Rough Ride to Rangiroa

15* 02.1' South
147* 57.6' West
Hove to off of Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
July 16, 2010 (late)

We left the protection of the reef on the lee side of Tahiti about 5:00 on Thursday evening. We had dinner in the channel between Moorea and Tahiti and then it got rough. Some of us held on to dinner, some of did not. All in all, we were able to keep a semblance of watch schedule. During the night, the wind hovered around 30 knots with big seas. By mid-morning it had only come down to about 25 knots. The seas really aren't predicted to started abating until tomorrow morning. By then, we will be safely inside the atoll. We are currently hove to in the lee of Rangiroa. The passe that we will use to enter the atoll is around the corner to the east about 10 miles away. It is important to try to enter the atolls on the slack tide in daylight which will be around 8:00am, so we will get moving again from our holding position at about 5:00am.
Lydia and Lon are unsure if they are going to do any diving, but the Bakers are looking forward returning to snorkel on the reef that is just inside the Tiputu Passe. Lon will catch a flight back to Tahiti and then return to Seattle. Lydia will continue on with us on to Hawaii. We are hoping that the first part of this leg is NOT an indication of things to come.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Crew Arrival and Capaz Departure

Marina Taina, Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia

July 15, 2010

Waves hitting the reef outside the Marina Taina anchorage!

Tuesday night, our crew, Lydia, and her husband, Lon arrived at about 10:00pm.  As usual, there were glitches, but it was nothing these two veteran travelers couldn’t overcome.  Lon will be sailing with us to Rangiroa in the Tuamotus and then returning to Papeete and the states.  Lydia will be going all the way to Hawaii.

  

Yesterday, we celebrated Bastille Day trying to find the big pirogue races.  We were in the dinghies and not all that interested in going all the way to Papeete proper, so we gave up and went snorkeling instead.  We saw a wrecked WWII airplane and an old shipwreck as well as our first anemones with tiny little clown fish.  Lon and Lydia treated us to a great pizza dinner at the Dinghy Bar at the marina.  The kids ended the day with a movie night inviting their buddies from Silver Lining and Victoria. 

Today has been spent doing final provisioning,stowing, checking out of French Polynesia and preparing to leave for Rangiroa this evening.  There was a discussion at lunch about maybe delaying a day for weather, but we have decided that it probably won’t make that much difference.

The next few (or more) posts may not have pictures, because we are leaving reliable internet land and they will be sent over our SSB radio.  When we were in Rangiroa last month, there was internet, but there are no guarantees , so you will just have to stayed tuned.

Bryce’s 12th Birthday

July 12, 2010

Marina Taina, Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia

17* 34.8’ South and 149* 37.1’ West

Bryce had been concerned about being underway on his birthday on Friday, July 16th.  He was really OK with celebrating it a couple of days early especially if we could round up a few kids.

As we arrived back at Tahiti and got ourselves situated at Marina Taina, we realized that we might able to get a birthday party together for Monday night with TWO kid boats.  After checking Monday morning with both of the other boats and meeting with our agent, we got cake baked and ended up having a boat full of boys all day long.  We broke up the day by venturing ashore to the beachfront McDonald’s.  The after effects of our fast food feast meant that it was a fairly quiet afternoon aboard CAPAZ. 

 

After dinner, we were rejoined by the crews of Victoria and Silver Lining along with a couple of the latter’s Tahitian relatives who jumped right in to play video games with the rest of the kids.  We sang Happy Birthday and Bryce opened a couple of presents. All in all, Bryce was glad he was able to get his birthday celebrated before we left for Hawaii.

Eclipse

At 18* 17.6’ South and 149* 29.9’ West

July 12, 2010

 

 Best Image from my camera (note: shadow image to right of sun)

Just a minute or two before totality

Were the 53 miles, about 9 hours to get “there”, 6 hours of heaving to, and fantastic sail back all worth it????  In a word, YES!!!  We all agreed that making the effort to get “there” which was to  put ourselves into the path of totality was worth it.  The eclipse was incredible to witness.

We left from the eastern side of Papeete on Saturday evening just before 5:30 pm.  We had a nice sail around the top of the island of Tahiti and part way down the channel between it and Moorea.   Once in the lee of Tahiti, the wind shut off and we motored for a couple of hours until the wind filled again.  We reached our destination that we figured south of Tahiti by using the Google map tool on Xavier Jubier’s website at about 2:00.  (You can go to the website, select the July 11, 2010 Eclipse and then move the cursor to the lat/long listed above into the path of totality to find from where we watched the eclipse).  Brad set up the boat for heaving to which is a tactic usually used during stormy weather, but thankfully we have only used it thus far to wait when we reach a destination ahead of schedule and there we drifted for about 6 hours.   Brad did his usual radio check in at 7:15 am and boats to the west of our position, said that the eclipse was already starting.  We donned our special glasses, waited for the sun to come out from behind a cloud and began to see the moon take a small nibble out of the sun.   This continued for about 50 minutes until there was just a thin slice of sun remaining. It was amazing how little of the sun needs to be showing for it to remain daylight.  Once the sun went into total eclipse, it got dark and the birds got confused.  I stopped taking pictures and actually got a pretty d video of the “diamond ring” that we were told to look for and saw.  I also happened to catch the sun coming out of totality in my video clip.  After hearing reports back in Papeete and from other boats in the Western Societies of the eclipse being just “sort of cool”, we were additionally glad that we had made the effort to get ourselves within the path of totality.  Everyone that we have talked to who also made the effort has agreed with our assessment of it being a very worthwhile experience.

Brad and I were both taken away from Seattle by our parents in February of 1979 to see the total eclipse that roughly followed the path of the Columbia River.  Brad’s dad took him to a hill above Ellensburg in Eastern Washington where they sat on the tailgate of their old pick-up truck to watch the eclipse.  In my family, we were down at Long Beach, Washington and went to the mouth of the Columbia River and stood just in front of the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment.  I remember all the city lights coming on in Astoria, Oregon which is the city across the river as the eclipse reach totality.  These memories that our parents gave us were sparked when we first heard about the possibility of seeing the eclipse in Tahiti from a cruiser email group when we were back in Mexico.  We decided that if it was possible, we would really like to pass the opportunity for this experience on to Bryce and Austin.   We are so thankful to Frank Taylor, the astronomer Tahina  who encouraged us to “chase” the total eclipse as it would be really close to Tahiti.  As a side note, he, as an Arizona University astronomy student, had also viewed the same eclipse that Brad and I watched in Washington back in 1979.  We met him in Moorea where he gave a quick overview of the eclipse at Brad’s birthday party.

 The French Government would be so proud of the Capaz Crew all wearing their safety glasses to view the Eclipse

      

Reality Sets In

July 9, 2010

Arue, Tahiti, French Polynesia

A Little Poker Instruciton

It hit me yesterday, after I had cooked up some dishes for our upcoming crossing voyage, that we are leaving in a week!  I must be getting better at this whole thing. 

We have some fresh foods provisioning to do which you can’t do until right before you leave anyway.  We are gassed up and Brad has taken care of some minor repairs and checked almost everything off the maintenance list.  He went up the mast and performed a rig check. 

Views from the top of CAPAZ’s rig

  

We are sorting out the details of our crew getting in and out of French Polynesia.  I would highly recommend the services of Tahiti Yacht Agents as they have been nothing but helpful and though we probably could have done all our own check in and check out procedures, it was great to have them done correctly the first time.  Also, it is nice to know if problems arise, there someone who can get you pointed in the right direction at the very least and probably help solve the problem.

There is still adventure left in our adventure.  We are watching the weather and if it looks like it will be clear enough, we will sail south of Tahiti about 30 miles to intersect with the path of the 100% track of Sunday’s total eclipse.  After that, we are moving to a Marina that is much closer to the airport where our crew will be arriving.  After Wednesday’s Bastille Day celebration, we will point CAPAZ toward Rangiroa.  Once there, one of our crew will leave us and return to the States.  The remaining five of us will continue on to Hawaii.  Brad and his new crew will have a few days to prep and set sail for Victoria, BC.  The boys and I will fly to Seattle and then rejoin Brad and CAPAZ upon their arrival in Victoria.  From there, we will head north for a couple more months of cruiser, before returning to our home dock at Shilshole. 

As we have learned through our cruising adventure: it is best to have a loose plan and make adjustments to it as necessary.  It might prove to be a good philosophy for life in general. 

Rainy Fourth of July

July 4, 2010

Papeete, Tahiti,  French Polynesia

We are feeling right at home with the squally and drizzly weather that has greeted us here in Papeete for the Fourth of July.  There are a bunch of Americans downtown at the main quay who will no doubt take this opportunity to celebrate.  We are staying in a suburb called Arue which is to the east of Papeete.  We are going to try navigating the bus to check out downtown and connect with our American cruising friends.

The motorsail back from Moorea yesterday was short but a little bouncy.  We got into Tahiti Yacht Club and tied up to a mooring ball just before the first of several squalls hit us.  We got ashore to restock on fresh fruits and vegetables and then we were going to return with Jarana and search out a Chinese “restaurant” that has been recommended to us, but the rain kept us on the boat.  Jarana ended up coming over for Brad’s most excellent baguette pizzas while we watched to the lightening off in the distance.

PS More pictures have been uploaded!!!!  

Early morning paddler (outrigger canoe) – Point Venus in background

Happy Birthday Brad

July 2, 2010

Uponohu Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia

This turned out to be a great place to celebrate.  We found another birthday boy, Pierre who is captain, dad, etc. on Victoria, and many other reasons besides the usual Canada to have a big beach celebration.  So, we organized a potluck and bonfire on the beach. 

It was still very windy (yet balmy as our friends visiting from Seattle pointed out) which is why we are in Moorea instead of Papeete, but that didn’t stop a good portion of the anchorage from coming ashore to help us celebrate!  There were outstanding dishes contributed as well as the standard birthday cakes.  We had to convince some of our drunk French friends that the American tradition is that you cannot have cake until you have sung “Happy Birthday” to the birthday folk.

We were lucky to have among those attending an astronomer who took some time and gave us the low down on the upcoming total eclipse on July 11th.  We will be in Papeete and if we choose to go 40 miles to the south we will be in the path of the total eclipse.  We will watch the weather and decide if we make the voyage.  Brad and I both remember the total eclipse that we observed in 1979 and would love to give the boys the same opportunity.

Brad also received some birthday greetings over the SSB radio and email.  All in all, I think it was a successful birthday celebration as evidenced by our slow movements this morning.  After checking weather, we will decide if we will head back to Tahiti today or tomorrow morning.