Baie de Opanohu, Moorea

Ioranna!

Currently we are at anchor at Baie de Opanohu, Moorea, since my last letter we left Tahiti, anchored here and are really enjoying this spot. It sure is different having three people on the boat, it doesn’t take long to forget what it is like being alone. I hope everybody enjoyed the Picassa Web Albums, I feel like I don’t need to write as much as pictures are worth a thousand words but I enjoy it so I intend too.

Definitely one of the advantages of having more people is more pictures, and more interesting pictures because they have people in them. Chloe really enjoys taking pictures and I have her to thank for many of the shots posted, Connie also gave us a bunch of her pictures so we even have shots of the three of us. Having crew while sailing is convenient, someone steering to keep us into the wind whilst I raise the mainsail saves me running back and forth to the helm, it’s faster, safer, less wear on the sails and rigging, why do I sail alone again? Another Chloe advantage is her luck, we had the best sail yet from Tahiti to Moorea while she was at the tiller, only a few hours but I am sure if I was alone there would have been no wind or too much from the wrong direction. On the flipside I am getting sick of loosing every one of the multitude of card games we play, oh well, oh well. Chloe is a constant pleasure for me, her demeanor, her smile and I have her out of instant messaging range which drove me crazy back home. It is unfortunate she is going to be bald soon as I am sure she is going to leave all her hair on my boat.

Evan seems to be having a great time, I was a little concerned as he is not as easy going as Chloe and enjoys the city life much more than I do. One of the things Evan and I have in common is our love for the water and it gives me great pleasure to see him enjoying the snorkelling and sea creatures. We all like to read which is great as we can spend a whole day doing nothing but reading, eating when we are hungry, going for a dip when we are hot and are all very content. Evan brought a bunch of books I enjoyed and he is enjoying many of the ones I enjoyed, nobody reads Chloe’s teeanage chick-litt. I also enjoy watching Evan interact with other people, he is about a thousand times more outgoing than me, I noticed I was a little better after being alone for so long and will try and learn from him for when I am alone again, but I am not thinking about that yet. The place for everything and everything in its place is not a concept Evan or Chloe seem to grasp but relaxing my ways is a small price to pay for the company of my two favourite people.

Moorea is amazing. Nuka Hiva had beautiful mountains and scenery and people. Rangiroa had wonderful swimming and reefs. Tahiti was an interesting city. Moorea is a combination of all of what I have experienced of French Polynesia so far at one place minus the city. We are anchored outside of the bay inside the reef. There are anywhere from a dozen to two dozen other cruising yachts anchored here, the occasional mega yacht will show up and fly back and forth to Papeete on their helicopter and the Paul Gaignon, a cruise ship, has come and gone and come back again. It is still fairly busy with dive boats and tour launches coming and going. We can swim from the boat to the beach in about two minutes, snorkelling the reef off the beach is wonderful with many different fish and coral. We have spent a few days just hanging out on the beach.

Swimming with the stingrays has been talked about by cruisers since I was in Papeete and lived far beyond its expectations. About a forty five minute dinghy ride across the bay and through the reef on the other side brought us to an area with no coral that was only about four feet deep on sand with dozens of stingrays. It took a while to get used to but after our initial hesitations it was amazing. They were quiet big but very soft, almost silky and they would swim right up to you and rub themselves along your side or back looking to be fed. Their tails were the only thing that wasn’t soft and was a little creepy, we all miss Steve Irwin. Feeding the stingrays also brought the black tipped reef sharks that for some reason weren’t scary. I would say they got up to five feet long but didn’t seem interested in getting very close to anybody. It was fun to watch the tourists reactions to the rays, some wouldn’t get out of the boat they came on, others wouldn’t get off their boyfriends backs, there were many shrieks and giggles all while kids are grabbing them by their heads and shoving them back or others rubbing fish all over themselves so they would swim all over them.

We hiked up to the Belvedere view point which was up a road the whole way, a little disappointing. The view of the two bays was beautiful but the difference in vegation along the way was more interesting. There were cattle fields at the bottom of the valley and a freshwater shrimp farm, bamboo grew a little further up and there were pineapple fields, further up were many pine trees, reminding me a bit of home. The skyline at the back of the bays is amazing but there are usually clouds around the highest mountains, not really mountains by BC standards, but very pretty none the less.

Hanging out with Rick and Connie has been a treat as well. Connie and the kids play games while Rick and I drink Rum, works well. Rick is very animated and funny, and a meticulous boat owner, Rhino is a beautiful boat that he finished himself and treats as though it was his child. Connie is a real sweetheart with a bit of Jersey charm that compliments it perfectly. We have had dinner on their boat and went to the stingrays together. Rick and Connie are leaving around the same time as Evan and Chloe and putting their boat on the hard here for the hurricane season. They may or may not return next season and have talked about possibly hiring me to sail it back to Cali for them. Obviously that is a ways a way and not for sure but it is interesting the opportunities that can arise, if something were to come of it I would not do it alone for insurance reasons, anybody interested?

Messalina, captain and crew will be leaving Moorea in the next couple of days for Huahine. We have heard mixed reviews but figure it is best to find out for ourselves, we do not have to stay long if we don’t want too. Again I appreciate all responses and one of these days I will find free internet and send some more personal letters. I have added two more web albums and attached the link below.

Take care everybody, miss you all,

Jonathan