August 23rd, 2002
| It is approximately 500 nm from Daniel's Bay on Nuka Hive in the Marquesas to the atoll of Makemo in the French Tuamotus. We departed in light airs on the morning of May 23rd for the five day sail to Makemo. Our log records mostly lighter winds from the SE for the entire passage and the sighting of only one other vessel. We sighted the low coral atoll of Makemo from approximately 8 miles out only because, thanks to GPS, we knew exactly where we were and what to look for, and the sun was behind us at about 0900 in the morning of the 28th. | |
 Active Light at anchor beside a deserted islet or motu on the far E side of the lagoon inside Makemo. We spent 5 days here and saw not another boat nor house nor person, not even a fisherman or pearl-farmer in an outboard. Right photo: the N pass into the lagoon at Makemo as seen from seaward, looking south. The lighthouse and the village of Makemo are on the right. About 400 people live there, including a boarding school for the children from several other atolls. |
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| We bought a beer ashore after clearing check-in with the local gendarme (only one) and were almost assaulted everywhere we went by school children who wanted to talk to us, in French. The people were very friendly. Ashore here we met Keith and Carol from "Kirsten Jane", an English couple now on their second circumnavigation, and Tom and Chris on "Mahurangi", both of whom were later to become our friends. | |
 Nancy off doing her favorite thing, shelling. We found two large and beautiful tiger cowrie shells here. Right photo: this "flute" fish was given to us by an Australian circumnavigator. About 4' long, Neil was doubtful at first, but the fish dressed out to two fillets about two feet long each, very white and sweet flesh. All the meat was above the ribcage. |
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| We left Makemo on the afternoon of June 3rd for an overnight sail to the island of Tahanea. This involved a bit of tricky navigation, carefully picking our way amongst the several small atolls along the 70 nm route. We used everything we had to get there safely; radar, GPS, compass, paper charts, electronic charts, and night vision on a moonless night filled with a couple of bothersome rainshowers. It is sometimes hard to discern a rain shower from a reef on the radar. We trust none of these devices by themselves. There came one point around 2 AM where the GPS, the compass, and our good paper chart of the area just disagreed, suggesting a course that would have steered us across the top of Tuanake atoll on a rainy, moonless night! We opted to rely on the radar info and altered course to west around the atoll, arriving safely at he north pass at Tahanea the next morning. This one, too, we spotted from about 8 nm out because we knew where to look. | |
 These bigger sharks are harmless nurse sharks. They could not bite you unless you put your fingers into their small mouths. They are about 7' long, the others are white-tipped reef sharks, about 4' long. They are wrestling over a discarded tuna head some fisherman tossed into about 6' of water off the municipal pier at Makemo. Right photo: Nancy poses on the bowsprit as we are anchored just inside the pass at the atoll of Tahanea. The pass is just to the right. |
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 Hermit crabs make a feast of a fallen coconut. We do not know how they get that two inch hole cut into the top, but they must somehow. Right photo: Active Light at anchor, all alone, at Tahanea. |
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 Neil playing great white hunter-gatherer in the ocean-side surf, north shore of Tahanea. All the water critters were a lot smarter and faster than Neil. Right photo: great hunter-gatherer struggled for quite a while to husk and open this coco only to find that it was not yet ripe |
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We were alone at Tahanea
for most of the four days we were there. We can remember being
impressed with all the plastic trash that had washed up on the
ocean-side beaches of this atoll, not environmentally harmful
stuff, just an eyesore. Remember, this is an uninhabited island.
Secondly, we were impressed with the excellent snorkeling we
found there. Lovely coral displays, very clear water, the biggest
parrotfish we have ever seen, and a large grouper, guaranteed,
under every coral outcropping. There were also a good number
of fairly timid reef sharks, four to five-footers. |
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 A typical home in the village at Fakarava. Lots of solitude here. The cement and coral wall in the foreground bespeaks a more prosperous community in the distant past. Right photo: the interior of the village church. Here, Jesus has distinctive Polynesian features. |
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 Killer Fishing Lady, Nancy, with only a couple of the critters she pulled from the deep at our anchorage in Fakarava. The fish above was a very pretty purple and had nice little tailfin streamers. The one on the right was a nice spotted grouper. |
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As we tried to leave Fakarava,
our excellent new 66 pound Spade anchor and chain kept hooking
on every piece of coral as we tried to raise it. Finally, Neil
went overboard with a mask, snorkel and fins and lay face down
in the water, shouting and pointing which way to go as Nancy,
alone, both drove the the boat into position, and then would
race forward to the foredeck to handcrank the anchor and chain
up from 50 foot depths. This was a repetitive process. "Not
many women could have done that!", Neil quipped. What a
sexist oinker, eh? On the otherhand, it was pretty brave of Neil
to get into the water with Nancy driving a 12 ton boat around
him. We were late for the slack low water at the pass and motored
out very laboriously against the flooding current. |
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 View from Active Light coming out of a squall, sailing past Point Venus on the north shore of Tahiti, where Captain Cook recorded the famous eclipse of Venus on June 3rd, 1769. The pass to the Papeete harbor is just out of sight to the right. |
 When it rains, we use the dinghy as a bath tub, as Nancy aptly demonstrates. This works well too, when we row in to the dock to take on drinking water in jerrycans. After cleaning the dinghy insides with a sponge, we get as wet and sloppy as we can, spilling water prodigiously into the dingy. Rowing back to Active Light, we do the laundry in the dinghy. It works quite well and it is kind of fun! Sort of like grownups fingerpainting. |
 "Le marche municipal" (public market) in downtown Papeete. |
 Neil does a dinghy bath. You can tell this was surplus rainfall after a really big squall because the lagoon water is so brown. |
 Sunset from Active Light anchored at Maeva Beach. That is Moorea in the background. We, of course, are inside the protective fringing reef , which is invisible, about 100 yards beyond the 3-masted vessel. |
 Our sunset ritual called for brie cheese, fresh baguettes, and a rum and coke each. An almost inflexible regime. We gained weight and we never saw the green flash at sunset there. |
 A parade the day before Bastille Day. Half the residents of the island were in the parade. It went on for hours! None of the islanders really care about Bastille Day, nor do they even like the French (they love Americans!), but oh, what a party they have! |
 The quay in downtown Papeete. |
 Parading grannies. They were representing something like the island feminine alliance. |
 Singing grannies in the parade, on a truck. |
| One of the reasons we stayed so long in Papeete was to attend as many of the song and dance competitions held from the middle of June through the 15th of July. These were very serious events. The tickets cost about US$20 a seat. Each dance troupe involved about 150 dancers and musicians. The program was spoken and presented both in French and Tahitian. And the Tahitian members of the audience were keenly critical and appreciative of the efforts. One of the big moments was to choose the king and queen, "Miss Hieva" and "Tana Hieva". We have to say we enjoyed every moment of it | |
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 Above, the stage and open air theater where all the dance and music competitions took place. We were able to get tickets for three of them. Left photo: Even though this was taken in late afternoon, it shows one of the many "les roulettes" (the wheels) that set up business each evening at various locations throughout the island. Here you can get a good steak and fries for US$8. or a huge plate of Chinese stir fry. |
 One of the dance troupes. Most of our pictures were too dark to put up on our webpage because the lights were low, or by firelight, and the costumes were dark green color of palm grass, but these turned out a bit better. |
 Dancers were about 50/50 male and female. We have to say that these are handsome people, but that not all the good dancers were thin. |
 This is the only photo of the Hieva contestants where we had enough light. Here they are performing the Tahitian waltz for the judges, one of about a dozen traditional feats. Can you see the pig? |
 As one of the required feats, the male candidate had to do a dance routine while carrying a couple loads of fruit, banana stalks and such on a pole across his shoulder. One inventive fellow had a bag of coconuts on one end and a live pig trussed up by his four little feet on the other. Mr. Pig did not like being hung upside down and communicated this viewpoint to the audience and judges alike with every means at his disposal. |
 Another of the Fete events was the men's javelin contest, held out at the museum. |
 The manner of throwing is to whip the spear upwards from its end with an underhand motion. These guys were pretty good. |
 A trim, lithe figure was not a requirement to be a Tahitian javelinist. |
 A Tahitian TV antenna? No, out of about 400 thrown spears, these are the ones that hit the coconut. |
 Active Light at anchor in beautiful Cook's Bay, Moorea. We treated ourselves to a nice meal out at Chez Michelle's ashore. |
After a quick trip to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), precipitated by a very affordable airfare and desire to extend our visas to stay in French Polynesia, we bade farewell to our Tahiti friends and sailed one afternoon twelve whole miles west to the island of Moorea, where we spent five days anchored up in Afeaitu Bay. It was nice the first day, but the next four days it got so rough we could not get out the pass. We had one rough night with an 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM anchor watch, with the engine on, motoring into the 35 knot winds. We were poorly anchored on the edge of a reef and could not get off the boat for five (count them, 5) days. Cruising ain't all fun! On the sixth day, we made it out the south pass and sailed around the top of the island to Cook's Bay. Here it was as peaceful and quiet as could be. Beware SE anchorages in the Society Islands. That's the direction the strong winds come from. |
 This was taken at the end of a six kilometer hike up into the interior of Moorea. Right photo: Eric, the most amiable man in the whole South Pacific, and his Eric's wife and Neil on the fuel dock at Marina Taina in Tahiti. Eric was very nice to us on may occasions. |
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| From Moorea, we visited the islands of Huahine, Tahaa, and Bora Bora, in that order. We switched over to using the other cameras for some reason, so we do not have those photos developed at this time to put on this webpage. We are currently in Bora Bora, anchored off the Bora Bora Yacht Club (in reality, just a nice restaurant). We have taken on water and provisions, scrubbed the bottom, and are waiting for wind to take us 600 nm to the island of Suvarov, and then on 600 or so more to Tonga. We might even go see our friend Pat in Samoa if she answers our email. | |
 The pass at Bora Bora, with Mount Pa'ihia in the background. Right photo: Active Light at anchor in Bora Bora, Mount Pa'ihia again in the background and the Bora Bora Yacht Club in view ashore just off our stern. It was beauiful there, but bring lots of money. |
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And that concludes our report from Bora Bora, where all the captains are strong and courageous, all their husbands are good-looking, and every boat's brightwork is above average! Neil regrets leaving French Polynesia just as almost four months of French language study is beginning to show some effect, but neither of us will regret escaping these high prices. We saw a small watermelon for sale here at a roadside stand, while walking into town. The proud owner wanted 3,000 Polynesian francs for it, that's a little over US$24. Au revoir, ya'll, Nancy and Neil |
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