Tag: Society Islands

Travels in the Society Islands, French Polynesia

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The friendliest people in the world?

Hi again! Last time we left you we had just left Tahiti and were sailing to the Society Island of Huahine to hide out for a few days whilst we waited for a weather window to continue our journey on to the Cook Islands.

Well Huahine was a little gem and well worth the visit! It was an overnight sail to get there from Tahiti and we arrived at abut 9am the next morning to be greeted by a really spectacular pass and anchorage behind the reef.

We dropped the hook in crystal clear water in to white sand

We got to enjoy this island for a few days until that weather window arrived. We got a visit from some fellow cruisers from Seattle in the USA and made some new friends.

We decided one day to take a walk up to a local view point about 400m up a hill. It was a lovely walk on an easy path through a pine forest which lead to a spectacular view point.

We waited a few days for some heavy winds and sea to die down and then then a five day window appeared that looked good for the sail to the Atoll of Penrhyn in the Northern Cook Islands about 650 miles North West of Huahine.

It did take us the full 5 days to get there. It was a downwind sail for the whole way but the sea state was not very kind and we had a couple of very rolly days, as well as some nasty squalls to contend with. This is the pacific sailing we have come to expect. Often the conditions are lovely, but storms far to the South of us can throw out huge swell which interact with the local wind waves and make the sea surface confused and not very comfortable. Still the sunsets and sunrises were magical as ever. On the last night we had to slow Azimuth right down to avoid arriving at Penrhyn in the dark, so, we got to sea the sunrise over the atoll.

We timed arrival well, and entered the pass in to the atoll at about 8:30am that morning. This was an easy pass in comparison to Raraka’s pass, nice and wide and well charted (for once!) The chart even detailed a tortuous route through the coral bommies to get to the village of Omaka where we needed to check in to the Cook Islands. The anchorage wasn’t the best, it being a lee shore, and the waves had some fetch over the atoll, but we didn’t have a choice as we needed to check in here. That decision was to be significant later!

There was also another sailboat there too! We had thought we would have the place to ourselves. Penrhyn (local name Tongareva) is very remote and not on the main cruisers route. It is the most Northern of the Cook Islands and is some 750 miles north of the main Island of Rarotonga. There is very little around the island other than the uninhabited line island atolls. It certainly felt remote, we hadn’t seen another boat for the whole of the 5 day crossing from French Polynesia. Penrhyn gets about 15 boats visiting a year. It turns out the other boat (Coho) that was at anchor had been in Penrhyn for a month and was actually leaving that day.

We put up the Q flag and waited for customs to visit the boat from shore. 30 minutes after we arrived, we got a radio call from customs to tell us they were on the way. A small launch came out and the customs and health official came onboard. These guys could not have been nicer! We had a chat about the sail and the island and I filled out the paperwork. As you know if you read the last post, our checkout of Tahiti had not gone very smoothly, and we were a little concerned that we didn’t have the right paperwork. Our good friends Donna and Mark had sent us a copy of their French Polynesia exit paperwork, so using the power of photoshop, I had created a convincing looking Zarpe for Azimuth! This was examined and not even questioned by the customs official! They also didn’t notice or were not bothered that we didn’t have exit stamps from French Polynesia in our passports either. Infact the guys were very relaxed and welcoming to us.

A couple of hours later we headed to shore to pick up our documents and pay our customs fees. We didn’t really know where we were going, but everyone we met stopped for a chat or to say hello and welcome us. We found what we thought was the customs office, but it turned out to be the office of the mayor! He welcomed us in and sat us down for a chat and introduced us to a load of other people. We were in there for about an hour, talking about the history of the island and the people, and now we are on first name terms with the mayor, Puna! What an introduction to Penrhyn!

We did eventually find the customs guy and had another chat with him before paying the fees and headed back to the boat with more stops for chats with the local children.

We paddled our trusty canoe through the swell back to the boat and got Azimuth ready to go. We needed to motor across the lagoon in good light to the other side where the best anchorage was waiting for us off the village of Te Tautua. Ailsa went to pull up the anchor and everything was going fine until it stopped, and then made a very disconcerting grinding noise. Oh no, I thought, here we go again. I went to have a look, and yes the sound was awful, and the windlass wasn’t moving anymore. Ailsa went back to the helm and I did battle with getting the anchor up by hand for the next half an hour! It was quite scary, because the sea was rough and the wind was strongly blowing us on to the shore. It was difficult for Ailsa to control the boat and stop her drifting whilst I swore a lot and eventually managed to get the anchor up. What a nightmare!

We both calmed down for the motor across the lagoon which was littered with bommies, the most we have ever seen.

Not an easy route to get across, but it went ok, and 2 hours later we dropped our anchor in a beautiful flat anchorage in front of the village.

That is where we have been ever since and where we are as I write this.

The next morning we got a visit from a boat and a chap called Rio. He was on his way to the other village but wanted to invite us for dinner at his house that night!

We canoed over that evening, and had a wonderful meal with Rio, his wife Kura and the rest of his family. They are all lovely people. Rio used to be the mayor of Penrhyn a few years ago and has been telling us in the great detail all the history of the island and the issues that face the islanders today.

When we arrived for dinner we pulled up at their dock dock / beach with the sea full of sharks! Rio then proceeded to show us their “pet” nurse sharks and was teasing them with a fish head on a line for about 10 minutes whilst we watched in fascination. He even had us get in the water and stroke their heads! A very unnerving experience! He assured us it was safe. Apparently the kids swim and play with them everyday!

Eventually one of the sharks managed to get hold of the fish head and a battle ensued between about three of them for the prize.

It was a lovely dinner. We were made to feel very welcome. Rio claimed that we were now part of his extended family! We were also told we had to attend church on Sunday as the islanders all do.

So here’s a quick run down of the history of Penrhyn. The island got its “western” name from a ship that sank here called the “Lady Penrhyn”. Its crew was stranded here for over a year. The native name for the Island is Tongareva which means “journey south”. At one time the atoll had a population of over 1000 people. Before the arrival of missionaries in the 1800’s each motu island in the atoll had its own tribe, and Rio has told us a number of stories from these times. They were a fearsome bunch and did not welcome visitors, resorting to cannibalism. The first missionaries had a very hard time reaching out to the islanders, and were actually saved from being killed and eaten by one local woman who has entered in to local folklore and songs. A church was established and life started to slowly change.

Fast forward today, and island life is radically different. Now the population is less than 150, and the people are struggling to stay. A supply ship visits the island once every three months. The price of goods is extremely expensive and everything has to be ordered in. With not many jobs, it has been difficult for people to be able to afford to live, and there has been a gradual migration to either New Zealand or the other cook islands like Rarotonga. Infact the whole population of the Cook Islands in 15000, there are more islanders now living in New Zealand. Rio fears his is the last generation that will live the islands. He is not standing on his laurels. He is standing for election as mayor this year and hopes to make many changes to the local economy and supply and turn the exodus around. We wish him and all the islanders the best of luck. This place is paradise, and people should be able to carrying on living here.

The next night we were invited to a birthday party celebration at Rio and Kura’s house. It was Tee’s birthday, Kura’s brother. What a another lovely night! It was a feast of food. We got to meet many of the other 30 inhabitants in the village. Tee is in the first picture below on the left sitting next to Rio.

The following Sunday we did go to the church service where we were welcomed by the whole community. Its been a long time since Ailsa and I have stepped in to a church, as we are not religious. This however was a special experience. The singing was something to behold with full falsetto singing from the whole congregation. They did not hold back either, being very vocal and even the children joining in all the parts. The service was in the local dialect, so we couldn’t understand it, but it didn’t matter as we just enjoyed the atmosphere.

One day last week we took the canoe out to explore a close by island. Its paradise for sure here!

The people have all been so kind and welcoming, particularly Rio, Kura and their family. I was keen to try and give something back, so jumped at the opportunity to help Rio fix his fresh water pump (still ongoing), and one of his outboard engines.. I also fixed the villages broken compressor and have been booked in to fix one of the other villages broken outboards! Handy man Dom!

I leave you for now with some pics from Rio and Kura’s back yard. Such a lovely place. There is a great photo of Kura working on making a hat from dried and died coconut leaves. I cant see us leaving here for a while, its too nice!

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Raraka Atoll and Onwards to Tahiti

Last time we left you, we were tucked up in Raraka Atoll in the Tuamotus Archipelago in French Polynesia. This time we show you more of Raraka Atoll and then we sail to Tahiti for our last 10 days in French Polynesia (well officially!).

We continued to spend our time enjoying Raraka. I went out pretty much everyday for long walks along the beach, the outer reef, and exploring the coconut groves.

Further down the atoll I came across another very narrow pass in the reef to the lagoon. The water there was like a small stream flowing in to the lagoon.

I took a few short videos of different things in the atoll. One afternoon, we were visited by a huge shoal of tiny fish being chased by large barracudas and swarms of birds flying over the top.

We had lots more swims at the beach

And on one of my walks I followed this shoal of fish down the beach just swimming in the shallows.

Having been in Raraka on our own for three weeks, our friends Donna and Mark on Coral Moon came to join us. It was a lovely reunion, as they had been stuck in Raroia for the three weeks that the weather had been blowing hard. The day after they arrived, the wind dropped and we had complete calm in the anchorage again.

We spent a couple of evenings on the beach and cooked on an open fire. Such a special place to enjoy with good friends!

When we arrived on the beach in early evening, the place was covered in hermit crabs. Donna took this video of a few that we set up to have a race!

Donna and Mark have a drone, and they flew it from the beach one day. Here are some shots of the two boats at anchor and aerial views of the atoll. It gives you a better overall feel of where we were. We love that shot of the two boats at anchor with the shadow on the sand underneath them!

I spent a couple of days scraping the barnacles that had accumulated on Azimuths bottom since we left Panama. I took this short video to show you how clear the water was under the boat in the anchorage

All good things come to an end. It was with a heavy heart that we prepared to set sail to Tahiti for our last few days in French Polynesia. When it came time to pull up the anchor it seemed Raraka didn’t want us to leave either, the anchor windlass was completely seized up! We could hear the hydraulic motor trying to turn, but the windlass remained stationary. Thankfully the wind was very light, and we were only anchored in 4m of water, so I managed to wind in most of the chain by hand, and then did the final 5 metres with a rope back to the big winch in the cockpit. Not fun! And also worrying, as we totally rely on the windlass, especially as we never go to marinas.

With very light winds, we sailed back along our previous track through the atoll and a couple of hours later we reached the pass. We motored through the pass without any issues. The flow was very strong though, and the standing waves threw Azimuth about a bit as we hit 11knots with the strong current. Its only a few hundred metres though and you reach deep ocean on the outside of the reef. There was no wind, so we motored for an hour around the North end of Raraka and then the wind kicked in blowing quite strongly from the South (not as forecast!) and we took a close hold down to the south of Fakarava atoll as the sun set and then a bean reach out in to the channel between the Tuamotus and Tahiti. It was a very pleasant sail overnight towards Tahiti, and as the sun came up, we could see Tahiti in the distance as we approached it from the North.

We dropped the hook just off the beach at Venus Point. It was a little rough, and we could have gone round the corner to the anchorage at Papette with all the other cruising boats, but I wanted a relatively shallow and quiet anchorage where I would be able to work on the windlass and see if I could repair it.

As it turned out, Venus Point is actually where Captain Cook and his crew anchored when they first discovered Tahiti in the 1700’s. It is also the same place where the infamous ship The Bounty landed too before the mutiny. Nowadays, the black sand beach is a very popular spot with the locals for swimming and water sports. Its a very vibrant spot.

It took me two days, but I managed to fix the windlass! The culprit was the gearbox. I have already had problems with that that involved a complex repair in Martinique where I had to build a frame around the gearbox after its mountings sheared and completely corroded away. This time I had to remove some 25 year old bolts and get the lid off the box itself. What I found inside (see picture!( was pretty shocking and I am amazed the thing had worked for so long. The box was full of mud, gunk and solidified grease! I couldn’t actually see any gears. So I set to trying to free up the mechanism. It was a slow process digging out the crud with a pick and small screw driver. I think I removed at least half a kilo of mud! Eventually I found the gears, and it started to look more promising. Once I had dug out the main gear which didn’t look worn and could see the worm gear attached to the motor, I decided to give the thing another go. It worked!!!! I was a happy man. Still it took another half a day to continue to dig out more crud which was speeded up by running the unit to force more crud out of the gears. I used the air compressor to blow out all of the last little bits too. It was about as clean as I could get it, so I filled the entire box with fresh grease and refitted the lid. The seal on the top of the shaft was completely perished, that was what had allowed all that dirt in to the box, so I used some neoprene from an old wetsuit to make a new makeshift seal and then covered the rest of the box with plastic sheet to keep it dry and clean. Putting the whole thing back together, it now seems to run a lot better than it used to!

That was a big relief to get that running again. I felt a bit worse for the wear after two days stuck in the anchor locker! Really it needs a new gearbox, something we will look in to when we reach New Zealand later in the year.

So, now we had some time to enjoy Tahiti and also to restock the boat for our next leg of the journey. First we went to shore and took at look at Venus point and went to our first restaurant in over a month.

That afternoon we found the local supermarkets about a mile away. We did our first large shop and lugged it in the heat back to the beach and then the half mile canoe ride back to the boat. We were both exhausted!

The next day we negotiated our first Tahiti bus ride in to the capital town of Papette, about 8 miles down the coast. We had a nice wander around the town and stopped for lunch at another restaurant. Papette wasn’t very inspiring, although the market was very vibrant. In typical French fashion, it being a Saturday, all the shops shut after lunch and the place became a ghost town!

A couple of days later we headed back to Papette and hired a car so we could complete our shopping trips and also go for a drive around the island. We headed back to the supermarket and did the first of two enormous shops! Back to the beach and two canoe trips back to the boat again we collapsed exhausted!

We headed out the next day for our tour of the island. It was a great day . Our first stop was at a spectacular waterfall about 300 feet tall.

Next stop was a bizarre blowhole on the coast. The sea rushes in to a cave and forces air and spray out of a small hole in the cliff through an ancient lava pipe.

We stopped at more waterfalls and saw some very cool rock carvings

Then we headed to a very nice restaurant with an ocean view. We weren’t so bothered about the view as we have that everyday from Azimuth! However the food was amazing. I had this carpaccio of tuna with ginger. it was delicious

Finally we headed down to the South of the Island where we were bizarrely stopped at three separate check points by the police asking where we were going? We said we were just tourists on a tour of the island by car. They let us through each time. Eventually we got to a small town and were directed in to a car park by an official with signs of Paris 2024 Olympics everywhere?! We had inadvertently arrived at the location for the Paris 2024 Olympics surfing village. It was being setup in time for the starting ceremony (in two days time). So we went for a wander and a drink.

The next day we did another shop and trawl back to the boat. That completed the provisioning. We then headed back to Papette to start the checkout process. This was complex. Two days previously I had emailed the port authorities to request our international clearance. You have to give them 72 hours notice. This day, the day before our departure we had to head back to Papette and locate the customs building and complete a customs declaration. That went smoothly.

Finally, on the day of our departure we drove all the way to the airport to attend immigration. We were shown to the right place by a nice policeman and then we sat and waited for the chief officer to come and process our passports etc. What an arsehole he turned out to be! He talked in fast French with us struggling to understand him. Then he took our paperwork away and came back a minute later and told us we did not have the correct port authority. I tried to explain that I had emailed the port requesting that 72 hours ago, and had a reply to say it was okay. He did not like that answer, and then processed to tells us to go away and come back in two hours because it was his lunchtime. The time at this point was 11 30! We explained that we had to return our car back to the rental place at that time. The rental place was 4 miles away and it meant we would have to drop the car off and return by expensive taxi back to the airport. He then just started ranting at us is French and told us to leave!

We decided we were not happy with this. So we decided just to leave Tahiti without completing the immigration. Hopefully this will not bite us in the future! We want to come back to French Polynesia at some point. We have never met a worse official than this guy. Totally unreasonable, especially as we had done everything correctly. We have also never seen such a poor system for checking out of a country. Three government institutions are involved and no one seems to talk to anyone else.

After leaving the airport we dropped the car off and caught the bus back to Venus point where we went to the restaurant had lunch and calmed down with a cold beer. Heading back to the boat we lifted the anchor (with a working windlass!) and sailed off away from Tahiti.

Overall we enjoyed Tahiti. It was a lot of hard work with repairs and shopping. The tour around the island was great, but the checking out process was a complete nightmare! Currently we are hiding out in another of the society islands waiting for a weather window to sail to the cook Islands. More on that next time!