Day Nine, July 23: Passage to Tahaa
Today, we woke up to 29 kt winds on our mooring in front of Bloody Mary's at Bora Bora.
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We came off our mooring and headed through Teavanua Pass and set our sails for the Paipai Pass, Tahaa. We double reefed our main and jib and set off on a broad reach going east around the southern reef of Bora Bora. Passing the light house on the south western tip of the reef on our port side, we bore up south east toward Tahaa close hauled with the apparent wind and waves increasing rapidly coming from the southeast.
We started taking the waves hard over the starboard bow, the waves rolling back over the starboard pontoon. Our boat was over powered, so Cathy and Shelby were about to take in the jib when a wave came over the starboard bow and blew open one of the hatches on the starboard pontoon resulting in seawater rushing into the starboard cabin.
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The bilge alarm went off. At the same moment, the same wave washed the main halyard overboard, wrapping the starboard tiller and prop. (The engines were running because of our proximity to the reef and in preparation to douse sail.) At this point, we had no steerage and one engine down.
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Shelby and Cathy courageously strapped on their harnesses, and while Cathy held onto Shelby's feet, Shelby stuck his head under the water to try to unwrap the halyard from around the rudder and prop. The rudder was freed from the halyard but the prop was still wrapped tight; however, Shelby managed to pull the end of the halyard out of the water, which we secured to the boat to keep it from the port prop.
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We then limped at 3 kts the rest of the 19 nm through brisk winds and tall waves to our mooring in Hurepiti Bay, Tahaa later that evening. We were never more relieved to moor up in calm waters than we were that night!
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Bora Bora as seen from Paipai Pass, Tahaa
Oh no we didn't "come off the mooring"! We wrangled off the mooring! David and Shelby took a steak knife (because you can't fly with any "sailing tools") to the pennant, which had tangled itself thoroughly around our line. A real mess. I was trying to hold the boat steady over the mooring ball in these winds and seas without loosing my menfolk! Or the steak knife. - Cathy
Yay for steak knives - again!! And for harnesses.... - Cathy
"Let's not get sloppy just because we're singing!" - Uncle Sam