Livin’ in Paradise, It’s a Three

So, how many tropical sunsets do you have to see before you get jaded? How many amazing fish in clear, crystal blue water do you have to see before it all looks the same? The answer, thankfully, is way more than I have. But it is impossible not to become overwhelmed with the beauty and perfection of it all. Our lives are a little too perfect, the weather is too beautiful, the sky is surrendering way too many perfect sunsets and the snorkeling is way too fun. So when it is all too much for words but we can still find the energy to complain, we have a saying, it goes something like this: “Well, yea, I see your point. As far as tropical paradises go it’s about a three.” And that pretty much sums it all up right there. But we rarely dip below a three.

It has been an amazing journey through the windward islands of French Polynesia. From Moorea to Huahine, Raiatea, Taha’a and finally to Bora Bora. It is hard to believe that we have been in French Polynesia for three months now. There are rainbows all the time here. For the rest of my life I will remember this place with verdant green and warm air when I see a rainbow. Brett has become obsessed with underwater photography and is swimming every day. He is getting very good at taking underwater photos which is a real skill when you are tracking a small, moving target in current while holding your breath. Thank goodness for digital film! Being as I cook three meals a day I have gotten pretty quick in the kitchen and can now whip a meal together in no time. And of course, we are both reading like fiends when we are not fixing the boat.

We have had the opportunity to spend our time with some of the locals but the best part has been meeting the other cruisers. They are some of the most amazing people. These people are smart, adventurous, skilled and like to have a good time. Some have children with them and some have already sent their kids to college. Some of them are conservative while others are aging hippies that have escaped from the grid and are out here for the longest party of their lives. It is the cruisers that have mad this experience so unique and special as I have met a ton of people that I respect and admire, people I can really imagine staying in touch with. Of course not everyone is going to be your best friend but 99.9999999% of the people out here are really nice people. More or less, that is. I would have to find out the number of cruisers out here and then I would only have to divide that number by 100 and subtract one person from this figure (does that make sense?) Bottom line: there is only one person who should not be out here and we have named him the Remora.

Remora n. A parasitic fish that swims with or attaches itself to the underside of a turtles, sharks, stingrays or other large fish. The Remora feeds on the scraps of meat dropped by the larger fish.

This unfortunate individual has now offended everyone in the fleet. They have offered help that resulted in being screamed at, they have talked down to everyone they have come across and they have made people feel bad and been a general pain in the butt to anyone who had the misfortune of coming into contact with him. The worst of it is that he then attaches himself to a person and basically invites himself along for whatever event you have been planning and then spreads his negativity all around. This is very uncomfortable since most of the cruisers are genuinely nice people and when someone wants to “tag along,” the stock answer is yes. But when I was talking to Rene on Scarlet O’Hara and I told her how everyone was sooooo nice and I had not met a group of more supportive and warm friendly people, with only one exception, she gave up the name of said person in about two seconds flat with no prodding. Wow, I had no idea that the influence of the Remora had spread so far. But he has been everywhere and there is rapidly no where else for him to go. He has gone through every click in the fleet and alienated them one at a time. We hear him on the radio calling out to boats that do not respond to his hail and then answer someone else’s in five minutes. Maybe they did not hear him? Why can’t anyone receive his signal? Why is it they respond to other people? Or maybe they hear him just fine.

When this sad display of nautical loneliness gets bad he hails three boats in a row and no one responds. Then he responds to a boat that is not even in the same island group and that no one, me included, heard hail him and he picks a channel but when you go to that channel there is no conversation, I guess Boomerang wasn’t hailing him after all, what a shock. And in my more tender moments I can relate to this desperate attempt at not appearing like such a looser. I feel bad for him and I want everyone to just get along. I think maybe I can forgive him for the times that he slighted me, maybe I can be nice to him and show some compassion for my fellow man, my brother, lost though he may be.

Then I remember how he was such a prick to me when I was trying to dock at the quay in Papeete, Tahiti. I remember him offering to help us with the lines, even though we did not ask for help. After I had jumped from the boat with the bow lines in my hand and the Remora on the stern line he took a disliking to the way that Brett was pulling in and decided to tie the line he was holding in his hand where it lay and walk away leaving me to pull in a forty-six foot, fifteen ton Fearless on my own. Which I did. The jerk. He has been trailing us since Tahiti and we can hear his desperate calls on the radio all the time, I can only hope that he picks another rout.

There are a bunch of directions that the fleet could take right now. Most people are going South-West to Raritonga or North West to Suverov though some are going West-South-West to Palmerston and then on to Niue or North-West to Penrhyn. Of course there is one conversation on everyone’s mind and that is: Where is the wind blowing? We would really like to set ourselves up for a comfortable ride. Most of the people we talk to have an idea of where they are headed but we really want to see where the wind blows us so we may not know where we are going until we get out there. Personally I want to go to Suverov, an island that I have heard some great stories about.

Going through the islands fast now since this has gotten long already. (I really want to write more often but the days seem to slip away!) Huahine was great! We had great snorkeling there and when we went into town we ran into our friends from Willow and Bohdran, they are the ones who like to play instruments wherever they go and this was no exception. There was supposed to be a music festival (which we ended up being unable to find) so they all got their instruments out and jammed with the locals. I sat and talked to some of these guys and after a while one of them called over his girlfriend and got her to go and get me a lei and a crown. The photo in the book is a great example of local wear: love the Heinekin hat! We spent a week in Huahine, going into town and snorkeling almost every day. The snorkeling in Moorea was better for the variety of fish but there was a spot on the South-West tip of Huahine on the inside of the atoll where the waves where breaking about a mile from the island. It was a breathtaking spot that got its uniqueness from the rock formations under the water and the coral that was covered in anemones (they are not good for coral but are pretty in their own way). It was three feet forever and we had the current from a big storm pushing up and around the coral mounds, the coral made little eddies and rivers that ran through the coral field and we had to swim with all our might to avoid the rocks that were covered in the sharp anemone clusters. It was like going on a roller coaster with the current whipping you along. Since there is no sand to get kicked up with the surf it is still really clear despite the current. I could see all the little fish in technicolor without having to dive down since it was all right there. It was a memorable snorkel.

We left Huahine and went to Raiatea, where we spent the night anchored in a river outlet and took a dinghy ride up the river. The water was brackish so there was no snorkeling available but we enjoyed the dinghy tour, it was a three. And then it was finally time to pick up my friend from LA, Cyndi. She was coming to visit and bringing tons of goodies from the USA, like our new drive motor, vacuseal bags, herbal tea and miracle cloths from West Marine. Way to go Cyndi for huffin’ all that stuff out here, great guest!!! We wanted to be close to the airport so we got into this quay that was in the center of town. The water was pushing us into the dock with each wave, slapping on the length of the hull. It was noisy and uncomfortable so we only spent the one day there. I could not sleep at all and was up and down all night looking at the lines and feeling like I was trapped in a washing machine on agitate. But with the wind the way it was it would be a trick to get off the dock and we were sandwiched in there like sardines. In the morning when I went to get a taxi to go to the airport I found out that there were no taxis on Sunday so I tried to hitchhike to the airport. It was impossible. No one would stop to pick me up! Thankfully it was only a mile walk so I made it just in time to totally freak Cyndi out who arrived at the airport to find no one waiting for her! Of course there were taxis at the airport, two of them drove away and left us standing there. So it became a competency test just to get a ride back to the dock, which after a long time and some help from one of the baggage handlers happened.

Once Cyndi got settled in we started trying to kill the Grey Goose as quickly as possible, it took us three days. Cyndi really wanted to snorkel while she was here so we moved as soon as possible to a better location and got in the water. It was not the best snorkeling I had seen (it was a three) but the rock formations where really interesting with a dramatic shelf that dropped down below you. We then went up to a motu on the West side of Taha’a to a place called the coral gardens. The two motus formed a shallow river in the ocean where the current was always flowing into the island. There was soft and hard coral everywhere with fast streams of water gushing through. It was possible to glide along on the current at a really steady clip or swim into a back eddy to watch a fish trundle through the water to stay in the same location. There were so many amazing creatures it was hard to take it all in, we both saw three new kinds of fish, which for us is a lot. When we came up from our swim we could see Bora Bora in the background. Magnificent.

We decided to have Cyndi depart from Bora Bora and we went there to celebrate a birthday with Linda from Don Pedro. It was the 4th of July so there was a party at the Bora Bora Yacht club that was to include barbeque for the festivities. They had the most beautiful puppies there and the barbeque was delicious, no fireworks but hey, I am in Bora Bora, right? Sometimes I have to pinch myself. So the night was fun and we were calling it done when we attempted to wash our feet off before getting in the dinghy. It was a dumb idea, really (mine). But as Cyndi was trying to rinse her feet in the salt water and I was holding her and the dinghy steady she was leaning against the peer and while the peer was pushing away and we were…. well needless to say there was a splashdown and no one really knows why. The folks from the yacht club came out with flashlights and tons of concern and Brett looks at them and says dryly, “Don’t worry, this happens all the time.” Cyndi and I are about to drown at this point, not because we can’t swim but because we are laughing so hard.

And then it is time for Cyndi to go, just like that! It seems to have gone by so fast and we are making plans for after we drop her off at the airport shuttle. So sad to see her go. but life moves on and we are ready to explore the backside of Bora Bora. We loop around the backside of the island, there is shallow coral everywhere and the bottom undulates with soft sand shoals. We follow in the path of Little Wing and they scout it out. The first part of the channel is marked but after that we sail with girls on the bow, looking for coral and shallow water while the boys steer. It was a little hair raising, Fearless had less than two inches under her keel at one point and the water was so clear it was hard to tell how deep it really was. In the end we made it to the bay on the other side of Bora Bora and we were rewarded with clear, flat water and some seclusion from the restaurants and bars on the other side. Little Wing got out their sailing dinghy, Poppitt, and soon everyone wanted to give it a spin. As these things often will it disintegrated into a race with a stop watch, cheesy prizes and the whole nine yards. On the first day with Poppitt I capsized the dinghy, sailing is a lot harder in this little thing than on Fearless!

When we did the trials I did well, completing the course without tipping the boat, but I got caught up in one of the tacks that put me into irons while on the course so my time was not very good. It was so much fun to get out there and sail in the little dinghy and feeling the response of the sails gave me an appreciation for what is going on on a larger level when we sail Fearless. We tried to see how many people could fit in her and sail at the same time and the answer is that on a seven foot sailing dingy you can only fit six people, for while we got seven into Poppitt we had to have two people bailing full time and when we tried to turn she capsized.

Now we sit in Bora Bora, our boat is provisioned, inspected, fixed where she needed to be and ready to go offshore. We do not know where the wind will blow us but I know that it will be fun. We may be looking at a downwind sail and if this is the case we have always thought of this as our worst point of sail but we have been talking to lots of sailors out here and I am beginning to think that it might not be impossible to make Fearless go downwind. It is hard to believe that we have been in French Polynesia for three months. Most of these places I probably could not have located on a map before coming here but now I have intimate memories of islands and people, places I will never forget and names I will never be able to pronounce. The next island we go to may be ruled by New Zealand or America so the culture will be slightly different, the prices will be better and maybe, just maybe, I can find some dark beer.