The Tahiti Rendezvous
There is something you need to understand about sailors: they really need very little excuse to do two things:
1) Sail
2) Party
So any occasion where an actual legitimate reason exists to do both at the same time is guaranteed to draw a crowd. Enter the Tahiti Rendezvous, an annual celebration put on by the Tahitian government to celebrate those insane people who are both crazy enough to think that traveling thousands of miles by sail is a good idea and ingenious enough to actually pull it off.
The short of it is that basically everyone who sailed to Tahiti gets together to have a race to Moorea (her neighboring island) and celebrate the fact that we have actually made it to Tahiti. Which if you’ve ever spent 3 months traveling to a place, trust us, arriving is something worth celebrating.
And what better way to start off celebrating arriving at your destination, after sailing for weeks with no land in sight, than to immediately leave land and have a sailing race?
…It’s not like we said, or even really implied, that sailors made any logical sense.
Being as our current ride was unable to participate in the sailing race because, you know, due to the lack of the sails and all, we were nominated to be the committee boat and carry the band that would provide the soundtrack to our adventure.
This also meant that we got to blow the ceremonial conch that officially started the race, which met with varying levels of success.
Finally, we got to see our former ship S/V FLY AWEIGH in action as she raced in the rendezvous.
Odd fact: most sailors never see their boat in action. Oh, so that’s what we looked like!
Tiff on the Conch, Greg…you stay with the ukelele ;0)
Hey the goal was to learn one instrument, the conch was just gravy 😉
That looks so fun! We were really looking into getting more time on a boat until we learned that Shaun gets terribly seasick. Does this happen to everyone, or should he just try and stay away?
Greg gets seasick, but I don’t… Sometimes it isn’t too bad for him, but others he’s really miserable. How bad is Shaun? Is he ok when the weather is good? For long distance sailing, most people who get seasick feel fine after they’ve been offshore for a couple of days, so it’s not out of the question! Greg sails with his “seasickness kit” that includes ginger gum, pressure point wristbands, and essential oils. It works for him!
Ok, so seasickness is not that big of a thing once you’re out there for a few days, at least for me. The trick is to be really proactive about it because once you get it, it’s tough to get it to fade off. The way I do it is the first day or two underway I wear the bands and use the oil on my wrists to be proactively cautious. After that I’m usually fine unless it gets horribly bad (which happened about 2 times in our entire trip so far) and then it’s just a matter of using all the stuff staying above decks in the air and keeping yourself busy (usually by driving the boat).
My suggestion would be to do some multi-day to weeklong coastal hops (like, in the carib or down the coast of Mexico) with Shaun and see how he goes. For the vast majority of people it really is just a matter of “getting used to your sea legs.” Assuming that’s the case, he will get “better” as soon as he gets a feel for it all.
Thank you guys for giving us such complete information. We’re going to have to find the bands somewhere and the oil. Which essential oils are they? We are doing the Panama to Colombia trip (hopefully) so he can try it out again. I just love the ocean – I think I may have been a pirate in a previous life. 😛
Oh hey! Our contest! Gongrats to Jen Goldberg for winning the lonely Planet book: 1000 Exteme Experiences and thanks to everyone who participated in helping us spread the word about volunteer crewing!
sweet ketch!
Ooh, a sailing contest and getting to blow on a conch! Very cool. 🙂
I know, isn’t it great?! 🙂