Monday, May 23, 2011

Summary

As a few people have told me that they enjoyed my summing up of America, I thought I would do another little piece highlighting my impressions of Mexico and French Polynesia.
Mexico, colourful, friendly, exciting wear it like a shirt Mexico. It is what it is and does not pretend to be anything it isn't. Looking at the US built wall between the two countries, I wonder who are the lucky ones, it seems to me that with its simple way of life and lack of expectations it could well be Mexico, you only have to look at the way one enters each country – to get into the US you queue for hours, have your fingerprints and your photograph taken, provide a detailed description of where you have come from and where you intend to stay in the US, grudgingly get your passport stamped for a 90 day visit..........in Mexico you just walk into the country through a turnstile and are welcomed by a smiling street vendor or a restaurateur offering you a three course Mexican feast for five bucks a head....sure there are frustrating elements to living in Mexico but for the most part they are just that – slightly frustrating. I would love to see more of the place, and take away nothing but good memories (oh and three blankets, some pottery, a few tee shirts, some silver jewellery etc).
French Polynesia........where do I begin. Firstly, it's very expensive for anything other than basic stuff like bread, milk, eggs and so on. BUT....don't let that put you off. The Marqueses – arriving there it looked like Jurassic Park, rising up from the sea in the middle of nowhere – after 24 days at sea it was a welcome sight. Lush and green, with black coral beaches it was indeed a very photogenic place. The people there were not the friendliest we came across with the exception of our immigration agent, Regina, who was delightful. But generally, no one really smiled or waved and even the kids shied away from us. Just the way it is, I guess. On to the Tuamotus or the Tomatoes as my spell checker insists. Rangiroa to be exact. Rangiroa is an atoll, the second largest in the world, so I'm told. What I can tell you is that it is an amazing place with lots of much more friendly people, we loved it. We anchored in the lagoon after coming into it through a really hair raising pass with breakers over coral reef on either side, being spat out the other side of it like a champagne cork. People there live a simple life alongside the beach mostly in shacks with a roof and walls but no windows – just colourful fabric hung up in lieu, obviously the climate is conducive to such.
One thing we did notice everywhere we went in French Polynesia was that there seemed to be a lot of men dressed as women.....some of them were not terribly convincing, others most definitely were. We were told that if a family or village has too many male children, mothers are given the option of bringing up their sons as girls. These children grow up, some are homosexual but just as many are heterosexual, they just dress and behave like women. Can you imagine that happening in our society?? Years ago there was a classic bit of grafitti seen everywhere which stated “My Mother made me a homosexual” to which some wit had added underneath “If I send her the wool, will she make me one too?”.
Onto Tahiti, ah, my lovely Tahiti. Crumbling, decaying, vibrant, musical and colourful, a lot in common with Mexico in as much as people in Tahiti seem so content and enjoy living – in the city center of Papeete there is always a big gathering of polynesians playing guitars and drums, singing traditional songs not just for the passing tourists, just as much for themselves and the joy of doing it, it seemed. Papeete is somewhere I could definitely live happily I think.
Next, Moorea. Another high island, stunning scenery but not much character to be honest, then Raitaia, pretty much like everywhere else. Tahaa came next – what a wonderful place, mainly because we happened to meet, quite by chance, an amazing man called Tama who showed us so much hospitality and friendship we shall never forget. Open, trusting and with no expectation or agenda, he was the highlight of Polynesia for us.
Oh dear, Bora Bora. OK, yes, it's pretty in a cutesy postcardy way. From a distance. Of course, I love the idea of over water bungalows in a beautiful shallow bay with azure water lapping at the steps and fish swimming all around – who wouldn't? The trouble is, they've completely over done it with every hotel having row upon row of rooms on sticks – no privacy at all and frankly an eyesore. Thousand dollar a night ghettos, I call them. I really wish I had visited here twenty years ago before it became so over baked. They did indeed pave paradise and put up a parking lot.
And so, on the eve of leaving French Polynesia for Samoa, I can report that there is much to marvel at here – just venture off the beaten tracks a little, befriend the locals and learn a little history – it's worth it. Mauruuru and parahi oe!

The trip so far...

So now we have “Puddle Jumped” the Pacific Ocean to Bora Bora and it is time to take stock of the trip so far....The facts are, Ensenada, Mexico to Bora Bora, French Polynesia was done in 3 main stages giving a total distance of 4,649NM covered in 36 sailing days. We are now just over ½ way to making landfall on the main land of Australia!
For Jan and I “Fully Involved” was a whole new level of yacht, many things on her we had never used, i.e. SSB radio, water maker, gen set, bow thruster  to name a few. We had not sailed her overnight either until we had set off, all we had done was a night arrival into San Diego as mentioned previously.  Going cruising in the USA and Mexico is not so much a matter of casting off, as all dock lines are taken with you regardless of how long you are going to be out sailing, it is more a case of having someone on the jetty to throw the ropes at you, maybe to make sure you don’t chicken out!!
So off we sailed on a rhumb line track for the Marquises, 208 degrees. The first night we did our normal tactic of reducing sail area just as the sun sets so we still had some daylight to trim and set up for the night ahead.  With 3 on board, watches of 3 Hrs each was established starting at 18.00. This works very well for us so it has been adopted for the whole trip. During the daylight we adopted an ad-hoc watch system, taking a ‘Nana nap’ as and when required.  As Jan says, a passage is only a collection of day sails followed by an overnighter, and that is how it was, one day blurred into another. We soon realised just how capable the yacht was to get us thru any situation providing we followed basic sailing techniques. If we were to re-name her it would be ‘Charging Bull’ or something on those lines, as that is how she felt no matter what the sea produced, she just put her head down and went for it! We lost count of the number of consecutive days she stayed on the same point of sail, it was magical, 8.5 Kts water speed or hull speed.  ‘Nana’ our trusty autopilot was the hardest working member of the team, never sleeping or complaining, well she did let out s creek or two when the boat was over sailed for the winds and she struggled to hold us on course, but apart from that she was fine, a very handy piece of kit for getting into harbours at night. Getting into the Atolls required a very steady nerve and a good understanding of the cruising guides as some entrances are marked only by white posts!  Although we had the latest chart plotter cards and paper charts of the area, we always checked the Atolls positions using the radar and thankfully every Atoll was where it should be!!  The hardest part is knowing when slack water is as this is the best time to enter them. Coming out wasn’t that much of a problem,  as by the time it was time to depart, we had a good idea of what was going on.
Good reliable weather forecasts are a MUST for a crossing such as this. Some sources we already knew of but when other jumpers are encountered it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to “Where do you get your weather reports from”?
One thing amazed me above all others is how much damage or rubbing can be done by even the smallest piece of rope in 24 Hrs at sea! Things moving in draws had to be silenced, bottles banging together, cups moving together in a rack, anything that could move does and it is very annoying after a few days believe me!
Only a couple of minor issues have needed attention so far. We realised we had taken on 750 odd Litres bad water in Mexico. Despite running it thru a pre filter before entering our 1000 Litre tank, so by about ½ way the water took on a distinct sulphur smell, but as we were using the water maker we couldn’t use bleach in the tanks to kill it as this also kill’s the membrane in the Spectra when it is back flushed after use, so we suffered smelly showers!  The LPG gas regulator wires corroded thru so that had to be mended mid ocean by rewiring to get gas to the cooker.  We had a small rub on the luff of the main sail so took that down whilst in the doldrums and applied sail tape to it.
While in Tahiti the macerator pump was seen to be leaking so as a spare was carried that was changed, yuck!  Replaced the main sail outhaul sheet as it had gone very square in most places along its length. I did an oil and filter change on the Generator and replaced the start relay as it failed....Jan’s Computer unfortunately went for an unintentional swim when she was getting back on board from the dingy, this happened to be the one we use for running the nav station navigation equipment, so we had to replace it here in Tahiti before carrying on...
Oh yes one last thing.... Jan & I have a new nocturnal sport...It’s called “Hatch Aerobics”... We have 7 hatches and 14 port lights and as they all have fly screens on we have them open at night, but sometimes it rains, so every time this happens it’s a mad dash to shut them, trouble is by the time they are all closed and locked it stops raining and we have to open them again, good exercise!!
Jan will do a sum up of our time in French Polynesia, but for now that’s it from me....Mike

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tiare Breeze

Our friends Tamahere and Virginie have an exquisite guest house here in Tahaa
They are the most friendly and helpful people I have ever met and just wait until you see the pearl I got from Tamahere........it`s awesome.
I have put a link to their wonderful place over there on the right

Friday, May 13, 2011

In the Leeward Isles

Sitting at the Hotel Hibiscus sipping a beer.....loving it here on Tahaa......meanwhile here is a photo of the fabulous Fully Involved anchored in Robinsons Bay, Moorea, which you may recognise as the backdrop used in the movie South Pacific!