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Papeete is on the island of Tahiti, and it is the administrative capital of both The Society Islands as well as the capital of all of French Polynesia.  All international air travel into French Polynesia must go through Papeete, so it’s no surprise that it is a major hub of tourist activity.  Unfortunately, Papeete was our only stop on the entire island of Tahiti, so I can’t write much about what Tahiti was really like.  But Papeete was a major city with lots of noise, traffic, large grocery stores, and not the friendliest people we’d met so far.

The passage from Tahanea was one of extremes in that the first night we had squall after squall and we were heavily reefed, and the second night the wind died, and we had to motor.  This was our first major harbor we had visited in French Polynesia, so we (I) studied the buoy markers and the requirements for radioing port control.  Transit and passage into the harbor and down the channel were actually quite easy.  We just have to keep remembering green and red buoys are reversed here from what we are used to in the U.S. and Mexico (green right return just doesn’t have the same ring to it).  The airport is right on the water and to transit the channel from the harbor entrance down to where the marina is, you have to radio port control for permission to pass the airport, and then radio again once you are clear of the airport.  This seemed to be quite a burden for port control, but then I remembered that we were here during peak cruising season, and that the rest of the year the boat traffic must be significantly less.

We had heard from others that the marina was full, so we didn’t even bother trying to get a slip.  We did have the option of tying up to the wharf near downtown rather than heading down the channel past the airport, but none of our friends ahead of us had done this, and they were all anchored down by the marina.  So, we followed like lemmings.  Our first stop, before even looking for a place to anchor, was the fuel dock.  We knew we needed enough diesel that we wanted to pull Exodus alongside the fuel dock rather than “hand-bombing” the fuel from the gas station in jerry cans.  So, I wanted to take care of this sooner rather than later, because more than once we’ve left fuel to the last minute before leaving somewhere and been foiled by a surprise national holiday or no fuel being available.  Just next to the fuel dock is the high rent district, where all the super yachts are stern tied to the dock.  The one just next to us when we were parked getting fuel was an absolutely beautiful 160 ft (or 180, I can’t remember, but what’s 20 ft really, oh, just half our boat) mono-hull sailboat called Mondango.  It didn’t take long before the skipper came over and started talking to Tim.  Turns out he noticed the boys, and he was interested in our cruising story, since he has a boy just about their age, and wants to bring him aboard some time.  He was pretty relaxed, maybe because the owner of the boat had just left after being with them for a while, so he and the crew were getting a break.  He invited us for a tour, which Tim took him up on.  A few days later, Tim and boys went over for a thorough tour, and the boys were really impressed.  The things I’ve heard about were that they have a freezer just for ice cream and a freezer just for trash.  And they also have an extensive camera system, and they could see Exodus on the display via the camera up the mast.  I’ve asked Alex to write an essay about it, so hopefully that will be forthcoming.

After a month in the remote anchorages in The Tuamotus, it was somewhat shocking how many boats were at anchor or on mooring balls around the marina, on both sides of the channel.  It reminded us of La Paz, but more boats and not as much current.  Needless to say, the anchoring conditions were crowded, and they were also deep.  We found a nice shallow inlet that was actually marked as an anchorage on the chart.  We did our usual depth survey, and it seemed perfect.  We wondered if everyone else knew something we didn’t since no one else was anchored there.  We decided to try it, and it was fine.  In fact, over the next day or so, several other boats joined us, so eventually we had the same crowded conditions as everyone else.

A cold front passed through about our second or third day at anchor.  We had pouring rain and winds in the 25-30 kt range most of the day.  The boys and I had done laundry by hand on Exodus that morning, so all the clothes and sheets on the lines got an extra freshwater rinse.  We were glad when the wind and rain eased in the evening, because we were able to go downtown for dinner with some new friends.  The previous day we were just hanging out on Exodus and a couple dinghied over to say hi because they saw we were from San Diego.  Exodus hails from San Diego, since we never bothered to officially change our home port, so “San Diego, CA” is written on the back of the starboard swim steps.  This has happened more than once, that someone came to say hi just because we’re from San Diego, and I’m convinced San Diego is infinitely more popular than Los Angeles.  Anyway, they were really nice and invited us to hang out with them on their boat, Maestro, which was about a 65 ft monohull and absolutely beautiful.  The interior was decorated as if it were staged to be sold. It was that immaculate.  I’m guessing they hadn’t taken it out of the marina in a while, which isn’t surprising since she’s about 7 months pregnant.  They had a car, so they took us to dinner downtown to the “Roulettes.”  This may sound funny given that at home food trucks are where you regretfully grab a quick lunch when you didn’t bring your own and you don’t have time to even go to the cafeteria let alone go out for lunch.  Well, the roulettes are basically food trucks, and in the evening, a courtyard down by the waterfront is filled with them.  You can pick and choose from various cuisines and there is outdoor seating and generally a very relaxed and slightly festive ambiance.  Also, joining us for dinner was another boat family from Sweden, with a girl about Brenden’s age.  Their boat, called Breeze, was on the hard in Papeete getting repaired from their encounter with a whale.  It turns out that they spent some time in La Cruz the season before we were there, and Ella was good friends with the boys on Kenta Anae, who our boys spent considerable time with.  Ella spoke very fondly of Kenta Anae, and I think it made Brenden a bit homesick as well.  Well, not homesick, since we don’t live in La Cruz, but a similar sentiment.

In general, Papeete had the luxuries we are used to from home.  We spent several nice evenings at happy hours at a place called “The Dinghy Bar” at the marina.  They had 2 for 1 microbrews, and it was the best beer we’ve had since leaving home.  They would give you a ticket for your free beer when they brought you the first one, and you could still cash it in after happy hour was over.  So, we’d order extras, and as a group it seems like we’d always have a stack of tickets on the table by the time happy hour ended.  Some people tended to use more tickets than others, and you know who you are. 🙂

Surprise, surprise, they had a McDonald’s there, within walking distance of the marina.  It was crazy expensive though, like US$13 for a “value” meal.  The boys ate there once.  Just once.  Laundry was also crazy expensive, just like everywhere else in French Polynesia.  However, the marina had coin operated machines for a more reasonable price, but still more expensive than home.  We still didn’t use them, though, because it seemed like every time I walked by, someone was there waiting for them to come fix a machine.  Hence, the handwashing we did in the rain.

There was a big grocery store, called Carrefour, within about a mile of the marina.  It was HUGE (i.e., like an average size store at home) and I went several times to catch up on provisioning.  You had to deposit a coin to get a cart, and when you brought the cart back, you got your coin back.  But the great thing was that they had a cart return right next to the dinghy dock at the marina.  So, you could push the carts from the store back to the marina, rather than pack it all on your back or take a taxi.  Well, it was only in theory that this was a great thing.  It was absolutely ridiculous how hard these carts were to control.  At home, just the font wheels on the carts rotate, so you could turn the cart, but not slide it sideways.  These had all four of them rotating.  Which was great when they were lightly loaded and you wanted to slide your cart off to the side out of the middle of an aisle.  They were NOT great when heavily loaded while pushing a mile along a precariously narrow and sometimes steep sidewalk.  The boys and I were like a comedy of errors.  We had two overly full carts, and this would have been fine if we had four people.  Most of the time Alex pushed a cart himself, and he did great, but oh my god, what made these people think four rotating wheels was a good idea!?!  Anyway, somehow we made it back to the marina without losing a cart, but that was the only time I pushed a cart back.  I will stick to my backpack, thanks.

It’s funny.  We were in Tahiti, and I’m not writing about snorkeling or hiking or beautiful turquoise water.  I’m writing about microbrews, McDonalds, laundry, and grocery shopping.  That just shows what our priorities were while we were in Papeete. 

Our last day there, Andrew was with us, so we spent the day exploring downtown.  The weather was mild so instead of taking a bus, we took the dinghy the 5 miles back up the channel, and there was a boat tied to the wharf that let us park our dinghies with them.  At that point I was wishing we had brought Exodus down and stayed our last night at the wharf downtown, but the opportunity for making that decision had come and gone, so we just pressed on.  Our first stop was the “Gran Marche” which is a huge two-story market.   The bottom floor has fresh fruits and veggies (I almost wept over the selection of leafy greens), craft vendors, and a few food stands.  We grabbed some sub sandwiches with French fries and sat on a curb for lunch.  The French fries were actually IN the sandwich not on the side, mmmmm, and sitting on the curb reminded us of farmers markets back home.  The top floor was filled with clothing and jewelry stores, and Andrew and I shopped for a bit while Tim took the boys on a boat related errand.  We all met back up at the Brew Pub.  That’s right, the beers we were drinking at the Dinghy Bar come from a restaurant right across the street from the wharf.  Andrew and I had some time to sit and chat and enjoy a beer before the rest of the gang joined us again.  Then Tim went off with Steve to do more boat errands and the three boys and I walked around town.  Our first mission was to head to the industrial side of town to find the U.S. store.  Lewis and Alyssa (s/v Eleutheria) showed up at the brew pub all excited with tortilla chips and salsa, and we knew we had to have some too.  We found it no problem, and in addition to chips and salsa they had Cheese-its!  The boys didn’t even mind carrying the load all around town.  Next, we did some touristy things, but nothing was really worth writing about.  We saw the cathedral, and a few other mundane sights before heading back to the brew pub and just chilling until Tim came back.

We grabbed dinner again at the roullettes again before heading back to the boats in the dinghies.  Lady Carolina agreed to give a couple other friends a ride back since the busses stop running early, so we brought Kyle with us in the hopes that both of us could still plane.  Planing wasn’t a problem, but not running into reefs turned out to be a challenge.  Tim managed to navigate around them, but Lady Carolina ran into not one, but two reefs on the way back.  I have always envisioned that if you hit a reef in the dinghy at planing speed that it would come to a grinding halt, and everyone would go flying out.  Luckily, that’s not what happened.  Everyone stayed safely in the dinghy, it was getting it OFF the reef that was the challenge.

May 31 – June 4, 2014

Tahanea is an uninhabited atoll, and it is a national park to protect a type of rare bird, so we thought this would be the most remote of the atolls so far, but we were wrong.  After the slow overnight sail to Tahanea, we still arrived too early, but we decided to enter the pass even before the light was ideal.  This was our first time going through a pass with the current against us, and the max we saw was about 3 kts.  We dropped anchor in a spot near the pass to wait for more direct sunlight before navigating across the lagoon, and while we were relaxing there, we noticed a boat on AIS called Field Trip.  We were pretty sure they had kids, since if we were remembering correctly, we had heard of them from a boat called Tulu that we had met in Nuku Hiva.  So, of course when Field Trip got a radio call from someone else inside the lagoon, Tim had to follow along and listen.  We are once again stalking other kid boats on the radio.  We gleaned that yes, Field Trip is a kid boat, and bonus, they were with two other kid boats across the lagoon.  Tim came out of stalker mode and actually hailed them on the radio (or perhaps he just broke into the conversation on which we were eavesdropping) and talked to them and let them know there were going to be two more kid boats joining them. 

The transit across the lagoon was pretty straightforward, and I think our charts were much more accurate for this atoll than the other two, as I was visually spotting each bombie that was indicated on the chart.

We had a bonfire on the beach that night, and we met Field Trip, Dafne, and Reme De.  They were all on catamarans, and they had all cruised the Caribbean and came through the Panama Canal.

Among the three boats there were 5 girls and 1 boy, so our two crews instantly evened the boy/girl score.  Our boys still, even after all this time and all the experience they have meeting new kids, even still want to just stay in their comfort zone and just play with each other (Exodus and Lady Carolina).  So, the next day Tim and Steve hatched a plan to take ALL The kids to shore to build forts.  Fortunately, all the kids were game for the adventure, and they were all on shore for a while, but it’s unclear who had the most fun, the kids or Tim and Steve.  When they got back, they mused about how boys and girls really are different.  “The girls wanted to make the fort all pretty.”  Anyway, Kyle and Brenden quickly retreated into their own little world and hatched their own plan to build their own wind surfer.  They were more or less successful, but they could only go downwind, so the other one would follow along in the dinghy so they wouldn’t get lost too far downwind of the anchored boats.

We decided to invite everyone over to Exodus for a happy hour, and Lady Carolina volunteered their boat as the kid hangout.  Tim and I disagreed on a start time, and Steve and Carolina stayed out of the argument saying they were good with whatever.  Tim wanted 4pm, but I suggested 6pm, so we could feed the kids dinner beforehand.  My experience with these happy “hours” is they tend to run much, much longer than an hour, and I wasn’t sure when we’d work dinner into the schedule.  Tim won and we started at 4, well in reality more like 4:30 because these things tend to also run on cruiser time.  Needless to say, at 8pm we were still going strong.  Of course, we had plenty of appetizer goodies that we’d been munching on because everyone brought something, but dinner was nowhere in our sights.  On Lady Carolina, Kyle made all the kids pasta since they were all getting hungry.  I think we finally wound down about 10:30, and it was a great evening getting to know new friends.  But after that, I always got to pick the times for our happy hours.  And if we feel like starting early, we always make it a dinner potluck event.

We had a good time in Tahanea, but that mostly had nothing to do with the specifics of the atoll itself.  Overall, it was a bit of a letdown.  It was not nearly as pretty as Raroia, and it had no village to enjoy like Makemo.  Admittedly, we never did a pass dive, so we can’t really judge that compared to the other two, but in hindsight I think Fakarava may have been a better choice.  However, I wouldn’t really change anything, because up to that point we hadn’t met very many other kid boats, and it was fun to have a group to hang out with.

Makemo is southwest of Raroia, and it was an easy overnight passage to get there.  It is an elongated atoll, it is oriented WNW to ESE, and it is shaped somewhat like a dumbbell (narrower in the middle than on the ends.)  Somewhat larger, it is about 40 miles long and 10 miles across.  There are two passes, and we entered the lagoon through the more southern one, which is actually on the north side of the lagoon, just about 1/4 way up from the southern tip.  The pass is called Passe Arikitamiro, and the village of Pouheva is just on the motu on the western side of the pass.  Entering the pass was pretty straightforward as we rode the incoming tide again and had a maximum of about 3 kt of current.  We elected to stern tie to the wharf at the village, and that turned out to be the most challenging aspect of our transit.  This was our first time with this maneuver.  We dropped the bow anchor and then backed into the wharf and tossed the dock lines ashore to some guys who came to help us.  The problem is that Exodus is so big and fat and has so much windage that we were getting pushed sideways pretty good, since the wind was blowing about 20 kt.  With Alex’s help, we were able to get everything secure.

We explored the town almost immediately, and we found it clean and the people friendly.  We found the stores pretty easily, including a bakery.  Baguettes, again!  Although they weren’t as tasty as what we had grown accustomed to in The Marquesas.  Right near the wharf was a covered recreation area for the kids including basketball hoops, and there were several kids playing as we wandered past.  Tim encouraged the boys to go play, and when they wouldn’t he gave them a little more incentive.  He told them if they didn’t go play with the local kids, they couldn’t eat anything we bought in town, including and especially the baguettes.  They were stubborn and went and sat on the wharf near the boat.  After a little more exploring of the town, we saw the kids again, and Tim talked to them and told them about the boys, and they are welcome to come play down by the boat.  The kids quickly accepted this offer and found the boys near the boat.  Brenden was going back and forth between the wharf and Exodus by shimming along the dock lines, getting dipped in the water along the way.  Of course, this looked fun, so some of the other boys wanted to try it as well.  Before long, they were all swimming, jumping off of Exodus, playing catch with our “futbol americain” and generally having a really good time.  Tim would throw the football and they would try to catch the football as they jumped off the dock.  Eventually, they all went to play soccer, including the Exodus and Lady Carolina boys.  When they got back, Brenden commented on how good at soccer they all were. 

That evening we were invited to watch the dance practice at a covered area right near the wharf, and so we all went down to watch.  The women of the town were practicing their dancing for the upcoming Heiva celebration, and we got to see the instruction and practicing and listen to the fantastic drum playing.  It wasn’t a professional dance troop, to be sure, but we had fun watching and talking to people.   The only downside was that after the overnight passage I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open after sitting there for a while.  Luckily, that wasn’t our only opportunity to watch them practice. 

The next morning when we got up there was a group of younger children on the dock with flowers, and they wanted to “change” them for chocolate.  After school, all the kids were back for more playing on Exodus.

After bypassing the opportunities in the Marquesas, Tim decided he wanted to get a tattoo.  I was skeptical about finding someone here in Makemo, after all, the Marquesans are very well known for their tattoos, and I had no idea what we could find in The Tuamotus.  After asking a few people and getting the same answer from all of them, the guys went to see Beko, and it turns out he’s a real artist.  In addition to tattoos, he engraves black pearls with intricate designs.  Tim saw his work, and thought, yeah, this is the guy I want to do my tattoo.  Would you believe his tattoo “machine” was broken?  No tattoo for you.  Tim and Steve suggested maybe they could fix it, but Beko had already thrown it out, so he’s no longer in the tattoo business. 

Not to be discouraged, the guys then turned their attention to the carved pearls and made some complex trading deals for him to carve some pearls for us.  Ok, not too complex, just some alcohol and a few boat items and they had their deals.  As a bonus, they got to meet Beko’s brother Victor.  Just like when you asked anyone in town about tattoos, they steered you to Beko, if you asked anyone in town about fishing, the only name you heard was Victor.  Since that is right up Tim and Steve’s alley, they joined him for spear fishing one day, but the “piece de resistance” was going out fishing with him on his boat.  If you haven’t seen it, go check out our youtube video called “Fishing with Victor,” and so not to spoil it too much I’ll just say it involves a harpoon rather than rods and reels.  OK, since I spoiled it, I’ll tell just a little more.  His boat is a hard bottom skiff, but unlike the Mexican Pangas which are driven by outboard from the back of the boat, just like our dinghy, Victor’s boat is driven from the front.  What he does is follow the birds until he finds a Mahi Mahi (Dorado) and then he chases it until it gets tired.  Then when he’s close enough he throws a harpoon at it.  His success rate was amazing, and they came back with 4 huge Mahi Mahi.   The only time he missed occurred because when he went to cock his arm to throw the harpoon the first time, he was interfered with by one of the fishing poles the guys had brought.  They had a great time, and when they got back, we invited Victor back to Exodus that evening and he had dinner with us, but I had seasoned up some Wahoo and baked it, and I’m not sure it was his sort of meal.  But he drank beer with us, and we all practiced our French, and overall had a very pleasant evening.

The only bad thing about being stern tied to the wharf was the weather.  On the one hand, it was comforting to be tied securely as squall after squall passed over.  But on the other hand, our orientation was such that the wind would blow dead astern, which means when it rained, the rained blew straight into the cockpit.  So, with the cockpit continually wet it put a damper on our pot lucking activities on Exodus.  One evening we ventured to the “restaurant” which wasn’t a restaurant the way we tend to think of them, but rather a place they will cook for you, if you make arrangements in advance.  Similar to some of the smaller villages we visited in Baja California. 

The first few days Lady Carolina was anchored rather than tied to the wharf as we were, but then they came in and parked right beside us.  At this point, I guess Tim and Steve decided they needed to up the ante for the kid fun, and they rigged a rope swing on Lady Carolina.  This was a huge hit, and even got the attention of the group of teenagers who had been hanging out on the dock but were too cool to come and play.  In addition to enjoying the rope swing and eating all of Carolina’s SAO crackers, they also enjoyed Steve’s weight set, and they were pumping iron to our amusement.  Well, I guess one rope swing on Lady Carolina just wasn’t good enough, so Tim and Steve attached a Lady Carolina halyard to an Exodus halyard, and then attached a third line to that, and created the rope swing of all rope swings that could be launched from the port stern of Exodus.  By late afternoon, we must have had 50 kids on or around our two boats.  It was a bit crazy and got away from us a bit, but amazingly nothing got broken or lost, well, except for Lady Carolina’s pulpit, which got a bit bent when a large kid used it as a springboard.  A couple times we had to remind them to not stand on the lifelines and not jump on the net, but overall, they are a good group of kids.  I spent some time with some of the older ones reading the French for Cruisers book together.  They would pick a phrase and ask me something in English and I would try to answer in French.  They seem to speak French more often here than in the Marquesas, even when interacting with each other.  In the Marquesas, we heard a lot of Marquesan.  I’m not exactly sure what the native language here is called.  They seem to speak Tahitian, but a couple words they taught us they would say, “in Makemo” indicating it’s a local language, but I’m really not sure.

A military boat pulled up to the dock while we were there, and at first, we were wondering if we would get boarded and searched, but that was not to be.  This was a French Navy boat with nothing to do with customs, and while they were there it was if the men all had a day’s leave as they explored the town dressed in shorts with their cameras.  They were all so young, and surprisingly spoke very little English, but they seemed to get at least a small kick out of all the local kids playing on our boats.

Once we had planned to leave the village and we had told the children, we ended up staying one more day at the last minute, and I’m so glad we did.  When I told the kids we were staying “a demain” (until tomorrow) they were so excited they hugged me, especially the girls who are “in love” with Alex, Brenden, Kyle, and Joel.  It’s funny, they communicate this by making a heart shape with their hands.  They wrote notes with lots of hearts on them and gave the boys silly band bracelets.  They spent the day with me on Exodus helping me chop vegetables and teaching me French.  One of the girls would say a phrase in French and then tell me, “repetez.”  They told me, in French, that they wanted souvenirs from us because they don’t want to forget us.  I told them, “OK I understand,” thinking I would think of some things and give them later.  Apparently, what I actually did was give them permission to go to Alex and Brenden’s rooms and pick out what they want.  They each came out with two shirts, dirty and smelly I might add, but they didn’t seem to care.  I felt so bad I had to stop them because since they’ve been growing the boys don’t actually have that many clothes to spare, especially Alex.  Oh, they pleaded with me to let them have shirts, so I dug around in Brenden’s cubby and found some (clean) older, smaller shirts and gave them each one.  Another funny thing is when Brenden came back, he asked if I cleaned his room.  I guess the girls thought the Legos needed to be tidied up a bit!  The next day Carolina was able to dig out a shirt of Kyle’s and gave that to one of the girls too, they were so ecstatic. 

Our last morning in town the girls were on the dock bright and early with more love notes for the boys.  But even more exciting, Beko brought us our pearls, and they were exquisite.  Tim “ordered” one with each of our names on them in addition to several others, and Brenden’s has a tuna on it, so he was happy.  Beko also brought Tim and Steve bone carved necklaces, “for the captains.”  I admired Tim’s because I had been wanting one like it, but I’m pretty sure that was not in front of Beko, so I’m not exactly sure what motivated his next visit, but he came back with necklaces for me and Carolina.  He said with a smile, “for two captains.”  The necklaces were gifts, thrown in with the pearls, which was very generous of him. 

When we finally pushed away from the dock, after the drama of the anchor windlass, we made our way just a little bit northeast to a secluded anchorage, which was the perfect place to decompress.  Brenden was feeling sick with a sore throat, so he was confined to the boat, but the rest of us went to shore in the afternoon to explore a bit.  It was pretty windy, and Alex and I had a hell of a paddle to get to the beach, and unfortunately for Alex, he forgot his shoes, so he had to go back and beat upwind a second time. 

After a day or two we made our way to the vicinity of the northwest pass.  It took four hours in squally weather to get there, and Tim and Steve both spent the entire passage hoisted up in bosun’s chairs near the first spreaders.  This was so they could have a higher vantage point to be able to see the coral heads that much better.  And of course, they each had a VHF radio in hand, so the bantering never ceased.  We had a difficult time finding a spot to anchor, and when we arrived, we actually had to wait for a pretty big squall to pass over us.  So, after getting windblown and dumped on, we made our way into a tiny, protected lagoon, and here we stayed just for a couple hours while all the boys, except Brenden, did a pass dive.  Brenden was still a little sick, so he remained in quarantine.  When they got back from their dive, we all decided to stay the night, so we moved Exodus out of the lagoon and out near where Lady Carolina was anchored, so we would have a bit more swing room. 

The next morning Alex woke up sick, and it turned out to be something like strep throat and he even had to take anti-biotics.  I teased him that it was mono and kept asking him which of the girls in Makemo he was smooching on.  When we raised anchor that afternoon, it was wrapped on a coral head, and Tim had to dive in to clear it.  So, with Alex out of commission, Brenden had to step it up and work the anchor windlass, since I was at the helm and Tim was in the water.  Brenden did a phenomenal job, and we were unstuck in no time.  We took a “shortcut” out of the anchorage, because Tim had dove there and he was confident Exodus could get through, and our pass exit was just as uneventful as all of our other passes.  Lady Carolina declined the shortcut route and took the safe, long way around, and their story afterwards was that they had a serious “oh shit!” moment where they only had a foot of water under the keel.  But when all was said and done, we were both out safely by 5 pm and on our way to Tahanea.