Society Islands (June 13 to mid July’ish)

The best part of exploring the Society Islands was that my sister Cathy and my nephew Sean joined us for our tour of Tahiti and Moorea.  They very easily adapted to boat life on Lardo with very few modern amenities like hot water, washing machines, dishwashers, phones for an entire week!  After they left, we continued on to Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora.

Tahiti

Cathy and Sean joined us in Tahiti just in time for the puddle jump festivities.  We loved going to the reception at the town hall with all of the Papeete dignitaries and Latitude 38 magazine staff and then continuing the evening to a treat of Tahitian music and dancers.  We never tired of the ukulele music and the graceful Tahitian dancers.

While Cathy and Sean were in Tahiti, we also managed to fit in a tour of the island; once out of Papeete, the island slowed to Polynesian life again.  On the other side of the island was the Paul Gaughin museum with many originals adorning the museum walls totally uncovered with no coverings.  We also made it to Tahiti Iti where the surfing international championships are held.

All was great until the end of the day when we had a slight fender bender trying to negotiate a Papeete two lane round-about- ughhhhh – never have figured out their logic.  When we got out of the car at the scene of the car accident, I half expected some unshaven French man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth ready to chew us out in some interesting French cuss words.  Instead, we hit the nicest Polynesian/French woman.  Imagine working all day, racing to pick up your baby from day care, then to be hit at 6:00 p.m. by a car full of Yankees when you should be at home cooking dinner.  And, she even greeted us with warm smiles and was so calm, helpful and friendly.  By the end of the evening, we were taking care of her baby and exchanging French kisses on both cheeks!  The next day she even helped us out with language translation at the car rental agency plus she happily drove us into town with many recommendations of eateries, farmer’s markets, and other places of interest to visit while in Papeete - true Polynesian warmth and hospitality.  If you have to get into a car accident, for sure do it in French Polynesia!  This story is not complete, because we didn’t take the insurance when renting the car, and had to pay 110,000 francs to the Avis agency to guarantee the fixing of the car (law requirement)…..we have been informed that Bank of America does pick up the tab for this kind of accident if you use one of their cards when renting.  So now we are waiting for the estimates of repair and B of A has said they will cover the CFP 110,000 payment.  Just dodged a bullet!

Well guess I’ll mention one more accident that happened to another member of the Lardo crew, c’est moi - MaryLee.  I managed to land the boat right smack on top of a reef in front of Tahiti Yacht Club.  My story which I’m holding to was that the channel had far too many markers which were totally confusing for anyone who had been up for two nights sailing from the Tuamotu’s.  Fortunately, Dennis got us off the reef and only found a few scratches on the keel when he dove under – phew!

Moorea

After those two accidents, the week in Moorea with Cathy and Sean was an absolute delight.  We enjoyed more puddle jump festivities – outrigger canoe races with the locals, parei and lei making and a traditional Polynesian meal.  We also got to participate in an outrigger race as paddlers…….it was a lot of fun!  Be sure to check out Latitude 38 for an article, although I don’t think that Andy Turpin, managing editor, got any pictures of the Lardo gang.

While attending the puddle jump activities at Moorea, our nephew Sean immediately hooked up with 3 other young folks in their early twenties and learned that this cruising lifestyle is a lot of fun – he got to meet young cruisers from all over the U.S. and the world!  Check out Sean McDonald’s facebook – he has lots of pictures.

Our week in Moorea was filled with lots of leisure time simply hanging out on Lardo and enjoying the heavenly weather.  Aside from relaxing, we managed to get in some hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and village exploring.  At night, it was so much fun just to kick back on Lardo with a nice evening meal with Cathy and Sean (yeah, they loved the French baguettes here), to listen to Tahitian music and to simply star gaze as the trade winds kept us cool and gently rocked the boat.

Huahine and Raiatea

Cried for a week after Sean and Cathy left but pushed on for Huahine and Raiatea – the delightful Society Islands about 100 miles from Tahiti where you can see neighboring Bora Bora about 25 miles away.  These islands have high volcanic mountains, are surrounded by reefs, and are so lush with green vegetation and lots of tropical fruit trees.  Unspoiled Huahine, the Garden of Eden, is so sensually Polynesian plus it is home to the only “blue-eyed” eel in the world. Twenty five miles from Huahine is Raiatea.  Raiatea, which of course has the terrific boatyards, is also known as the sacred island where the Polynesians first settled and then went on to explores other islands – this movement is known today as the great triangle migration.

One thing that we found out about the Society Islands is that the currents are very strong inside the reefs due to the close proximity of the reefs to the islands,  which create a strong pull from the ocean inside the reefs.  Swimming and kayaking against the currents on these islands was no easy feat.  This was always a concern while on Huahine and Raiatea but as long as I swam into the current I was not swept away to sea.  At least this was better than the challenge of shark infested waters that I faced in the Tuamotu’s.

 It was here that we hooked up with new cruiser friends from the U.S., Canada, Austria, Hungary and Australia, including Michael and Susan on Infini, and Rich and Jan on Slip Away.  We got to share the best of these islands with them, including the celebration of “Heiva” while in Raiatea.  Heiva is one of French Polynesian’s biggest celebrations with lots of Polynesian dance competitions, singing and sporting events.  It combines France’s Bastille Day with the traditional Tahitian festivities, beginning early July lasting for three to four weeks.  We hitched a ride into town to join our friends and were picked up by a young Polynesian mother who went out of her way to bring us all the way to town – fortunately her grandmother was English so she was quite fluent in our native tongue.  Once in town, we all attended a wonderful evening in Uturoa filled with Tahitian singing, music (10 rhythmic drums and several ukele’s), and of course dancing.  The Tahitian tamure dance is probably the most seductive dance of the Pacific with both men and women dancers dressed in the beautiful Tahitian traditional costumes, including the white bleached palm grass costumes as described by Melville in “Typee”.

Bora Bora

Ahhhh, Bora Bora is what honeymooner’s dream of and undoubtedly has the world’s most beautiful lagoon – we even circumnavigated this island via bicycles with Don and Paulie (StormHaven) – a fantastic leisurely 6 hour ride along the coast.  It is also the kick off point for cruisers sailing to the Cook Islands.

When we finally arrived at Bora Bora, we hooked up to our first mooring ball since we left Mexico; lucky for us it was a free mooring at world reknowned “Bloody Mary” restaurant but you also had to pay a pretty price for dinner – a lobster ala carte dinner started at 80 U.S. bucks - ouch!

The next day we decided to leave this anchorage to nab a free mooring located at a nearby bay in order to avoid another exorbitantly expensive meal at Bloody Mary’s.  For sure our guardian angel was watching over us.  Below are the series of steps that we needed to accomplish just for a free mooring:

(1)    Motored in our dinghy across a rainy, choppy bay to see if there was a free mooring available;

(2)    Grabbed a free mooring, hooked up to a mooring ball with our dinghy to reserve it for Lardo, and managed to beat out another boat eyeing that same free mooring;

(3)    Flagged a ride from our dingy to shore with a local Polynesian teenager along with his mother in his fishing skiff;

(4)    Once ashore, stuck out our thumbs to grab another ride from a local Polynesian to Bloody Mary’s restaurant;

(5)    For our final hitch-hiking experience, we jumped into a French man’s dinghy to first help him get his large catamaran (wedged by the wind to the dock) off the Bloody Mary’s dock and then we took his dinghy with his young 11 year old daughter to Lardo moored nearby;

(6)    Thanked the young girl as she proceeded all by herself to take her dinghy back to her father’s boat; and, finally

(7)    Drove Lardo to successfully nab the mooring across the bay.

All in a day’s life of a cruiser!

Wrap Up

It’s time for these illegal aliens to get out of dodge as our 90 day visas have expired and if caught by customs, we’ll be very politely booted out of French Polynesia.  We’ll miss hearing the trademark Polynesian drums that we have heard frequently from our boat throughout all of French Polynesia. 

This ends our chapter on French Polynesia but I have one last comment about Raiatea - Dennis was quite impressed with the female boat cleaning service – they come aboard, strip off their clothes to bare essentials, i.e., topless and thong bikini bottoms, and promptly go to work. 

We are off to the Cook, Samoan and Tonga Islands.  After 8+ months in foreign speaking countries, it will be nice to hear English in the Cooks and Samoan Islands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   And hopefully we’ll have access to a real laundromat which I haven’t seen since Mexico – can you imagine – 4+ months of handwashing!  Will update again once we land on an island with internet!