Sailing Evenstar

Since 1991 I have been quietly and intermittently worshipping at the altar of the true religion. I refer, of course, to the search for the remote and uncrowded surf break.  It has not been a single-minded pursuit. In more recent decades, the joys and satisfaction of marriage, family and career have taken precedence. But it is this underlying dedication to the faith, coupled with an uncomfortable (but not necessarily recent) realisation of my mortality, which has driven me to secure a well-found offshore sailing vessel, a set of surfboards, and to find my way to these islands.  At Tikehau I felt that I had finally and properly resumed this most holy of pilgrimages; albeit that the surf break at Passe Tuheiava was a teasing miniature vision of perfection, rather than the high octane rush I was looking for. It may not be the best surf break in the archipelago (although I suspect on its day it might be) and certainly it was not the biggest during my tenure there. But it is certain...

Rangiroa had a few must-do items which we didn't get to... But it was time to move on.  Tikehau is the next Motu to the west; it has a west-facing reef pass with a wave setup, and there was swell forecast to hit in the next couple of days. We set sail on the 9AM slack tide. The pass transit worked out well and we were at sail on the seven seas again. However, for once, the wind forecast was not understated; the downwind Easterly struggled to get above 12 kts. Our course was dead downwind, and we were operating under a jury rig for the mainsail... The relentless drone of the donk and the endless rolling that comes with downwind ocean sailing were not ideal.  It was time to deploy the new Code C Furling spinnaker. This turned out to be a thoroughly welcome downwind sail option, due to the hitherto unanticipated painlessness involved in deploying and recovering... just as per the brochure. Thanks Rolly Tasker Sails!  We fluctuated between motor-sailing and motor-free sailing...

It's been great to finally be a bit off the beaten track, although it's all relative. There are about 20 yachts in the anchorage just to the west of the Tiputa Pass. So while it's a bit of a road more travelled for the cruising sailors, it's a long cry from the crowds at Papeete.   After we got over our sail lag we signed up for a couple of dives. The local legends are the friendly family of Dolphins who live just outside the pass. We were lucky enough to make their acquaintance on our first dive. Super friendly, Mirra is the nickname for the one that came over to say hello, her name  means "eyes closed" in Polynesian... She likes to close her eyes when she gets a tummy rub... Zac is a pretty excitable diver, he uses up his Oxygen tank a lot faster than the rest of us.   He raced over, true to form, he was very keen to oblige.  The next day we thought we'd hire e-bikes and take in as much of the terrain as is possible. Apparently you can get around the who...

In Papeete we had seen an ad for canvas sewing... So we contacted Esther, by whatsapp. Good move. With her Catalan separatist husband Juan, they had raised their son on board their 1968 converted racing yacht, funding the lifestyle with her heavyweight sewing skill set and a Sailrite sewing machine. She built our aft sun shade, "wings" for the Bimini, sewed the fitted sheets using the Belgian Linen we'd had sent from Hong Kong to NZ, and even made up pouches for the loose spanners that had been doing my head in every time I needed one... We were anchored next to them so it was a very simple affair, although a bit like getting a wedding dress made, with multiple fittings of the partly completed work to ensure it was perfect. We complemented her very reasonable fee with a thank you evening of food and wine on board, learning a bit of Spanish modern history, and thoroughly confusing our budding French language skills by getting our heads half into pepperings of Spanish throu...