Riatea and Bora Bora with Nitidus

Riatea and Bora Bora with Nitidus
                                                 
11 January 2012  Moorea to Riatea
                                                        The gas came, as had been promised and at the price quoted, so we left Moorea at about 1100 hrs. If we had to be stuck anywhere this has been quite a good place to be stuck. The weather has been dreadful but I think I have probably made the best of what good days we have had. However the general mood is that we have had enough of this place and need somewhere new.

Genady goes forward

 We set off on a fine reach for Huahine or Riatea depending on what the wind decides to do. We had intermittent SUNSHINE and morale rocketted. It was an easy day and easy into the night but Genady managed to conjure up another squall at 0200hrs which required a main drop in freezing wind and rain.

12 January 2012    Riatea
                                          The entry to Riatea was well marked and easy, and very beautiful. We went through the reef pass between two little motu with the rising sun behind us illuminating this green island with pale pink streamers of mist lifting off the hills of the main island. It was a beautiful sight and as we turned to approach the town, Bora Bora was framed by Riatea and Tahaa rising above the lagoon. After the rain and grey skies of the last week it seemed a magical place. I was so entranced that I forgot to take any photos.
We squeezed into a slot in the marina and eventually the authorities decided we could stay. The marina looks clean and quiet and should suit us very well for a few days.
 The town didn't take much exploring, just a couple of streets, which was probably just as well as I returned to the boat early to nurse Sergiy's cold which he handed round in Moorea. It was a pleasant easy day lazing, swimming and lazing again. Slept like a log!

13 January 2012  Riatea
                                       I felt better after the sleep and decided a short outing to Tapioi Hill which overlooks the town would be a good thing to do. Kosta and Genady went there yesterday and were full of praise for the view. It was a short, easy climb up a zig-zag track to a ridge which overlooks the town and the lagoon and all the surrounding islands. The views were indeed spectacular, North across the lagoon was the greenness of Tahaa with it's many bays, West was Bora Bora cloud capped and  majestic, to the East was Huahine and South the ridges of Riatea lifted away enticingly.  I sat and gazed at the colours for about two hours eating my papaya and feeling very contented. Eventually I came back down to the more usual activities of getting weather off the internet, asprin from the chemist and pineapple for lunch. The afternoon was spent swimming lazily in the sea and lazing about the boat and harbour. This is truely the Land of the Lotus Eaters!
Kosta came back from one of his wanders with a great slab of indeterminate fish so it is sushi and fried fish for supper.

The view over the Lagoon to Tahaa from Tapioi Hill

The view across the lagoon from the seafront just beside the marina

14 January 2012  Riatea
                                      I thought that I would take the bus which the Information Office said would leave a 0900hrs and go to another group of 3 waterfalls. I was up early, breakfasted and shopped for lunch but no bus showed up! It was only about 5-6kms so I started to walk. About half way there I got a lift with a French teacher and his wife who were just back from France. "The news there is universally depressing. It is better here where we hear less and can ignore more!". I tend to agree with him. He was exteremely worried for the employment prospects of his children who were finishing university in Bordeaux. They dropped me at the end of the track to the falls and I was soon trying to shelter from a thunderstorm. Some tropical vegetation makes a tolerably good umbrella but it is not a match for a tropical downpour!. After the rain the waterfalls in the distance had gone from white to brown and the river beside the track was roaring along. I thought that the falls would be spectacular, but the track ended at a river crossing and the river in spate looked more than I could handle, so after casting about unsuccessfully for a crossing I turned to go down. When I was taking one last picture I noticed that the falls were once again white so I went back to the crossing and the water was lower. After about another 30 minutes I thought it was low enough and I wadered across though not without some difficulty. I picked up the path on the other side but after only 400m this ended in another river crossing and a banana plantation from which there was no obvious exit. I tried wading up the stream but progress was slow and not with out it's dangers so I decided on discretion and retraced my steps.

The falls I didn't get to

The river which stopped me initially

And the one I tried to wade up

  I had lunch by the lagoon and walked all the way back to the boat. It was hardly my most successful expedition but it was not without interest and a peverse sense of enjoyment.

15 January 2012  Riatea

The coast West of Uturoa

                                         After yesterdays excitements fording swollen rivers I thought a quieter day was in order. I was up early for a swim before breakfast and then took the road West from Uturoa to the marina where most of the charter companies are based. It was prettily done and full of catamarans. Cats seem to be the charter vehicle of choice around here. We are parked at the end of a long line of  them in our marina too. They vary in size from very large to grotesquely enormous, are universally sumptious inside, have enormous amounts of space both inside and out, and are, I am sure, the perfect boat for chartering here with their shallow draught suited to lagoons and reefs. However they leave me with an impression of ugly ostentation which depresses rather than lifts my spirits. I swam off the marina breakwater and had my lunch sitting on the lawns around the basin. A Polynesian family came down and the children played in the water having a marvellous time. It was very peaceful and relaxing so I did a few yoga stretches to try to keep everything moving. I then noticed that the clouds were building omminously so I started the hike back to the boat. In fact the rain held off until the evening so need not have hurried back.

15 January 2012 Riatea
                                      The weather looked a bit iffy in the morning and no-one seemed interested in doing anything. I think Genady is still suffering from the cold which Sergiy generously passed around. Kosta is talking about paying until the 19th so we will not be going off to explore the bays of Tahaa. There are lots of ferries on the quay which go to Tahaa so I thought a day trip would be good. The 0900hrs  boat finally got going at 0935hrs after a hurried visit ashore to borrow a battery to start the engine! I went to Patio at the Northern end of Tahaa with the intention of walking over a col to Hamene and getting a ferry back from there. The ride out through the lagoon was lovely, all turquoise and aquamarine blues with a ribbon of surf pounding on the reef and a string of motu to give it that true desert island look.

A motu similar to those on the reef North of Patio

At Patio I asked when the last ferry back to Riatea was, and was told that I was on it! I didn't feel like just going back and thought that an overnight on Tahaa would not be the end of the world should that prove necessary. Optimistic fool that I am I thought that maybe there might be a later ferry from Hamene. The Gendarmes at Patio sent me the wrong way along the coast road for the track over the col, it was left and they sent me right! I was eventually put right by a chap in a road mending truck who backed up, turned round and took me to the start of the track. He made sure I knew that 'It was a long way' (12kms), that it would be muddy and that I had water. Such kindness.
 The track itself was just that, a track rising to a low col with good views N and S. Along the way I collected mangoes from the roadside and was given 'beanpods' where you eat the padding which tastes like sugary cotton wool. I had lunch at the col and then set off for Hamene which was obvious below. I took a more direct route down a steep muddy path and found myself in an area of cultivation with 4 men and a girl tending what looked to me like marijuana plants. I thought it judicious not to show too keen an interest and continued to Hamene through a wild mango forest. I can taste them still. At Hamene it was confirmed that the next ferry was at 0500 the next morning and it would leave from a quay about 7 kms out of 'town'. There was a pension close by the quay so there should be no problems about a bed for the night. However all along the road to ther quay were moored speedboats so I enquired about a 'taxi' back to Riatea. Soon we had a deal and I came scuding back across the lagoon to everyones satisfaction.
 Kosta collected a stray from the town quay, a chap called Andre from a boat called Symbiosis. He was originally Hungarian but left with his parents when the Dubchek regime was put down by the Soviets. I cannot say that enjoyed his company. To my mind he was a totally self-centred incompetant masquerading as a self sufficiant idealist. Over the course of the evening it transpired that:
His boat was leaking from the stern gland and needed to be pumped for 2.5 hours daily!
That in crossing the Pacific from Mexico to Marquesas the propellor of his boat fell off!
That he had been struck by lightening and his instruments and earth bonding had fried and had not been repaired!
That he had an electrical fault, which had nothing to do with the earth bonding, but which prevented him from using his engine!
And when he crossed the Pacific he ran out of gas because he didn't carry a spare bottle!
What else was wrong one can but wonder. His Mexican ex-girlfriend apparrently got off at the Marquesas, I can only wonder why she got on in the first place!

17 January 2012  Riatea
                                      This morning we pumped up the dinghy and Kosta and I chugged over to the motu by the entry pass to do some snorkelling. It was a good place, interesting coral gardens in the shallows and reef in the entry channel was alive with fish of all shapes and sizes and colours. There were fish in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black and white; in stripes, spots and quadrants and any mixture of the aforegoing that could be thought of. At one time I thought the visibility had changed and when I checked  why, I found I was in the middle of a vast shoal of  tiny almost transparent fish. We saw a live ray and in the shallows and a Stone Fish, oops beware! I also had some more Spanish conversation with a young French girl who worked in Barcelona and was here visiting parents, she paddled over to the motu in a little green canoe. The island was open to public access and various huts and barbeques had been built, but we were the only ones there, and nothing was being maintained so it was in dire need of some TLC. I found a hat which I kept and a broken surfboard which I used to paddle out to the reef. It was an interesting morning and we were back in time for lunch, and to avoid the afternoon's rain.

A very similar motu to the one where we all went snorkelling

18 January 2012 Riatea last day
                                                     All the others wanted to go out to the motu and snorkel so I volunteered to do the shopping and supper.
A very lazy day.
Ann will be on her way.

19 January 2012 Riatea to Bora Bora
                                                           It was a lovely day and we were away shortly after 10am. The exit was easy and the channels in the lagoon were well marked.In the lagoon we ran on the engine and set the jib once we were out of the western pass. It is the first bit of real downwind sailing that we done in fair weather. We gave the Hydrovane a try and it worked fine when reaching but was not so good further off the wind. It was a very easy trip and was in fact quite boring after many of our passages. At Bora Bora Kosta handed the steering over to me but then started making what I considered unnecessary instructions which so confused me that I gave the boat back to him.
 The hotels on the shore seem virtually empty. We anchored in a very secure pool behind an island and next to another Hilton Hotel which is mostly huts over the water. Bora Bora is beautiful and impressive but from our anchorage we cannot see the main island. If they stay here for a long time I think they will be bored.

Bora Bora from the pass through the reef

Just before we entered the pool where we anchored

Looking forward to Ann's arrival.

20 January 2012   Bora Bora
                                              Another fine day, this must be a record for the trip. The other 3 were keen to go off and look for snorkelling sites so I volunteered to stay behind and do a sort out of the money/shopping credits and debits, and do a collection of my gear ready to leave tomorrow. The money transfers were not worth bothering with which is the best possible result and I got most of my packing done. They all came back just before lunch without enthusiasm as the underwater is nothing like as good as Riatea. However during the morning I had noticed collections of trip boats out in the shallow part of the lagoon behind the reef. These I guessed were the feeding sites for the rays and sharks so Kosta, Genady and I went to investigate. It was a feeding point and the sharks and rays were very impressive in the water at close quarters. The sharks were 2m long reef sharks and although harmless nevertheless produced a sharp intake of breath and a quickening of the heart as they swim towards you only to sheer away at the last minute. The rays were about 1m wingspan and 1.5m mouth to whip, and they brush against you as you stand in the water. OOH ARRR.
I have doubts about the advisability of feeding wild creatures but it was a never to be forgotten encounter.
 That evening I took the crew to the Hilton for farewell drink which we all enjoyed. The hotel is nearly empty, only about 20 people in a 200 bedroom hotel complex which is beautiful, the prices are however astronomic $500+ per night. How can it be economic ? If they reduced the prices and upped the occupancy rates would it not be better and provide more employment as well?
I do not understand, but it is not my problem!!!!!
Ann arrives tomorrow.

Moorea pictures

A rather subdued New Years Eve party

Dawn over Port Phaeton

Looking into Opunoho Bay from the anchorage

The head of Opunoho Bay on a good day

A Mape tree

Moorean Big Game Park

Mt Rotui flanked by Opunoho and Cooks Bays as seen from the Belvedere

My German friend at 3 Pines

The ridge above Viare

Mount Mouaroa

When it wasn't raining we made the best of it

The beach at Opunoho

These are the pictures that should have been scattered throughout the last post, but which only seem to like to be handled by the laptop!

Waiting: Tahiti Iti and Moorea

Waiting for wives; Tahiti Iti and Moorea

31 December 2011   Papette to Port Phaeton
                                                                     The morning was spent doing last minute administration, banks, internet, notes to the Port Police who were not on duty, shopping etc, etc; but we were away at 1100hrs. There was no wind so we motored the whole way to Port Phaeton. It was a very easy run and the entrance wasn't as difficult as the charts and pilot book lead us to believe. We were in with the last of the light and anchored which is a first for this trip. The windlass which was corroded solid was put in a state to move whilst we were in Papette was used for the 1st time in many a year. The run down gave glipses of the hiniterland of Tahiti, lots of sharp steep peaks over even more steep sided valleys. Habitation is largely confined to the coastal strip. Today the clouds lifted at odd times to give these insights into the interior but they were short and tantalising. Let us hope the weather continues to improve. Port Phaeton is a hurricane hole between the main bulk of the island and a smaller area joined to it by an isthamus. The holding is fantastic and no safer place for the boat would be possible. It would be nice to explore Tahiti Iti which is small enough to cross in a day, but has some very rugged country in its interior.
 We have no idea what lies ashore beyond a boatyard and a bar, but that's a good start!
All the crew were a bit homesick s New Years Eve is a big celebration in Ukraine. There was no point in my going to bed so we dug out my ties and did our best to have a party but it was a rather subdued affair.

 ( I don't seem to be able to stick in photos at the moment. I have no idea why but will bash on and keep trying!)

1 January 2012  Port Phaeton
                                            We put the dinghy together and Kosta and Sergiy shot off to explore the bay. They came back with horror stories of stolen dinghies and stripped boats, so the decision is that there must always be someone on board. I am very sceptical of the veracity of these tales because there are several liveaboard couples here and they could not live like that and wouldn't stay if that was the situation. However it is not worth arguing about. Genady voluenteered to for the 1st stay on the boat so after breakfast the rest of us went ashore to look at Taravao, and there was really very little to see or get excited about. Today was the first clear day we have had since we arrived in Tahiti and was very hot. I moved away from Kosta and Sergiy to explore on my own as going in a gang you see  very little and meet nobody. Across the isthamus was a small commercial harbour which had not been used for some time as the bollards were flaking rust. However the reef markers were in place, the water was clean and there was a beach to one side and a little motu offshore to set off the scenery. I thought it would be a perfect safe and convienient place to explore the area from. Kosta however was not keen so we won't do it.
 I wandered back to the boat and was picked up by Genady. The others came back after lunch and Gena and Sergiy went off in search of beer. Kosta picked up messages on his satellite phone and found that after 5 Jan we have strong northerlies forecast. He decided that tomorrow we will go to Moorea for a few days and then back to Papette to pick up the gas when the bad weather arrives. it is not a bad plan but one of our good days for exploring and swimming will now be spent going to Moorea. We seem unable to move the boat short distances, or out to clean water for a swim and then back again. Everthing is so intense and serious, there is no carefree attitude to life.

2 January 2012  Port Phaeton  to Opunoho Bay, Moorea
                                                                                      I was up early and got breakfast ready but was the only taker, no idea why. Kosta insisted on giving me a detailed and lenghty description of how to pull up a chain! I stepped back and let him risk his back doing it his way. Sometimes I despair.
There was no wind so we motored carrying the dinghy on the foredeck. The rear tube extensions of the dinghy formed a comfortable backrest so I read for the morning. The comfort is a welcome as the cockpit sides are too far from the rails to use them as a backrest and the cockpit floor is often wet. The dinghy on the foredeck also gives us a bit more space which after the last few days I think we need. After lunch a slight breeze blew up so we sailed for a couple of hours before we had to go downwind which killed the breeze. We motored to Opunoho Bay and entered easily, anchoring  to the East with a lot of other cruising boats in the channel behind the reef towards the hotel complex. The mystery of where the porthand channel marker for the entrance had gone was solved- it was aground behind the reef about a mile out of position! We just got in as the rain started but it was soon over and we all swam and had a mega-supper.
The setting and mountains are really dramatic.

3 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                              Sergiy wanted to stay on board so Genady, Kosta and I went walkabout. The Opunoho Valley was well written up in the guides so we decided to go there. Kosta and Genady were slow to start and decided to fiddle and fill showers that could easily have been left to Sergiy so we were missing the cool of the morning. They were also slow once we had started and I suddenly found myself alone on the road and enjoying the silence. At the Agricultural College I took their do-it-yourself guided tour which lasted about an hour and identified all their plants and the uses to which they were put. I was given papaya by one of the workers, water by another group and a pineapple by the girl in the snackbar. I felt duty bound to try one of their pineapple and grapefruit juices and it was delicious.
  I walked up the road to the archelogical area and viewed various piles of stones without much enthusiasm. On the way back to the road a side path into the jungle beckoned and I found myself on a back trail to the Belvedere viewpoint. The jungle was cool and shady and there were many trees with roots like fine butresses and nuts scattered across the forest floor, I later found they were Mape trees and a staple of the original Polynesian cuisine. I also passed a wildlife reserve specifically set aside for snails, of which there were lots, mainly large ones with two-tone swirly brown shells. At the viewpoint it really was a lovely view over both Opunoho and Cooks Bays and the old caldera with Mt Rotui thrusting up into the centre of it all.
 After resting I returned to the trail I had ascended and headed for 3 Pines intending to descend from there to the Pineapple Road and Cooks Bay. Walking in the forest was hot but not unbearably so because of the shade and the constant interest involved in not losing the path. The silence was profound. At 3 Pines which was another fantastic viewpoint I met a German woman who was living on Moorea and was walking alone. She was headed for Viare, the ferry terminal on the other coast, where the buses ran from and to. So I agreed to accompany her there and get a bus back to Opunoho. She was good company and very knowledgeable about the forest plants although she was a bit of a food freak. However we spent a very pleasant afternoon in each others company. The view from the ridge above Viare was excellent. In one direction the harbour, channel and Tahiti; and in the other another view of Mt Rotui and Cooks Bay. The path down was fairly easy so we arrived in time for me to have hamburger and chips! She saw me on to the bus with a papaya and coconut drink both of which were delicious. I arrived back at the Sailing School in Opunoho at the same time as Kosta and Genady, and Sergiy picked us up in the dinghy. The others went off for a Polynesian evening at the hotel and I stayed boat sitting as I will, I am sure do something similar with Ann when she arrives.
It was a good day if a little strenuous 0800-1630 with not many stops.

4 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                              Today I thought that I would try to find the high level trail around the Opunoho Valley. I failed to identify the start and after walking for about 1 1/2  hrs I ended up back where I had started from! It wasn't an unpleasant experience as there were lots of flowers and I managed to swim in a stream, but it wasn't what I had planned. As it was still  early I set off along one of the parallel tracks to the Pineapple Road scrumping grapefruits and pineapples which had been discarded along the way. And at about 1 pm I arrived at Cooks Bay, dunked my feet in the sea and ate my spoils. I also made a trip to the supermarket for essential supplies like wine and luxury of luxuries I had an ice-cream.
 On the road back to the boat I got shanghaied by 3 old Tahitian men (in truth probably younger than me) who insisted on taking me to their shack, of nailed up corrugated and dirt floor, to give me a coconut drink. They were not enamoured of the French but had no idea what they would do if they were independant.
 Kosta had asked another Canadian called Adrian to eat with us. He is selling his boat, to set up 'Kite Sailing Ecological Tour' He was/is a fascinating dreamer who also does some amazing things like kite surfing for 36hrs from Tahiti to Huahine through an eclipse. He was great company and I hope his dreams work out but I would find it impossible to live such a financially precarious life.
  The weather is turning nasty, Northerly winds when we want to go North, what a surprise! Add to this that Kosta has now found somewhere here to fill the gas so we will not be going back to Papette. This means that I must go on the ferry, as I need to book the flights for when Ann is here to give some structure to her visit.

5 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                              Hitched to Viare and caught the late morning ferry to Papette. I paid the outstanding harbour dues, got clearance for Bora-Bora which none of us knew we needed. I then booked the flights for when Ann is here which sets the framework for her visit. I picked up brochures at the tourist office and checked the weather. The forecast is for solid northerlies for a week and nasties on Sunday. I then picked up wine and milk at the supermarket and headed back with the glad tidings about the weather. The trades have evaporated and there are Northerlies all the way to Hawaii, would you believe it!

6 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                              The weather was as foul as was predicted. I used the last of my phone battery setting up the accommodation for Ann's visit. All of it is pension self catering and reasonably priced though not cheap, and of course booked unseen. I then went to the Hilton Hotel up the road for lunch and to recharge my phone battery. It was nice sitting by the lagoon with a book and a drink, but the grey skies and squally showers took the edge off things. Certainly the holiday makers paying $500+ a night were looking very glum. The break in the weather and the reurn of the gas have both now slipped back to Wednesday.

7 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                             The weather is dreadful. I arranged to take a hold all full of clothes I will not need until after Bora Bora to the pension on Moorea where we will be staying. Today seemed as good a day as any to do it. The only problem was catching the bus whose arrivals seemed somewhat haphazard to us and there is no bus shelter, so by the time it arrived I was soaked in spite of my waterproofs. At Viare I got off expecting to have to change buses but found that my bus carried on and the driver just waved me aboard like a long lost friend. Mind you he also drove straight past the pension which I was lucky to spot.
 The pension looks fine 'in the flesh' and I handed over my bag. The owner/manager a young guy called Hari took pity on an almost drowned, almost septugenarian and gave me a lift back to the boat in his van.. Towards the end we found that he spoke Spanish, as well as French, Tahitian and English, so we had a bit of Spanish conversation. When I got back I was given a lift out to the boat by the owner of the Sailing School on one of his little catamarans.
Sergiy and Genady went off to the hotel for a beer or two and Kosta and I went off to see Adrian who has now definitely sold his boat. The inside of the boat was a bit of a mess, a batchelors boat, but it was a good solid cruising boat which was nicely arranged though in need of a coat of paint and some TLC. I can't think why he is selling it to buy something else. There was much discussion of the strategies for sitting out the existing bad weather and should we do this, that, or the other. With a well dug in anchor, an oversized Bruce, which has already seen us through 30+kts plus the 2nd anchor deployed as an angel I think we are bomb proof.

8 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                             It rained all day, sometimes hard, sometimes less so but it never stopped. Nobody went anywhere and there was much sleeping, eating, reading and backgammon. The cliffs of Mt Rotui beside us were dry when we arrived. They now are home to no less than 9 waterfalls and in any other weather at least two of them would merit a guide book write up as a tourist attraction.

9 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                              I woke at 0530 to the anchor alarm which had been set too sensitive. The wind began to build and we had a few gust of 35kts and upwards but the anchor and angel held us steady. It looks like another dreadful day as far as the weather is concerned.
 The day was as bad as expected but without too much wind, just rain, rain and more rain. however in the evening it eased to dampness and the wind stayed below 20kts. Kosta and Genady went to the hotel for a break and to get some weather from the internet. They returned with the promise of a break in the rain of at least 2 days. WOW! The evening was tinged with pink for the first time in a long while so maybe it is not just wishful thinking.

10 January 2012 Opunoho Bay
                                                The day dawned dry so I was up early and on the road by 0830. I got a lift to the Agricultural College with one of the French research workers and then walked up to the Belvedere. There was nobody else there. I took the track to 3 Coconuts Pass. It was well defined and heavily used so how I missed the turning to the col I will never know, but miss it I did. And I walked on and on through the forest, and on and on along a logging track and then part way up a ridge before realising that I was miles away from where I should be and the only course open was to retrace my steps. Retracing ones steps is a boring business so at what I reckoned to be the 1st opportunity at a cairn by a stream crossing I took a path going sharply uphill. This climbed a ridge of Mt Mouaroa and took me to a thin high traverse across the face of the mountain to a col. It wasn't 3 Coconuts but I was grateful to be there and celebrated with lunch.After lunch I descended the other side of the ridge and found a path contouring left which quite quickly brought me to the viewpoint above 3 Coconuts. There I found a Tahitian family and a girl doing meditation! I chatted to the family and then descended to the pass and on down to Haapiti. The descent was straightforward, but the walk out through the valley long and boring. By the time I reached the road I was tired so I just waited for a bus to Viare. There I met Kosta and Genady on a shopping trip so we all arrived back at the beach in a tropical downpour. It would not have done to have stayed dry all day!
  Adrian came to supper, he really is a very likeable, hardworking, immature surf bum and excellent company,  we all wish him well in his new adventure with his new boat.