13th of August to 2nd of September - Tahiti to Fiji

13^th to 15^th of August Moorea and Bora Bora

Back to Tahiti for me and a lovely time just for Pete and me on the boat! Just like a second honey moon (not that we ever had a first one!).  After a nice dinner in town from the gift voucher we got for coming third in the race, and a big provisioning shop we left Tahiti and just sailed back over to Moorea to swim with the sting rays. This was amazing! At first it was a bit scary but then it was just wonderful! They come up and cuddle right up to you and look up in your face! Absolutely unreal! So much fun!  After that we sailed to Bora Bora to check out of the country and have a quick look around the island with some nice snorkelling. The fish were so tame and Pete had them with a bit of squid in his hand following like the Pied Piper.

15^th to 22^nd of August Bora Bora to Nui

The first four days we had virtually no wind so we motor sailed or just had the motors on. Finally on the fourth night the wind came up, but of course gusted to much the other way with up to 48 knots. For the next couple of days we sailed through some rough seas but the wind settled back down again and after a while the seas as well. In the end we were motoring into 20knot head winds, having 41 nm to go to Nui. When we arrived at Nui the seas were of course rough again and I was not looking forward to this, as we had to take a mooring...And at the best of times I do not like moorings!!! A cat at the front is very high and then trying to get the mooring line with the hook and hook it on... It’s bad enough when there is a few of you (e.g.  your children) but doing it alone, no. But, I was saved! As we were coming towards the anchorage,  Pete said, I wouldn’t be surprised, if we know someone here... And of course, we knew half the anchorage!  Laurie from Moana Roa and Dirk from Dancing Bear jumped straight in their dinghies and came to my rescue! It is so nice when you come to a new place and there are familiar faces!!!

As it turned out, about five boats (including Moana Roa and Dancing Bear) had planned to leave in the late afternoon of this day to go to Tonga. We only wanted to stay one night in Nui, as we didn’t have too much time. So we decided, instead of checking in and out, plus you have to haul your whole dinghy out of the water to get on land, we might leave with the other boats and cruise in company for a change.  But one thing was recommended to us, and this is to go for a dive! After a little rest we got our dive gear out after lunch and jumped straight of the back of the boat. It was a wonderful dive. Nui is famous for its black and white striped sea snakes. What a beautiful sight! They are very pretty to watch swimming effortlessly in pairs through the water. And there were canyons and caves every. Very different to the diving in the Tuamotus!

Back out of the water and getting organised to leave.

22^nd to 25^th Nui to Tonga

It was very nice to sail in company for a change, with having little chats on the two way with the other boats. It was a very pleasant sail. Sailed most of the time with the third reef in and still made good speed and the boat set really good in the water. Arrived early in the morning on the 25th
ofAugust.

25^th to 29^th Vava’u, Tonga

When arriving at Tonga you have to go first to the customs wharf with your boat to check into the kingdom of Tonga. There you have to wait for all the officials to come on board and pay also your custom duties in cash. While waiting for the officials to come to our boats (Moana Roa was tied up next to us) Sonya and I wandered into town to find an ATM to get money. I even found an ANZ bank and started to get money out, just to realise in the middle of it, I had no idea how much Tongan money is worth compared to the Australian dollar! All things you should really find out when you visit a new country.... But it really amazes me how you seem to always work out how to check into new countries and all these issues before or when you get there... Before we left, it was a bit of a worry for me. How does this all work? But between all the sailors you always seem to work it out. And on this day a nice ANZ employee helped me as well. After customs we found ourselves a nice anchor place in the bay, to start exploring the island. Of course starting off on the first afternoon with Happy Hours at the bar with all the other yachties. And going there we also of course found more people we knew. Harry was there with all the tips on what to do on the island and who to them with.

Tonga is a lovely place with very nice people and very much to my delight lots and lots of free pigs (and at this time of year, piglets) running around. Also, it is the country of churches. I have never seen so many churches in one place! Every village had about 5 churches. Unreal!

Tom, Dirk, Pete and I hired a car and went on exploring tour the following day.

 Couldn't lose that car! Nice and bright!

We drove all over the beautiful island and stopped for lunch at the cafe of the botanical gardens, which was run by, I think he was the former agricultural minister of Tonga. We had a nice meal, interesting conversation with the owner and heard all the island news, like who moved in where and so on from his wife. Tongan people are just so lovely to let you into their lives.

Our lovely hosts at the botanical gardens

Another very big highlight of Tonga was swimming with the whales!! Harry had recommended to go with Diane from Vaka Vave Charter (in case you ever get to Tonga, here is the website: www.whalewatchswimtonga.com) We had such a fantastic day!!! To swim with the whales you have to wait until a whale is resting, as they are way to fast to swim with them. So when it was our turn, we jumped in the water (never more than four people plus one instructor at the time) there underneath us, he was: a juvenile Humpback whale. He was huge! But not fully grown. He was resting on the bottom of the ocean. After a while he decided to move and came up right underneath us. It was so exciting! When he was quite close he turned to the site and looked at us with his huge big eye! So amazing! So sad, we don't have photos, just movies on the GoPro. After this he turned back and swam off. Most incredible thing I ever done! And when all the way under water you can hear all the whales sing, so beautiful! Such beautiful creatures.

We spent the whole day on the boat in the lovely company of our friends Frits and Marian from Argonaut. So even when we didn't see whales or went snorkelling, we had lots of fun!

Another fun thing we did was going to a drag queen show. The ladies were very good and we had a fun evening. It is custom in Tonga to stick dollar notes on dancers. So Pete was holding up a dollar note behind Tom to make one of the ladies come to him and sit on his lap.Tom had the funniest face as he didn't know Pete was doing this!

29^th August to 2^nd of September Tonga to Fiji

1st of July to 13th of August - Tahiti

01^st of July to 13^th of August  - Papeete, Tahiti (including sailing rally to Moorea)

Arriving in Tahiti. The sail down from Toau was quite rough and Lisa had to use the bucket one last time.... (Apparently only because she was watching television!). But we got there at around lunch time and made our way from the port of Papeete through the channel to the Marina Taina, where we anchored with lots and lots of other yachts outside the marina. As we came in we saw some familiar names on the boats. Tahiti was the end of the Puddle Jump Rally, where we had joined up for as well. It is a very loose sort of race from Panama to Tahiti, with the purpose more so of getting visas etc organised and safety net then actually racing. Anyway, this was the end of the race and celebrations were planned in Tahiti for the end of it.

We anchored the boat and took the dinghy in to the Marina where we met with the other sailors, like Sonia and Laurie, Harry, etc... for some save arrival drinks and discussions about what is here in Papeete. Sonia told me there was actually a really big super marked with lots of food! Anything you can imagine, like lots of meat, fresh fruit and vegies and shelves and shelves full of food! So exciting! (It is very sad, when for the big family outing it is an exciting thing to go to the super market! But we had not seen a big well stocked super market since we left Panama.)

Pete and I took the bus into the city the next day to do some exploring and visit the  pearl museum, where we learned  a lot about pearls (even though Pete still thinks, black pearls look a lot like ball bearings, which I have to agree to).

For the Puddle Jump celebrations a rally was organised from Papeete to Moorea, an island about 15nm from Tahiti. We set sails in a quite chaotic start where we hang back, as it looked like people were about to sail into each other. But then we set out in our puddle jump racing t-shirts and the kids thought it was quite exciting, as this was their first proper race!

 Leaving for the race, poor old battered Australian Flag!

 Leaving he majority behind, go Havachat!

 The racing crew

We had the main and head sail up, as the winds were quite strong to start off with, but soon switched over to the Gennaker soon when the winds got lighter. We started sailing past a lot of boats and were head to head with Amelite (from Sweden) and two other boats in front of us. We were going well, but then Amelite put their Spinnaker up and started sailing past us. Levels with us were also Jeff and Cherie on Grasshopper, but we left them behind as well after we put the Gennaker up. Jack wanted us to put the Parasailor up, but the race wasn’t long enough for this. Even though, we ended coming third in the whole race and also the first cat to go through! How exciting! The race finished in beautiful Cook Bay in Moorea! What an amazing back drop! The race finished in beautiful Cook Bay in Moorea! What an amazing back drop! 

 Arriving in Moorea

Yeah, we are third! Beat Amelite!!

 Evening dinner celebrations

Fire dancers

Jeff learning the Tahitian dancing.... He is doing great.

The celebrations continued with outrigger canoe races, traditional food and dance performances and other land games like coconut opening (in a team, Pete went well, but Ben let the team down), etc. So much fun! And with so much nice Company with Moana Roa being here, Grasshopper, Tehani Li,  Amelite and Argonaut and lots more. We had a couple of wonderful days here and we were very lucky that Karol was here, as Lisa had a very sore shoulder and Karol is a physio and fixed her up! So lucky, thanks Karol!

 Go Maslen Crew!!

 Pete doing great with the coconut opening....

...but Ben let the team down, too slow with the scraping out of the meat!

 Coconut carrying competition

 Our beautiful boat!

 Jeff and Cherrie doing well! Cherrie can wiggle those hips so well!

 Tug-of-war

 Some more dancing...

 Pete and Miss Moorea

Presentation of our trophy by Miss Moorea. Sorry Kate, you got replaced by Miss Moorea!

After we sailed back to Papeete, we hired a car and explored Tahiti by land. Of course we had to go for Ben to Teahupoo on Tahiti Iti (little Tahiti) to see the famous big waves! As the break is a fair way of the land, you need to catch a water taxi out to get close. We found Cindy’s taxi service, a lovely young lady with her own water taxi service who took us out. Ben took his body board and went for a surf. He had the best time in his live! He could not get the smile from his face afterwards. But the first wave he caught, he didn’t anticipate how fast the reef would come up and scraped his whole side on the reef!  When we got back to land Cindy gave him half a lime to rub into the sore so it wouldn’t get infected. Jack and Lisa enjoyed very much seeing their brother suffering like this!

On the way to the surf break in Cindy's water taxi

Cindy

Getting ready to jump in...

Having so much fun!

We finished the day with some lovely walks (Marae Grotto and Gardens at Papeari). Even though it was a bit hard, as we only had thongs with us and it was very muddy and we were slipping and sliding up and down the mountain face and especially I ended up with a very muddy bottom on white shorts!

Marae Grotto

Selfie....

Walk in the Garden of Papeari

Jack and the dinghy... Oomy Zoomy...

Anchorage outside Taina Marina, Tahiti

Lovely flowers from my beautiful husband!

The kids and I left Tahiti on the 8th of July, to get everybody settled back to school and for Ben to start Uni. Pete stayed back in Papeete to get warranty work done on the boat and had a good time with all the old and new friends he made at the marina.