Well, now that we got the whole troublesome sailing bit out of the way, let’s get to the partying…
…by getting in an even smaller boat, but this time with no means of automated propulsion and in the rain!
(We don’t get it either dude…)
The first thing we did was participate in the national sport of French Polynesia by competing in 4-man Polynesian canoe races. As we had actually sailed to Tahiti with our friends Allan and Alison, they cross-recruited us into their canoe and coconut shucking team.
Random uninhabited beach, central Fakarava, Tuamotu, French Polynesia
Figuring out that US $67.25 doesn’t even buy a single dinner out for Tiffany and myself at any restaurant on the island (seriously, crazy expensive here), my career as a professional dare taker comes to sudden, if not awesome, end.
Not that I won’t take dares. Please, by all means.
We hauled anchor and headed up the Coast, well, the coast on the inside of the island, which isn’t very far from the other coast on the outside of the island. Here let me show you what I mean:
Yeah, that’s really it. Think about that for a second, they live on an island no wider than a few football fields in the middle of the Pacific. There is a certain reassurance that large land mass provides, a reassurance that until now I had not ever noticed before. It is something very disconcerting about being able to see both coasts at the same time of the only land for about 100 + miles. Something in the back of your mind that says: hey, if there’s a tidal wave buddy, or maybe a hurricane, this island ain’t gonna do much more than trip it up a bit. You’re basically screwed…
…it gives one pause.
Dropping anchor for the night, we went ashore and decided to have a “genuine natural Polynesian island beach experience.” What does this mean? More coconuts!
Few points here:
1) What did Tiffany and Greg learn from their last coconut experience? Not a DARN thing, thank-you very much!
2) Actual Polynesians are not in any way interested in “genuine natural Polynesian experiences.” I met this dude a few days later:
Huh, a fire axe. Don’t see that in too many beach movies eh? Just in case you are wondering, they cut open the coconuts and let them dry because the milk is worthless. It’s the coconut oil that is the cash crop.
The evening culminated with a perfect sunset barbecue, though more ended up being on the menu than was originally scheduled:
The past year has been an adventure beyond description and we are blessed to have the chance to make this dream come true. Thank-you all so much for sharing it with us. Your comments and emails have been a real encouragement for us as we have strived to maintain this video blog in a part of the world that doesn’t exactly lend itself to high speed internet…or any internet for that matter. Your questions and comments on the blog, Facebook and emails have been great, please keep them up!
We’re still out here exploring the south pacific, in the coming year we hope to see an actual continent again (no rush on that though!)
If I could offer you one thought for the coming year it’s this: According to the people I talk to out here travelling with me, very few people who set out to do a trip like this actually accomplish it. The number one reason has to do with health and often it is simply because they waited too long. They bodies gave out before they were ready.
I know dropping everything isn’t in the cards for everyone and grabbing a piece of your dream now, however small, at least gets you going in the right direction. Upon seeing some of the marvelous islands we’ve been to, one of my fellow crewmen (woman, actually but crewwoman sounds funny) has gotten into the habit of says “Good work God.” God has indeed done some awesome work on this little ball of rock we call Earth…and the only way you can experience it is to take the first step now. Simply said: it’s awesome out here.
Until then, we’ll keep blogging as long as you keep watching!
-Greg & Tiffany
Here’s Tiffany with her new Polynesian ukulele (not to be confused with a Hawaiian ukulele) and a nice, cheap, fresh baguette in Tahiti, two key pieces of Polynesian culture.
Here’s Greg smirking next to the tiki we’ve been calling “tripod”, one of the gods from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands with his Hawaiian ukulele. Um, they put this tiki, in all his glory, on their $2 coins…
Ok it’s, uh, pretty and all. Really, really pretty but what do you DO there?
Well all throughout the village and along the islands are coconut crabs. Which are crabs. That eat coconut. They also live in little burrowed holes in the beach sand and the islanders are good at catching them for supper.
If catching your next meal gets old and/or frustrating (fast little buggers) you can always go for a swim. Remember how I said Kauehi had clear water? Yeah, and lagoons are breeding grounds for everything from tropical fish to coral to the most colorful clams I have ever seen.
If the lagoon gets old, you can wander down the road (“the” as in singular. As in the only one on the island) to the other beach. It’s not like it’s a long walk.
Since the island is an atoll surrounding a lagoon, it has beaches on both sides. The “inside” beach has sand but no waves. The outside beaches, which face out to the ocean, would be really great for surfing or boogie boarding except for one tiny detail.
**20100510A – archive – Kahuei beach**
Allan is really excited because he has dragged his board, sails and gear all the way from California in order to go windsurfing in the Tuamotu. The barrier reef islands provide a good shelter from the ocean waves but are also low enough to the water to allow the wind to blow full force over the lagoons. Big wind but no large waves creates an ideal windsurfing environment.
I know I said this before back in Mexico but it bears repeating. Allan loaded all of this gear onto his sailboat. He then proceeded to sail his boat from California to the middle of the South Pacific. We have been sailing for months now to get here. So we sail here, on a sailboat, using the wind to sail our sailboat to this lagoon and the thing Allan wants to do here? After all that? He wants to go sailing on a smaller sailboat…
…really?
He insists it’s different. It goes faster or something. Me, I know addiction when I see it.
As we had a short respite here in order to prepare for our wanderings into the 100 or some odd remote (even by Polynesian standards) islands of the Tuamotus, we decided to take care of some of the day to day chores that had built up.
Like, defrosting the freezer with our hair dryer, because apparently this is an important part of the cruising lifestyle
And hand carrying diesel fuel to fill the boat back up (last gas station was Hiva Oa, remember?)
We also bought food and in a French colony that means we acquired fresh baguettes. I find that I have yet to devote the proper space in this blog to the natural wonder of the world that is real French bread. As a native of Northern California I will go toe to toe with anyone who claims the superiority of French wine or cheese, but ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to bread these people have us beat.
Since we are talking of chores, I should take a moment and discuss showering. Yes, showering. Not that we didn’t shower before, it’s just that we didn’t shower for the amusement of the local athletic establishment prior to this anchorage.
(Continued from previous post… Tahuata, French Polynesia)
Finally, Tiffany made the discovery that lead us down the path of our second great adventure for the day: six coconuts laying about on the island. Actually, they’re lying all over the place, you actually have to work to avoid tripping over them as you walk around. However, it was Tiffany’s idea to bring them back to the boat and attempt to open them. This next video illustrates a fairly simple Polynesian math equation:
1 coconut + 3 gringos + 1 dull machete = hilarity
I remind you all of that footage was from the first coconut. Now, being Americans, we decided that the best way to proceed with the other coconuts is to both increase the number of tools at our disposal and increase the amount of power those tools put out. This met with slightly better results…kind of.
Finally, we took a moment to regroup and figure out what we had learned. Drawing out lessons from our experience so far as: “use a sharp blade over a dull one” and “take the protective husk off first” we refined our process and found some success with the third coconut.
After what could easily be qualified as a “bumpy” night transit south, against the wind and the waves we find ourselves on the island of Fatu Hiva in French Polynesia. (For our non-sailing friends, it’s called “bashing” when you drive into the wind & waves. It sucks. A lot. This single fact alone actually explains why the entire international cruising community constantly sails to the west; in order to avoid bashing as much as humanly possible.)
We anchored in the Bay of Penises. Now wait one second. Before you get all uppity on me, look, don’t blame me that the Polynesian people came up with overly descriptive names for things, because that’s the freaking original Polynesian name, alright (well, the English translation at least). It’s due to the rock towers that surround the bay. I’m serious, look it up. (Tiff’s note – the name of the town is Hana Vave in Fatu Hiva) For those of you too lazy to look it up, I explain the whole issue (inserting my own obvious bias and providing nice views of the anchorage, but not of the male reproductive system) here:
Having arrived at what arguably could be the most amazingly named place on the entire planet, we spent our two days here:
Firstly, by exploring the village. Being as the total island inhabitants number at about 650 split between two villages, this took about a grand total of 15 minutes. We did however discover some precious little tidbits. Such as, everyone eats coconuts here and I mean everyone.
Also, speaking of chickens and coconuts, you may want to think twice before you buy that “all natural” tropical coconut meat or coconut oil in the grocery store.
Polynesians do have cats and dogs…lots of cats and dogs, but they also keep other interesting animals on leashes.
We also ran into an interesting event going on as we arrived: all the school aged children were leaving. Because of the minimal population, there are only grade schools on the island. Anyone wanting a high school education has to travel by ferry 10 hours or so to Hiva Oa. The nearest college is in Tahiti (again, about 2000 miles away.) So kids who want an education spend a lot of time away from home from the 8th grade on.
