August 30 - Motored to Bora Bora. No wind. Autopilot worked for half the trip and then kept blowing breaker. Picked up mooring at Bora Bora Yacht Club. Had excellent dinner at the Yacht Club right on the edge of the dock looking Westward to the open ocean.
August 31- Went to Vaitape food shopping and otherwise hung out.
September 1 - Wind is howling again. Took water shuttle from Vaitape to Conrad Hilton to visit with Samantha for the day. Nice day, excellent lunch. To be continued.
September 2 - Visited with Sam again. Wind very gusty.
September 4 - Winds continue to howl in middle to high 20 knts. Stay on the boat and get ready for same to come the next day. Pretty frustrating.
September 4 - Told we would have to leave anchorage tomorrow for another anchorage - ugh. Went to Town to start Zarpe application with Gendarmes, check out details for purchasing water for the boat and to look at the fuel dock. Glad I did. Turns out different procedure than expected for obtaining Zarpe and can only pay for water with cash, which I didn’t know, but now can plan for. Sam arrives at the Yacht Club to come to the boat and winds abate to almost nil by the end of the day. Told at the end of the day that don’t have to move tomorrow after all. Big relief for lots of reasons.
September 5 - Winds are down. Walked to chandlery with Sam to source new outboard fuel tank fitting to replace leaking one, did some food shopping across the street from the chandlery. Took on 20+ gal. of water by jug from Bora Bora Yacht Club as was afraid we were running low and that water maker was not keeping up and had a nice duck breast dinner on the boat.
September 6 - Finally ran out of water in port tank. Switched to Starboard tank into which water maker water has been going. We’ll try to measure to see what we have. Have started ferrying water in two 5 gal jugs from dock to carry us through until can top off with hose at town dock. Did some more food shopping in preparation for trip to Fiji. Went to fancy St. James Restaurant for final dinner. Very disappointing. Very small portions, nothing special about the food, very pricey. Cab there cost $15, already a rip off. Cab back cost $30 because it was after 6:00pm. Crazy.
September 7 - Sunny and wind continues to be gusty until late afternoon when it calms down. Stays calm all night. Kryss and Sam depart and Tristan arrives. I have been trying to get a third crew member to join us for the trip to Fiji for the last month with no success and Tahiticrew tells me that under no circumstances will the authorities expend our 90 days to allow more time to get a third. I’m very concerned about watch keeping and general safety with only two on trip of that duration without autopilot, but Tristan says he’s confident that we can do it and I am encouraged by his optimism. Yes it’s true that there are any number of cruising “couples” that only cruise with two, but they’re generally younger, their boats are set up for short handed sailing and they have working autopilots. Anyway, it’s down to the “short strokes” for leaving for Fiji with no choice to proceed with only the two of us.. Since we’re only two, we are now thinking in terms of stopping in Tonga to “catch our breath” before continuing on to Fiji. Rhumb line course from Bora Bora to Vuda Marina, Fiji takes us within 11 miles of major northerly island group of Tonga (Vua’u) with well protected anchorage.
September 8 - Winds calm all night and in the morning. Partially cloudy. Tristan and I go to Vaitape to get Zarpe from Gendarmes, but are told we have to come back tomorrow. We scope out the wharf where we have to tie up to get water. It’s a very busy concrete wharf and we decide that we have to get there at the crack of dawn on the day of our departure to have the best chance to find a space.
September 9 - We return to Vaitape to get our Zarpe and arrive just around noon, forgetting that Gendarmarie like most places in FP close between Noon and 2:00pm for lunch. Kevin the taxi driver recommends little café right on wharf and food is plentiful and excellent. We get our Zarpe, finish our food shopping and return to the Yacht Club. We have drinks and appetizers at the Club.
September 10 - We get up early, are lucky enough to find a place at the water wharf and wait for the office where we buy card for water to open. I had wanted to tie up bow facing out for an easy departure but was unable to do so. Tie up otherwise goes smoothly. While we’re getting water large catamaran from New Zealand docks behind us and then inexplicably rams our stern hard. I was afraid that it had fractured the bottom of our reverse transom and that we might sink at the dock, but it has a large overhang that impacted my davits and solar panel supports as well as the outboard hung on the aft rail instead of the transom. Two davit supports were “sprung loose” from their fittings on the aft rail; one was also bent; one of the fittings attaching the solar panel to the davits was dislodged; and a piece was torn out of one of the blades of the outboard prop. The davits supports are straightened and re-attached; the solar panel fitting is re-attached and the net non-immediately repairable damage is the Yamaha prop. We finish taking on water and Tristan and I “masterfully” pivot the boat across the wind which is pushing it onto the dock using the port aft dock line, fenders and the bow thruster to turn through the wind and power out moving forward. Next stop, the fuel dock. It too is concrete but it has built in fenders and the wind is pushing us off of it, once we get onto it, getting off should be routine. I am pleased and relieved to again make a soft landing and we take on diesel for the boat engine and gas for the outboard. The Chandlery is nearby and I am lucking to find a replacement prop for the outboard there. We take on 96 gallons of diesel in the main tank, much less than I “estimated” that we would and we fill our four remaining 15 gal. auxiliary “jugs” and exit the Bora Bora entrance pass at 11:18. We motor for while but the wind is more of less aft and adequate for sailing s we pull out the reefed jib on the whisker pole and are finally sailing to Fiji with an expected stop on the way in Tonga. It appears from the weather report we got from WRI that around the time we would be arriving at Fiji one of more strong fronts will be passing through the area so we begin to plan to stop in Tonga, first to catch our breath since the autopilot is still not functioning and second to wait out the expected bad weather. We wind us putting a second reef in the jib at twilight and are making good time albeit in very choppy/bouncy conditions.