Nearly TIME2 leave French Polynesia
Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Sun 7 Jul 2013 22:34
|
Nearly TIME2 leave French
Polynesia
We have been in French Polynesia for
almost 3 months now ..and our 90 day visa is coming to an end. Our
next stop will be Sawarrow - an atoll of the northern Cook islands, a
four day trip from here. The weather has been quite unstable out at sea and it
looks like our best weather window is next week. We do however have to
wait for the Tuesday freight ship, that is bringing 4 new house
batteries. Our current batteries are loosing power and we are having to
run the generator more and more each day. After many emails, great
difficulty in payment and some drama around taxes, we believe that the batteries
will be loaded tomorrow in Tahiti and arrive on Tuesday. Getting
those batteries aboard Time2, and getting the old ones off (they each
weight over 70kgs!) is going to be tricky - particularly as Mike has hurt his
back. Lets hope our trusty crane can do most of the
lifting.
We had a near disaster here on Tuesday
morning. A strong southerly wind came up, and the long fetch across the
lagoon created some waves in the anchorage. We were on a mooring ball at
the MaiKai marina, which we had been assured could handle a boat of up to
150tons (we are only 55t). While we were enjoying our morning coffee a few
stronger gusts came through and I then noticed that our neighbour Jerry on s/v
Player was very close and getting closer. We sprang into action, Mike started
the engines and moved ahead so I could untie the mooring ball and get the hell
out. We headed around the corner to another anchorage, which although was
very deep (about 25m), was more protected. This was a very narrow escape -
had we dragged during the night, we would have crashed into the little yacht
Player and caused untold damage. I go cold at the
thought!
Mike has continued to help boats with all
kinds of mechanical problems and last night went to the rescue again. People on
a charter boat had not tied up their dinghy properly and it was
blowing off across the anchorage, with one of the guests swimming after it
frantically in 20knots of wind in the dark!
We have continued to enjoy the Bora-Bora
Heiva festival - watching more singing and dancing shows; a fishing competition;
a craft exhibition; a coconut "peeling" competition and a spectacular float
procession. Each of the 5 towns built a huge float by dressing
a flatbed truck in the most beautiful array of flowers, plants and
fruits. The floats are then accompanied by various musicians and people
dressed in traditional gear. Here are some more pictures from the recent
events.
     |