Sailing Evenstar

 After having our inter-regional departure refused there was no question of staying longer in the Papeete floating slums... It was time to move, even if to somewhere a little closer.   So we decided to show Zac some of beautiful Moorea. We had a cracking sail and experimented with our windward angles in preparation for our upcoming Tuamotus passage. Not great but not completely terrible. She's certainly no performance cruiser/racer.   We did a day of boat jobs in Cook's Bay. It's been a long journey but the list is getting pretty small and the last of the mod cons like watermaker, washing machine and deck shower are now functional. Once again we marvelled at the Cooks Bay micro-climate. It's as if it's not part of this island chain at all. And the water was dead still; so after a few rough nights, a good night's sleep was finally had by all.  In the morning we sailed to Haapiti once again. Multiple acquaintances do not diminish the  unbelievable beauty of this a

After farewelling Marco and having a few days in Papeete, we were pleased to welcome Zac, an enterprising fellow, the son of our old mates Adam and Nom.  Zac joined us with an expectation of a few days of repairs and then some adventure. Unfortunately this turned into a 10 day stationary blah marathon involving repairs to the boom, the watermaker, some new canvas, and endless (and mostly fruitless) trips into town for parts. All while on the anchor in the floating Papeete shantytown, often hideously rocking and rolling with the residue of the supersized swells pounding over the reef... What I refer to as the Papeete shanty town is in fact a crowded series of anchorages inside the reef around the airport. All manner of floating (and almost floating) craft, some of them overdue for the wrecking yard, and almost all of them home to either a solo wizened and crotchety old salt, a cruising couple of any age, or a young family. The vista is too beautiful to invoke a true sense of a slum, but

We motored back to Tahiti and said farewell to Finbar on Friday night. There were no marina berths to be had, so we anchored in amongst the floating shanty town to the south of the airport. Yachts everywhere in all sorts of levels of disrepair, it looked like a graveyard of boats and dreams; adventuring sailors down on their luck who had got this far across the Pacific, only to be trapped by Covid, equipment failure, and/or a lack of funds.  On Saturday we headed back to Cooks Bay which had a much better vibe. Then on Sunday, back around to Haapiti to see what the waves were doing. The conditions were a lot easier to deal with than last time we were here.   The waves were small but the long weekend party vibe in the water was big. Surfers of all stripes and levels of ability were out. Despite the relatively crowded waves,  friendliness was the main emotion on the water. You gotta love French Polynesia.  This morning I thought I'd chance the ribs and get out there after a slow yoga

Maybe later in the trip this could be the headline for a mutiny. Indeed, I have no doubt my faults and quirks will eventually and justifiably incite a latter day Fletcher Christian to consign me (at best) to the dinghy for a long row to Batavia. But that will be another story. For today it means that after many patient hours, and a lot of ribbing, Marco landed a fish. Not just any old fish, this was a beautiful Yellowfin tuna.   After a couple of dicey nights we left Haapiti this morning, when it was obvious that the complex weather system was only going to keep delivering a messy swell to the reef. It was time for somewhere new. We agreed Cooks Bay would make a nice change.  The high mountains on Moorea create unpredictable weather patterns. We had an interesting time exiting the anchorage, bashing out through the very small-feeling reef pass into the junky short period wave-on-current swell. As we headed north around the north west tip of Moorea, we realised that the prevailing wind

It's 9.30pm. We are all on edge and sleep is likely to be light and interrupted. This new-to-us boat has already presented a few challenges in the short time we've had on board. There are many unknowns yet to be revealed; we hope tonight will not prove to be another unwanted lesson in the pitfalls of inclement weather and an ageing craft.  Over the weekend we waited out the forecast monster south swell in Opunohu Bay on the north coast of Moorea. One of the postcard anchorages of the archipelago, it was idyllic and afforded me a chance to rest my battered ribs after a particularly violent encounter with the shallow reef at Vairao on Friday.   ; We motor-sailed westward around the island in perfect conditions yesterday, whooping our further good fortune in finding we had the beautiful stretch of water inside the Haapiti surf break to ourselves. We anchored politely to one side of the narrow channel about 1 mile south east of the pass and each made good with our various pursuits: