This is the companion post to our “12 – 2009 – Tahiti Boat Projects” photo
gallery.

The photos show about 10% of what we actually did.  I don’t want to bore
you with too many details and the photos pretty much tell the story.  Some
of the nice “Tahiti Topside” photos of the sister island of Moorea were
taken while Cindy hauled me 75 feet off the water; up the mast.  We had
broken our sail track on the way from the Galapagos to the Marquesas and it
took us the better part of five days to replace it.  While “aloft” I took
some cool photos of the Marina and Moorea. (See our 09_2009 Tahiti Topside
Photo Gallery).

It’s the middle of Summer here and while you all in the Northern Hemisphere
are emailing us about how wet and cold it is in the US, Canada and Europe,
it’s hotter than blazes down here in the Southern Hemisphere summer.  Think
“Palm Springs in August”.  As we don’t have a car and we have lots to do
aboard the boat, a bit of cabin fever (at least cool cabin fever) has set
in.  Also, as this is an “El Nino” year, we get to watch for the errant
HURRICANE that occasionally threatens French Polynesia.  So far, only OLI
(As of February 24th, 2010) has done some area wide mischief here.  A tree
next to the boat fell down.  The island of Tubuai to our south was not so
lucky.  They got a direct hit, one life lost and 200 homes destroyed.  READ
THAT AS ALL THE HOMES WERE DESTROYED.  It blew 60 knots in the marina here
for several hours. The small side of Tahiti, Tahiti Nui had 100 mph winds
for awhile.  Glad we weren’t there!… The Hurricane never came closer to
Tahiti than 170 miles.  SO, you can imagine being in the way of a Catagory
3-5 hurricane like KATRINA.

Cindy has been more than patient during all of the boat project and weather
challenges.  Her mantra is: “It will all be okay IF: “YOU GET ME IN THE
WATER”.  This has been our second “summer” in the wrong hemisphere in very
hot weather.  We will try not to repeat this a third time.

On two trips we’ve taken to Los Angeles so far, we’ve brought back over 350
lbs of spare boat parts and “stuff”…..It’s getting harder to find a place to
put it all.

*A partial, but by no means complete list.  If you’re a glutton for boat
project punishment……read on: (Disclaimer) - Children under 13 and Women of
any age may need to be protected from this list; skip to end if this
describes you.*

Replace Zincs on propellers, grease propellers, clean hull, replace zincs on
refrigeration/freezer units (underwater heat exchangers like a radiator in a
car)

Recharge, evacuate, troubleshoot Refrigeration/Freezer issue

Chase ANTS that got aboard.

Rebuild main toilet

Clean out all toilet lines that have stopped up over 5+ years.

Seal deck seam tape inside to insure no leakage when at sea.

Replace escape hatch gaskets and reseal side port lights/replace gaskets

Hydraulic steering fluid replacement

Engines: replace oil and filters. Fuel filters, primary and secondary. Lap
cone clutch on starboard transmission.  Tighten motor mounts. Reline engine
room and generator room sound material.

Generator: EVERYTHING.  New electronic governor, new capacitors, coolant
leak, fuel air leak.

Air Conditioning Main: Re-wire for 220 volt/50-60 hz power.  Fix plumbing
leaks, replace 3 cooling sensors.

New Little Air Conditioning: Install….TWICE…Complete

Mast/Rigging: Replace leisure furl in boom furler track, gooseneck shims.

Maintain all deck hardware due to UV damage including all shock cords, zip
ties, rings, cotters, etc.

Wash boat and Wax (in April)

Paint and repair washer/dryer

INVENTORY EVERYTHING on a spread sheet.

New AIS (automatic identification system), update software in
chartplotters.

New little inverter for computers, old one fried on Galapagos crossing.

Complete SCUBA compressor maintenance

Lots of deck hardware/anchor roller maintenance

Repair window screens and canvass

Repair mainsail chafe, genneker tear, spinnaker sock tears

Remove and replace water tanks and replace gauge sensors

Replaced all interior ventilation fans.

Replaced all Watermaker filters and main water system filters

Lots of wiring clean up

Drawers needed hardware fixing

Radio modem for “at sea email” needed re-cabling

Finish work on several wood pieces and vents

Clean and organize everything....mildew is a bitch!

Gee when I see it written down this way, It doesn’t look like that much. I
know forgot lots; most likely a mental block.

We have put in approximately 4 months of 5 day weeks doing all this
stuff....only about 2 weeks to go as of this posting in late February 2010.

And you all thought we were retired!....

Happy Holidays,

KIT (keep in touch),

Scott and Cindy

We had been working constantly on the boat without many breaks and only one
days diving.  There is much to see here, so we decided to “take the day off”
and drive around the island by car.  On this trip, we would go to the home
of Alex, Heike and baby Yann.

Alex runs a commercial aquarium service in Los Angeles and is married to
Heike who used to be the manager of “The Boat Yard” in Marina del Rey,
California.  They had baby Yann (cutest little guy ever!) here in Tahiti
where Alex was born.  Alex is a US citizen as his Mom is.  Here in French
Polynesia, he has a commercial aquarium collection service and is licensed
to import fish to the US for re-sale.

We’ve been in email touch for a long time and finally got to catch up.  Alex
and Heike have been very helpful in many ways here, both being fluent in
French and knowing where everything is in the way of parts and
services.  They’ve
included us in some gatherings with friends and introduced us to US Consul
Christopher Kozely who has helped us with some business stuff as well.

So, we’ll let the photo gallery tell the story……see: “12-2009 Tahiti Land
Redux”

Enjoy,

Scott & Cindy

We watched the 170 or so outrigger canoes begin the race right past
where we were anchored at Huahine. There were about 100 other boats
following, escort power boats, families, & other tourist/observers
like us. The shore was lined with 100’s of people cheering them on. It
is a colorful & festive spectacle. It was 4 hours to Raiatea. The lead
outriggers kept up a pace of almost 8 knots.  About as fast as “Beach
House” motors. The sea was kind of lumpy, which makes their work
harder. We had to pay close attention to not hit another spectator
boat and stay out of the path of the paddlers.

The shore at the finish of today’s leg had lots of banners & 100’s
more cheering fans too. The Shell Oil team (7 year winner) came in
first. We proudly wore our logo gear given to us by our dock neighbor
Stanley.

We called Jerry Woods cell phone. He is an American boater who we
first met in Ensenada on his Catana 53 catamaran, who bought a house
on Raiatea. He stood on his dock waving. It was not sheltered enough
to anchor right by his house, so we settled near a motu (islet) then
took the dinghy in to visit. The house is nice & airy, wonderful view
of the pass & lagoon. He drove us into town where there was much
post-race revelry. He bought some fruit & wine & we enjoyed visiting
with him back at the house. We ended up moving the boat to an even
more calm area overnight, near the airport. We were able to pick up a
mooring which makes it easy.

November 5th
We didn’t know the start time of today’s race so we slipped our lines
by 7:45 a.m. Turns out the start wasn’t until 9. There were A LOT more
boats following the race today between Raiatea & Tahaa, at least 400!
It felt like we were in the Indy 500 or something. It was remarkable.
I was glad to feel more exhilarated than afraid. I don’t love driving
in close quarters, but everyone was pretty well behaved & we didn’t
see any collisions which is a miracle. Except for the front 2-3
canoes, the others had really lumpy water to paddle through due to the
wakes of all the spectator and coaching boats. We were impressed that
the paddlers kept up a pace of nearly 8 knots for 2 hours. Only
slowing a bit when they hit 15 knot head winds. We kept our distance
from the finish in order not to get trapped in the pack. A different
team, The Tahiti Post Office (OPT) won today, so it keeps it
interesting.

We called our friend Wilfred, assistant manager of the Pearl Beach
Hotel in Tikihau. There is a Pearl Beach property on Tahaa, we
inquired about anchoring there. He called the manager for us & told us
it would be fine. We ended up staying only briefly because the swell
was very lumpy. We moved a ways down to a deep bay where we have a
nice breeze but flat water. Scott changed the transmission oil while I
hung the laundry. We are settled here with only 2 other boats. We saw
many of the smaller power boats zooming back to Raiatea after the
race. The logistics of housing & feeding the 170 x 6 men teams of
racers on each island is really a feat.  There were women’s crews as
well, but not nearly as many.

The last race day is tomorrow, Tahaa to Bora Bora. It is such a
striking island, made famous as “Bali Hai” in the movie South Pacific.
That will be about a 4 hour run. We intend to go ashore tomorrow to
partake of the end of race festivities. And we’ll probably spend
several days at each island as we work our way back to Tahiti. It has
been a great excuse to get out & explore.

Cindy & Scott

We dinghied outside the reef to dive. Drifting along with a 150 foot tether;
it is always good to get underwater & see the usual suspects.

The second day, the swell was bigger which hurt the visibility. It was
nice to blow bubbles & cool off, but we both agreed it wasn’t worth
going for a 2nd dive. Several surfers were our enjoying the waves.

In the afternoon we went ashore & discovered a major fish tournament
going on. The fish boats were bringing their catch in to be measured &
weighed. Over 100 fish boats participated. The large marlins, mahi
mahi, wahoo & oho are beautiful, even when dead. We never get to see
these deep ocean fish when diving. We knew our dock neighbor was here
aboard the Shell Va’a mother ship “Embrum”.  The owner of the boat
owns the local Shell Oil franchises and sponsors 2 outrigger teams. We
went to say hi to Stanley & wife Ivana. He is the captain of “Embrum”.
They gave us hats & T-shirts so we can show our support for their
team.

We reserved a rental car to explore the island. It is about $130 for 8
hours, including insurance. The entire island is only 8 x 4 miles. We
stopped many times for photos, vanilla farm tour, had lunch & still
circumnavigated Huahine in 5 hours. It is everything you would want
from a tropical island: lush, green foliage, plenty of colorful
flowers along the road. A scattering of simple homes. The lady at the
vanilla farm made sure we bought some vanilla beans before taking us
on the “free” tour. I’d bought vanilla beans in the past that to my
recollection were dried up twiggy things that you had to boil. These
were black, but still soft & moist. Easy to scrape out the gooey paste
of seeds. We have tried them in coffee so far. A bag of 6 seed pods
was $13 so we will continue to buy regular liquid vanilla for daily
use. The plants are grown on stakes, similar looking to green bean
vines. Small plots are covered with fine mesh on all sides to prevent
birds from eating the plants. A French couple also on the tour
thankfully translated for us. It is a tedious process to hand
pollinate each flower bloom. It was interesting to see how it was
done.

Our lunch stop was along a gorgeous stretch of lagoon. Turquoise blue
water with crashing white waves on the outer reef. We shared a salad
with chicken at “Chez Tara”.

Since we were back early from renting the car, we shopped at the well
stocked market & also bought 10 gallons of unleaded for the dinghy.
Tomorrow the race begins and we’re off to Raiatea, Tahaa and will end
in Bora Bora.

Cindy & Scott

I was a bit hesitant to depart at night in the rain, but Scott didn’t think
it would be that bad so we ventured out. The sea was bumpy, a bonine on top
of my usual scopalamine patch helped. We each did two, 3 hour shifts. I made
dinner & did the dishes before starting my 6-9 pm watch. I alternated
sitting & standing outside enjoying the twilight for almost an hour after
sunset. The sky looked like a beautiful landscape painting, with very
dramatic clouds. There was wind & sea spray in my face at the helm so I kept
our “windshield” down to stay dry. It only rained a couple of times. The
moon was quite full & provided a lot of welcome light even when covered by a
cloud. I listened to my “Mellow Mary” playlist - Mary Chapin Carpinter.
Always good company for traveling.

I was so happy to go lie down, napping a bit until my next shift.  During my
second watch, I did 15 minute cat nap watches. I’d lie down in the salon
then pop up when my watch beeped to make sure we were on course with no
traffic. We saw just a couple of distant ships. Scott encountered one large
sailing cruise ship nearby on his watch, but it was well lit so no worries.
He got us into the passage during his final shift. I slept deeply from 3-6
a.m. & am very happy to be here. There are about 10 boats in 2 anchorage
areas. It is calm, clear skies & gorgeous turquoise water.

We will be napping & recovering today. Probably go to shore later to find
out more about the canoe race. We think it starts on November 2 so we’ll
have a couple of days to explore here. Then we’ll be following the race to
the other three islands.

We pronounce it Huahine: “who-uh-hee-nay”. But I think the correct Tahitian
way is something like: wah-hee-nay.  We soon found out ashore that in
Tahitian it means Island of the Women’s Vagina. (As viewed from above).
However, since the island has been named this for so long, we weren’t quite
sure how the ancient Tahitians discerned this from a topographical view?
Mostly it is referred to a “The island of the Women”. We hope you all have
a fun Halloween, we look forward to hearing from you.

Cindy & Scott

Moorea - A Fluke Encounter

We enjoyed the morning dive, drifting with the current outside the reef. The
wind was blowing opposite of the current which made it a bit more strenuous
to tow the dinghy than yesterday when they were flowing the same direction.
I tried to hold onto the dinghy as a test for when Scott has a camera, but I
could not kick against the pull of the dinghy on the surface blown by the
wind. So Muscle Man got his workout. We saw the usual suspects but it was a
bit ho-hum. There are plenty of fish, but the coral looks dead, brownish.  We
see the occasional black tip reef shark.

After the dive we had drifted down by the second bay so decided to take the
dinghy inside the reef to return to “Beach House”. We knew there were some
very shallow spots but have seen other small boats zooming in there, so gave
it a try. As we neared an anchorage area, we spotted catamaran “Azizah” that
we had first met in the Marquesas. We went over to say hello to Semia from
Brazil & her French man. As we were catching up with them, another couple in
a dinghy came up excitedly to tell us there was a whale Mama & Baby INSIDE
the bay & they had snorkeled with them for an hour. We all sprung into
action & zoomed over there. There were about 5 other boats in the area &
sure enough the mother & baby humpbacks were surfaced & letting snorkelers
swim very near. We both slipped in the water & had a real thrill. The water
was murky green, so despite how easy they were to see above water, it was
hard to see below. But when they moved a fluke or turned to expose their
white underside areas we could see them well. Intermittently they would dive
down for awhile. Young babies cannot hold their breath long, so it surfaced
often. We enjoyed watching them for about an hour. One of the local guys in
an outrigger canoe said they have been seeing this humpback pair for about 3
weeks. A late season baby - how lucky for us! The Baby was about 15 feet
long. The Mama a big 40 feet. We were astonished at how calm she seemed even
with 10-15 people near them in the water plus several small boats. We all
turned our engines off when close. We also know not to attempt to touch
them, but they each brushed up against Scott as they swam by. I swam out of
the way of Mom’s enormous fluke in order not to be bashed by the 12 foot
long, thousand pound appendage. Incredible. It started out as just any other
day...you just never know what will happen. Very very exciting. We hope to
see them again.  Hunger eventually drove us back to “Beach House”, but we
plan to re-anchor over there in hope to see them again in Oponohu bay.

While talking to the couple on “Azizah”, they asked if we would be going to
see the big canoe race, Hawaikinuivaa, next week. We had heard about it.
About 200 outriggers participate from all over the world. It is one of the
biggest events in the Society Islands for the whole year. We looked at each
other & grinned - why not? The weather is predicted to be calm & it gives us
a great reason to explore the other islands. The race starts in Huahine
which for us will be an overnight sail. Then it is about 30 miles to
Raiatea, then 5 miles to Tahaa. The finish will be 30 miles further at Bora
Bora. There will be much fanfare & parties at each end. FUN FUN FUN!

So we are going to go the little market here soon to stock up on food so we
don’t have to worry about shopping on the other islands. Depending on whale
sightings we will set sail either Friday or Saturday night.

Just when you think you are in a routine, something changes. Stay tuned for
more “tales” of adventure!

Cindy & Scott

We headed outside the reef, it was sunny & calm. A dive company with guests
zoomed past us, so we followed their lead to a good spot. We anchored not
far from them & swam up current for a while. We saw a few black tip reef
sharks & lemon sharks. Lemons are all grey, girthy & 8-9 feet long. Yes: we
wore our shark shields. I was kind of hoping one of the lemons would swim
close enough so I could watch its aversion reaction to my shield, but they
kept their distance.

When we swam back toward our dinghy we saw that the dive master for the
group was doing a shark feeding. They taunt them with fish heads. It
attracted swarms of small fish as well as a few dozen black tips & one lemon
shark. We decided to stay & watch the show. Scott was frustrated that he did
not have his camera. But the folks that had cameras sure got some good shots
of feeding behavior. What amazes me the most is when the fish head is
finally given to or snatched by the shark, it swallows the thing whole. A
good 15-20 inch diameter fish head, mostly skin & bones, swallowed in one
bite. They did this routine several times. They claim it is such little
nutrition that it does not train the sharks to rely on these feedings. It
clearly changes their behavior, so we are not fans of the practice, but it
is common in all tourist areas with sharks.

When we were ready to go back for a second dive, the wind picked up & there
were whitecaps outside the reef, so we decided to tie up to a mooring near
the pass, inside the reef. The water clarity was not good. Like swimming in
a cloud of dust. But we saw a wide variety of creatures that made it a
fantastic dive. First we saw a black tip reef shark. Then we observed a
large number of dart fish which are pretty and fun to watch hovering over
their homes (holes in rocks or sand) then dart down into them when we
approach their territory. There was a stone fish that sat so still and is so
well camouflaged you have to really focus to identify his fishy features. A
major highlight was seeing about 10 big beautiful anemones, all with clown
fish. They were clumped in one area. It makes you wonder what is different
about that part of the reef that they thrive just there? We always enjoy
seeing eels. Their funny faces remind me of the song “Puff the Magic
Dragon”. A turtle did not swim away from us, but lingered for us to get a
good look. The spaghetti worm has long pasta-like tentacles that splay out
several yards like confetti. We saw two kinds of nudibranchs we’d never seen
before and a pipe fish, which are not that common.

Both dives were easy, a short dinghy ride from where the big boat is
anchored and we get to go again tomorrow. I am loving life! You can be sure
that we will be coming to Moorea many times over the next 5 months!
Yippee!!!

We hear children laughing as they play in the shallow water as parents sit
under the palm trees. Sunday seems to be family day around the world. Two
other catamarans left today, there are only 2 monohull sailboats anchored
far away. It is times like these that makes it all worthwhile. I am so
grateful that we are having this good experience early on in the “off”
season. Between here & Tahiti, it seem a good place to linger. All the
conveniences of dock life, but “getting away” is easy too. Fantastic.

Cindy & Scott