It's always Christmas
Ripple2
Thu 20 Jul 2006 08:46
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Since arriving at our "paradise" the weather
has deteriorated. The wind got up and rain squalls came through one after
another.
On the second day Annie managed to swim ashore and
collect........shells while I patched the dingy again (I did it on the first day
but it didn't work). Then the rain came for the rest of the day. At
5am a big squall came and woke us up. In the night it was so dark (no moon
or stars) you couldn't even make out the horizon let alone which way you were
pointed. And there were no lights on shore for a reference and the depth sounder
wasn't working ( an easy way to see if you're dragging back into deeper water,
ie. away from the beach). We really couldn't tell where we were. But we could
still hear the surf crashing on the other side of the motu so we figured we were
OK.
After some more rain and breakfast we saw that we
had indeed moved. And THEN the depth sounder started working and said 43 feet.
We had anchored in 25 feet. The sun came out so I jumped in the water to look at
the anchor. I could see it was deeper than 25 feet and the chain was caught in a
coral head straight from the bow. None of the chain was lying on the sand. And
all the way to the anchor was tight and up off the sand! The anchor itself was
stuck on a coral head. This will not do. After much ado we got the anchor up and
were going to re-anchor )still with agood wind blowing) in the original spot.
Annie said that maybe we should go to the village/town. OK I said (don't go
against a woman's intuition).
Motoring to the other end of the atoll we had to
keep a good lookout for coral heads or "bommies" that rose
straight to near the surface with no warning. And a lot of
floats. These are part of the pearl farming. The three industries in the
Tuomotus are copra (coconut flesh) , cultured black pearls and to
a very small extent tourism (although there are no beach bars
here as a beer costs US$2.50 in the grocery store, so add more for staff and
energy costs, profit, etc at a bar and yachties are NOT going to sit around
and drink the time away the time at those prices).
When we arrived at the town we were surprised to
see another boat. And even more surprised to see that we knew them. We had
met Jan and Christina in Nuku Hiva, they were on the island tour with us.
Around 3 we all went to town. The main attraction of any town is the shop. Well
the shop was closed but would be open in an hour. So we all walked to the
windward side. Annie picked up.............shells!! Surprise surprise. I found a
long line tuna fishing rig washed ashore. It was exactly the same kind of thing
that caught Ripple II between Panama and Galapagos......remember ? If not go
back though the list of diary entries on the left side of the page, just
kidding. On closer inspection I realised that I could use the wire leader,
sinkers and swivels. The hooks were also there but they were pretty big and
rusty. Tomorrow I'll come back and cut off what I need to replace our depleted
stocks of fishing gear.
After the shoreline, back in town Jan showed us a
man who makes jewellery from oyster shells (mother of pearl) and pearls. Tanvier
was polishing pearls with a dremel when we arrived. If you don't know what a
dremel is, then you just haven't spent any time keeping old boats going, and
you'll just have to find out for yourself. His wife Tania came out and made us
welcome. None of them spoke any english. No matter. We were shown necklaces that
Tanvier made out of the shell and with or without pearls. Christina bought one.
We were shown all the stages of pearl farming here on dry land! Tanyia kept
bringing out another physical example of the process. Through somewhat of a
language barrier and with the immeasurable assistance of the "exhibits" I
think we got most of the story (look up pearl farming at the library or internet
if you are interested otherwise if I had to type it all out I would never be
able to go sailing. This is a blog not a course.) Oh.. and that pearls
cost more anywhere else but here. We also perused and wrote in their "guest
book". It was interesting to see that prior to the mid '90s people stuck
photographs of their boat in the book. After that time people had "business"
cards with a photo of the boat, done on a computer, to stick in the book. No one
has photographs anymore. One of the most recent entries was a boat we know from
Panama.
And then the 4 of us were given a shaped and
polished piece of mother of pearl on a nice string as a necklace. We were
given them. This was a big moment for me. This was the first time in many
many years that anyone (apart from friends) had just given me anything.
Even in Fatu Hiva you had to give them something for fruit that would
otherwise rot on the ground. This man put time and effort into cutting and
polishing this shell and gave it to us! God bless him. Even with the Kunas
in San Blas everything was for cash and in some places in the world you have to
pay to tie up you dingy even. As a yachties you get used to being many
peoples cash cows in a thousand ways. Everyone seems to get a little piece
of you wherever you go. But here was a genuine gift. As the sun would soon set we said our goodbyes, and in my
case complete with the 2 kisses French style( I have been to France you
know).
Next stop the shop. I won't bore you with the goods
on offer. But a feature of the shop mwas the availability of typical
Christmas decorations, including a large supply of baubles. Exactly the same as
in Aus. 20 years ago. Let me see..... this is July. Later I noticed Santa's on
the wall and those long fold-out cut-out decorations strung across the ceiling,
and the things that hang over doorways that are cut vertically into strips and
say "Merry Christmas" but in French. It reminded me of the time we went into
someone's house in Fatu Hiva and I noticed there that they had all their Chrissy
decies up.
What with getting a gift and seeing Christmas
decorations for sale and on display, I can believe that it's always
Christmas in these islands.
Merry Christmas in July!
Don't expect a card.
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