August 4-5 - It’s clear and warmer this morning and the breeze is relatively light and we do the few remaining things that need to be done to transit to Huahine this afternoon/night. Trip is approx. 100 n.m. so need to make it an overnight to arrive at Huahine in daylight. We begin to weigh anchor at 3:00 pm and are through the pass and in the ocean by 4:15 with the double reefed main and the double reefed jib. Idea of double reefing both is two-fold. Don’t want to go too fast as need to be sure we get to Huahine in daylight, and it’s only me and Kryss and don’t want to invite any situation which would require stronger crew. Seas and wind are both moderate and are making 4.5-5 knts. after leaving Cook Baie, which is just fine. Shortly after we are on our way autopilot starts sending messages of low battery. I check and batteries are not low, but the messages are very annoying and after a while I put the generator on and the messages cease. After an hour or so the autopilot begins to fail in multiple ways and by 8-9 pm I shut it off and hand steer all night and the next morning (approx. 19.5 hrs.)until we get to the anchorage we have chosen in Huahine. Kryss can’t spell me at the wheel and I get no sleep. Not sure how I did it frankly. In addition to autopilot failing early on, as we approach the entrance channel to the main town in Huahine (Fare) on our route to our final anchorage our gps, AIS and my plotter start to “act up” and it’s a good thing that the passage is well marked. The anchorage in D’Avea Bay is gorgeous. Small, shallow (finally) round bay looking out over lagoon of light blue water to the reef in the distance. Bottom is finally sand and not mud so water is classic light turquoise and it’s really idyllic. There’s a small hotel on the bay with a restaurant that and we’ll visit when we put the dinghy in the water.
August 6 - Skies are clear but wind is howling all day so we can’t move the dinghy from the deck to the water. Supposed to calm down tomorrow. In the middle of the afternoon most of the electronics come back to life and in the later part of the afternoon I troubleshoot the autopilot at the directions of the marine electrician. We finish with the ACU and it’s late so we agree to resume in the morning in the lazarette.
August 7 - Turns out the autopilot motor has a ruptured hydraulic hose. I have no spares and even if I did, I’m not sure I would have the expertise and dexterity to fix it so there’s no choice but to have the marine electrician fly to us to fix it. There are absolutely no marine services available here that could do it locally. Given the low battery warnings before I put the generator on I don’t think that is the only problem with the autopilot, but fixing the ruptured hose is where we have to start. We put the dinghy in the water the next morning and in the early afternoon Marcus and Michelle show up in their dinghy and we go to the Mahana Hotel dinghy dock and have lunch at the hotel. It’s not particularly either French of Polynesian, but the food is good, plentiful and not too pricey.
August 8 - Do some legal work. It’s a sunny, calm morning and Kryss and I take a swim. We realize now that we can see our anchor chain on the bottom that a portion of it is sitting on patch coral in the Baie. Not a good thing at all. There are moorings now available and we pick up our anchor and move to a mooring.
August 9 - Feel like the batteries are deteriorating further and contact a Marina in Raiatea to see if they can replace them there. Waiting to hear back from them about that. In the beginning it looks like it may be a nice day and we prepare to dinghy to Fare but by mid morning it is getting more and more cloudy, the wind is picking up and it’s quite cool. Neither of us is anxious to take a long dinghy ride in those conditions. Nonetheless we do feel the need to get off the boat so we get ready to dinghy to the hotel dock. As we do all of our electronics go “bonkers” and we’re kind of back where we started from in Papeete. Good thing the marine electrician is coming on Wednesday. We eat lunch as Chez Tara, next to the resort. It’s known for its traditional ground pit barbeque Sunday brunches. The food is good and reasonably priced and we make a reservation for the Sunday brunch and lounge around the rest of the afternoon.
August 10 - Wind dies during the night and batteries are at 11.8 at 6:45 a.m. Not a good thing. Hope we can get them replaced in Raiatea. It’s sunny and warm with very light winds (as predicted) and we prepare to dinghy to Fare, about 7.5 n.m. away. It’s a nice, easy ride doubling back on our route from the ocean entrance channel. Fare is a cute little one street town. We get rid of our garbage and check out the supermarket which is quite large and is probably the only one of that size on the island. We originally tie up at the Town dock but it’s concrete and as the morning goes by the wind shifts and we’re being thrown against it, so we move to the floating Yacht Club restaurant dock. Try to buy gas for the dinghy but the gas station closed at Noon and I was too late. We have a nice lunch at the Yacht Club, which isn’t really a Yacht Club, just a restaurant called the Yacht Club, shop for groceries and start back. Well, the wind’s up and on our nose and now I’m concerned about having enough fuel to get back. We do and we get back without a problem, but it was a concern.
August 11-12 - Generally hang out on our mooring in D’Avea Baie. Do a little swimming when sun comes out and wind doesn’t make it too cold and take a dinghy ride out to the reef. Nothing much to see except sand bottom and a few stingrays. Have lunch again at the hotel restaurant one of the days. Have to stay put so that we’re here for autopilot mechanic we is scheduled to come on Wednesday the 14th.
August 13 - Rent a car and Marcus and Michelle dinghy over to join us in touring the island on land. We drive all around, have lunch in Fare and get back middle afternoon. Drive is interesting. Stop at an archeological site and walk around a bit. We’re inadvertently walking on a grave site and are very politely told to get off by a local tour guide giving another group a guided tour. There’s a big front coming through Thursday afternoon and now it’s a question whether we should sail to Raiatea Thursday morning as planned or sit it out here. Here we’re on a mooring. The question is how quickly will the best mooring sites fill up in Raiatea and force us to anchor in water deeper than we like to ride out the blow? Should we sit tight or go? We’ll look for more information tomorrow. Kryss asks can we use AIS to see how many boats are in the anchorages we were looking at in Raiatea and answer is that we can’t use our plotter AIS (too far away for strong enough VHF signal) but with a phone signal we can use an AIS app that I have so we start to monitor that. Of course, that doesn’t show you all of the boats there, only those with AIS who have it turned on.
August 14 - Autopilot mechanic arrives on time and starts work. Works most of the day. Replaces hose, breakers, etc. Says “all’s good” and leaves.