After very busy day on Wednesday, we relaxed in the morning on Thursday. We did our early morning walk to the local store to get some bread, but they were out at the moment. A new batch of baguettes would be delivered at 10:30. We went back at 10:15 and they asked if we had reserved any! Thankfully, the woman we had talked to earlier had saved us a couple.
After breakfast, we split up a bit. Jason and Lara took Coconut and went to do a scuba dive. Meanwhile, the rest of us took Tahina out for a sail. The winds were pretty strong – about 20-25 knots – so we were double-reefed. But, we had a nice sail just offshore from Moorea doing up to 9-10 knots. Gerard loves to sail, and we hadn’t had a real sail so far. So this one was for him. But, even Patti was getting into the spirit of the ride.
The night before, during the happy hour on the beach, some of the boaters had found out I have a degree in astronomy. They asked if I could give a talk to the kids about the upcoming solar eclipse the next day. They also invited us to a pot-luck dinner for boaters in the anchorage. I ended up giving a talk to the whole group of about 50 people and kids. I especially enjoyed involving the kids by picking three of them to play the parts of the sun, moon, and earth. After my talk, several people came up to ask for more details and I showed them the map of the path of totality on Google Earth (see earlier Tahina post on the eclipse). We all enjoyed the potluck dinner and the bonfire afterwards.
Earlier in the afternoon on Thursday, Jason offered to give Patti a basic introduction to scuba diving. Jason has been a dive master for several years. This was a real accomplishment for Patti who before coming hear had a bit of a fear of the water. On Friday she finished the introduction with a dive to 30 feet and even watched a sea turtle feeding on a reef!
The next day, we planned to move east to a new anchorage. Patti and Gerard wanted to go to a restaurant for their anniversary. We left mid-morning and moved over to Cooks Bay. We had a nice spot with the anchor in shallow water, but the back of the boat over deeper water. Some of us spent part of the afternoon cleaning growth off the bottom of Tahina. We have the big trip to move to the eastern Tuaomotus to see the eclipse – right after Patti and Gerard leave on Saturday. It took four of us about 2 hours to get it all cleaned off.
In the evening, we all got ready to go ashore. The rest of us planned to find a different restaurant while Patti and Gerard had their anniversary dinner. But, first we had to find a way to shore. We forgot to plan a way ashore before it got dark. On our first attempt, we ended up getting trapped briefly in some shallow area, but managed to get the dinghy back out. We went back to the boat and looked things over in Google Earth. We also called the restaurant to get directions (Gerard spoke to them in French). We still got off the proper pass and caught up in shallow areas. 15 minutes later, we finally found a dock next to a resort like what was described to Gerard. Two locals helped guide us to the right spot with their flashlight. Unfortunately, they told us we had gone to the wrong place! We needed to go the OTHER direction in the bay! They told us how to get back, but even so, we still made a wrong turn and got stuck on a reef briefly. We then went all the way past Tahina again another 3 miles and finally found the right place. Yay!
Gerard and Patti had a nice dinner. We asked someone what was nearby and they pointed us to a pizza place. This was a bit of a weird pizza joint right on the street. They had bar stool seating, but they didn’t sell alcohol – not even beer! But, the pizza was good and we were all happy with the choice. We went back to the restaurant and ordered some dessert while waiting for the others to finish their dinner.
We needed to get to Tahiti so we could get things going early in the morning. So, we left Moorea and 9 PM and sailed to Tahiti. We had a nice sail with 15 knots of wind. A couple of squalls came by and gave us more wind and we hit 12.5 knots at one point. I think Gerard had a great time. And Patti even seemed to enjoy it as well. She didn’t get queasy even though it was a night passage.
Today (Saturday) we plan to get Gerard and Patti off to Papeete so they can shop. Meanwhile we will be trying to provision the boat for our 2-3 week trip for the eclipse. We need to leave as soon as possible, so it will be a busy day! We have a bunch of photos to upload, but the Internet is being slow. I have managed to add a bunch of photos to the two previous albums posted on Moorea. It may be a while before we can get the photos up, because we are likely to not have Internet while we are in the eastern Tuamotus. They are very remote.
Sounds like you guys are having lots of fun. Can’t wait to hear how the eclipse goes. Only about a week away. I’m on Kitt Peak (as usual) for 5 of the next 8 nights, assuming the weather cooperates. Start of the monsoon season is upon us, so observing is more of a challenge.
I’ll be off to Florida on the 23rd for the non-launch of Endeavour – it was scheduled for the 29th when Karri bought her tickets and was delayed about 2 days later, so we’ll have a nice FL vacation instead.
Jim.