Waterfalls

Tahiti might not be all about waterfalls, but there’s enough of them to merit splashing out more cash for a tour of the interior. Our friends Bertrand and Pascale organised the tour and arranged for the driver to pick us up outside Papeete Marina – the two of them already ensconced on the bench seats in the back of the cab after their rush hour ride from Punaahua.

After collecting four more passengers, the driver embarked on a buttock bruising off-road climb to the interior of Tahiti that occasionally required each of us to hold on ape-like to the taxi’s protective bars. Regular cars can’t go here. Some hire companies provide a 4×4 for this purpose, but that requires better skills than we want to practice.

Fortunately, our driver had done this before. Even so, some parts of that journey would have been better experienced with eyes closed – like on the bridge below:

Shortly after that bridge, we heard the clatter of a helicopter overhead and saw it land in a clearing on our right. As soon as it touched down, a procession of marines poured out, looking sharp and armed for trouble. The hydroelectric plant is very well guarded, but I’m not sure these guys had anything to do with that. They were practising for something, though – somewhere.

The main twitchy bit of the journey was crossing the dam. Occasionally, we were told, the water flowing over the dam sill was too much for vehicles to cross. To me, this looked like one of those days. Unfortunately, the photograph doesn’t show it, but the water was pouring over the sill like a giant overflowing bathtub with the taps still running.

So, before moving any further, the convoy of taxis stopped, and the drivers collectively discussed the risk with the officials looking after the dam.
After a few minutes, they were permitted to proceed. But before moving on, our driver got out of his cab to offer advice to a couple brave or daft enough to have hired a self-drive 4×4. I’ll bet they wished they were on a tour.

Fortunately, this road is one way – otherwise, it would have been necessary to break out the Imodium.

After surviving the dam crossing, we headed to the middle of Tahiti to a restaurant blessed with fabulous views. True to form, this is when the rain started. But it is also where the waterfalls began:

From Tahiti to Moorea – and wind

One month turned into two, then into three. We almost sleepwalked our way into staying in Papeete Marina for three months, waiting for parts, a generator, and then more parts. Not only does that impact the bank balance, but a combination of construction work, road traffic, and all the crap being pumped into the air by ships meant that we had to wash the outside of the boat every week to prevent grime from becoming embedded in the gelcoat.

So, after a final shop at Carrefour, we decided it was time to leave and head to Moorea for some quiet time and clean air. After friends helped us away from our berth, we cleared port control and ran out of Papeete Pass. We found a small anchoring spot near Oponou Bay four hours later, with enough room for about five boats.

Among the anchored boats were Ryan and Nicole, who told us where to anchor to avoid coral heads and shallows. They have been in FP for several years and have a YouTube channel. One of their recent videos, made just after we left, is of a research vessel we saw anchored on stilts nearby. It’s worth a watch to discover what the scientists get up to.

This anchorage is popular with tourist boats – they come here to show their human cargo the underwater tikis. We snorkelled a few hundred metres from Jamala to see the tikis but later discovered one directly under our boat. We don’t know who created them or how they were made – but they are worth seeing.

Tour companies also run paragliding trips from here.

And it would have been remiss of us not to visit Stingray City to see some old friends:

That weekend, strong winds were forecast from the north. We considered moving to a different location until Ryan and Nicole said they’d been in that spot in strong winds and they’d not had any issues. So we stayed – and they were right. The reef extends a long way back, taking out most of the energy from the waves. So it is only the wind to contend with. And fortunately, there was less than expected: a mere 32 knots maximum. No boats dragged, and nobody died.

Back to Tahiti – and Maria’s birthday wind

The anchorage near Tahiti airport is lovely and calm but has a downside. It is 2.5 miles from Papeete marina and 2 miles from Tiana marina. Either of those two destinations can mean a wet and bouncy dinghy ride unless the weather is calm.

Because this is summer and cyclone season, there can be strong winds. And because of the island’s topology, there can also be some surprises.

On Maria’s birthday, at about 6.45 am, we were woken up by howling wind and the boat bouncing around. We were both up in minutes, putting the key in the ignition, ready to start the engine, and checking that we, and the boats around us, were still in position. The wind got up to 42 Knots – 48 Mph if you prefer. And it came with horizontal rain. It was like looking through fog. If a boat had dragged towards us, we wouldn’t have much notice of it coming. Then, after 15 minutes, it was calmer, and everything looked ok. Although we later learned that a boat had broken free of its mooring and had sunk on the reef.

The weather stayed wet and windy for most of the day and only cleared up for Maria’s birthday celebration that evening. And for that event, we invited old friends and new to celebrate on board Jamala. All had a good night. Some might even be able to remember it.

Thanksgiving celebrations

We received an invite to our first thanksgiving dinner from Gillian and Jordi. So, off we went to Lola with our gift of a turkey made from origami (because we are culturally sensitive) and some wine. That was a great afternoon. We are very grateful for their kind hospitality: so much food and so much fun.

Tuamotus – no wind

We intended to make a break for the Tuamotus to escape all the wind and rain. But Maria became ill for a couple of weeks with something that looked like man flu. It wasn’t covid (we tested for that regularly), but whatever it was, it packed a punch. So we stayed for another two weeks.

I thought I had dodged it, but I too became ill just as Maria recovered. It felt like we would be pinned down in Tahiti until 2023.

But when the next opportunity to get the Tuamotus arrived, we went for it. The weather forecast showed we would have light winds in the right direction to sail to Fakarava. Unfortunately, that was only partially correct. The winds were light but not quite in the right direction. So, rather than stay out at sea for a few days tacking north and south, we motorsailed all the way and arrived 36 hours later, just in time for the slack tide at the north pass.

We also arrived at the anchorage in Rotoava at the right time: a boat had just left from one of the few mooring balls remaining here, so we grabbed that and set about recovering from this virus for a few days.

As we’ve been to Fakarava many times, we felt no pressing need to rush ashore. In any case, we thought it best to recover on the boat and stay away from people. After a few days, Maria’s cough stopped, and I started to feel more like a human. So we went to the Mayor’s office, paid for our stay here, and spent a few more days messing around on paddleboards and snorkelling.

We plan to move down to Hirifa in the south of the atoll on the 19th of December to spend Christmas there. And as soon as there is wind allegedly good enough to get us to the Marquesas, that’s where we’ll be heading.