To Moorea

Early on Saturday morning, a couple of hours before dawn, I left Rafiki tied to a mooring ball, took the dinghy ashore and walked a few miles to the airport to meet Rose. Yippee! So good to see her again – two months has been a long while…

Taxi back to the marina then out to the boat where Dave and Eva cooked a pancake breakfast for us all. Ate the last pamplemousse from the Marquesas today. Rose had a rest, while the rest of us spent a few hours re-provisioning for the next couple of months. Walking into the huge Carrefour supermarket my eyes were on stalks and my mouth salivating – so much tasty looking food. We filled three trolleys and wheeled them back down the road to the marina, and then shuttled all the goodies out to Rafiki in a couple of dinghy rides.

Dave and Eva left for a few nights in a hostel so Rose and I could have the boat (our home, after all) to ourselves for a while. We had a few things to do in town, including picking up the propane tank on Monday, so we hung around and relaxed. Early on Sunday morning the swell picked up. Boosted by the spring tide, sea poured over the reef into the channel, right where we had a mooring. I woke up to the sound of water rushing past the hull, as though we were sailing. A bit unsettling as we weren’t supposed to be going anywhere… poking my head out of the hatch I saw we were surrounded by foam and thrashing water; the instruments showed a 2 knot current, surging with each wave that pounded on the reef a hundred yards away. But the mooring was holding, so I just set the anchor drift alarm and went back to sleep. In the morning we could see all the other boats in the mooring field – perhaps a hundred – pitching and rolling in the waves, just like we were. Not dangerously, just a bit uncomfortable. It was a bumpy ride ashore in the dinghy to have a walk and fill up our diesel tanks!

We decided to head back to the marina in town for a night, which turned out to be two as we bumped into D+E again, who suggested a day touring the island in a rental car. So on Tuesday we all piled into a tiny Peugeot 107 and spent the day driving around the ring road of Tahiti. Papeete, on the north west corner of the island, takes up most of the flat part of the island. Around the rest of the coastline, there’s only just space for a couple of blocks of houses, the road and then another couple of blocks before the mountains rise dramatically and steeply inland, covered in dense tropical foliage. Tahiti is made up of two parts; two rounds joined by a narrow isthmus in the middle. The northern island has a road all the way around, but you can only get part of the way around the southern island. The road stops at Teahupoo; a small village that gives its name to one of the world’s most famous surfing waves. I really wanted to see what this legendary wave was all about, so we headed south, left the car at the end of the road and walked out onto the point to watch the surf through the binoculars. Just like the photos on the cover of every other surf mag, the wave was massive and hollow. Awesome, even from a long way away, and not even on a “big day”.

We stopped off at a really well kept botanical garden, with a huge variety of tropical trees, bushes and shrubs. Wandered up to a waterfall, stopped off at a couple of beaches, had lunch in an extravagant French restaurant overlooking boats at anchor in the waist of the island, and eventually made it back to Papeete in the evening.

Tuesday morning (yesterday) Rose and I paid up at the marina and then motored the 18 miles across to Moorea under overcast skies. Not enough wind to sail, unfortunately. After about 4 hours, we passed between the green and red buoys that mark the channel at the entrance of Opunohu bay, turned left, and anchored in shallow water just off the white sand beach. It’s not remote and unspoilt – there’s a car park and picnic benches ashore – but it’s still a world apart from Papeete. Steep ridges and peaks surround the bay, making a dramatic backdrop. There’s not much settlement (the hills rise straight from the shore) – only the road which runs all the way around the island lined with a few buildings. Further down the coast, there’s a hotel/resort – which in French Polynesia, out on the islands, means a load of thatched huts extending out into the lagoon on stilts. Tourist boats and jet skis buzz past every half hour, but it’s still beautiful. In the evening we watch lightning on the horizon, and prepare the boat for a windy and wet night.

The thunderstorm ended up passing south of Moorea, so we had a peaceful night. Today the sun is out and a cool breeze is keeping the temperature down, Rafiki bobs around peacefully in now-familiar turquoise blue water, a lush green palm-lined beach a stone’s throw away to starboard, and waves rolling gently onto the reef off to port. As we finish our breakfast of paw-paw and scrambled egg, we watch a fleet of Optimist dinghies skippered by tiny screaming French kids, following the coach boat like ducklings. Snorkelling this morning we saw sharks, a ray, loads of small fish and a huge barracuda-like fish hanging out under Rafiki. So, today we’re just relaxing, and enjoying time together.