NZ-Tahiti Leg 5

NZ-Tahiti Leg 5

21 Oct 2008

We weighed anchor at Rairua Bay, Raivavae at 10.20 AM on 21 October 2008. It was a cloudy and drizzly day, a hangover from two fronts making our previous afternoon the wettest one since departing Fremantle. The wind was from the East, ranging from 9 to 15 kt, which gave us a splendid point of sail for Tahiti, about 350 nm away at 345 degrees true.

Our last full day at Raivavae, 20 October, was a busy and productive one. We were at the wharf just before 7AM to meet the bread supplier who had agreed to drop off 5 loaves for us. We then went to the post office to try to update our circumnavigation blog.

The post office was a bit slow in opening and we had a delightful time chatting across the language barrier with a local islander. I established the contact by saying “good day” to her in her native language, something that I had learned about ten minutes earlier.

The internet session turned out to be a challenge. We had just enough money left for one hour. There was one PC which I had noticed on an earlier visit had a USB port. The keyboard was just enough different to cause irritation: “m”, “a”, “z” and other lettters were in different positions. At the top you had to use the shift key to get a number. The @ symbol was shared with another letter at the bottom half of one of the top keys. Brenda got the reluctant post mistress to show me how to do a lateral shift for the @ character. She also showed me how to access my thumb drive on the USB port. On that thumb drive were several documents that I wanted to publish on the blog, both in MS Word and text in case their machine did not have Word.

Then signing into the blog was an adventure. I kept being thrown into a site called “Manu”. Somehow I got in on the 3rd or 4th try and published about 5 documents on the blog. Unfortunately even though the blog site reported that the publications had been successful they did not appear on the blog. I had just enough time to send the documents out as email attachments to key people. Fortunately Stephen, Brenda's son, reported later that the material had appeared on the blog and we felt very good about that.

We paid a brief visit to the gendarmerie to report our planned departure the next day then retreated to the boat for lunch an what we expected to be an easy afternoon. On the way to Pachuca we visited Noel's boat to tell them goodbye. After lunch the rain started. Arnold strung a tarp across the cockpit and started to collect water. I stripped down to my underwear and had a complete shower using shampoo. Arnold and Brenda did similar, scooping up water from the cockpit awning for rinsing hair. By nightfall we had washed ourselves, some clothes, and collected at least 50 more liters of water for our starboard tank. From the gurgling sound coming out of the vent of the tank we were confident that the water was close to capacity.

That evening the second gas cylinder became empty. I rummaged at the back for the two-burner “Maxi” alcohol stove that Brenda had purchased at a “Treasures of the Bilge” for $20.00. I had taken it home, cleaned it up, replaced the wicking material, tested it, then put it away for the trip. We also carried 4 liters of methylated spirits Its time had come. To our relief and delight both burners came on with no problem so that hot food until we got to Tahiti was assured.

The next day took our time on weighing anchor because at times the wind was gusting to over 20 knots. At 10.25 we lifted the anchor and the motoring out was uneventful with good protection from the island.

We started off with a moderate easterly wind and we were very hopeful of a fast passage. However, before midnight the wind began to back to the NW.

22 Oct 2008
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The wind backed to the north at about midnight and we spent the entire day beating against a wind that varied from 9 to 13 kt apparent and taking us up to 70 degrees off our course which forced several tacks. Then the wind abated the helm got really sluggish which was another character-building irritant.

23 Oct 2008

Until mid-afternoon it was the same regime of a wind of varying speed swinging from NE to NW. Somehow we managed to close another 75 nm toward Tahiti from noon to noon. We were still just over 200 nm from our destination. I occupied part of the morning by opening a second coconut. I knew how to open a coconut using a spike from our visit to the Whitsunday's a few hears ago. On Pachuca my tools of choice were a screw driver, a light ball peen hammer, and lots of patience. It worked OK. I used the screw driver to remove the husk one section at a time. Once the nut was exposed the rest of the job was easy. We got close to a half of glass of milk and all of the flesh in bigger pieces than in my first attempt. The weather was warm, and getting downright muggy inside the cabin. We were wearing shorts and tee-shirts by day and long sleeve pullovers at night.

At about 3.15 PM just after I had opened a beer Huey in the Sky threw a switch and all of a sudden we had a strong westerly wind of about 17 kt. Soon we were sailing directly down the rhumb line to Tahiti, full main up, headsail down to a 2.5, doing between 6.5 and 7 kt. ... Good things seem to happen frequently whenever I crack open a beer, and I think that most of them are real.

An hour later we put in a reef in preparation for the night. However, just before dark we noticed that the wind was backing to the south and the mainsail was interfering with the headsail. We dropped the mainsail and sailed down wind with jib only. The wind kept backing to the SE so we gybed The wind kept backing until it settled to a gentle NE wind just strong enough and just east enough to allow us to sail all night. After dawn we hoisted the mainsail and we were able to carry both sails for the entire day at speeds varying from 1.8 kt to 5 kt and always more or less on the rhumb line. We crossed latitude S20 degrees shortly before noon and we were less than 130 nm from the southern edge of Tahiti. Life wasn't bad: clear skies, calm sea, sailing under full sail toward our destination. We were firmly in the tropics and the boat was drying up very well. It was a long long way from sailing the Australian Bight and Bass Strait in winter.

24 Oct 2008

The wind established itself as a moderate easterly and we had a splendid 24 hours of sailing on a starboard beam reach doing about 6 kt.

25 Oct 2008

Spotting a tropical island is not usually a case of knowing the instant when you spot the tip of the mountain at the horizon. These islands tend to be shrouded in clouds and the texture and contour of their hills blend perfectly against the gray cloud background. So it was with Tahiti. We were only 27 nm out when at 9.30 AM Arnold was able to see what he thought was a contour in the cloud amazingly high off the horizon. Then it disappeared. Then it reappeared. Slowly the definition improved. I can quite understand how early square riggers could pass within 20 nm of these islands and not see them.

We had reached Tahiti close to one full day earlier than our estimate of only 48 hours ago. We knew that we would not reach Papeete before nightfall which meant waiting until the next morning before making our entrance. But it was so early in the day that we realized that we could had a chance to spend a peaceful night at anchor rather than a long night at sea stooging around waiting for dawn.

This is where Captain Robert fell victim to vacillation and indecision. I suggested an anchorage on the east side of the island. An hour later we changed course for an anchorage on the southern side of the island hoping to get better shelter from the strong wind. The apparent wind dropped because we were now running downwind, the mainsail blanketed the headsail so we dropped it, then found ourselves crawling at 3.5 kt with at ETA dangerously close to sunset. After an hour with the headsail fretting we changed course again for the original anchorage. We were doing 6.5 kt with the headsail alone. But then the wind got up to 19 kt and rather than face the prospect of entering the anchorage in high winds on a lee shore we altered course once again for the southern anchorage. Then the wind dropped again. We selected a closer anchorage on the southern shore that was not as good and was subject to currents. Our preferred southern anchorage was 14 nm away. Our secondary southern anchorage was 7 nm away. Our original anchorage selection on the east side was 9 nm away. Once again we altered course for the east side and had to use the engine to claw our way around the SE corner of the island. Using the engine was not so bad because we wanted to charge the batteries anyway. Once we were safe we stopped the engine for a while and used our sails and about 5 nm out we restarted the engine in a decreasing wind.

All's well that ends well. We made a textbook entrance using the with the aid of both the chart plotter and C-Map on the laptop. Our investigation during the sail to Tahiti had indicated that the chart plotter would be accurate when dealing with Tahiti. Changing the chart datum from WGS-94 to various US and European datum had not improved the chart plotter accuracy of Raivavae so we knew that that had not been the problem. Anyway, we went in through the leads with the chart plotter, C-Map, and our piloting all consistent. We did a right turn just past the starboard maker motored 0.5 nm up the lagoon, then dropped the anchor on a mound about 100m in diameter with about 20 m depth 4.30 PM. We could not confirm the depth because the depth sounder had quit working. (More on this later.) For anyone interested in the finer details we went through Pass Vaionifa and are anchored at 17S46.266 and 149W07.975.

Anchorages around Tahiti tend to be deep. The lagoon we are in has about 550 meters width and 2 miles length of usable water which can be as deep as 47 meters. On our approach to the anchorage I added the 80 meters of rope to the 38 meters of chain, all to be fed out through the anchor well hatch rather than through the hawse pipe. This worked well. We had a peaceful night at anchor with 38 meters of chain and 40 meters of rope.

The scene was nothing short of stunning. We were anchored directly opposite a series of waterfalls cascading down the high mountain. The entire frontage is a scene of little beaches, modest homes many with jetties, the occasional car, and a church further north. We are the only yacht at the lagoon, though closer to shore was a busy laneway of modern small boats zipping up and down the coast powered by their outboard motors. One of the boats was carrying a mound of many bunches of bananas. We could hear the constant white noise of the reef but the lagoon was extremely calm.

I went for a swim, my first bath since Raivavae, and I reported to the wimpy crew that the temperature of the water was nothing short of perfect. (Still no takers.) After a rinse with about two liters of water that had been used for heating some cans and a shave I felt like a million dollars. We had sundowner drinks at the cockpit.

26 Oct 2008


We woke up to the same splendid view and reaffirmed our plan to spend the day at the anchorage. At midnight the wind had been SE 12 kt and in the morning it was SE 10 kt. Perhaps we were finally in the trade winds. Our plan was to inflate the Zodiac, visit the shore, look around, and bring back fresh water from the waterfall to replenish our empty port tank that services the head. We would then carry the inflated Zodiac on our davits to Papeete.

After quiet morning followed by a leisurely lunch we set off for the shore at about 1 PM. We landed at what was the spectacular back yard of a nice young native couple with two girls frolicking in the water. He gave the OK for us to tie the boat on a steel pen near the shore and his wife filled up our two 10-liter containers with water. We then set off on a trek along the narrow gravel road running along the shore toward the village. About 1 km along the road we came across a stream of water draining into the sea. A local man assured us that it was straight from the mountain and OK to drink. It was delicious. I picked up a small mango that had dropped from a tree. It was not at its prime but it tasted OK. We saw a few bananas on trees but they were green and small. However, there were coconut trees everywhere and we could tell from the huge numbers that had been left on the ground to rot that supply greatly exceeded demand. Nevertheless we were careful to respect the ownership rights of the locals and I came back with three coconuts that were on “public” land.

The island – this section at least – has a much different look and feel than Raivavae. The place is neater. Every property owner seems to take pride in keeping his section of the road clean and tidy and well landscaped. We did not see the litter of discarded plastic and aluminium containers that blighted the landscape and reefs of Raivavae. Also, there were more boats, all modern and mechanized. The other thing that we noticed was that the locals interact with the water much more than they did in Raivavae. As in Raivavae, there seem to be no fly or mosquito problems.

After the leisurely walk of several hours we boarded the Zodiac and returned to Pachuca. I removed the outboard motor from the Zodiac and after a swim Arnold and I hoisted it up on the davits. Our plan was to sail at 6AM and try to make Papeete which is about 45 nm away. I was very skeptical about making Papeete before nightfall sailing downwind with a moderate SE breeze. We selected two alternative anchorages: one only 14 nm up the coast, the other about 10 nm from Papeete.

27 Oct 2008

We woke up at 5 AM for a departure at 6 AM. With good winds we would be able to make Papeete before nightfall. Unfortunately our schedule did not go as planned and I leaned a very hard lesson in anchor management.

We were supposed to be anchored on a mound about 20 m deep. We could not be sure because the depth sounder had stopped working except for a brief display of depth as we were coming though the leads. When paying out the chain after our anchor drop it got so heavy that I had to let it go and gave it another 40 meters of rope. I thought that the strain on the chain was due to movement of the boat. I started to wind in the rope by hand using the winch handle by at 20 meters it was so hard that I switched to the anchor winch. The strain on the brand-new anchor winch must have been too much because it stopped working (and still isn't working). My first thought was that the chain was wrapped around a coral “bommie” as had happened to us in the Whitsundays. At that depth of water we would have had to abandon the anchor, go to Papeete, get some money, then arrange for a diver.

I noticed that no matter how much strain I put on the winch the rope over the fair lead still had play in it, giving us hope that the problem was sheer weight rather than a fouled chain. The next hour was a pattern of using all of my strength for two or three winds of the winch handle with Arnold snubbing the line, then resting for a minute or two. We got the chain up to the winch then made the transition by using the snubber to bring in enough chain wrap around the gypsy. We then used Arnold's suggestion of using a halyard which was a big help because it gave a better angle on the chain. After a few meters I went back to the hand cranking and after 10 meters the anchor alarm went off and we knew that we were drifting. Arnold and Brenda handled the boat, keeping it in deeper water until I could raise the anchor enough to guarantee that it would not bite again. Then they motored out through the leads while I shipped the anchor and set it on the roller.

I've looked up the data and it appears that the 38 m of chain and 35-lb anchor weighed about 250 lb (112 kg) and now I know that this is beyond the practical limit of our equipment. The policy now is to avoid anchoring in depths beyond 15 m. For emergencies I plan to get out the 7 m chain on my spare rode and put it on the 70 me of rope that I had attached to my usual chain. For unavoidable deep water work I'll be using 7 m of 10 mm chain and 70 m of thick white rope. Of course the worry here is that the rope will get cut by coral, so I will avoid this if possible.

We raised sail at about 9.30 AM on a reach from a weak easterly. We tried the mainsail but after an hour or so had to drop it because it was flogging too much, even with a preventer on the boom. We wound the headsail to about a 2.5 to minimize the flogging stress on it. We knew that we would not make Papeete before nightfall and we discussed alternative anchorages and decided that the best option was to enter Papeete harbour in the night. That turned out to be a wise choice.

During the sail I confirmed that the transducer of our depth sounder, which is inside of the hull in a bath of oil, had enough oil; but for good measure I added a cup of olive oil to the bath. We did a lot of work with the display and confirmed that the connections were OK and it ran through its simulation routine just fine. We assumed that the transducer had failed. At sunset the wind started to pick up and we had a splendid night sail with partial jib pulling the boat along at over 3 kt and the lights of Papeete parading before us. By 8.30 PM we had identified our makers and leads and we made a text book entry using the main leads then switching to another pair of leads to take us to the yacht area. We dropped anchor and confirmed the depth at 16 m using a hammer with a knotted line. When I returned to the cockpit I noticed that the depth sounder was working and reporting a depth of 15 m. It appears that we had been anchored beyond the depth range of our sounder.

28 Oct 2008

It's just as well that we were up early because at 6 AM a harbour pilot boat came alongside and asked us to move, like NOW, because that area was required for ship movements. We complied but I was a bit miffed because according to the chart we were in the yacht area and there was no note about prohibited anchorage. We seemed far from the ship jetty and did not think that 15 m was enough depth for a ship. Anyway, we moved and dropped anchor near one of the floating jetties for yachts until we could make proper arrangements.

This was the beginning of a very busy and productive day. Arnold chose to stay on board. Brenda and I went ashore with all of our documentation.

Papeete is a modern city which appears to have all of the services that we will require. The banking services are excellent. There are plenty of shops and the bus system appears to be good and cheap. There are public toilets, water fountains, and rubbish bins. The boat jetty is about 300 m from what I am told is the heart of the city. We found the information centre and got maps and good directions for the immigration and yacht authorities which were only a short distance away. The immigration policeman told us that even though we had been cleared at Raivavae we would now have to either post bonds or produce airline tickets to somewhere else. With some fast decision making and visits to a travel agent and three banks we returned to the immigration office at 1 PM with an airline ticket for Brenda back to Australia on 16 Nov and bonds of a total of about $3300 AUD posted for Arnold and myself. We arranged with Ken, a delightful local official, to put our boat at the jetty. Ken, by the way, said that it is very unusual to see yachts going from NZ to Tahiti then north to Hawaii. I said that we tend to everything the wrong way. He replied that maybe not everything but maybe this one. We then visited the immigration official and got our clearance.

On the way back to the boat Brenda got some 6 cans of Heiniken and a bottle of red wine (for about $70 AUD. Get it? Papeete is VERY EXPENSIVE!), some cool drinks and bread at another store, some fresh fruit and vegetables at a market reminiscent of the Fremantle market, then two cheese burgers and French fries from McDonald's for Arnold.

At the quay we met Drew and his girl friend Margie who sailed in a week ago from Ecuador in a Pearson 37 ketch (home port in South Carolina). He was of great assistance with advice and help with the ropes on tying the boat Mediterranean style. Because there were only two other boats on the jetty we had the luxury of doing it in two stages: (1) tie up side on and (2) use ropes provided to pull the bow of the boat out tie the line off when the stern of the boat is the correct distance from the jetty. There seems to be cables running parallel to each side of the jetty along the ground. To that cable is a series of thick ropes which are tied to thinner lines that are tied off at the jetty. You just grab one of these thin lines and keep pulling until the thick line emerges then use this thick line to secure the bow. No kedging anchors are required.

Drew then came on board Pachuca and his first comment was about the excellent stainless steel cockpit frame. (I've yet to see a better one, Scotty!) While Arnold, Drew, and I were having a beer at the cockpit Brenda brought Claude around. He and his wife are on a beautiful Beneteau out of France. Ours are the only three boats on the this jetty: Claude's and ours on this side, Drew's on the other. Where are the other boats? For one thing, there is a big marina on the other side of the air port which I was told was more expensive than this jetty and is much further away from town. But near the marina is a free anchorage. We were happy where we were: plenty of room at the jetty, water and power, garbage service, and if we were any closer to town the cars would be rolling over us. Having said that, we planned to visit the marina and indeed much of the island by bus.

That night the three of us went to a sort of mobile food court that is set up every night. Brenda and I had a splendid meal of grilled Mai Mai (like a Spanish Mackrel) and vegetables. Arnold went to another van and had something else then saw some pretty good native dancing as part of outdoor entertainment of talking, singing, drumming, and dancing which seems to be put on every evening.

We got back to the boat at 9 PM. Arnold went for a walk and Brenda had a fresh water bath in the cockpit using a bucket of water from the tap at the jetty. This is all with the promenade and road only 20 or 30 meters away, with apartment buildings on the other side. I had mine on the jetty wearing underpants and sitting on a bollard. It was a neat experience: open air bath in Papeete harbour in full view of the city and perfect temperature.

29 Oct 2008

We spent the day consolidating our position. I retrieved the stand and turning handle of our little hand washing machine and fitted it up. We will wash all of our clothes on the jetty and hang them on the boat to dry. I also put the axle and wheels back onto our steel “shopping trolley” which will be very, very useful for general shopping and at least 7 trips for two 10-liter containers of diesel fuel. Next came the water and I was happy to see that the thread size was the same as what we have in Australia. Soon the port tank had been flushed out and both tanks were brimming with water. Brenda took the trolley on a shopping expedition. For lunch on the cockpit I dug out the canvas link sheet connecting our cockpit shelter to the spray dodger so we were able to enjoy lunch at the cockpit table under shade and with a cool breeze. After lunch Arnold and I went out in search of a converter by which we could connect our Aussie electric plug to the European 3-pin 10 amp 220v socket on the jetty. It took two visits to the hardware and some excellent advice from Claude on the Beneteau at the end of the jetty but we got what we needed. I returned from that second trip to the hardware to find that Brenda and Arnold had gone off to take advantage of cases of Heineken bottles on special. I plugged in the electrics to the boat, turned on the Mastervolt charger and bingo! 56 amps started to flow into our batteries. At 10 PM 50 amps were still flowing in. The next morning the input was down to 12 amps and the four house batteries were fully charged at 920 amp hours. Before Arnold and Brenda returned I managed to wash down the boat and hang the Zodiac on a halyard and wash it down too.

That evening Brenda and I went to the mobile food court. Brenda had a stir fry. I tried the raw fish Tahitian style which I found delicious and refreshing. At 9.30 PM we were back on the boat and Brenda had a bath in the cockpit using a bucket of fresh water. I did it the easy way: on the jetty with a towel and soap and wearing just underpants using the water hose. It was marvelous and I was cool as a cucumber the rest of the night.