Hello forum readers in the Pacific!
I wanted to share this information about the popular marina Taina in
Tahiti... Beware of their moorings!
The end of April, my husband was diagnosed with a terrible disease and we had to fly to the
USA for this urgent
medical situation, leaving our
boat Irie on a
mooring ball (A19) in Marina Taina. We prepared the
boat as well as we could to be left alone, and we attached her securely, skillfully, and safely to the
mooring, with a line off each bow, keeping the ball in the middle and forward, so no chafing was possible. We had a back-up line to a middle cleat on
deck as well, “just in case”. We had friends checking on our boat frequently.
When we returned to Irie on August 15th, we found her on the same mooring, but on the foredeck was a pile of mooring lines and our boat was only attached to the mooring with one line, running around both bows (rubbing all our newly and expensive antifouling
paint off!), through the loop, which means that each time our boat moved in the
wind or
current, the line was rubbing against the loop line and chafe would occur over time. This could lead to this one mooring line snapping and our boat dragging through the mooring field, crashing into other sailboats, and/or ending on the reef! We had no idea what had happened, none of our friends were responsible for this new set-up and we thought it would be a mystery forever
. Shocking that someone hopped on our boat and secured her with only one line… We paid our bill at the marina office to Philippe Olite, the manager, and he did not mention anything happening to our boat.
About a week after leaving Marina Taina, a
new boat arrived in the anchorage where we were staying. One of its crew members told us that he had saved our boat two weeks prior – right before we arrived back in
Tahiti from the
USA - in Taina Marina. Apparently, mooring A19 had broken loose and Irie was dragging through the anchorage around midnight, with our three mooring lines and the mooring ball still attached!!!! Irie was about to crash into another
catamaran and the man in the
dinghy, who had noticed Irie floating free, woke up the crew of the other
catamaran. Together they fended Irie off to avoid any damage to the two
boats. Then, they called the marina
security. Philippe and a helper reluctantly arrived to put Irie on a different mooring. Then, A 19 was fixed and Irie was put back on that mooring ball, with only one line! If anyone should know how to tie
boats to moorings and docks, it should be people who
work in
marinas, don't you think?
This news, as you can imagine was a serious shock to us. We could have
lost our boat (and home – it is all we have), either hitting other boats, hitting shore or running on the reef! But, even worse than that heart breaking thought, was the fact that Philippe – even though he was the one putting our boat back on the mooring – NEVER told us about this event! And, the marina did not take any responsibility of what happened… We don’t think this was the right way to deal with a situation like this and to treat us this way, as if nothing happened, and when confronted (I went back to Marina Taina to talk to Philippe about this event), as if it is the most normal thing in the world that a mooring breaks and that it would be our responsibility if damage was done! We regret Philippe’s attitude. We feel like we did everything to keep our boat safe and we paid a lot of
money to the marina for a mooring that was not safe.
I have written a blog about this event, which can be read or referred to on
It's Irie: Taina Marina Moorings: Beware! and this information can also be found on Noonsite. I hope to attract some attention to this re-occurring and unattended situation (which has been experienced by many cruising boats before us!) at Taina Marina and maybe, only maybe, they will take this info seriously and they change out their moorings and policies!
Happy cruising!
Liesbet
SV Irie in Moorea, FP
www.itsirie.com
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