Week 93: Maupiti to Raiatea (55nm)

We made the most of our final days in Maupiti: Alec learned how to hunt (not fish!) for Mahi Mahi while I discovered the “varo” who proliferate the sand flats, before braving the island’s tricky pass one last time on our way back to Raiatea to meet up with our friends Aaron and Nat on SV Catherine Estelle.

This week had lots of little, special moments, so in lieu of a ‘Story of the Week’ I’ve written an extended log.

First Mate’s Log

Monday, 15th June: Phillipe from Galawa invited Alec to join him on a Mahi Mahi hunting trip with Noni, a local master fisherman. “Hunting?” was Alec’s reply, “surely you mean fishing?” No no, came the reply – this is not fishing. Noni has perfected the Mahi hunt – spying one in the water with his exceptional eyesight, chasing it with his speedboat until it is exhausted, and finally spearing it with an enormous harpoon, Captain Ahab-style. Imagine a medeival hunter astride his horse bringing down a boar. How could Alec refuse that opportunity?? We met early at the commercial dock, feeling a touch nervous about the forecast. But, despite the big swell outside making the pass pretty gnarly, Noni shrugged – he’s been out in much worse. So, I waved goodbye and watched them bounce (literally) down the channel in Noni’s powerful boat towards the open sea. They finally returned about 15:30, exhausted, with a heck of a haul! Two yellowfin tuna (one almost as big as what we’d caught on our Pacific crossing), one bonito, a wahoo and two big Mahi Mahi. The real prize were the Mahi, caught using Noni’s unusual technique. It might only make sense by seeing it – check out the amazing video Alec made, below!

Tuesday, 16th June: It rained, and rained and rained. And then rained some more. So, it was an indoor activities sort of day! We cooked, cleaned, worked on blogs, etc. We had invited Phillipe and Ann from Galawa over for sundowner drinks (and to hear more stories of the Mahi hunt), but all decided it was far too horrible out to go for it. Hopefully we can have them over tomorrow in a bit of sunshine.

Wednesday, 17th June: Phillipe popped by in the morning to see if either of us wanted to join a varo fishing expedition. Interested to learn more about these intriguing creatures, I decided to tag along. A local fisherman named Sake shortly came along to collect us and we headed a little ways onto the shallow sand flats. Sake showed us how to spot the burrows (narrow, vertical holes in the sand), sometimes well hidden by their clever occupants. He would then take the type of hook used to catch squid (a short metal rod with a ring of hooks on one end) on a few meters of line, bait it with a piece of fish, and pop it into the burrow entrance. The varo would usually grab onto it, and could then be pulled out of the burrow. Once out in the open, they aren’t great swimmers, so could be corralled into a crate. Sake explained that there are always two varo in a burrow – a male and a female. The male, white in colour with black stripes, is always at the top of the burrow, as it is his job to catch food for the pair. The males have long arms, much like a praying mantis, with extremely sharp spikes on the ends. They are lightning quick, and able to easily grab any unsuspecting fish that happens to cross nearby. The female sits at the bottom of the burrow, and is a pinkish colour. Once the male is out, the baited hook is returned, and she will normally go for it too, and can then also be pulled out.

They are absolutely fascinating creatures. I had been reading about them the night before, and discovered that in fact varo are a jumbo-sized variety of mantis shrimp. Never heard of them? They are awesome – I encourage you to read this exceptional overview of why that is. Knowing how amazing this species is, and how vulnerable to overfishing, I’d expressly said I didn’t want Sake to catch any for me. Despite, this, Phillipe came by later and gifted me with a pair. We watched them for a while in the bucket, looking at us with intelligent eyes, and knew we couldn’t bare to eat them. So, when no one was looking, we released them.

It was otherwise a fairly quiet day. We finished cleaning the algea and other life off the bottom of the boat and enjoyed a couple of sundowners while reading in glorious weather. Much nicer than yesterday!

Note: Sometime in the middle of the night, Alec woke up and wandered up on deck, only to nearly fall in the sea with fright as an enormous manta ray glided by just behind the boat. He came sprinting back down to wake me up to come see, but by the time we got back on deck it was gone. Had it been imagined?

Thursday, 18th June: We have been watching the weather, as not only do we have to go back East from here (against the prevailing wind and waves) but settled conditions are required to make Maupiti’s only pass, well, passable. Alec had noticed a period of the Mara’amu winds (a regular occurence at this time of year, bringing an unrelenting 25+ kts from the SE for usually at least 4-5 days) were due over the weekend; if we didn’t get out before that, we might be stuck for a week or longer. So, we’ve decided to go tomorrow, when the wind is still very light, even though the waves are a touch higher than we’d like for exiting the pass. With that in mind, this was our last day to see Maupiti, so I decided to walk the whole way around the island on the ring road (not as much of an endeavour as it might sound – its only six miles!). Its hard to tell where or if one village ends and another begins; there are houses and farms lining the road the whole way around. As I got round to the western side of the island, the houses got fancier, with bigger properties, and more land under cultivation. I also noticed that quite a few plots were full of flower bushes. They were clearly being farmed, not just there for looks. I later discovered these are Tiare flowers – the symbol of French Polynesia. One of Maupiti’s chief economic activities is growing these flowers, which are used primarily to perfume monoi oil, a popular Polynesian cosmetic. They are the same flower you see the local women (and sometimes men) wearing behind their ear every day, and are also used to make decorative garlands for celebrations or necklaces as gifts for visitors.

The other thing I noted as I circumnavigated the island was just how much of the lived-on land was actually artificial. Earth and stone had been scraped away from the steep-sided mountain and piled into the shallow lagoon to create plots of flat land for houses. It looks a bit strange, all these square plots jutting out into the lagoon. But I suppose that must be easier than trying to build on the mountainside! I returned to my starting place in a little over two hours to discover a hive of activity – the supply ship, which is here on its only once-a-month visit, had finally unloaded all of the islanders’ mail and packages. The whole population seemed to be there to pick up their huge cardboard boxes of everything imaginable. Appliances, bicycles, engines… you name it. It was a bit like Christmas; everyone was in extra high spirits!

Not to be outdone, all the cruisers in the anchorage decended on Silke’s boat, Ocean Maiden, at sundown for drinks and a parting chat. Silke is a very impressive German lady, having single-handed her boat most of the way around the world now. Also in attendance were Chris and Larissa, a young German/Brazillian couple off SV Leonora, and Phillipe and Ann from SV Galawa. Between us we represented four different native languages, but all managed to understand each other, sharing stories while tasting some locally made coconut wine (it was surprisingly good). The evening was a great way to celebrate and cap off our incredible experience in Maupiti!

Friday, 19th June: I woke up with a start about 1am after a nightmare about us crashing into the reef while trying to exit the pass. I decided to get some air to calm me down, and no sooner had I made it up into the cockpit than a HUGE manta ray glided past the back of the boat. Wow!! It must be the same one Alec saw last night. It looked like it was doing circles around the boat, so I sat on the coach roof and kept a look out. Sure enough, every five minutes or so it would glide past, fins breaking the surface as he sailed effortlessly along. It was enormous. Maybe the biggest one I’ve seen – must have been at least 3m across! That felt like an auspicious sign and I was soon able to go back to bed feeling more confident for our departure in the morning.

The manta ray turned out to be right, and the pass, though a little bit heart pounding, was fine and we were soon out into open water. For more on the pass and why it had me worried, see the Parting Thoughts below!

The waves were mild and the wind non-existent, so we settled into a long but easy motor to Raiatea (we’d decided to leave Bora Bora for another week, afraid of getting stuck there in the upcoming strong witds, and also looking forward to seeing our friends on Catherine Estelle who were about to arrive in Raiatea). Neptune was in an impish mood though, somehow managing to loosen the drag adjustment knob on one of our fishing reels until both it and the drag lever fell into the sea. He also claimed a part of our fishing rod holder and one of the yo-yos we keep fishing lures on. BUT, in the end we felt it was a reasonable trade because, maybe 10nm out from Raiatea, a huge bull Mahi Mahi hooked the line! It was a fighter – Alec slowly worked him in over the course of maybe 40 tense minutes, us both worrying the whole time that the line might snap under all that load. But, everything held, and with a timely swing of the gaff by Alec, we suddenly had the monster on board! The rest of the drive (and in fact the rest of the evening!) was spent processing the fish. With Alec’s expert knife work, we bagged 6.2kg of beautiful fillets. A dream!! Now to fit it in the fridge…

Saturday, 20th June: Decided our spot south of the Carenage (boat yard) was too exposed, so went on the hunt for a better one. Nosing around the anchor field, we spied two boats that our new friends Larissa and Chris from Maupiti had told us about – Unforgettable and Malaika. Unforgettable was actually about to head off for the weekend, but called hello as we drove past and offered us their excellent anchoring spot. Win! Once we were settled in, we headed over to Malaika to introduce ourselves and of course offer them some Mahi (6.2kg is about 60 portions of fish… with no real freezer space, we can only hope to eat a small fraction of this, so we are on a mission to give away a LOT). Sami and Meira, from Finland, bought their boat here just days before the Covid crisis broke, so they have certainly had an interesting start to cruising life! They proved to be great fun and we look forward to seeing more of them. Ended the day with a delicious meal of wahoo baked in coconut milk (the last of the fish from Alec’s trip on Monday) and a screening of Adventureland, a slightly strange but very enjoyable Jesse Eisenberg film.

Sunday, 21st June: Our friends Aaron and Nat on SV Catherine Estelle were due to arrive today, so we decided to plan an epic BBQ to celebrate, which we spent most of the day preparing for. I discovered that Meira used to have her own hair salon and managed to convince her to trade a hair cut for a home cooked meal (normally we’d ask friends to contribute to a big meal like this, but, I have been wishing for a hair cut for ages!). Alec conconcted a special barbeque marinade, sliced up a ton of Mahi steaks and built some veggies skewers, while I turned a very overripe breadfruit into a dessert tart and made a few sides. Meira turned up a bit early to cut my hair – it felt AMAZING. I absolutely love going to a salon and being pampered, so this was my idea of heaven. Feeling fresh and beautiful, we returned to the group and enjoyed a truly wonderful evening with a great group of people. Aaron and Nat even brought their dog, Malvo, who got a lot of love from a boat full of dog-people. Alec’s Mahi steaks were a huge hit, unsurprisingly, and we all ended up talking long into the wee hours of the morning. An ideal end to a stellar week – the Society Islands are being good to us!

Parting Thoughts: The Maupiti Pass

Last week, Alec talked about planning and executing our visit to Maupiti, which takes more consideration than a usual trip because the pass into the atoll has quite a reputation and is only navigable in good conditions (see last week’s post for more details!). We’d had an easy entrance though and had started to wonder what all the fuss was about. For all the scary accounts we’ve heard of sketchy passes in the Tuamotus islands of French Polynesia, the worst tales are ALWAYS about Maupiti. Like anything, the catch is that you tend to only hear the bad stories, some of which might have been stretched a touch over time. In truth, while the Maupiti pass CAN be extremely dangerous, it can also be completely benign. But this week included several more transits of the pass, which brought a new found respect for just how drastically different the conditions can be in this little stretch of water.

The advice on which Alec planned our entry and exit of Maupiti is directed at cruising boats. Cruisers are, pretty much as a rule, a relatively cautious sort. No sense risking life, limb, or worst – investment, especially when you’re in new, unfamiliar places. The local fishermen of Maupiti, unsurprisingly, take an entirely different view. Alec’s fishing trip on Monday with Noni exemplified this; when we asked Noni “is the pass navigable today?” he said, “of course, it always is!” He went on to explain that you simply need the right boat (and, I might add, the right amount of crazy) to time and punch through the waves. With enough horsepower, apparently anything is possible. This of course doesn’t mean its always EASY to run the pass, just technically possible (allegedly). Alec got to taste this other side first hand when he went out with Noni on a day when we wouldn’t have remotedly considered taking Serenity through. By his account, it was all he could do to hold on as the smashing waves sent shockwaves up his spine. The good news though is he survived and even was able to shoot some GoPro footage to share the experience. I’ve compiled below a video of the contrast between the pass in good times (when we took Serenity in and out) and trickier times (when Alec went with the crazy fisherman), to give a bit better sense of what I mean!