Plastic in the Pacific Crusade – Society Islands Storms

by Ian Thomson on 12 Mar 2016 2016 Plastic in the Pacific Crusade - We left the Tuamotu’s really hoping to get back, however we had been told by other cruisers that the Society Islands had a lot to offer. One friend said that Raiatea and Tahaa, which are surrounded by one reef, were the best islands in the Pacific. Another said the diving in Huahine is just as good as the Tuamotu’s, and then of course you have Tahiti, the place people dream of and home to the world famous Teahupoo surf break, not that we’d be surfing.

We left Fakarava with northerlies forecast which was to be a straight beam reach. It looked simple on the forecast but what the forecast didn’t tell us is that northerlies bring stormy weather and whilst it looked straight forward, it proved to be one of the most difficult trips we’d undertaken. It seemed that Susky did not want to leave the Tuamotu’s either. At one stage a storm came straight at us from the West and saw us having to put all sails away and steam into it at just two knots for a couple of hours until the wind passed and backed to the north once again.

The last eight hours of the trip we were sailing into the wind, hard on the nose, not like our original, or even our current, forecast had suggested. However short trips like this gave me an opportunity to finally break the ‘arriving at night’ hoodoo. And we did, arriving into Tahiti at 1435 in the afternoon.

We steamed in through the main channel to the north and there was a lot of brown water as it had been raining a lot and the run off was insane. It definitely wasn’t the azure waters you see in the brochures, but it was wet season so we can’t complain. The main obstacle was not the reefs, it was the floating trees and logs. I differentiate between the two as a log is one thing but when a full tree goes floating past, that’s another. Neither are good to hit. We steamed around past the airport, gaining clearance at each end of the runway from the port control as you are so close you would easily be in the way of any plane landing or taking off.

Just south of the airport on the west side of the island is the Intercontinental hotel with those bures over the water you expect to see in these islands. We had a chuckle when in the rain there is a couple on their balcony. She is lying on the sunbed under cover whilst he is staring into the water at what should have been the reef. Instead it was muddy brown water. I’m sure it wasn’t what they expected.

We anchored near Marina Taina. There are three mooring fields but on the northern side of the marina, land side of the channel you can anchor if you want to. Moorings are cheap at US$80 per week, but anchoring is free so we went with that option. That afternoon we checked out the marina to find no free Wi-Fi, not even in the Pink Coconut bar. It ran by a system where you pay for hours with a couple of different companies for options. It was not cheap at US$5 an hour but we had no option. Reception on the boat was poor so we didn’t bother the first day, we simply went back and cleaned up a little bit and settled in for the evening.

The next day and the rain was still hanging around. We went to the local chandlery and they were very helpful in giving us information we needed. Priority was to get Annika to a doctor. There was a local doctor at the supermarket just 500m down the road so off we went. The shopfront was very small in a very large complex but it was the first thing we came to. We met the receptionist and were told the doctor did not speak English. We still proceeded thinking we should be able to work it out one way or another.

We walked in and as we start speaking he puts his hand up as if to say wait. He then punches away on the computer and then turns the screen. Google Translate! So we had a doctor’s appointment where all communication was by computer. I was hoping I wouldn’t have the problem we had in Nuku Hiva where a translation came out totally wrong and instead of mentioning a marine creature it came out with the equivalent of smoking Marijuana!

After a short while Annika had her prescriptions and we were off to the pharmacy across the hall. Annika was in heaven. It had all the girlie stuff too like nail polishes and skin care and whilst Annika is by no means a princess, she does like her girlie things occasionally. After that quick shop we went to the Carrefour and it was huge. It had everything and was the closest thing we had seen to our home supermarkets. If Annika was grinning when she was in the pharmacy, well I must have looked like I was a kid in a candy store when I was standing in the meat section. Quality meat, mostly from New Zealand, including angus beef, it was amazing. I would have a good steak that night, the first proper steak I’d had in a very long time.

We also bought our internet, 11 hours each for US$80. Not cheap but the website needed updating as did Facebook and our social lives. When I sailed around Australia I found that when I had internet access I was in a better head state as I could keep up with the world. I had basic internet on the boat through the satellite connection but it was awfully slow. However I was able to get sports scores and emails. Annika didn’t have this so when she was on land she would use the internet to get in touch with her friends and talk on skype. I’d use the land internet to update the website, send stories to Sail-World.com and speak with mum.

Back on the boat and that is what we did, although the internet was pretty slow. The next morning and we woke to the sound of a lot of wind through the rig. A storm front came through and one boat reported wind gusts of 65 knots. Two boats dragged anchor, one wrapping itself around a moored boat, another drifting out amongst the moored boats before the wind changed and sent it back towards the superyachts at the marina. Luckily it got caught on one of their anchor chains before it made it to the boats themselves.

Another yacht on a mooring had his headsail unfurl and whilst I really wanted to help him, our boats safety was paramount and getting into a dinghy in those winds with our 2.3hp outboard was not a wise idea. I could easily flip the boat and end up in more trouble. Unfortunately for this guy, obviously an inexperienced yachtie, his headsail had unfurled in two different ways. The top half one way and the bottom half another and it was well and truly wrapped. He couldn’t furl it so it was flogging and as the boat was now effectively sailing on its mooring, it was a pretty awful situation for the owner who was by himself onboard.

He couldn’t get it down and he unfortunately made a bad choice by disconnecting the tack. His thinking was probably that he could unwrap the bottom half and pull it down. There was no way he could hold it and the flogging sail started working its way up the forestay. So now the power was flogging even higher, a more dangerous situation. Eventually he let the halyard go, something that should have happened immediately. Slowly but surely he got the sail to the deck and as he finally wrapped it up, the storm had passed. Our only issue was that the wind was too strong for the brake on our wind generator. It over-road the brake and was turning so fast I thought it would disintegrate. I was very hesitant to go near it as if a blade got thrown it could be lethal. In one short lull I took the chance and got to the wind generator as the blades were spinning slowly enough to stop it by hand. I then tied it up for the duration of the storm.

After the storm, Justin, a young American guy sailing a 30 footer solo came over. His anchor had dragged and he was the one wrapped around the other boats mooring. He had seen we were divers as we had tanks on deck and asked if we could help. So after securing our vessel we headed over and I went down and retrieved his anchor that he cut during the storm to clear the other boat.

It was easy to find and as we were pulling it up into the dinghy a French guy Christian paddles over in the most flimsy rubber boat I’ve ever seen. It was deflating and taking on water but he came over to help anyway. His two inflater hose inlets had beer bottles sealing them, that’s how bad this boat was. His boat just happened to be the other boat that dragged and he was paddling out to his boat which the marina had moved to a mooring. We got Justin and his anchor back to his boat and then went over to Christian’s boat and his anchor had been set loose too so we went on a mission to find it.

In the middle of the channel I dive down solo as Annika couldn’t dive because of her ears. With little visibility and 20m+ deep I didn’t feel safe so took a quick look and got back to the surface. We went and got Justin to dive with me and we went on a search but failed to find the anchor. We would try another day when the visibility was better. Later that week we would donate our small 2.1m dinghy to Christian in return for a case of beer. At least he would have a better dinghy to get to and from his boat.

In part II of this report we bring you bad news.

Ocean Crusaders are out to change the way people treat our oceans. Our online education program is free to download at Ocean Crusaders website where children can learn of the issues our oceans are facing and how they can make a difference. The Plastic in the Pacific Crusade is about educating the South Pacific Islands, finding out what is happening in these islands and updating our programs. You can join us in the Pacific and see for yourself what we do.

Ocean Crusaders Plastic in the Pacific Crusade is proudly supported by: Cressi Dive Gear, Gill Marine, Keen Footwear Australia, Barz Optics Sunglasses, Maxsea Navigation Software, Digital Diver Cairns, LED Dive Lights Australia, Boat Names Australia, Predictwind Weather and Sail-world.com.