16.43S 151.01W Huahine
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Sun 28 Aug 2011 01:54
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Ahoy me hearties,
The first thing to note in this blog is that it is
being written not by the battle weary and blog savvy skipper, but by chief
caster-offerrer, anchor weigher, baguette carrier, and general layabout who has
joined the boat for a holiday. It may therefore not contain the usual
amount of information about wind speed and direction, so to those who subscibe
purely for this satisfaction I apologise. My limited knowledge and the
fact that we have not done altogether a huge amount of sailing means that this
blog will be more about people and places, and first impressions of someone who
is new to this sort of thing.
I joined Mojo2 in Papeete direct from Albany to
accompany Andrew on the next leg of his voyage, being either to Tonga or around
the Illes de Societe dependent on the state of the troublesome
autopilot. I arrived in Tahiti on the 20th and was kindly met at the
airport by Andrew and Jane, who was on her way out back to family in WA.
After awaiting a bus for some time that had stopped running, we eventually made
it to Marina Taina in Papeete. My first impression of Mojo2 is that she is
a beautiful boat; sleek, well proportioned, luxurious, and generally very
impressive. She is a pleasure to be aboard and although life is simple in
a confined space with limited resources, there is everything you need to make
life comfortable.
Sunday saw a trip into town, which was
closed, and afforded a good look around. The island is volcanic so
boasts hard rock which lends itself to impressive topography soaring out of
incredible azure waters inside the coral reefs which circle all the islands
here. The whole place is draped everywhere in luxurious tropical
greenery, with tropical flowers everywhere and the majority of trees festooned
with fruit - mangoes, bananas, coconuts, and a host of unidentifiable
others. Flowers are a huge part of life in Polynesia and the majority of
women and some men wear them in their hair or behind their ears, or even sport a
flower wreath around their heads. The majority of clothing carries floral
designs, car dashboards are decorated with flowers, and so it goes on.
This provides a very cheerful ambience and everyone seems very
happy.
The place is clean and the population clearly take
some pride in their surroundings, with well tended homes and gardens.
Surprisingly it is also expensive, with everything costing more here than in
Australia, with the exception of baguettes which are the staple diet and cost
about 50 cents. Even more surprisingly there does not appear to be a rich class
and a poor mass; it seems everyone is well off and can afford the
lifestyle. Depending on who you talk to this is because the french
governemnt pump money into jobs to get french people to live and work
in Tahiti and boost the economy, and these jobs are then available to
anyone, OR the more cynical say it is because the French government pump money
direct to the population so they don't have to work but can still afford the
lifestyle. I hope it is the former and the pride of the people suggests
this is so. Enough!
Sunday afternoon saw a fantastic snorkel, and
inspection of the local party spot out on the water. We had seen boats
going past all morning with music pumping, more like barges made from two giant
canoes with a great big deck on top, a little grass hut for a bar, and
plenty of chairs and loungers, and a giant sound system. These were
already heavy with partygoers when they left port, and we found them all moored
in shallow water with a load of private boats, all partying the day away on deck
or in the water. One invention we have to bring to australia is the
seabeque, consisting of a metal pole stuck in the sand at the bottom of the sea,
sticking up through the water with a barbeque on top, so you can stand in the
water and cook snags at the same time. Another custom that we aim to bring
back with us is that of having brown skinned nubile beauties dancing on boats at
all times, easy on the eye and guaranteed to cheer you up.
Monday the autopilot technician came and eventually
managed to do a dodgy and impermanent fix, but finally the decision was not to
sail to Tonga with the risk of the autopilot failing again, but to order a new
unit and cruise the iles de societe (Bora Bora, Huahine, Moorea etc) for a week
or so while it was on the way. This has turned out to be a good
thing.
Tuesday we had breakfast with a lovely French
couple and their 6 year old daughter who have been at sea for 4 1/2 years in a
cat, and are aiming to settle in Australia by the end of the year. Part of
this journey saw Philipe take the Cat single handed into the antarctic -
according to multihull magazine the first person to do so in a Cat. Very
interesting couple anyway. After saying goodbye we set off via town for
Moorea, approx 3 hrs sailing.
Arrival at Moorea was accompanied without catching
any fish, but with utter astonishment at the beauty of the place. The
scenery has to be seen to be believed, and is hard to describe, but the island
is dominated by old volcanic plugs (towering sheer-faced circular rock features)
and volcanic dykes (towering linear features!) creating absolutely incredible
topography, again covered in lush vegetation. Around the base of the
island are palm fringed beaches surrounded by incredible azure waters and the
ubiquitous reef. In one of the books the island is described as
'possibly one of the most beautiful in the world' and with that I would
agree. Imagine the most amazing island paradise, times it by ten, and
you are getting somewhere close. After a lovely night supping gin and
tonic, and a brilliant swim and snorkel in the morning (really WOW and
capped off by signting a good sized shark) we decided to sail to Huahine,
where we are now.
The weather was closing in a bit during our
departure on Tuesday but the forecast was pretty good, however the winds
continued to build until we had around 30 knots gusting to 40, coming more or
less from behind us. Good direction but a bit strong, we had only the
genoa up (how I know my terminology) and this only to the size of my
girlfriends favourite underwear, but we were still ploughing along at 6 to 7
knots, occasionally up to 10. The sea was biggish but not dangerous and
the boat handled it beautifully, bringing us the 70NM or so to our destination
spot on at dawn to get through the reef to the lagoon beyond. This was my
first night sailing ever and really my first ever proper sail as an adult, and
was a bit of a baptism of fire with the biggest winds of the trip since La
Rochelle. I however enjoyed every minute of it, with the assistance of
some anti-seasickness meds! Aparrently I am not allowed to mention
how many times my stalwart skipper said 'ooh' and 'aah' but even though the
wind batters your ears and the odd wave throws you about a bit, there was never
any danger and the ride was alot of fun. I have to say I am gobsmacked at
how smooth the cat is. I know many sailors pooh-pooh the cat, but even
though the sea is big and the boat is pitching about, inside it is like being in
the lounge room. Fantastic.
So now we are at Huahine, a small island, also very
beautiful but not close to Moorea. Yesterday we hired a mini moke and toured the
island, a great trip, not least because every single person we passed wet
themselves laughing at almost 13ft of idiot in a tiny car, with no doors or
windows, in drenching rain. When it did fine up we took the roof off so we
could look over the windscreen, rather thn scrunching our heads down, which made
the ride more comfortable. We also had to stick in first and third gear
bacause our gangly legs did not allow the gear stick to pass to second and
fourth. All this in addition to very dodgy brakes and no indicators made
for a tremendously fun day.
We are still stuck in Huahine as there is a big
storm system about 5000km south, causing huge seas (5 to 6m swell) and the wind
has been howling. We are ready to go but need to wait this weather out
before moving on to Raiatea. We recently had a ceremonial dumping of all
the bananas overboard (including some pooh sticks) and since then the wind has
moderated and the sun has come out, so hopefully we will sail tomorrow. As
a last note of interest we spent last night with the locals at the pub, chatting
in particular to the chap who is a judo and brazilian jujitsu champion, who
spends his spare time hunting wild pigs in the forest. His record is a
264kg boar, he kills only with his knife (using his dogs also, which seem to get
killed a lot), then he drags the pigs to a river and floats down the river with
them. Interesting mental images! Anyway although I like to take the
piss out of people in other languages, or try to, I wasnt going to fool with
this chap. A great, entertaining, and interesting night.
OK thats it. No more blog writing for me,
that has bored you all enough. Blah blah blah. I have seen heaps of dolphins, a whale, an eagle ray (aparrently
rare), a shark, have seen some great scenery, met some great people, and have
laughed a LOT! Love it! I know this blog is longer than normal but it has
been a fantastic week and this only covers some of it.
Now over to skip for
censoring.
Blair Scott, Cheif caster-offerer and baguette carrier.
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