Tuamotoi August 1 2005

I think we left you in Daniel's Bay, the sight of Survivor Marqueses. Wesailed from there to Rangiroa. What a cool sail!!! We hadeverything--great wind, caught fish, sunny skies and downwind all the way.Made a 600 mile sail in just over 72 hours and would have done better exceptthe wind died the last 6 hours or so. Surprisingly, we ran into no otheryacht or, for that matter, any kind of ship on the trip.Rangiroa is part of the Tuamoto Archipelago, a group of about 40 realPacific atolls 180 northeast of Tahiti. Rangiroa is the 2nd largest atollin the world with a circumference of about 100 miles. You really can't seeit until you're about 15 miles away because it's just coral reefssurrounding a lagoon and the highest point is the tallest palm tree.There's only 2 navigable passes into the lagoon, and one of the things Iforgot to get before leaving was Pacific tide tables. The reason one needsthem is these passes are narrow and a lot of water is exchanged when the tidechanges creating very strong and treacherous currents in the passes exceptaround slack tide. I did find something to estimate slack tide in one of mybooks based on moonrise and set so we figured we'd be okay. The deal was,according to that, we needed to get there at about 5AM or would have to waituntil about 2PM to run the pass. Well, of course we missed the 5 AM byabout an hour or two. Being the undaunted, and impatient seafarers we noware, we pulled a Captain Ron. We sort of sallied up to the pass, decided itlooked okay and bulled our way in around 8. A couple of locals in a diveboat or something were running the pass outbound and gave us a big thumbsup, so I guess they, at least, were impressed with the stupid cruisers.Anyway, it wasn't that bad with about a 4 knot outbound current. Hey, we'vegot 2 engines!!!Well, we've finally arrived at what everyone thinks of as "the SouthPacific" . A huge horizonless blue water lagoon with crystal clear totallycalm water surrounded by sandy islands full of palm trees and white sandbeaches. Rose even saw a green flash yesterday! It's a total contrast tothe murky (from run off from the mountains) water and sharp volcanic peaksof the Marqueses, and we are in love!!! Oh, and as for checking in, we tookthe mile hike to the gendarmerie where the guy said he was new; he was toobusy, and why did we bother. Now there's immigration you can learn to love.We were delayed a bit on that mission as Joey managed to drop Rose's bag inthe water on the way in and it contained all our docs. After a briefrecovery swim by him and excoriation from me we spent the next hour peelingwet papers apart and trying to dry them, only to find we needn't havebothered. I'm happy to report all is now well.We found a really cheap lunch place right by the wharf. Liter Hinano beersfor $4 and huge sandwiches for the same. that night to celebrate anothersafe arrival we went to a very expensive resort right at the anchorage,called the Kea Oar, for dinner. Even that wasn't too bad by BVI standards,but we're getting killed by the $10 drinks. In fact, Tim celebrated withsome port with his after dinner cheese plate---$19. Whoa! Even though it'sa bit pricey, you don't need to tip so you save a good bit on that. Kay--besure to relate the no tipping to the girls, especially Patti Ann.Today's our second day and we visited the town, did some work on the boatand ate aboard. A nice couple dinghied over who arrived this morning. Theywere here a coupe of years ago and got kicked out after their allotted stayand went to Hawaii for hurricane season. I figured that might be a nastysail--too much upwind, but they said it wasn't bad at all. It's about 2,200miles and I really don't want to go that far, but might have to if they kickus out here.It's Sunday 7/31 and we're on our way to Tahiti via a nearby atoll calledTikehau which is supposed to be very beautiful. At least the people onboard remembered my birthday yesterday which was the worst weather we'vehad. Rainy and choppy seas in the lagoon because of the wind direction.Calmed down by nightfall and we went to a great restaurant Rose and Ifound the other day at lunch. By and large the food here has been great andwe just can't imagine how good it will be in Tahiti. The couple fromSeattle went with us. They've been doing this for 6 years but this is asfar as they've gotten. We'll probably meet up with them in Tahiti. he's aretired marketing guy from Chevron and has traveled all over the world,just not on a boat.We rented what they call a "fun car" a few days ago and explored, butthere's just not too much here. The car was fun, though--sort of a 3wheel dune buggy. Rose toured the black pearl farm and got some atunbelievably low prices. Prices are just as good in Papeete apparently.My very expensively rebuilt engines are still misbehaving and I've decidedto replace them. Raeitea is supposed to be very competitive, and we'll dothat there if they let us stay the winter in the Societies. In themeantime, the problems are more of an inconvenience that a real seriousdeal, but who knows how long they'll last. Wish I'd listened to Tim Dabbsand done new in the first place. There's tons of little boat jobs to bedoneand I'm going to have to wait for some deliveries in Tahiti for a few days,so we're looking forward to stopping the rush to get places, settling in,and getting shipshape. Have to check in at Papeete by Aug 3, as you only geta30 visa when you arrive and must extend and officially enter there. More onTikehau when we arrive and I'll send this, then start a new one for Tahiti.Not much to report for Tikehau. Weather stayed overcast and so we stayed onthe boat until this AM. Checked out the small village and there arebeautifully kept yards. Stopped at the local magasin and got great springrolls and a beer. Off to Papeete under sunny skies and 15 knot winds. Morelater.Tim, Rose & Joey