Cook’s Bay, Moorea

26 May 2024

Where am I? 

Latitude: 017°30.0 S

Longitude: 149°49.3 W

How is the weather?

The usual South Pacific mixture of warm days with the odd rain shower. Much softer winds than we’ve had in the last few weeks.

What am I feeling?

Relaxed and very happy to be spending time at anchor with family amid beautiful scenery.

What has happened this week?

After a few days in Marina Taina, where we were slotted into a very tight berth, we are now in Cook’s Bay, Moorea at anchor and spending the time reading, relaxing, lunching at the Moorea Beach Café and enjoying having first Katie and then Will aboard. Katie flew back to New York this morning while Will will be aboard until 7th June.

Cook’s Bay was named for Captain James Cook who came here in 1777, during his third and last voyage on HMS Resolution. It’s probably the most beautiful anchorage we have visited so far – a 3 km deep U shape, well protected from the prevailing winds and swell and embraced by spectacular peaks. There are some gusts which come through the bay from time to time but otherwise it is very peaceful. 

The moon has been a few days either side of full while we’ve been here, rising in the east over Mont Tohiea and bathing the bay in a soft silvery light as we sip our cocktails in the early evening. The stillness embraces us – at this time of day, the only sounds are the odd dog barking and a couple of misguided cockerels crowing. One has the sense that not much has changed since Cook’s time with our diurnal rhythm freed from the tyranny of the modern world.

Our reading material is pretty varied. Katie – The Garden of Evenings Mists by Tan Twan Eng, Elizabeth – Long Island by Colm Tóibín, Will – Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken and me – Ian Fleming by Nicholas Shakespeare. The combination of a kindle, a Libby membership and StarLink has liberated our reading on this voyage, so modernity certainly isn’t banished from Fujin!

It’s interesting that, despite sailing more than 6,000 miles so far across a largely empty ocean, we keep bumping into familiar fellow voyagers. As I type this, the 100’ SecondWind yacht, L’Ondine, lies anchored  just to port of us – we first saw her in the Galapagos when sailing between San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. We then spotted her one night on AIS, sailing past us at 10 knots on the way to the Marquesas Islands. We saw her last at anchor at Nuku Hiva. We’ve also caught up with most of the Oyster World Rally fleet here in the Society Islands and I suspect that our route from here on will be similar theirs, albeit that we might be a week or two ahead of them into Australia.

The situation in New Caledonia means that we will not stop there on our way into Australia and instead will spend a week or so cruising in Vanuatu, which looks like a really interesting place. From Port Vila, it is around 1,100 nautical miles to Brisbane – about a week’s sailing – so the detour doesn’t change our plans too much.

Meanwhile, we will spend the next 3 weeks in the Society Islands, visiting Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora before departing on the 1,300 mile sail to Tonga’s Vava’u group of islands. From Tonga, we go to Fiji, Vanuatu and Brisbane where we will leave Fujin for the cyclone season.

Fujin out!