Sailing in French Polynesia – Sailing with Saphir

Papeete Stockholm Papeete

We saw Tahiti for a few hours and enjoyed the view. Around lunchtime we arrived to Papeete and moored at Tahina Marina. On the way in we saw many nice houses

Edgar and Chris went to clean out all the salt that had come in to the engine room and and some other fixing. I took out the sewing machine and fixed the sunscreen for the front off the deck.

It is a nice to be in harbour for once. Just walk of the boat and you have land under your feet without going in to a dinghy which can be very hard and scary sometimes when it is lots of waves. This harbour had a lots of swells due to the current so we have to make sure we are well moored. Don’t want to bump in to any other boats or the pier.

We have the mechanic man on board. Feel sorry for him in this heat to be in the engine room. He takes out the part that is broken and comes back later in the afternoon to put it back and make sure it is fixed.

In the harbour is a nice restaurant that we went for dinner almost every night and to meet other sailers from the World Arc. We had dinner with Chris and Claus the last evening before Chris goes home to England. It was very nice to meet Claus again. He is also going home to Germany and have no plans of coming back to sail with Thetis as Chris have. We will see him again soon together with his wife Anne. Totally forgot to take pictures

The boat is organised and cleaned on the inside. Ready for our guest and to start our next sailing. First we have to go home to Sweden for the funeral of my dear mother-in-law. While we are away we have help to polish all our stainless steel. It do get rusty of all this saltwater. Not a fun job so happy someone else is doing it for us.

Even though the reason to go home was very sad we did have some lovely days with our family in the middle of the sadness.

On the way back to the boat we had 23h in San Fransisco. We took a cab in to have dinner at The Waterfront restaurantm. It was very good food and we had a great time.

At the Marina our friend Eva was waiting for us. She arrived the day before us and spent the night on the boat by her self. It was a bit challenging to find the boat dark and not much light and on top off that the taxi driver left her at the opposite side off the Marina. Then trying to get onboard when the boat is rolling due to extra high swells that came in. Good that she is use to be on a boat. The next day we tried to do some shopping in the big supermarket but it was closed luckily the other small was open so we could get a few things and best off it was that they had eggs.. this egg hunt and I guess it will continue. There is a lot off hens around on the island but they are wild and almost all eggs comes from New Zealand.

After the shopping it was time to explore the island a bit and we saw that it should be a beach not that far away. Our bikes came out and me and Eva went for a bike ride to find the beach. We did find one and had a nice swim although the current was really strong so we didn’t go out far.

Our friends came and collected all the things we brought from Sweden to them. It ended up with five bags in total from Sweden. Eva took one for us. Two Starlinks and that is two bags, one is for us and some other nice things from home. Now we will have easier internet when we are on the boat. Still need to have a sim card to the phone when we go ashore. The last evening we had some drinks with the crew from Misty and Amanzi before we had our dinner.

After breakfast on the 2 of May we got the Marina guys coming over to g help us with all the mooring lines and we are off to the neighbour Island Moorea. It will be a very short trip over. Only 4 hours.

Moorea her we come. We can see the island from the harbour so it is not far but we will anchor on the other side off the island.

Hugs Eva

Fakarava

The rain stopped and we decide to drive in to land and see if there was any shop opened even if it was Easter Day. We found one shop that was opened until 12.00. Unfortunately they did not have eggs but we got some bread (pain rich) and cheese.

Even if our Easter lunch didn’t have eggs we still had three different hearings, gravad lax, Swedish knäckebread, potatoes and snaps. The hearing and knäckebröd have traveled with us all the way from Sweden.

Me ,Chris and Rebecca went diving at the north entrance. It was two fantastic dives. I saw an octopus for the first time and a leaf fish. Would have missed them if it wasn’t for our dive master. The octopus melted in on the coral and the leaf fish really looked like a leaf moving in the water. There was a lot of other different fishes as well, many reef sharks and two mantras. I have seen mantras from land but never when I have dived. It was a WOW moment. The Mantras was huge, majestic, quirios and scared me when one of them came very close up to me. I was told from Chris and Rebecca that I had a two meter reef shark swimming next to me when I was concentrating on the mantra. I am very happy I didn’t see that. Don’t know what I would have done

Me and Edgar have bikes onboard so we decided to make a biking tour together with Chris and Rebecca. They rented bikes from the lady just next to the harbour. First we had a stop at dfhgh to have lunch with Alex and Andy. This was a very nice place . Love the bottles in the tree. Must be really nice in the evening when the lights is on.I will try that when I get home.

Edgar’s knee was hurting from the bike ride so he went back to the boat and me,Chris and Rebecca continued. We wanted to go to the coconut oil fabric but first we had a stop at Hinano Pearls where we bought a few pearls and jewellery. If we knew what we would learn on the trip we would have bought more from them. Price went up and not always so very nice pearls either.

The snorkling is fantastic. Not far from the boat is a coral head that I went with my supboard to explore. Although we could also just sit on the boat and enjoy all the fishes swimming around our boat. There was this strange sucker fishes that normally sticks to the sharks body and feeds off it. We found them on our boat hopefully we get our boat cleaned.

We had some very nice days on Fakarava and would have loved to explore more atolls but it is time to hoist the anchor and sail to Tahiti. Strong current on the way out but nothing that the capten could handel. Saw some windsurfers on the outside of the atoll enjoying the good wind .

When we have the engine on we know that we have to pump out some water that comes in due to a broken seal in the water pump. But pumping enough to cool down the engine. Edgar have already booked maintenance for that in Papeete in Tahiti. Chris went in to the engine room to check our water leak. He saw water on the port side. Which we have not seen before. Why didn’t that water go in to the bilge? Some where is a stop in the draining holes. We ended up emptying the sofa again and found the stop. It is good to have long thin bendable things for these things. The water ran out of the engine room and in to the bilge. Problem solved and now everything needs to go back so we can move around in the boat.

The rest of the sailing to Papeete was okey. Can’t complain about the sunset or the sunrise. Just after lunch we are moored at Taina Marina on Tahiti.

Hard to catch all the stars in the sky. They are there I promise.

Soon in Tahiti

Hugs Eva

Makemo island

It was a bit rolling night sail so we all sleepy little less then we hoped for. There was one that slept well on our boat. Luckily the bird found a nice spot that didn’t involved any cleaning up afterwards. Arriving to Makemo early morning and enjoying the sunrise.

Getting in to the opening of the atoll is always interesting with the current. Wait for it look what showed up when I was filming

We drop anchore at 6.30 , had some breakfast and then we all went to have a few hours sleep.

When we woke up VoyagerII was here.We got a ride in with Andrew to see if we could get some eggs and fresh vegetables. Unfortunately the shop was closed until 3 so no luck. Easter and no eggs… not good but what to do. We do have hearing with us and snaps.

We decide to join VogagerII to go towards the north entrens and stay there for the night. It was little longer than we thought and hard to see the coral heads when you have the sun front of you .

In the morning me and Chris went snorkling just in front of the boat. It was very nice with lovely colours of the corals and lots of fishes. By lunchtime we needed to leave to get the best passage out considering current and the tide . We had to stand and watch out for the coral heads again since they are not marked on the charts. Edgar us getting professional taking the boat in and out of the atolls with the current and tide.

Small ref shark visiting us before we leave

The night is very ruff and we tried to avoid the squalls we saw on the radar.

Entering Fakarava the Sea is very ruff and lots of current . It needs full concentration of the captain.

Getting in to the atoll and it is calm again but bit rainy.

Hugs Eva

Tuamotos island Raroia

We arrived just after lunch and was the only boat anchored outside the village . After a while two more boats arrived but none from the ARC. The afternoon we spent cleaning the boat and just relaxing on the boat. This must be the most magical sunset I have seen so far. The water was so calm and shinning as a mirror and the colours changed during the sunset.

The next day we went in to explore the island and also to see if we could get some grocery and find a restaurant. After been guided in different directions a nice teenager took us to the shop. There was not much fresh fruit and vegetables but we got some potatoes for our herring on Easter and some new fishing gears. Let see if we get some fish.

Looking at you shadow you realise how high the sun is since the shadow is very short. Most off the houses take advantage off the sun and have solar panels we also saw it on top of the street lights. Can you see what’s hiding behind the palm. Lots of them running around free on the island

In the evening we had dinner with Alex and Rebecca from CasiqueV and all 4 from Hoka Hey. There was no restaurant on the Island but the grocery store owners wife invited us to her house where she made dinner for all of us. We had a lovely meal and a great evening. No photos taken accept on the two paintings that her daughter had made

The day after we went across the bay to see if we could do some snorkelling and maybe find the place where Thor Heyerdahl stranded with Kontiki. It was a bit tricky to cross over the atoll due to all the pearl farms bouys that we had to watch out for. We found a nice spot and I pumped up my sup board.

I paddled in to land and the guys took the dinghy. We took a walk along the shore and saw lots of eremites crabs and really huge ones and some very tiny . Look closely to the video and you will se the tiny seashells moving..

An other lovely sunset and a moon rise and once I can take a picture of the moon. It is very bright and give us good light in the night. Which is extra nice when we are night sailing and have this extra light.

Next morning an others snorkelling tour at the beach and this time I brought my go pro so I can take photos and film under the water

Next Island is longer than a day sail so we decided to leave in the afternoon to arrive early in the morning..So after our snorkling and a lunch we hoist the anchor. Just before that we get some small lemon sharks visiting us since Edgar gave them som leftovers. On the way out we meet Amanzi.

The opening is tricky but gladly we can follow our old track coming in and we are safe.

On the outside the dolphins are waiting for us and joins for bit. It is the same dolphins that greeted us when we arrived. Or at least one of them since it had a big spot behind the eye

Hope you enjoyed the reading and the pictures. Hugs Eva