LOST IN TRANSLATION
Dear
David, It’s
been a long time since I haven’t sent a message in English. I wanted to
tell you how much I appreciate your efforts to understand our long French
postings. I want to thank you to use this wonderful American translation software
which helps you to follow us all over the world… Nevertheless I’m a
bit worried by the quality of what you call the thinking process of the
software… Actually, I can’t remember when I said :
“Undoubtedly they are grateful long distance which you have of traversing
to reach their islands”… So,
just for you and our dear English speaking friends, here is a quick recap of
our Pacific adventures… After
a delicious, wonderful stay in Marquesas where, basically, you just want to
stay there until the end of your life – landscapes are exceptional and
people are the nicest in the world, we accepted on board our new crew, our
friend Nicolas from Paris. We spent 3 nights and 3 days of wonderful
navigation, with a lot of nice winds which allowed us not to use the engine at
all (8 knots, average speed.). We
arrived in the Tuamotu Islands, a huge archipelago with around 80 atolls
; the best definition of an atoll is a collapsed mountains in the middle of the
South Pacific Ocean : only remains the crown around the former mountain, made
of sand and coral, and decorated with palm trees… yes you can imagine the
paradise… But in the middle of those crowns, there is the turquoise water,
the most beautiful fish on earth, and, and… that’s where it starts
to be a tiny problem for the sailor, you find hundreds of “patates”
(potatoes), dead coral covered with multicolored living coral. So you have to
deserve your trip in the Tuamotus, and avoid the “patates” with
your boat... (no comment…) We
spent our first night in Kauehi, in a completely unspoiled bay. The day after
we went to the main village of Kauehi where we were welcomed by the mayor and
the “gendarme” (how could I say…? The sheriff maybe) of the
city. But anyway, everybody we met on the main street greeted us with a big
smile and a nice heartwarming sentence. I thought Marquesians were the most
wonderful people in the world, but they have close competitors in this category
with the Tuamotu people. I
can’t describe the landscapes we saw, it just paradise as you can imagine
it with the help of magazines for travelers. And again, like in the Marquesas,
there’s nobody there, just locals, no tourists of any kind
except us. Then
we went to Fakarava – Ferdinand already talked about it and the dozens of
hundreds sharks of several types – Matthieu and him dived there, in the
South pass. Nicolas, Marguerite and I just snorkeled, but what a unique
adventure…! After
a last and not the best experience in the archipelago, in Toaho, we finally
headed to Tahiti. Two nights and one day of sailing in a totally, perfectly
oily water, so flat, we could have been on a lake. The arrival, early in the
morning, was spectacular ; the island is really beautiful. We
had to say good bye to Nicolas who flew back to Paris after 3 days in Papeete.
We miss him and his charming and delicate “whouaaouhhh”… After
Papeete, we are in Raiatea and the Society Islands where we are spending a few
days on land in a quite luxurious hotel, while Noeluna is having a small scrubbing,
manicure- pedicure at the Shipyard…. And
now, guess who is the nicest people in the world…? Ciao, Marie-Anne |