Farewell to French Polynesia

Golden Spirit of Islay
Michael Overbury
Mon 31 Aug 2015 02:11

16 29.377S 151 47.160W

Farewell to French Polynesia

The 510nm sail to The Tuamotus took 5 days, a day longer than anticipated, due to lack of wind.

The Tuamotus are a large group of individual low-lying Pacific Atolls. The atolls were much bigger than we had expected and most have a pass or in some cases two or more passes through the coral reef leading to a lagoon with a few small islands dotted around. The little islands are known as motus and some are inhabited. The atoll we were sailing to was Kauehi.

We motored the last part to ensure that we got to our destination at the correct time. Kauehi has just one pass going through the coral reef and it was important to enter at slack water, which meant approximately low tide or high tide. After high tide the water inside the lagoon starts to pour out to sea through the pass. This creates strong currents and very disturbed water. And the same happens again after low tide in the opposite direction.  The outgoing current, all that water inside the lagoon rushing out to sea through a narrow pass, is the strongest and can create dangerous currents and a standing wave near the exit.

We entered on time and had no problems, but the water just after the passage was bubbling, like water in a kettle on the boil. There was some current, but nothing we could not cope with. It was a first for us, our first Pacific atoll. The size is what surprised us as we still had 7nm to go until we reached the other side and the small village.  The atoll was approximately 12nm long by 8nm wide. A few atolls are much bigger and many much smaller, but all much larger than we imagined until we studied the charts and read the pilot books. There are more than 76 atolls in the island group.

Accurate navigation to avoid the coral reefs and coral heads is vital, as is a good lookout, with Caroline poised on the bows giving directions on many occasions. We anchored just off the little village. We snorkelled and went for a walk on land visiting the village and the other side of the motu which faces The Pacific. We chatted to a few of the villagers in our broken French and they seemed very welcoming and pleased to have visitors. Kauehi is very quiet and peaceful with very few visitors.  Despite the small size of the village, it had a shop, a school, a medical centre, a post office and naturally, a Catholic church. There was a generator providing electricity and a large satellite antenna providing communications. The main industry was pearl fishing, with the pearl farms located on little coral islands, motus, around the lagoon.  The pearls cultivated here are black pearls.

Our second atoll was Fakarava, the second largest in the group. It has two passes one in the South and one in the North. It is 30nm long by 10nm wide. We entered the Southern pass and anchored in beautiful surroundings off of a small abandoned village and a rustic little resort.  As a newly qualified diver I signed up at the local diving school and arranged a dive, accompanied by an instructor. We will see a lot of sharks I was told. Now not being experienced and being of an age where the word ‘sharks’ meant the film ‘Jaws’ I was a little apprehensive. I was told the sharks were harmless, but what if one was having a ‘bad day’!  We did a drift dive in the pass and what I saw was literally a ‘wall of sharks’. They were grey reef sharks, each of them about a metre long. But the best was yet to come, snorkelling from a little beach, just inside the pass. We saw sharks, large dark blue fish called Napoleans, with small rapora fish attached to their backs and undersides, and so many other fish in a vivid array of colour and size, it was simply amazing, it felt like swimming inside an aquarium and without doubt was the best snorkelling we have ever done or have done since. And so simple, you just walk in from the beach.

We just loved this place and did not want to leave, but in the end we upped anchor and had a fantastic sail inside the lagoon to the main village on the Northern end of the island. We walked and hired bikes to cycle on the island, which we really enjoyed and was good exercise for us. One evening we came to the conclusion that time was running out and we had to get a move on so sadly, we only managed to visit two atolls. We set sail for Tahiti, the biggest and the main administrative island of French Polynesia.

Coming in to Tahiti, as a former private pilot, I never imagined I would need to contact the air traffic controllers from the yacht! But the pass we had to negotiate and follow around one side of the airport crosses extremely close to the thresholds of each end of the large runway. We needed air traffic clearance, twice!

We anchored near a marina where we had arranged some repairs and took the dingy in to make arrangements and announce our arrival. We then walked out of the marina and ‘bang’ we were amazed to see a dual carriageway busy with traffic. After the other islands we had visited this was quite a shock and the first city we had been in since Panama. However cities have their advantages and the main one for us was the very large Carrefour Supermarket just 5 minutes walk away. Just like France!

We could not exchange our 3kg gas bottles and the only way to get them refilled was to get a large cylinder of gas and decant it into the smaller cylinders. The local chandler Michel lent us the connectors.  We got a large gas bottle from a local garage, hung it up from a beam in Michel’s yard and then proceeded to fill the small gas bottles. But you need to watch carefully so as not to overfill them. This un-official refilling is not only prohibited and dangerous if you do not take extreme care, it also takes a long time and watching gas bottles fill is about as interesting as watching grass grow!  We refilled all seven of our 3kg;’ gas bottles.

We had arranged some rigging repairs in advance by e-mail. Knowing that here, as in France, you need to arrange anything you want doing in the morning, well before the obligatory ‘lunch break’ I called the rigger at 08:30. I can’t come, I need a holiday, my wife is having a baby! Mathieu a French rigger who speaks excellent English and had, after sailing from France, decided to settle in Tahiti, was stressed. He came to our yacht 5 days later than planned and whilst on board got the call: ‘The baby is coming now, I must go’! Mathieu and his wife lived on board their yacht where she was now alone! He rushed back, took her to hospital and their son was born that evening. He needed a week off, so we sailed to the neighbouring and much quieter island of Moorea returning to Tahiti a week later to finally get the repairs done. Whilst anchored in Cooks Bay Moorea, we met up with Phil and Nellie from the yacht Moon Dancer on their way to New Zealand and spent some nice evenings together.

It seems most yachts spend longer than planned in Tahiti waiting for repairs and spares. It is the last practical place to have repairs carried out and to provision before Australia or New Zealand. Tahiti is also good for taking on duty free fuel and we topped the tanks and the cans up with 402 litres of diesel at just 51 pence a litre!

We need to be out of the Pacific Islands area before the cyclone season officially starts on 01 November. That means being in either New Zealand or in Brisbane or further South in Australia. We had spent nearly three months in French Polynesia and it was time to move on. We did not really have enough time to do the remaining group, called The Society Islands justice. The last of these islands we visited was the famous Bora Bora, playground of the rich and famous. It is very much based on top-end resorts located around the motus that surround the main island. We dined out with friends at Bloody Marys a well known restaurant and bar. You sit in hardwood stools and the floor is simply covered with sand, but the place, in truly Polynesian style has a great atmosphere and great food.  At the entrance there is a list of 200 or so famous people who have been there. We had a great meal and needless to say two very good bloody marys. They did not ask our names for the board!

Time to say farewell to French Polynesia on Monday 31 August and set sail once more across the ocean, this time heading for Tonga.


Michael & Caroline
S/Y Golden Spirit of Islay