Cruise of the Ladybug: French Polynesia

Showing posts with label French Polynesia. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Sentence handed down in Nuku Hiva for murder of cruiser

When we visited French Polynesia en route to New Zealand in 2012, rumours were flying of a German cruiser had recently been murdered and possibly eaten while pig hunting with a local guide. The cannibalism was juicy material for tabloids but was not proven during the trial. This article describes the sentencing of the Polynesian man and outlines what happened.

Our friend, Randall was in the area at the time and has a more detailed report you can read on his blog.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Off to Suwarrow

We are on the 'road' again on a 5-6 day passage to Suwarrow (pronounced, I think Suvarov). This is a national park managed by New Zealand and made famous by Tom Neale who lived here alone for many years from the 50's to the 70's. There are a goodly number of yachts there already and more ahead of us en route, so Tom would probably have had to look elsewhere for solitude in these days of 'mass' yachting.

It feels a bit strange to be on a multi-day passage, our first in nearly 3 months. We have been spoiled by day sails and the occasional overnighter in French Polynesia. We will definitely miss French Polynesia - the people and the intense beauty of the volcanic islands and coral atolls. Someday we hope to return.

It is 655 miles or so from Maupiti to Suwarrow and the winds are predicted to be light to moderate and from well behind the port beam. The seas are short and maybe 4-6 feet, rolling Ladybug enough to make it a bit hazardous to cook. However Rani is brave and we did manage to have fried breadfruit chips for lunch and re-heated curry for supper.

Looking forward to reading a few good books and watching some of the TV series Jericho that some friends gave us back in Mexico.

Our position at 0430 GMT is 16 14 S 153 03 W - about 606 miles from Suwarrow.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Fixing things on a boat

The other day, a friend was working on his boat and he told me that every project he starts seems to cascade into multiple projects as one thing after another breaks...

Today the piezo electric lighter on the oven stopped working. I looked below the oven and found that the plastic battery holder for the little penlight battery that powers the sparkers had cracked and fallen apart where the spring contacted the battery. This sounded like a job for duct tape. So I pulled out the battery holder and removed the battery so as to effect a repair. At this point, the negative wire fell off, probably due to corrosion on the terminal.

No problem - I would get out our soldering iron and inverter to re-solder the wire to the terminal. I waited while the iron heated up and managed to tin the wire and the terminal. But before I could bring the two together, the iron stopped working. It is a cheap unregulated iron and I had this happen before, but this time it did not come back to life with a little waggling of wires, so I drilled out the rivet that held the iron together and removed the AC cord. I recrimped one connection from the cord to the resistance element - still no life - so I took apart the rest of the iron. I noticed that the insulation on the resistance wiring had failed and was flaking off, probably due to corrosion again.

I was going to throw the soldering iron away and had resigned myself to using a match to light the stove, when I realized that I could remove the now-useless electrical cord and heat the iron's tip in the flame from the stove. Doing this, I was able to re-solder the battery connections and finally to tape the holder back together. Thus a two minute job took more than an hour to complete!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Mt. Teurafaatiu hike on Maupiti Island

The wind has been blowing 15-20 Knots from the southeast for the last few days, not great for snorkeling. It seemed the ideal time to explore the land, so yesterday we hiked up the highest mountain on Maupiti, Mt. Teurafaatiu (380m). Steve and Rankin from s/v Gypseaheart came with us while Sandy stayed on the boat to take photos from below. The access to the trail is a set of cement stairs very close to the dinghy tie-up area. The dusty trail wound up the hillside in a moderately steep ascent, most of it under the shade of mango trees. It was a sharp contrast to the muddy, slippery ascent of Mt. Pahia on Bora Bora. There were frequent views of the lagoon, motus, Onoiau Pass, the charcoal coloured volcanic cliffs of Mt. Hotu Paraoa, and the village with it's red roofed catholic church.

All around the lagoon the shallow turquoise water is laced with spidery gold coral reefs. No wonder there are only three safe anchorages on this island, two of them close to the pass and the third off the village. We watched as a sailboat approached the pass from Bora Bora. From our vantage point at the top of the mountain we could see the strong ebbing current flowing out of the lagoon and frothy standing waves at the pass entrance. The sailboat took down it's sails, motored for a closer look and then sensibly turned around, most likely carrying on to Suvarov or Mopelia.

We heard drums playing down below and watched as a procession of people in orange shirts walked down the main street following the musicians riding in the back of a pick-up truck. We found out later that a youth group had arrived on the ferry from Papeete for a week of activities on Maupiti and this was their welcome. On the previous day, we had seen the drummers practicing near the church and I had been allowed to beat a tune on a hollowed out tree trunk drum called a toera. The boys had laughed and encouraged me while an older man made jokes at my expense to everyone else's amusement. The ladies in the audience clapped when I demonstrated a few bhangra moves in me hiking boots!

On the way down from Mt. Teurafaatiu, I took my time as I had stretched a muscle (quadriceps) in my right thigh on the Bora Bora hike and it was still a little painful to bend that leg. As luck would have it, I slipped on the gravelly sand in a fairly level area and stretched the same leg muscle! If only I could find a good masseuse...

The photos that follow are from our first few days on Maupiti, including a walk around the island, mentioned in a previous blog post.

Motu at the pass into Maupiti

Just needs a lick of paint

Ahky's castle gate

Ahky - playing a song for us.

Scene on the island hike

Fuel efficient island transport

At the public beach.

Beach scene

Carol and Livia from Estrellita are keen kite boarders

Chris and Rankin from "Gypsea Heart"

View from the summit - note the incredible coral reef colours

Snapping a picture from the summit

On the summit

Corals and sand in the lagoon.

A roped section of the hike

View back towards the pass.

Another view of the pass and rocky bluff of the main island - photo courtesy of Rankin

Anchorage - we are the left-most boat - photo courtesy of Rankin

Sunday, August 5, 2012

More books

A few more books we have read recently...

An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale - This is the story of a New Zealander who spent several years living on a tiny island in the south Pacific. The author does a good job of describing his motivations for doing so, how his life in the surrounding islands had prepared him for this, and how he goes about arranging things on his island to make living feasible. I was struck by how capable the man was, yet how difficult it really is to do something like this entirely on one's own. The island he lived on is Suvarow, now a New Zealand national park, which we will visit in a couple of weeks.

"Where Men Win Glory" by Jon Krakauer - The tragic true story of Pat Tillman, an NFL football player who left his career and signed up for military duty after September 11th. I have read Krakauer's other books and this one seems most similar to "Into the Wild". It is a thoroughly researched piece of investigative journalism that follows Tillman's life through his unlikely rise to NFL stardom and on to his enlistment, deployment, and death in Afghanistan. This is both an exploration of an extraordinary man and an investigation into the circumstances around his death. The book also sheds (unfavourable) light on how Tillman's death was used by US politicians during the time leading up to the presidential election.

"The Prince" by Nicollo Machiavelli - Like many of the classics we have on board, I have been meaning to read this for a long time. This short book is a treatise on how to rule. Apparently, many such books had been written prior to Machiavelli's work. However, he was the first to write about the gritty reality of how to attain and keep power as opposed to how things should be done in theory. I was struck by how his advice and techniques are used to this day by both democracies and dictatorships. We have not moved as far from the 16th century as we like to think. E.g., the US still has a prince (the President) advised by a council of influential people. With a few changes of terminology, this book could also be made over into a business management guide for the aspiring CEO.

"The Glassblower of Murano" - An historical novel/romance set in Venice. This follows the life of a famous Renaissance glass blower and his descendent who returns to Venice to explore her roots and escape a messy divorce. Venice once maintained a monopoly on fine glass making (e.g., the production of large mirrors) and the plot is rife with intrigue, betrayal, and ruthlessness needed to maintain this monopoly. Notable are loving descriptions of Venice and of the art of glass making; the author has deep experience with both.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Maupiti First Impressions

Easily visible on a clear day from Bora Bora, Maupiti is a world apart from the bustle and mass tourism of its more famous neighbour. One of the reasons why Maupiti sees less tourism and fewer cruising boats is Onoiau pass. This is the only entry into the lagoon - south-facing and a treacherous place of steep standing waves in a strong southerly swell. Bare boat charter yachts are not permitted here and visiting yachts must be prepared to wait out a southerly wind that can make it impossible to leave through the pass. Tourists and locals are served by a ferry from Bora Bora that calls just twice a week as well as a turboprop passenger plane, which uses the tiny jungle runway on the northern island.

We arrived off Maupiti late in the morning having left our anchorage in Bora Bora in the early moonlit hours. Rani and I were concerned that the recent southerly winds and a long 2-3 meter swell might make things rough for us. From a distance the narrow pass looked forbidding - a solid wall of crashing surf. As we rounded onto the course for a transit, we saw the surf flatten out in a narrow gap between the two southern motus.

We lined up with the white range markers, waves breaking on each side, and as we passed through the narrow coral bracketed entrance, we jogged to starboard onto a second set of ranges. An out-flowing current raised meter high standing waves, but with the engine ticking over and a half furled jib to steady us, we glided between the white sand beaches and into the calm of the lagoon.

The channel to the main village winds through many hued waters amid a maze of coral heads. Rani climbed the ratlines to guide us as we coasted along under jib, drinking in the beauty of the volcanic island set like a black pearl in the swirling green and turquoise lagoon. A great volcanic bluff dominates this central island, dwarfing the village below. We anchored over a shallow field of sand near five other cruising boats, including our friends from Gato Go and Estrellita. The other boats were from Holland, France, and the US.

Today we walked around the island on a level concrete road that runs mostly a few feet above sea level. The walk was very pleasant as there were few cars. Scooters seem to be the most popular form of transpor, closely followed by bicycles. The main island is intensely cultivated and most homes have an uru tree, many growing bananas, papayas, and even pineapples.

We met a musician named Ahky who lives in a coral and cement house behind a fanciful coral wall, both of which he has built entirely by himself. Chatting constantly, Ahky invited us into his compound. He produced an 8 stringed ukulele and accompanied himself on several tunes, explaining the story behind each song. One song was based on the sounds he had heard in the forest nearby when two trees, their trunks crossing, moved against each other in the wind. He fancied that they were the voices of two entwined lovers caressing each other. Another song that is popular with Polynesian children was "Varo d'Argent" about a local lobster-like crustacean called a varo. Varos live in the sandy plains of the bay in holes in the sand, the male and female sharing a hole. Ahky writes all his own songs and has recorded 10 CDs and even a video with Miss Tahiti.

Continuing our circumnavigating walk, we passed a number of marae situated at the water's edge. Archaeologists have found remains dating to about 850 AD. We visited a stunning white sand beach on the south end and climbed across a ridge back to the east side, which provided views across the coral striped lagoon to the fringing surf-pounded reef.

Tomorrow, we will hike to a peak overlooking the village and in a few days, when the wind dies down, we plan to move across the lagoon to a southern anchorage. There we hope to see giant mantas at their 'cleaning station'. Apparently, each day, a dozen mantas line up and take turns having little fish swim into their mouths and clean out the parasites that reside there.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Hiking twin-peaked mount Pahia

We hiked Mt. Pahia on Bora Bora a couple of days ago. It was a very steep and challenging ascent with lots of wet slippery roots and rocks. Thankfully there were some ropes already attached in the steepest sections. Along the way, there were views of the small islets (motus), the lagoon, and the reef far below. We enjoyed walking under the cool canopy of trees, giant ferns, hanging vines, and pandanus. Near the top, there were pink hibiscus bushes amid tall wild grass and I also spotted some wild ginger root in the rocky crevices.

When we reached the first peak with the Bora Bora flag, the view became mostly white - swirling clouds which occasionally parted for a second. We were always too late to capture the vision on camera. There was no point in continuing to the higher peak as rain seemed likely. The scramble down was slow as we had to go backwards on all fours in the slippery areas where ropes were impractical. Our friend Bob had brought a light 60ft rope which Chris volunteered to tie to tree trunks and sturdy roots at some steep pitches. That really helped the rest of us.

We celebrated in the evening by going in for "happy hour" at the Mai Kai restaurant. It was very therapeutic and a good social with friends from three other yachts. My rum cocktail was delicious but I was unable to do anything else when we rowed back to the boat. We put off our planned departure for Maupiti as neither of us felt like rising at 4am!

Chris sailing - Mount Pahia is to the upper left.

The hike took us through towering ferns.

View back to our mooring off the Mai Kai restaurant

Bob and Anne from Charisma San Francisco joined us on the hike. Note the rock face that we hiked beneath as we rounded the mountain to the other side where the trail ascended again.

Several sections of the hike were roped.

Rani, Bob, and Anne arrive at a rest spot.

Estelle is a naturalist on the cruise ship Paul Gaugin. Herbert - above her is a baker on board.

Happy to be at the lower summit - note the tiny patch of view through the clouds.

Under the flag on Pahia lower summit. Note the fine clear view (of cloud).

Climbing back down was made more interesting by a downpour. Here we are using Bob's rope.

Glad to be down. Note the blue Cowichan Outdoor Group ribbon that now marks the start of the trail.

Photos from Heiva in Tahaa

A few photos from the Heivas we attended in Tahaa. The singers and dancers had come from the neighboring islands to take part. Most were billeted nearby and a frequent site was a bus load of colorfully costumed Polynesians passing us as we hiked the 4 kms from where we anchored our boat to the site of the festival. The lighting was difficult, so some of the pictures are a bit grainy.

Singers

Powerful drumming accompanies all the dancing.

We met Herman before the show when he served Chris a plate of the food that was provided for all the dancers and spectators. He is a chief dancer and leads a group of men in the various moves.