Category Archives: Passages & Crossings

The Perfect Sail to Tekihau

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Wowza!  We had truly one of the best trips under sail!  We left Opunohu Bay, Mo’orea at 0500 for the 175nm journey to Tikehau.  This trip takes us from the Society Archipelago to the Tuamotus Archipelago over the course of 26 hours.  We had been waiting for a good weather window for 10-12 days and seized this one.  We needed either northerly or southerly winds to take us east, preferred no rain, no thunder or lightening, and low swell.  Not much to ask for considering the prevailing winds come from the NE :).

Matt and I are up before dawn to ready the boat for the sail.  We lift the anchor and are underway by 0500 and the sails are out by 0530 as we exit the Opunohu Bay pass.  We have a gorgeous sunrise send off including a sneak peak at Adromeda Motor Yacht.  Adromeda is a107 meter expedition that was built in 2016 and has a crew of 43 people!  Check out her tender which is larger than Sugar Shack!

Teti’aroa in Passing

Our direct route has us crossing over and through Teti’aroa (aka Marlon Brando’s Island).  Clearly we can’t do that so we have to divert off course to go around this pretty picturesque island.  Just a few weeks before we pass this small atoll, Kim Kardashian celebrated her 40th birthday to the disgust of many of her fans (being that we are in the middle of a pandemic and they didn’t follow any protocols).  We didn’t stop here this time past the island.

If you are interested in learning about the history of Teti’aroa, check out our blog post.  And if you’d like to check out our visit to Brando island, check out this blog post.

Brando Island

Brando Island

As we are leaving the lee of Teti’aroa we came across a rather smelly fishing vessel.  Love how the birds feast on the left overs.

We had a perfect sail with winds coming out of the ENE at 10-14kts, less than a .05-meter swell, no rain, no squalls, and an average boat speed of 7kts.  Pretty good for us!  The sunset was amazing all is well as we enter the evening portion of the passage.

A Sail at Night

Navigation is imperative on all passages.  However, you tend to rely on it more at night when you lose sight from the dark.  We utilize a lot of instruments to keep us on track.

Our Raymarine keeps track of our True Wind Speed (TWS) 10.8, depth (showing at zero as its too deep in the middle of the ocean), Speed over Ground (SOG) 6.7, Distance to Waypoint (DTW) 45.95, Cross Track (XTE) -5.84 (shows we are off course which occurred during a small squall), and Heading 046T.  This is where we control our autopilot.

The B&G chart has a wealth of information.  This and the radar screens are what I use most.  This particular screen has (down left side): Boat Speed, TWA: True Wind Angle, AWA: Apparent Wind Angle,, TWS: True Wind Speed, and TWD: True Wind direction.  The center column is our directional map.  The far right has SOG: Speed over Ground, COG: Course over Ground, POS: position, Depth, Steer, and WPT: Waypoint.  The large circular diagram in the middle shows you the boat, the apparent wind (large triangle upper right), true wind (smaller triangle upper right), swell/current (center of boat arrow 1.3) and steerage (red hour glass in red area).

Then of course we have our mapping charts.  We use three different charting systems.  The handheld Garmen GPS has one chart, the iPad has Navionics, and the computer has Open CPN. All tracking us and telling us where to go.

Fishing

We had three lines in the water and one teaser.  We were so hopeful to catch something as we had not been able to fish for awhile.  A large silver fish bit the hook and went running in the opposite direction of the boat. We were under full sail and couldn’t slow the boat down fast enough.  We headed into the wind and started bringing in the other 3 lines but by the time Matt got back to the fish he had either wiggled off the hook or the hook ripped out of his mouth due to our boat speed.  So sad!

Birds are always circling our lures.  Poor silly creatures think they are edible and always try to catch them.  One unlucky bird dove down to grab the lure and got caught up in our line.  Poor thing was dragged behind the boat for a few minutes before we realized what was going on.  It squawked at us.  Matt tried to pull it in but she got off before getting too close to the boat.  Top photo has the bird and the line comes in from the left side of the photo.  Bottom photo has arrows to show you the bird and line/lure.

So, that is 1-caught and lost, 1-caught and released and 0-onboard.

Land A’Ho

About 12nm from Tikehau, the winds divert our sail.  We get pushed off track and end up having to motor sail the last 4/5nm to the pass.  Not terrible considering we have sailed the other 170+nm.  We carefully navigate the pass as we have missed the optimal slack tide.  However, we did not have any issues coming in .

Navionics showing the pass

Navionics showing the pass

The pass was relatively calm and super pretty!

Tikehau Pass

Tikehau Pass

We have several friends who are anchored near the Pearl Beach Resort Tikehau so we head to the south side of the atoll.  It is about 1.5 hours across the lagoon to the anchorage spot.  Super purdy!  We drop the hook a short distance from the resort.

Pearl Beach Resort Tikehau

Pearl Beach Resort Tikehau

Passage Details:

  • Mo’orea to Tikehau
  • Miles to Dest. 175nm
  • Actual Miles Sailed: 188nm
  • Average Speed: 7.0
  • Max Speed: 11.1
  • Total Moving Time to Pass: 26 hours
  • Total Moving Time to Anchorage: 27:46

Events from this blog post occurred on 17/18 November 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

Sugar Shack at Oponohu Passe

Voyage to Mo’orea

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Finally, it was time for us to leave Tahiti and begin our voyage East. It is a short passage of 12nm to Moo’rea.  The weather was not conducive to sail toward the Tuamotus so we just went to the next island over.  However, before we left we enjoyed sundowners (aka happy hour) with our friends Julie and Andy on “Little Wing.”

Julie and I at sunset

Julie and I at sunset

Afterwards we were rewarded with a beautiful moonrise over Marina Taina in Tahiti. Perfect for this Halloween night.

The next morning, we made a final trash run and another quick trip to the grocery store to see if they got any pork in stock.  For some reason, the island of Tahiti is out of pork products – no pork chops, pork shoulder or pork ribs.  So sad for me.

Voyage to Mo’orea

We left the south pass and had light winds of 6-8kts coming north of east.  Sugar Shack had a full main and a reefed jib because there was hardly any wind.  We were doing a whopping 3-5kts of boat speed – just plugging along.  We were not in a hurry and had all day to cross the bay to the next island.

Several local surfers were taking advantage of the great waves as we left the pass.  These are short waves that break on a dangerous reef – but they still manage to rock it!

A French War ship was hanging out just in front of Mo’orea.  It looked like they were dragging something, but we were not close enough to figure it out.

French warship off the coast of Mo'orea

French warship off the coast of Mo’orea

In the distance we could see white caps.  Not a good sign, so we took a reef in the main sail.  After 15 minutes we decided to take a 2nd reef in the main sail.  Thank Holy God!  The winds jumped to 30-35kts and the seas quickly became 2-3 meters!  We were  bouncing all over the place.  We almost turned around, but decided to forge ahead.  The weather calmed down to 20-25kts and 1.5-2 meter seas which was a bit better.  The boat found her happy place and we were doing 7-8kts.

We turned the corner and had another 5nm to go to Oponohu passe entrance. During this leg of our voyage we encountered lots of beautiful dolphin.  They were surfing in the waves, jumping, and having fun.  We first spotted some dolphins at the Tahiti pass by the new surf platform (upper left photo), and then we saw dozens more as we got closer to Mo’orea.

Another mile further we ran into a super talented, overzealous foil boarder.   He was amazing!  He circled around Sugar Shack several times showing off his mad skills!  See my Instagram account for video footage.  He pumps the board by bending his knees which keeps the board moving forward.  He also uses the kite that is in his hand for propulsion.  We were going 6-7kts and he was going faster than us!

We were gifted with a grand view as we entered the Oponohu passe.

Sugar Shack at Oponohu Passe

Sugar Shack at Oponohu Passe

To the left of the pass is the anchorage which is full of other boats.  We grabbed a spot on a nice sandy patch in 3 meters of water.

Oponohu Anchorage

Oponohu Anchorage

Events from this blog occurred over the last week of October 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

Pleasant Passage: Tahanea to Tahiti

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Matt and I got up early, picked up the hook and started our passage.  We were anchored in the SE corner of Tahanea which is about 10nm from the pass.  The first part of our journey was a beautiful sunrise sail with the jib across the lagoon.  We were not in a big hurry as slack tide was at 0830 {the best time to exit the lagoon}.  We managed to arrive to the pass around 0745 and it looked manageable.  So, we ventured on.  We had the fishing poles out and the jib flying as we exited.  With a 2kt outgoing current we made it out with no issues, always a relief.

We had hope to catch a grouper or something as we exited the pass, but no such luck.  After we went through the washing machine of waves caused by the pass, we changed out the sails and raised the parasail.  Our first day was incredible.  We had perfect winds at 15-18kts from the east.  A 2-meter following sea that pushed us along toward our destination. 

All the Excitement Packed into 15 Minutes

Around dusk we were contemplating swapping the sails. A storm was forming on the horizon and we did not want to get caught with our “new to us” parasail up in high winds.  As we are discussing this, a nibble hit one of the poles.  Hmmm…then nothing.  Another nibble, then nothing.  Then another.  Finally, on the 4th bite we caught him. 

We both turned at the same time to see a beautiful marlin dancing across the top of the water.  Unfortunately, we had to let him run with the hopes of tiring him out.  We scrambled to swap out the sails to slow the boat down.  No easy task with the parasail up.  By the time we got back to the marlin he was gone.  He did manage to take a Sugar Shack souvenir with him, Matt’s new lure.

Probably a good thing. Reeling in sailfish is long, hard work.  Then once you get it to the boat you have to be careful not to jab your fiberglass hull with his protruding hard nose.  Matt was disappointed though.

A few minutes later, our jib suddenly started flapping. I am stunned as the working sheet (line), holding the jib in place, was gone!  Yep, gone. How the heck does the working sheet, with a full load, fall off?  We tacked (moving the jib to the opposite side with a working sheet).  Evidently, the knot on the starboard working sheet came undone while under load.  Maybe when we surfed down a wave and the sail luffed, who knows.  This has never happened to us – ever.  Really strange.

Day 2

Our second day had us flying our parasail again but in lighter conditions.  We were losing the wind as it slowly came down to 10-12kts from the east.  It was really fun to watch the apparent wind and our boat speed.  As we surfed down a wave, our boat speed would exceed our wind speed (zoom in on the photo to see the Raymarine screen).

Matt finally crashed hard on the 2nd night.  I took the 1130-0330 shift.  As we neared Tahiti, we started to see some boat traffic.  Always a good sign.  But it was strange that they all popped up at once.  Nice to be in company on a dark and lonely night.  No moon, no stars, and no phosphorescence. 

Arriving Tahiti

Tahiti welcomed us with a fresh wash of the boat.  Rain and gloomy day.  It is always a good way to end a passage with a fresh rinse of the boat.  Even though we did not have a lot of salt water on her as it was a following sea.

We entered north pass just around 1000.  In Tahiti, you enter through a pass that gives you access to a passage between the shoreline and the reef.  All vessels entering the pass must call into port control.  Port Control monitors the traffic in the passage and ensures the boats do not interfere with commercial traffic or air traffic with the neighboring airport.

We travel about 2 miles down the passage toward our favorite anchoring spot in front of the Intercontinental Hotel.

Passage Details:

  • Total Miles Traveled: 285
  • Max Speed:  12.5kt
  • Average Speed 5.8kts
  • Total Time at sea: 48 hours

This post was written in July 2020.  Our blog posts are usually 6 to 7 weeks behind are true adventures.  Be sure to see previous posts on Tahiti, go to svsugarshack.com and click on “Society Archipelago/Tahiti”