Day 134: Bora Bora to Rarotonga, Cook Islands – 19/05/10

Although I am supposed to be on watch at midnight, I still haven’t got to sleep at this point  so Mike stays on watch until nearly 3 am which allows me eventually to drift off for a couple of hours.  When I take over, I watch the end of a film but feel so sick looking at the screen than I give up and lie down in the salon, setting the alarm clock every twenty minutes to check the instruments and look outside.

Mike comes back on watch at 6.45 am and I go back to bed, groaning about feeling sick although Mike assures me that I won’t be, and gets me a seasick tablet.  Half an hour later I rush past him (having checked which direction the wind is blowing) as I can feel my second cup of tea making its reappearance.  Mike screams at me to get my life jacket on but it’s too late and I’m not going back for it.  I stand in the deepest part of the back of the cockpit, naked, heaving my guts over the side in the pouring rain, as we are now in the middle of a squall, and it’s bloody cold.  Immediately it’s over, I retreat back into the covered part of the cockpit and call for the bucket, just in time too, as then my first cup of tea also reappears.  Lovely.  How ladylike.  How elegant.  Just another glamorous side of sailing.  Oh how I loathe vomiting!!

Amazingly I recover quite quickly after that and eat some breakfast (although I don’t fancy a cup of tea just yet).  Then Samantha starts bleeping.  Samantha is our autopilot and she bleeps from the instrument panel in the cockpit whenever the wind changes direction beyond a certain range, and she keeps bleeping until you press a button to say you have acknowledged this change.  Today, the winds are all over the place, and as we are set to steer to the wind, she keeps up this bleeping the whole bloody day.  By the end of the morning I am swearing at her;  by the end of the day, I want to smash her little dial face in.

In the afternoon, I actually manage to fall asleep for a few hours and emerge feeling quite refreshed.  We are making good time and romping along at over 8 knots even after we have put two reefs in the main sail ready for the night sail.  As I sit in the cockpit watching the stars gradually appear, I even drink a cup of tea – and it stays down!

Photo:  Drinking tea and not a bucket in sight

We eat an easy dinner of steak and mashed potato and watch a film.  Again, frustratingly, it takes me ages to get to sleep (probably because I had the afternoon sleep - you just can’t win) but I do manage a little bit before Mike wakes me around midnight.

 

Our position is:  19 deg 05 min S, 156 deg 06 min W

Distance so far:  7152 nautical miles

Day 133: Bora Bora to Rarotonga, Cook Islands – 18/05/10

It’s only after we seem to have been up for hours and it’s still dark that Mike admits to setting the alarm clock earlier than he promised, but at least it means that we have time to use the last half an hour of our pre-paid internet time and still leave by 7 am.

Inside the lagoon the water is flat calm and there is little wind but once through the pass all that changes, the sea gets choppy and the wind picks up to about 16 knots.

We both throw our flower garlands from last night into the sea.  If you do this, it means that you will come back one day.  I’d like to think this is not the last time I will see French Polynesia.

Photos:  Leaving our garlands in the sea at Bora Bora

French Polynesia has not disappointed.  I know I was getting a little blasé but there is so much to recommend it apart from it’s obvious physical charms.  The people are so friendly, genuinely friendly, not all of them obviously, but I have never been anywhere else where people smile at you so readily (and not just when they are taking your money).  If only she were not so bloody expensive and so dammed difficult to get to!  The Marquesas and Tuamotus especially are almost out of this world.

I’m feeling a little under the weather today and go for a lie down in the morning but don’t manage to sleep.  Hang on here, not feeling well, can’t sleep?  Oh, must be on a passage then!!

Lunch is a sandwich as I can’t face the galley today for anything that would take too long to prepare.  We defrost the ham that we bought in Nuku Hiva and it’s the strangest looking stuff but if you don’t look at it (or read the contents on the packet) it’s quite edible.

Much to his annoyance and frustration, Mike notices that when he switches the generator on it fails to charge the batteries properly – the voltage dial flutters just like it did before.  It is working well enough to run the air conditioning and water maker so it’s not quite the problem that we had before.  He’ll take a look at it when we get to Rarotonga.

I spend a short while copying some films from John’s hard disk onto my computer and Mike goes out to fiddle with the sails.  He’s been gone some minutes when I wander out to see what he is doing, and he’s not there, or at least, I can’t see him.  The sea is pitching the boat around like a cork and in a panic I overlook him crouched right down, within the safety  of the guard rails, and scan the sea thinking that he’s gone overboard.  Then I see him, safe, and burst into uncontrollable sobs, so overcome that I have to sit down until the panic recedes and Mike comes over to calm me with a cuddle.  Apparently he had called to tell me where he was but he didn’t realise I had the headphones on and hadn’t heard him.  I don’t want a repeat of that feeling.

The weather varies from grey, to sunny then back to rain, some of it heavy and the day drags by, lurching from side to side in the uneven waves.  God knows what sea like this feels like in a monohull.  Mike and I take it in turns to try to sleep, he being successful and me, obviously not.  By the time I have to properly go to bed to sleep before my watch I am pissed off and miserable.  Still there’s 150 fewer miles to travel to Rarotonga than there would have been to Suwarrow so I should be grateful for that.

 

Our position is:  17 deg 25 min S, 153 deg 29 min W

Distance so far:  6972 nautical miles

Day 132: Bora Bora – 17/05/10

The day seems to start in the same way – more washing.  The boat looks like Wishy Washy’s laundry by the mid morning.

John strips out his cabin and washes the bathroom out (makes a good job of it too) then packs his bags so that he can take them over to his new living quarters on the yacht, A Lady, where he will remain until Australia.

As we have had our three days at the Yacht Club and more WARC boats will be arriving and needing the mooring balls, we vacate ours and anchor just outside in 85 feet of water.  Thank goodness we have a lot of chain – the weight of it alone should keep us in one place.

The washing is finally done, hung out to dry and the machine stowed ready for the passage in the morning.  We have decided to bypass Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, and head for Raritonga instead.  Since Mike mooted this idea, five other boats have said they will do the same thing, but everyone else wants to leave on Wednesday and we want to leave tomorrow so that we will be there for the evening of our wedding anniversary.  This means that we will be sailing alone, but we’ve done it before and at least going this different route means that we will cut off 150 miles of the journey.

There is another dinghy race in the afternoon, for the boats that are in the second group leaving Bora Bora.  I make a vegetable dish for tonight’s barbecue (the restaurant at the club is still out of action from the cyclone in February this year) and tidy around a bit ready for our journey tomorrow, then shower and wash my hair ready for going out.  I am allowed the luxury of using my hair dryer for the second time in a week, although Mike mutters about it becoming a habit (I normally use it every time but had to stop when we started having generator problems).  He’s got used to me not using it and thinks this is the norm.  I must re-educate him, maybe by using the hair dryer AND the straighteners, thus giving him a double whammy!!

It is an enjoyable evening and we see lots of people that we haven’t seen for a few weeks.  Jutta and Jochem from Chessie actually fly into Bora Bora, leaving their boat in Tahiti where it is still having work done on its rigging – a four day job having been spread over the best part of a month.  They will probably go straight to Tonga now, having missed out of most of the Society Islands, as well as the Cook Islands and Niue.

The barbecue is really good, with each boat taking a ‘pot luck’ accompaniment, and the club provides a wonderful creme caramel type pudding.

Photo:  World Arc pudding

Photo:  Jochem, Jutta and myself

Then it’s another round of goodbyes as Mike and I leave, ready for pastures new.  Cook Islands here we come!

Day 131: Bora Bora – 16/05/10

The day is spent doing washing – I kid you not.  I don’t know where it all comes from as I’m certainly not wearing clothes (the odd sarong doesn’t count).

John and Mike do some chores too.  John splices our new nasty, bright green dinghy painter (rope) so that we can at last get rid of the tatty yellow one and Mike fits in a new on/off switch which allows us to choose whether we want music or the VHF to come of the cockpit speakers (allowing them both to come out at the same time blew the last VHF system which he replaced yesterday – luckily we had a spare one!).

The day passes in this extremely unexciting way until we go ashore to the Bora Bora Yacht Club for sundowners with some of the other crews.  As I get ready to leave the boat, Mike looks at me clutching my dress to my legs and tells me to put some knickers on.  Certainly not!  At that point, a huge gust of wind blows and I almost (and I mean almost) do a Marilyn Monroe, you know, the famous white dress photo, and I start to wonder whether I should do as Mike says, but of course, I don’t, and luckily no further gusts of wind blow through to give me heart failure.  Mike wears his Guinness t-shirt for the obligatory photo beneath a ‘world sign’ (just for you, Linda!).

Photo:  Mike – guess where?

We drag John back to the boat for a curry – his last supper, well the last one with us anyway.  He persuades us to watch one of his favourite films which is terrible, but comical as it is so bad.  I won’t say what it is as I don’t want to embarrass him.  Mike falls asleep, only waking up momentarily when I discover Carole’s left over chocolate in the fridge.

Day 130: Bora Bora – 15/05/10

Thank God – another sunny day.  Carole and John head into town early as Carole is leaving today and wants to do some last minute shopping.  Mike and I follow a little bit later after the morning broadcast.  The half an hour (yeah, right, who told us that then?) walk seems like a good idea as we have had little exercise, but even at 9.30 am the heat is oppressive and it is an extremely sweaty walk. 

We cross the road from side to side, partly to find patches of shade, but also to be on the opposite side of the road to any bend so that we can see what’s coming.  The drivers hurtle round the corners here and seem to save overtaking for when there is no visibility at all.  Add to that the numerous motorbikes and push bikes – oh and no pavements.  You also have to brave all the holes where the land crabs live – many of which you can see scuttling as you approach.

However, I have to say that the humblest of abode is well tended on the outside.  The gardens and driveways are well presented with pretty plants and hedging, and we see quite a few people cleaning the beach which front their properties on the opposite side of the road.  We are nearly all the way into town before we see the first beer can by the side of the road.  Pretty impressive.

In town there are many, many pearl shops.  I look in a few of them and watch as Mike’s eyes glaze over.  Why do I need to look at pearls when I have already bought mine.  But looking doesn’t hurt – until you get to the Robert Wan shop!  I visited his museum in Papeete – he is the master of pearls in Polynesia, and I can’t believe my luck when Mike agrees to enter his establishment here in Bora Bora, just to look you understand!  And look I do.  And try on.  And find a bracelet I like.  And get 20% discount, two hats and a pen.  I think Mike is just relieved that I am not interested in the single pearl which cost 5,000,000 cpf (about £35,000) although I dare say that a spell in a darkened room in on the cards for him later.  My two very attentive male salesmen (Yannick and Marcus) relieve me of my credit card while Mike goes off to enjoy himself in a chandlery.

Photo:  More pearls – joy oh joy!!

The walk back to the Yacht Club is even more tortuous than the walk into town.  By now it is almost midday and we roast as we drag ourselves along the road but eventually we make it and meet Carole and John in the bar for a drink.

Photos:  At the Bora Bora Yacht Club, Jeannius in the distance

Carole and John leave around 4 pm to get Carole to the airport, and as one friend leaves, another arrives – Brown Eyed Girl with Judith, Joe and Jared pull into the anchorage.  I go over to their boat for a drink but decline to go out to Bloody Mary’s, the famous bar along the bay.  Mike and I stay in, doing some research on the next two stops, wondering whether to join in with the rally or do our own thing with Brown Eyed Girl until we get to Tonga in a couple of weeks.  We will decide tomorrow.

Day 129: Bora Bora – 14/05/10

Again the day starts nice and bright and sunny.  Mike goes over to the Yacht Club to sort out our bill with Laurent, the yacht services agent then we slip off our mooring and take the boat over to Vaitape to fill up with fuel.

The fuel dock, strangely, seems to be the place where the young kids hang out.  As we approach, they all studiously ignore us, which is unusual as people normally rush to help you with the lines.  Obviously, they are trying to be cool.  John jumps off as we approach the dock and I move around the bow with the roving fender until we are tied on.

The paperwork again takes ages, and because we want the fuel at the duty free price (because we are a foreign registered vessel) they want copies of the boat papers – goodness only knows what would happen if we didn’t have a photocopier on board as the boat’s registration document is laminated and they’d have trouble getting that through their fax machines, which is their normal way of copying things.  They also will not take plastic for payment, insisting on cash.  We have to scrounge some off Carole to comply with their demands.

We intend taking the boat into the town but we motor all along the water’s edge and do not find anywhere to anchor.  Where the depth is OK, evil looking coral heads lurk beneath the surface, then the sea bed drops away sharply into depths that make putting the anchor down inadvisable – there’s probably coral down there too but you just can’t see it.  Instead, we take the boat back to the Yacht Club and pick up a different mooring.  On the way back a local guy in a canoe paddles in our slip stream urging us to to faster and faster.  Immediately he sees me grin and take my camera out, he pauses and poses for the photo.

Photo:  Pausing for a pose, a Polynesian paddler

There is a dinghy rowing race planned for the afternoon but we decline to take part.  I hate things like this and would probably fall in anyway.  In the end it looks like only three boats join in so we are not the only poopers.  I enjoy myself much more by spending the afternoon lounging around while Mike attempts to fix the VHF - thank goodness we have a spare!

Lying on my bed I ponder French Polynesia.  It is beautiful, but after a while, a beautiful beach is a beautiful beach.  Sure, there is more to it than beautiful beaches, but in some places, not much.  So far we haven’t even bothered getting off the boat in Bora Bora which must say something.  I realise that I am getting blasé about nature’s beauty, and that I am looking forward more and more to getting to Australia, or at least, to something different.  Maybe Suwarrow or Tonga will offer this.  I hope so otherwise I will just end up bored which is a terrible thing to admit to.  I know that looking back on this it will all seem much more exciting, but sometimes, right now, it just isn’t!  Oops.  I’ll probably get hung for that by the “only boring people get bored” brigade.

For their last evening with us, Carole and John take us out to dinner.  We start off in the Yacht Club for a drink.  The rest of the fleet (who aren’t taking part in the Tahiti Pearl Regatta) are there for the fleet rendezvous in the form of a barbecue and are having their prize-giving.  Carole and I are given beautiful garlands of tiare flowers and bougainvillea and I have my usual cuddle with Paul – he’s very gracious about being man-handled by an older woman!

Photo:  Paul and I – again

Our transport arrives and we are taken to a lovely restaurant although none of us knows which one John has booked – including John.  The food is really good and we have a great evening.

Photo:  At the restaurant, somewhere in Bora Bora

When we are brought back to the Yacht Club Carole finds new friends, in the shape of three puppies that belong (I presume) to the manager.  They are in destructive mode though, and destroy Carole’s garland as she bends down to stroke them, then attempt to rip her dress to shreds.  I keep well out of the way!

Photo:  Carole and friends

Day 128: Bora Bora – 13/05/10

We wake up to blue sky, glorious sunshine and fresh brioche for breakfast which I baked last night.  Wonderful.

Mike decides to move from our overnight anchorage to just around the other side of the Hilton resort, in the hope of finding some internet coverage and a better view than the beach building which has now started again.  We have realised that they are actually retrieving sand from the sea bed – a dredger is just a couple of hundred yards out at sea and is funnelling sand through a pipe onto the beach.  When it has drained, the digger is picking it up and bagging it.  Heaven knows where it will end up.

Photo:  Sand bagging

As we motor around the corner of the resort, we realise just how big it is.  The over water villas on the ends of each row are enormous and there must be nearly 100 of the ‘ordinary’ ones.

Photos:  Big and small – a villa to suit everyone – at a price!

The colours in the water are beautiful today – a mixture of green, blue and turquoise and the water is even clearer than yesterday, although it is probably the wonderful sunshine helping.

Photo:  Checking out the sea bed

Photo:  Raiatea and Tahaa in the distance

We put the anchor down just around the corner next to another WARC yacht, Kalliope, and immediately pick up all sorts of internet signals.  We have to use the paid for ones but the connection is good and immediately there are three computers on the go.  I get quite a good Skype signal and manage to talk to a few people, including my brother-in-law, Terry.  I take the computer outside with the web cam turned on and show him the view.  When I point the camera down to the sea, he can see a dark shape in the water.  “Is that David’s towel” he asks innocently, relating back to an incident last August when his mate got terribly excited about a huge ray swimming around the boat until we discovered that it was his Hugo Boss towel which had taken off from the rails where it had been hung out to dry.  You’ll never live that one down, David!

Mike gets his Hooka out again to dive under the boat and jiggle with the propellers to make the boat go faster, Carole and John go snorkelling and I cut my hair before going for a swim.  I end up staying by myself in the water for hours, eventually discarding all my clothes for that lovely feeling of freedom you get when nudie swimming.  There’s nobody around to notice except the fish.

Photos:  Nude except for a noodle, I float happily off Bora Bora

We watch the yachts in the Tahiti Pearl Regatta sail past the reef – very slowly as there’s not much wind, then have a spot of lunch before pulling up the anchor again and motoring around to the Bora Bora Yacht club, passing a huge P & O cruise ship on the way.  How that thing manages to get through the reef I don’t know. 

Photo:  P & O cruise liner, Pacific Sun, anchored in the lagoon

Photo:  Dramatic volcanic crater looking like a giant tooth

I hook the mooring buoy first time and John threads the two warps through the ring and we are on.  Then its a bit of air-conditioned rest for everyone.  I wake up for my cup of tea just as the heavens open again and its another huge downpour which lasts for a few hours.  We had been thinking of going over to the Yacht Club for a few drinks before eating a curry on board, but stay in instead.

Photo:  Mike sits in the cockpit enjoying his cuppa while it pours

Tomorrow is Carole and John’s last day on board.  I do hope the weather picks up for them.