I am sorry it has been so long since our last web posting but the last few weeks have been (by our standards!) rather busy.  We arrived in Papeete on Tahiti just a few days before my mother, Pat, was due to join us.  We had planned to spend at least a week or ten days cleaning, reprovisioning, and doing a number of small repairs in the one port with a decent range of shops and facilities.  In the end we only had three days which was cutting it fine to say the least.  Not only did we have a job list a mile long but also Tahiti is probably the biggest convergence point for yachts crossing the Pacific so we were surrounded by many friends all eager to catch up on the news and of course party.  We chased around trying to get as many things done as possible but also enjoyed the chaotic social life of a busy anchorage where almost any excuse is enough to stop by for coffee and a chat or, once the sun has dipped below the yardarm to reach into the fridge for something cold.  Given what we are currently used to Papeete is a bustling metropolis with daily links to the outside world but I still found myself back in the more usual cruising mode, wandering around the industrial district with four of our gas bottles in a wheelie suitcase looking for somewhere to fill them up.     

 

Our visit also coincided with the annual month long "Heiva" which they tie in to the French Bastille Day Celebrations. This involves a number of cultural events (dancing, singing, palm weaving etc) along with a range of local sporting events such as outrigger canoe racing and weightlifting where rather than messing around with all those bars and weights they actually pick up some extraordinarily large rocks.  We were lucky enough to get to the firewalking ceremony overseen by the local wizard (think of Harry Potter when he is about sixty five and heavily tattooed all over his body).  It was an amazing event with lots of dancing and chanting which reaches a crescendo as the wizard and his young son step out on to the white hot rocks and walk across the fire.  We thought that was it but he then proceeded to invite anyone who wanted to join him.  It is apparently meant to burn away evil and cleanse the soul.  Thinking we both needed a bit of help in that department Lucy and I stepped up and joined the possession across the fire.  There was a great deal of heat emanating from the pit but strangely little discomfort and no serious burns or blisters as a result.  I got a slightly toasted toe towards the end but think that may just have been the last of my evil being cleansed.  Quite a weird and surreal event!

 

The Marquesa Islands had amazing peaks but no reef and the Tuamotus amazing reefs but no peaks. The Society Islands benefit from both.  Each towering island (some are over 2000m high) is surrounded by a protective reef and a lagoon filled with emerald blue waters.  The colours and contrast are amazing and it is not surprising that these islands have earned for themselves such a place in popular imagination.  Tahiti is itself quite a busy and developed island so soon after Pat joined us we headed across the 20 or so miles to the less disturbed and even more beautiful island of Moorea.  There are two deep bays on the north of the island visited and charted by Cook on Resolution in 1777 and used as the backdrop for the musical South Pacific.  We spent a few days here touring the island and enjoying the gin-clear waters.  A hotel on the island has been feeding the stingrays for many years and they are now so friendly it is possible to hand feed them while standing in the water with them.  We got there early and found them hungry and boistrous crowding around us in the water in search of scraps of tuna or squid.

 

From Moorea we had a bumpy but quick overnight passage up to Huahine and from there skipped across to Bora Bora where again our breath was taken away by the sheer beauty of the place.  Bora Bora is hardly undiscovered but much of the development of the big hotels has been done in a reasonably tasteful and controlled manner. The lagoon waters remain pristeen and I am writting this anchored in about 15m of water that is so clear I can see our anchor chain snaking all the way down and the end of the anchor stock just emerging from the hard white sand.

 

Sadly my Mother has now flown home.  We think she enjoyed herself, and was even tempted to stay having been offered positions as crew on two other yachts!  We are now looking at the weather forecasts again to continue our journey. Tonga lies about 1200 miles west of here with the Cook islands scattered across our path.  We too must drag ourselves away from another paradise and head on towards the setting sun.