Blog July August 2011.
This log takes us from Tahiti to Moorea, Fakarava.
The next one to Tahanea (passe Motu-paupau), Toua (anse Amyot), Apataki (pass Pakaka) and Rangiora (pass Tiputa).
The next one to Tahanea (passe Motu-paupau), Toua (anse Amyot), Apataki (pass Pakaka) and Rangiora (pass Tiputa).
Log extracts S/Y FARRFLY July August 2011.
Its all happening in this one;
The real Boss arrives, The search for the stone Tikis, Scary sharky story, Attacked by Manta/Sting Rays, Clark Kent arrives, we team up with Jennifer Lopez and Robert DiNero. Tony departs for bluer seas.
Wish as I may to dilly dally in Austria with Charlotte-Oceane, Conrad and their yummy mummy pictured below, I needed to get back to the ship. She was anchored off Papeete in Tahiti, and I was expecting a guest of honor; due to arrive June 25th. The Rt. Honorable Smily Jeff the Soup, Back Off, Offshore, Ocean Ryan was due to rejoin ‘his’ vessel. I, having made the terrible initial mistake of letting him invite himself, thought it polite to at least be there when he arrived.
As it happened, due to a 72 hour delay in London Jeff and I arrived in Tahiti within 20 minutes of each other. We settled Captain Ryan into his usual quarters. The Queen Ann suite on the starboard side. Normally this is reserved for my daughter Hazel, however our man Ryan became quite attached to it during his brief and somewhat turbulent “engagement” to the said young lady during Antigua Race Week 2008. That she moved out when he moved in seemed to go un-noticed!
Well all is not lost for the Cullen family and all will be pleased to hear that Smily Jeff (known simply as Ocean to his friends) has decided to ‘wait’ for Charlotte-Oceane. Will she be delighted to hear that when she is 15 or wha!
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| Crew still at large, the missing yummy mummy. |
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| Oceane |
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| Ocean Ryan arrived a bit pasty. |
TAHITI
Lost Stone Tikis.
Back to Tahiti; well via an old story...
You might remember that at the end of May, we sailed from the creepy pagan sacrificial site on the North coast of Hiva Ho, through the night to the forgotten island of Ua Huka. We were in search of rare hand made stone Tikis. We had heard that there was a stone mason there who still made them. When we got there we found him but he had sent them to Papeete to the traditional crafts market to sell them.
On the morning following my return from Austria, aided by the incredible sleuth Jeff ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Ryan, I immediately set out to find the market and the lost stone Tikis... Tracing down clue after clue with the instincts of a bloodhound, through jungles, across bridges, over rivers, Sherlock Ryan found his man. (Truth be told the Pink Panther came to mind before the bloodhound). We found the stone masons sister and lo and behold they were not all sold. There were 4 left out of 6. And so I picked this handsome pair, one male one female to keep each other company. And sure they might get together and before we know it there might be 3 tikis... seems to be the way of Farrfly these days.
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| Sherlock Ryan searching for the Tikis |
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| The pink panther at work. |
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| Le Inspecter found the wrong Tiki, this is an ancient original at the Gaugan Meseum |
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| Sure even the ancient Gods liked a pint or two. |
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| Mr and Mrs Willy Tiki aboard their new home. |
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| "So you 'forgot' your wallet again". Tony trying to improve Jeff's memory. |
Next up we decided to rent a car and do a tour of Tahiti. When we got to the Hertz at the airport the Pink Panther had forgotten both his driving license and his credit card. I just love the way ‘we rent a car for two days’ I pay for it and chauffeur him while Ocean sits back and relaxes. I drove the whole coast line of Tahiti.
To be very honest it is very disappointing. Not at all what you would expect. The Tahiti tourist board does a good job. The beaches such that there are any are very small. There is no architecture of any merit. Not a single traditional building. No girls in grass skirts, no bronzed polynesian ‘chippendales’ eating fire and getting the girls all gooey. There are no bars to speak off.. seems to be against the law??? All the ‘action’ is in the hotels and therefore is pure tourist baloney. The town of Papeete is a mixed bag. There is a wonderful 2km long waterfront park that runs in front of the town. Otherwise it is a vanilla kind of place. The kind of town where you can’t remember if you were ever there. You know you were, you just can’t remember it. So in short do NOT go to Tahiti on a holiday. It costs a fortune to get here and takes 48 hours so don’t waste it on Tahiti.
What is stunning about Tahiti is not its coastline but the Mountain. Thick tropical virgin rain forest. It is laced with deep fast rivers and waterfalls everywhere. This is a must stop and see for a couple of days. There is a wonderful safari type 4X4 trip into the mountain which I will take next month, so more about that later.
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| Venus point Light house. Top half. |
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| Robert Louis Stevenson's dad designed the Venus light |
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| Bottom half |
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| The interior of Tahiti is wonderful even if the coastline is disappointing. |
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| Teahupoo, is a world class surf location. |
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| Hope you can read this, the monument is a memorial to Capt' James Cook. |
MOOREA
The Manta/Sting Ray attack
So with the stone Tikis safely on board, off sailed the merry band from Papeete to the island of Moorea. The pictures tell the story... Moorea is simply stunning.
It is only a 2 hour sail from Papeete. I thought it best to break Offshore Ocean Ryan in gently. Can’t have him puking all over the place, tough nut that he is.
Moorea has the mountains, the beaches, the ocean passes for great diving, little restaurants, beautiful beach front villas, and needless to say hotel rooms on sticks over the water.
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| The calm before the storm. |
Hmmm or so I thought until I was literally set upon by about 8 giant Rays. I admit there was an element of the traditional “search for trouble and you will find it” about the whole episode. We (Captain’s Kenny Ryan and I) had made some enquiries as we had heard about the famous Moorea Manta Rays. And took ourselves off to the spot heeding no warnings. Well as usual ‘crash test dummy’ here was the first into the water. Anchoring the dinghy we had seen a few rays. Armed with a brand new duty free Cannon G12 underwater camera Mr enthusiastic here leaped into the drink, expecting the rays to high tail it (excuse the pun) as the sharks usually do. They high tailed it all right.... straight over to me, within seconds I was completely surrounded by giant stinging Manta Rays.
Those of you whose daily life involves the routine attack by half a dozen large deadly murderous wild animals will be casually aware of the various options open. In brief they are limited; if you have enough space run like the wind, if not and armed start shooting, if no space and not armed start praying... but do not run, piss or swim! So I froze.. Master plan!
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| The lead ray is actually nibbling my tummy. |
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| A gentle push. |
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| Completely surrounded in seconds. |
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| Gently got the tank on and the camera ready. |
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| Yes thats the 'Irwin' stinging tail. |
Well as you can tell I survived the experience. It appears that middle aged Irishmen are not on Manta Rays lunch menu and they don’t go around stinging people unless you are an antagonistic australian TV star.
After kissing my tummy they dispersed to give us a wonderful display of under water flying.... let the photos do their work... if I get to a good land based internet cafe I will put up the videos. Tony took one.... from inside the boat.. petit poulet blanc.
Truth is they turned out to be very tame, and seemed to like swimming in and around us.
We have some great underwater shots of the rays and will include more of them in the ‘Fish Fhotos’ blog soon, as not everyone is really that interested in pics of fish swimming about... unless of course they are likely to eat someone soon.
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| Stealth design. |
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| Hmm, a couple of sharks lurking about. |
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| The 'eyes' have it. |
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| Graceful in flight. |
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| Like the length of the tail? |
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| Another dangerous species; A Ryanshark. |
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| The moral of this story in quite obvious. |
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| Grumpy grumpy |
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| Farrfly and Trifon Opunohu, Moorea |
Cracked skulls do mend.
When we sailed into Oponohu anchorage who was there none other than Carl and his girls aboard Trifon. This was the first time we had seen him since he cracked his skull.
He is fully recovered and looks remarkably well... maybe its the short back and sides haircut he got in the hospital? We decided to risk another dinner together and after a feast of fresh fish, many tall tales all made it ‘home’ safely.
Epilogue; On our return visit to see the rays with Stuart, there were other people in the water with 'fish food'. During the ensuing melee a Ray's tail 'shinned' me, taking some skin off my leg. The sides of the tail are very rough, but not poisonous.
After a glorious few days, we set sail on the early tide from Oponohu bay Moorea, bound for the south pass in Fakarava. This is the place where Tony and I went dining about 6 weeks earlier. I vowed to return and thought that Smily Jeff the Soup, Backoff, Offshore, Ocean, Pink Panther, Missing Wallet Ryan should not miss such a wonderful place. Our luck was in and the wind had shifted south meaning it was a nice but close reach straight to Fakarava. Normally this wold have been a beat.
Epilogue; On our return visit to see the rays with Stuart, there were other people in the water with 'fish food'. During the ensuing melee a Ray's tail 'shinned' me, taking some skin off my leg. The sides of the tail are very rough, but not poisonous.
FAKARAVA
Tetamanu and the scary-sharky-story
After a glorious few days, we set sail on the early tide from Oponohu bay Moorea, bound for the south pass in Fakarava. This is the place where Tony and I went dining about 6 weeks earlier. I vowed to return and thought that Smily Jeff the Soup, Backoff, Offshore, Ocean, Pink Panther, Missing Wallet Ryan should not miss such a wonderful place. Our luck was in and the wind had shifted south meaning it was a nice but close reach straight to Fakarava. Normally this wold have been a beat.
Entering the pass is tricky enough as the tide can rip at 6 knots, however we waited for the slack tide and edged our way in, there is a reef bar across the entrance which at its deepest it 11 feet, Farrfly draws 9 feet, so the navigation had to be spot on.
Fakarava is a tiring 24 hour overnight sail from Moorea, so with the anchor down all went to sleep... We woke up two weeks later and decided ‘we had best leave before we decide to stay here for the rest of our lives.’
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| Tetamanu village diving centre. |
Tetamanu (abandoned) village, pension cum scuba diving centre is a living dream.
The water is a crystal clear aquarium teeming with very shape sort color variety of fish you could not possibly imagine. Including white tip and black tip sharks that hang around the ‘one table‘ dining room cum kitchen. The pension is the original of the species.. a 30 year old tiny hotel where the rooms are on wobbly poles above the sea, along a small perfect sandy beach with palm trees yawning lazily out over the water.
Everything is ‘green’ and they are almost self sufficient. Electricity is all solar, food all fish or chicken, water from the roofs. They only ‘import‘ vegetables, beer and petrol for the dive boat.
It is unpretentious, you help yourself to dinner, bring the plates back to the kitchen, take a beer as you need and write it in the ‘honesty book’. The owner (in)Sane and the staff all 5 that we met.. the cook cum waiter, the maitre d cum waitress barmaid manageress Aromia, the dive instructor Serge and the boat driver, all seem like a lost civilization, or civilization finally found.
There are two reasons to come to Tetamanu, the scuba diving, which is why the select few are here. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. The other undiscovered reason is to simply escape from the world and all its pressures. This is a vey different reality, it is the ultimate paradise. You could live here on air. All you need is a spear gun to catch your dinner, a machete to crack the coconuts and few euros a week to buy vegetables, and beer. There are abandoned waterfront houses to be bought for a song. But you would need to have had a nervous breakdown first, then and only then do you deserve to live in Tetamanu for a couple of years.
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| Farrfly at anchor, Pink beach south Fakarava. |
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| Burial island, south Fakarava. The worlds most picturesque graveyard. |
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| Jeff trying to look cool. |
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| Jeff doing what he does best.. smiling. |
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| Tony and your scribe looking cool. |
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| Napoleon beach Tetamanu. |
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| Gathering storm, south Fakarava. |
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| Such a sweet couple. Ocean was as successful as Tony. |
Scary Sharky Story
Oh what, the what? You want to hear about the high likely to be highly unlikely scary-shark-story... This is why people go to Grand Prix races...... And you call your-self a friend?
It is a tale of frightening speed and simplicity. Tony and I being sensible fellows, (obvious from the story to date) decided to initially go diving with the dive center until we got to know the turf. With 6 knot tides and clear evidence of sharks lolling around the kitchen waiting for dinner, this was putting safety first.
Hmmm or so we thought....
Out we went, down we went, 20ft, 30ft, 40ft, 50ft, 60ft, 70ft. Drift dive, the full moon tide ripping us into the Atoll’s lagoon at 4 to 5 knots. Crystal clear water, fish everywhere, new Cannon camera clicking Jacque Cousteau style. The grouper were in, thousands of them for their once a year breeding. In fact its a mass grouper orgy. Maybe 10,000 grouper. They gather only once a year on the 12th full moon. Always in the same place. Fakarava South Pass, to spawn. Its one of natures numerous miracles. The July full moon, 10,000 horny groupers descend on this tiny pass.
Another word to describe a grouper would be ‘a delicious dinner’. Grouper is a very tasty fish, very popular among the posh restaurants of London’s West End. Well London’s bankers are not the only sharks that love grouper.
So picture the scene 70 feet down; Dave ‘Cousteau’, armed with one new high tech camera is recording the gathering throng for the evenings orgy. Grouper sit on the bottom of the sea, well disguised as you can see from the photos. So Gombo the photographer is transfixed looking down. While zooming along in the tide, 70 feet deep into fish country.
Do you know what breed of large fish never like to sit on the bottom of the sea?
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| Believe it or not there are about 30 grouper in this shot. |
Late at night when walking alone through a damp city street, you get that creepy feeling you see someone - a mugger, out of the corner of your eye. You don’t like to turn around and look, too obvious, you start to turn your head really slowly, the goose pimples are up along your neck, its suddenly gone quite cold, you look straight ahead again and gradually quicken your step, don’t run you say to your self. You want to look, you need to look, YOU LOOK... There he is STARING AT YOU..... Menacing beady stone cold eyes... its a large SHARK.. just sizing you up.... but whats behind him....
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| This is both an awesome and terrifying sight. |
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| You need to stay calm, so just take some nice photographs. It takes your mind off things. |
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| Phew he is going away. But whats behind him?? |
10, no 20, no 30, no 40, no 50 no 60 NO 70 NO 100,150, 200 SHARKS ALL AROUND YOU, EVERYWHERE, EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, ABOVE YOU, LEFT, RIGHT, NOW BELOW, ALL SWIMMING INTO THE TIDE, HOLDING STATION, NOT YOU... YOU ARE SWEPT INTO THEIR MIDST BY THE SPRING TIDE AT 5 KNOTS......
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| Another one this time with the sun at his back.. sly, but are those more behind him? |
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| As the tide swept me closer it became obvious that I had gate crashed a convention. |
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| How do I stop? |
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| Closer and closer. |
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| This dive is starting to look like a serious mistake. |
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| Count the sharks in each frame. |
Needless to say this brings us back to the various but limited options available to you when presented with a roaming gang of flesh eating very large wild animals. As we have learned from the Manta Ray ‘attack’ running and shooting are off the list. So its back to Master Plan, no pissing or swimming, just freeze and act natural, whistling in the graveyard comes to mind. Graveyard comes to mind. Trouble with the ‘Freeze Plan’ during a drift dive, is, you are frozen; speeding along at 5 knots. Mr Shark does not have to move, just open his big wide mouth, its home delivery, warm and tasty. Plan D... or G as the case was, head fast for Grouper territory. Straight down. Grab a rock. Freeze. No pissing, no trashing about... Sharks love to eat things that trash about... Also piss and blood create some similar reactions...so despite the urge in these situations to ‘piss in your pants’ this is neither the time nor place.
So once again, you errant scribe must press upon the unfortunate reader to picture the ‘new scene.’ DC ( Dave Cousteau) is now 80 feet down, clinging to a rock, surrounded by hundreds of very curious really randy groupers. Above this romantic scene, we have, hanging about with nothing particular to do, some 200 sharks waiting for dinner time.
Ahh what a nice word ‘time’, especially when linked to dinner. After a few perilous moments spent imitating a horny fish, it dawned on the gombo behind the camera that the sharks were not interested in him, not even curious, and certainly not for lunch. It seems, as explained later, that this bunch of Grey sharks, Black tip sharks, and White tip sharks, usually only eat at night and normally do not eat scuba divers as the air tanks make the sharks fart and belch.
So with great presence of mind gombo let go of the rock, kissed his new grouperette good bye and ascended Jesus like into the pack of sharks. Why? The problem was naturally air, or indeed to be more precise the lack of it. The sight of all the sharks had given me a considerable fright and I was gulping my air far too fast. I needed to either get to the surface or the dive leader who always carries extra air.
I have to record that when faced with a clear and obvious danger and a clear and only choice of action, ones heart beat slows down again, and a strange calm came over me.
I let go my rock, turned on my camera and started clicking as I swam straight at and through the shark pack to the dive group. Fortunately on sight of all the sharks, the whole dive group who were further east and in 50feet of water, had also all grabbed rocks to halt their sweep through the sharks.
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| Fat face here seems not too worried about the company he keeps. Wonder what his mum thinks. |
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| Another relaxed co-habitee. |
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| The trouble is a lack of eyes in your flippers.. spot the diver. |
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| This guy was bowled over by an irate shark. |
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| Car wash, these parasites live off the sharks and clean their skin. They have large suckers to stick to the sharkskin. |
I got some fantastic photographs, and learned a lot about shark behavior. I had befriended Jim, a research marine biologist who had come to study the groupers spawning.
Over the course of the net two weeks we went diving with and around the sharks every day. There were never again 200, most of them left with the groupers over the following 2 days. Never the less we never saw less than 10 to 20 sharks on every dive. They are magnificent creatures, and as they have plenty to eat throughout the Tuamotus, attacks on humans are very rare, and attacks on scuba divers unheard of. Therefore the dive centers happily take divers out to see the sharks.
Foot note;
I have my own dive compressor onboard Farrfly so we dive independently of the dive centers. In Fakarava we went diving every day for two weeks in what can only be described as shark infested waters and felt quite safe. We will continue to dive through out this trip, but only where we have certain information and never at night.
While there is no doubt that the reef sharks of the Tuamotus seem to have little or no interest in divers, personally I think taking large groups of divers into packs of sharks is an accident waiting to happen. On two occasions I have seen irate individual sharks. They swim about at very high speed, in an agitated state, pushing aside anything in their way and snapping at other fish often biting them in half but not eating. Jim himself was bowled over by a large grey shark while filming the groupers spawning. The diver in the picture was similarly ‘knocked down’. I don’t know what sets a shark off, in what to human eyes is a bad tempered romp.
What if 10 sharks all felt the same way at the same time? or worse 50? They would make very quick work out of a group of recreational divers. Especially if it was the divers themselves who startled or upset them. That the dive leader led a group of 10 straight into a pack of 150 to 200 sharks was very exciting, but irresponsible.
Some general snaps of life in Tahiti and the Tuamotus
Some general snaps of life in Tahiti and the Tuamotus
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| Buying tuna in Tahiti. The fisherman showing off ate 2 tuna hearts raw and dripping in blood. |
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| Moving house Tahiti style. |
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| As close as Tony got to water skiing. |
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| A Tsunami rolls through the Tuamotus.??? A fisheye story. |
Back to Tetamanu village. We ate out a number of times at the pension dining table. The food was simple but fresh and excellent. And the type of people who find a place like this in such a totally remote location are themselves usually a littlt bit different and so more interesting, even if they are not sailors!
Jeffs visit passed all to quickly and he threw his going away party at the dining table. As you can see we all stayed completely sober. The party continued back on board the climax being Jeff re-enacting his night on stage at a Mansion House live gig in Dublin. Jeff Jagger a new nick name that would stick if he ever had the nerve to perform live in the RIYC. So it was a sad morning when he set off on his epic journey half way around the world. The first leg being a 90 minute speed boat ride... can’t be all bad!
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| Jeffs going away party, a sober affair with a lot of grumpy bores. |
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| No doubt Jeff seemed delighted to be leaving, alive.! |
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| Jeff the day after arriving. |
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| Jeff the day before leaving, 10 years younger. |
It is about this time, 48 hours later to be exact, that Clarke Kent joined the boat. Disguised not as Superman but on this occasion using his alias Stuart Cullen. Stuart achieved in 9 days what Tony failed to do in 8 months. But more about that later. Stu had not been on board Farrfly for about 3 years having reached that stage of life (18) where just about anything else is more interesting than going on yet another sailing trip with dad. Needless to say that changed when the boat was suddenly in French Polynesia.
Stu became accustomed to the sharks after a few dives, to the point where a dive without a dozen sharks was deemed disappointing... adrenalin junky.
Exactly one week after Jeff left we awoke from or dream and decided to move out of this seductive little spot. We had been sitting at anchor off Tetamanu for just over two weeks. As it happened Tony had been offered a position as first mate on a 45 meter yacht Drumbeg, so he was off on the saturday morning. On Friday we threw Tony’s farewell party our own departure fling at the long dining table. We had another mad night, but in the process lost the little camera and so all the photos, including Tony very kindly ‘kissing better’ Aromia’s leg.
So all things come to pass, after 7 months on board and 8 months with the family, having joined us in St Barths for Christmas, Tony was suddenly gone.
And so we finnish the log with some snaps of the missing crew still holed up
in Austria.
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| Crew at large, still missing, Conrad the man of the sea goes Evil Knevil |
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| The new navigator of the Oceanes takes a nap. |
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| Cool new interactive toy, needs no batteries and does real poos! The next blog will take us to Tahanea (passe Motu-paupau), Toua (anse Amyot), Apataki (pass Pakaka) and Rangiora (pass Tiputa). Clarke Kent has just joined the boat, we team up with the Italian mob... including Jennifer Lopez and Robert Di Nero. I am under pressure to keep 'mummys baby' safe and sound, all 6'3" of him. Unfortunately he was set upon by giant Sting Rays, was caught deep inside enemy lines, and likes to swimming with the sharks, and I'm not just talking about the Italians. |
