We arrived at the entrance to the channel in daylight but were met by a huge departing cruise ship which had already started making its way through the channel. We decided that prudence is the better part of valour and let him have the channel all to himself while we waited outside the entrance. For those of us who have lived for months on a yacht, these cruise ships look like floating multi-story office blocks – quite intimidating.

Bora Bora - as seen from the Marina Restaurant in Raietea

 

Chart plotter view of Bora Bora. This is a good illustration of the reef, lagoon, Motus and the main island.

 

Waiting to enter the channel

 

You can just see the gap in the reef (channel entrance) at the bottom of the peak

We eventually came through the channel at sunset.  John and Gavin were busy navigating while I played the tourist with the camera. Well, someone had to capture the beauty! Like all the French Polynesian islands, Bora Bora is volcanic.  It is made up of the main island, surrounded by a lagoon and circled by smaller islands, or Motu. As we came in through the channel the sun was setting over the motus in spectacular fashion.

Miriam and Paticia – posing!

Gavin looks worried - very unlike him. Maybe I should be too?

 

We had a berth booked in the Marina in Bora Bora but because it was so dark we decided to drop anchor for the night and tackle the docking in daylight. And where better to anchor than right in front of the world famous Bloody Mary’s bar. This is where all the stars go to eat when they visit and the food and ambience is American. There are 2 massive bill boards outside with the names of various visiting celebs carved into it. In the evening the restaurant lay out all their meats and fish for you to choose from and then cook the food in front of you.

Bloody Mary's

 

Some of the famous visitors

  

Lunch in Bloody Mary's

 

Most unusual/impressive chain for toilet flush

 The following afternoon we made our way to the Marina. There was just one slot left, which meant docking was going to be tight, especially given the length of Sapphire.  And to make things even more difficult, our berth was right in front of the bar and it was a Med mooring so we would be backing in. We had a rowdy audience of Arc folk who had been at the bar since opening time – it has been quite a while since all boats were gathered at the same location so all were in high spirits. Suffice to say, we made it in without damaging the pontoon, the bar, the neighbouring boats or ourselves – but there were a few hairy moments, lots of shouting and an endless running commentary from the bar terrace.

Sapphire docked in front of the Marina Bar

Jerry and I had only a couple of days left so we decided to rent a car and do our own tour of the island. The people in the car rental place couldn’t understand why we wanted a car for a whole day! It turns out you can drive around the island in a couple of hours and most people choose to cycle it.  As with a lot of these atolls, the road runs along the outside of the island and you can only go inland in a 4X4. . The reef in Bora Bora is renowned for great snorkelling and diving. Jerry and I had planned to go out in the early morning of his last day, but due excesses of the previous night, this didn’t happen.  Since this was to be my last few days as part of the Arc I spent most of the time socialising with the other boats. Given where we were docked it was hard to avoid people anyway. We literally stepped off the back of the boat onto the bar terrace.

The island is beautiful and I would have liked to have spent more time there.  I would have rented a bike and cycled around for sure.  There is only one hill of any note along the road and most people just pushed their bikes up that.  You can cycle the perimeter of the island in about 4 hours. The main island is not as touristy as I expected. There are a couple of restaurant, supermarkets and souvenir shops, but most tourists stay in hotels and resorts out on the motus.  These are pretty self-contained in terms of excellent restaurants, water sports, spas and also have their own water transport to and from the main island.

Jerry brought me breakfast in bed and was shocked to find I was up, bed made and in the shower. I have an undeserved reputation for lying-in!

This is the life !

 

 

For Jerry’s last night (and my second last) we went to the Black Pearl Resort for dinner and a show. To get out to the motu from the main island we went to a bamboo hut on the side of the road where there was an internal phone link to the resort.  They sent a ferry to get us.  This place was pure luxury. The bars and restaurants were under grass roofs with open sides, looking out over Bora Bora lagoon.  The rooms were tiki huts on stilts over the water on white sandy beaches. All very tastefully done and leaving the island/motu unspoiled.  Each hotel/resort e.g Hilton, Meriden, etc are located on their own motu.  I can see why it is popular with honeymoon couples.

 

Waiting for the Black Peal Resort ferry

 

After Bora Bora next stops for Sapphire are Tonga, Noumea, Fiji and a couple of other remote islands.  This means the usual provisioning, laundry etc needed to be done in Bora Bora.  No rest for the wicked.  A new crew member, Richard, also joined in Bora Bora and Scott arrived to do a handover to him. The majority of ARC boats were leaving from Bora Bora on the day I was flying home so I got to join in the activities organised by the ARC – all except the fancy dress dinghy race which we didn’t take part in.  This was a chaotic fancy dress affair where you had to use oars instead of an engine.  Our dinghy was way too heavy to compete. Most participants ended up in the water when other competitors got close enough to tip them over and the Glamorous  Gallahs (Ozzie boat) mooned all on-lookers. (One photo I won’t be posting!!).

Arc dinghy race

 

Arc boats getting ready for the next leg to Fiji

 

Parasailor being launched...

 

Parasailor up - they made it look easy

Over the start line - I wish them all fair winds and following seas

Last day.  Dreading going back to “civilisation”. Final farewells. Last minute gathering of email addresses. Promises of keeping in touch although I am notoriously bad at following through on these promises. However, I hope this time I will be different.  I have met some truly amazing, adventurous people on the Arc. Most of them have another year to go before they reach Europe again.  Sapphire will go as far as Fiji with the Arc and then split off for New Zealand, hoping to arrive near Aukland in October.

The Bora Bora airport is out on one of the motus. There is a ferry from the main island but only flight passengers are allowed on board. So I had to say my goodbyes to John, Patricia and Gavin before boarding the ferry. It was hard to leave.

Bora Bora airport ferry

It was all running far too smoothly. Until I got to the airport that is. I needed to get to Tahiti by midnight in order to catch my flight back to LA and onwards to NY. But when I got to the airport in Bora Bora they had no record of my booking even though I had a booking reference. I had to go on standby and finally, after 3 false starts got the last flight out of Bora Bora.  Part of me secretly hoped I wouldn’t get out and I’d have to let fate dictate that I return to Sapphire.

The End

But two serious incidents have occurred out there, since I left, bringing it home to me the constant danger at sea and how fortunate I am to be here and in a position to write.  So for that reason and also in order to finish the diary for myself, I’ll attempt the last two blogs.

Since I’ve mentioned that there have been incidents, I’d better say straight away that Sapphire and all on board are fine and reached Fiji this week without any problems, apart from some rough weather. However, one of the Arc boats, Ensemble, was blown onto a reef while at anchor during a storm in Niue, and almost sank.  Luckily, at the very moment they were blown onto the reef, John, Patricia and Richard, the new skipper on Sapphire, were on their way to Ensemble in Sapphire’s dinghy for a dinner date. Although they were all anchored in a lagoon, the sea was very rough. At the exact minute that Ensemble was blown aground, the guys in the dinghy were looking for some way to board. Realising that Ensemble was likely to sink, Richard tore off his jacket, jumped into the sea and swam over to Ensemble to help.  He cut the anchor and drove the boat off the reef while she took on gallons of water.  Eventually they re-anchored and with the help of the other Arc crews working through the night, they pumped out all the water and patched up 3 large holes in the hull. The crew of Ensemble are a couple and could never have saved the boat if not for the help of other Arc crews. One of the many advantages of travelling in a group.

Sadly, the second incident was much worse.  After Niue, the Arc boats made their way to Tonga.  There, they were anchored in the same bay as a 2-handed Australian boat, Navillus. Navillus was heading to Oz via Fiji- same as the Arc. They left Tonga the afternoon before the Arc boats. It appears that at 1am it hit a reef and sank. Their EPIRB was activated at that time and an air search was carried out.   The life raft was found but hadn’t been deployed so it must have sunk very quickly. One of the men managed to get a call out to his family from their sat phone, but unfortunately neither man has been found and after 6 days the search has been called off.  On their way to Fiji, Sapphire passed a companionway door and a locker door floating in the sea.  Must have been a sad and frightening sight.

Anyway, back to the blog. When I last wrote we were leaving Raiatea for Tahaa.  We anchored in Bay Hurepiti, a small, peaceful bay where there were just 2 other yachts. The bay was flanked on both sides by very green high peaks. The breeze was channelled down from the peaks into the bay making it very pleasant to sit up top late into the night. Since it was to be my last night on anchor, Gavin, Jerry and I took our iPhones, speakers and most of the beer on board, up to the bow and took turns playing music into the small hours.  This is a great way to be introduced to artists you wouldn’t otherwise listen to. Somebody was playing saxophone on a Russian boat beside us. Beautiful.

Somewhere along the way we had a found the phone number of a French man who organised tours of a vanilla farm on Tahaa.  The next morning, hangovers intact, we headed for land and met up with Alain and his wife.  They had sailed this way 30 years ago, from France and ended up in Australia as planned.  When they got there they decided that Tahaa was where they really wanted to be. So, they sailed back, sold their boat and bought a piece of land.  They never left. Over the years, Alain learned the ways of the Polynesians and now might well be the only person in the area who knows the old arts, crafts and medicines.

He has built his home in the traditional way. Originally, the Polynesians lived in communal groups.  One building for sleeping in, one for eating and one for socialising. All his buildings are made from palm trees with hand-thatched roofs. This means that the roof has to be replaced every 5 years, which explains why most houses now have corrugated iron roofs. He also planted fruit trees, vegetables etc and is now fully self sufficient.  We spent the first hour of the tour going around his house and gardens. The one thing that sticks in my mind was an amazing star fruit tree he had.  I’d only ever seen star fruit in some of the posher branches of Tesco.

house walls - such as they are - made from palm wood

Star fruit tree

With the history lesson, and tour of the house and gardens over, we got into his 4X4 and headed inland to visit a vanilla farm.  French Polynesian vanilla is said to be the best in the world and its export is an important part of the local economy. Vanilla originated in Mexico, grows on vines, and in Polynesia, is said to smell like liquorice. I thought it smelled like chocolate, but by this time, having been months without it, I often imagined I could smell chocolate. It seems that when the vanilla was brought to French Polynesia from Mexico it woudn’t polllinate. Some young kid discovered a method of manual pollination and that is how it is done today.

Our jungle transport. Looks a wreck but was very sturdy.

Patricia wanted to get a T-Shirt made for me with “I NEED Wifi” printed on it. Which I think is a bit rich given that we were in the middle of a jungle trek when I took this photo.  Guess who was NOT on the internet!

Alain showing us a vanilla vine growing on a tree stump

Vanilla pods

This was growing on the ground in the vanilla farm.  I don’t know what it is but it reminds me of my all-time favourite artist, Salvador Dali.  In his house he has a couch called Lips.  Looks very like this.

This guy was hunting wild pig. Most of the islands have wild pigs. I was jealous of his long socks as I was being bitten by all sorts of flying things.

Alain was the most interesting tour guide I’ve ever met.  He was a mine of information on the flora and fauna. He picked fruit from trees and painted my nails, he pulled the stamen off a gardenia and gave it to us for lipstick. He gave us lemongrass to keep the bugs away – didn’t work for me of course! He showed how to use hibiscus to clean our snorkelling masks. And to top it all provided us with an amazing lunch, all from his garden, except the coconut which he cut from the trees around.

Grapefruit and Star fruit from Alain's garden

Using a machete to cut up coconut

Coconut milk (nothing like our hairy Halloween version) is really tasty

All chickens in the islands are wild. They are let roam because they eat giant centipedes which can be deadly. They love young coconut because the flesh is soft.

Jerry - even the straws were natural. Some sort of wood.

If you ever happen to be in the Society Islands I can definately recommend this tour.  However, you can only get to Tahaa by boat. There is no airstrip and no commercal boats visit so I guess you’d have to be sailing by! After lunch we battled our way to the top of the island where we got a stunning view of our next destination – Bora Bora.

View of Sapphire from the top of Tahaa. Great shot of waves breaking on the reef behind her.

John - pity it's such a dark shot.

Poser!!

No such thing as health and safety here.

Copra drying in the sun. Bora Bora in the background.

On the evening of May 6th we left Moorea and headed for Raiatea, a 14 hour overnight sail away.  This was to be my last overnight run on Arc World and it couldn’t have been better.  That night was the 2012 “Super Moon” night.  As I’m sure most of you know, once a year the moon is full at the same time as it has its’ closest orbit to the earth.  This year the moon was 15,000 miles closer than average, and was full, on my last night at sea in the South Pacific. I’m being specific about the Pacific here because I will shortly have another night at sea when the O’Connor siblings – except John – do our annual trip overnight to the Isle of Mann on the June Bank Holiday weekend.  I will not be wearing shorts and T-shirt that night!!

Anyway, back to the Pacific. We have had some beautiful full moons on this trip and I have mentioned before how the moon and low lying planets cast floodlight type beams across the sea.  Well, none compared to this. Back in the late 90’s I was lucky enough to be sitting with David, in France, directly under the path of a solar eclipse. At the moment of total eclipse it was if someone had just plucked the sun out of the sky – not at all the same as the light at sundown. In the same way, the Super Moon was not all the same as any old full moon. It was more like hours of silvery daylight. It wasn’t until the moon was very high in the sky that we had any real sense of night-time. Amazing. Along with this, we had true Pacific Trade Wind conditions – 15kts of wind, calm seas and a clear starry sky. No sail or navigation changes to be made during my shift. I had a peaceful 3 hours – just me and the elements. I’ll miss my night shifts.

Raymarine navigation mapped (will need to zoom)

Sitting on the "dolphin seat" - where I go to grab some quiet time

We arrived in Raiatea at dawn and anchored in a bay at the mouth of a river.  Remember the Rio Diablo in San Blas where we went upriver and through the jungle looking for a waterfall that never materialised? I remember it well and was somewhat anxious when I woke to find the dinghy being lowered and bottled water and bug spray being loaded up. Here we go again. As before, John had taken all the information we needed from a book. The river forks in two, we take the left fork etc. Before we even got to the mouth of the river Faaroa, the dinghy engine walloped into a submerged tree trunk. From then on Jerry sat at the front of the dinghy with an oar stuck in the water in an effort to head off any further debris. It was a nice enough trip up the river but nothing as Apocalypse Now-ish as the Rio Diablo. Also, after about only ½ a mile the river was completely dammed with logs and we could go no further. On top of that, when we got back to the boat we discovered that there were lots of flies on board so we had a killing spree, upped anchor and moved off to where some other Arc boats were anchored in front of the town of Uturoa.

Jerry on log duty

Young girl fishing along the Faaroa river. Not sure who comes to buy at this stall. Not a lot of passing trade!

Raiatea is known locally as The Sacred Island. In the Tahiti blog I described a Marae (temple) where human sacrifices were made to the Gods. A lot of the Polynesian islands have Maraes, but it can only be a true Marae if it contains a stone from the Taputapuatea Marae on Raiatea. This island is the second largest of the Society islands, after Tahiti. A local man told me that Hawaii was populated by settlers from Raiatea, but I read somewhere that Raiatea was the main stopover for settlers from Hawaii.  I’ll have to look up Wikipedia cause we all know it never lies!!

We visited the Taputapuatea Marae and it is indeed an awesome site.  I don’t have good photos because it is quite extensive and the light was fading when we got there. It’s clear that the islanders still hold the site in great religious regard. There were many recent offerings of coins, shells, clay pots, coconuts etc laid out on the ancient altar. We saw something at Taputapuatea we hadn’t seen before.  Wood carvings called Unu.  Maraes are always surrounded by trees, probably for privacy during the sacrifices, and the Unu, carved on bark, are illustrations of dogs, fish and geometric designs.  It seems that they are very rare as they have not been preserved over time.

Unu

Offerings on the altar

Complex root formation on this tree.

Our last stop in Raiatea was at the visitors dock in Apooiti Marina where we spent the night. Most of the boats here were charters from Sunsail and Moorings, for those of you who might be interested in a weeks sailing here sometime!!  Business was less than brisk and at least 20 charter boats were lying idle. We loaded the tanks up with water – again. We were also approached by a woman from one of the other Arc boats looking to jump ship.  Seemingly the crew problems continue. We politely declined.  From this dock we could clearly see our next destination, Taaha, a mere 4 miles away. The only downside of the marina was its really good restaurant.  Since arriving in the Society Islands I am slowly undoing all the healthy eating and associated weight loss of the previous months. I am a sucker for French cooking, unfortunately.

On our last night in Raiatea, Jerry, Gavin and I made our way into the main town, Utuora. We had been told there would be nothing open but out of sheer determination we managed to find the one and only open bar-restaurant, which turned out to be Chinese!! We met the crew of Glamorous Gallah, Ozzies, who can de depended upon to find an open bar.  As the evening progressed other adventurous crews wandering around also found us and in the end there were about 20 of us holding up the bar at closing time. Gavin used his not insignificant charm to blag some takeaway bottles for us stragglers and we adjourned to the quayside for a deoch an dorais. This is my favourite time of day as the temperature sinks to a cool 30 degrees!

Sapphire moored at Apooiti Marina. She barely fit!!

Me, sitting down on the job of filling the port water tank.

More pina coladas in Apooiti marina

I stopped the car to photograph this coconut in the middle of the road. Clearly no traffic. The coconut was still there when I returned 30 minutes later.

View of Taaha from Raiatea

The following day we left for the short trip to Taaha.  On the way we passed a Black Pearl farm. We had hoped to visit a pearl farm while in Tuamotu after which I would give some details in a blog. But because the snorkelling and beaches there were so good there we didn’t get around to it.  However, we were given some information in Ahe, from 2 young lads who dive for pearls.  So here’s what I’ve gleaned and it may not all be accurate….

Pearl farms tend to be owned and run by Chinese settlers.  It seems that it takes 2 years to learn the art of cultivation and harvest. There is now a school on Rangiroa where Polynesians are being trained to run their own farms. French Polynesia is the ideal place to set up pearl farms because of the large lagoons within the atolls. The lagoons have almost no tides and with the exception of in the actual passes, there is no current. The farm buildings are large stilted huts placed in about 20 meters of water. Thin ropes are suspended from the floor of the hut. The oyster shells are attached to the ropes with a nylon mesh. An oyster can be seeded only when the shell reaches a particular size and some internal organs are sufficiently developed. When the shells are about 30 months old they are taken up from the ropes and the delicate grafting process can be carried out.  It is all manually done and as I understand it this is the process that takes 2 years to learn.

The shells are prised open and a bead is placed into a pearl pocket. (I’m sure there is a technical name but this is how it was described to me). The pearl pocket sounds like a tiny flap of some sort that is lifted, the bead inserted and the flap replaced.  This has to be done in 15 seconds or the oyster will die. The grafters work 12 hours a day, live in the farms, do about 400 shells a day and are well paid. Only about 30% of the grafts produce pearls and the quality varies.

After the grafting is done the oysters are put in wire mesh baskets for 45 days. I think they are then opened again at this stage and if a pearl has started they are put back on the ropes for another 2 years.  You can see why they are so expensive.  About US$200 for one good quality Black Pearl. The one vital piece of information I didn’t manage to get is what makes the pearls black.  Sorry about that. I’ll sign up for French lessons this winter.  Might be more useful than Bridge!!

Pearl Farm in the Raiatea lagoon.

Next blog will be from Taaha.

On 2^nd May we filled the boat with fuel and water and left the Taina Marina,Papeete, heading for Moorea. Moorea is a small island 10 miles away from Tahiti. Between one thing and another we didn’t get out of the marina until 4.30pm and arrived in Moorea in the pitch dark. The Society islands are similar to the Tuamotu in that they are volcanic and are encircled by reefs. The pass in is not very well lit and we had to use a spotlight to get into the bay and anchor.

After the disappointment of Tahiti, Moorea was an absolute delight. Being so close to Papeete (30 mins by car ferry) I expected it to be densely populated and basically a suburb of Papeete.  I know if I worked in Papeete, this is where I’d live.  I couldn’t have been more wrong. The island is beautiful. It has a small town with a number of nice looking restaurants and a couple of supermarkets. It also has a number of very nice resorts perched along coral beaches. It is clean and pretty and not at all overrun.

The next morning we took the dingy along the coast to see if there was somewhere on the island we could rent a car.  Dan had told us this was the best way to see the island rather than just sail around the outside.  Just by pure chance we came across an Intercontinental hotel with its own dock.  As part of the hotel we discovered a dolphin centre offering two different packages. One where you could swim with the dolphin by holding on to it’s fin and belly and diving down 2 meters.  The other option was to attend a short lecture on dolphin followed by what they called a meet-and-greet session, where you stand in shallow water and “meet” the dolphin.  I had a brief few minutes of arguing with myself about the ethics of this type of thing. But having seen so many dolphin playing in our bow waves along the way, I couldn’t resist the opportunity of getting up close to one.

I opted for the meet-and-greet while the remainder of the crew, being better swimmers than me, went for the swim and dive. It was an amazing experience. The guys doing the swim got a DVD so I don’t have any still underwater shots of them.  But having watched the video it doesn’t seem to have bothered the dolphin at all.  The dolphin I met was retired from the US Navy. His job had been to patrol ships and warn of any potential intruders by pressing a button to sound the alarm.  So, I think he was no worse off now than before!!

Heading to Moorea at dusk

The following day we hired a guide to take us snorkelling. We had been told that there were sting ray and black-tipped or lemon sharks along the reef in the north of the island. Apparently, sting rays are not dangerous unless you stand on them!!  Not much consolation really.  Anyway, we were taken out to the reef in the guide’s boat and stepped off into about into about 2 feet of water. There were sting rays everywhere.  They were obviously well used to people since this is a popular spot with tourists. Initially I was afraid to move because you couldn’t turn around without bumping into a sting ray. But having been smacked a few times by their tails as they swished past, and surviving it, I decided to put on my mask and have a look at them below water.  It’s amazing to see them move around.  They really use their bodies as wings and flap along gracefully in a bird-like motion.  Once I had the mask on I could see that the reef dropped off suddenly a few meters from where we left the guide boat.  In this deeper water there were at least 20 sharks swimming up and down checking out what all the commotion was. Having swam with the sharks already in Rangiroa Patricia and I were perhaps a little blase about it. But for Jerry and John this was a first.

A Moray eel peeping out from the coral

We managed to hire a car. The island is only about 40 km around by a coastal road so we spent the afternoon exploring the island. We had been told in Papeete that local people often eat from food trucks that have BBQ’s alongside and that the food is very good. Up until now we have avoided them, but on Moorea while driving around, we passed a number of them before deciding to give one a go.  We choose one that was in a grassy area right next to the sea. The menu was limited to whatever fresh food was available on the day. We had poisson cru, BBQ’d mahi mahi and BBQ’d chicken. The food was great and cheap – generally these islands are very expensive. They set up a picnic table and chairs for us and we ate lunch under a palm tree with the waves lapping beside us. Wonderful.

Supermarket - we must be getting close to NZ!

Since Moorea was so nice and we had so much to see and do, we stayed on an extra day and skipped out on Huahaine.  Our next stop was Raiatea, a 14 hour sail away.  From here we will go to Tahaa, to visit a vanilla farm, and then on to Bora Bora. That will be my last stop. But, it’s not over yet. So you’ll have to endure one or two more blogs.

I’ve been putting off doing a blog fromTahiti because I’m not sure what to say. Maybe if I had arrived here without first being in the Marquesas and Tuamotu I would find this place exotic and colourful. It is a very lusciously green island. Lots of tall volcanic peaks with palm trees, breadfruit, passion fruit, hibiscus etc – just like Marquesas.  It also has a coral reef down the west side of the island and therefore has great diving and snorkelling – just like the Tuamotus. However, the capital –Papeete– is a very unappealing town and feels unsafe after dark.  There is a lot of traffic, cruise ships, retired and newly married couples on tour. Not enough bars, restaurants, or shops to make it interesting. By contrast, the Marquesas and Tuamotus have all been peaceful and unspoiled. Overall I found it disappointing. It didn’t help that it was either overcast or raining for 10 of the 12 days we spent here.

Despite all this, I had a great time here mainly because this was a big stopover for all the Arc boats. The fleet had not been together in one place since the Galapagos, 2 months ago. By now everyone was keen to talk to anyone who was not on their boat and this meant lots of eating out and drinks on boats (mainly on Sapphire, mind you).

I discovered, just before arriving here, that my nephew Neil has a friend called Dan living here.  It turned out that Dan works on a boat in the marina we were staying in and that his girlfriend,Perrine, works as a diver out of the same marina.  It was great to have someone around with local knowledge. They brought us to a couple of really good restaurants. And Perrine took Gavin and Patricia diving. The restaurants were part of 2 hotels and Dan explained that the best bars and restaurants are in hotels and not downtown.

Dan and Perrine with crew of Sapphire

Boat Dan is working on

Sapphire on a Med mooring at Taina Marina

We had a few chores that had to be done while we were here. So we decided to get all these out of the way before exploring the island . By the time we got toTahiti we had cleared out the fridge, freezer, drinks locker and a lot of the goodies on board.  So this meant provisioning again on a similar scale to that done in Panama City. Our target when stocking up in Panama was to have enough provisions to do us to Tahiti – so that worked well.  Now we are provisioned again all the way to New Zealand. There are a couple of really good French supermarkets in Tahiti and that made the job easy.

Tahitii s almost the only place in the South Pacific where major repairs can be carried out. (Mr.Assam’s son on Apatiki has a small boatyard and can haul out boats under 15 tons).  There is a good shipyard here and several of the boats have arranged for lift-outs.  There is only one sail-maker and he is under pressure to get all the repairs done for various Arc boats in time for the next leg to Bora Bora. We needed to have a rip in our mainsail repaired. We only got it back in time because Scott went to the sail loft and helped with the sewing.

Another thing we wanted to do here was find out if Beatoo had arrived safely.  They were the boat that ran up on the reef in Takaroa and had to sail here using a makeshift rudder.  They arrived safely but are now waiting for a new rudder to be sent from France.  The stress of the situation has taken its toll on the crew. My favourite Beatoo crew member, Carlos, has decided to pack it in and is heading home to Spain.

At least 5 other boats have also had crew problems.  The Yorkshire couple I mentioned in a previous blog have also left the Arc and have flown to Australia. I’ll miss them. Some people have left one boat and joined another.  I suppose it is to be expected. A yacht, no matter how big, is still a small space to spend long days and nights on.  There is a knack to surviving and to not driving those around you crazy either.  I think we’ve cracked it on Sapphire.

Last thing we had to do was pick up Jerry (from Cork) who is joining the boat, having left us in San Blas.  Originally, I was to leave fromTahiti, but since I am now staying on until Bora Bora we will have an extra pair of hands.

With all chores done, rain stopped and Jerry on board, it was time to explore the island.  We rented a car and using Dan’s list of the hot-spots, we spent 2 days touring the island.

Tahiti is made up of 2 islands, joined by a causeway.  The main island, Tahiti Nui, is where most people live.  The smaller island is Tahiti Iti.  There is just one road that runs around the shore of Tahiti Nui.  It takes about 2 hours to drive around the whole island.  On our way around we visited Les Trois Cascade – 3 magnificent waterfalls.  Because of the amount of rain over the previous days they were flowing quite fiercely.  I could only take pictures from a distance as the spray was too much for the camera.  We passed a couple of impressive surfing beaches too. There is a headland called Point Venus where Cook was stationed for 2 years.  His job was to measure the transit of Venus across the sun. The reason for this was something to do with celestial navigation.  Anyway, whatever it was intended for – the project failed!! I’m sure Cook had a wonderful time here though.  He seems to have been very well received by the natives and how bad can it be to be surrounded by beautiful women with flowers in their hair.  Most women still wear flowers today.  A flower behind the left ear means you are married or not available and the opposite for the right ear.

Point Venus - with Jerry

Passion fruit - the juiciest I've ever tasted - plentiful in Tahiti

As with all the other islands we visited in French Polynesia, the local people are getting a great deal from France.  The old-age pension can be drawn once you reach 55. You don’t have to have worked and is equivalent to 600 US$ a month. Free education and health care. The government also provide a type of social housing whereby a 3 bedroom house is given for a cost of 1,000 US$ with the proviso that it cannot be sub-let.  You own the house after ten years.  I wonder if the French public are aware of the amount of money being pumped into French Polynesia.

Before the arrival of the religious missionaries, the Polynesians engaged in providing human sacrifices to the gods. Apparently, this was done on a voluntary basis. Only young men could volunteer. A number of tribal elders would get together and make the selection.  The man would have to be fit and good looking in order to please the gods.  He would then be given a drink to numb him and his throat slit.  As a reward his family would be given a prime piece of land.  A clever way to ensure a steady stream of “volunteers”. However, I bet the selected man pissed off someone on the tribal council!

Sacrificial alter

A few other places of note are the Paul Gauguin museum, which has no original paintings or sculptures(!), the Botanical Gardens which has 2 giant tortoises from Galapagos, a fabulous fish restaurant in Tahiti Iti and my favourite place of all, the indoor market in Papeete.

Amazing fish restaurant in Tahiti Iti

Band playing in the Papeete market

Next stop is the island of Moorea which is only 10 miles away. There is a regular ferry across but we will sail over and anchor there for a couple of days.  Dan has told us it’s not to be missed.

Our last stop in the Tuamotus was Rangiroa.  This is the largest atoll in the archipelago.  Each atoll in comprised of a number of small islands called motus.  Rangiroa is made up of 415 motus. Out of those only 2 are populated. Mind you some of the motus are just a mound of white sand with a single palm tree in the middle!! We decided to come through the Tiputa pass since it is relatively wide, is renowned for its good diving and snorkelling and has the largest village.

While the pass is wide it is still dangerous, with a reef spreading into it from both sides. There are also coral heads inside and outside the pass so we had to pick our way through carefully. On the way we saw a wrecked yacht up on the reef.  We reckoned it was damaged further out and dragged up on land for safety reasons.  It put the fear of the bejaysus into us none-the-less.  Once we were safely through and at anchor I realised that John must have a lot of faith in us to allow us bring Sapphire to all these atolls in his absence.

Heading for the pass into Rangiroa

Watching for coral heads. See reef on either side of the pass.

One of the unlucky ones.

Once through the Tiputa pass we turned right and found 5 other ARC boats anchored outside the Kia-Ora hotel.  A lot of boats use Rangiroa as their jump-off point for Tahiti since it is only a 24 hour sail away. As this is the largest atoll I was expecting, not quite a shopping mall, but certainly more than we found.  The village is mainly made up of Dive Centres and Black Pearl shops.  However, there were 2 supermarkets, one of which stocked BOTTLES of Heineken. I would have been happy to see Heineken of any kind but actual bottles. We had a well stocked drinks fridge that evening.

One of the must-do activities in Rangiroa is to take a snorkelling trip to the Blue Lagoon to swim with Black Tipped Sharks.. This is not the same Blue Lagoon of that atrocious 80’s film with Brook Shields. That was made in Fiji I believe. This Blue Lagoon is a lagoon within the main Rangiroa lagoon.  I presume it is a volcanic crater within a crater.  Not sure. Since it would have taken hours to get there on Sapphire, Patricia and I booked ourselves into a tour group on a speed boat.  This was an especially brave move by me for two reasons.

The first reason is due to an incident that happened outside Mr.Assam’s house on Apatiki.  You might remember he feeds a huge Nurse shark there everyday. The day before we left Apataki Patricia and I went snorkelling not far from his house, but far enough not to be in the way of his “pet” shark. As we were snorkelling I could feel something gently pinching my leg.  I, of course, thought this was Patricia trying to freak me out (as she often does) and so I ignored it.  Then I heard her screaming (sort of – since we were both under water). I popped my head up to see what was going on only to be told some huge fish had been following me and nibbling my leg. I shot out of the water like a nuclear missile. Both of us screaming our heads off.  Some of the Assam   family came down to see what all the commotion was about and told us that these were Remora fish and were perfectly harmless. So, back in we went.  Within a minute, my friend was back, latched on to my stomach and hitched a ride.  That was it. Friendly or not it was too close for comfort. I later found that these fish have little suckers on the tops of their heads which they use to latch on to the underneath of sharks.  I’m not sure why they do this. I must look it up. Either way, I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or upset to have been mistaken for a shark.  And it did nothing for my confidence in the water.

Patricia feeding a Remora from the safety of the boat.

The second reason that swimming with sharks was a brave move for me is because minutes before we were brought to the shark-swimming/snorkelling spot, I fell on the reef and was bleeding profusely from both legs and one hand.  Earlier, the tour guide told us that these sharks are known locally as “plastic sharks” because they are so tame and uninterested in eating humans.  But you know yourself, there’s always a lingering doubt. However, I’m never going to get the chance to do this again so I hid my bleeding legs from the tour guide and hopped into the water along with everyone else.  Patricia was fearless and immediately snorkelled right into the middle of them. I hung back at first to see if any of them were interested in fresh blood. There were about 25 sharks, 3 meters long, swimming above a shoal of about 100 red snapper.  Both were beautiful.  Unfortunately we only have video footage – no photos. We were still coming to grips with the new underwater camera at that stage.  Earlier though we did take one shot of a baby Black Tip which I have below. It was an amazing experience.  The sharks are so graceful but boy can they move fast.

This is the life!! As I often told Michelle - we deserve a treat.....

Walking from the boat to the motu for lunch in the Blue Lagoon

Baby Black-Tipped Shark (you'll need to zoom in)

As some of you are already aware, Patricia and I booked in to the Kia Ora hotel for a night while we were in Rangiroa. The hotel was putting on a Polynesian show during dinner that night and a number of the boats were attending. Staying in the hotel meant no dinghy to negotiate at the end of the night so I did the dog on it for once. Cocktails, wine, digestive, more cocktails…..  A great night – but one I’d live to regret. Later that night we had a thunder storm with high winds that lasted 6 hours. I was happy to be in the comfort of a really nice hotel and not be out at sea. We were in a bure hut, the roof made out of palm leaves, and not one drop of rain got in.

Kia Ora hotel bar. Handy dock on the front.

Next morning we had to be up at 7 and on board, ready to lift the anchor by 8. (Orders from the skipper!!). I had had my long awaited tomatoes the night before (no chips) and was determined to see if there were oranges with the breakfast.  Not only were there oranges but, also pancakes and syrup, boiled eggs and croissants. Had to be done. Nothing better than a good breakfast to cure a hangover. We made it back on board on time.

Another boat, At Last, had left an hour before us and they kindly radioed back to us the conditions in the pass. This was really helpful as the water in the lagoon was very agitated from the storm the night before.  This was nothing, mind you, compared to the sea conditions outside the lagoon.  We had a horrible trip.  We started out with a reefed main and full Genoa. As the winds increased we decided to pull in the Genoa a bit only to find the furler was banjaxed and it was going to be quite a job to roll in the sail. So the decision was made to leave it up. This meant we were going to be travelling quite fast. The sea was very lumpy and the waves coming broadside which meant we were being pushed over and rolling a lot.  I was never so sorry to have eaten pancakes!!  For the first time on the trip I was sea-sick all the way. Maybe not entirely due to the pancakes of course!! But since we were down 2 crew, I had to grin and bear it. We flew along.  Passed 4 other yachts along the way. Encountered 2 cargo ships that were not on AIS and only appeared on radar long after a visual spotting. On the plus side the wind never got above 27 kts and while we had rain we missed all the surrounding squalls.  Some of the other boats we passed didn’t miss them and got winds up to 35 kts.  And because of the sea state a number of people were sick.

At about 7am we finally spotted Tahiti.  We will spend about 10 days here doing repairs, re-provisioning and taking on my replacement.  Originally I was to leave from here but am now staying on to do the Society Islands. Most of the Arc boats are staying in the town dock.  It is dirty and noisy but cheap.  We, and about 4 others, are staying in the beautiful Marina Taina, about 7 kms from the centre of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. The marina has 3 bar-restaurants, a couple of shops, laundry etc. Now that we have shore-power we are running the air-conditioning all the time. There’ll be parties on boats.  We’ll have a great time.

First sight of Tahiti

Flaked out after difficult night watch. (And sea sickness due to excesses of the previous night)

Main Sail - before going off for repairs.

Supermarket too close to Marina for taxi - and too far to walk!!

The last blog I posted was from an atoll called Takaroa. Luckily for me the local post office had left their broadband modem switched on over the Easter weekend so I was able to perch outside on the steps and use it to post the blog. Unluckily, sitting in the scorching sunshine has fried my laptop.  (Not helped by my literally sweating onto the keyboard). I’m using a rubber roll-out USB keyboard now to bypass the laptop and will hopefully be able to continue to write. If it wasn’t for the great feedback I’m getting, I think I’d throw my hat at it altogether. To add insult to injury, that same day, someone accidentally spilled a bottle of water over my iPod. It’s a complete goner.  Thank God for my iPhone – now more precious than ever.

Given all this, I just wanted get out of there before anything else went wrong. However, we needed to wait until lunchtime in order to catch the tide and move out through the pass.  In the last blog I explained about these passes and how the water flows in and out at certain times. The water runs through them at about 5kts. The pass in Takaroa has a coral reef running the length of it. So just before we left we took the dinghy out about mile to the start of the reef and drift-snorkelled along the edge of the coral and through the pass. For safety we took turns driving the dinghy alongside those in the water. All we had to do was lie on top of the water and let the current bring us along. This was the most amazing snorkel I’ve ever done.  (Catriona, I never thought I’d say this – but this beats the one we did in the Bahamas I’m afraid).  There was a huge variety of fish and coral. Alongside the reef the depth plunged straight down to 20 meters in places which meant we could watch the larger fish at the same time.  Unfortunately we were going so fast it was very difficult to get good photos. I tried swimming against the current a few times in the hopes of staying in one position, but was dragged on backwards. We had seen some small black-tipped sharks beside the boat the previous day but thankfully none appeared this day.  Apparently they are not dangerous but I’d rather not encounter them just the same.

We brought Sapphire out safely through the pass and headed for the atoll of Fakarava. (It might be worth having a look a one of these atolls on Google Maps or Google Earth as I’m pretty sure I’m not describing their structure very well.) We are doing all our sailing to the various atolls at night. Partly to ensure we only go through passes in broad daylight and also to allow us more daytime in the lagoons rather than out at sea. I hope I’m not putting a hex on it when I say we have had some of the most glorious night passages recently.  The sea and winds are behaving themselves. It is Autumn here and we have been blessed lately with an orange harvest moon.  It doesn’t come up until after midnight and the first night I saw it I thought a ship was on fire until it crept up more fully over the horizon. The constellations seem to me to have a completely different aspect down here.  For instance, Orion is lying on his side and slips down under the horizon making it look like he has fallen into the sea. The Plough looks wrong as well and The Seven Sisters, which I was able to sea nearer the Equator, seems to have disappeared. Maybe this happens in the Northern Hemisphere as well.  No doubt someone will correct me if I’m wrong!!

Never mind all that.  Fakarava was beautiful.  Totally unspoiled. Long stretches of powdery white sandy beaches. Beautiful crystal clear water. Coral, teeming with fish, sitting in a foot of water all along the shore. A concrete road – with speed bumps!! Patricia and I explored the shoreline in the dinghy and came across the White Sand Beach Hotel. This hotel has very fancy beach huts right on the water. It has its own deserted beach which, after chatting up the owner, we were allowed to use – including the sun-loungers. In return, we kept them busy all day making pina coladas. Not sure how we negotiated the dinghy out through the coral and back the 7K to the boat. Fakarava also has an airstrip and if – sorry when – I win the Lotto, I’ll be back. Long may it remain off the tourist trail.

Aqua aerobics at White Sands Beach

Stretching my sea weary legs

On our way out of Fakarava we came across this flock of hundreds of sea birds fishing. Looked like a cloud on the water.  We sailed into the middle of them with our fishing lines out but caught nothing. Thank goodness, because all we ever catch is tuna and I can’t eat any more tuna. A mahi mahi would be nice though.

After 3 days we reluctantly raised the anchor and set off on an overnight sail to Apataki. This atoll is one of the least visited by yachts due to its difficult pass into the lagoon.  However, we were on a mission. This is a bit of a long story but I hope you’ll get a kick out of it.

In 2007 a man called Graham Morse, his wife and a hired skipper did the same trip we are currently doing.  Afterwards he wrote a book about his travels and the people he met in various islands along the way. He wanted to send signed copies of his book to some of the French Polynesians featured but had no addresses to which he could post them. He is friends with John Charnley, the owner of Discovery Yachts – the company that built Sapphire. John Charnley was also taking part in World Arc this year and agreed to deliver 5 of the books for Graham.  Unfortunately, having reached St.   Lucia last November, he had to retire from the Arc due to his wife’s incurable sea-sickness. So, John O’Connor agreed to take the books and deliver them all.  First on the list was a Chinese man, Mr.Assam and his French Polynesian wife. All we had to go on was his name, his photograph featured in the book and an anchorage that we couldn’t find on our charts. We knew from the book that Mr. Assam met and married his wife inTahiti and moved to Apataki about 20 years ago because his wife had some land there. He set up a pearl farm which is now run by his son and grandson.

Each atoll has one village so this was our first port of call.  We rocked up to the usual one shop and asked if anyone knew a Mr. Assam who owned a pearl farm. We were, as you can imagine, treated with the height of suspicion. But we rattled off all the family member names mentioned in the book and eventually were given the mobile number of Alfred, Mr.Assam’s son. We were also given the GPS coordinates of the island they live on. (Atolls are made up of multiple islands.) So, off we went on a course for the given coordinates about 10 miles away on the opposite side of the lagoon.  Meanwhile, I rang the mobile number and tried to explain to Alfred’s wife that we were on our way with a gift for Mr.Assam senior. I thought the conversation went well and was complimenting myself on my French accent.  However, when we got within sight of the Assam’s property a fishing boat speed out towards us wondering what the hell we were up to.  Turned out to be Mr.Assam’s grandson, whose name we also knew. Who could resist? Eventually we were invited ashore and brought to meet the man himself.  I was expecting to see a frail old man.  Instead, there he was, looking exactly as his photo, taking a machete to a pile of coconuts at the side of his house.  He at once remembered Graham Morse and invited us into his house to show us a book he keeps of all visiting yachts.  We photographed him holding the Graham Morse book so that we could prove we had made our delivery. We also wrote in his book. Mission1 accomplished. The other 4 I’m sure will also be a challenge.  A couple of them are for the Cook Islands and I’m not sure where the others are for.

Oh! I nearly forgot.  While we were in Mr.Assam’s house looking at his book, his son came by and said something we didn’t catch. Mr.Assam ushered us down to the shore at the back of his house and there waiting patiently in about 6 inches of water was a massive Nurse shark. It seems that this shark comes by every afternoon and waits for Mr.Assam to hand feed him!! This shark is 9 years old and is about 3 meters long.  The noise she made when snapping the fish from his hand was truly frightening.

Graham Morse' entry in Mr. Assam's book

Waiting patiently (Patricia staying well back - bottom right)

The Assam family home

Next stop, and last in Tuamotu, is Rangiroa.  This is the largest atoll and is apparently well known in the diving world. Patricia and I are booked in overnight to a luxury hotel called Kia Ora (wasn’t that a kid’s drink?) for a day of well deserved pampering and a night of eating, drinking and entertainment. I hope they have tomatoes.  And oranges. And chips. Mmmm. I can’t remember the last time I had a plate of chips…..

For our last night in the Marquesas we sailed half way round the island of Nuku Hiva to a small bay where we had arranged to meet up with a French and a Spanish boat, Beatoo and Ruby. The French guys had booked the one and only restaurant, Tante Yvonne, for dinner.  They had read about it in a French restaurant guide!!

The Pilot book for the area had warned us of large swells in this bay.  Having had no successful dry landings for the past week, we were very dubious about it.  And sure enough, once we swung into the bay we could see the other 2 boats swaying badly.  The guys were all aboard Ruby and I’m sure had already been through a couple of bottles of wine. Have they never heard about waiting for the sun to go below the yardarm? As we circled around, checking out the anchorage, they shouted across to us that the swell was not as bad as it looked.  Mmmm – maybe not when you are on the correct side of a few glasses of wine.  Anyway, it’s nice to have company and our French and their English is improving all the time so we decided to go for it.

While it was still light, Scott took the dinghy to a small landing dock to see how he might get us ashore.  He warned us of a swell of 4-5 feet, with large waves coming astern. The only place to land was on a set of steps carved into a high wall. There was no ramp and no dock. Timing would be everything!!.  When time came to go ashore we packed our finery in plastic bags and set off in swim gear in the pitch dark.  This has to have been our scariest landing yet.  When the swell was down the steps were too high to jump onto. So Scott held off until the swell was up, then scooted forward on a wave and roared “jump” before reversing back so that the dinghy was not bashed against the wall and overturned.  We had to land one at a time and could not hesitate for even 1 second when told to jump. Mercifully the steps were not slippery. It was an amazing bit of driving on Scott’s part – and for the first time we actually had a dry landing.  I tried not to think about how we would get back on board as, with legs wobbling from shock/fright, I got dressed on top of the wall.

Yvonne, of Tante Yvonne, was also the Mayor of the village.  She told us that Club Med were looking to build a compound in the Bay but she turned down the planning permission as she felt the local people would not benefit from it. Club Med provide all food and drink to guests within the compound. Brave decision – but I’m sure it would have provided employment at the very least.  On the other hand, the Marquesans are pretty self sufficient. They live well off the land and the sea without even having to farm. Everything they eat is growing wild, in abundance. They are always smiling and we didn’t come across anyone who seemed unhappy with their lot.

We had a lovely evening. As I’ve said before, people on the Arc have an adventurous spirit. They have great stories to tell about their travels and their lives. You would never be bored in their company.  I made sure not to drink much bearing in mind the lemmings’ type drop required to get back on the dinghy.  We all survived and managed to get back on Sapphire bone dry.  A great end to an amazing time in the Marquesas.

(There are some photos further down, but because of slow internet, this blog will be more words than photos, which are painfully slow to load.)

Next morning, 1^st April, we set sail for Tuamotu approx 4 days away. With Patricia back on board we now had 5 sailors and so shifts were shorter than for the 3,000 mile trip.  We each did 3 hours during the day and 2 at night. Looking at it now that makes 25 hours – something fishy there!!  Well, I did 3 and 2. Less than an hour underway we were joined by about 30 dolphin. I never tire of watching their skill at racing with us and playing in the bow waves. Sometimes they launch straight up out of the water like something shot from a submarine. These manoeuvres usually end in a belly-flop. I’m sure they are showing off. The weather for the first couple of days was fantastic.  Fair winds and flat water. Of course, it wasn’t to last.  The 3^rd night we ran into a storm. Lightening directly overhead was absolutely blinding. We changed direction 3 times in an effort to get away, but the system seemed to be going around in a circle.  At the front and back ends of these storms the winds are horrific.  On my watch, I decided to stay in the middle of the system.  Let it piss rain on me, but avoid any squalls at the edges. Eventually, it blew itself out and we went back on course. I think it might have been a baby cyclone, but am no weather expert.

As the Arc is now in a period of free cruising i.e. no formal leg underway at the moment, there is no radio relay.  However, there is an informal radio chat at 9.00ameach morning, which we keep forgetting to tune into. On April 2^nd Scott and I remembered and tuned in. When they heard we were on, one of the other boats asked us to give some details about the snooker competition on board Sapphire. What? We told them we have had a couple of poker nights – but snooker? We’re not sure where this came out of, but those on the call that morning were very disappointed to find there was no truth to it.  We think it must have started as an April’s Fools joke on the radio the previous day. The boat is big – but not that big.  Obviously some people think it is!!

Line of sea birds hitching a ride from the air behind our mainsail

On the morning of 4^th April we arrived in Ahe, one of the more north westerly atolls of the Tuamotu and therefore one of the closest to the Marquesas. The Tuamotus are known also as the dangerous archipelago. It is made up of about 70 coral atolls, none higher than a few meters above sea level. They are circled by reefs. Each atoll surrounds a central lagoon and some, but not all, have one or more passes into their lagoon.  The pass into Ahe is only reachable 3 hours before moon rise and 5 hours after moon set – or something along those lines. The lagoon itself is about 15km wide.  We decided the best time to go through the pass was the start of an outflow, in order to have enough depth. For the non nautical I’ll try to describe this.  If you imagine (at almost full tide) the lagoon is a saucer full to the brim of water.  Add a little more water (full tide) and the water will spill over the edge.  In our case, this over the edge water is spilling through the pass. It is an outflow that we would use to enter and leave the lagoon.  When we got in we were very surprised to find we were the only yacht in the whole lagoon.

The Tuamotus are completely different to the Marquesas.  The land is not at all fertile and the people live off fish and coconuts. They remind me a little of San Blas – if you can remember that far back.  There is only one shop on Ahe and because there is so little to buy it only opens for a couple of hours in the morning.  No fresh bread, no vegetables except for green peppers.  No fruit. No bug spray – ahhhh. We did get eggs though as there are lots of chickens on the island.

Ahe has at least 8 black pearl farms.  It’s a fascinating process which I will go into in the next blog as I hope to visit a pearl farm on one of the other atolls.

When we arrived in Ahe we discovered it was Holy week.  We were shocked! We had no idea it was Easter time and hadn’t stocked up on chocolates for the occasion. The population of the whole atoll is only 120.  The local school teacher told me there are almost 50 children there.  Seems like a lot given such a small population. On Easter Saturday the adults hid clues and Easter eggs all around the village and the children had a big egg-hunt. Tempted as I was, given my love of chocolate, I refrained from hunting myself.

Another dodgey landing at the village in Ahe

Coral reef.

Sapphire sitting at the end of Main St, Ahe.

We were due to leave Ahe in the early afternoon on Easter Saturday. We had the engine on, snubber off and were just starting to lift the anchor when we saw 3 yachts coming through the pass.  Turned out it was 3 Arc boats – one of which we are particularly friendly with.  So, nothing for it only switch off the engine and invite all 3 boats over to Sapphire for a celebratory drink. They were all in high spirits at the end of their 4 day trip from the Marquesas.  Sadly, having spent 3 days in Ahe totally alone, we are on a schedule (John and Gavin have to fly out of Takaroa in a couple of days) and had to leave. So, after an hour or so the party moved off to another boat and we headed for the pass while there was still time.

Or next destination was Takaroa – just one overnight away.  It has an air strip and John and Gavin are leaving from there to fly back to theUKfor a wedding. So for the remainder of our time in the Tuamotus we will be reduced to 4.

Celebrating arrival of 3 Arc boats in Ahe

Home!!

We arrived in Takaroa early the next morning.  The pass here is very dangerous so we decided to heave-to about a mile outside and take the dinghy in to have a look at the reef, currents etc. Before we got a chance to explore, a local fisherman came alongside and warned us that a boat had run up on the reef the previous day. He told us about a wharf that we could tie up against for 2 days as there was no commercial boat expected over the Easter weekend. This meant we could come through a wider pass and would not have to be at anchor either. This is the first time we have been attached to land since we left Panama City.

It turned out that the boat on the reef was our Spanish friends on Beatoo.  They had been swept on to the reef by a swirling current and have lost their rudder. It could have been much worse though.  They have cobbled together a makeshift rudder and are currently limping along toTahiti for a replacement.  Without a rudder they can’t steer and so hopefully this will last the duration.  For now, one of the other Arc boats is accompanying them.  But since Beatoo can only do a max of 5kts this will be a pain for the other boat. It is a long way toTahiti and so we are extremely worried about them. Later today, we will head back out to sea, back through the wider (but still difficult) pass when the tide turns. Wish us luck!

I wish I had paid more attention in English class or was a little better read.  My problem is that I don’t have a good enough command of the English language to do justice to the beauty of the Marquesas. Mind you I have some hard acts to follow since Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London have all spent time here and written about the islands.  Jacques Brel and Paul Gauguin also lived and died here. I have heard that Gauguin was actually re-buried in France some years ago but found no mention of that in the Gauguin museum on Hiva Oa.

The Marquesas is made up of an archipelago of 12 or so islands.  The Galapagos to Marquesas finish line was just outside the bay of Atuona, on Hiva Oa. We stayed there for about 5 days, recovering from the trip, celebrating with the other boats as they came in, touring the island and stocking up on fresh fruit and veg – and of course French wine, cheeses, pates etc.

We arrived at dawn. Once we got the boat settled on anchor and had a chance to look up and around us we were blown away by the lush vegetation, fruit laden trees and vibrant flowering shrubs and plants.  At first I thought I was just suffering from an overload of the senses having seen nothing other than blues and greys for 21 days.  However, we are here 10 days or so now, have visited 2 other islands and I continue to be overawed by the beauty.

There are no restaurants as such in the islands – mainly because they are not on the tourist trail.  When we eat on land it is usually by arrangement with a family who cook for visitors. Sashimi, breadfruit cooked in various ways and lots of fruit. I’m not making it sound very appealing but in fact the food is great – with the possible exception of breadfruit disguised as mashed potatoes.  Breadfruit soaked in coconut milk is gorgeous.

Arc boats at anchor in Atuona Bay - centre of photo (click to enlarge)

Atuona village - busy huh?

While we were in Hiva Oa John rented a 4X4.  The car rental guy’s name was also O’Connor.  We found out that there are 150 or so O’Connors living in one valley in Hiva Oa.  So we had to go check this out.  The islands are all volcanic and therefore consist of steeply rising ridges with lush valleys in between.  Each valley has its own tribe/extended family.  To get to the O’Connor valley we had to drive along a narrow trail around cliffs with 300 meter drops on either side. Some bends were so tight we couldn’t make them in one turn and had to backup a little before getting around. Luckily, the only time during this trip that we met an oncoming car was when we had pulled into a small lay-by to take photos.  5 minutes later and we would have been absolutely screwed as the track only had room for our wheels, the sides of the 4X4 hanging over the edge. Somebody would have had to reverse along the track.

On the way we came through a valley that had some quite intact Tiki statues. In ancient times these were carved from stone and represent important tribal chiefs.  They remind me somehow of Sile-na-Gigs, even though they have nothing to do with fertility.

O'Connor Valley

After 5 days onHiva Oa, with all but 3 Arc boats in the bay, we left for the tranquillity of Tahuata – a small island to the south. Here we had our first experience of how difficult it is going to be to go ashore in all but the 2 main islands.  There is a huge swell here with crashing waves at the shoreline.  This means jumping out of the dinghy when still in waist-high water or staying in the dinghy and risking being tossed out or washed over by waves.  Either way it is not possible to get ashore without getting wet.  I have a water-tight bag but cannot fit my good camera safely in it so a lot of the photos I’ll be taking will be with my not very good point-and-shoot camera. On the upside, since we are the only ones stupid enough to attempt these landings, we tend to have long, golden, palm tree lined beaches all to ourselves.

Our next stop was the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva.  A tranquil island with grapefruit, lemons, papaya, bananas, coconuts etc literally falling off the trees.  There are about 10 houses in the bay along with a church and a small school. We spent a couple of hours walking around and only saw one car. The local people love to talk to visitors and my French is improving by the day.

Bay of Virgins

Not very virginal!!

A local man knocked this fruit from the trees with a big pole for us to take

While I am writing this we are in a bay on the island of Nuku Hiva. Yesterday, after another wet landing, we found what I can only describe as the Garden of Eden.  About 200 meters from the shore, hidden by the dense vegetation, is a village of about 5 houses.  Each house is surrounded by fruit trees and beautiful flowers.  All neat and tidy (but in a wild way as opposed to an English country garden way). I hope John is writing about this in his Arc log as he will be able to describe it better than I.

We found a house where the lady would have lunch prepared for us if we came back in an hour. When we finished, she sent us away with a bag of at least 50 limes she had just picked up from the ground around her house. And my favourite thing in the world at the moment – white pineapple.

There are just 3 boats in the bay – the other 2 being Arc boats as well.  So we put the limes to good use last night.  We invited the crews of the other boats on board and made Caiparinas, played loud music, eat a lot of our French produce and had a blast. Not feeling too good today though!!

Main road to garden of Eden

The Banyan tree has it's roots on the outside

As you can imagine there is very little phone coverage, never mind wifi, in these parts. When there is phone coverage I can use 3G with a dongle to access the internet but this is too slow and too expensive to use for posting blogs. We are due to spend 2 more days on Nuku Hiva. One of the bays here has wifi and we will sail there this afternoon and try to make contact with the outside world.  In a couple of days, we will take off for the archipelago of Tuamotu, 4 days south of here. The Tuamotus are even more remote than the Marquesas.  We are due to spend 2 weeks there before heading toTahiti.  So, it is possible that the next blog will not be for about 3 weeks.  Bear with me…..

On the 4^th March we left the Galapagos and started on the long leg across to the Marquesas islands, 3,000 nautical miles away in French Polynesia. I got some very supportive texts from members of my family who have previously undertaken journeys of this length.  I think only people who have experienced blue water sailing, as it is known, will appreciate the anticipation I was feeling. Sick in the stomach actually.  So thanks to you guys for the support.

I was sad leaving the Galapagos.  It certainly was a trip of a lifetime.  And given that there are only 150,000 visitors to the islands each year, I feel very privileged to have been one. The Ecuadorian government and the people living on Galapagos are taking the conservation programme there very seriously and signs on it.  I hope it lasts.

We made it to the start line in the top 5 again but by the end of the first day we had steamed in to front position and stayed there for the first 6 days.  Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the ARC device for tracking our position was not working. I believe for the first few days it looked like we hadn’t left Galapagos.  In the end we emailed our position in to the ARC daily. Not an accurate report given that the other boats were on real-time.

I had been told that once we actually got going I would get in to the rhythm of things and time would pass very quickly. And sure enough, after the first 4 days the remaining 12 days were much easier. For this leg the watches were divided between 4 of us – my brother John, his son Gavin, the hired skipper Scott and me.  This meant we each had 3 hours on and 9 hours off.  I had my 2 favourite shifts of dawn and dusk. 6-9am and 6-9pm. We were blessed with an almost full and full moon for the first week. We were also helped by Venus and Jupiter, low on the horizon and casting bright beams over the water towards us.  We were right under the Milky Way and with the nearest ambient light being thousands of miles away had the best view imaginable.

Sunrise in the Pacific

For the first day and night we could see some of the other yachts but by day 3 the fleet was so strung out that we could no longer see them either by eye or by radar. Now we were truly on our own.

We came across a couple of fishing vessels on my dawn watch on day 2.  They didn’t show up on either radar or AIS so just as well I was still nervous enough to have my eyes out on stalks. They had nets strung out and we later heard on the radio that 3 of the other yachts got snagged.  The smaller of the fishing boats powered over to us looking for cigarettes. This was 500 miles from land. Imagine being stuck out there gumming for a smoke!!

After this encounter, apart from flying fish, we saw no other signs of life for about 10 days. We didn’t even see airplanes. The flying fish are amazing.  Their wings are as big as a blackbird’s and they can fly, very gracefully, for about 20 meters.  They must have lousy night vision though because at least 15 land on board each night and die.  Except one lucky one that landed beside me and I actually heard him flapping. I delegated the rescue to Gavin which he executed perfectly, using kitchen roll. Apparently, they are very slippery. Imagine!!  One of the unlucky ones landed on the fly screen of Gavin’s open hatch one night.  It flapped about so much that it managed to shake open the fly screen and land on top of him in the bed.  That one was not rescued.  And as if to get their own back, the next night while on his shift, Gavin was hit in the face by one. I suspect that one didn’t survive either. One other brief sign of life was a blue fin tuna Gavin caught and Scott made into fabulous sushi.

Flying fish (dead) on deck in the morning

Blue Fin Tuna – before….

…. and after…

Each boat in the ARC is equipped with an SSB radio.  This has a wider range than VHF – up to a couple of hundred miles I think.  Each morning at 9.00 all boats radio their position to one coordinating boat. So you get to hear the boats within that range and also track the positions of all.  There is another call at 7pm for general chit-chat or to seek assistance/advice from other boats.  Both of these calls fell on my shifts and so gave me a social aspect to the day. Gavin and I took turns on the chit-chat call so he could keep up with how the younger crews were doing.

The weather was very mixed.  We had good winds the first week, 18-25 kts. But we also had a few days and nights of rain.  I was cursing when I first got on board and saw Kevin had left my heavy (for Irish weather) sailing gear on board but was very glad of it on a few occasions. I had brought nothing with long sleeves and certainly no rain gear. We used a variety of sails and became quite adept at taking up and down the Parasailor and MPS sails in breezy conditions. These sails are not on the electric winches and so are hoisted and lowered by hand from the foredeck.  Under the Equatorial sun the teak deck is HOT – and we are in bare feet.  Brings to mind “The boy stood on the burning deck…..”. Once, I was holding onto the Parasailor  (as instructed – I might add) while it was half hoisted.  I had visions of being dragged overboard into the water and so sat down on the deck while hanging on. At least this way I might get sliced in half by the guard rail, but would not be left floating in the Pacific hoping someone found me before the sharks got me!! And then, of course, the inevitable wind shift. I was dragged across the deck just as a flying fish came aboard. Sadly, I sliced him in half with my knee.  Happily, I lived to tell the tale. Worryingly, I’m not sure anyone noticed my close call.

The night shifts were busy enough. Apart from ensuring we didn’t hit anything and nothing mowed us down, we had to keep the boat from rolling too much and the sails from clattering so that the rest of the crew could get some sleep. My shifts were particularly busy because at dawn and dusk the wind direction and speed shifted wildly and I had to constantly adjust the auto-helm – effectively hand steering.  I still managed to nearly kill us all one morning while below doing the ARC radio call.  I was keeping an eye on a rain cloud/squall about 10 miles long and some miles off.  However, what I didn’t realise was that it was pushing a wind of up to 35 knots on front of it.  When it got to about 4 miles off John arrived in the saloon for a shift change.  Thank goodness he did because within a minute we were both thrown across the saloon as the wind hit us broadside knocking the boat over.  We lashed up on deck and with both of us pulling on the helm together managed to keep the boat from broaching. This is when the boat is so far over the mast and sails are in the water and the boat is on its side.  We were within seconds of this happening.  Luckily Scott was thrown out of his bunk and came up to see what was happening. He was able to reef the main while John and I hung out of the helm.  If I was on my own I don’t know what would have happened. Lesson learned is – if there is a large rain cloud coming, feck the radio and anything else and stay at the helm.  The following morning I encountered 3 more squalls but managed them on my own because I was adjusting the boat angle before they hit.

Squall approacing

We had a few significant dates during the trip.  The first was John’s birthday. While normally a dry boat on passage, we marked the day by having a really nice bottle of red wine with the dinner. Alex’s birthday was the following day.  Scott baked a cake.  He and I had managed to scrounge some ingredients, such as desiccated coconut, from some of the other boats before we left Galapagos.  And of course, St. Patrick’s Day.

There was a lot of confusion on the Arc radio call that morning.  Because we fly the US flag (the boat is registered in theUS) not all boats are aware that we are Irish. Also, a young girl on one of the American boats didn’t seem to realise that the English don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!!  She asked one particularly narky English captain if he was wearing green and another if they had Guinness on board.  Luckily, the Ozzy boat put her straight before things got too out of hand and suggested that Sapphire was probably the only boat in the fleet with Guinness on board (we don’t). She got the hint. When it came to my turn to relay our position I finished up by playing 30 seconds of The Bothy Band’s Rip the Calico, down the radio. (I can hear Aidan groaning from here!!). At the end of the call, when all boats had relayed, we were radioed back and asked to play some more Irish music, which of course we did.

We decorated the boat, had an Irish breakfast, allowed ourselves several beers (no Irish coffee though – had to put that off till the end of this leg), had steak and kidney pie, cabbage and boiled potatoes for dinner. Almost authentic, and certainly not bad for the middle of the ocean. Gavin, having red hair, was designated as our leprechaun.  John, Gavin and I had each created a Paddy’s day playlist on our iPods and took turns playing music all day – except during sail drop and hoist!! We finished off the evening by watching a DVD of the Late Late Show tribute to The Dubliners.

Apart from all the sailing stuff on a leg like this there is also the ordinary day-to-day living. As you all know I am not a very girlie person, but I do go to the hairdressers every 4 to 6 weeks and to the beauty salon at least every 2 weeks.  So some of you I’m sure will understand my predicament after 10 weeks living on a boat.  The hair – well forget it.  It’s unruly at the best of times but now it has grown about 2 inches in this hot weather so the roots are well out. The older readers among you will remember an actor called Milo O’Shea.  His eyebrows were thicker than most men’s moustaches. The O’Connor family eyebrows, if left unchecked, would give Milo a run for his money.  And here is my problem.  I can’t see my eyebrows well enough to pluck them unless I have my glasses on.  If I have them on I can’t get at my eyebrows!! The rest of the grooming issues I don’t need to go into.  Just to say, if you are going to spend months at sea, you have to be prepared to leave your vanity behind.

We have 3 showers on board (4 if you count the outdoor one at the back of the boat).  All with hot water which is made on board each day by desalinating sea water. The tricky bit is showering when the boat is randomly lurching from one side to the other. There is a seat in my shower but until I am old and disabled I can’t bring myself to use it.  So, I am now quite an expert at wobbly showering. The last time the boat was attached to dry land, and therefore not rocking, was 5^th Feb.  Since then we have been at sea or at anchor.

Because of the shift system, the only time everyone is together at the same time, is during the evening meal. This means that people are not in each other’s faces all the time. It also gives you a lot personal time for reading, playing music etc.  Great.  And my favourite thing about being at sea at the moment is the absence of mosquitoes. I was well and truly savaged the last night we were in Galapagos because I had run out of deet. It was a concern since we were going to be 3 weeks at sea and well out of helicopter reach.  Anyway, no malaria or dengue fever – yet!!

By day 14 of the leg we were within 300 miles of land.  All of a sudden we started to see some wildlife. A variety of sea birds and a large group of dolphin who played in the bow wave for about 20 minutes.

Scott repairing the Parasailor

Sunsets are spectacular - but short in duration

On the morning of day 16, at about 7am, we heard the long awaited shout of “Land Ho”. It took another 2 hours to get to the finish line, at the mouth of the bay of Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas. We were the 3rd boat to arrive.  The second boat, 12 Moons, just 1 hour ahead of us. The bay is truely beautiful.  I thought nothing could beat the San Blas, but this island is luciously green with towering peaks rising to 3,000 feet directly up from the sea……but Hiva Oa will be the next blog.  For now I will have my usual end of passage treat of half a bottle of dark rum and as little coke as I can manage.

Boat trip recorder showing distance travelled was 3,050 nm

Atuona Bay, Hiva Oa

Sapphire is down there somewhere, on the right, not visible from here. My mobile is not working from here and so I think will not work anywhere in French Polynesia, with the exception of Tahiti in a months time. Wifi is good on Hiva OA but we are off to more remote spots in a few days.  I’ll post again before we leave here.  After that – who knows.