14.31S 146.26W
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Mon 14 Apr 2008 01:25
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We departed from Nku Hiva on the 3 April bound for
another Marquesan Island called Ua Pou which is much smaller and less
commercialised in fact it wasn't real ly set up for visitors at all,even the
concrete jetty was a severe challange as it was at time 5ft 6ins high from the
dinghy with no steps just a shear concrete face.
Nevertheless we were entertained to lunch at his
house by the mayor who was also the ex- school teacher and he showed us round
the village and to Jenny's delight the school.In the evening we were entertained
to dinner at one of his friends house and joined by another of the BWR yachts
and agood time was had by all.
The following day we were leaving but they had a
sort of village festival with communal cooking in a sort longhouse with music
and dancing, during the day another couple of BWR boats arrived so it was
getting crowded and time for us to go.It was really nice to go
there.
We departed Ua Pou on the 5th April bound for our
first island in the Tuamotu which was Manihi. It was our first taste of
the South Sea Islands but with a sting in the tail called "coral heads
or bommies" these lurk just below the surface and are only visable by
having a lookout in the rigging we have made
contact with two so far but on another atoll called AHE very careless I know but
there you go.One of them damaged our rudder slightly so we are now on our way to
Tahiti to have the boat lifted so we can inspect the rudder we don't think the
damage is to bad as there is no stiffness or vibration from it at the moment but
I would rather be safe than sorry,after all as skipper I am totally resposible
for the safety of the crew.
Manihi in many respects was a picture postcard spot
with palm trees coral beech and a reef not 100metres from the boat was a coral
shore with Palm trees and reefs with lots of tropical fish,warm clear water to
swim in off the back of the boat.
The locals use their boats with powerful outboard
engines to whizz around the lagoon and we had one of these to take us to a pearl
farm unfortunatly at high speed the steering wire broke,the boat lurched out of
control and two of the passengers went overboard,Ellie went flying across the
boat hitting her head and knee and one of the other passengers cut the back of
her knee badly needing 4 stitches.
We were all very lucky as it could have been quite
serious but none of the injured made any fuss, there was no point it was an
accident,I must admit the lads (about my age) who went in the water made no fuss
at all.In fact they were the ones who used their dinghy to pull us off the rock
in Ahe a few days later.We repaid ther kindness with copious amounts of beer on
there boat in Ahe a couple of days ago they were great company.By the way the
beer is between £2/£3 a small can here ,not cheap.
After the rock incident we moored outside the reef
along side another BWR yacht that we came across with that looks as though it
would not be out of place in "Pirates of The Caribean" very safe there.We went
into town yesterday consisting of 1-school 2-shops 1-post office and lots of
kids ( not a lot else to do)
Ellie speaking French was soon kidnapped by the
children and persuaded to show them round our boat as none of them had ever been
on a sailing boat.The island is quite isolated as it has no airprort and the
supply ship comes once a week.Once aboard she had very little control as they
dispersed into every corner and managed to devour all of the crisps and bananas
and aquire some of Ellie's make up.On the return trip in the dinghy she couldn't
get the engine started so the children started rowing until one of the
Austrailians came to her rescue and started the engine.Mind you her driving must
have been bad as all of the kids jumped off the boat when she was still 100mtrs
from the shore even the 4yr old.
We are now about 126nm from our next stop Tahiti
where first we go into the boatyard for a lift out and inspection then the
marina to have some pre-arranged work carried out on the rigging and water maker
and the to the lively quayside berth booked by BWR and then its off to Moorea
for singing dancing and eating.Then Bora Bora white sand blue sea coconut
palms.
How is winter in the UK
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