Plastic in the Pacific Crusade – Hard luck (Pt.I)

by Ian Thomson on 23 Apr 2016 With Annika's best friend from her school days coming to visit us in the Society Islands, we wanted the family to experience all the islands via the downwind version (East to West), which is much more comfortable for guests. That meant we had to make our way back to Tahiti. So we departed Bora Bora and knowing we would have an upwind slog, we went just to Raiatea the first day. We spent two nights there before heading off into a 10-15 knot headwind all the way back to Tahiti.

It would take us 22 hours to cover the 96nm, as one of our lower shrouds broke a wire, meaning we had to depower the rig to make sure we were safe. The trip, well let's simply say the following week I felt like I was James Bond, with my beers stored in the front cabin that were shaken, not stirred!!!!

We arrived into Tahiti at 0400 and it was raining. We needed to do some washing, but the rain was quite annoying that day, so we ended up having to do it in the machines at the club. We did some shopping, and even put our gas bottles in to be filled. It would take five days to get them back, seeing as it was a Friday. We also had the lower shroud replaced. We even caught up with Justin again, our American friend, and decided on a dive in the pass, just South of the Taina Yacht Club.

It was meant to have sharks, turtles and lots of fish. Well we saw none of those, but we did see our nappy fish again, lots of tyres, plastic bags and it literally looked like a tip. It was a disgusting dive and no we didn't dive the outside, as the tide (meant to be incoming) was once again flowing out. We really should give up on these pass dives, they are not like the Tuamotus passes.

Maja, Joakim, Irma and Melker arrived on the Sunday morning. The day was quite relaxed with a bit of shopping and for them, a bit of jet lag recovery. It's a long way from Sweden to Tahiti. We also introduced the kids to snorkelling, which they seemed to love immediately. The following day we rented a car and toured the island to see all the land sites, something even we hadn't done previously. Hopefully the land would show us some positives.

Well it seemed our luck with Tahiti was all bad. We went to Teahaupoo, one of the world's most famous surf breaks, to find no waves. We weren't allowed up to one of the lookouts, as the road was closed and then the three cascades waterfall site was closed as the bridge was being fixed.

Luckily the blow hole was open and working, but wouldn't you know it, the rain started tumbling down just as we got there. We did however find a nice beginners surf beach, called Venus Beach, which had black sands and a little wave for people to learn to surf. We wish we had taken up Justin's offer of taking the surfboards. The family loved the water as the sun set over Papeete.

The following day we spent in the water. Annika was going to teach Joakim how to dive and Maja hadn't dived for over 10 years, so they took off to the shallows near the moorings to do some skills training, leaving me with Irma and Melker. Irma is 10 and she loved the water and then you have eight year old Melker who, well he is a fish. On the boat I started teaching them to dive head first off the back deck.

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They both did really well. Then we went to the bow to start doing pin drops and Melker dives in head first. It was pretty cool to see. I know adults who won't dive head first off the deck of a yacht. As the adults returned, I had the kids on the bow and Irma pulls off the perfect pin drop and Melker launches into a dive. The judges scored them perfect 10s.

More in Part II, where we had a mission to get to Tetiaroa, a little island 30nm north of Tahiti. Formerly owned by Marlon Brando, it was meant to have great diving so we looked forward to another adventure. Stay tuned for that story and our next visit to Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa in our next edition.

Ocean Crusaders are out to change the way people treat our oceans. Our online education program is free to download at Ocean Crusaders website where children can learn of the issues our oceans are facing and how they can make a difference. The Plastic in the Pacific Crusade is about educating the South Pacific Islands, finding out what is happening in these islands and updating our programs.

Ocean Crusaders Plastic in the Pacific Crusade is proudly supported by: Cressi Dive Gear, Gill Marine, Keen Footwear Australia, Barz Optics Sunglasses, Maxsea Navigation Software, Digital Diver Cairns, LED Dive Lights Australia, Boat Names Australia, Predictwind Weather & Sail-world.com

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