Bora Bora Sunset
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 26 Jun 2010 21:38
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Saturday 26 June 0955 Local 1955 UTC
16:34.10S 151:32.13W
Dear Friends (and those who are less expensive too)
why have I not been blogging? I know you will not believe this, but I have been
up to my eyes with work since we came back. Once we settled back in after the
first day or so I had the electrician round along with our agent in Tahiti to
finish off some jobs that had been started and also clear up another couple,
which I had brought parts for.
So over the weekend (last weekend, when we arrived)
I got straight into our grey water sump tanks to replace what seemed to be
faulty "water" (you know what I mean) level sensors. I replaced a
faulty fresh water tank level sensor, changed over two sump tank pumps, fitted a
new 24V alternator relay, helped the electrician diagnose and repair a broken
(electrical) toilet, fit an l.e.d. strip to our electrical panel and disconnect
one of our main airconditioning units which was not working. We then re-fuelled
and set off on Monday at 1500 to Moorea, hoping all jobs were up to date.
Now bear in mind, I was still just a tad snarly
having had to spend most of my weekend in Tahiti stuck up my bilges and I was
still dealing with one or two business matters from back home, which were
getting my back up just another little tad - and of course we had basically
lost a week because that bloody fireman at the airport in Tahiti went on
strike.
So not in the best of form we set off
for Moorea.
Ahh, no wind instruments, no speed, no depth, no
damn autopilot! Never mind I can just sail and forget all that unneccessary
equipment eh! Out with the mainsail, trip, trip, trip went the furler control.
Oh what the hell I'll go and use the (as yet unused) manual winch for it, I
thought, trying all the time to resist the temptation to gratuitously murder
someone, as only my wife was aboard. Off to the mast and the back up manual
winch, which winches my mainsail in a couple of millimeteres at a time - if,
if I could turn the handle all the way round...... Some idiot went and
fitted two rope clutches right in the way of the winch socket. Then a salt water
pipe burst on the salt water system .....
So then it turned out the new alternator relay was
faulty, the salt water pipe burst again then the bow thruster packed in. To be
honest I also think I've missed a couple of things but through the haze of rage
in my brain it's hard to remember.
Therefor if any of you want to know how my
"holiday" is going or why I'm not blogging, (which reminds me, the computer
stopped working too and had to be diagnosed and fixed) best to save your
questions till another time, OK. There will also be those of you
("purists") who would say why do you need all that kit anyway. To these fine
people I would say "do you walk or use a car?" Have you stooped to having
electricity and refrigeration and heating in your house? Do you pooh in a
bucket? These systems are there so I can sail this boat in relative comfort
round the world more or less single handed if need be - and I have
previously done more than enough hard work to justify paying for
them.
Moorea was beautiful and the scenery
dramatic. On the Tuesday we went
exploring with the dingy from our anchorage in Cooks bay round to the next bay
and found about 50 boats there, including a couple of boats we hadn't seen for a
while. In the afternoon I fixed the autopilot and the other electronics by
basically reconfiguring and foreshortening the network. In the evening we
went to a Polynesian show with lots of people from the hotels it was quite a
spectacle and good fun.
We decided to get up at 0430 the next morning and
set off out of the pass in the dark to go to Huahine. On passage I decided to
fish while Trish slept. I was using a "spoon" type lure recommended by a
fisherman in Galapagos to me. This lure causes huge amount of drag on the rod
and in the meantime I rigged some other new lures. So reeling in to change over
lures and with as much drag on the rod as if I had a fish on, I "fought"
with the lure until it launched itself from the water at 30metres out
and at 50mph, straight at me! I ducked and when I poked my head up it
couldn't be seen, but a "pshhhhhh" could be heard from where it had embedded
both hooks right into the tube of the RIB! I had to laugh. I was waiting
for the next thing to go wrong but I didn't expect this!
We went into the east side of Huahine through a
pass and down through the channel behind a long narrow motu which was
sparsely inhabited. We anchored together with Visions of Johanna, a Chuck
Paine 62 from Maine and Curious, an Oyster 56 from England. Visions poked their way up ahead of where we were anchored and
found a stunning spot in 5m of turqoise water with a sandy bottom near to the
shore so we and Curious joined them and we had everyone over for extended
sundowners.
The follwing day we toured the bays of the island
meeting some locals who gave us cantoloupe they were just shipping to market and
also my favourite - fresh coconuts!
On Friday after the daily ritual of getting up at
0530 and fixing some jobs on the list then putting everything back together
before in the afternoon adding another job to the list, we set off for Tahaa.
Again we entered on the east side and sailed round the noth of the island inside
the lagoon and guess what? We found a stunning anchorage though just a tad
marginal, in terms of being secure. We anchored in 35 metres of water right
along side the sandy shelf of the reef which was about 2 metres deep! This was
on the noth west side of Tahaa and just a little south of a stunning motu called
Tehotu, but most dramatically, looking out to the west with a very clear view
over the reef to the spectacular sight of Bora Bora!
We spent the remainder of the afternoon snorkelling
( Trish marvelling at the fish and me trying to shoot them) and then some of the
very best sundowners on our whole trip - in a remote and stunning anchorage,
palm trees and white sandy beaches, turquoise water all the way to the reef and
the sun setting over Bora Bora squarely framed out the back of our
boat. Hah! Who cares about fifty things going wrong it would take more than
that to keep us down and keeping the shoulder to the wheel and digging deeper
when things get tough is always rewarded. Sitting there with my sundowner gazing
over the Bora Bora sunset I was a very happy man again.
This morning I got up early again and fixed
the relay, the bow thruster and the salt water pump - so until tomorrow that's
everything up to date - even my blog!
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