Graptolite - Overnight to Raiatea
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Wed 23 Apr 2008 21:41
Wednesday AM
The view of the mountains around Cook's Bay in the morning was amazing.
Captain Cook didn't anchor there though. It was apparently in the next,
equally stunning, bay of Opunohu. So we had a look at that as well.
As we turned to head off northwest to the island of Raiatea, about 100 miles
away, a traditional outrigger canoe paddled up alongside laden with baskets
of flowers, mangoes and pineapples. One of the people onboard was a small,
extremely beautiful, Polynesian woman, wearing almost nothing except tattoos
around her hips and a large white flower behind her ear. She said, mostly in
French, that her name was Iren'aa which apparently means 'favourite woman of
the chief'. When Iren'aa found out we were just about to go to Raiatea she
said that was her spiritual home and she would like to travel there with us.
It seemed churlish to refuse so I offered accommodation in the forward cabin
where Irrenaa insisted on applying scented oils to the skipper and sang of
the moving traditional story woven into the designs on her olive skin.
A little later the skipper woke up wondering why this kind of thing only
happens in dreams.
Or does it?
M