able to scrub the burnt stuff off of the pan. Once we reached Raiatea our search for a quite place to anchor near the town of Uturoa resulted in our dropping and retrieving the anchor no less than four times (once was by the airport runway and the officials made a personal boat trip out to ask us "MOVE" in the polite way that only the French can do) and during one of these times, I managed to whack the anchor onto the boat and that big chip in the gel coat was number three for bad things. We did find a reasonably quiet spot though and we even had internet so we could all catch up on our business. Day two - we rented a car to tour the island, we were going to rent scooters again, but it looks like rain and it did rain. The island is lovely of course, not very commercialized, there are a couple of small resorts. We did stop for lunch in a quaint little resort on the south of the island, Opoa Beach Resort, very nice lunch and very nice little resort. We did some roadside shopping - gathered some papaya from trees that we are positive were growing wild???? and an avocado and some pommelos. Stopped at one of the little "magasins" and bought some bread (baquettes - really hard to make toast from these). It is still blowing at the boat when we get back and raining. Day three - we head south in the lagoon in search of a quiet anchorage and we do find a perfect spot and wonder of wonders, when we head out for a snorkel adventure, we actually find a beautiful coral garden with multitudes of colorful small fish and live coral! Day four - we suit up and go diving in our coral garden, there is a drop off to 60+ feet and we have a really good dive. There is even an eagle ray here, though very shy, we only catch glimpses of him. I do have a second dive suit, so am lucky to not have to dive without. The diving in the Society Islands has not been very good at all so this spot warrants a second dive the next day and it is just as interesting the second time around. Day five - we moved the big boat around the west side of the island and had to scramble to find a shallow enough anchorage before the daylight left. The bays look lovely, but they are very deep and have very shallow reefs extending into them, so you need the light to be able to see the variances in the water depths as deep to shallow is immediate and we would run the boat aground using our depth sounder. But despite the rush, we managed, as we always do, to get the job done. It is raining and raining and raining here. We mop up the boat and close the windows/doors then open them all up again, hide the outdoor seating then set it all up again. The rain is getting tedious to say the least. Well we are diving anyway so salty wet or rainy wet, I guess it doesn't matter. When the sun does peak out it is definitely beautiful and today the whole afternoon has been gloriously sunny. We have watched waterfalls be born in the last couple of days. The evenings are quiet dinners on board and sadly a series of really bad movies, but good wine makes up for that fact. Tomorrow, we will head back to the north end to stock up on supplies and do a wreck dive before moving on the Tahaa which is the second island in the same lagoon as Raiatea.

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Market ? What Market?

So we are all pumped up to go to Fare on Huahine for market day. According to the guide books and the girl in the scooter rental place - Yes, there is a market on Saturday. All day! Down by the cargo dock. Well, long story short, we bought a few supplies at the regular grocery store and were back to the big boat in an hour. Quite disappointing, there were two tail-gate trucks with a few pieces of fruit and the other one had some veal. Our afternoon was spent burning up fuel in the whaler, boogey boarding in the bay where we have the big boat parked. It took a few times for Georgia to get back into the groove and because I'm lucky today, I get up first time. But I'm not a very good boat driver and I couldn't get the throttle right to allow Glen to stabalize the board so that he could get up. So before we ripped his arms out, he promised I could try driving another day and he got back on board and drove for Georgia again. When we finished that craziness, we took a tour in the whaler to the other side of the island in search of a smooth snorkel place as the wind had picked up on the west side making it too rough to snorkel there. we saw some neat things from the water, but curiously, it was rough on the east side too so we headed back to the Mother ship and soothed our soar muscles with papaya smoothies for Happy Hour.

Sunday was a dive day, Eric and Anne came from Oso Blanco and we headed for Avapehi Pass for a spectacular dive (according to the dive books). We anchored our boats by the local dive boat (good sign - there is dive activity here) and descended to the dead coral below. It will get better as we go into the pass - Not!. We found a couple of eels and saw a few more fish than usual, but diving here is not very good to say the least. To top the experience off, we mis-judged the current and almost got ourselves swept out to sea (not a sign of experienced divers as we like to think of ourselves). So we called it a day and headed back to the big boats, chatted for a bit before Eric and Anne took off for their big boat then cleaned our gear. Tomorrow, we will head over to Raiatea, a two hour trip.

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Huahine - Beautiful!

Our crossing from Tahiti to Huahine was interesting because of the big water and the fact that it was dark. There was a quarter moon on but it didn't show because of the rain clouds. But our first glimpses of Huahine were in bright sunshine. The Avapehi Pass was wide and well marked and Smooth! The lagoon to the south of the village of Fare is also well marked. The water colors are unbelievable, the depths are beautiful dark blue and the sand shallows are the loveliest shade of turquoise. The water visibility is at least 90 feet in most places. We parked up on the reef side of the lagoon and immediately prepared to snorkel the reef beside us. The current runs pretty strong in this part of the lagoon channel as I was swept rapidly away from the boat when I jumped in the water and had a difficult time swimming back to the boat. This method of getting to the reef was not going to work so we lowered the whaler and drove ourselves over, anchored the whaler in a sandy spot then spent the better part of the morning viewing the many little fishes and coral heads. We found two eels. A cyclone swept the area in February and the evidence was in the many huge coral rocks that were broken or upside down in the water. After our snorkel we took an exploratory trip on the whaler back to Fare and south to Aveo Bay. Along the way we found Port Bourayne which is a large sheltered area that resembles a bay but is open to the east side of Huahine. Huahine is really two islands in the same lagoon. Anyway, because Port Bourayne was so nice we hoisted anchor on the big boat and moved in to Port Bourayne. This is bar none the nicest anchorage we have been in yet since leaving Canada's west coast. No swell, no current, no noisy town, no boat traffic, no wind, no waves - only smooth blue water with lovely lush forest lining the sandy beaches. You get the picture - right? We did a shake down dive once we were all set up just to get Georgia acquainted with our equipment, sadly our nice anchorage does not have great diving, but we got all the wrinkles out of our gear. The next day as we were enjoying our morning coffee, Oso Blanco arrived in Huahine from their travels in Moorea and Tahiti. This is the first we have seen them since the Marquesis. We had so many stories to tell each other. They anchored beside us and when they were all settled in we all headed out to do a dive on the outside of the reef. The dive was O.K., but we are still sorry to see so much coral damage. There was one lone black tip shark as we entered the water, we came across two eels and we found two large anemones with the resident clown fishes. Next time we will try the pass to see if we can find more life. To finish our day off, Anne, Eric and Bear came over to our boat for Happy Hour then we all hopped into our whaler for the 10 min. boat ride to the restaurant Mauarii in Aveo Bay. It is a great restaurant and we had a lovely evening. The full moon lit the way home and we were forward thinking enough to put a trail on the GPS as we went to dinner so that we could follow the red line back to the boats in the dark. Today was another sunny day. Oso Blanco moved their anchorage to Aveo Bay to join some of their other boating buddies and we took our whaler into Fare to pick up our rented scooters for 9:00 am. As we were tying up to the quay in Fare, I remembered my driver's license. It wasn't with me! Great, now we will have an issue - it has taken us 10 min to get here. (Georgia had forgotten her license too) Luckily, even though we rented through Eurocar car rentals, they did not ask to see our driver's licenses, they only asked if we were familiar with driving scooters. Well of course we are. I think I drove the scooter at the race track once, that should do it! Thank God there isn't too much traffic on this island, because I'm dangerous on a scooter. It takes four hours to circumnavigate the two islands so off we headed to explore. We stopped at an archeological site, toured several artisan's shops, found the sacred blue eyed eels, marveled at the clever design of the ancient fish traps and enjoyed a sunny day surrounded by magnificent scenery around every turn. We stopped for lunch at the Mauarii and had a great fish sandwich with coconut/vanilla sauce and fries. The fries are stuffed in your sandwich! Weird, but tastey. It was fun to travel around the area on land, we saw Oso Blanco in her new anchorage and admired our boat sitting in her great anchorage and so on, just a nice change of perspective.

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Impressions of Tahiti

Finally we have dropped our mooring lines at Marina Taina in Papeete, Tahiti and are headed for the island of Huahine. We have been in Tahiti for a week now and are bored stiff. First, there was major concern as to whether we were even going to get to Tahiti from Calgary on June 15 as there was a big general strike here in Tahiti that had everything - literally everything closed down. But as we entered each new phase of our flight schedule, the planes were flying so we made it as initially planned. Georgia is with us, a grad gift to her for finishing one phase of her education - she is an Animal Health Technician now. Because of the strike, we delayed having some repairs done on our whaler because we needed to be here to have it done, so that kept us until Friday and then the weather decided not to play along with our game and heavy rain, winds and seas kept us tied up. We broke out one day and rented a car for a driving tour of the island of Tahiti. It only takes 4 hours to circumnavigate, but we stopped for lunch and to see the botanical gardens and to hike up to some lovely water falls, so we filled the day. There are a few beaches along the way, they have black sand beaches, but it was a rainy day and nobody wanted to get wetter. The vegitation is of course very lush as all we have seen it do is rain, so now we know why it is so green. The grocery store is very nice, things from all over the world, but because this is an island i the middle of the ocean, everything has to be shipped by boat or plane and so everything is very expensive here. The down town Papeete is rather small and after 10 pearl shops, you pretty much have covered it (or rather don't want to see anymore). We have been filling our afternoons/evenings by visiting new boat friends from Italy/Australia and swapping boat and travel stories. But now as evening is closing in, our boat is wobbling along in 11 foot seas with a three foot chop on top (great fun). The boat is handling it very well and we are contemplating having a nice plate of kokori (pearl oyster meat) for dinner with a bottle of wine. We are very excited to set our eyes on a new place when dawn arrives tomorrow.

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Tuamotus Pics

Marquises Pics

Tahiti - We're Here!

Well our first glimpse of the island of Tahiti was through dark cloud and pouring rain and the conditions didn't improve as we began our entrance to the Papeete harbour on our way to the Marina Taina. It was definitely warm enough as wearing a rain coat against the rain was more uncomfortable than being soaked by the rain. I think we are going to throw all of our travel guide books overboard as they all portray boating in these exotic areas as dangerous, unsophisticated, uncivilized and just generally difficult. To which we say, the authors must never have boated in the Canadian Pacific. On the other hand, all of their warnings have left us with the feeling of "Well that wasn't so bad." once we have gone through what they have described as an insurmountable object. This all relates to the entering of Papeete Pass and the joining channel in the lagoon that leads you past the airport and on to Marina Taina. You call the Port Captain on approach, then you call him again when you are 5 min. from the near end of the runway and then again when you are 5 min from the far end of the runway, so he can check with air control to assure that there are no planes taking off or landing, all very good English and very fast response. The channel is very well marked. Our mooreage in the marina is a "Med tie" on the outside wall and even though this is our first official crack at docking this way (other than our fueling experience) Glen and the Mystery Ship handled the challenge like pros. On the other hand, I ran back and forth like a chicken (afraid I'd get electrocuted if I wore the head set radios) from the anchoring at the bow to Glen at the controls in the stern. Lots of help (un-necessary) was on hand. Med mooring involves backing the rear of the boat up to a solid dock using the anchor to hold the front in place then tieing off the rear corners to the dock and securing the front with lines that the marina helpers bring up from underwater mooring blocks. But, since we aren't accustomed to this type of docking, we aren't prepared for the fact that the dock is 10 feet away and 5 feet higher than the swim grid on the boat, now there is a problem of how to get on and off the boat. The marina staff solved this by bringing us a lovely 2 by 12 plank, it looks so elegant stretching between our boat and the dock! Next issue is how to plug our North American boat into European electricity. Again the on site electrician got that all rigged up for us, it isn't perfect, but we can at least run the boat and some air con. It was such a pleasant surprise to have a shinny new flopper plate waiting for us, Justin at P.A.E. was true to his word. Thank you.

Having stuff shipped can be a comedy of errors when dealing with these out of the way places. It's too bad that Russell had to leave early as he would have found this place to his liking, lots of new people, three restaurant/bars at the head of the dock and total civilization mere walking distance from there. The day after our arrival, the "Dream Catcher" an 80+ foot Swan sail boat moored up beside us. We have been meeting up with the crew of this boat in all the places we have been since the Marquises and now we finally got to meet the owners, Barbara and Karsten. As with many of the sail boat people we have been meeting along our way, they were very interested in touring our Nordhavn, which suits us fine as we love trading google sessions so that we can see their boats. Even though their Swan was magnificent, a fine and powerful example of exotic sail boats, we have decided that we will remain power boaters (they don't have a wine chiller on their boat!). For our three days in Papeete, the weather was sunny, then overcast and rainy and back again and since we have been out for so long, there was a bunch of little items that needed to be fixed up/cleaned up, so we took this opportunity to get all of the maintenance stuff done and out of the way for when we return (we have flown home now until June 15). One of these "to do things" was wash the boat - we sure are missing the energetic and inexpensive Mexican boat washers - sucks to have to wash your own boat, but 5 hours later the boat is sparkling and we are rewarding ourselves for a job well done. So really we don't have much of a take on Tahiti just yet, the Polynesian people are very friendly and we are withholding our judgement on the French inhabitants for the time being. When we get back in June, we will explore the Society Islands in greater detail. We have a ton of pictures from Mexico to here, and I won't bore you with a family slide show, but hopefully you will enjoy the few that I have selected. The pics with the numbers and computer screen are our equator crossing evidence. I'll be back in June.