Our boat anchored in Oponohu Bay, Moorea
I sit here writing while listening to the wind whistling through the rigging, and enjoying the rays of sunshine which have not shown themselves for a couple of days now. Our plan was to leave Tahiti for hawaii several days ago, but wouldn’t you know it, the day we want to leave to sail north the wind decides to blow from the north. So here we are still in Tahiti, waiting for the wind to blow from almost any other direction!
Actually, we are in Moorea, Tahiti’s next door neighbour, Moorea Although seperated by only 10 miles, has a much different pace of life. Tahiti is all hustle and bustle with the largest city in the south pacific feeding and supplying over 200 outer islands, entertaining tourists and cruise ships from all over the world. Moorea on the other hand, people fish a little, maybe farm a little, and in their spare time they might go for a paddle in an outrigger canoe(locally known as Va’a). We have only just begun to explore Moorea, and the more time we spend here the more we like it. Anchoring in deep bays surrounded by volcanic pinnacles, or in the lagoon between the fringing reef and the island,we spend our time watching the waves breaking on the reef, schools of fish, and rays cruising the shallows. We spent the first night in Oponohu Bay anchored out from a park. This is one of our favorite spots to date. We then moved to Passe Vaiere where we picked up a mooring ball (which Kevin likes because it saves him from having to set and then pull the anchor.) The location here is wonderful. Crystal clear waters, protected from most sides from the wind and there is even a store close buy if we need anything. However, we have spend the last two days hunkered down on the boat because there has been one squall after another blow through.
Kevin has spend the last week doing as much fishing as possible to try to catch a fish. Last night he found success in catching a reef fish. He painstakingly kept it alive for as long as possible so he could use it this morning as bait to catch more fish. Unfortunately, we cannot eat the fish we catch around the reef’s because often times they are siguatoxic. But that won’t stop Kevin from trying to catch them!
We have spent a fair amount of time observing the weather patterns here. Not as a hobby, or out of curiosity, but because when cruising a small boat to distant ports, nothing is more significant to your life as the weather. It affects what you can do on any given day at anchor; where you can go, whether it be the grocery store or another island. At times we are boat bound, in a crowded anchorage with poor holding, leaving the boat when the wind is blowing is out of the question. This means no cold drinks, or ice cream, NOT EVEN BEER! If you were to leave and your anchor was to drag, the least that could happen is just a little confusion in finding the boat, but the worst case is coming home to find that home is now on a reef and full of holes. If you are en route to another island however, then the same breeze could be just what the doctor ordered, unless of course it is blowing directly from where you want to go. Then 200 miles becomes 400, or even more if you get an unlucky shift! You might lose a full nights sleep due to light and or shifty winds. So you see the weather dictates our lives in many ways. Currently it has dictated that we relax in a beautiful lagoon on Moorea’s eastern coast while we wait for a shift in the wind to return to the hustle and bustle of Tahiti to complete the necessary paperwork for our northbound voyage.
And so continues the saga of the good ship Pahto, Fair winds.
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