[password] pilot25041
[position] 16 43.74s 151 26.55w
[status] Thursday 12th Jul ....... so we left Bora Bora on Sunday morning and had a fabulous sail across to Tahaa 15-20kts from NW meant our journey eastwards was fairly quick, however, the clouds had been gathering and as we approached the channel through the reef it started to rain, by the time we got to the end of the channel approx 0.5Nm, we had 30kts wind and torrential rain which reduced visibility to less than 100metres! We quickly rolled away the genoa and motored very slowly up the inside of the reef, spotting other boats via our radar, 15mins later the wind had eased and gone right around to the SE. So we continued up the west side of Tahaa and picked up a mooring buoy in Baie Tapuamau, with the intention of visiting the Pari Pari distillery the following day. The wind had by now risen again and was gusting 20-25kts across the bay, the other 2 mooring buoys were quickly taken and then another 5 yachts came in to anchor and try and get some protection from the con
ditions. Needless to say, there was no swimming or venturing ashore for the afternoon.
Monday morning and the wind was still blowing hard, one of the charter yachts had dragged their anchor overnight and were quite near to us in the morning, Ruth, Allan & Barry decided to dinghy ashore to visit said distillery and get fresh bread for lunch ......... a rather wet ride ensued even though it was less than 200m. The distillery visit was fantastic, they process vanilla, cocoa nuts and sugar cane, making various flavours of rum, soap, oils etc, after a walk to main village for the bread, we had a rather drier run back to the boat, but decided that would be the extent of our adventures for the day!
Tuesday morning, we dropped off our buoy and went a few miles further up the coast to a Pearl Farm, they gave us a 'tour, and detailed explanation and demonstration of how they 'culture' the pearls ......... a very complicated and precise process that requires 5years of training. The ladies purchased some pearls before we departed around the top of Tahaa and down the eastern side. We went into Baie Haamene ( a recognised 'hurricane hole' with the intention of visiting a vanilla farm), and all the way to the village at the bottom, however, with white caps, gusting wind and muddy green water, quickly decided this was not for us. About half way back up the bay, there was a mooring buoy tucked in around a corner and no white caps, so we decided to avail ourselves of the facility ........ not quite so easy as it would appear, a diamond round shaped buoy and no pick up rope ........ however, Barry in dinghy threaded rope through shackle beneath buoy and handed said rope to rest
of the crew ....... mission accomplished! We then went ashore and walked to the Hotel Hibiscus ....... according to Charlie's Charts a turtle sanctuary ...... well no turtles but a nice cold beer and excellent wifi, also finding out it was a long way to a vanilla farm, so well worth the effort!
Wednesday morning ..... dropping off the buoy was far easier than picking it up, we motored back across the bay to Uturoa, the town quay had 2 x 62ft charter catamarans alongside, so we refuelled and then re-moored further down, after lunch the 'big cats' departed so we're back alongside the town quay. The supermarkets here are very well stocked, so an afternoon of foraging ensued, then just after sundowners the local youth dancers and band struck up, so we had music with our dinner and then ventured ashore to witness their efforts ........ truly splendid. Just after we turned in the rains reappeared, we've certainly had plenty of heavy showers over the last week or so.
Its now Thursday morning, the wind is still howling from the east and not forecast to ease for a few days, as Huahine our next destination is directly east from here we are delaying our departure until more favourable conditions arrive!! From 'yachts in transit' we can see that P'zazz are within our vicinity, so maybe we'll see them before we go!
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