Moseying around Moorea

 La Orana!

When I last wrote our visa extensions had been denied and we were set on travelling further west as soon as possible.  I was researching the Cook Islands, Tonga and Fiji , Skipper was trying to arrange boat haul outs for further works and insurance for these new and unexpected waters, and we were both trying desperately to remain upbeat about the prospect.  All your messages of support certainly helped in that respect particularly for me who had been in charge of the visas, so thank you so much !

Crazy rock formations in Moorea

Cooks Bay Moorea

Our last communication with our advisor Chantal had been unambiguous:  there was absolutely no chance of an appeal and we would have to leave French Polynesia by 17^th July at the latest.  The reason given was that we had been given the wrong type of visa in response to our original application. At the end of the email was a description of the visas available to British Nationals post Brexit with the one we should have received highlighted.  I read and re-read those descriptions and was perplexed.  None tallied with the visa we had- all were slightly different.   It seemed like a long shot; it was a long shot, but I responded to the email anyway suggesting that perhaps we had been issued the wrong paperwork back in September. Could our original online applications be retrieved to clear up the confusion?  Two days past without a reply.  I honestly thought Chantal was blocking me in her “ very awkward customers” folder but then on Thursday night an email pinged into my in-tray:  she understood my concerns and had managed to secure a further meeting with the High Commissioner to go back over our case.  It would be on Friday morning.  We didn’t want to get our hopes up.  It felt like the flimsiest of lifelines, but it was a lifeline none-the-less and we were grimly hanging onto it.  Friday morning dragged by until the miracle email arrived.  Our original application had been viewed by the Commissioner online and on the basis that it was the wrong paperwork she had agreed to make an exception for us and process the extension after all.  All being well it would be completed in the next 4-6 weeks.  We could hardly believe it; Chantal could hardly believe it! Apparently, this is unprecedented. I don’t think we will truly relax until those “Carte de Sejours” are safely in our hands, but the situation is a whole lot better than it was and we both feel considerably lighter as a result! It means we can take our time, notch up more blue water cruising miles to strengthen our insurance application  for Fiji next year, see more of the other islands as a result, and most importantly host our much-anticipated guests, some of whom had already purchased flights to come out and visit this year.  I can’t tell you what a huge relief it is. 

Mont Rotui

Immense bamboo canes in the forest

The events of last week have slightly changed our plans, however.  We are now booked into a boatyard in Raiatea at the end of June to have a few jobs done on the boat.  The work is necessary for the passage to Fiji but we don’t want to cancel as Raiatea boatyard is considered one of the best and is heavily booked.  It means delaying any further exploration east until after August/September when the trade winds start to subside again but that’s fine.  There are 8 inhabited islands in the Society Islands and plenty uninhabited ones too so lots of anchorages to explore.  If our time on Moorea is anything to go by, we will have a great time.    We have been here almost 2 weeks now and have enjoyed both reef and bay anchorages.  

Anchoring on the reef in the rain

Entering Cooks Bay

As I have written before the island is quite beautiful.  It boasts a lot of very luxurious resorts but also seems in a state of flux with much dilapidation and new building going on.  It might feel very different in 10 years’ time.  Skipper read that it suffered greatly during the financial crash of 2008 and is only now beginning to surface  - what we have seen certainly concurs with that, but we like a bit of dilapidation so feel quite at home!  I’m not sure where the time has gone really but I know we have enjoyed sailing Papillon between the anchorages, feeling more self-sufficient with our water maker and washing machine  onboard, stretching our legs on the mountain trails, snacking far too often at the delicious Rotui Café and even attempting the odd (and eventful) dinghy snorkel at the reef.

Flowers on the mountains	Geneka sailing for the first time
Views East back to Tahiti from one viewpoint	A fixer upper in Cooks Bay

On that note our first dinghy snorkel proved to be a steep learning curve.  An anchor is required so I rigged something up with about 10m of chain and a long rope which looked like it would do the trick. When we got to a good spot I chucked the "anchor" over the side with the bitter end attached I hasten to add.  All seemed fine and skipper jumped in over the side for his snorkelling experience.   About 10 minutes later he surfaced to tell me the dinghy was drifting.  I yanked on the rope and it flew up into my hands.  There was no chain attached to the end.  It wasn't frayed so I can't blame the coral.  Clearly skippers suggestion to send me on a remedial bowline tying course is a good one because whatever I had tied was definitely not a bowline!  We switched places and I swam around trying to locate the blessed chain as we had drifted some way by this point.  It was eventually spotted but was lying too deep for my puny lungs and ears.  After a few pathetic attempts at surface diving,  I admitted defeat and flopped back into the dinghy in disgrace.  The motor was started and off we went back to Papillon to collect the 2.5m long boat hook - a 60minute round trip in all!  I’m not sure what people thought we were up to.  The boat hook proved to be my one good idea of the day but even with it the chain was almost impossible to retrieve.  It was a bit like one of those fairground games where you are trying to fish out a cuddly toy with a very long pair of tweezers except that in our case the cuddly toy was an extremely heavy length of 10mm chain lying 3m below the surface of the water.  It took multiple attempts to finally hook the chain,  haul a sufficient depth of it off the seabed and pass the handle of the boat hook onto Skipper without succumbing to lack of oxygen.  It wasn’t pretty and nor was my language, but I can report that the chain was successfully retrieved, and we live to give reef snorkelling another go!  Perhaps next time  we will actually see some fish!!

Heading out Passe Tareu for some sailing

Water making at the reef

To celebrate the events of this past week we ordered our first takeaway pizza tonight.  The order was placed at the the Opunohu Bay yacht club. At 6.15pm on the dot we motored over to pick up our two very delicious pizzas.  After 5 nights of spinach and chicken risotto or spinach and chicken pasta those pizzas tasted amazing!!   

Celebratory tea

Ensign about to be taken down!