We spent about a week in Bora Bora, and this was to be our last Society Island. The bay in Bora Bora is beautiful, but the focus on the island is the many (very expensive) resorts that dapple the motus surrounding the main island. The highlight of our time on Bora Bora was the traditional Heiva that happened to be taking place while we were there.   It is mostly a locals’ event (which we enjoy much more than touristy entertainment) where each village puts on a performance with dancing and singing in traditional Polynesian clothing. The night we went, it poured rain a few times, so we only had the opportunity to see just a portion of the entertainment. They also had a tented area with gambling (oh, THAT was an interesting sight!), cotton candy, etc. We met Mark and Eileen on Wavelength while we were there, but because of the weather, we only stayed out for a few hours.

Gambling at the Heiva

We motored to the far south of Bora Bora on the inside of the motus. On our way, we snorkeled and at the end of the bay we were close to a place called “Motu Fun” which was someone’s house on the waterfront with lots of lounge chairs and shade. The owner had several cats and one large dog and welcomed guests, selling only Hinano Beer and soft drinks.

Motu “Fun”

Kitty “Kiri Kiri” and Dog “Rambo”

Inside the Bora Bora Fringing Reef

Other than a date night dinner at the Mai Kai Restaurant, and a game night with Paw Paw when they finally arrived, our time on Bora Bora was not all that exciting. The snorkeling wasn’t nearly as good as some of the other islands, and there did not seem to be all that much we wanted to do there. Despite the fact there were mountains, hiking was a difficult endeavor, and there just didn’t seem to be many trails available for people like us without a car.

Date Night at Mai Kai

Game Night with Roy and Elaine on Do Over

Interestingly, we had to clear out of French Polynesia before we actually left. They really are sticklers about the 90-day maximum. We were ready to leave French Polynesia anyway. It was time.

Natural Beauty:  Rainbow and Gorgeous Sunset

If I were to put the Society Islands in order of which ones I liked best, it would be: Moorea, Huahine, Tahiti, Tahaa, and Bora Bora. Moorea was wonderful and surpassed the others in my mind by a football field.

(Update:  We are currently in American Samoa, having gone to Niue, Palmerston, and Bora Bora after Taha’a.  I will try to post about all three of these other destinations while in American Samoa if I can keep my patience with the VERY slow Internet!)

Taha’a

We ventured off for Taha’a after about a week in Huahine. We knew a weather system was about to hit and decided we needed a change of scenery before it did. Our first few nights we went into Baie de Haamene on the east side of Tahaa. The weather was terrible here and the river runoff turned the water in the bay brown. Dan and Ari dinghied into town once in the rain, but other than that, we hunkered down in our boat and relaxed, watched movies, and Ariana did a lot of school.

We were not enamored with this bay (and we could not make water there) so we opted to cruise around the northern side of Tahaa inside the reef that runs off the coast nearly all the way around the island. We ended up spending a night in Patio on the north side of the island. We had a not-so-great lunch in town and poor Internet at the post office. The next morning, we awoke to howling winds from the NE and growing seas (even inside the protected reef) so we decided to move to the west side of the island before it got ugly. We ended up anchoring in about 75 feet of water in Baie de Tapuamu, which was directly across from the motu with the Coral River snorkeling area.

Mark on Wavelength was in the anchorage and visited our boat (bringing us a baguette!). He told us how to do the Coral River snorkel, and recommended that we hit it that afternoon while we were having a break in the weather since the next few days we were predicted to have rain and high winds again.

We followed his advice and were so glad we did. You beach your dinghy on one side of a motu and then you walk to the other side and drift down the coral river. There are SO many fish. They are used to being fed so we brought toast crackers to feed them. It was truly amazing how many species of fish there were and how unafraid they were of people. They would come right up to you and stay near you. One even nibbled my leg a little bit! (It didn’t hurt.) One of the best parts about this snorkel was that we finally got Ryan to try it. Granted, he was without a snorkel, but he wore goggles and swam through looking at all the fish. We are hoping to go again one more time tomorrow, before we leave for Bora Bora, and I am going to encourage Ryan to try a snorkel and mask this time.

Coral River

In other news, we had a Teleflex cable break on our throttle so we could not put the boat into gear on the port side from the helm. It made for a comical show when we realized we were beginning to get very close to coral reef on our port side and we knew we had to pick up and re-anchor nearer to the middle of the bay. It takes a long time to pick up 240 feet of anchor! Ari and Ryan were arguing on the bow while I am at the helm trying to control the boat, and Dan was down in the port engine compartment controlling the throttle for that engine. After yelling at Ryan to go back inside, I was able to work with Ariana and Dan to keep the boat over the anchor so Ariana could raise it, and we finally got re-anchored further away from the reef—still in very deep water (73 feet). Fun times.

We needed to get off of the boat, so despite the rain, we dinghied into the very small town. The store had no baguettes left (they go early, apparently) so we walked on. The town had one small restaurant that served pizza four nights a week, and of all things, a fairly new rum distillery! The owner was there and he gave us a tour of the facility (called Pari Pari) and told us how he makes his rum, coconut oil, etc. He was originally from France and moved here with his family to start this business. He was able to produce 5,000 bottles of rum last year and is hoping to grow his business when he finally gets the pot still he ordered over a year ago. We also had a taste of his 40% and 50% alcohol rum. It turned out to be a very educational experience for our kids, albeit not the traditional field trip destination for a school kid. Of course, we ended up purchasing a bottle of his niche rum—we have to support a small business owner, right? 😉

That same day, the French police approached our boat and checked each of our passports. They so kindly reminded us that our 90-day visas for French Polynesia were expiring in less than two weeks. Great… We still wanted to hit Bora Bora and Maupiti with less than two weeks to do it. And to further complicate matters, we still needed to go south to Raiatea to get a new throttle cable. So, on Friday, despite the unrelenting bad weather, we decided to make our way to Raiatea to get a new cable for our throttle. The store that sold them was actually open for 2 hours on Saturday morning (but not open on Sunday), so it was either now or wait until Monday. Dan rigged a way to use the port engine from the helm and we ventured off to Uturoa, Raiatea. This turned out to be the worst “anchorage” ever imaginable given the windy conditions. Although the anchorage was inside the fringing reef and therefore presumably protected, it was still very rough, extremely windy, and we ended up anchored basically in a channel getting waked by all the passing powerboats. Surprise, surprise, the next morning it was pouring rain. Dan and Ari got in the dinghy and headed off to town in the deluge of rain getting seasprayed in the process—and this was no short dinghy ride. They didn’t make it. To add insult to injury, the dinghy motor decided to act up and they had to come back.

Later, Dan decided we just couldn’t spend another two nights in this crappy, stressful anchorage. Desperation led Dan to dinghy in by himself with a persnickety engine, but he was successful! Dan returned to the boat with a new Teleflex throttle cable in exactly the right size, and baguettes and chicken! What more could you ask for? With fire under his derriere, Handy Dan managed to get the new throttle cable installed in less than an hour with barely any help from us. Woo hoo! We got the heck out of dodge and went back to the same protected anchorage we were in previously (Baie de Tapuamu). We made it back in mid-afternoon and it—was—still—raining.   Geesh. We planned to go out for pizza at that one restaurant but the rain was unrelenting and no one really felt like going out. I was just getting ready to make dinner when Dan volunteered to go in to pick it up. Luckily, I could call ahead and order it.

For whatever reason, we were having one of those weeks where nothing is easy. Dan tried to go to the dock that was close to the pizza place but kept hitting rocks no matter which way he tried to approach in the dinghy. He ended up having to go to the main dock and walk quite a ways to get there. Luckily, he had the huge soft-sided cooler my brother, John, and his wife, Stacey had given us. When he finally returned in the dark an hour later, Dan, Dan the pizza deliveryman had still warm pies ready to eat. Yum.

This is just a quick update since the Internet speed in all of Niue is TERRIBLE!  We are out of French Polynesia.  We left Bora Bora and sailed for four nights to Palmerston Island.  That was a really unique place.   (Look it up if you get a chance!)  We spent a few nights there and then we sailed for three more nights to Niue.  Today, we’re going diving in a cave and tomorrow we will be exploring the island via car.  When we hit American Samoa next week, I will update everything!

Here is a two-minute video of Huahine and Tahaa highlights…

We had an uneventful overnight motor sail to Huahine from Moorea where we stayed for a little over a week. Huahine has a small town named Fare that had a few restaurants, a post office and a fairly large grocery store. This is where we based ourselves for the first half of the week. During this time, we rented bikes (with Steve and Lynda on Nina) and rode to the old maraes on the island. These are basically old rock structures that were used among the Polynesians for prayer and for human sacrifices. (Yes, they really did that. From what we heard, if you volunteered to be sacrificed you would be treated as if you were royalty for a year and then you’d get it. If no one volunteered, they would just club the knees of some unsuspecting colleague and kill ‘em off. It probably goes without saying I am glad we are traveling on this trip in the 21^st century and not back in Cook’s time or before.)

Huahine

A Dog Eating a Coconut

We also rode our bikes to the sacred, blue-eyed eels that live in a river there. It was pretty funny because we were all hungry (and thirsty for some cold caffeinated beverages), but there was nothing in this part of the island. Just before we reached the eels, we asked a woman in the village if there was a grocery store or restaurant/snack bar of any kind and she said no. Out of luck! We were starting to lose Ryan who gets demoralized when he is hungry while bike riding, so this was not good news.

The Sacred River Eels

But there she was! As exciting and surreal as a genuine watering hole in a bleak desert, a woman sat underneath her shade tent with a cooler full of cold sodas and a Tupperware container of homemade chicken spring rolls! She also had these steamed bread pockets full of chicken and vegetables, and cans of mackerel to feed the eels. Hunger makes a good cook. Ryan had a spring roll and declared that it was delicious, and very politely asked if he could have another. After a Sprite and two spring rolls, he was back in business. The rest of us also had spring rolls and soda too (and Dan tried the steamed bread pocket.)   Importantly, we bought a can of mackerel for the eels.

Huahine Bay

We had to climb down a cement wall to get to the river with the eels. There were a lot of them. They were a little freaky looking, with their bright blue eyes, long bodies and their constantly opening and closing mouths. None of us fed them directly from our hands, but we did give them food and they jumped after it, sometimes getting into a scuffle with each other as they scrambled for their morsels of fish. All four of us got to touch the eels (finally) and then we needed to decide our next course of action. We knew if we continued around the northern island it would become extremely hilly. The man who rented us the bikes recommended that if we did decide to drive all the way around, we should walk our bikes both uphill AND downhill (because they were so steep). Our other option was to head back to town the way we came (which had pretty lake views). Steve and Lynda decided to head back to town, but given we are the crazy Gabiers who always choose to push ourselves just a wee bit more, we decided to continue around. What excuse did we have? We had caffeine, a few bites of food, and bikes for the rest of the day!

Our Bike Ride with Steve and Lynda

Ancient Marae Fish Traps

The hills were steep—VERY steep. We could not have ridden up those hills on bikes, even if we were promised a thousand bucks and a cold beer at the top. But we weren’t going to walk down the hills. No, we applied those hand brakes as hard as we could and rode down the hills like pros (with sore right hands afterwards). There is no such thing as a helmet in this corner of the world, so I was pleased no one got thrown over the bike’s bow (too much time on a sailboat). The ride was well worth it. The other side of the island was absolutely breathtaking!

Huahine Island Bike Ride

By the time we got back to town, we were out of water and in desperate need of ice cream. It was siesta but the grocery store stays open here during the day (what a pleasant surprise!). We got some Magnum bars and headed back to our boat for a shower and a very quick early dinner.

Why so fast? We were heading over to Paw Paw with Nina for Mexican Train Dominoes. That was a fun night! We started playing at 6:30 and ended up playing until midnight! Ryan ended up the winner out of the eight of us and he was excited. I think it was his “lucky poker chip” he brought with him from our boat. 😉

We had a few happy hours and a dinner at the Yacht Club Restaurant in Fare and then we were off to mid-island for a different view. We spent one night in this bay, which had a lovely beach that was maintained by a man who used to be a French Paratrooper and consequently received a pension from the government. He was now being paid to maintain this beach for passing boaters, etc. We kayaked into the beach with Nina and Paw Paw, this time taking Ryan’s metal detector with us. He and I searched the beach and ended up getting a few hits. One appeared to be a clump of something, but we could not figure out what. Ryan turned up the sensitivity on his metal detector and when it still went off, he said it had to be silver. Well, we got back to the boat and Dan decided to use a metal Dremel brush to clean the clump. Sure enough, it was a nugget of silver!

The Beach Half-Way down the Island where Ryan found his Silver

Hanging Out on the Beach

Ryan in our Kayak with Chickens on the Beach

The Bananas the Island Caretaker Gave to Dan

The next day we headed to the southern Huahine Island. The bay was in an area with a small resort and a decent sized beach. We went for a few walks in this area, had happy hour and a potluck lunch on the beach with our buddy boats, and had a very relaxed stay.

There was one dog there (still a puppy, really) who I just loved. He had a collar so I assume he had a home, but he was such a sweetheart! I wished I could take him home with me.

I loved this Puppy

Huahine was pretty, but it was time to move on. A storm system (lasting several days) was in the marine forecast, so we opted to depart to Ta’haa (about 4-5 hours away) the day before it was due to start so we wouldn’t get stuck too long in Huahine.   We are off again!

Someone Had Trouble Navigating the Reef.  Luckily, it wasn’t us…

Mo’orea was definitely one of my favorite islands so far on this trip. I am not sure if Dan and the kids felt the same way, but I really enjoyed it. It was incredibly beautiful, quite protected, and the waters were clear and perfect for swimming. The great thing about these Society Islands is that they are mountainous with fringing reef. So you have an island, but then you have almost a full circle of reef around the island offshore. This means you must go through a pass (where there is no reef) to enter the interior of the reef and get to the island. It is great for cruising because the reef protects the boats anchored or moored inside. Here, you get the best of both worlds. You have great mountains for hiking (and great land topography) but you also have amazing sea conditions to swim, snorkel, dive, etc.   I think this is what most sets French Polynesia apart from the islands of the Caribbean. In the Caribbean, you usually get one or the other—an island with great beaches, white sand and crystal clear water (like Culebra), or a mountainous island with less spectacular beaches (like Dominica).

Mo’orea

The only negative about Moorea is that there was no real central town. There were a few extremely small villages and some streets scattered with shops and restaurants throughout the island, but near the anchorages there was not too much.

A Movie Was Being Filmed Right Near Our Boat!

We swam with wild stingrays (and black tip reef sharks) twice—once with just our family, and another time with Paw Paw, Nina and Cattiva. There is a local man (Albert) who has been feeding the stingrays on a sandbank offshore of the island (but inside the reef) for 40 years and so they come on their own to this area every day. The first time we went, we anchored our dinghy in the very shallow part of the bank. We had a handful of rays swim right up looking for food. We also had at least 15-20 black tip reef sharks swimming around the outskirts as well. It became clear the stingrays were the bosses; the sharks never came in TOO close looking for food! We were the only boat there at first and we weren’t sure exactly how to feed them the sardines but we figured it out. They really loved Dan and seemed to be all over him. He fed them under their mouths and occasionally he would get a nip from them. No teeth, but their “gums” were pretty strong. At one point, I released a sardine into the water and a stingray came at me.   For some reason, it freaked me out a bit and I (stupidly) decided it was better to run backwards towards the sharks than to be accosted by a stingray! Ariana laughed as Dan got it on video.   The next time we went, we tied up to a mooring ball and we were in deeper water. There were MANY more rays this time, and they were more aggressive, but the sharks were further away near the shallows. Dan again had stingrays all over him and got nipped a few more times. Nina, Paw Paw and Cattiva all very much enjoyed it as well. This time Ryan was actually brave enough to get in the water too!  The photos don’t capture it as much as the video, which is included in a separate post.

Snorkeling with the Rays

In Moorea, we also visited the Tropical Garden Café/store a few times. It required walking up a steep hill, but once you arrived, you had amazing views of the bay.   The woman who owns it also permits visitors to walk through her garden where she grows vanilla, fruit trees, plants, a pond with lily pads, etc. She sells homemade jams, ice cream (vanilla and taro which is a purple vegetable much like a sweet potato), vanilla, and pareos, and on Fridays, she has a set lunch at 11:30 with many traditional foods. The first time there, our family went alone and had some of the best ice cream we had had in quite some time. Homemade ice cream with homegrown vanilla—you can’t beat that! Ariana ordered the taro, which was also really good. We also went back with Nina, Paw Paw and Cattiva for the Friday lunch. It was great to try their traditional foods, although one of the fruits reminded me of the moving slime in the John Cusack 80’s film where he falls for the French exchange student (and gets chased by the paperboy saying: “I want my $2!). I can’t remember the name and I know it’s off-topic but I swear I thought this gel-like fruit was going to slither off of my plate. What the heck was the name of that movie?

Tropical Garden Cafe

Eating homemade vanilla (with vanilla grown on premises) and taro ice cream at Tropical Garden Cafe

The Gardens

The View

The Vanilla that is Grown at the Cafe

Time two at the Tropical Garden Cafe with Paw Paw, Nina, and Cattiva

The Meal

A Pineapple Growing on the Side of the Road near the Cafe

Sweet Kitty!

In Moorea, we also attended a traditional Polynesian show (with fire dancers) at the Hilton Resort, and went to a fruit distillery. Here, you could sample fruit juices and spirits made with fruit and they were VERY good! We ended up getting some coconut liquor and pineapple juice (and watermelon/passion fruit juice for the kids).

Polynesian Dance Show at the Hilton

Moorea Juice Place

Tasting Fruit Liquors…

We rented a car one day and travelled around the entire island, which was also nice. It really was a beautiful island.

View from the “Belvedere”

Mo’orea was Beautiful!

Growing Pineapple

A House on Mo’orea–not typical but certainly unique!

A Cute Fish Hanging Out in the Shallows

Maria on Cattiva had Ari and Ryan over to her boat for a French lesson. The kids enjoyed their time with her; she is a very good teacher and I think I learned more about French pronunciation listening to them tell me what they learned from Maria versus everything else I have tried!

Dan took a ferry back to Tahiti to pick up our Iridium Go Satellite phone, and upon arrival back in Moorea, we went over to Heidi 2.0 for drinks and snacks (with Daniel, Cecile and Raphael).

Barbeque on the Beach with Paw Paw and Nina

Finally, Dan and the kids went canyoning. That sounds benign enough, but it entailed hiking and rappelling down five waterfalls (one over 35 meters—115 feet!).  (There is footage of them rappelling in the Mo’orea video.)

I thought about going canyoning with them but figured I would probably have a heart attack or a stroke on the first rappel. Instead, I had a relaxing day at the Hilton using their Internet, and having lunch with a glass of Chardonnay. No heart attacks or strokes for me!

Dan and the kids had a great time and weren’t scared at all. It was a good thing they were all wearing helmets though. While they were hiking (not the rappelling part), Ryan slipped on a wet rock and fell back and hit his head hard on a rock. He had a sore bottom for a day, but thanks to that helmet, his brain is still in one piece and he doesn’t seem to have any new head dents.

So we had Ryan’s fall, and we also had another incident: Ariana’s electrocution. Yup, it’s true. We were leaving the Hilton dock one night in our dinghy and Ari was untying the boat. She immediately pulled her hand back and said it felt like she had pain going through her hand. She has never been shocked before (even with 110 volt—let alone 220 volt) so she didn’t know what it was. She thought it was her hand having pain (possibly from using her computer at the hotel). Anyway, she tried removing the line two more times and again, the same thing happened. She started to cry a little bit. Of course, we never would have let her touch it a second time if we had any idea what was really happening, but we had no clue based on the way she described it. Finally, I went to remove the line and same thing—I got zapped too. I immediately told Dan that Ariana wasn’t having hand pain; she was getting shocked! After that, we saw two wires hanging down under the dock, and these wires must have electrified the metal cleat our painter was tied to. We were so relieved that Ariana was okay.   Two hundred twenty volts definitely feels a lot stronger than 110, that’s for sure.

Early the next morning, Dan called the Hilton to tell them. I can’t imagine if those wires had gotten loose enough to reach the water. That wouldn’t have ended well for people swimming there…

Aside from the kids’ brushes with possible trauma, Moorea was absolutely wonderful. Another island in Paradise, but it was time to move on. Next stop, Huahine!

Wow, it sure does take a lot of Internet time to upload a 2 minute video!  This is Mo’orea, in a nutshell…

We arrived into Tahiti on the 27^th of April after a two-night sail. The ARC paid for two nights at the downtown Papeete Marina and we ended up staying in the marina for four nights. It was quite rainy for the first few days in Tahiti, which apparently, isn’t typical of Tahiti at this time. After a day of exploring some of the city in the rain, we weren’t much in the mood for attending the happy hour/prize giving for the ARC. We went to the Robert Wan Pearl Museum that day and it was fairly interesting. We learned quite a bit from the museum but his collection of Tahitian Pearls was way overpriced! Dan bought me a belated birthday gift of a Plumeria flower and a peacock colored Tahitian Pearl back in Fakarava (the young woman who owned her own nice shop made all of her own jewelry) and I was happy to see nothing at all similar to my necklace here in Tahiti.

Another day we went with Widago and K1W1 Beanz over to the InterContinental Resort on a day pass to use their facilities and have lunch. In part, we decided to do this for Ryan’s birthday so he could hang out and swim and play football with the other ARC kids. It was a fairly relaxing day and lunch was very good. It was like a Mongolian Grill where you choose everything you want to eat but the meats were fresh tuna, mahi, steak, and chicken rather than that “dried” type they typically offer back in the States. The kids had a lot of fun.

Before we left the marina in downtown Papeete, we decided to organize a dock party and invited all of the ARC boats that were still there, as well as a few non-ARC boats. One non-ARC French man knew barely any English (about as much as my French) but we found a common language—Spanish! So not only was I able to communicate the fact we were having the dock party but when he actually came, we spoke Spanish that evening too. A lot of people showed up that night (including some kids for our kids), and some of us stayed out way too late. That was a really fun night.

After that, we decided to head southwest to another area called Taina. There is a marina, which we ended up going to for about 4 nights to get some engine work done, and a nice anchorage with a bunch of mooring balls. We ended up choosing one that was in shallow water with a sand bottom—very inviting for swimming…and not a shark in sight! We rented a car for 24 hours and purposely had it dropped off at 4 pm so we could catch an English language movie that evening and use the car for sightseeing the next day. We went into Papeete to see “Secrets in Their Eyes” (in English with French subtitles and it apparently came out in America last year) and it was nice because we haven’t seen a movie since St. Lucia when we saw Star Wars. What’s funny is that here in Tahiti they only have an English movie on Thursday at 5:30 and one showing on Saturday as well. Every other day and time you’re out of luck! We also ate dinner out that evening.

The next day we used the car to tour the island. We took it up to the Belvedere viewpoint after getting some breakfast. The restaurant up there was so pretty and the view was spectacular, but since we weren’t yet hungry, we just had a drink. I was happy; they had a friendly orange tabby cat, and a beautiful, clean bathroom with a gorgeous open view (and good soap AND toilet paper—rare in a lot of places in Tahiti!). What more can you ask for? While we were there, the folks from Nina arrived which was also quite nice, so we stayed and talked with them for a while before moving on. Our next stop was the James Norman Hall Museum. He wrote: “Mutiny on the Bounty,” the story that was eventually turned into a few movies (one during his lifetime and one later with Mel Gibson). He was American but he married a woman who was half-Polynesian and lived for several years on the island of Tahiti. They had two children, and their daughter decided to recreate their original house and make it into a museum in honor of her father. We learned that Captain Bligh had tried to organize a mission to obtain breadfruit to feed the slaves back in the Caribbean. He eventually was successful but not on this voyage, since, as the name suggests, his crew (headed by his friend Christian Fletcher) staged mutiny because life on Tahiti with topless women was more enticing than sailing. Eventually, breadfruit made it to the Caribbean in 1799 as a result of a subsequent Captain Bligh mission. We tried breadfruit back in the Caribbean, but at the time, we didn’t know it wasn’t native and we didn’t know this story. It was actually pretty interesting to “connect the dots” with this Mutiny and our travel experiences.

The view from Belvedere

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Isn’t this funny?  Well, maybe it is just my sense of humor…

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The restaurant’s kitchen at the top of Belvedere

Orange Tabby!  

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Hanging out with the Folks from Nina!

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The view from the Loo!

One night in the Taina area, the folks from Paw Paw and Nina came over for happy hour and we ended up going to dinner with Nina at the marina restaurant. Widago came down to the marina via car and had dinner with us one night as well. Another day, Widago brought their boat down for a night prior to heading to Moorea. The kids all hung out together while we went out for happy hour with Guy and Ali (and met their friend, Chris, who is captain of the yacht that belongs to Google’s founder). After happy hour, everyone came back to Do Over for dinner but I nearly “poisoned” everyone with these SUPER hot peppers I had on the skewers and in the Greek salad. They were so hot! Widago left the next morning to head to Moorea. They are staying on the ARC for the whole circumnavigation so they had to keep moving ahead. Our kids got along very well with their three boys, and it was nice because Ariana is the same age as their oldest, and their two younger twins are only about nine months older than Ryan. It was sad to say goodbye because we won’t see them again until we get back to the States. They lived in Florida but intend to move to the mountains in Idaho after returning to the States; we’ll have to make a trip out west to catch up with them after so long!

Other than that, we took a bus into Papeete another day to take care of some errands (getting New Zealand dollars as we thought we were going to go to the Cook Islands, some parts at a hardware store, a dive computer battery, and a polarized lens for our nice camera).

We moved into the marina after another day or so to get our engine work done. Dan knew exactly what the issue was, but he did not have the equipment/tools to move the engine up from the compartment to access the upper oil seal on the sail drive. The Yanmar mechanics were able to complete the job in only one day, which we were definitely not expecting. We were also able to get our main sail and jib repaired here in Tahiti as well. We are back to square now!

While we were still in the marina, Cecile, Daniel and Raphael (from Heidi 2.0) took a cab down to our marina and had dinner with us on our boat. They are a French/Swiss couple with a 13 year-old son. Raphael speaks very little English but Ari managed to find a few games they could play without having to use too much language.

Finally, we ordered an Iridium Go Satellite phone, which will not come in for about 10 days, so we decided to leave Tahiti and head to Moorea rather than wait. Dan will likely take a ferry back to Tahiti to get it out of customs (it is only 10 miles away by boat and the teens on Moorea have to attend high school in Tahiti everyday so it is a typical commute). Duty taxes are pretty ridiculous. You have to pay 35% on top of the cost of the item, the shipping AND the insurance amount. So basically add about $450 onto what we had to pay for the phone to begin with.

So, now we are in Opunohu Bay, Moorea, thoroughly enjoying this island. Tahiti was nice for its shopping and movie theater, but it was too crowded, too full of traffic and not as you picture a beautiful, tropical, Polynesian island to be. Moorea, in contrast, seems to be the “happy medium.” It is mountainous with great reef, and I can’t wait to explore everything here.  

Stay posted!

If you read our post about our “stowaway” from the Galapagos (a small reef Blenny that was stuck in our engine filter 100 miles offshore who would have died if we had put him back in the ocean so far offshore), you may have wondered if we released him back into the wild yet.  Well, Lucky Lenny the Blenny is still happily living with us, eating shrimp fish food, and flake fish food.  We have been taking care of this negatively buoyant little fish since the beginning of March and have grown quite attached to him.  We plan to release him back into the wild in the beautiful Fiji reef before we sail to New Zealand.  (You cannot take any pets into New Zealand and I don’t want the officials to hurt our little buddy.)  So, every day when we leave our boat to go to land, we put his tank underneath our outside table and block the sun’s ability to warm his water by strategically placing our outdoor pillows near him.  (If we left him inside the closed-up boat, his tank would get too hot.)

Can you tell our whole family misses having pets?  We keep talking about how we are going to get two cats, a dog, and possibly some chickens when we return to the States…and every island dog and cat we come across has to deal with our petting and attention (and sometimes food handouts!).

Currently, we are in Moorea, French Polynesia but we are headed to Huahine, French Polynesia tomorrow evening.  We will update the blog with Tahiti and Moorea soon!

Warning: This is the most boring blog post ever written if you: (a) aren’t interested in how a family provisioned for a three week passage out to sea, or (b) have no interest in the food habits of a semi-normal/semi-abnormal family out to sea most likely getting crazier and crazier by the day (well, maybe that was just me because I had to cook so much. Where is pizza delivery when you really need it?)

This is what we ate for three weeks. I wrote it down to help me keep track of what I already had used up and what I still had available to feed my family.   You’ll see that my kids ate very unconventionally for breakfast some days, but that was what they wanted to eat so why not? I also baked additional goodies for snacks (cake, coffee cake, etc.)   And in hindsight, I realized I ate a heck of a lot of grilled cheese and grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches–many more than I would ever eat normally.  I guess that’s what tastes good to me now when I am out to sea…

Day 1

Breakfast: Croissants with jam

Lunch: Turkey ham (they have that in Latin American Countries—“ham” made from turkey), avocado, tomato and chips

Dinner: pasta with vodka sauce and veggies (broccoli, zucchini, eggplant), bread

Day 2

Breakfast: Dan: hard boiled eggs and toast, kids: cereal, me: breakfast scone

Lunch: Tuna salad sandwiches (adults) with lettuce and avocado, and turkey ham sandwiches (kids)

Dinner: Chicken with risotto (adults), kids ate leftover pasta with vodka sauce

Day 3

Breakfast: Dan: hard boiled eggs, Ariana: chicken with risotto, Ryan: “breakfast chili” (canned turkey chili), me: breakfast scone

Lunch: Pasta salad with vegetables and vinaigrette

Dinner: Rice and beans, (Dan and the kids also had turkey hot dogs)

Day 4

Breakfast: Dan: Fried eggs and turkey bacon, kids: Pasta Salad, me: cereal and turkey bacon

Lunch: Dan: Pasta Salad, Ariana: Broccoli cheddar soup, Ryan: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, me: Thai soup

Dinner: Ground turkey tacos with carrot, with guacamole, refried beans, cheese, lettuce and tomato

Day 5

Breakfast: French toast and soy sausage (All of us)

Lunch: Knorr Parmesan and Butter Noodles (All of us)

Dinner: homemade turkey chili, rice, green beans

Day 6

Breakfast: Spinach, cheddar, bell pepper omelets, and home fries (All of us)

Lunch: Kids: chicken rice soup, Dan: nothing, Me: cheese and crackers

Dinner: Green curry shrimp with broccoli, zucchini, and green onion (adults); chicken burgers, rice and beans, broccoli (Kids)

Day 7

Breakfast: Cereal and homemade banana muffins (All)

Lunch: Dan: turkey ham and cheese sandwich; Ryan: peanut butter and jelly sandwich; Ari and me: (chicken vermicelli soup with carrot)

Dinner: Pasta with veggies and feta cheese in a white wine, caper, butter sauce (adults); kids: same thing with ground turkey and minus the wine and capers

Day 8

Breakfast: Egg, turkey bacon and cheese croissant breakfast sandwiches (all)

Lunch: Ari: leftover pasta, Dan: leftover curry shrimp, Ryan: leftover homemade turkey chili, me: cheese and crackers

Dinner: Chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, creamed corn, peas

Day 9

Breakfast: Dan: Breakfast sandwich, kids: waffles, me: small bowl of Rice Krispies

Lunch: Ryan: grilled cheese sandwich, Paula, grilled turkey ham and cheese sandwich, Ari: leftover chicken, mashed potato, stuffing and gravy, Dan: sandwich

Dinner: Chicken, beans, bell pepper and cheese quesadillas

Day 10

Breakfast: Ariana: Bagel, Dan: cereal, Ryan and me: nothing

Lunch: Dan: turkey sandwich, Paula: Cup-O-Noodles, Ryan: peanut butter sandwich, Ari: leftovers

Dinner: Homemade southwestern bean burgers with chipotle mayo and seasoned French fries (and cake for dessert!)

Day 11

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, home fries

Lunch: Pasta Salad—a new batch with the veggies that are still good to go

Dinner: Falafel, tzaziki sauce, couscous with feta and tomato, homemade Naan bread, Ryan –substitute falafel for a hot dog

Day 12

Breakfast: Croissants with honey (kids), plain yogurt with vanilla and granola (the kids and me)

Lunch: Pasta salad (all but me); grilled turkey and cheese (me)

Dinner: Pasta Puttanesca (Dan and me); Kids: Pasta Alfredo with carrot.

Day 13

Breakfast: Pancakes, turkey sausage links

Lunch: Kids: grilled cheese; Dan: grilled turkey ham and cheese; me: leftover pasta puttanesca

Dinner: Pressure cooked chicken, black beans, corn and salsa over white rice with avocado

Day 14

Breakfast: Quesadillas with scrambled egg, black beans, turkey sausage and cheddar (all but me); me: Cheerios

Lunch: All of us had either leftover falafel meal or chicken/black bean/corn/salsa meal

Dinner: Lasagna made with penne pasta (on the grill) and garlic bread

Day 15

Breakfast: Cereal (Dan and Ari); Ryan and me: peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Lunch: Chicken noodle soup (kids and Dan); me: potato chips and onion dip

Dinner: Pork fried rice with frozen peas, carrots, corn and green beans, and rolls

Day 16

Breakfast: Ryan: cereal; everyone else did not eat

Lunch: Grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, but Ryan had a wrap

Dinner: Pasta pesto with ground turkey; salad that consisted of cucumber, tomato, green pepper and feta with Italian dressing (basically the last of the fresh vegetables!)

Day 17

Breakfast: Dan: ham, eggs, toast; Kids and me: eggs, black bean and turkey bacon taco

Lunch: ? I did not eat lunch. I am not sure what others ate.

Dinner: Homemade chicken stew with biscuits

Day 18

Breakfast: Dan and the kids: turkey sausage, egg, and potato tortilla, me: a biscuit

Lunch: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Dinner: Salmon, Wasabi mashed potatoes, sautéed cabbage and carrots with soy (adults); kids: hot dog and pasta with butter

Day 19

Breakfast: Dan: toast and cereal; kids: toast, me: nothing—maybe just extra sleep for breakfast! (My favorite breakfast)

Lunch: Leftover chicken stew and fruit

Dinner: homemade tomato and jalapeno pizza on the grill (cheese for the kids)

Day 20

Breakfast: Eggs, turkey bacon, and potato pancakes

Lunch: tuna and carrot wrap (me); kids: grilled cheese sandwiches; Dan: leftover pasta

Dinner: Chicken with raspberry glaze, chicken rice and snake beans (long green beans)

Day 21

Breakfast: ?

Lunch: ? (I didn’t log this—I just want to get into port!!!!!

Dinner: Chicken, bean, rice, cheese burritos. We arrive at 2 am after this. Yippee!

By the time we arrived into the French Marquesas, the thought of almost all food sort of sickened me. I have no idea why. So it was sad that my first meal there was the most terrible, fatty, dark meat, (and fried) chicken sandwich I have ever ordered. I say ordered because I didn’t actually eat it. The French Fries were VERY much appreciated though! J