Swim swim; write write
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Mon 11 Oct 2010 00:36
|
Still in anchorage number 6. The water is very
clear and the coral formations do vaguely resemble a Japanes garden. Lots of
fish, although fortunately no curious reef sharks (like the one that followed me
around for a bit when I was snorkelling in the coral gardens last week, near
anchorage number 16).
Apparently there is an informal rally that leaves
from various locations in Fiji, Tonga and New Caledonia heading for Opua, New
Zealand. It leaves around the 1st November, weather alowing. Provided they don't
want huge amounts of wonga (i.e. entry is free) I think we'll stay around here
for another three weeks and join in with that. WWW is in agreement, so that's
alright then :)
Kilkea 2 should be arriving in a day or so from
Niue, they've had a bit of an exciting trip having blown out their mainsail
leaving Bora Bora. Not just us then!
I had a chat with Dennis on SSB last night (Hev
& Den on Duende, currently in New Caledonia and waiting for the weather to
return to NZ). The weather there has been very unsettled, unusually so he says,
but I've heard this before. Seeing as we're going to be here for a while longer,
I may stir me stumps and try and make another short video to put on facebook. No
dancing girls on this one I'm afraid (or will there be? You'll just have to
watch and find out!)
In the meantime the buk wot I rote continues to be
unrejected (tempting fate here boy, there's probably an email in the inbox right
now! and the manuscript has been sent off to another couple of publishers as
insurance). being ambitious, I'm now about a quarter of the way through the
sequel. Oh well, dream on!
Went to an interesting talk on 'first contact with
Europeans' last thursday. A cameraman who'd done some work for the BBC had made
a film in Vanuatu; a reconstruction of first contact with Europeans and how it
effected the islanders, seen and told from their perspective. There was also a
section about a tribe in Papua new Guinea who first saw 'us whiteys' in
the 1930's. There were several photos and impressions written fifty years after
the event by survivning tribal members. Apparently, the women were particularly
terrified when they saw European men. their own menfolk just wore penis sheafs,
and when they saw the white chaps trousers drew entirely the wrong conclusion.
It was speculated that 'closer contact' laid that particular 'urban myth' to
rest and it remains the fact that 'white men can't jump'!
Oh well, I'll let lunch settle then go and clean
off the other saildrive leg/prop. It's a tough life you
know.
|