Best Wishes Jodi & Melissa

Happy Wedding Day

Raiatae & Rainbows

A fabulous week exploring Raiatea, an island completely surrounded by the reef. On Saturday we searched out a marina so that we could have Skype phone access to call our very good friend Barry Rimmer, who was celebrating his 65th birthday at SunDance ranch. We were thrilled that Danny was there to represent our family and was able to hand deliver his birthday present – a bottle of whiskey and a pair of Saxx (special underwear that keeps the boys in a room of their own and provides a good laugh).

On Sunday our plan was to attend the later 10:00 a.m. protestant church service, however as soon as we started the long walk to town, we were picked up by a local lady. She took us to her 8:00 a.m.Catholic service, which was a special event since the priest was there for his monthly visit and to celebrate “Pontecote”, (not sure about the spelling, since the whole service was in French) which is a major religious holiday here. The choir was amazing!!! We hiked the 4 miles back to the boat, with a temperature of about 34 degrees Celsius. Prior to heading out of range, we made a few more phone calls –happy Danny rode his bucking bronco for the requisite eight seconds….so much easier than being thrown on his head.

We’ve anchored the last six days in lovely, quiet bays and beside motu’s (islands). It is the longest stretch we’ve been without internet access or ham radio emails. I’m hoping that when we get within range again tomorrow (and I post this) that there isn’t anything that we were needed for.



The weather has been unusually wet and windy. We’ve put up our dodger to block the wind and keep more of the rain out. With the wet weather, we have been getting lots of boat projects done. We’ve also enjoyed some incredible sunsets with the cloud cover, and the first full rainbow arch that I’ve ever seen. On top of that we've had a stunning full moon. I sure love living outside.

The highlight for me this week was a bit of excitement during my daily swim. We anchored in deep indigo coloured water. As soon as I jumped in, I saw a large moray eel moving quickly on the sand bottom. Minutes later I had a large spotted ray swimming below me, almost in sync. I wear my mask and snorkel so that I can see everything below me. Suddenly, the ray dove deep to the bottom and then skyrocketed straight for me. At the last moment, it veered off, as if it was playing a game of chicken. I guess he won that round because I decided to hop back on the boat and wait for shallower waters for my next solo swim.

We’ll sail over to the sister island of Tahaa tomorrow and spend the better part of a week there. We are hoping that the Mantra Rays, which are supposed to be here by now, will arrive by then so we can go diving with them.

Until next Friday (or thereabouts). ….smile often!

More Diving

We spent four nights in the Baie De Avea, which is a lovely anchorage surrounded by a white-sand beach. Unfortunately, we had really blustery conditions, in excess of 30 knot winds and lots of rain, so we stayed on the boat for most of the time. When the weather did break, we managed a walk in the village and some kayaking. This inclement weather gave us some time to do more boat projects and handle some business items, such as renewing boat insurance, banking, etc., etc.

During this time we learned that congratulations are in order for two of the kids….Danny got promoted to Sub-Foreman with a truck and a crew of his own. Tara got promoted to Customer Service Supervisor as a result of the many long hours and hard work she has been putting in over the past months.

After leaving the Baie De Avea, we motor sailed two hours back to the main centre of Huahine, where we went out for our first dinner out. We actually prefer to stay on the boat to eat, but it is a treat now and again to have someone else do the cooking and dishes. We met up with two couples from the States, who were also enjoying Happy Hour with us as we waited for the storm to pass.



(Photo of some of our dive partners courtesy of Phillippe Vergez)

Yesterday we went for another awesome dive with Annie. We went 100 feet deep and were greeted by a whole school of Eagle Rays, including their “queen” who was massive and danced effortlessly in the water. We also were surrounded at one point by about 5 gray sharks, who fortunately weren’t too curious about us. We did have a Trigger Fish (the kind with two very sharp, almost buck teeth). They feed on the coral so you can imagine how strong their bite is. Anyway, our instructor kept feeding it some bread, and once she stopped the fish decided to check me out. It came right for me and smacked up into my Goggles. Cheeky little bugger. Our instructor just LOVES to dive and wants to maximize our bottom time, so since I was the rookie out of the four of us, I ran out of air first, so had to use her secondary regulator during the ascent. We were down for an hour though, so I still felt good about my air consumption.

Afterwards when we went in to provision for the next leg of our trip, our new American friends invited us onboard their boat for a dinner of fresh Mahi Mahi later that night. One of them, John, is an anesthesiologist just like our good friend Alistair in Silver Star, although they are not remotely similar. I baked a cake to take for dinner (okay it was out of a box, but I baked it nonetheless – I sure missed my old crewmate Shelby who used to bake with me during the crossing last year). The cake didn’t turn out very well. (alright Danny, no surprise I know). Peter called it the “gimbled cake”. Nonetheless we took it anyway and brought along a can of whipped cream. Since they had been sailing for two weeks, they were thrilled with the concept of a chocolate cake (since that’s what it really was) and sure enough everyone had two helpings. That’s the other joy about cruising, even my cooking doesn’t seem so bad, ha,ha.

We have just spent the day motor-sailing 20 miles over to the next island of Raitea. We look forward to circumnavigating this island which is completely surrounded by the reef, so it is like lake sailing.
Until next Friday…..remember the old adage “To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'

Moorea & Huahine

After our aborted attempt to Moorea, we left early the next day to try once again. This day was dead calm, with a heavy chop and sloppy seas. We motored the entire way in what felt like a washing machine. Captain Peter kept giving me the eye as if to say “I told you we should’ve just kept going yesterday”. To rub salt in the wound a little bit more, I was also hanging off the rails for most of the trip and gave my first donation to feed the fish.





Once we arrived in Moorea, the lagoon was calm as glass. The next morning was Mother’s Day. Great to chat to everyone on Skype (and leave messages with those we couldn’t connect with). It was a magical day – and Peter even remembered the occasion, ha,ha. After my daily session of Yoga to greet the sunrise, we headed over by dinghy to wander in water thigh-high amongst the schools of sting rays and sharks.



After snorkeling, we listened to the Canucks on internet radio (how much better can you get on Mother’s Day?). Well, actually, I had the VERY BEST Mother’s Day on May 8, 1988. Kylie was born!



At 5:00 p.m. we up-anchored for an overnight sail to Huahine. This was a 10/10 crossing with the velvet sky bursting with stars, including numerous shooting stars. As dawn broke we came within sight of a wild, lush coastline. We anchored just outside the main town of Fare with an island population of about 5,000 people. We spent the first day wandering the village and organizing our rental car for a few days later. The next day we listened once again to the Canucks play their last game of the series. Very sad – Good for Montreal for winning their round.

The rental cars all spot a big orange dot on the front and rear bumper. Actually a great system to let the locals know who the tourists are! It poured rain almost all day, but we still had a great tour of the 32 kilometre island, which we circumnavigated twice. We stopped during a break in the weather for a 2-hour hike to the top of the mountain for a 360 degree view. However, just before arriving at the top, the skies opened up and within minutes we were totally drenched. The view was also clouded over, but being soaking wet in 90 degree temperatures isn’t too hard to take.



Another highlight on the tour was stopping to see the mystical blue-eyed eels in the river. Legend has it that they brought fresh water to the island many, many moons ago. These eels are about 2 feet long with very sharp teeth. They are almost tame though as the locals feed them.

On our final day in Fare we went for a dive in the pass. Each dive I am feeling more and more confident, and this was aided by having a wonderful Dive Instructor Annie who led our private dive. We dropped in to about 40 feet and then swam over the reef to the ocean side where the current was very strong. We descended to about 100 feet and were well rewarded by seeing tons of sea life, including 5 Eagle Rays swimming above and around us and a whole school of Barracuda’s.

That afternoon we sailed to our first private anchorage where we stayed for two days swimming, snorkeling, beachcombing and kayaking. After our lunch anchorage today we continued on to our destination for the next few days – Baie de Avea. It has been raining a lot – a couple of times each day – but each time, although a downpour, quickly moves on and then just as quickly everything is dry again.



Until next Friday…..hug someone special.

Happy 22nd birthday to our baby girl!

Sending Kylie birthday messages from across the sea. We were able to talk to her an hour ago using Skype onboard from Tahiti while she is in Bryon Bay, Australia. How cool is that? It's hard to believe she is our baby girl - all grown up now at 22! Here's a picture of her and our old neighbour and Ky’s lifelong friend Natalie at 3 years old, whom she grew up with. Ironically, Natalie is currently visiting Kylie for a month, so they get to celebrate another birthday together. Kylie...we miss you and are so incredibly proud of you.

We had a bit of a gong show today. We decided to leave Tahiti rather than wait the 10 plus days to get the boat papers from Canada. Instead, we've arranged to have them flown over to Bora Bora once they arrive here and then we'll pick them up there before we leave these islands. So, we did our final provisioning and then set sail for Moorea. About an hour out, the wind blew up out of nowhere from one tack to another with gusting winds of over 35 knots. Long story short, we had a bit of a knockdown with water pouring through the inadvertently left open hatches in the galley. On top of that, the water tank had a connection pop off, so we had a bit of a flood going on from both sources. We continued on for a while, with me getting increasingly tense and less than happy with my Captain, as the seas continued to crash over the bow with us heeling almost to the rail even with a double-reefed main and no jenny out. We finally decided to turn around - after all we aren't on any kind of a fixed schedule - and so here we are back in Tahiti once again. We are in a different anchorage though, so we can pretend we are somewhere else. So we’ve had two aborted attempts out of three so far on this trip. Based on that history, I’m not going to even mention where we are thinking of going next!

The good thing about it is that we were able to get the internet and make the birthday call to Kylie and as I'm typing this, we are listening to the Canucks on the radio via the internet. Right now Chicago is up 3 - 2, but there is still lots of time. Go Canucks Go!!!! (Congratulations to Montreal for continuing to hang in during the playoffs). The other cool thing about being near a marina is that we can do book exchanges. You end up reading books that you would otherwise overlook. I just finished an awesome non-fiction book on AIDS in Africa and Peter’s read another good book by Michael Connelly (The Lincoln Lawyers). Always fun to find and enjoy new authours.

Until next Friday...wishing all the Mothers out there a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday.

Change in Plans

Well, we had our first change of plans. We headed out at dawn planning a two day trip to the Tuomotos....but after two hours of pounding seas and bucking the wind, we (okay me!) decided to give the Tuomotos a pass. We knew the prevailing wind was going to be against us, but I just didn't feel like getting us and the boat beat up for two solid days. The major attraction in the Tuomotos is the outstanding diving - especially the South Pass where an average dive has you swimming with 300 10- 12 foot lemon sharks. However, for the past 12 days they have sighted a Tiger Shark (which is the second deadliest to a Great White), so it is likely that the swimming, snorkeling and diving would have been curtailed anyway.
We are now back in Tahiti, awaiting our boat documents to be couriered from Canada. Doug, who used the boat in February inadvertently took them home with him in his important documents. Once we get these and our clearance papers we will head to the Leeward Islands for 4 - 6 weeks...Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora, Bora and possibly Maupiti (depending on how strong the south swell is).
Until Friday.....Find the special moments in every day.

Heading out to Sea

Good morning. Just a quick check-in. We spent the last 4 days in Moorea - two of them diving. What a rush! I would like to thank our new dive buddy - Phillippe Vergez (of JeeVice sunglasses of France) for the AWESOME underwater photos included here and in the side bar. Great diving with you!


We anchored at the northern tip of Tahiti last night(so we could listen to the Canucks game on the radio via the internet). Peter is just securing the Jack Lines and doing some last minute boat preparations before we set sail. The sun has just come out and the weather is forecast to be pretty benign, so that will make our 2 day crossing a little more comfortable - since we will be bucking up against the wind. We will be out of internet reach, but I will update the blog both tonight and tomorrow night while we are out at sea (via the Ham radio). This is the longest stretch that we have sailed with just Peter and I aboard. A little nervous....but all should be okay.
Thanks for coming along with us....

Week One

Week One – ending April 30, 2010

The blissful heat and humidity actually took its toll on us the first few days. We’re not really sure if that was also the result of going flat out for a few weeks trying to get ready to get down here or lacking sleep due to the flights, or driving down the mountain from Silver Star while it was snowing or just a combination of everything. Nonetheless, the first couple of days weren’t overly productive, but we soon got in to the swing of things and managed to whip through a number of boat projects. Peter claims that he never gets sunburned, so I am at a loss for words on how to describe how his back got beet red on the first day!

We cast off from the dock in Tahiti on Wednesday with our regular share of drama. As we were going out through the crowded marina our Canadian flag on the wooden pole got dumped into the ocean. There was no room to turn around, so Captain Peter managed to ask with an endearing little grin “do you mind going for a swim?” I was fully dressed from head to toe (because unlike Peter I do sunburn, ha,ha) .We had quite the audience, but managed to save the flag. Once out at anchorage, we had a lovely breeze, spent a few hours watching all the outrigger canoes practicing and witnessed a beautiful sunset overlooking Moorea for our first night on the hook.
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Yesterday, we did our final fuelling, shopping, paperwork, etc. and then motorsailed to Moorea. We were on the lookout for whales, but we weren’t lucky enough to see any. We dropped anchor in the famous Cook Bay, which we have fallen in love with on our other visits here. It was an absolute perfect setting for our 32nd anniversary…you couldn’t script it any better…the sun was shining, the lush green mountains rose dramatically around on all sides as we sipped a perfect Peter Bruckmann signature Gin and Tonic at Happy Hour. Our favourite over the water restaurant was just a short dinghy ride away where you can watch them feed sharks and rays after dinner. Just to top it off, the full moon was in all its’ splendour. Alas, there was only one problem. Peter forgot all about it – so we had the romance novel anniversary that wasn’t. After saying goodnight and “by the way Happy Anniversary”, there was a lot of grovelling going on this morning.

We will move later today to the next bay over where we plan on doing a couple of warm up dives to get us ready for the more challenging shark dives in the Tuamotus which we will head to in a few days.
Until next Friday….enjoy your friends and family and try not to overlook any birthdays or special occasions!
P.S. We just arrived at our new anchorage and we were escorted in by two sea turtles and a giant sting ray!