Tahiti / Moorea sailing Rendez-vous

CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Sat 26 Jun 2010 02:01
We returned to Papeete to take part in the Tahiti / Moorea Sailing Rendez-vous, an event sponsored by both islands to bring together many of the boats crossing the Pacific each season. With over 70 boats entered this year the event, now in its 5th year, is gathering momentum and is a great opportunity to meet old friends and to make new friends.
Trish and I met up with boats last seen in Antigua, the San Blas Islands, Panama and the Galapagos, each of us going off on our own voyages to meet up again in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The event starts with a cocktail party on the Friday evening, complete with local dancers and music and is followed by a race from Papeete to Oponohu Bay on Moorea on Saturday morning.
On registering Trish and I offered to take some local people on board for the race and Virginie, Mathew and Jean-Pierre joined us on Saturday morning and were great company, giving us insights into the way of life on the islands.  Unfortunately non of them had any real sailing/racing experience so Trish and I were left to sail Curious double-handed in what turned out to be pretty testing conditions.
With the start in the lee of the island there was little or no wind and we made very slow progress with the lighter, smaller boats getting away from us.
This advantage was soon overturned when we hit the stronger winds and Curious excelled in winds gusting over 30 knots and 3 to 4 metre seas. In these conditions we hit speeds of 11 knots and were able to overcome the 3 mile advantage that the lead boat had established and at the finish of the 18nm race we were only 2 minutes behind them. Unfortunately the bigger catamarans also excelled in these beam reach conditions and the faster three cats had passed us in the final sprint to the finish line at the pass into Oponohu Bay. But a great days sail in boisterous conditions!
A BBQ dinner on Saturday evening was followed by a day of events on Sunday and although very wet and cold conditions were unexpected they did not detract from a great days fun and entertainment. Curious joined forces with Bill and Gram,friends from Visions of Johanna, plus Mathew and Moana and put together a pretty formidable team for the six man Pirogue races.
Team Curious Johanna    -----Team talk-----"there are only two options, winning and losing and I don't like losing"
Team Dignity    -----"the bilge pump doesn't appear to be working"             Team Further    ------"there's a gallon of tequila at stake here!"
 
Winning our first heat outright with the 2nd fastest overall time we were fairly confidant of a good performance in the final but were pushed into 3rd place overall by two stronger, more proficient crews. We did make the podium and each collected a really nice, engraved Oyster shell and a days free car hire voucher, given away to another boat who needed transport to get repairs made to various parts of their boat, damaged in the high winds during the race.
                                Team Curious Johanna
The day continued with events for young and old alike with tug of war and coconut opening competitions, fruit carrying races, weaving and carving demonstrations and finally more local dances and music.
A  big thanks to Andy, Stephanie and her team for organising a great 3 day event.