Weather Helmed

an adventure in renewing the spirit and living the dream…on a sailboat

Weather Helmed

Time Flies…

October 5th, 2010 · Cruising Must-Haves, Cruising with Friends, Fellow Cruisers, Fiji, Life on the Boat, Somebody likes us

Wow.  Our time in Fiji has gone by so fast.  I guess that’s what happens when you have good friends along for the ride.  In less than 2.5 weeks, we visited Beachcomber, Waya, Wayalailai, Navadra, Mana, and Manolailai islands and made a full circumnavigation of Naviti.  There were various reasons as to why we moved around so much but I think all that wandering around made the days fly by even faster! Now the boat is quiet and Matt, Jon and I are trying desperately to make up for all the sleep we sacrificed to hang out with our friends 😉  (Remember me saying that 9pm is “cruiser’s midnight”???)  But, we had such a fabulous time.  I can’t believe how EASY it was to have 6 of us on the boat.  Of course, I truly believe that had it been other people, it might not have worked out so well, but the 6 of us just all seemed to mesh and it never felt too crowded. Even our poor little head (i.e. toilet) handled the increased traffic like a champ!

Recapping our time here is difficult. I started writing a post that quickly turned into a short novel and then I remembered that I have asked G&A to write a guest post for my blog and I didn’t want to usurp their fun in recounting our experiences.  I need to go back and highlight *MY* favorite moments and throw in a few tips for future cruisers coming here, and then I’ll post about that.  Hopefully G&A can fill in the rest of the blanks.

Something that I did realize while everyone was here is that it’s great to see this life from their perspective and get a new appreciation for what we’re able to do. But – that said, I still found myself feeling incredibly restless and bored with the thought of swimming in the ocean and going snorkeling again (admittedly, we have become quite spoiled!).  And, apparently, when I get restless and bored on the boat, I bake.  While everyone was here, I baked (with the help of others sometimes) bagels, english muffins (twice), cupcakes, and bread. I also found myself very eager to do a lot of the cooking when it came to our meals.  It seemed like I spent all my time in the kitchen and when I wasn’t there, most of the time I wanted to be.  I’m sure that this is just a fad seeing as how there’s little else on the boat that can so occupy my attention, but I kind of hope that I can keep up this enthusiasm when we get back home and I have a galley that is larger than a closet.  But, it made me so unbelievably happy to have people to cook for (other than matt and jon, of course).  It was fun to have a reason to try a few new recipes and share our acquired boat cooking skills with our guests.  I can’t wait to have a little apartment again that we can open up for dinner parties.  Who wants to come over?!?!?! 🙂

Anyway, I am going through pictures (G took so many awesome ones!) and I suppose I should give G&A a few days to recover from their flight before begging them for a post, so I’ll get to that soon.  But, I will tell you that Fiji, despite the recent instability with the coup, etc., has some of the friendliest people we have encountered during our travels, the food is delicious, the water is beautiful, the islands are interesting, the villages warm and welcoming, and it is a place where you can easily spend a month and feel like you’re still not quite ready to leave.

But, *we* are on a tight schedule with cyclone season starting in just a few weeks, so we can’t linger here too much longer and today we must begin getting the boat (and ourselves) ready for yet another passage.

A fellow cruiser met up with us the other night for dinner and he was talking about how some of their cruising friends convinced them to do the puddle jump even though he was planning to go down to South America for the season.  They had been cruising together for a few years and as he was telling us about all of it, he said, “You know, it’s all about the people.  The islands will always be there – it’s about the people.”  I feel like I know that now, but I wish I had known that and accepted that truth back when we first started this trip.  Having experienced how awesome our time in Fiji has been being able to share it not only with G&A and A, but also a bit of it with IO and Totem, I can see how our trip may have been different had we traveled with friends along the way.  But, hindsight is 20/20 and all that’s left is to take that truth – it’s all about the people – and apply it to the future, and to the family and friendships we so often take for granted.

Thank you G&A and A for coming out to see us (and Fiji).  These were three of the most enjoyable weeks I’ve had on the boat! 🙂    

→ No CommentsTags: ······

Skype

October 4th, 2010 · Uncategorized

just a quick note to say that skype may be one of the best internet inventions EVER.

→ 2 CommentsTags:

*F*un *I*n *J*ungle *I*sland

September 27th, 2010 · Cruising with Friends, Fiji, Life on the Boat, Somebody likes us, The Crew

We are still in Fiji and have accumulated 3 new people.  Jon’s friend A and our friends G&A flew out from the states to be with us for a couple of weeks.  We’ve been having a great time – enduring rolly anchorages, watching dolphins play at the bow, snorkeling, eating at beautiful resorts, hiking with other cruising friends (finally met up with IO and Totem again!), making delicious dinners on the boat…  We’ve been quite busy.  We’ve already visited Waya Island in the Yasawas, and Beachcomber, Navadra, Mana and Manalolo in the Mamanucas Island group.  We are hanging out at Musket Cove Marina for a few days to RELAX and pick up a few supplies, including some fresh water.  Truth be told, I could stay here for another week and be content.  Excellent cheap food, pools, laundry, hot showers… the only thing missing is the ability to jump off the boat into pristine clear water.  That’s a short dinghy ride away.  It’s really quite nice here 🙂  And, it’s SO good to be with friends.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to have a boat full of people to cook for and how enjoyable it is to sit around the pool and laugh and talk and share stories with friends I love.  Our time with them is flying by too fast.

We are planning to leave here tomorrow and head up to Naviti and maybe the Blue Lagoon for the last few days before everybody flies out.

(Thanks to all those who have commented on The Bilge posts.  I know it’s all brutally honest and yes, I am one of those people who doesn’t mind baring it all on the internet.  Ha.  This trip for me has been more about dealing with all that stuff I wrote about and so, I think, including it is an essential part of this journey.)

→ 3 CommentsTags:

Treasures of the Bilge

September 16th, 2010 · Introspection, On Faith

At popular anchorages, there is usually a local VHF net that comes on in the morning, checking to see who’s arrived and who’s departing, inquiring as to whether people need anything, offering local services, and announcing events that might have meaning for the cruising community.  The nets also generally ask about “treasures of the bilge” – anything you might want to trade or sell.

On boats, the bilge can be a pretty nasty place.  It runs a good length of your boat, just under the cabin sole, and is the area that holds any water that leaks into the cabin, or oil from your engine, or spilled leftovers or liquid drainage from your icebox.  Sometimes the bilge can stay relatively clean, but other times it can get rather gnarly.  There are some cruising books that recommend using the bilge for storage of canned foods, etc. because it is a large area that goes completely unused a majority of the time, but be forewarned that when it gets bad, it gets really bad.  In fact, there was a guy in Emeryville who ripped apart the entire cabin of his boat to get to the stank that was draining into his bilge.

I started my blog a year ago, with the intention of using it to not just track our sailing “adventure” but also to record the spiritual insights/growth that I hoped I would experience while we were at sea.  Recently, though, there have been “serious” things I’ve wanted to post because I wanted to share some of the more personal things I’ve learned on this trip, but when I consider juxtaposing those posts next to ones about cleaning out the fridge or snorkeling a reef, it just didn’t feel right.

So – I am still going to post about my personal insights, but I’m going to put those notes on a separate page titled simply “The Bilge.”  I’ve realized that my spirit has been stuck in a very dark, dank, unpleasant place, but I’m slowly rediscovering the hope and beauty and inherent value hidden there, too.

→ No CommentsTags: ·········

Bula Bula Bula

September 14th, 2010 · Fiji, Our Route

“Bula” means hello or welcome in Fijian.  It’s a fun word to say 🙂  And, what’s even better is that the Fijians say it a lot.  Everywhere we go people call it out, shout it out to us or say it kindly as we walk by.  They are probably the friendliest culture we’ve encountered yet.  Then again, some of their ancestors used to eat our ancestors for kicks.  Hmm….

We are now at the lovely, touristy Denerau Marina (aka Port Denerau) just outside of Nadi.  The ferries to the resorts on the outer islands come in and out of here so there’s a little center geared towards tourists, but we are enjoying it right now.  Awesome burgers at the Hard Rock Cafe, with guacamole… YUM.

As we entered the marina channel here yesterday, we ran aground (were in less than 6 feet of water).  Oops.  Matt was fast-thinking and hopped in the dingy (which we had towed behind us) and grabbed our stern anchor, Jon led it over the bow roller at the front of the boat and Matt dinghied out to drop it down.  Using the anchor as a “solid”, stable point, Jon then worked to pull the boat towards the anchor.  We “kedged off” in this way in maybe ten minutes!  Quite a quick exit to a rather embarrassing event, but oh well, it was bound to happen sometime.  The channel is EXTREMELY narrow and the reason we were out even a bit off-center in the first place is because this huge catamaran ferry ran us down at 10 knots and it seemed like we needed to give them a bit more room.  Grrr.

As we came into the marina, it became obvious that we would be the smallest boat around and clearly the dirtiest.  There are several huge fancy yachts berthed here. We had barely got into the slip and turned the engine off before a dockhand approached us and asked if we wanted them to clean the boat.  I laughed out loud.  I have no doubt that our dirty, shabby little boat is bringing down slip fees as we speak.  Ha.

BULA FIJI.

→ 1 CommentTags: ·

If the foothills of the Sierras had palm trees…

September 12th, 2010 · Fiji

They would look just like the mountains of western Fiji.

We arrived in Lautoka, Fiji  (on the west side of the main island, just north of Nadi) on Saturday and just got checked in with customs/immigration today.  Our anchorage sucks.  It’s very industrial and each night we’ve got ash scattered on the boat from the nearby sugar cane mill (at least i think that’s what it is) and we go to bed smelling this oddly bitter sweet stench also from the mill.  The water is pretty gnarly and it’s a bit of a let down to be here after coming from beautiful Tonga.  (Just noting this because NONE of our cruising guides or info from other people warned us that Lautoka was like this.  So, FYI cruisers.)

BUT – the flip side is that there are $15 1/hr massages and $6 facials at the local salons and a curry cafe on every corner!! 🙂 plus, huge supermarkets that are calling my name….

Internet here is sketchy, but I just wanted to say HI!

Our “spot” check-in is working again (scroll to the second image on the page), so when you are bored at work, you can track us as we move around the islands.

→ No CommentsTags:

Heading to Fiji

September 4th, 2010 · Passages

We are off to Fiji.  It feels strange to say that when I have spent my whole life dreaming of being on this side of the world and vacationing in Fiji.  It has always sounded so exotic!  Now the cruising community we’re part of uses it in such casual conversation that it feels like we’re simply driving to another US state. Some friends are flying in to meet up with us and we’ll have SIX people on the boat.  I’m thrilled to have company but the “hostess” in me is thinking about the details of accommodating everyone in our *very* limited space.  I think it will be fun though and I’m eager to have other women onboard!  We should have a 4-6 day passage to Lautoka/Nadi on the far west side of Fiji, depending on our winds.  Keep your fingers crossed that our engine repairs hold up!!

Fun fact:  We have crossed the international date line already (we are now a full day ahead of the US) and will cross longitude line 180 right before we get into Fiji.  At that point we will have theoretically gone as far west as we can go, and we will change over to going east!  Meaning, our longitude will no longer be increasing to the west (i.e. 176 degrees west, 177 degrees west) but will start decreasing from the east (i.e. 176 degrees east, 175 degrees east) until we got to Greenwich – if we were going that far.

→ No CommentsTags:

Neiafu, Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga – a break from the sea (sort of)

September 4th, 2010 · Beautiful, Boat Work, Our Route, shoe-cruising, Tonga

Vava’u is beautiful.  We arrived fairly late in the day, dropping anchor in the lingering moments after sunset in a small cove just shy of the main port of Neiafu.  I woke up the next morning and instantly fell in love with Vava’u – birds singing and chirping, clear blue water, and lush green tropical islands.  Strangely, though, what I liked most about the whole area is that it didn’t feel at all like we were out in the ocean.  To me, the small part of Vava’u that we’ve seen reminds me more of being on a lake up in the mountains.  I can’t explain that odd feeling except to say maybe it has to do with the fact that, for the first time since leaving San Francisco, we cannot see the open ocean and, for the first time since leaving San Francisco, I look around and we appear to be land-locked.

I just now realized that.

We cannot see the endless, open ocean.

For the first time in a very.long.time.

And it’s really kind of nice.

I’m such a mountain girl.

Anyway, Neiafu is a pretty little town and has much more of a community feeling to it than any of the other villages we’ve visited in the south pacific.  (Cruisers: see my notes below the pics.)  Granted, the community we are seeing is not exactly true Tongan as the water front is stocked with palangae’s, i.e. foreigners.  Most of the business owners here are Australian, New Zealand, British, American.  It’s only when you get away from Neiafu to the other islands or the inner villages that you get a glimpse of “real” Tongan life.  So, although we’ve spent a week in Neiafu, I hold no perceptions (??) at all that we have actually experienced what Tonga is really like.

But, I have to say that it has been interesting talking to some of the business owners here about their lives in Tonga and it has been wonderful being in a town with so many cafes!!!  The restaurant that owns the mooring we picked up is called The Aquarium Cafe and it has a great dining balcony, reasonably priced food, the friendliest staff anywhere on the waterfront, kind owners who will stop and chat you up, and free wireless internet. Thus, it has served as our “base” this last week.  No matter where else in town we wander or hang out, we always ended up back at the Aquarium where the staff and owners greeted us with knowing smiles.  We didn’t even have a place like this back in San Francisco!!  It’s been… comforting to have somewhere to go where we can just order a coke and hang out all day, reading our books or checking email.  We’ve also enjoyed time at The Crow’s Nest Cafe, which Matt says has the best coffee in town.  We had showers at the Giggling Whale & Thirsty Turtle and chowed down on the best burgers at The Sunset Grill.  YUM.  And, New Zealand ice cream – WOW.  We haven’t had any really good ice cream since leaving the states.  Mexico was ok, but the south pacific has been disappointing.  Then again, it’s not like ice cream is part of the native diet.  But, NZ does it RIGHT as we’ve learned here in Tonga, where most of their food products come from Oz or NZ.

And what *I’ve* learned is that long passages, like the one we had from Huahine to Tonga, are hazardous to my health. When we finally arrive in a place like Neiafu, we – I – feel all too justified in gorging ourselves on “fresh” foods – which means anything that doesn’t come out of a can and isn’t cooked by one of us.  Oh, the calories I have consumed this week!!  And now we’re getting ready to head to Fiji and are already dreaming of the delicious Indo-Fijian curries awaiting us.  Oy. I need to control myself.

Sadly, our time in Tonga is going to have been spent almost entirely in Neiafu.  I say “sadly” because as much as I like hanging out here, Vava’u is a “cruiser’s paradise” because there are dozens of other little niche anchorages on the other 40+ islands with all kinds of caves to check out and awesome snorkeling and diving sites. The exhaust manifold on our engine sheared off on our way from Bev. Reef and the guys managed to rig it together enough to get us to Tonga.  But, it came apart again while we were here and that resulted in a few more problems.  So, the guys have spent a very frustrating week stuck in the engine room for hours on end.  With our friends flying into Fiji in just a few weeks, we have to get it fixed and get going.  The guys think they’ve finally got it all figured out and the engine is slowly getting put back together but it means that we are just about of time to explore the other islands.

I guess it means we will just have to come back here again in a few years and charter a boat   🙂

Vava’u, really, is a place you shouldn’t miss.  (And, for non-cruisers, seriously – skip Fr. Polynesia and pay a little bit extra to fly here.  It’s cheaper than Fr. Poly and, I think, more beautiful!  Of course, if you’re not into diving/snorkeling, it might be a little boring, but then again, a good vacation can also be spending the afternoon in a hammock with a book or taking weaving lessons from the locals, right?)

Here are a few pictures from Neiafu.

our anchorage the first night

most of the islands are undercut limestone

the dinghy dock at The Aquarium

The Aquarium Cafe

at The Aquarium - I'm gonna miss this place!

Cruiser’s Notes:
Getting into Neiafu is very easy.  There are lead lines/lights on the hillside that you can line up for entry to avoid any submerged reefs and guide you into the harbor.  The lights are very bright red at night and coming in at night would be ok except 3/4 of the boats in the mooring field wouldn’t have anchor lights on and it would be pretty hard to see.  There are several anchorages on the way into Neiafu, so if you arrive just before dark, you could spend the night in one of those instead of heaving to outside.  Also, the northwest side of Vava’u, the largest main island, has a relatively shallow shore that you could anchor along (20-40ft) and in S/E winds, you would be well protected.  Make sure that you arrive in Neiafu on a weekday! If you arrive during the weekend, you could end up spending the whole time on the Q dock or run the risk of incurring various fees from customs/immigration, including $20 (tongan) for the officials’ overtime.  There is currently no schedule of fees and while we were here, boats experienced numerous discrepancies with fees.  Some had wine confiscated for no reason, others were charged $50T for departing on a Saturday and then later told to be glad it wasn’t $100T.  We were charged no departure fees.  Immigration is free if you arrive on a weekday, but we checked in on a Saturday and were charged $20T per passport plus $20T for overtime.  Someone else told us that Customs or the Harbor Master charges $7T when you leave the harbor, but he didn’t charge us anything.  So, get a receipt for EVERYTHING that you pay for.  We heard from the local business owners/tourism officials that if you feel like it isn’t right or that other boats experienced something different, you can go to the police or back to immigrations/custom and get a refund – but only if you have proof of payment first.  Other than those issues, checking in/out was a fairly informal, easy, quick process, but be prepared for the officials to take their time and if customs tells you to return the next day for immigration, don’t be surprised if immigration tracks you down at dinner later that night… (yeah, that happened to us. Oops.)

→ No CommentsTags: ··

Going where not even Google has gone… Beveridge Reef (Aug. 19-23)

September 1st, 2010 · Adventures in the Dinghy, Beautiful, Our Route, Passages

After a loooongg nine-days of sailing, we finally spotted the white spray of breaking waves far off in the distance.  This was our first glimpse of Beveridge Reef, a partially submerged coral reef in the middle of the ocean. As we got closer, Matt pointed out the lagoon, a flat shimmering line just beyond the horizon.  We could see a flash of silver as sunlight reflected off a wreck located on the eastern edge of the reef.  We were only a few miles from the pass when I turned my head just in time to see a humpback whale breach far out in front of us and then I suddenly started to see spouts everywhere!  There was a group of whales up ahead of us and we were treated to a (distant) show of huge flukes and flippers.  There were a few spouts much closer to us and every once in a while we’d catch a glimpse of a black shiny back as the whales slowly moved west.  These were the first whales we have seen on the entire sailing trip so I was quite excited!!

The pass was quick and simple, but we had done our research – it could be all too easy to end up on the reef if you didn’t know exactly where you were going (see my navigation notes below).  We anchored just to the southwest of the pass inside the lagoon.  There is a white sand shelf that runs all around the inside of the reef and we dropped the hook in 10 feet!  The max depth of the shelf appeared to be about 12-13 feet before it dropped off swiftly to 30.  At one point, Matt commented that if, for some reason, we dragged anchor, we could probably float all across the lagoon and would catch ourselves on the far shelf before hitting the reef.  I laughed and said, well if we drag anchor off the shelf, we’ll just have a 3:1 scope instead of a 10:1!  But the holding on the shelf is excellent.  The only place we encountered potentially dangerous (aka shallow) coral heads was at the north side of the reef and even then, we easily found a large patch of sand where we could anchor and swing around without hitting anything.

We were the only boat in the lagoon (!) so we had our choice of anchorages. The first anchorage we stayed at, just to the southwest of the pass, was nice and the best part was that I could sit on the foredeck and watch some whales frolicking just on the other side of the reef!  The snorkeling there wasn’t all the awesome though.  We went closer to the reef and there was some interesting stuff, but overall I was disappointed.  There was very little live coral but it was fun to play with the fish.  Jon had taken the dinghy over to the south side of the pass to see whether it would be good to dive/snorkel there.  He said the current was pretty strong but it could be a good place to explore.  So the three of us went out there the next afternoon, Jon with his dive gear and us with our snorkels, and it was pretty sweet.  The pass is full of underwater canyons and this was the first time Matt and I had seen this kind of geography, so we were quite impressed!  There were hundreds of fish, but not much variety.  We saw lots of 2.5 ft long parrot fish and schools of large silvery fish. There were a few sharks wandering around too.  The current was really strong and I’m not exactly the best swimmer – even with my fins! – so I hung onto a dinghy line and just floated around.  Not moving that much, though, I ended up surrounded by dozens of fish that were hanging out just below the surface.  I would turn slowly and be face to face with a fish!  Matt was videotaping the scene and Jon as he dove and we spent a good hour out there not going more than 20ft from the dinghy.

The second place we anchored was on the eastern side of the reef next to the wreck (a 35ft fishing boat).  We went and explored that but the swell coming over the reef and the shallow depth in that area made it impossible to snorkel or drive around with the dinghy.  We tried snorkeling around our boat the next day but the area was mostly sand and the only interesting thing we saw was a sting ray.  Plus, we were exhausted within minutes trying to battle the swell.

After one night there, we decided to take the boat to the north western side of the reef just for the day to check out the north side of the pass.  The lagoon is only about 3 miles east-west, so moving around isn’t a big deal.  We anchored again in 9 feet of water, coming close to running aground at one point as the depth meter read only 7 feet!! Our draft is 6.5!  We turned around and went back to the “deeper” area and it was quite strange to feel comfortable with less than 5 feet under the keel!

We dinghied out to the northern side of the pass and were trying to find a place to anchor the dinghy.  The second time I stuck my face in the water to look around, I found myself surrounded by flashing fish and sharks! I signalled to Matt and came up, eyes wide, saying “Wow! That is awesome! Wow! That is awesome!”  We threw out the dinghy anchor and hopped in.  We were in a narrow canyon-like area and there were at least two dozen sharks and thousands of fish hanging out in the current.  We stayed around there for about an hour, watching the sharks and chasing the massive schools of fish.  It really is incredible how they all turn and group and move at the same time.  Their innate choreography is amazing.  How do they know?!?!  Even though there were more sharks in this water than anyplace we’ve been before, I told myself they weren’t interested in me and I actually let go of the dinghy line and ventured farther out.  The current was so strong though, that I eventually went back just to rest!  After we got “bored,” we decided to drift through the pass.  We retrieved the dinghy anchor and then headed further into the lagoon just to the edge of the pass.  We then held onto the dinghy and let the current push us.  This ended up being rather unexciting.  We saw more fish/sharks/cool geography in the other two areas than we did going across the whole pass! It’s like the current pushed us through the least interesting path.  By that time, Jon had run out of air in his scuba tank and we were all cold, so we went back to the boat and headed across the lagoon again to anchor on the north side of the reef.

As we headed over, we saw a pod of dolphins crossing the lagoon.  It was a bit tricky coming in because there were a significant amount of coral heads, indicated by dark shadowy spots on the water.  Most, if not all of them, were easily more than 10 feet below the surface but when the water is so clear, one’s depth perception is seriously thrown off.  We carefully motored onto the sand shelf and again set the anchor in 10 feet of perfect sandy bottom.  For snorkeling purposes, this was the best place we went to.  Easily the most spectacular coral we’ve seen on the entire trip!!!  We took the dinghy out a little bit closer to the reef and checked out some of the larger coral heads.  We found a large coral garden and it was amazing.  I can’t get over how pretty the coral can be.  The colors, the variety… This one, too, had a greater variety of fish than we had seen around the other anchorages and there were moray eels hanging out in their dark little holes along the outer ridges.  Most of the coral there was too shallow for us to snorkel over it, but there were a few narrow paths into the garden and we snuck in and thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be fish 🙂   We went fairly early in the day and it was so pretty to see the sunlight reflecting on the coral.  It made the colors shimmer like a rainbow.  I’ve never seen anything like it!!

We were fortunate to have relatively good weather for the four days we were there and we also happened to have a full moon, which just made the whole scene that much more awesome at night.  To wake up at 2am, go on deck and see nothing but ocean for miles under brilliant moonlight and know that we are safely anchored in 10 feet?!!?!   Yeah.  🙂

We knew we had to get a move on, though, and we had seen just about everything there was to see (uh huh!), so on the 5th day, we took some cool underwater video of the boat and then packed up and headed for Tonga.  Matt should be posting the videos from Bev Reef one of these days….

This shows the shallow sand shelf around the edge of the reef and the deeper blue is the steep drop-off to 30ft+

Matt snorkeling on the edge

another view from the spreaders

anchored in the middle of the ocean

_____________________________________________________________________

***Navigation Notes  (waypoints are in degrees decimal minutes)

Arriving from the east, we kept this waypoint to port as we sailed around the north part of the reef:
19.57.008 S, 167.46.006 W

We turned left into the pass at waypoint: 19.57.394 S, 167.47.433 W   (sorry, I don’t have our heading!)

We anchored at the following waypoints (in less than 15 feet and as little as 9 feet):
20.00.74 S, 167.46.67 W  (in the lagoon, just south of the pass)
20.00.013 S, 167.44.64 W  (on the eastern side of the lagoon, near the wreck)
19.59.507 S, 167.46.137 W  (on the western side of the lagoon, north of the pass; we anchored here just for a few hours, but the holding was fine – all sand – and would be good in westerly winds although I don’t remember whether we were so close to the pass as to have that portion of the reef be a potential issue)
19.58.921 S, 167.44.617 W  (north end of the lagoon, more coral heads to watch out for but best snorkeling!)

We had consistent winds while we were there, but varying from NE/E/SE.  Swell was minimal, but it did seem to sneak over the reef a little bit, particularly on the eastern side.

**Matt and I have used Google Earth a lot over the last couple of years to check out places to camp so it was no surprise that we have been using it to virtually explore islands before we sailed to them.  In fact, Matt came across a program that allowed him to impose our navigation charts over a google earth image.  This has come in handy to check how accurate our charts are and to “see” where we can anchor, any obstacles to watch out for, etc.  Well, when we were in Huahine and researching Beveridge Reef, we checked Google Earth and to our shock, Google Earth did not have images of the reef.  Yeah – it’s that remote and bizarre.

→ 1 CommentTags: ·

Huahine, our last stop in French Polynesia (Aug. 6-11)

September 1st, 2010 · French Polynesia, Our Route, Society Islands

For us in the US, it seems Bora Bora is the posterchild of the South Pacific.  Initially, we thought we wanted to go there just because, well, it’s Bora Bora.  But, several cruisers that went there had mixed reviews of the island as a cruising hang-out.  It was expensive, there were lots of resorts and tourists, and the anchorages weren’t all that awesome.  I was also less inclined to go when we learned that some of our friends had their laptop stolen from their boat while they were off enjoying a local parade.  Suddenly, Bora Bora, while probably a fantastic vacation spot when you’re laying by the pool at your 5-star resort, just didn’t seem as enticing to us anymore.  But, we weren’t sure we were done with French Polynesia yet and people had told us that Huahine was nice, so we left Moorea for the next island to the northwest.

Huahine (pronounced who-ah-heenie) is one of the lesser known “leeward” islands of FP, but it is no less beautiful.  We anchored in the little bay at Fare, the main town.  The water was quite clear and the town front very inviting.  There is a bar/restaurant right at the water’s edge near the dinghy dock, a surprisingly large grocery store, two “roulettes” on the wharf serving burgers and baguettes, an open area for locals to sell their fresh-caught goods, outdoor public showers, a small cafe and hostel, and several gift shops just on the main street.  We didn’t explore too much beyond that as it rained most of the time we were there.

The one thing we were disappointed with was the snorkeling.  Matt, Jon and I all went out and wandered around various areas in the bay and we never did find a great snorkeling spot.  Several other boats were anchored farther south along the island and may have had better luck.  Ideally, had we had more time, we also would have hopped anchorages, but we needed to be moving west.

Huahine is beautiful and I would highly recommend it for those looking to get away from the more touristy islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.  I don’t know what the hotel situation is like there, but if you want to “get off the beaten path” of the traditional hotspots, Huahine would be a good option!

Sadly, this is one of the few photos we have of this lovely island.  It seems the farther west we go, the fewer pictures we take.  I’m going to try and remedy that!

→ No CommentsTags: