Journal Entry July 26, 2005 Escape from Tahiti!

Author: Scott

We did it; we finally pulled away from the quay and put Tahiti astern! It is so strange to me how you can arrive to a new landfall full of anticipation and excitement and then a month later you can feel so much relief to be on your way again. I will have so many varied memories of our time in Tahiti all mostly good, but I will also remember the endless trips to the industrial district and the vacillation we went through before finally settling on a plan to resolve our engine issues.

Today started at 0530 with both of us ready to meet our departure day with zeal. We had a lot to do before we could depart and we wanted to get an early start so we wouldn’t get jammed up. Our friends from the blind association were meeting us at 1000 and we had to get the boat prepared, get Pam a dose of fresh tuna, and get checked out with the Gendarmerie, Customs, and the Port Captain. The morning was going smoothly and we jumped through all the hoops at each office and we were racing through the home stretch when the Port Captain tripped us up and our efficiency ground to a halt. “You can not pay for your stay with a credit card”, said the Port Captain as if everyone carries around hundreds of dollars in cash to pay for over a month of spendy mooring fees. To make it worse, the entire time he was calculating our bill he kept moaning and talking under his breath about how expensive our stay was while keeping us in suspense as to what the huge mysterious bill would total out at. “Just tell me how much”, I was screaming in my head. He finally did give me a total and I was off to see if I could convince the ATM to dispense enough cash to free us from Papeete and Pam headed back to the boat to meet the association. I had visions of returning to the bank three days in a row to collect the maximum allowable withdrawal from the bank to equal enough clams to pay our bill. Fortunately I was able to finagle some financial voodoo with my ATM card and a few credit cards to extract just enough money to pay Mr. “We don’t accept credit cards” Port Captain. I was beginning to taste freedom. I returned to the Port Captain’s office just as a strange man walked in the office and started a very vocal and heated argument with the Port Captain in Tahitian. Another yachtie and I just stood there staring at the ceiling while the two men screamed at each other while waving their hands violently in the air. The argument ended as abruptly as it started and the Port Captain snatched up my payment and even let me slide a few francs because of course he couldn’t make change. All paid up, I made a dash to the market to find fresh fish for our first dinner away from Papeete, my pocket was filled with a plastic bag full of coins that equaled exactly 1000 francs, enough for a big hunk of thon rouge. Though I was way late I managed to make a quick stop by the pastry lady and got one final strawberry and custard tart for breakfast.

As I walked up the quay I could see the association for the blind had arrived with a television station camera crew. Pam was bravely holding everything together and when I reached the group, the day got going into high gear. The television crew was running late and needed to shoot quickly, they wanted to film us saying goodbye to the association and we were presented with many leis and shell necklaces. I presented Roland with one of my white canes, a carbon fiber, low profile cane that can only be purchased in the United States. There were hugs, handshakes and kisses everywhere! When the filming was finished we had a chance for a more leisurely goodbye with promises to stay in touch. Pam and I climbed aboard Tournesol, adorned in leis. The association cast off our lines at 1100 and we managed to successfully pull up our anchor chain without snagging the infamous hurricane chain that is rumored to snare sailboats like a fly in a spider web. However, our anchor and chain were heavily coated in stinky green slime that had accumulated over the past month. I looked like and smelt like a swamp thing as I pulled stringy green goo from the anchor. The group stood on the quay waving for many minutes and both Pam and I felt the mixed emotions of saying so long to new friends mingled with the thrill of heading to sea. Our departure from the harbor went smoothly and just as we turned to head out the pass we heard a loud whistle and were surprised to see though our telescopes that our friends from the association had driven down the waterfront to give us a final wave before we sailed off over the horizon.

Tahiti stood in our wake full of so many memories. The morning was a steely drab gray with dark squally clouds hanging in the distance, this was not going to be your perfect postcard South Pacific day sail, but at least we were moving with the power of a functional engine that was not overheating! I wish I could say we immediately fell into a peaceful mood while making way towards Moorea, but I think we will always be a little on pins and needles while the engine is running until we reach New Zealand. Once we put a few miles between us and Tahiti’s barrier reef we raised our main with a double reef and unfurled our jib and fell off to a lively beam reach. We did finally turn off the engine and we each sighed with a bit of relief. We were finally at sea again! We quickly resumed or habits at sea and settled in for some reading. Pam read to me about future destinations while I hand steered towards Moorea. As Tournesol scooted towards our next landfall we could see rain squalls move across our bow and shroud the entire island of Moorea in rain. It was thrilling to see the island become engulfed in the squall and disappear just to reappear as the rain moved on. It reminded me of watching a car go through a car wash to emerge squeaky clean on the other side. Tournesol was not exempt from the rain and she got a much needed bath while Pam and I huddled under the dodger. We had to fire up the engine for about half an hour because the squall sucked away all of our wind leaving the sea a dull glassy gray. While we motored I just happened to take a look at our non functional temperature gauge that had plagued us in Tahiti, and to my complete surprise it had resurrected itself and was working perfectly. Soon we were able to quiet the engine but now we had the knowledge that our temperature gauge was functioning to brighten the cloudy day, and this would last for just a few more minutes. As we were preparing to continue reading Pam happened to look over the side of the boat at our dinghy that we were dragging, and it was deflated on one side. I was careful to tie it so that it would not be punctured by our windvane, but it appeared to be popped somehow. Our spirits immediately fell with thoughts of patching the dink before we could even go ashore in Moorea. I pulled the dinghy up on the foredeck and my emotions rebounded when I realized the cap covering the air intake had come loose and the dinghy was perfectly fine! What a silly scare!

Our eighteen mile sail to Moorea took us about five hours with our speed averaging 3.5 knots. When we finally came around the north side of Moorea, the sun came out to greet us, and we were treated with a spectacular view of the steep and rugged mountains and spires on Moorea. The island looked like a fairytale land, conjuring visions of knights, elves, and dragons, I would not have been surprised in the least to see a castle poised on the towering cliffs above. Waves pounded the reef throwing huge white plumes of spray into the air, and the setting sun cast pinks and yellows across the retreating storm clouds from earlier in the day. Moorea is breathtaking.

We did not have long to bask in the beauty of Moorea because we had to be spot on accurate in our approach to Cook’s Bay because we would be facing our first pass with low lying coral and although the pass is well marked, we wanted to make sure we were in the center of the channel. As we approached watching the GPS like a hawk, the first buoy became visible in our telescopes and we were able to negotiate a track for entering the bay. It was fascinating to enter the bay with calm water all around us, only broken with small waves breaking on both sides of the boat, but I knew that these seemingly harmless little waves represented dangerous coral just under the water’s surface. There were boats anchored inside the reef to port and the emerald green water with the towering mountains surrounding Cook’s Bay off our bow. We decided to play it conservative and headed towards the head of the bay, leaving reef anchoring for another day. As we crept into the bay we heard James from Novia over our VHF radio. “Welcome Tournesol, you are looking in fine form!” James then offered to jump in his dinghy to guide us into the anchorage and we accepted with enthusiasm. There were thirteen boats anchored in the head of the bay and we wound our way to a spot just in front of Novia. Our first anchoring attempt left us a little too close to Novia, so I pulled the sucker back on deck. Our second attempt was a perfect (and lucky) insertion in the center of three boats. We were safely anchored in Moorea!

I wasted no time emptying my pockets and I was in the clear, green, warm water in a flash! James hovered in his dinghy and chatted with Pam on deck and me paddling around his dinghy. Ann called over from Novia and asked us if we were interested in joining them for dinner, and we gladly put the tuna on hold. What a treat to have dinner with friends at a new anchorage. We agreed to come over in a little while, after we got Tournesol reorganized.

Pam and I were on deck a few minutes later when a dinghy with four people in it pulled up and welcomed us to the bay. “You’re famous” a man called from their dinghy. “We saw you in the paper today.” They even had a copy of the paper with them. They were from the boats Gosi (also a Valiant) and Windsong and they had seen us in the paper, but they did not know why we were in the paper since they could not read French. We told them our story and had a nice chat.

Dinner on Novia was a yummy treat and James did an excellent job of translating the newspaper story for us. Before we could find sleep we had to stuff everything back in the V-berth that was strewn about the boat from our earlier anchoring. Moorea is what you pictured a South Pacific island to look like and tomorrow we would get to explore our new temporary home!