Monday, November 28, 2016

Raiatea/Havai'i - Hauled in The Heart of Polynesia

Raiatea, AKA Havai'i AKA the Sacred Island, is believed to be the starting point of the organised migrations to other parts of Polynesia and the center of the Great Mythical Octopus. The traditional name for Raiatea is Havai'i. 

Apologies in advance for the lack of appropriate accents, etc. on the French words. 


We arrive in the heart of Polynesia: We had a schedule to maintain to get Cinnabar ready for cyclone season. Leave Tahiti on a Tuesday. Arrive Raiatea on Wednesday. Haul the boat at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. Then another week to do everything else needed to shut the boat down and get ourselves ready to head back to the states. 

After our idyllic overnight sail from Tahiti to Raiatea we approached the island of Raiatea which is surrounded by a coral reef. Raiatea, like several other islands in The Societies Island Group, have the benefits of both surrounding reef, potentially protecting anchored boats from ocean swell, and tall, green mountains, giving potential protection from strong winds. 


Pass into Raiatea (photo credit emaze.com)

Just like in the Tuamotu we would have to enter the lagoon via an open pass in the reef in order to arrive at the boatyard on the NW side of the island. 

Before entering the pass we dropped our huge, new mainsail and got it secured on the boom. We thought we did a pretty good job of it but just after entering the pass we were hailed on the VHF radio by our friend Andrew aboard EYE CANDY who called to heckle us. He and his wife Claire were sailing within the reef to a southern anchorage and couldn't resist ribbing us about how long it took us to drop our sails. The nerve! But we were glad to see/hear friends and they assured us that there were free moorings outside the boatyard (aka carénage) so we wouldn't have to deal with anchoring.

Raiatea, and its neighboring island Taha'a (within the same encircling coral reef) are stunningly beautiful. As we approached the boatyard's mooring field we had a deja-vu experience. Our friend Matthieu from Pakokota Yacht Services and Lodge (Fakarava atoll, Tuamotu) hailed us on the radio and told us which mooring ball to pick up. Were we in Fakarava or Raiatea? Apparently he was there with the charter catamaran Aquatiki II overseeing some repairs. He helped direct us to a free buoy and we made plans to dinghy into the yard to meet the owner and make sure Cinnabar could actually fit into the holding dock (while waiting for the Travelift). This carénage was the only yard in all of French Polynesia that could (potentially) accommodate Cinnabar's draft (keel depth) and boat size. It looked like it would be a tight fit but doable.


We're happy to see Matthieu again. In addition to owning Pakokota Yacht Services in Fakarava, being the antenna engineer who set up wi-fi on Fakarava, professional diver who installed his own mooring buoys and maintains the Fakarava channel markers, he is also a captain for the dive charter catamaran Aquatiki II.

After a pleasant afternoon and night on the mooring, spent getting Cinnabar ready for haul-out, we took advantage of the next-morning calm to drop our mainsail onto the boat, remove the battens, and fold it up for storage. It's always a huge hassle to do this on a boat, and we were surprised and grateful when the couple aboard nearby FLYING CLOUD dinghied over to assist us. Wow, people would actually volunteer to help with this odious task? After having talked to them on the HF radio many times over the past season it was great to finally meet them face to face.

That morning we waited to hear from the carénage. And we waited. They were finally ready for us in the early afternoon. Because of our depth we had a very narrow window of opportunity to arrive, basically at high tide around noon, and a very narrow channel of water in which to travel, with shallow coral reef on both sides. As we motored over to the concrete holding dock a strong current threatened to crunch us against a rusted old car ferry that was sticking out. But Tom did a great job maneuvering around reefs and barge, I was ready with lots of lines on all sides of the boat, and all the yard workers were ready to catch the lines and secure us to the dock. Whew!!


Tom supervises the tying of lines.


Pas de probleme! We do this all the time.
(Taputu on the right)


We had 1.5 feet of water underneath us and about the same "buffer" on each side.



Cinnabar secured and ready for the Travelift. The grey matter is the washed, deflated dinghy drying on the bow. Note rusting hulk/car-ferry hazard in the background.

It was too late to pull Cinnabar out of the water that day, but at least she was secure in the holding dock, so we left the boat under Matthieu's watchful eye and headed off to our little rental bungalow in town with plans to return the next day to supervise the haul-out.


An unexpected delay: The next morning the crew was waiting for our arrival to lift Cinnabar out of the water. In order to fit in the Travelift we would have to remove the forestay (the rigging that keeps the mast from falling backward, also where the jib is attached). It sounded easy but it took quite a while to loosen the rigging enough to remove the forestay and install the temporary stays which were thrown over the Travelift before securing to the bow. It was interesting to watch them lift Cinnabar, maneuver her into place and actually build and weld the steel cradle as she sat in the slings. 

Re-attaching the forestay gave us even more trouble. We had to really crank on all the forward halyards and we ended up cracking the deck (in an already-weakened area) at the blocks. So great, one more repair to add to the list.



Cinnabar in the Travelift, forestay temporarily removed.

We give ourselves a half day off: After a few days of getting Cinnabar settled in her cradle, we made plans to drive our rental car to the other side of the island to visit Andrew and Claire aboard EYE CANDY. 


Andrew and Claire, Aussie flag proudly flying.

Back in Papeete our tour guide Corinne had told us about a must-see historical archaeological site, Taputapuatea Marea, which was once considered the central temple and religious center of Eastern Polynesia. This sacred site, well-established by 1,000 A.D., was a navigational Mecca well into the 18th century.




According to the photos and information at the marae, restoration began in 1968, came to a head in 1994, and continues today.


There was an interesting drawing of Captain Cook helping the natives perform a religious HUMAN sacrifice at this site. 

In its heyday the marae was visited by all  navigators before starting off on their journeys by sailing canoe to the rest of Polynesia, going as far as Hawaii and New Zealand.

These early navigators viewed the ocean not as a separation between islands, but as the path from one land to the next.


France has officially submitted a bid to UNESCO to have the Marae recognized as a World Heritage site for its cultural significance.


A great day spent with friends. We hope to see each other again next season.

The final push: Back at the yard there was much to do to prepare to leave the boat for cyclone season - meet with the boat manager Cathy who will do weekly checks on Cinnabar, oil and transmission change for the engine, clean and sanitize refrigerator/freezer/stove/oven, fresh-water flush for engine/genset/refrig./toilet/bilge, pickle watermaker, wash clothes and seal in plastic bags, remove halyards and run messenger lines, clean dodger and bimini canvas and store down below, clean and remove solar panels, add zipper to boat cover to install one solar panel for a trickle charge, clean and stow below everything that usually lives above deck...


Below decks cleaned, surfboard wrapped in plastic and stowed below.
...remove auto-pilot parts to bring to USA for repairs, clean/declutter and vinegar wipe every freaking cupboard and cabinet to help prevent mildew, remove all rat-attractive food, store remaining canned and other goods in a plastic bin, set out ant and cockroach traps, stuff all openings with bronze wool to prevent varmint entry, install boat cover (This task took FOUR hours! Did it shrink???) and a hundred other things. Oh, and waterproof the part of the deck that cracked while re-installing the forestay. 


Two blocks removed (main halyard block got to stay), the offending area is waterproofed for the rainy season.


The last few nights we worked late and we pretty much worked until the moment we left for the airport. 



Boat cover installed.

It's always hard to leave your home behind, but the last few days of heat, humidity, rain and mosquitoes reminded us that French Polynesia was starting its uncomfortable summer season. Also, we were looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family back home, so we locked up the boat as best we could and reluctantly bid farewell to the only home we'd known for the past year. 


Cinnabar next to her friends WHISPER and FLYING CLOUD

We departed almost exactly the same date as we had arrived in Mexico the year before.

A+ Cinnabar!!

(A+, short for A plus, short for "a plus tard", French for "see you later". Thanks to my sister the French teacher for teaching us this tres cool shortcut.)



Departing Raiatea we begin our 36-hour journey home via Tahiti and Honolulu.




1 comment:

  1. Just catching up with your blog. It looks like its been a good year!

    In the small world department, Morpheus was hauled at Raiatea in 2003 after our liferaft self inflated while anchored nearby off Bora Bora. Its the only place that a swimmer jumped in the water to make sure the straps were clear before lifting the boat. (wierd the things you remember). They treated us well there, and our boat builder flew up with a new aft deck made from the original mold to make her look like new. Amazing really, you can't even tell it happened now.

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