Pitufa.at

For the first time on our journey we’ve made miles towards the east. Up till now we mainly sailed with the prevailing trades westwards. There’s a saying “a gentleman never sails to windward”, but going back towards the Tuamotus and later on the Gambier should be worth some bashing close-hauled on the wind. We’ll just have to be patient and wait for rare southerly and northerly winds.

First we still have a few errants here in Tahiti: we’ll change some of the rigging, get a new anchor chain (the old one’s terribly rusty), install new engine mounts (they took ages to arrive from the UK), go to the dentist yet again (my old fillings use the opportunity of having dental care in Tahiti to break now, really considerate of them) and last but not least we want to spend some fun time with our friends Liesbet and Mark (SY Irie), who’ve just returned from a battle against cancer in the US and definitely deserve some holidays!

The last few days it’s been sunny and calm, so we tried out some anchorages along the outer reef. Our system of floating the chain over the coral heads with 2 or 3 fenders work nicely in these spots. The barrier reef is great for swimming and we even found some coral heads with a few elk-horn and brain corals still alive.
Yesterday we took another hike to the 3 cascades in Vairahi. It was a real jungle hike with lots of slippery roots and plenty of opportunities to get wet feet or twist an ankle while crossing the creek several times. While Christian gracefully leaped ahead (no idea how he’s doing that) I tottered along slowly and carefully and still managed to get wet feet
After about 2 hours we reached the first waterfall and were quite impressed by the several metre high cascade with a deep, clear pond. The second one expelled the first and the third was absolutely amazing–pictures will follow soon!

The last two days the weather has been gorgeous, a cool breeze and azure blue skies, so we took our dinghy up Faaroa river, the only navigable river in French Polynesia. We passed through lush vegetation, lots of gardens with bananas, bread fruit, papaya, manioc, soursop, etc. A man waved us to his garden and we bought a big stack of bananas, got some papayas for free and a plant we’d never seen before: Iliam – purple and green leaves that are cooked like spinach.
Yesterday we got our backpacks out to get our wobbly limbs moving again. Walking up the road towards a pass we were soon huffing and puffing and decided to hitch-hike up the mountain and to only walk back down. The locals in Raiatea are great and the first car stopped when we struck our thumbs out. Up on the pass we were a bit disappointed, the view wasn’t great, so why not walk down the other side, take a look at the southern coast and hitch back? We walked 5 km down to a lovely bay. There was still quite some traffic, so why not see a bit more of the coast? We got another ride to the next village on the southeast side and a bit beyond where not less than 21 water falls tumble down from the steep mountain (as our driver pointed out when he stopped for a photo session for us ). Now that we were already back on the east coast we thought it’d be easy to hitch back up on the coastal road, but alas, no hitch-hiking without cars. We walked for more than an hour (5 km) without anybody passing by, then a rental car with tourists, but these never stop (maybe thinking something like ‘pay for your own car you hobos’). Finally a local pickup stopped, but it only took us 1 km to the next little village. After walking another 4 km (there’s big signs announcing each km), we finally got lucky: another pick-up stopped and the young Polynesians were willing to take us all the way up to our bay. When we passed a large religious site, they stopped and urged us to visit the marae (ceremonial platform) in Opoa while they waited for us
We saw about 45 km of the island and were quite exhausted, this excursion was a bit more than we had planned for our first day out after the dengue, but it was worth it

Today we got a phone call from the hospital. The results for our dengue tests are definitely positive. The doctor told us that more cases from the carenage area had come up and advised us to warn our friends and fellow cruisers to be extra careful and use mosquito repellent at all times when going ashore.

It’s been two weeks now since we got ill and we feel fine again. We found a cozy spot behind a motu on the outer reef that’s protected by a very shallow reef almost all around, only a narrow, 30 metre deep channel leads in. The weather’s windy and rainy at the moment, but it’s a snug anchorage and we need time anyway to catch up with boat work after our illness.

We didn’t want to worry anybody while we were in the middle of it, but the last week wasn’t funny at all. Christian and I both got 40C fever on Tuesday, together with thundering headaches, backache and pain behind the eyes all seemed to point to Dengue. I searched the internet for emergency numbers (only took me 1/2 an hour to find out that SAMU means emergency number, from then on it was easy…), because with Dengue you always have the potential threat of inner bleedings if it’s a severe case. I called the medical centre in Uturoa (main town of the bigger island) and was reassured that the medical on Tahaa (where we were) had emergency transport. Ooof. OK. Fortunately it wasn’t necessary to call and we just spent our days lying, sweating and eating loads of Paracetamol (painkillers). At some point the batteries of our thermometer gave up and then we ran out of Paracetamol, but each time friendly cruiser neighbours helped us out–I only got suspicious looks when approaching charter boats. We were really glad when our friends Lisa and Charly on SY Bomika came to our help, bringing Paracetamol and provisioning and cooking soup and rice for us
After 3 days the fever got slightly down, but then Christian got diarrhea and I a painful, burning rash, so it seemed to be something else than dengue after all. When I couldn’t stand the rash anymore I called the medical centre in Tahaa for transport but they knew nothing of it, so I had to hitch-hike the 10 km there, not so easy in my shaky condition. The people there were really nice though and my rash got better after two anti-allergic, anti-toxicologic injections.

Today (day we were finally fit enough to get out of bed and sail down to the hospital in Raiatea (slightly ironic, isn’t it?). The doctor was very thorough collecting the details of our story and tomorrow we have an appointment for a blood analysis to find out what was actually wrong with us. If it was dengue we have to be extra careful from now on (the second time would be dangerous), if it was something bacterial we may still have to take antibiotics. We’ll see and let you know.

Leeloo was uncommonly calm and patient during all that time, not molesting us with cry-attacks, just snuggling up with us during the night

Today we felt finally fit enoug

Yesterday we sailed out to an anchorage on the western barrier reef of Tahaa, where we wiggled Pitufa in between coral heads to a shallow sandbank where we anchored with less than 2 m under the keel. At a first glance the place was just perfect: a turquoise swimming pool with Pitufa swaying gently on a short chain that we had buoyed with two fenders to avoid touching coral heads. Behind us four tiny motus with palm trees, the thundering outer reef and further in the background Bora Bora’s impressive silhouette.

Only when we stuck our heads under the water we were slightly disappointed. Just like in Moorea and on the other side of Tahaa we found mostly dead coral, overgrown with some algae and lots of sea urchins, but hardly any fish (apparently there is not much Ciguatera and so the lagoon is fished empty). Today we took the dinghy to the famous ‘coral garden’ in the channel between the biggest motu (with a fancy hotel on it) and the next island. This snorkel area’s highly recommended in guide books and it’s true, there are lots of fishies in the area and at least some live coral as well. Unfortunately there seems to be no awareness of environment protection: the sight of hordes of tourists trampling over the corals, touching everything while swimming and thoughtlessly kicking the delicate structures was sad though. Even worse is that they were accompanied by local guides who acted just the same.
If they keep acting this way they’ll soon have the last coral remnants destroyed. If they aren’t interested in protecting the environment for its own sake, they should at least realise that it’s the main tourist attraction and protect their source of income.

So far we’ve had good experiences having parcels shipped from Germany to Tahiti with ‘DHL Paket’ (that’s probably just the regular mail parcel). Important is not to use ‘DHL express’ though, because if you do that the shipment is not only almost 10 times more expensive, but the parcel is also handled by an ‘agent’ who charges 120 euros for this service (customs paperwork or whatever).

Two parcels have already reached us without additional fees, they were simply delivered by the local post service to the address of our polynesian friend. When we ordered engine mounts from a company in the UK we told them in every single e-mail to use DHL standard, not express (the correspondence stretched out over two months due to time difference, and a general unwillingness to part with any of their products…). Of course they ignored our demands and sent it express.

Yesterday when we were sailing up to Tahaa the phone suddenly rang with a DHL agent informing us that the parcel would be delivered as soon as the outstanding payment of the agent fee was done.
Great. As we were 120 miles away from Tahiti we had to do a money transfer from a post office to our friend. Of course the only post office is located on the other side of the island, so we did a pre-breakfast expedition this morning:
At 7 o’clock we took the dinghy to the dock in Tapuamu to catch the early morning traffic (there’s not much traffic on Tahaa in general and no bus service). We hadn’t even properly lifted our thumbs when a van with a friendly local family stopped who took us directly to the post office in Patio even though it was a detour for them. So we managed to send the money on its way at 7.30. On the way back a mini-bus full of cheerful community workers stuffed us in. The men were constantly chatting with us, waving at every passing car and insisted on sharing their breakfast with us. Tahaa’s a great place to meet locals.

Back on the boat we got a message that our friend had already picked up the money, then it took only 5 more phone calls to the DHL people to give directions and at 12 o’clock we got the thumbs-up from our friend in Tahiti: parcel successfully received!

How would you explain complications like that to a bored English office worker??

The last three months were quite tough. Remember? In April we caught a line in the prop in the Gambier, the shaft was pulled out several centimetres by the force and the thrust bearing was damaged (cracked housing) so that we could no longer use the engine. We had to sail straight to Tahiti to haul out there and spent two weeks repairing and waiting for spare parts in Technimarine Papeete (unfriendly staff, they sanded a rusty fishing boat next to us and we still have the rust particles everywhere…).
Back in the water we had to find out that the shaft seal which had to be taken off and reassambled during the repairs was now leaking while the prop was turning. Hopes that the leaking would stop after a while did not come true and in the end we decided to haul out yet again to change the shaft seal.

On Tuesday we had an appointment for the travel lift in Raiatea Carenage. The organisation of carenage seems quite chaotic, they told us to be ready at 8, didn’t get back to us until 10, then ordered us to come in immediately. When we were half into the narrow, concrete bay some workers strolled along and told us to get out again without explaining why and what they wanted. Getting Pitufa out again and turning her around in the narrow channel with rocks on one side and an iron rail on the other was a risky manouever. We had to take up a mooring with the depthsounder announcing 0.0 under the keel while two other boats were splashed and hauled out. When it was finally our turn the workers declared a lunch break (no stress, you good, ok?) and we were left waiting for another hour. When we finally got out at 2 o’clock Christian and Adrian (yes, our ‘private mechanic’ sailed to Raiatea as well for the haul out) started work immediately. This time everything went smoothly as they had already practiced for days in Technimarine… They finished yesterday at noon and we got back into the water. We were more than nervous at that point. What if the shaft started leaking again??? Fortunately everything stayed dry and it seems that we can start enjoying cruising again without constantly worrying and having to mop up the bilge after every sailing day.
What a relief.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning off the filth of the boatyard, rinsing the bilge with fresh water and drying it again and hunting for mosquitoes that had hitched a ride from the Carenage.
Today we’ll head up to Tahaa for some holidays

…are really positive. The high islands, motus and the fringing reef reminds us of the Isle Gambier and the slow, relaxed pace here is exactly what we like.

Yesterday we moved into the deeply indented Haamene bay, where the water’s a bit murky, but the view of the lush green hills and the calm anchorage makes up for that. After dark the sound of drumming and singing lured us ashore (dinghy’s can be conveniently parked at a floating dock) and we went straight into the dress rehearsal of the dance group of Haamene in front of the church. It was quite an event with all the villagers gathered (many had brought their own chairs as not everybody found space on the benches that had been put up around the square) and we were invited to join in. The age of the dancers varied more than in the other groups we’d seen before, but it’s amazing to see 10 year old girls and boys wiggling their hips and wobbling their knees quite as vigorously as their older companions. The dancing and singing was interrupted with lots of speeches (all in Tahitienne, none in French!!) and went on until around 11 o’clock. It was so much more fun and excitement than the sterile performance we’d just seen in Tahiti and we’ll try to make it to the main village Patio on the weekend, when ‘our’ group from Haamene will compete with the other 7 villages on the island

Today we left the dinghy again at the floating dock and hiked over densely forested hills on the ‘chemin traversier’ (a jeep track across the island) to the northern coast and to Patio. Crossing the island took about 3 hours and again we planned to hitch a ride back on the coastal road. Just like on Moorea it took a very long time to get back to Pitufa by hitchhiking, but for entirely different reasons. Unlike Moorea where hundreds of cars whooshed by without stopping there’s just hardly any traffic on Tahaa. Exactly four cars came along on the way and all of them stopped for us. Unfortunately they all wanted to go only very short distances, so in the end it took 4 cars and some walking in between to make it back to Haamene bay (less than 20 km).

On Sunday morning we set out towards Raiatea in order to make sure we’d reach the island during daylight after a nightsail (120 nm). During the first hour we were in the lee of Tahiti, with no wind, but confused cross seas as usual in the channel between Tahiti and Moorea. After an hour a strong wind set in and we had a quick but very rolly passage. We passed Huahine at sunrise and reached Raiatea at 10 o’clock.
As it’s the beginning of the humpback season here we were hoping to encounter one of these giants on the way, but no luck there.
We were as usual trolling a lure, which attracted a tuna early in the morning. We saw him jumping twice (a big, tasty looking guy), but he managed to get away, so Pitufa remains a vegetarian boat for now.

The twin islands of Raiatea and Tahaa are protected by a barrier reef that’s dotted with sandy motus and has a deep, easily navigable lagoon inside. We are now anchored behind a motu with a nice view of the high islands. They are densely forested but not as steep and spectacular as other islands of the Societies.