Dr Rick Makes A Housecall

On March 29 we met Rick at the ferry terminal in Huahine. Rick is a retired Air Force doctor, like Peggy, and they have known each other for years, having met during their medical residency. Peggy has many great memories of time she has spent with Rick, his wife Jeanette (also a doctor) and their children. Rick has always wanted to sail in Polynesia and we were glad to have him come and visit.

The map above shows our track with Rick. The map is interactive – refer back and zoom in as we talk about different parts of the trip farther down the blog.

We picked him up at the ferry terminal in Huahine (Green place-mark).

Rick had flown from Colorado to Tahiti the day before and took the ~5 hour ferry from Papeete to Fare, the largest town on Huahine. We were anchored in the bay, close to Fare. We dinghy’d back to Calista and had a relaxing afternoon and evening with sundowners (sunset cocktails). Rick said vacation in the tropics means Mai Tais and we were more than happy to oblige.

The next morning we pulled anchor and headed out through the pass. This is not a difficult pass and it is well marked with red and green markers clearly showing the reef (danger!) and a ‘transit line’ showing the safe exit. Transit lines are a navigational aid that has been used as long as anyone has records of sailing navigation aids. The idea is that you place two visible items, one in front of the other and when one appears directly above the other, you are guaranteed to be on the transit line. The picture below shows two transit markers.

The picture was taken just to the left of the transit line. When we moved a bit to the right, the markers lined up and we knew we were on the safe line for going through the pass. After exiting, we turned to starboard and headed over the north side of Huahine. Our destination was an area of lagoon on the east side of Huahine, just south of Maroe Bay. The yellow line in the map above shows our track.

We tied up to a mooring ball in the lagoon between Motu Murimaora and the town of Fareeru. (Yellow placemark on Huahine). It was a very quiet place with only one other boat. We found a great place to do a ‘drift snorkel’ giving Rick the opportunity to enjoy one of our favorite activities.

The stars that night were AMAZING!

Here is a pic Rick took of the Southern Cross. The Milky Way (remember that? Used to see it all the time as a kid – now only when you get away from ‘civilization’) was bright as could be. We spent some time laying on the trampoline up front, looking up, finding satellites, counting shooting stars, and listening to the waves lapping the hull.

After a couple quiet days, we pulled anchor on April 1, heading for Taha’a. There was some wind and we sailed part of the way but after a while the wind slackened and we motor-sailed the rest of the way (red line on the track map at top). We entered a pass on the east side and dropped the hook just north of Motu Mahaea in about 20 ft of water.

We started having problems with our ice maker. It is on a circuit that has a GFCI outlet that keeps tripping. After some experimentation, I found that I could run an extension cord from another circuit that does not have a GFCI and it was solid. I was a bit apprehensive about this but after consulting many forums and online sources, most electricians advise not putting refrigeration devices on a circuit with GFCI due to the current spike that occurs when it starts compressing. A week later I rewired the circuit, removing the GFCI (that really did not need to be there as it was not near a sink or shower) and all was well.

Our anchorage was near the Hibiscus Pension & Restaurant on Ha’amene Bay. The next day (April 2) we motored to Hibiscus, tied up to a mooring ball and had a very nice lunch, starting with their signature drink, the Hibiscus of course!

After lunch we motored around the southern edge of Taha’a to one of our favorite places, the anchorage across from Tapu’amu Bay, near the Coral Gardens and the Taha’a Resort.

Above is a pic shows Bora Bora behind the gap between two motus on the west side of Taha’a. The gap is where the Coral Gardens are located – our favorite snorkeling location in this area. We will talk about that and Bora Bora in the next blog post.