There are a couple of
constants in French Polynesia:
1. Women with a flower behind
one ear. Rumor has it that on certain
islands a flower behind her left ear indicates she is taken while a flower
behind her right ear indicates she is available. Captain Ken did not conduct any field
research to confirm that rumor. Here is
Eilo’s spin on that tradition – does this mean she is both taken &
available?
2. Men and women paddling
outrigger canoes fast. It is a beautiful
thing to watch their synchronicity in a 6 person canoe and the speed at which
they cut through the water. They compete amongst all the island nations of
Polynesia. This guy is doing 5 knots but
he is cheating a bit as he is riding the wake of AURORA sailing along at 5
knots:
3. And tattoos. I liked this foot – and the rest attached to
the foot was not too shabby…
And our friend Nejat got inscribed
with more traditional art…
This is pretty much where the
tattoo art form originated. Here is one
of the first tattoo parlors in the world – about 2000 years old at one of the
Unesco sites on Hiva Oa . Our guide
demonstrated where the Tattooee sat and you can see the little indentation in
the rock where the tattoo ink resided for the needle work:
Our next stop in French
Polynesia was Moorea…within sight of Tahiti but a different world
entirely! Moorea is not very developed
and it is breathtakingly beautiful. Here’s a shot taken as we passed through the
reef. The large sailing vessel on the
right, EOS, is the largest privately owned sailing vessel in the world. Nope - they did not have us over for
cocktails.
This island was better
planned and more beautiful than the others as they paid attention to preserving
wonderful views from shore and they buried all their utility lines – the result
is impressive. Also it has tons of
unspoiled open space. After entering the pass we anchored in a beautiful bay
alongside public beaches which were beautifully tended. The next bay over is Cook’s Bay (that guy got
around didn’t he?) and we walked over the mountain to see it. It was a long hike but we were rewarded with
pineapple farms and volcanic outcroppings.
We ate outside at a little
café in Cook’s bay and found the well known Bali Hai hotel, from South Pacific
fame…which has clearly seen better days but still mixed great mojitos!
We enjoyed a drink by the
water and reminisced about the articles in Time magazine when the Bali Hai was
THE place to go! We had Gary and Linda
from a neighboring boat over for drinks….they are living in the islands and had
plenty of advice on where to go and where to anchor. The following day MISTO anchored and so we
had them to dinner and toured the island with them the next day. A beautiful island with flowers everywhere,
some great archaeological sites and a wonderful restaurant with many tikis. Here is a nice big one Eilo got attached to.
As more ARC boats arrived we
had sundowners on the beach:
and a wild night in the local
Hilton resort with OWL and NORTH and lots of Mr & Mrs drinks. There
were crazy dancers, some with fire.
Food was excellent and a
wonderful night was had by all. We set
off for an overnight sail to Huahine. It
was not a difficult sail but like all these islands you have to be aware of
entrances and exits as you need to negotiate the “pass”. The islands are surrounded by treacherous
reefs. On my (Eileens’s) watch in the
early hours of the morning I heard a “Mayday Call” on the VHF radio. A boat that had been anchored with us in
Moorea and was making the same voyage had ended up on the reef about 4 miles
from the pass. They had lost power, lost
their e-charts and then were using charts on an ipad but without GPS
coordinates. They thought they were
farther out… a very serious OOOPS. I listened as another boat relayed mayday for
them but they had to abandon their boat.
There were four of them on board, French. We saw the boat being towed in a day later –
it took hours to pump all the water out and the family were looking
distraught. I realized, once again, that
what we are doing is not easy and not to be taken lightly. Oh yeah!
The reluctant sailor.
Huahine was probably our
favorite of this group of islands. It
had the beauty they are known for, was not overdeveloped and had a friendly
feel about it. We rented scooters and
quads with SANDVITA, OWL, TULLAMOR, AND NORTH.
Had a crazy day exploring the island with stops at a nice gallery (the
lady artist who studied in Rhode Island did excellent oil paintings),a Pareo
shop, and a great restaurant – Chez Tara:
Our group of sailboats then
determined it was time to move on and we set sail for Raiatea and Tahaa both of
which are within the same circle of reefs.
We stayed in Apooiti Marina for a couple of nights. Nothing fancy but they had a restaurant so we
could have a farewell party for Stu on OWL who was returning back to the
States. It ended up being a great rendezvous
location for ARC boats and the farewell party was huge! Ken and I walked in to the local town but
ended up getting a taxi ride. Nice town
with great grocery shops for stocking up!
Our mini flotilla (SANDVITA,
OWL, NORTH and TULLAMHOR) decided to circumnavigate Tahaa. Our first anchorage was close to two motos
(really small islands that are scattered on the reefs around the main islands). We had sundowners on on the beach with all
the boats and TAISTELAI joined us. We
also had a rum punch impromptu party on AURORA as Ken had discovered a local
juice mix which…when added to fresh pineapple, limes and rum was the best punch
ever! The next night was spent in Baie
Haamene and we had cocktails on board while the locals drummed and practiced
their traditional dances. There was
something reminiscent of Melville about the scene! Our final stop in Tahaa was at the Coral
Gardens where we had some of the most spectacular snorkeling ever. Here is a parrot fish which came over to
check out the GoPro:
The water is not deep, it is
crystal clear and the fish literally surround you and nibbled at Eilo &
Melike.
The coral was beautiful and
very healthy, we were thrilled to have experienced this. Of course Captain Ken got bitten 3 times by
coral (a month has passed and the weeping wounds have now healed – I’ll spare
you the photos). Our night ended with dinner on OWL with NORTH as we were the
only three boats in this bay.
Our last island in French
Polynesia was the famed Bora Bora.
Approaching it one could understand the hype….it is an awesome sight
with volcanic peaks reaching into the clouds and deep green views down to
beaches, the island ringed with Motos covered with palm trees.
ARC boats were meant to moor
at Maikai yacht club but they had no moorings free when we arrived so we went
around the corner to the Bora Bora Yacht Club and we were lucky! The moorings were much quieter than those of
Maikai which seemed to constantly be battered by the winds. There was bad blood between the yacht clubs
but we were warmly welcomed by the owners of Bora Bora and we fell in love with
their restaurant (incredible food) and bar and the club in general. Here’s some of the club - AURORA is in the center of the first…
Luckily the ARC decided we
could stay and they included Bora Bora Yacht Club in the itinerary. Once again we toured the island and stopped at
a nice resort…
where the barmaid was
friendly and served more excellent Mojitos!
We had a dinghy race in the mooring field at the yacht club and boat
crews dressed up and determined to fight to the bitter end to win the
race. Ken teamed up with Bill, Nejat, Chris
and Doug (Pirates of the Pacific)…
there was a ladies team all
dressed in Pareos and looking mighty good here just before the start, the
Voluptuous Vahines?
I think that was their name. Vahine is woman in Polynesian. SCALLYWAG had dressed up to participate and
SANDVITA and ATLA arrived looking like wild Vikings with war paint.
The race commenced with much
ado…
Members of rival boats
attacked each other with oars and attempted to block each other. When one of SANDVITA’S crew pushed an oar at
Ken….he promptly stole it – the Vikings with only 3 oars and 4 Vikings were now
out gunned by the Pirates (we had 3 extra oars – just in case)! Pirates of the Pacific won the race and the
Voluptuous Vahines were second and voted in to win a prize. Before we could set off on the next leg some
remedial work needed to take place.
AURORA needed a sail batten car replaced, her freezer had to be fixed
(thank you Bill on OWL) and other sundry items.
Having figured out our freezer, OWL then had a problem with theirs and
so Ken was able to help sort out and get them back on line. The ARC pulls together – it’s a wonderful
thing.
Worth mentioning was that we
found out that when leaving Raiatea Taistelai came across a day sailing boat
that had capsized and were on the reef outside of Taha. They pulled three people out of the water
(most likely saving their lives) as they had no radio to call for help - and then
righted the boat and towed it back to Raiatea!
Kudos to Taistelai.
Leg 5 started from Bora Bora
to Suwarrow- Niue-Tonga. A multi leg
trip! NORTH had decided to stay in the
Polynesian islands and catch up with the ARC next year….sad to say goodbye for
now to such a fun and wild couple. We
will meet again!
We had a really lousy sailing
plan on AURORA and executed it perfectly but eventually got to Suwarrow after
sailing AURORA about 800 nautical miles when everyone else sailed the 560 miles
directly to the deserted island in the Northern Cook Islands. Here’s “the OWL” anchored in front of her:
Amongst other things,
Suwarrow is known for a large concentration of various sharks. After we dropped anchor they sent out a welcome
committee, a black tipped reef shark – care for a swim?
There is also a plethora of
large hermit crabs on island so the wheels started turning and a 15 foot by 4
foot course lined with coconuts became the race track and yes, the 2017 World
Champion Hermit Crab Race was on. None
of the crabs were hurt during this exercise but they were disappointed the race
was not carried by CNN. I’m not sure who
won as the cocktails were flying. The
highlight of our 3 day stay was promulgated by Lars (our friend from Sweden) from
SANDVITA – the ARC’s token Viking. He
found and old cinderblock and concrete “bee hive” oven built by a hermit around
1972, who lived on the island over a period of 20 years by himself.
We collected a lot of fire
wood a fired that baby up and all 24 boats brought in their versions of raw
pizza, beer, wine, cocktails, appetizers, and AURORA POLARIS made fresh
cinnamon rolls and brought in ice cream
for all. What a feast. Lars cooked about 50 pies that afternoon and
evening and most were excellent after he got the knack of it:
A personal note….while on
Suwarrow we learned that Ken’s dad, Ed, had died. His wish was to stay at home and he was
granted that wish…dying in his own bed.
We were glad of that but sad to lose such a terrific human being. Ed was interesting, thoughtful, artistically
talented and an all round super guy…we were fortunate to have him in our lives
and sad that he would not be home when we returned.
On May 23 we left Suwarrow
and sailed to Niue. Niue is the smallest
independent country in the world but maintains a free association with New
Zealand. Our sail was OK and we arrived
during the night but knew that mooring is possible in the dark. As luck would have it Mick and Helen from
LAURA DAWN were in their dinghy and guided us to a ball and assisted with tying
up at 1;30 in the morning… heaven!
Niue was wonderful….friendly
people and a super little Yacht club where they assisted all of us with all our
needs. We had a welcome buffet at a
local resort and some of the island’s young folk danced for us. The following day we toured the island and
swam and snorkeled in caves, one being a sacred cave with crystal clear
iridescent blue water, used by their ancient kings who use to bring their new
wives here for fun and games and lucky:
climbed down volcanic rocks
to the Togo chasm
then climbing through a cave which led to the sea
and watch the sea enter caves
with a violent and exciting cacophony of
sound.
Ate in a restaurant
overlooking the reefs where dolphins cavorted in the water for our enjoyment
and all in all had a terrific day. The
local town had shops and restaurants that are typical of these islands. The shops have an interesting stock of goods
but we have learned to find what we need to survive. After three days we were to move on and were
sad to say goodbye to Niue.
We had a terrific sail to
Tonga. The winds were, for the most
part, strong enough to keep us
going. We did some downwind reach passages
and made excellent time. This was one of
our better passages and we led the way….
the engine was never turned on and we tacked to the finish line. A wonderful sail! Tonga is a relatively poor country compared
to it’s neighbors to the east but once again the Tongans are very friendly and happy to help you. We hung out in town Vannua and found
excellent Tapas at the Basque Tavern – which has a good enough internet
connection to make this posting. A
highlight was a quick sail over to Morelle Bay and a visit to the Sparrow Cave
which you could dinghy into:
Next AURORA is moving on to the islands
of Fiji.
