Almost the Middle of the Dangerous Middle

Much has been written by cruisers about the 'Dangerous Middle' between Bora Bora and Tonga. Weather patterns can be difficult as fronts and convergence from southern ocean lows can influence the area. After all, it is winter in the south! So far we have had no squalls, although there has been some rain around.

We departed the afternoon Barns and Anita left as it allowed us to sail with a good SE wind of 20 to 25 knots. The weather window was closing and indeed today, the 27th, we have lost the wind!

The seas leaving Bora Bora are confused for the first 18 hours. We made good time on the first 3 days with a 165 mile day being the best. With day 2 having 4m seas kicked up from a low, the autopilot worked well and the boat handled the conditions with ease. However, at night the block mounting the ram came adrift! Fortunately the seas had abated and I hand steered for 5 hours whilst Peter sat in the aft locker making a new mount! He did an awesome job as it was still a little bouncy! This repair will last until Tonga (we hope!) where Peter can re-glass the previous mount.

Motoring is slow with the new gear box as it is a different ratio. We now need a new prop!!!!!!! So the decision in the next few days is whether we will stop off at Palmerston (an atoll that has no anchorage inside)and wait for wind.

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French Polynesia Finale

They arrived!!!!!!!


Tahiti arrival space (as opposed to lounge!) is a sight to see as in true Polynesian style, everyone is greeted with a lei..so Anita received one from us too!! The fragrance of so many flowers was fantastic.. as was the colour! Forgot the camera!!!


After breathing a sigh of relief that the engine was fixed and sounded fantastic and a double sigh that the gear box arrived from the USA the day after Barn and Anita arrived, we could now depart Tahiti for the other islands.

Like father like son…do we think we have enough chocolate??? Barn and Anita made sure we at least had a good start to supplies!

Barn helped Peter get the old gear box off and install the new one. It was supposed to be a complete swap except the new plate that attaches the gear box to the bell housing was the wrong size! Barn looked at the new one and said it was the wrong size!! An easy solution…..attach the old plate to the new gear box! Phew!! We had excellent advice from Aka who has been around the Pacific for a while…….DHL are the only company that can get parts in quickly to Tahiti! Coupled with Tom List Marine’s help in Sausalito, San Francisco, our gear box came from Georgia, San Fran, LA and Papetee in three days and was cleared the next day and installed!! Not so amazing what money can do!!! It was well worth it.

After two days of showing the new arrivals Tahiti, it was off to Moorea for the ray feeding. We had the best weather for the first part of the holiday, which was good!!!!!!! 

Of course, with Barnaby's gentle persuasion, Anita finally got in the water! The rays are quite intimidating climbing all over you, but if you float, they go underneath you! Beware as soon as you put your feet down....

Barn bought his equipment along to keep in shape.

An easy overnight motor sail to Huahine with a fullish moon and Barn doing one watch in the middle of the night was a treat for us! The sea was relatively calm and we even managed to sail the last 4 hours in flat water down the lee side of the island into the town of Fare, where we anchored outside in good sand.

Huahine has a few small villages with limited supplies. During July, there are many celebrations, one of which is a Tahitian dance competition which we have been able to enjoy.

Anita and Barn found the pearl farm and made their purchases whilst we relaxed outside………….

Fresh water eels were talked about as a must see….slippery little suckers…..so different to their salt water cousins.

The fish farms are rather ingenious and effective! A series of rock walls draft the fish towards the huts. As we saw very little evidence of locals fishing but lots of fish for sale..we can only assume...............

Not far from our anchorage in Fare were some pretty little reef fish and a snorkel that was well worth it.
Barn saw his first reef shark..We could not work out why he was sitting on the side of the dinghy!!! Apparently the shark came towards him with its fin out of the water.....they don't eat people here!

With deteriorating weather, we made a quick exit over to Tahaa and Raiatea, which are two atolls joined together. The Hibiscus Hotel on the east side of Tahaa has free moorings with a free trip to the Vanilla Farm, which was well worth it. The vanilla pods are very succulent and superb!! It is indeed THE best vanilla farm in THE world! The pods sell for $250/kilo and are very labour intensive in their production, with each pod being massaged several times to bring out the aroma after they have been dried.

We decided to go to tuck up on a mooring outside Marina Apooiti, where the charter fleet is based. The winds were quite strong with a reasonable amount of rain! Land based activities were the go. Barn decided that shirts off was the best in the rain as at least you would have something dry at the end!!

The most amazing snorkel by far was the coral garden at Tahaa which we decided to organize at the last minute. Unfortunately in our haste, we forgot the underwater camera!! We floated with the current amongst beautiful coral and so many fishes....the most interesting being the so aptly named Picasso fish and the Porcupine fish with its huge brown eyes peering out from under the rock. Many anemone fish..the anemones that house the little black and blue fish are ok to touch, but not so for the Nemo anemones. Local knowledge is always good! We were able to swim the gardens twice and could have kept doing this all day!!

We were quite bored after a few days of howling wind. The front was clearing in another day or so, so we decided to make our way to Bora Bora. It was a 25 mile sail in confused seas, however, only 12 miles of that was in unsheltered water. As the wind has a tendency to accelerate around/over all the islands, Bora Bora, with its large peaks of an old volcanic crater, is no exception. We clocked a little over 40 knots coming down the lee side of the reef (the previous day Amnesia clocked 53 knots in the anchorage) and were hooning along at 9 knots with a double reefed main!!

We made our way to the Bora Bora yacht club which provided a good service to yachties. We anchored in 25m for a few days in the gusty winds waiting for a mooring. Many yachts were departing for Tonga as we will be doing around the 25^th of July. We are the blue boat in the middle!!

Lots to see and do….but the best of the best was the Heli ride!! Expensive for 15 minutes, but considering the costs and the maintenance….safety ensured!! We picked the best day with excellent visibility…….the WOW factor being up there!!  It was breathtakingly awesome! The pilot has a Peterson 44 he is re-fitting in Tahiti and is always pleased to meet yachties...Barn only looks like he's the pilot!!!

You can see the old crater clearly from here. This is looking from the south.

Bora Bora is expensive for us and even more so for the locals.  A great place to explore….in the right weather!! Although there are 2 supermarkets, fresh food is in short supply. The kids are great foodies, so we had lots of wonderful meals and discussed even more! Anita made a sensational rice pudding with some of the vanilla and of course cream! We have all had enough cheese to last us a while! 


We did not do all the anchorages justice by any stretch of the imagination and only spent a few days in the east lagoon. It is sensational!!! We swam with the manta rays on our own..an awesome sight! The coral reef around the mantas was fantastic with lots of good coral and fish.

The Four Seasons lagoon is great to swim in but were politely required to leave, although we were welcome to visit their restaurant and bar if we so desired. Our final night was a dinner at Mai Kai restaurant....a poor anchorage as it is exposed but a sensational restaurant! it is just around the corner from the Bora Bora Yacht Club which came to be our hangout place.


 Its so sad to see barn and Anita leave after a sensational 3 weeks with them and on their departure, we will make our way towards Tonga, some 1200nm. We will have a fast sail for 4 days then it will be a little slower. We will try to make the best of the early winds!

What the ‘Milk Run’ does not tell you!

We decided to pop over to the stunning island Moorea, some 15 miles west of Tahiti for a week whilst we wait for Barn and Anita. There was also the Puddle Jump welcome/wind up as well. Our first thought was that we did not want to be anchored there with so many yachts with a dicky gearbox, which in hindsight was a good thought. However, wanting to escape not only Tahiti, but also the marina after having had our fuel injector pump and injectors serviced, won the day.

This would be Tahiti looking from east Moorea.

We departed early so we could anchor away from the masses. The yachts arrived, all squashing up in the shallower water in front of us. It’s a reasonable anchorage, but not for over 40 yachts! Some of the yachts were close to 60 feet.

The PPJ had actually organized a great day, which started the night before with some dancing……. 

Peter did not dance with the men, but this sweetheart got him dancing!

After participating in the racing of the traditional Tahitian canoes..........our girls' team came second..

There is Peter showing of his muscles 3rd from the back!

We took some time out in the afternoon and returned for the dancing, which is always amazing....they have moves that westerners dream of!!  Everyone was looking forward to a peaceful sleep…….the wind gods had other thoughts……….

The front passing to the south of us was well forecast and we assumed that others were aware of this. At least two of us were……

The sharp edge of the front kicks up very strong squalls from the north. Like Perth, as soon as the wind swings to the south you know it’s gone. We were aware we were at the back end of the masses and carefully watched those yachts that came in and anchored near us. We were happy until one yacht came by on the first day (nice people besieged by many problems due to lack of experience) and anchored between us and a cat. This is the yacht that everyone wants to avoid!! They were told by both of us that they were too close.


This is the head of the bay where all the 'naughty children' who dragged ended up. We will be up there anchored if another front comes through!! We were around the RH corner, which is a little unfortunate as the wind accelerates around the very high rocky cliff face. Nice anchorage though!

The first night at anchor in Moorea, it was a little gusty and we were all swinging around…..the boat in question had hit us…we had driven forward as we touched to avoid them. Owners returned later at night after having enjoyed a good dinner out. Peter went over and discussed what had happened, suggesting they might like to move in the morning and put a snubber on their chain. The yacht in question did not believe in snubbers and Peter was not in the mood to discuss this. They very kindly kept an anchor watch with their spotlight for the rest of the night.

Next morning we re-visited our close neighbours and suggested they might like to move around to the head of the bay where there is mud and better holding. After discussing  the forecast with them and the lossibility of 45 knot gusts, they chose to stay and went out for dinner again that night. We could have moved but we were to windward of them and well dug in.

All was quiet until 2200 hours. Peter came down below and said there is a little shower passing by!!!! 40 knots and 20 minutes later, the shower and the wind had gone!

A friend of ours found a 55lb Lewmar Delta in the anchorage in Tahiti, laying on the bottom. We swapped our 44lb of same with him as he has a smaller boat. With 60m of chain out, we held well and were happy with our larger anchor! Our close neighbours, at the first puff of 25 knots, went dragging by.  Luckily for them, an experienced captain on another yacht (Pedro from Mexico whom was later decorated by Red Sky as ‘Super Pedro’ ) went off to save them and help them re-anchor. 

This is the same anchorage where Jacana dragged last year in 45 knots and perhaps with sustained winds of that velocity, more of us would have been in trouble. Nice sand which looks like good holding, but not so……… coarse coral sand……beware!!!!!!!!!!

We were relieved we did not move, having dragged on two occasions in 10 years is two too many. The VHF was alive with boats dragging (about 8 in total) and calls for assistance. 40 meters in front of us was a tangle of 4 boats, 3 of which were over 50 feet. Our concern was if another squall came in, they would be on top of us. However, the yachts were all sorted and we had two more squalls during the night but only around 22 knots. Some yachts were still dragging in this.

A few yachts sustained some damage from others floating free. We can’t imagine what the Med is like in tight anchorages. We will be a little more prepared next time and have a float tied to the rope at the end of the chain so we can dump it all if need be. After 2 nights with the GPS on anchor watch, we had sailed around for 1nm!!

The fronts are not unusual. So far the weather pattern seems to have good settled periods for two weeks then a little confused with fronts and convergence. We have to keep an eye on the weather every day. So far we have not had re-enforced trades from large H pressure systems. Bora Bora, some 100 miles NW of here seems to be on the northern limit of most fronts.

Two days later in Moorea a small super yacht (around 100 feet) came into the bay and anchored on top of us whilst we were away. Some kind yachties nearby did suggest that they were too close among the smaller yachts. When the wind swung, they were 3 feet in front of our bow! The people returned an hour or so after we got back. A few words were exchanged (stopping short of sex and travel!) which saw them up anchor and go around to the head of the bay where they should have been in the first place. I think it was Peter's comment (in his best British accent) that the owner, flying under the mother country flag, should be ashamed of himself for his lack of display of seamanship!! Are we a magnet for the not so savvy yachties????

How many radar scanners does one need???? 

Our quest for a radar scanner that works has been on going and not too difficult as there seems to be numerous Raymarine scanners lying around, having been discarded for non-performance! It appears that the problem lies in the connections somewhere, rather than with the scanner itself. We started out with Tashtego’s 15 year old radar that we shipped from Fremantle to Mexico..we like re-cycling! It lasted for another 3 years. In Apataki, we swapped that one for one that was 10 years old and it lasted another 2 weeks. Now we have a scanner that is only 4 years old! All we need to do is update our screen! I am hoping it will keep working as it would be good to have it around Fiji. Peter's installation is now quite fast!!

We had thought of purchasing a new radar and could get a Furuno at an excellent price with Defender in the USA, however at $1000 freight charge to Tahiti, we decided against it. It appears that Marine Wharehouse has better freight charges now. So with the anchor as well, we have had a few wins, which balances out the cost of over $5K for a replacement gear box being sent to Bora Bora!! Well, it has not got there as yet, but neither have we! It was a bit of a saga as Peter could not sort out the gear box problem until we had the engine running! List Marine in San Francisco and Minards in Sydney were fantastic in their assistance! Just what we rely on out here.

In the meantime, French Polynesia is all that we expected….fun in the sun and views to boot!

Rays and sharks to play with.....We are looking forward to sharing this with Barn and Anita!