April 29 - Last Days Aboard Quester

Blog 5/1/13

LEAVING QUESTER AND TAHITI

Calm after the overnight storm - Jan & Joe on foredeck

LAST DAY AT SEA To reach the dock in Papeete aboard Quester involved an interesting last overnight sail with building thunderstorms and winds Sunday night. We only needed to average about 2kts so we would arrive at the entrance to the Papeete channel after dawn. But the winds built overnight, first to 12, then 16, then 20kts and at dawn just off the northern shore of Tahiti up to 30kts. During my last watch from 2200 to 2400 and Jan's from 2400 till 0200 we kept shortening sail until we just had a quarter of the mainsail out with the jib furled to maintain a 2kt average speed. By Joe's watch from 0400 to 0600 he had practically no sail out and Mike and Joe were wondering if we would have to stand off until the wind dropped a bit because it was so rough.

But then the wind died in the lee of Tahiti for the final approach to the channel and we motored in peacefully at 7am, past the large city of Papeete with its hotels, commercial areas, and TRAFFIC, to the large 400 yacht marina. It seemed most of the boats were sailboats and no doubt most of them sailed across the Pacific just like we did. So our sense of grand accomplishment was toned down a notch realizing that all these boats and crew had stories to tell and had lived through similar experiences to ours. Ho hum!?!

Oyster party with music & dances

 LEAVING QUESTER FOR MOOREA After topping off the diesel at the fuel dock we took a berth, complete with electricity and free fresh water. We had Monday and Tuesday scheduled to thoroughly scrub down and reorganize Quester before Jan and I left her for a short ferry ride 12mi over to the beautiful island of Moorea and our 3-night reservation at the InterContinental Resort on the NW tip of that island. Our cleanup of the boat was made bearable by the air conditioning which the captain allowed to be switched on with the shore power, and the Oyster party with the Blessing of the Skippers and native dances on Tuesday night. 

It was quite a chore collecting all our stuff from three months and packing it into our two large duffels plus the medium-sized sail bag which carries our wetsuits (borrowed from Jim and Freddy), self-inflating safety harnesses and snorkeling gear. In addition we have three smaller carry-on bags. A lot of kit!!

Our luggage on aft deck ready for departure