16.43S 151.01W Huahine

Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Sun 28 Aug 2011 01:54
Ahoy me hearties,
The first thing to note in this blog is that it is being written not by the battle weary and blog savvy skipper, but by chief caster-offerrer, anchor weigher, baguette carrier, and general layabout who has joined the boat for a holiday.  It may therefore not contain the usual amount of information about wind speed and direction, so to those who subscibe purely for this satisfaction I apologise.  My limited knowledge and the fact that we have not done altogether a huge amount of sailing means that this blog will be more about people and places, and first impressions of someone who is new to this sort of thing. 
I joined Mojo2 in Papeete direct from Albany to accompany Andrew on the next leg of his voyage, being either to Tonga or around the Illes de Societe dependent on the state of the troublesome autopilot.  I arrived in Tahiti on the 20th and was kindly met at the airport by Andrew and Jane, who was on her way out back to family in WA.  After awaiting a bus for some time that had stopped running, we eventually made it to Marina Taina in Papeete.  My first impression of Mojo2 is that she is a beautiful boat; sleek, well proportioned, luxurious, and generally very impressive.  She is a pleasure to be aboard and although life is simple in a confined space with limited resources, there is everything you need to make life comfortable.
Sunday saw a trip into town, which was closed, and afforded a good look around.  The island is volcanic so boasts hard rock which lends itself to impressive topography soaring out of incredible azure waters inside the coral reefs which circle all the islands here.  The whole place is draped everywhere in luxurious tropical greenery, with tropical flowers everywhere and the majority of trees festooned with fruit - mangoes, bananas, coconuts, and a host of unidentifiable others.  Flowers are a huge part of life in Polynesia and the majority of women and some men wear them in their hair or behind their ears, or even sport a flower wreath around their heads.  The majority of clothing carries floral designs, car dashboards are decorated with flowers, and so it goes on.  This provides a very cheerful ambience and everyone seems very happy.
The place is clean and the population clearly take some pride in their surroundings, with well tended homes and gardens. Surprisingly it is also expensive, with everything costing more here than in Australia, with the exception of baguettes which are the staple diet and cost about 50 cents. Even more surprisingly there does not appear to be a rich class and a poor mass; it seems everyone is well off and can afford the lifestyle.  Depending on who you talk to this is because the french governemnt pump money into jobs to get french people to live and work in Tahiti and boost the economy, and these jobs are then available to anyone, OR the more cynical say it is because the French government pump money direct to the population so they don't have to work but can still afford the lifestyle.  I hope it is the former and the pride of the people suggests this is so.  Enough!
Sunday afternoon saw a fantastic snorkel, and inspection of the local party spot out on the water.  We had seen boats going past all morning with music pumping, more like barges made from two giant canoes with a great big deck on top, a little grass hut for a bar, and plenty of chairs and loungers, and a giant sound system.  These were already heavy with partygoers when they left port, and we found them all moored in shallow water with a load of private boats, all partying the day away on deck or in the water.  One invention we have to bring to australia is the seabeque, consisting of a metal pole stuck in the sand at the bottom of the sea, sticking up through the water with a barbeque on top, so you can stand in the water and cook snags at the same time.  Another custom that we aim to bring back with us is that of having brown skinned nubile beauties dancing on boats at all times, easy on the eye and guaranteed to cheer you up.
Monday the autopilot technician came and eventually managed to do a dodgy and impermanent fix, but finally the decision was not to sail to Tonga with the risk of the autopilot failing again, but to order a new unit and cruise the iles de societe (Bora Bora, Huahine, Moorea etc) for a week or so while it was on the way.  This has turned out to be a good thing.
Tuesday we had breakfast with a lovely French couple and their 6 year old daughter who have been at sea for 4 1/2 years in a cat, and are aiming to settle in Australia by the end of the year.  Part of this journey saw Philipe take the Cat single handed into the antarctic - according to multihull magazine the first person to do so in a Cat.  Very interesting couple anyway.  After saying goodbye we set off via town for Moorea, approx 3 hrs sailing.
Arrival at Moorea was accompanied without catching any fish, but with utter astonishment at the beauty of the place.  The scenery has to be seen to be believed, and is hard to describe, but the island is dominated by old volcanic plugs (towering sheer-faced circular rock features) and volcanic dykes (towering linear features!) creating absolutely incredible topography, again covered in lush vegetation.  Around the base of the island are palm fringed beaches surrounded by incredible azure waters and the ubiquitous reef.  In one of the books the island is described as 'possibly one of the most beautiful in the world' and with that I would agree.  Imagine the most amazing island paradise, times it by ten, and you are getting somewhere close.  After a lovely night supping gin and tonic, and a brilliant swim and snorkel in the morning (really WOW and capped off by signting a good sized shark) we decided to sail to Huahine, where we are now.
The weather was closing in a bit during our departure on Tuesday but the forecast was pretty good, however the winds continued to build until we had around 30 knots gusting to 40, coming more or less from behind us.  Good direction but a bit strong, we had only the genoa up (how I know my terminology) and this only to the size of my girlfriends favourite underwear, but we were still ploughing along at 6 to 7 knots, occasionally up to 10.  The sea was biggish but not dangerous and the boat handled it beautifully, bringing us the 70NM or so to our destination spot on at dawn to get through the reef to the lagoon beyond.  This was my first night sailing ever and really my first ever proper sail as an adult, and was a bit of a baptism of fire with the biggest winds of the trip since La Rochelle.  I however enjoyed every minute of it, with the assistance of some anti-seasickness meds!  Aparrently I am not allowed to mention how many times my stalwart skipper said 'ooh' and 'aah' but even though the wind batters your ears and the odd wave throws you about a bit, there was never any danger and the ride was alot of fun.  I have to say I am gobsmacked at how smooth the cat is.  I know many sailors pooh-pooh the cat, but even though the sea is big and the boat is pitching about, inside it is like being in the lounge room.  Fantastic.
So now we are at Huahine, a small island, also very beautiful but not close to Moorea. Yesterday we hired a mini moke and toured the island, a great trip, not least because every single person we passed wet themselves laughing at almost 13ft of idiot in a tiny car, with no doors or windows, in drenching rain.  When it did fine up we took the roof off so we could look over the windscreen, rather thn scrunching our heads down, which made the ride more comfortable.  We also had to stick in first and third gear bacause our gangly legs did not allow the gear stick to pass to second and fourth.  All this in addition to very dodgy brakes and no indicators made for a tremendously fun day.
We are still stuck in Huahine as there is a big storm system about 5000km south, causing huge seas (5 to 6m swell) and the wind has been howling.  We are ready to go but need to wait this weather out before moving on to Raiatea.  We recently had a ceremonial dumping of all the bananas overboard (including some pooh sticks) and since then the wind has moderated and the sun has come out, so hopefully we will sail tomorrow.  As a last note of interest we spent last night with the locals at the pub, chatting in particular to the chap who is a judo and brazilian jujitsu champion, who spends his spare time hunting wild pigs in the forest.  His record is a 264kg boar, he kills only with his knife (using his dogs also, which seem to get killed a lot), then he drags the pigs to a river and floats down the river with them.  Interesting mental images!  Anyway although I like to take the piss out of people in other languages, or try to, I wasnt going to fool with this chap. A great, entertaining, and interesting night.
OK thats it.  No more blog writing for me, that has bored you all enough.  Blah blah blah.  I have seen heaps of dolphins, a whale, an eagle ray (aparrently rare), a shark, have seen some great scenery, met some great people, and have laughed a LOT! Love it!  I know this blog is longer than normal but it has been a fantastic week and this only covers some of it.
Now over to skip for censoring.  
Blair Scott, Cheif caster-offerer and baguette carrier.