Our passage to Tahiti was mostly uneventful. We hated to leave Rangiroa with such beautiful weather, but the forecast of winds and big swells was undeniable. We had some sailing wind the first few hours and got a nice ride from the spinnaker for 3-4 hours, but when the wind dropped and we were making only 4kts it was time to start up the engine and make some miles while the seas were still calm. We arrived in Tahiti on Friday afternoon.
Geographically, the Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, etc.) are sort of the sum of the Marquesas and the Tuamotus. The Marquesas rise to 3,000' directly from the ocean. The Tuamotus are atolls, the remnant of a volcano and a few thousand years of coral growrth, barely 10' above the water and only a few hundred yards wide. The Societies are like putting an island from the Marquesas into the lagoon of one of the atolls. The result are islands that rise dramatically from the ocean, but are surrounded by a fringing reef which leaves a navigable ring of water around the island, almost (more on that in a minute) entirely protected from the ocean swells.
We received permission to enter Papeete harbor through the pass (apparently quite busy), then after a plane landed, we received permission to transit around the airport to the west side of the island. The airport is right on the water and we motored past both ends of the runway. It seemed like every boat we'd met in French Polynesia was in the anchorages, and another 50 that we didn't know. The marina informed us that they had no berth for us, but fortunately Fay spotted an empty mooring ball (snag now, ask questions later) and had a line through it on our first approach. We were soon visited by Francois from the Association of Sailboats in Polynesia who advised us that 1) the owner of the mooring could return at any time and 2) there would be unusually strong winds on Sunday and we should be sure to stay on our boat.
Saturday the marina offered us a berth with the caveat that it would not be comfortable, but we figured it could be no worse than the bouncing anchorage. The waves breaking on the reef were quite impressive and some of the energy spilled into the lagoon to join the wakes from all the power boats blasting back and forth in front of the marina to make very bouncy water. Our berth was a med mooring space on the outside row facing the ocean (normally reserved for mega yachts) and we heaved up and down pretty dramatically until about 4am on Sunday morning.
Today has been much more calm as the waves have dropped in size per the forecast and there were a lot fewer power boats and jet skis. The forecasted 20kt winds have either not materialized, or we're protected here on the west side of the island. But the seas are forecast to rise again over the next few days, this time to 15' with 23kt winds.
Our outside berth is not going to offer any protection so we're going to make sure New Morning is secured, and then make a strategic retreat to a hotel. Yes, we're moving off the water for three days! Time for a break from our sailing adventure, and an opportunity to do some clothes shopping in Papeete. Cruiser attire of shorts and a t-shirt is pretty basic and not quite appropriate in the "big city". We're going to be in the Society Islands for a few months so it's time to upgrade our appearance a bit. We also need to make a visit to the High Commissioners office to obtain our long stay visa and have a few other errands we need to do in town. We'll be back.
