Tiki Anchorage, Moorea

It has been more than 4 weeks since we last went shopping for any food, so stores, particularly vegetables and fruit, were running a bit low as we are at anchor in Fakarava. The food shopping is not that great in Fakarava but there is a fantastic Carrefour hypermarket in Papeete, Tahiti. In addition, new controllers for our electric winches and a new drogue (to dampen the rolling of Kincsem in swelly anchorages) are waiting for us in Papeete. So we decided to do a quick pit stop in Papeete but there was one more stop in the Tuamotus on our list: The “false pass” anchorage Anse Amyot on the island of Tuau. The anchorage there is located on what looks like a pass into the lagoon which is, however, too shallow for most boats to pass. It is known for its snorkeling and for its “restaurant” – the private home of Valentine and Gaston which offer French meals to cruisers from time to time.

Kincsem at anchor at the town anchorage in Fakarava. Notice the two fenders and anchor buoy in the water in front of our bow. We are “floating” the anchor chain with these fenders to keep it away from any coral “bommies” on the ocean floor. This is supposed to prevent the chain from wrapping around the bommies and preventing damage to the bommies and the boat. A win-win - if it works!

After an uneventful sail from Fakarava, we got to Anse Amyot in the mid-afternoon and found all four mooring buoys occupied and the space available for anchoring rather limited. Fortunately, Dave from the WARC catamaran Watersprite from Australia offered to tie our mooring lines to a mooring buoy located 2 meters below the surface! Dave is a free diver and took no time at all to tie us up and we were all set! He even investigated the state of the mooring tackle and pronounced it in good condition.

The ”restaurant” at Anse Amyot

So while we were all set on the mooring, we had issues with the two main selling points of Anse Amyot: the restaurant and the snorkeling. It turned out that the cook was off island in Fakarava and none of us was able to snorkel. Why, you may ask? Because each of the three of us onboard Kincsem had gotten a tattoo from the “world famous” tattoo artist Tereboy in Fakarava! What we did not know before we got our tattoos was that one should not be in salt water for 1 to 2 weeks after getting a tattoo!

The evidence! These tattoos are made up of Polynesian symbols. Mine has symbols for my wife Nicki, my two children, my two grand children, adventure and sailing!

So we were off the next day to sail to Papeete – some 250 nautical miles. The conditions were again very mellow and chill: 7-12 knots straight from behind so we could have our double headsail rig of poled out genoa and poled out Code Zero up almost the entire 2 days and 2 nights. The Pacific is definitely a quiet ocean here in French Polynesia as indicated by its name – I cannot recall the last time we had 20 knots of wind – ah, except for that long squall in Tahanea I reported on in the last issue of the blog! There is sometimes some Southerly swell from some Southern Ocean storm but that is usually quite benign as well with a long period between waves.

Approaching Papeete, Tahiti

In Tahiti, you are back in civilization. There are literally hundreds of boats at anchor behind the reef and you have to ask permission via the VHF radio to enter the main pass into the lagoon and permission to pass by the airport. There are superyachts over 50 meters long in the Taina marina and there are marineros who help us to tie up med-style – with the stern to the dock and an anchor at the bow. There is a ship’s chandler right here in the marina where I can get some keenly desired items for Kincsem. There are restaurants galore. And there are many World ARC boats in the marina next to us. We arrive on April 30^th and May 1 is a holiday – no supermarket is open. We make the best of it by renting a car and circling the island of Tahiti.

Notre Dame of Papeete, a bit different from the one in Paris ….

Ancient site of worship, Arahurahu Marae; I didn’t feel the vibe one is supposed to feel. And that despite of my Polynesian tatoo!

Twin waterfalls at Vaihi

Wild cocks are everywhere

Cascades de Faarumai

Pointe Venus; here is where Cook anchored. It is now a well visited amusement area right at the beach

Genuine French beef tartare with raw egg on top. Delicious!

At the restaurant next to the superyachts. One of the yachts moored there was a sistership of the Bayesian, the giant yacht which capsized in a squall and sank in Sicily earlier this year.

After the big shopping run at Carrefour, we are off the next day to the neighboring island of Moorea. Moorea is world famous for it’s Cooks Bay – where James Cook anchored when he was discovering the Society Islands. It is breathtakingly beautiful and we found a nice anchor spot right next to a little church. If you go to https://kincsem-adventures.skipperblogs.com/videos you can watch a little video of Kincsem in Cook’s Bay, including some drone footage. By the way, according to his journal, Cook named these islands the Society Islands because they are quite close together.

Moorea from the pass at Papeete

Approaching Cook’s Bay

Cook’s Bay

The little town at the base of Cook’s Bay

From the hike to the Three Coconuts Lookout. Unfortunately, it rained the day before the hike and we did not dare climbing up the last few meters to the lookout. The terrain is very steep and very slippery!

Our next anchorage was just inside the reef to the North West of Cook’s Bay, the so-called Tiki anchorage. It derives its name from the many tikis that are on the ocean floor just 2 or 3 meters below the surface. The anchorage also provides access to a place where tour guides feed the sting rays so they gather and swim happily around the many tourists in the water. These creatures are quite friendly but if a sting ray and a shark come at you at the same time, that increases your heart rate substantially! Luckily, the rays like to be touched and don’t usually attack you and all the sharks we saw were reef sharks – which do not have humans on their list of favorite diet. According to the accepted wisdom, that is!