Cyclone season

It's five o'clock in the morning and I let the water run into the coffee filter, a little bleary-eyed. As expected, the last few nights have been very restless. The low-pressure trough from the north-west has actually brought a lot of rain and the basin in the marina was very agitated by the swell. The boats rocked back and forth and the mooring lines were pushed to their limits. Dampers that were woven into the lines were simply torn apart. The lines themselves groaned terribly and the heavy rain and swell washed a lot of leaves and branches into the harbor basin.

Storm remnants in Papeete, Tahiti

The whole thing lasted three days until the weather calmed down a bit. Today I'm on my way to Taravao. Christer, our Swedish friend, is moored in the bay off Taravao. There are a few repairs to be done and I take the bus south along the west coast. The journey takes about an hour and twenty minutes. The wind has now shifted to the north and the heavy rain of the last few days has stopped. However, it is still very cloudy. In the cyclone season, the weather is unstable and you have to expect a downpour at any time. The temperature is still a pleasant 28°C, but I don't notice much of it on the bus. Thanks to the air conditioning, I get goose bumps, even though the temperature inside is still probably 20°C. After an hour and a half, I'm completely frozen when the bus spits me out in front of the small Nautisport marina. Christer is already waiting for me and with his dinghy we are quickly on his boat and can get on with the day's business. Various jobs have to be done. A connection for an emergency pump is installed and the problem of a short circuit in the saloon lighting is solved. The temperature display alarm for the engine cooling circuit doesn't work and the autopilot has one or two problems doing its job permanently. In the end, we spend the whole day dealing with these challenges and I'm sure that's not all there is to it. But that's it for today and Christer takes me back to Papeete in his rental car.

After the rain, everyone is happy again

We could certainly have done a few more things, but the wind from the north-east is picking up and it's getting a bit choppy in the anchorage. Postponed is not canceled, so it will be necessary to go to the south of Tahiti again. Starlink also needs to be installed, but first a hole has to be milled in the ceiling of the cockpit roof.

In the meantime, further lows are forming over Fiji, but they will pass to the south of Tahiti. On the north side of the island, the north-east trade wind has once again prevailed. The northeast trade wind guarantees good weather in Tahiti. However, the swell is somewhat delayed. While the wind has long since swung back to the east and northeast, the swell is still coming from the northwest. This doesn't stop the waves from entering the harbor basin and tugging hard on the mooring lines.

Our guests managed to leave the Katinka Enjoy in time before the weather changed and have now returned home. Now it's time to sleep in and get over the jet lag.

We are slowly saying goodbye to the splendor of plants on Tahiti.

In the meantime, we passed the time watching movies in the constant rain. I also repaired the diving equipment and got the Starlink problem on the Tuvalu under control, at least temporarily, due to the slow router. We can also see from the number of cruise ships arriving in Papeete harbor that the cyclone season is slowly coming to an end. So it's time to start preparing for our departure. Next week I will be servicing the winches. I'll have the hull cleaned again before we leave and we'll stock up on provisions so that we don't have to go shopping on the small islands of French Polynesia. And then we are ready to set off. Another new adventure under sail with a new ship. We are looking forward to it and hope that you will join us. Until next week, we wish you always fair winds and keep a stiff upper lip.