Friday, 7 September 2012
Monday, 3 September 2012
Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa & Bora Bora
With our new rudder made we were ready
to carry on visiting the French Polynesian Islands. We set for
Huahine on an uneventful overnight sail.
Huahine was lovely but strong winds
aborted our plan of seeing the easter side so we stayed between Fare
and Avea Bay, being the later and Teapaa Bay our favourites by far.
Good snorkeling and shells, lovely walks and sand beaches. Asher,
Turia and Kirahu from Moorea where in Huahine visiting some family so
we were lucky to have a car to tour the island! We saw the sacred
eels, the beautifully maintained Maraes and collected cockles with
Turia's family in the northern Lagoon. It was quite the experience!
We saw the century old fish traps still in use.
Then we were off again to Raiatea to
collect Claudia, Casey and Nicolas coming from NZ for a week of
fun.But it wasn't to be, a total tragedy in New Plymonth with one of
Claudia's brazilian students being taken by a gigantic swell of the
rocks during an outdoor pursuits group excursion, meant Claudia was
in for an incredible amount of work and emotional stress. The poor
girl stayed in New Plymonth for 2 weeks of much hope, sadness and
frustration. But Casey came and we made sure he had a good time so he
could send out love back to Claudia.
We toured Raiatea and Tahaa with Casey,
and loved the twin islands. By far our favourites, right there with
Moorea. Surf, shells, sand beaches, lovely hikes, there was something
to please all onboard. Especially Brisa whom got her own personal
entertainer in Casey!
The highlights were the river Faaroa,
where we got to pickf fruits from Andreas garden and only payed him
after much convincing after all he had 2 kids to feed as well; Marae
Taputapuatea where as good Kiwis we paid out respects to the
launching place of the Maori Canoes bound to New Zealand millenia
ago; NaoNao Motu and Pass, a snorkel & shell paradise hardly
visited by the cruising fleet. Our surf point of choice was Tetoora
where the boys got some good waves and it was mellow enough at times
for a visit from Brisa even! Uturoa was a love village with great
crafts, I dropped a bit of cash there I must confess...
Then it was off to Bora Bora... well,
it is beautiful, especially on the eastern side, but with the wind it
was very hard to take the boat there so we got stuck on the western
side with all the tourists. Unfortunatelly we could see what bad
tourism can do to the island (it was by far the dirtiest, untided,
area we have ever seen in French Polynesia), and the people seemed to
have lost the genuine smile and friendlyness.
But it is still beautiful, Matira had
an amazing turquoise lagoon we anchored in 2 meters of lovely white
sand and looked like we were flying. Brisa loved playing on the beach
with the local boys and the odd tourist. We walked around the
thousand dollars a night hotels and I strongly believe we had the
best bed in town! Russ loved the Bloody Mary's Bar, a Bora Bora
Institution and one of the best themed bars we have seen. Everything
had been thought of. And it was a pretty reasonable price for what
was in offer. Russ thought the penis shaped flush cord was hilarious.
They had awesome carvings everywhere and the bloody mary was good as
far as bloody marys go. Not my thing really.
Having had enough we decided to carry
on and are now in Maupiti, where we knew we would be pinned down as
there is some fronts coming across the entire week. But it is a nicer
place to be stuck than Bora Bora that we know already. Check the
videos with the Mantas and drool on our prison paradise!
Friday, 20 July 2012
Tahiti
We have been in Tahiti and surroundings for the last month and what a little paradise they have got here... Its not even that expensive!
Dear Papeete, which everyone says is chaotic and messy I must disagree completely. Its a pleasure and so easy to get around downtown. The Paofai gardens are gorgeous, the local market delightful and you can have delicious meals at the local Roulettes (food hawkers in converted vans) for very reasonable prices.
We are now in a free mooring ball in front of Marina Taina, have free dinghy access to the marina premisses, free water and a bus right in front. Carrefour (massive supermarket) is a 2 minute walk and we can even bring the trolleys all the way to the dinghy dock and not worry about returning it! How is that? To be completely honest I really don't believe we have been this well treated in ages!
Well the whole bond thing is a f%#k up and cost an arm and a leg (you have to deposit a return tkt to your home country, NZ$4000 in our case which they refund you when you leave in local currency)with all fees and terrible exchange they provide. But we could have saved us a lot of hassle if we were so not against using agents... it would have saved us a lot of time and money. So apart from all this this is nothing short of paradise.
Since we arrived we have caught up with quite a few of Russell's old windsurfing mates and they have been nothing short of lovely to us. Jean Claude and his lovely family have showed us around, throw Russ in a windsurf board for the first time in 13 years and provided us with a lovely dinner. Thierry has lent Russ is million dollar views workshop just up the hill from where our boat is. There Russ got all the toys he can dream of to construct our new rudder. By the way, the infamous rudder has eventually washed ashore in Kauehi, apparently it was in pretty good nick but the people that saw it didn't know it belonged to us and left it where they found it. If it wasn't over 400 miles up wind to get it... anyhow Russ is half way into the project. The blade is made and the casing is half done. Russ believes one more week and we will be ready to go again.
Mike and Adi along with Nathan, Jeannie and Ruby Secker have been and gone, we had a blast with all of them. It was all a bit rushed with Mike and Ads as they only had 2 weeks - we are used to have them around for way longer! But we managed to fit in a bit of everything for them: rough sailing, the shits, tahitian dancing and tahitian rum, a local hangi, some small and huge scary waves, including some dodgy pass experiences, loads of snorkeling and some standboard paddling which we all loved. Brisa loved their company and there wasn't one day she didn't invade their room in the mornings to give Adi (her adored Adi.. she still asks about you babes...) a good morning kiss and make a complete mess on their bed. Sorry guys, its her territory too!
With the Seckers we had some lovely high class times, loved the car rides, girly talks and Russell's semi organized excursions that always ended up well because he has his back protected by some higher power. The Seckers gave us an update on what's going on in NZ and the sad state of affairs in Christchurch and how the city and its people are trying to cope. We loved and adored all our talks and plays with Rubs our lovely Star. Brisa is mad keen on you girl, another name she still mentions even after 2 weeks! Especially when I am putting a dvd on, she asks about "ubil, ubil"?
So after a month of much socializing and carefree life, we are back in the grind of cruising life, fixing things, cleaning, organizing, planning and finding things to complain in our near perfect life... We are shameless like that.
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Dear Papeete, which everyone says is chaotic and messy I must disagree completely. Its a pleasure and so easy to get around downtown. The Paofai gardens are gorgeous, the local market delightful and you can have delicious meals at the local Roulettes (food hawkers in converted vans) for very reasonable prices.
We are now in a free mooring ball in front of Marina Taina, have free dinghy access to the marina premisses, free water and a bus right in front. Carrefour (massive supermarket) is a 2 minute walk and we can even bring the trolleys all the way to the dinghy dock and not worry about returning it! How is that? To be completely honest I really don't believe we have been this well treated in ages!
Well the whole bond thing is a f%#k up and cost an arm and a leg (you have to deposit a return tkt to your home country, NZ$4000 in our case which they refund you when you leave in local currency)with all fees and terrible exchange they provide. But we could have saved us a lot of hassle if we were so not against using agents... it would have saved us a lot of time and money. So apart from all this this is nothing short of paradise.
Since we arrived we have caught up with quite a few of Russell's old windsurfing mates and they have been nothing short of lovely to us. Jean Claude and his lovely family have showed us around, throw Russ in a windsurf board for the first time in 13 years and provided us with a lovely dinner. Thierry has lent Russ is million dollar views workshop just up the hill from where our boat is. There Russ got all the toys he can dream of to construct our new rudder. By the way, the infamous rudder has eventually washed ashore in Kauehi, apparently it was in pretty good nick but the people that saw it didn't know it belonged to us and left it where they found it. If it wasn't over 400 miles up wind to get it... anyhow Russ is half way into the project. The blade is made and the casing is half done. Russ believes one more week and we will be ready to go again.
Mike and Adi along with Nathan, Jeannie and Ruby Secker have been and gone, we had a blast with all of them. It was all a bit rushed with Mike and Ads as they only had 2 weeks - we are used to have them around for way longer! But we managed to fit in a bit of everything for them: rough sailing, the shits, tahitian dancing and tahitian rum, a local hangi, some small and huge scary waves, including some dodgy pass experiences, loads of snorkeling and some standboard paddling which we all loved. Brisa loved their company and there wasn't one day she didn't invade their room in the mornings to give Adi (her adored Adi.. she still asks about you babes...) a good morning kiss and make a complete mess on their bed. Sorry guys, its her territory too!
With the Seckers we had some lovely high class times, loved the car rides, girly talks and Russell's semi organized excursions that always ended up well because he has his back protected by some higher power. The Seckers gave us an update on what's going on in NZ and the sad state of affairs in Christchurch and how the city and its people are trying to cope. We loved and adored all our talks and plays with Rubs our lovely Star. Brisa is mad keen on you girl, another name she still mentions even after 2 weeks! Especially when I am putting a dvd on, she asks about "ubil, ubil"?
So after a month of much socializing and carefree life, we are back in the grind of cruising life, fixing things, cleaning, organizing, planning and finding things to complain in our near perfect life... We are shameless like that.
----------
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Monday, 4 June 2012
Tuamotus
After a great time in Daniel's Bay in Nuku Hiva, where we took Brisa to see the waterfall, enjoyed the lovely heavenly gardens and the super friendly people we loaded the boat with fruits and took off to Ua Pou to wait for some wind, but on the way across the wind picked up and we decided to just keep going - we seem to have acquired a taste to doing this lately - and arrived in Kauehi in the Tuamotus in 3 days.
Entering the pass was very easy, we got there just in time for the slack water we believe as we managed to sail into the lagoon (we had the engine on just in case) dodging the fishing boats scattered at the pass. The village was adorable with well tended gardens and smiley people everywhere. The church was the main feature of the village with amazing shell chandeliers and constant singing going on. We missed (again) the mass on Sunday, but next time I promised myself that I will go even if I get there half way through. The singing sounded amazing.
We met the mayor and his daughters at the local cemetery (I know weird) they were cleaning the dead flowers from the tomb of his mother. He had the local shop and one of his daughters opened it just so we could by a couple of frozen baguettes! Well the baguettes eventually got stolen by the dogs in another house we stopped to drink coconut water. The lady of the house was mortified poor thing. We left with a bag loaded of husked coconuts.
We have since sailed to another part of the lagoon which is uninhabited and is beautiful. The coral is mostly dead but seems to be regrowing. The groupers and coral trouts are amongst the biggest I have ever seen (even in Chagos!) and sharks are constant companions. Locals say this lagoon doesn't have cigatera but we still got plenty of mahimahi to eat!
The only bad thing I got to report is the loss of our port rudder - yes, again... - this time we were not so lucky as the last time and the fitting which holds the rudder bar to the casing snapped off so we lost the lot. We don't believe we hit anything like last time, we guess it was fatigue as its our windward rudder and it's been getting a heavy work out for a long time now. We can still sail no worries with the other rudder (we did over 700 miles last time with only one!) but it means a lot of work for Russ in Papeete, and less time for us in the Tuamotus, but we are trying to make the most of it.
We are leaving tomorrow to Tahanea Atoll, which is uninhabited and reported to be magnificent. Then we will see famous Fakarava for a few days and a dive before heading to Papeete. We are all loving the turquoise warm waters. Bri scored a nice friend on another boat anchored here too, so a great time all around.
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Entering the pass was very easy, we got there just in time for the slack water we believe as we managed to sail into the lagoon (we had the engine on just in case) dodging the fishing boats scattered at the pass. The village was adorable with well tended gardens and smiley people everywhere. The church was the main feature of the village with amazing shell chandeliers and constant singing going on. We missed (again) the mass on Sunday, but next time I promised myself that I will go even if I get there half way through. The singing sounded amazing.
We met the mayor and his daughters at the local cemetery (I know weird) they were cleaning the dead flowers from the tomb of his mother. He had the local shop and one of his daughters opened it just so we could by a couple of frozen baguettes! Well the baguettes eventually got stolen by the dogs in another house we stopped to drink coconut water. The lady of the house was mortified poor thing. We left with a bag loaded of husked coconuts.
We have since sailed to another part of the lagoon which is uninhabited and is beautiful. The coral is mostly dead but seems to be regrowing. The groupers and coral trouts are amongst the biggest I have ever seen (even in Chagos!) and sharks are constant companions. Locals say this lagoon doesn't have cigatera but we still got plenty of mahimahi to eat!
The only bad thing I got to report is the loss of our port rudder - yes, again... - this time we were not so lucky as the last time and the fitting which holds the rudder bar to the casing snapped off so we lost the lot. We don't believe we hit anything like last time, we guess it was fatigue as its our windward rudder and it's been getting a heavy work out for a long time now. We can still sail no worries with the other rudder (we did over 700 miles last time with only one!) but it means a lot of work for Russ in Papeete, and less time for us in the Tuamotus, but we are trying to make the most of it.
We are leaving tomorrow to Tahanea Atoll, which is uninhabited and reported to be magnificent. Then we will see famous Fakarava for a few days and a dive before heading to Papeete. We are all loving the turquoise warm waters. Bri scored a nice friend on another boat anchored here too, so a great time all around.
----------
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Monday, 21 May 2012
Nuku Hiva
We are here!!! Arrived in Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Group in French Polunesia yesterday at 9am local time. We did Las Perlas in Panama to here in exact 25 days! 6,5 days to Galapagos, 18,5 days to Nuku Hiva!
The trip had its ups and downs but all around it was a dream trip, much easier than we had thought. Brisa whom was thought to be a problem to be dealt with during the trip, turned out to be the maker of our trip. Without her it would be have been boring as hell. She was an absolute trooper, hardly ever complaining about the days she was not able to go on the trampoline and making the best of it on the days she could which made us way more active and playful than usual. She is a master of drawing circles, waves and zig zags, her pen control is amazing! Her imagination has blossomed during this trip, she role plays with all her toys being Au-au Levy (a barking puppet dog given to her by her good mate Levy in Curacao) and Gigi the Giraffe (given to her by my Dad when we were in USA) her favorites. She took these toys everywhere she went. Play doh can now be turned into little semi round balls, including faces!!
Sailing wise we had a mixed bag of winds to start with as we had a big blow from the north to shoot us out of Panama, but from then on we had mostly light winds up to 15 knots. It varied from S to SE to E then to NE. We used our main only half the trip, the rest was all up to the Kite, Code Zero and Genoa. The sea conditions were much bigger than expected by the amount of wind, and we had quite a few uncomfortable but tolerable days. There seemed to be a constant current with us which varied from 1.5 to 0.5 knots, it diminished the further south we got as expected.
It is a bit unfortunate that we could not enter through Fatu Hiva or Hiva Oa which would allow us to see a bit more of these friendly islands but we have been sailing for a long time now, Bri deserves a good anchorage and a nice beach for a while to rest up (I guess it applies more to us than to her actually...). We will have a look around here then plan to spend a bit more time in the Tuamotus which seem to be quite an astounding place.
We went ashore yesterday and it was dragon boat race day! Quite a neat little party ashore with drums and lots of smiles. They are polynesians no doubt, they look, smile and even dress like Maoris, but they speak french which clashes quite a bit with the way they look. Actually I seem to noticed they spoke their own language amongst themselves. I could not understand much. But the generous friendly smiles and that unmistakable laugh (ririri, know what I mean?) is very Polynesian, it is very much like our own Maoris - made us quite homesick!
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The trip had its ups and downs but all around it was a dream trip, much easier than we had thought. Brisa whom was thought to be a problem to be dealt with during the trip, turned out to be the maker of our trip. Without her it would be have been boring as hell. She was an absolute trooper, hardly ever complaining about the days she was not able to go on the trampoline and making the best of it on the days she could which made us way more active and playful than usual. She is a master of drawing circles, waves and zig zags, her pen control is amazing! Her imagination has blossomed during this trip, she role plays with all her toys being Au-au Levy (a barking puppet dog given to her by her good mate Levy in Curacao) and Gigi the Giraffe (given to her by my Dad when we were in USA) her favorites. She took these toys everywhere she went. Play doh can now be turned into little semi round balls, including faces!!
Sailing wise we had a mixed bag of winds to start with as we had a big blow from the north to shoot us out of Panama, but from then on we had mostly light winds up to 15 knots. It varied from S to SE to E then to NE. We used our main only half the trip, the rest was all up to the Kite, Code Zero and Genoa. The sea conditions were much bigger than expected by the amount of wind, and we had quite a few uncomfortable but tolerable days. There seemed to be a constant current with us which varied from 1.5 to 0.5 knots, it diminished the further south we got as expected.
It is a bit unfortunate that we could not enter through Fatu Hiva or Hiva Oa which would allow us to see a bit more of these friendly islands but we have been sailing for a long time now, Bri deserves a good anchorage and a nice beach for a while to rest up (I guess it applies more to us than to her actually...). We will have a look around here then plan to spend a bit more time in the Tuamotus which seem to be quite an astounding place.
We went ashore yesterday and it was dragon boat race day! Quite a neat little party ashore with drums and lots of smiles. They are polynesians no doubt, they look, smile and even dress like Maoris, but they speak french which clashes quite a bit with the way they look. Actually I seem to noticed they spoke their own language amongst themselves. I could not understand much. But the generous friendly smiles and that unmistakable laugh (ririri, know what I mean?) is very Polynesian, it is very much like our own Maoris - made us quite homesick!
----------
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1200 miles to go!
We have been at sea for 17 days now and have another week or so until we get to the Marquesas.
Unfortunately the initial plan of sailing to Gambier had to be changed as the angle was very uncomfortable which is a shame but we endeavor to enter Marquesas in Fatu Hiva the southern most island so we can have a bit more of a look.
All is going well onboard, Brisa keeping us entertained and on our toes.
Food wise we are doing well but fruit is now pretty much gone, we ate the last banana this morning which leaves with a couple of oranges, 5 limes and 2 tamarillos! But we have quite a few vegies still and loads of canned stuff so we should be alright. The giant tuna is still feeding us so no fishing until that is eaten!
The SSB nets are busy, some 20 boats at least that we hear in the airwaves everyday doing the pacific crossing. Many kiwi boats! Wonder where they have been as we hardly saw any all the way round!
Brisa is doing great, growing in front of our eyes, very verbal now, with an astonishing mix match of English and Portuguese. It will send our family crazy in NZ until she understands whom to speak in which language!
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Unfortunately the initial plan of sailing to Gambier had to be changed as the angle was very uncomfortable which is a shame but we endeavor to enter Marquesas in Fatu Hiva the southern most island so we can have a bit more of a look.
All is going well onboard, Brisa keeping us entertained and on our toes.
Food wise we are doing well but fruit is now pretty much gone, we ate the last banana this morning which leaves with a couple of oranges, 5 limes and 2 tamarillos! But we have quite a few vegies still and loads of canned stuff so we should be alright. The giant tuna is still feeding us so no fishing until that is eaten!
The SSB nets are busy, some 20 boats at least that we hear in the airwaves everyday doing the pacific crossing. Many kiwi boats! Wonder where they have been as we hardly saw any all the way round!
Brisa is doing great, growing in front of our eyes, very verbal now, with an astonishing mix match of English and Portuguese. It will send our family crazy in NZ until she understands whom to speak in which language!
----------
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Past Galapagos!
We are now at 2 degrees South of the Equator, past the Galapagos Islands after 7 days of excellent sailing!
Moonwalker has once again proven herself as an amazing boat in light winds, although we had good strong northelies to start with from the Perlas Islands. Probably we got the last northerly blow of the season which was a lucky strike but by heading south and staying in the eastern side of Malpelo Island we managed to stay with a favorable current between 1 to 1.5 knots all the way past the Malpelo Island when we started to get some current against.
So we made such good time and used so little fuel, plus had some rain in the ITCZ area (which was remarkably small where we crossed her, lasting not much more than a day), that a stop in Galapagos seemed unnecessary. We are in such a good rhythm already, that stopping would mean starting all over again and it takes at least 3 days until the girls onboard find their good sea legs.
Our plan now is to head to the Gambier Islands just to make something a bit different, and seems like we have a good forecast to heading that way as we have fairly light winds still with a more easterly direction as we go further south. At the moment we got about 12 knots out of the SSE. The sailing has been superb to say the least.
Crossing the Equator for the last time was a bit of a non event onboard as it was in the middle of the night, but we had a special lunch and did our offers to our beloved Iemanja ( the Goddess of Waters in Afro-Brazilian culture). Our little statue of her was perfumed, fed with raisins, a shot of rum and some sparkling hair clips where applied to her clothing. After a few prayers of thanks and lots of caressing from all of us She seemed pleased as the next day, once the rum had evaporated, we caught a massive yellow fin tuna! The gigantic fish was about Brisa's length and easily 20 kgs. Our biggest fish by far.
All going well we should be in the Gambiers before the 20th of the month... long long way....
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Moonwalker has once again proven herself as an amazing boat in light winds, although we had good strong northelies to start with from the Perlas Islands. Probably we got the last northerly blow of the season which was a lucky strike but by heading south and staying in the eastern side of Malpelo Island we managed to stay with a favorable current between 1 to 1.5 knots all the way past the Malpelo Island when we started to get some current against.
So we made such good time and used so little fuel, plus had some rain in the ITCZ area (which was remarkably small where we crossed her, lasting not much more than a day), that a stop in Galapagos seemed unnecessary. We are in such a good rhythm already, that stopping would mean starting all over again and it takes at least 3 days until the girls onboard find their good sea legs.
Our plan now is to head to the Gambier Islands just to make something a bit different, and seems like we have a good forecast to heading that way as we have fairly light winds still with a more easterly direction as we go further south. At the moment we got about 12 knots out of the SSE. The sailing has been superb to say the least.
Crossing the Equator for the last time was a bit of a non event onboard as it was in the middle of the night, but we had a special lunch and did our offers to our beloved Iemanja ( the Goddess of Waters in Afro-Brazilian culture). Our little statue of her was perfumed, fed with raisins, a shot of rum and some sparkling hair clips where applied to her clothing. After a few prayers of thanks and lots of caressing from all of us She seemed pleased as the next day, once the rum had evaporated, we caught a massive yellow fin tuna! The gigantic fish was about Brisa's length and easily 20 kgs. Our biggest fish by far.
All going well we should be in the Gambiers before the 20th of the month... long long way....
----------
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