FARE DE NATURA
The name of the nature museum is made from words of 3 languages. “Fare” is the Polynesian word for “house”, “de” the French preposition meaning “of”, and “natura” is the Latin word for”nature”; thus “House of Nature”.

It’s a small museum in a very interestingly shaped building. It reminds me to a shell.

The content is corral reef and life inside of it, Polynesian culture, and the volcanic origin of Mo’orea.

Quite interesting and for me worth a visit.

COLD NIGHT
Recently we had a cold with temperature below 20 degC. How is this possible just 17 deg south of the equator? We had for days strong winds from S, and down there is the Antarctica.
Sleeping without additional blankets was on the limit. In the morning I wore a T-shirt, a sweater, socks, and my board shoes to cope with the low temperature.

The hot tea felt so good!

HIKING
As I like to hike to see more and closer somethings of an island I visit I went for a hike of 10 km. It brought me up to a nice view point called “Belvédère de Opunohu”. Partially I had to walk on the street, partially on a trail through a pretty wild growing forest.

When walking on a street I like to hitchhike because it gets me into contact with local people. Although my French is very limited it’s good to use it. On the way I got a partial lift and on the way down a pretty long one.

From Belvédère de Opunohu I had a good view over the main caldera of Mo’orea and the surrounding remaining peaks.. I also could look into the 2 main bays: Cooks Bay in the E and Opunohu Bay in the W.

On the walking part I saw “maraes”. Open air sanctuaries that serve as sites for religious rituals, social gatherings, and cultural ceremonies.

I would like to do another hike but the wind window opens for the sail to Raiatea, our last stop before Bora-Bora.

SUNSETS
Almost every night we had very nice sunsets. Because of the surgery southerly winds being deflected by the mountains, MaRe’s stern pointed pretty good towards the NW corner of the bay. We didn’t see the sun falling into the ocean, but the sky was tainted with beautiful shades of red ab orange.

SUPERYACHTS
The only obstacles we had when looking at the sunset sky where some bigger yachts. Big enough to have their own helicopters on board.

I smiled a bit when I recognized that from the deck of the owner, on one boat the view is not an undistorted one outside to the wide ocean but on to the chopper.
When we passed these boats, we always saw the crew being busy all day long with cleaning.

There were also 2 pretty big sail yachts among them. We saw one of them sometimes outside of the outer reef of Tahiti were they almost 100 % just were motoring instead of using the sails.

WIND, WIND, WIND…
One of the prominent characteristics of the last days until today was the wind; we had plenty of it. Typically 5 Bft with gusts into the medium 6 Bft range. As MaRe’s anchor holds very well, I enjoyed the charging by the SuperWind wind converter. One day, we had in the evening the batteries almost filled to level at which I stopped the genset the night before. Thus no generator needed at all. In the other nights we had to charge with the genset only a bit. I love my SuperWind!

In one night, when we also had rain, the wind was so strong that I had to close the side windows of the my head (toilet & shower room). This window I always keep open when I’m in a bay or marina. When rain comes in, it’s no problem because it accumulates in the shower sump where I pump it out when full.

However one night, the wind was so strong that it carried spray of rain water into my cabin where I felt it on my naked feet. It was the first time in all my sailing years on MaRe that I needed to close this window.

WHAT SHALL I DO WITH THE DRUNKEN SAILOR?
Another night, I suddenly heard voices close to MaRe. Too close to be voices from a neighbor boat. I got up to see what’s going on. I was shocked.

A man was sitting on the lowest step of the stern. When I ask him what he’s doing here I didn’t understand the answer but understood immediately his condition. Drunk to the gills! I checked where the boat is, with which he came, but there was no boat. He came swimming. He missed his boat and climbed up at the stern to have a rest.

When I asked him from which boat he is, he pointed to one, where I had my doubts because there’s young couple on board. He apologized and slipped back into the water and swam directly to the boat to which he pointed. He appeared to be a good swimmer. I illuminated as good as possible the boat.

Shortly after he slipped back into the water, I heard that someone not far away tried to start an outboard motor. After about a minute they got it running. As they saw the light of my torch they came with their tender closer to MaRe. They didn’t stop but continued to the other side of the bay. The bay is about 700 m wide. I could hear that they followed the shore line for few hundred meters. I pointed my torch for a moment to them, and then back to the boat where the totally drunk sailer was swimming. I kept repeating this.

After a few minutes the tender changed directions and headed to MaRe. The totally plastered sailor I didn’t see anymore.

When the tender arrived and stopped at MaRe I saw a couple drunk as well. I learned that they where looking for their friend, the completely drunk swimming sailor. I explained what I experienced just minutes before. They wanted to go back to there own boat. We agreed they give me a light signal when their drunk friend is on board.

I was relieved when after 1 – 2 min later they sent the light signal and went to bed again.

The next morning I saw that the or anchor dragged during the night. Fortunately with a sufficient distance to MaRe and other boats. Being drunk is never good!.

At the end they went into the crowded anchorage at the east side of the bay’s entrance.

WHALE WATCHING
As it’s the beginning of the season that the humpback whales are on front of Opunohu Bay, we decided to ask the tour operator about when and what it costs.

“Yes, on Saturday it’s possible to make tour. The price of 130 USD per person.” was the answer we got. This price was on the limit what I can bear. I took it. On Saturday, 0830, we need to be at their dock and docking our tender at their dock is free. What a generous offer.

After we organized this, we went with the tender to the eastern anchorage at the bay’s entrance. Just for curiosity to see how it is there.

Beside the emerald green water caused by the sand at 5 – 10 m water depth, there is nothing special. To the east there over-the-water cottages of an international hotel chain with an artificial white sandy beach. The natural sand here is black because it is of volcanic origin.

However, there was a nice surprise; we meet Alex & Sabrena again. They have quite a few friends on board these days.

The way back to MaRe was against wind and waves. To not get wet, we sat on the floor of the tender. Thus, we reached MaRe without wet cloth.

Part 2 follows.

… of the Te Fare Natura, “The House of Nature”, looking outside into the rain.

This morning, before breakfast, looking at the deep hanging clouds creeping slowly through the valley, Sabine asked me when it will rain. My answers was, when we go ashore early, it will rain early… I’m the best weather forecaster of the day!

The House of Nature is only open Wednesday through Sunday; and today it’s only Monday. Lucky, aren’t we?

Looking at the rain I feel we have to go back to the tender in the rain, board the dinghy in the rain, dinghy back to MaRe in the rain, lift the tender in the rain. A rainy day in paradise!

This morning, when I went into the cockpit I was wondering about a 12 – 15 m motorboat extremely close to the shore at the end of the bay where the water is supposed to be very shallow. Through the binoculars I could see that the boat is not moving in waves. Thus it was beached.

It didn’t take long and 3 smaller motorboats with powerful engines arrived at the scene.

It was quickly to be seen that they came to pull the boat off of a rock or bommie where it got stuck. After about an hour they got the motorboat floating again and they pulled it to place about 1 km NNW from us.

When they passed we could see that the boat wasn’t used for a long time and that 3 pretty thick lines at the bow snapped. I think they aged in the sunlight.

All the boats at anchor in the bay were lucky because no sailboat was hit by the motorboat drifting by in the wind.

Yesterday, when we dropped the hook, there was just too little wind to align the boats around us somehow to see if the distances to the other boats are sufficient.

During the night the wind came and aligned the boats. Perfect distance to all boats around us.

Then, maybe around 0600, rain came as well. At about 0830, the rain became so strong that we closed the cockpit at STB side. Therefore, we had a dry breakfast and the cockpit was dry on STB in general.

The wind came as forecasted from around ENE and was typically around 12 – 20 KN with gusts of up to almost 30 KN.

MaRe hangs at her anchor and swings between SSE and SSW. Waves built up almost half a meter.

We saw only 1 dinghy leaving a boat and going to the shore. Unfortunately we cannot see the dinghy dock because of other boats.

Due to the wind & rain we looked in our documents and check on the web for information about snorkeling, hiking, rental car, etc. We found quite some information but, at the end we decided to ask other sailors for information to verify what we found. However, for doing that, we want to have less wind and less waves!

The bay with the surrounding remnants of a caldera looks completely different compared with yesterday’s appearance. Today, fully covered grey sky, clouds are hanging that low, that the peaks of caldera are covered in clouds. A kind of mystic landscape reminding me more to hikes in Scotland than to French Polynesian landscape.

(I don’t use the word hill, because a hill has smooth slopes, the remnants of a caldera are very craggy.)

The benefit of the wind is, that my SuperWind charges the service batteries nicely!

After a nice sail over from Tahiti we are now at anchor at the end of the Opunihu Bay, Mo’orea.

There are on both sides of the bay’s entry shallow but deep enough anchor area. However they are first crowded and second unprotected from winds from E, N, and W. Thus, I decided to go to the end of the bay. The first drop of the anchor was not good. No hold. The second drop was good. At 20 m water depth I gave almost 90 m of chain.

The bay is nice. Especially in the afternoon light. The hills, remnants of a caldera are covered with lush green. The coconuts trees on the east side and a few other trees reflect the sunlight creating a step contrast to the green around then. It’s peaceful here.

Around us quite some boats. Among them most likely a Polynesien style built catamaran but with a schooner rig. I most likely meet them – father and his 2 sons – in Tahauku Bay on Hiva-Oa. I’m curious to see if they are the people I know.

When we left Tahiti we thought we finally escaped the party-boats with their bum-bum-techno music. Mistake. Big mistake! Here comes the same noise from land. I want to go out at sea where I only hear the wind, the waves and MaRe.

What will we experience here?

Surprisingly the wind has, since we are outside the reef, increased to 5 – 6 Bft. Already towards the end of the passage inside the reef the wind increased.

Just when we reached the open water it went up to 4, 5 Bft.

Now we sail with an AWA of 120 125 deg STB about 5.3 KN.

I hope the wind stays like this.

Early in the morning I went into the water for about 2 h and cleaned the hull from the normal precipitation partially. This gives already an increase in speed. In the next days I’ll clean the rest.

Curious where we will anchor at Mo’orea. 3 anchorage areas are in the Opunihu Bay (north side, the western of the 2 big bays.)

And we had a change today.

At the fuel station in Marina Taina they have a lunch break for a bit more than an hour, therefore, we changed plans and dropped the hook again at the airport anchorage.

Tomorrow morning we take off early to arrive early at Mo’orea.

The last days I was very busy getting MaRe ready for leaving Tahiti. The new route goes through the Society Islands (Mo’orea, Raiatea, Bora-Bora) and then N to the Line Islands off the Kiribatis group of islands and then S to the Samoa Islands.

Yesterday, we finally could make our tour around Tahiti by car. I’ll write a separate narration about it.

Tomorrow will lift the hook, go S to Marina Taina for refueling and then head N and go out of the reef through the pass of Pape’ete towards Opunohu Bay at Mo’orea.

All day long was sunny with southerly winds of 5 Bft with gust well in 6 Bft range.

With sunlight on the solar panels and the SuperWind wind converter the service batteries were charged very well. Even using 230 V from the inverter für a while, the service batteries were more charged then the day before when I stopped the generator.

In morning we also had a bit of rain and it was COLD. It was the first time that I thought pants, the ones with long legs, would be nice. The temperature drop was caused by wind blowing from south, from the Antarctica. We both were a bit surprised about this temperature drop because we are only about 18 deg south of the equator. However between us and the Antarctica there is only the wide southern Pacific Ocean and no land mass. During the day it got a bit warmer and the thought about a long leg . In the evening I decided to take my shower inside. It’s the first time that I took my evening shower inside since a very long time. Actually I don’t remember when I took my last shower inside.

Because of the rain in the morning I could not work in the engine room to avoid getting rain inside.

Thus, I first worked on the new aluminum angles for attaching the hydro-generator. I had to take the measure from the old angle. It was a bit tricky but I could find good reference points. After a part of the work was done, the rain stopped and the sun came out.

I graped the chance to finish work on the genset. One side enclosure needed to be attached, which means working again on a pretty uncomfortable position. Once this was done I could clean the genset again and attached the quick access panels on top and on the front side. After checking the level of the freshwater cooling circuit, work on the genset was done.

I went back to work on the hydro generator. To make a long story short. At the end of the day I could make a test installation on the hull internal support plate and all fitted. Now I need a windless day to mount all outside at the stern working from the dinghy. “When do we have the next quite day?” This question went through my head because the weather forecast shows strong winds the next days.

The anchorage area got pretty crowded in the last 2 days. In the late afternoon a single-handed sailor arrived with a monohull of about 45 ft. He was looking for a spot to drop his anchor for more than an hour. While working on my hydro-generator I could indicated him a spot west of us but he didn’t like it. At the end three young guys from a boat with 12 people on board, jumped their tender and gave him a hand with anchoring. We saw that his anchor it’s dropped at a spot a bit further away.

For me, getting two important things done it was a day with good results.

At the end we had a new creation of a meal: rice with white beans and small pieces of chorizo in a sauce on coconuts milk base. Pretty good!