Tahiti

April 7 -- left Fakarawa at 1530 hours after provisioning at the general store and the boulangerie. Creeping along the edge of the atoll, we approached the pass which looked a little wilder at this time of day due to the flooding tide.  There were white caps and occasional breakers at the pass and a   sailor could be forgiven for mistaking the track through the pass as  a direct path over a coral reef.  The tide gave us an adverse current of around 2 to 2.5 knots and Skylark slogged through the pass under engine with speed over ground of little more than 4 knots.  The Pacific pilots all suggest that transiting the pass when the tide is either flooding or ebbing is safe only if a boat is capable of making at least 8 knots under power.  Our experience made believers out of us.

Back on the waves and the familiar ocean swells, we set course for the fabled island of Tahiti.  It is a relatively short passage of around 470 miles. At dawn, April 10, we sighted Tahiti and the island of Moorea just to its north.  Our timing for a daylight approach through a pass and into an unfamiliar harbor was about right -  in addition to the display on the chartplotter, we could also eyeball the approach to the pass,  The entrance to the harbor is relatively narrow and busy with commercial shipping, especially high speed ferries to Moorea.  We called port control on the VHF for permission to enter the harbor and were given the OK to go in but to standby at the west cardinal mark for further instruction.  Once in the harbor, we could see the main waterfront street of Papeete, seat of government of French Polynesia.  It is a nondescript scene of unattractive, untidy urban architecture, commercial buildings that were a throwback to the 1960's, complete with buzzing traffic as all routes to the city had to flow through this one street. Transit in the winding lagoon is highly controlled as boating traffic passes both ends of the airport runway.  After about 15 minutes holding, port control gave us the go ahead to proceed along the lagoon towards the Marina Taina at Punaauia, but to hold short of the runway.  We waited there while several small planes landed and were then cleared to proceed to the martina.  It was an interesting passage passing by low buildings onshore and the reef to our starboard.  At a number of spots on the reef, we saw some huts with small power boats tied to them.  There were families fishing, some standing on the reef and a number of barking dogs running around on the reef.  It was a strange scene, almost as if these people and their animals were walking on water as we passed them in 10 - 12 meters of water.  There were a lot of sailboats at anchor at designated areas in the lagoon.  They were anchored just off the reef where the water turned from deep blue to lighter shades of turqouise.   We made the Marina Taina at 11:30 and waited for a berth.  It was quite full and we were directed to a tight space alongside the concrete quay.  There was much concern on the small sailboat to our stern (tied alongside) and the larger boat in front of us (tied stern to).  Their owners were at their rails ready to fend us off in case we threatened to hit them, but we moved Skylark smartly into place in one pass using the bow thruster.  There was less than 2 meters to spare at each end when we tied up.  The marina provided a diver to tie the boat off to an underwater point -- to hold off her from banging into the concrete wharf when occasional swells hit the marina.

 Landfall -- Tahiti

view of Moorea from Tahiti

in the lagoon at Tahiti -- a weekend on the reef

park on Papeete's lagoon waterfront

Skylark at the Marina Taina, Punaauia in Tahiti

Our proghram at Tahiti was crowded with things to get down before the crew took a break from sailing to visit with family.  A haulout was booked for a couple of days from May 10 at the yard in Papeete for new bottom paint (in preparation for entry into Australian waters) and for scheduled maintenance such as replacement of the prop seal and various anodes.  Ed left on April 11 for Houston to attend his son's wedding and Francois and I had trips scheduled for Puerto Rico and KL respectively on April 16.  KL was a frantic break for tax returns and personal banking business plus a trip to Singapore for the same reasons.  Back at the Marina Taina on May 7, I awaited Francois' return that night so that we could move the boat to the berthing facilities at Papeete -- the Quai d'Yacht on May 8 so that we could move Skylark to the yard for an early morning haulout on May 10.  The Quai is in fact a small marina with floating steel pontoons and  power and water available from some poorly maintained pedestals.  Electricity at the city pontoon was variable in voltage, in 60 cycles, making it impossible to operate appliaces like clothes washer and microwave.  

The haulout on Monday, May 10 went smoothly and required work was done quickly and efficiently.  A coat of Micron 66 was applied and the Amel U-drive transmission and propeller seals were serviced, new anodes installed at the rudder, line cutter and bow thruster.  The aftermath, however, was a different story... more on that later.

Skylark on the hard

our folding propeller with fresh antifouling

the bow thruster, essential for manouvering at close quarters

Skylark was back in the water the morning of May14.  Ed and Jun, freshly arrived from Houston,  joined us at the yard for the launch and the short trip back to the Quai at which we were tied up by about 11 am.  That night aftyer dinner, I returned to the boat alone.  Francois had gone to spend the night at Simone's (sister of fomer wife) and Ed and Jun were to stay the night at their luxury digs at the Hotel Tahiti Nui.  On returning, I heard the seawater alarm and opening the engine room, found about 10 inches of water -- from an improperly closed sea water filter I'd cleaned earlier at the yard (mea culpa....).  Called Ed for assistance and we determined the cause, pumped out the bilge and rinsed with fresh water.  Damage was minimal given the nature of the problem -- submerged pressure switch for the fresh water system, bottom of the service alternator came in contact with water and shorted out and the sea water pump of the air conditioning system which was mounted low effectively "drowned".  The pressure switch and A/C pump were replaced with locally available substitutes but the 24 volt service alternator made by MasterVolt was not stocked by any vendor in Papeete.  Fortunatelty, a search on the web located a dealer in Auckland, New Zealand and he was able to ship it to us within 3 days.  The search for parts and a technician took the better part of a week but we  were finally fixed and ready to leave on Friday, May 21. Lesson learned -- check all thru-hulls when putting the boat back in the water.  Amel has made it simple by having a single sea water intake for all cooling water requirements on the boat.  We cleared immigration without the services of the WARC agent (simple enough) and set off for Raitea where Francois has a nephew he'd not seen for more than 30 years.  In between, Ed and Jun flew to Bora Bora to spend a few days at a luxury hotel perched on a coral reef.  Francois and I had time to walk Papeete even more extensively while searching for spares.  

Papeete -- Quai d'yacht

 The Chinese presence in Papeete is quite large but this Kuo Min Tang building was a bit of a shocker --did Generalissimo Chiang set up base here when he fled the Chinese mainland.?

...even a patisserie Chinois!