Storyteller at the Tuomotus,Tahiti and Society Islands
Storyteller
Mon 19 May 2008 07:42
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Position 16.43S 151.48W
Sue writes:
Well, a lot has happened since our last blog, en
route from the Marquesas to the Tuomotus, when Jim, Rosemary and Tony were still
on board. David Crankshaw, our new long distance crew member has joined us and
is busily becoming familiar with all the equipment, particularly the fishing
gear. Several pages of fishing tips were left by Tony, so with any luck
tuna and mahimahi should figure heavily on the menu. Meanwhile David is
busily cooking curries and tagines for the next leg of the voyage, from Bora
Bora to Suworrow in the nothern Cook Islands. Unless you have read Tom
Neale's autobiography, An Island to Oneself, you won't have heard of
it, as it's an uninhabited atoll, except for a caretaker who collects
the departure tax of $40!
The reason poor David is chief cook is that I am
keeping off my leg, desperately trying to get it to heal properly before we head
off into the Pacific again. ( I had to take what was a less than short visit
back to Melbourne to get a fast -growing skin cancer
removed.)
We were actually supposed to depart today, but the
Leg start was delayed a couple of days due to a bad weather forecast. As well,
due to excessive competiveness in the Tahiti Pearl Regatta, both Southern
Princess and ourselves are waiting for new parts for the furler for their big
headsails. Pulling in a huge sail manually is no fun at all, so we're all hoping
that the new parts being sent out from Italy via France and who knows where.
Based on past experience, we haven't got our hopes up too high. However there
are much worse places to spend an extra few days than Bora Bora, which is
surprisingly low key and not at all glitzy. We've learned to avoid the
tourist places like Bloody Mary's restaurant where all the cruise ship
passengers are taken, and frequent little places like the local Chinese
restaurant. In fact the only downside of French Polynesia is that it is
incredibly expensive--$30 for a water melon, for example. Apart from that it is
superb--gorgeous scenery, friendly people and French food.
The snorkeling and diving are fantastic, but of course you do have to keep
a very careful watch for coral "bomies". The reefs and passes are all very well
marked, so as long as you pay attention, it's a great area to cruise. And
of course, due to the high cost of everything, it's not at all crowded. It
is very hot, about 30 degrees every day which is ok if you can dive overboard.
Boy, am I looking forward to that first swim once my leg has
healed.
We've had a wonderful range of guests during our
stay here, all of whom have have had to do more than their fair share of
provisioning and cooking. First cab off the rank were Christine, Peter and Lucy
who spent time in Moorea with John ( that is when Christine wasn't tied to the
phone for crisis board meetings). They were followed by Jan and Trevor, artist
and photographer extraordinaire, and artist in residence, as well as chef. Jan
and Trevor (them upstairs in our Melbourne building) sailed or rather motored
with us from Moorea to Huahine to Raiatea finally to Bora Bora, from where
they flew back to Papeete. We were then joined by Nick O'Donnell and Rosie (the
rigger) Russell who jumped ship from the glamorous 72 ft Oyster to do the 5-day
Tahiti Pearl Regatta with us. Yes, Rosie really is a yacht rigger, engaged to be
married to Nick who is a quinteesential Irishman--boisterous and full of charm.I
especially enjoyed hearing Rosieand Nick abusing each other while we were racing
with comments such as, 'You're not running a Sunday sailing school, you
know!' John and Nick have written about the races separately, but just as
good as the racing were the social events held each evening on different motus
(atolls), always with wonderful singing and dancing. On one occasion, all the
skippers were blessed by a Tahitian priest. There's no doubt the handicapping
system strongly favoured the local participants, and as they went up to collect
their trophies they were required to perform a Tahitian dance. It was
all very rowdy and good humoured, with some teams having flown out from London
to take part in the regatta. The local 'acqua plod' were heavily involved taking
people ashore at night, and each morning fresh baguettes were delivered to each
yacht. On the World ARC site in the gallery section there is a photo of all the
skippers doing a haka at the final presentation with John in the front row. Nick
and Rosie have an entertaining web site at www.sailingrtw.typead.com and they
have a detailed coverage of the Pearl Regatta with pictures.
Following the regatta, Rosie and Nick left to spend
a couple of nights in a gorgeous hotel, with their room a bure built out over
the water. Meanwhile we had collected Min Allen with Sue and David Crankshaw on
the Bloody Mary dock, and spent a very happy few days pottering around the
lagoon, with an obligatory trip to the village each day to pick up ice,
baguettes and the paper ( for keepiing up with French). Coincidentally, Judy and
Tom Hogg were staying on Bora Bora and joined us for lunch on board. Due to my
gammy leg, Min and Sue ended up providing lunch for 9 people, which is not
quite as difficult as it sounds, given all the French delicacies in the
supermarket.
We hope that our spare parts will arrive in on
Tuesday or Wednesday so we can head off to Suwarrow, 680 miles to the west of
our current position.
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