Frustrating Fishing in the South Pacific!

In this episode the boys lean how to handle defeat and failure, when the fish disappear with lure after lure!

It is time to set sail again and friends on sailing catamaran OCA have suggested that we go to Hapiti which is another anchorage on Moorea.
We set sail leaving the stingrays behind and make our way to Hapiti.

The pass entry has waves on either side which make it quite exciting.
We drop anchor in an incredible anchorage. The anchor sits on a shallow ledge and the stern of Mokara hangs off the shelf into deeper water.
As always, the water is clear and in no time as all, the boys are swimming and foil-boarding thanks to OCA.

We are invited over to OCA to enjoy a dinner with them and play table tennis on their dinning room table.
As the weather hasn't been great in terms of wind, we spend an additional night here due to the size of the waves in the pass.

On leaving, we find the exit through the pass a bit lumpy but not to dangerous despite huge logs floating past us. We exit the pass under the guidance of dolphins playing in the waves.

There is a light wind as we make our way back to Tahiti where we plan to provision and head back to Fakarava. As we make our way slowly back under sail, it becomes evident that we won't arrive in daylight.
A night entry is not ideal but is doable. We do however find it difficult to identify locations of the channel markers with the island lights in the background making identification difficult.
Can you believe some yachts we have seen have a red flashing light onboard to show that they have an alarm system onboard. In total darkness when there is no moon, this can cause problems when trying to work out what is going on.
Anyway, we did make it in safely and we enjoyed the challenge.

We did a quick shop in town and then following day, made our way back to Fakarava.
This wasn't the easiest passage as we kept on having to change our destination. Origionally we were going to Makatea, then the north pass of Fakarava and then the south pass of Fakarava. This was all due to changing winds.
It was however good fun and we also had some experience of hooking a marlin and a couple of other monsters. Sadly they all got away.

We made it into the south pass safely and dropped anchor followed by snorkelling. As you know, we love it here. We would stay forever if we could.

Support us on Patreon:
  / sailingmokara