Tahiti is French Polynesia’s largest and most populated island. 200,000 of the country’s 300,000 citizens live on the island. Most in and around the city of Papeete. Season two was drawing to a close, and we needed a place to park the boat for a few months. Tahiti offered a number of marina and mooring options.
I had a work trip to Indonesia in early October. Pam wanted to get back to the US to help her parents. We had a family reunion planned in Denver during Thanksgiving. And we wanted to spend Christmas in Danville. All that added up to parking the boat in Marina Taina in Tahiti.
Before setting off for Tahiti, we spent a few days sailing around Huahine’s lagoon, waiting for a flat sea state and a favorable wind direction. We got it and departed in a heavy rain squall but were soon sailing in smooth conditions on the 100 nautical mile overnight passage to Tahiti.
We arrived off Tahiti at dawn, planning to anchor, thinking it would take a few weeks to negotiate space in one of the marinas. But when we called Marina Taina, they said they had space waiting for us and to come on in! We drifted outside the port entrance, scrambling to inflate our fenders and prep our dock lines—things we hadn’t used in months.
Marinas in this part of the world are a compromise. They aren’t what you are see in the US, where every boat has its own “slip.” Instead, we are “med tied” with our stern tied to a concrete wall and our bow held off facing outward with ground lines and our anchor.
Getting on and off the boat is a challenge with this arrangement. Most boats utilize a "passerelle." It’s either a fancy folding bridge or, in its most basic form, a wooden plank that extends from the stern of the boat to the quay behind. I sold our passerelle in Mexico, thinking we’d never need it. It weighed a ton and took up a bunch of space in the bow locker. The marina gave us a wooden plank to use. Pam gave it one try and immediately declared it unsafe. From then on, we would drop the dinghy in the water and use it to ferry ourselves from the back of the boat to the ladder on the quay.
I set about a few upgrades and the task of getting the boat ready to leave for three months:
Driving all over town to buy a dehumidifier (one that would run on 220 volts and 60 hertz, probably the only place in the world where that is the household power standard)
Recruiting and training caretaker to look after the boat while we were gone
Setting up security cameras
Rewiring our electrical cord so we could plug in and keep everything charged
Emptying and donating the remains of our fresh food
Replacing a solar panel that I shattered when I dropped the boom on it
Remarking our anchor chain with colored rope inserts
Removing the headsails so the sail maker could repair them
Replacing the foam in the cockpit cushions with reticulated dry foam so we wouldn't have wet butts every time in rained
Installing a new television
I had three weeks of time before my trip to Bali. In addition to boat projects, I decided to try scuba diving again. I got certified in college and started diving around Florida with my high school chum, Mark Jones. Mark was an avid, experienced diver, and he encouraged me to get into the sport. I loved it back then. After a few dive trips together, I moved away, life happened and I never dove again. Until now!
I took my diving certification card (NASDS) with its unrecognizable photo of me and visited the two dive shops located in the marina. Both were very encouraging. Plongee Eleuthera suggested I take a refresher dive with one of their instructors. I was technically a certified diver (although after 40 years it would be hard to make that case). The next morning we headed to L’Acquarium, a shallow, calm water dive site in Tahiti’s lagoon about a 10 minute boat ride from the marina. It was amazing. I was instantly hooked. I remembered what I loved so much about being underwater.
The instructor team at Eleuthera were terrific. Safe, thoughtful, encouraging. They said, “hey, if you are going to be here for a few weeks, why don’t you get recertified?” And I did. I dove every morning for about three weeks and earned my PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, and Enriched Air Diver certifications. We dove all around the Tahiti lagoon and nearby reefs. Diving in the morning. Work and boat projects in the afternoon. It was an ideal place to learn.
Adrian Pataki runs Taina Boatwatch. Several cruising sailors knew him and recommended him to us. Adrian became Roam’s caretaker. He helped me with a few projects including changing the engines and generator oils, scrubbing the bottom, and getting the boat tied up and secured. I decided to move the boat well off the concrete quay wall so that the surge from a storm wouldn’t push the boat back and bash it into the wall. This took four bow lines attached to a cargo chain out in the lagoon. The marina also required our bow anchor deployed 300 feet out into the lagoon. In the back we had four dock lines off the stern and two breast lines coming off the midship cleats. It was a veritable web of rope holding the boat in place.
Although I was solo, I enjoyed the time in Tahiti. Eating at the nearby food trucks. Getting to know the pro crews manning the super yachts nearby. Diving with the team at Plongee Eleuthera and their clients from all over the world.
Air New Zealand is the only way off the island going west. That flight leaves at 3 am. And that was me heading to Auckland and on to Bali. And that was the end of Season 2.
A Few Photos:
Daily updates from our PredictWind log:
Huahine - Fare
Wed Sep 11 2024 15:05:00 GMT-1000 (Tahiti Time)
16 44.104s 151 02.903w
All is well. We are presently anchored 1.4 miles south of the town of Fare on the island of Huahine. We enjoyed a great upwind sail in 10 knots of breeze, 4-5’ seas with a full main and Solent (and a little help from the port engine at low RPM). Full daggers.
A few days ago the town outlawed mooring and anchoring in front of the town. That drove boats out onto the nearby sandbar. 20 of them. To crowded for us so we moved a mile or so south for more space and less stress.
Looking forward to checking out Fare tomorrow.
—Jim
Huahine - Baie d’Avea
Fri Sep 13 2024 11:09:00 GMT-1000 (Tahiti Time)
16 48.686s 150 59.582w
All is well. We are presently on a mooring in Avea Bay on the southeast corner of Huahine. We motored around the lagoon this morning. It took about an hour and requires careful attention to pilotage and navigation.
We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the town of Fare. We had possibly the best cheeseburgers in all of French Polynesia at Izzy’s!
Tonight we will have dinner ashore at the local resort here.
—Jim
Tahiti
Sun Sep 15 2024 20:17:00 GMT-1000 (Tahiti Time)
17 35.204s 149 36.986w
All is well. We are presently med tied to dock J in the famous Marina Taina, Papeete, Tahiti. We had an amazing overnight beam reach in 8-10 knots of breeze with 3-4’ seas. 1/3 daggers.
A heavy rain shower just as we left Huahine gave the boat a rinse. And, revealed a leak that winds up in the ceiling over our master stateroom. After that it was a delightful sail. The wind pooped out just as we were making landfall and we motored in.
Next step, decide if we want to leave the boat here for the holidays.
