JUNE 2000 Thursday June 1st – Sunday June 4th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 34 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 37 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- TAHITI Up until Friday the bad weather system was hanging over Tahiti and Moorea. Everyone was afraid to leave their boats for fear of strong winds. There was a lot of chatting going on the radio since everyone was trapped inside. David was feeling better but I was still very sick so we couldn’t have done much anyway.  We watched a lot of movies, read a lot of books, slept and watched the anchors and the weather.  By Friday afternoon it looked like it had finally cleared and everyone began heading to the dinghy dock. We went into Papeete via the La Truck. We had a nice lunch and then walked around and looked at things in the market and did a little shopping. We had to find a pharmacy for me for more cough medicine. I actually went through my Costco sized bottle of cough syrup and drops! It was little hard to find something suitable in French; it took several tries at several different stores.  Later in the afternoon we met up with our friend Ed on his boat at the quay.  We went with him to the nearby parking lot that had about 50 mobile restaurants serving food of every nationality. It was hard to pick from the French crepes, Chinese, Moroccan, and Italian trucks. What a combination of smells. We met up the “flyers” and the "Shiriri’s" at the food trucks. It was the little flyer girl’s birthday, so we met up with them for some birthday cake and celebration in the park.  Saturday morning we were awaken by the sounds of speed boats going by, turns out there was a big Tahitian traditional canoe race going on. First the pack of 20 some canoes of female racers went by then the huge pack of 30 some canoes of male racers went by, each canoe had 4 to 6 paddlers in them. What a site that was. By Saturday afternoon the weather had finally taken a turn for the better and we were able to get out to the reef for some snorkeling. This was by far the best snorkeling we have seen so far. The water was so clear and only about 10 feet deep with a whole underwater city of coral. We spent the next few hours snorkeling from coral village to coral village.  I was able to spot yet more fish I had never seen before. There was a spectacular cow fish that was purple with yellow Pokka dots. There were bright orange fish with neon blue around their eyes and blue tails, and lots of little blue fish that hung out inside the cracks of the coral. There were so many kinds of coral. I saw table corals, brain corals and tabular corals. Some were bright pink and others were blue, yellow and green.  Sunday morning we went over to the near by hotel to treat ourselves to Sunday brunch, but we got there just as it was ending so we had what they called the American continental breakfast which consist of a plate of fruit with a plate of various pastries. I wonder why they thought that was American. Once back to the boat we did some cleaning chores and then spent the afternoon snorkeling. David found a beautiful shell and decided to keep it. At the time it looked like nobody was home, but once back to the boat we discovered that there is a big crab inside, David says he’s not giving up the shell, and some how I suspect the crab doesn’t want to either. I guess we will see who wins. Somehow I think it won’t be the crab. We are trying to figure a way of getting him out with out killing him.  Finished off the day watching the sunset over Morrea. Sunday June 4th- Thursday June 8th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 34 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 37 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- TAHITI We had noticed that somewhere along the trip our davit sheered off at the bottom where it is connected to boat. This is not good, for this is what holds the dinghy while we are traveling. So we took the whole thing off and headed into Papeete with the large piece of metal and the plate to have them welded back to together at the shipyard. We stopped by to see Ed, who also had some welding to be done on a hatch. David and Ed headed off to the shipyard via Ed’s dinghy and I stayed in town to do some window-shopping and hopefully make some purchases. I mostly wanted to buy fabric and I was in luck. Just like in Seattle where there is a coffee shop on every corner, in Papeete there is a fabric store on every corner.  I spent the day going from shop to shop buying beautiful Tahitian print fabric. The funny thing is that they don’t sell any patterns, so I just bought 3 meters of everything I liked and hope it will be enough for whatever I decide to make.  After seeing enough shops I went back to the boat to meet David and Ed. They didn’t have much luck. They guy at the welding shop wouldn’t even talk to them today, he told them to come back tomorrow at noon and then he would talk to them. They could leave their parts though, so at least we didn’t have to lug that thing around anymore.  Well it looked like a storm was coming in so David and I caught the next “La Truck” back to our anchorage.  When we got there it only sprinkled a little bit and then it was fine again.  We turned in early so we could get up and do some chores before we headed into town again. David decided that we would be leaving in a few days so lets change the oil. I hate that! It’s always so messy, and it proved to be so this time. There was a leak in the sack and we had oil all over the deck of the boat. So we had a fun time cleaning that up before we went. Back in town Ed, Locky and David all head to the shipyard while I’m left to wander the streets again.  I went through the market again and then looked at more stores. Not much to buy today. I did decide to try the Tahitian version of the Mac Donald’s for lunch today. Once inside it was just like being in the Mac Donald’s anywhere in the U.S.A. except for the menu was French, but a Big Mac was still called a Big Mac, and they had Macflurries. What a riot. The place was absolutely packed. It was little more expensive then in the U.S.  But not bad, still a bargain. Everything tasted exactly the same too.  Except for the Tahitian carving on the post outside, you would have thought you were in the United States.  I went back to the Ed’s boat to find Locky and the dinghy, but no Ed and David. I inquired as to their where abouts only to find out that they were off to buy two cases of coke. Apparently the guy doing the welding wanted to be paid in coke cola! So that was weird. So they soon came back with two cases of coke to load in the dinghy and then took off across the harbor to deliver their goods. Finally they came back with all the welding done.  Then we hung out so we could go eat at the trucks again. We found a great Chinese truck and had the best chowmein I’ve ever had! Even though we were stuffed I decided that I had to a French crepe. We found the truck with the little chefs in their white coats that looked very official.  I had a crepe with bananas, apricots and rum! It was to die for…. Yummy!  Wednesday we decided to hang out at the boat, so I worked on some laundry while David worked on outside projects, then Ann came over for a visit and we decided to go snorkeling.  It was very rough in the snorkeling area and hard to swim against the swell so it was a short snorkeling adventure, but we did see a very agitated moiré eel!  We finally were able to end a day in the cockpit drinking pinacolada’s watching the sunset over Moorea. Now this is what I had pictured! Thursday we had big plans to get up early and head into the airport to rent a car and then tour the island.  We were in our dinghy ready to go, and actually started to head towards shore when a huge French sailboat almost ran over us in our dinghy.  Then they proceeded to anchor right on top of us.  By the time we got to shore we were very worried about how close they were to us.  We decided to cancel our trip, go get some groceries and then go back and move our boat. When we got back to the boat this guy was less then 10 feet from us and if a huge blow came through and we weren’t here, hard to tell, but that guy probably would have hit us. Friday June 9th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 34 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 37 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- TAHITI Friday we were up early to head into town with Ann. We had tried to check out of Tahiti yesterday, but forgot our passports, so since Monday was a holiday we had to get it done on Friday morning. Once again it was a trip to immigration, then customs and then harbormaster to get totally checked out of Papeete. Wow, talk about red tape and a paper trail. Now we can get to the airport and get that rent-a-car! We rented the funniest little Ford I’ve ever seen. It almost looked like a Volkswagen beetle and was bright purple! What a sight we were driving around in that. It was very strange to be sitting in a car again. It seemed like we were moving sooooo fast! Ann brought her guidebook of Tahiti and guided us around the island from the back seat. We made many stops along the way to get beautiful pictures of the island volcanic mountains; they were so beautiful and covered with lush green coconut palms and hybyscias plants of every size and color.  We stopped at Point Venus to see the lighthouse close up. I met up with a Tahitian man covered with tattoos. He was jabbering at me in French. I shrugged my shoulders and told him I couldn’t speak French and then he started a mile a minute in English. Turns out he was the local tattoo artist and has spent many weeks in San Francisco tattooing people there. He was an interesting guy. Ann had about a 15-minute conversation with him in French. It was fun to watch them converse. If we had more time I would have asked him for a tattoo. I’m still determined to get one.  Next on the big tour was a spot where there were 3 big beautiful waterfalls. We didn’t have time to hike to all of them, but made it to one. It would be comparable to the big ones in Washington in Oregon. I hiked down into the brush to get a good picture and ended up attracting some kind of small spiders that were plaguing me the rest of the day!  We drove around the rest of the island just enjoying the beautiful coastline and mountain vistas. I did manage to get them to stop once in while so I could add some photos to my architectural journal. Seems like the most interesting architecture is churches, isn’t that the way it usually is. We made many roadside stops to enjoy the scenery until we came to the Paul Gauguin museum. We did stop and tour the museum, while they didn’t have any of his original paintings they did have some of his pottery, and woodcut prints and reproductions of his paintings. They had a complete history of his life and thoughts as he traveled the world and Tahiti. It was very interesting that he was always looking for the unspoiled savage native place and every time he would find it, the white man would bring “civilization” there and in his eye ruin it. He eventually ended up on the Marquises islands where he died at the age of 50. It was a very interesting exhibit. Soon after we left the museum we found a roadside botanical garden to stop and admire. There were so many beautiful plants and flowers to walk about and sit amongst. Yet another beautiful waterfall in the midst of this beauty. Well, the day was getting late and we did want to finish our tour before it got dark. When we neared the marina where we left our dinghy David decided to treat Ann and I to a drink at the fancy Beach Comber Hotel. What a great way to end a fun day of discovery. Saturday June 10th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 34 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 37 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- TAHITI We were up early again today, for we wanted to get a major provisioning done at the big grocery store while we still had the car. This way we wouldn’t have to carry all the groceries several blocks back to the dinghy dock.  We were there before the place opened up so we had some croissants and coffee and the local café.  I went to get a grocery cart only to discover that they were all locked up together. The only way to release a cart was to place a dollar coin in the lock to release it! Wow, now that’s a new one, I’ve never had to pay for a grocery cart before.  We managed to fill the cart with all the heavy stuff we could mange to find and scurried back to the dinghy. We had to have the car back by 9:30 am. We could pull the car right up to the dinghy dock and fill up the dinghy with our goods, get them back to the boat and then get us back to the dinghy dock and back in the car and to the airport. We made it with one minute to spare. Whew! What a busy morning. We needed to do the major provisioning here, for this is the last place to get most things until we get to America Soma or Fiji. We hopped a “La Truck” that was going in the direction of the Tahiti Museum, we weren’t really planning on going there today, but decided that since we were on the right bus, why not. We still had to walk a ways to the museum from where the bus let us off, but it was worth the walk. The museum was excellent. They started out with a geologic history of the islands and rock samples to boot. Everything from igneous basalt’s to calcareous sedimentary with a few corals at the end.  This made me very happy! They also had some wonderful relief maps of the all the French Polynesian Islands. That made me very happy too. There were exhibits on all kinds of traditional tools, canoes, clothing, furniture and tiki’s.  Then there was room totally dedicated to the invasion of the white man and the changes that took place after that. Boy, it was pretty sad, but inevitable I guess. I made my way through there fairly quick while David lingered. I was exploring the outside when I heard all kinds of music and drumming going on. Turns out they were having a Polynesian dance festival there today and there were hundreds of girls from age 4 to 40 in various traditional costumes performing the traditional dances of Polynesia. Boy did we luck out! We were able to snag a front row seat in the grass and hear some wonderful music and songs along with some fantastic dancing. The costumes of grass skirts, palm leaves and other various materials were so beautiful and the majority of the girls had long dark hair down to their hips. They even let a few white girls join in, who stood out of course with their white skin and blond hair, buy hey, some of them could have been born in French Polynesia and had just as much right to be there I guess. After a couple of hours of this we decided to finish touring the museum, there was still a tattoo exhibit to be discovered! When we left the two security guards at the front door were serenading everyone with their ukuleles. What a day we are having! Now this is what I came to Tahiti for! On our way back to our boat we saw Wile Coyote (JIM) visiting someone. I said “I wonder who that is?” Upon closer inspection it turned out to “PHANTOM” the other boat from Seattle that left 3 days before us from Shilsholle Bay. We hadn’t seen them since Crescent City, California. What a surprise. So we stopped by for a visit and shared many interesting stories. They are the family that is currently on the goals web page (the one we will be one someday) while we were there Wile Coyote Jim pierced their sons Austin’s ear! Right there! With a big needle and potato! Never a dull moment around here.  Later on at our boat Mr. Shiriri came by to deliver a loaf of bread that Ann had baked for us as a thank you for the trip yesterday! Yippee, fresh homemade sourdough bread. That will be good in the morning. What a day we had today. These are the kinds of the days that make all the hard times worth while. Sunday June 11th – Wednesday June 14th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA Sunday we still had some shopping we wanted to do, but it was raining when we woke up and continued to rain all day long, so we were trapped on the boat. We just hung out watched a couple of movies and read. Monday we thought we could get the shopping finished up and head into town, but Ann came by and informed us that is was a holiday and that all the stores were closed. We certainly are having a hard time leaving Meave Beech and Tahiti. So we worked on many boat chores today and then in the late afternoon went over to visit Iron Butterfly. They showed us lots of pictures of where they have traveled and all the neat places to explore. Tuesday we finally headed into Papeete to see if we could find the last few things on our list. We also visited the New Zealand consulate to find out the procedures for going to New Zealand with a cat. They also gave us a list of all the stuff we cant take into new Zealand, so we better start eating up all the stuff we brought. We can’t even take in spices and herbs! We made it back by mid afternoon with everything we needed to go. We prepared the boat for departure. Wednesday morning we were up early and bought up one of the anchors and then the other and were off to the fuel dock. When we got there one of those big 150 foot mega yachts was there fueling up. Since there was only one diesel hose we were going to have to wait until he was done. We set to work and filling up with water and gas for the dinghy. The mega yacht finally decided he had enough fuel when he hit 2000 liters! We fueled up and then headed out the Taapuna Pass at 10:00 am into the ocean again.  This time we are headed to the island of Moorea only about 30 miles from Tahiti so not a major trip. We went into the pass of Cooks Bay on Moorea at 1:00 pm and immediately spotted our friend Ed’s red boat. We motored over by him to see what was up. The anchorage was 55 to 70 feet deep and it was blowing like crazy in there. David was afraid it would be hard to set an anchor under those conditions so we headed to the other big bay just two and half miles northwest of there. We entered into Opunoho bay and went far in to take a look around. There is an anchorage called bay of pigs that is suppose to be protected from these winds but it was blowing like crazy there too, so we head out to and anchorage by the reef, which is where most of the sailboats were anchored. It was very nice there. The water was only 22 feet deep and it was hardly blowing at all. We figured the wind must funnel through the high volcanic mountains and out the bays causing the big wind. So we are very happy with our anchorage. Moorea is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen to date. There are two very high volcanic peaks on the islands and from the erosion the rest of the mountain is very jagged dark volcanic basalt. The majority of the island is covered with lush green coconut palms and pineapple plants. The area where we are anchored is so clear that you can see the bottom so David snorkeled out to our anchor to see how it was set. Everything looks ok I guess. We decided to do some exploring in the dinghy so we set off inside the reef winding our way through the coral heads. We could see fish swimming around from inside the dinghy. We went over to what we thought was new hotel, boy is it new, it was still under construction and they had rows of thatched roofed bungalows strung out over the coral awaiting the first guest. We are very close to a Canadian boat we met in Meave beach called Sawleeah; we stopped by there for a visit. On the way back to our boat we saw a bat ray gently floating under our boat. It was just a little one, about 3 feet wide and two feet long with a long black tail, and black with brown Pokka dots. What a site it was to watch it gracefully swim through the water. We ended the day watching the full moon rise over the mountain. The water is so clear that we could still see the sand bottom under the light of the full moon. David wanted to go in snorkeling, but I wanted to explore in daylight first. Thursday June 15th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA Today I awoke to a big splash and some water droplets coming in the bedroom hatch landing on me. When I came to I noticed that David was gone, I went outside to see him swimming off towards shore. So I quickly put on my suit, grabbed my mask and soon I was swimming towards shore too. It was a nice 200-yard swim to shore through a little patch of coral, but the rest was beautiful white sand bottom with crystal turquoise and jade water. We did a little exploring on shore and then swam back to the boat. When I got close to the boat I saw two spotted bat rays sitting on the sand bottom in shadow of our boat. They were very similar to the one we saw yesterday.  This has been the first time we have seen rays since we got to the south pacific.  They sure are fun to watch swim.  After breakfast we decided that we might try the dinghy channel over to the other bay to see our friend Ed. We made it about half way when we decided to turn around. It was too difficult to weave in and out of all the coral heads. On the way back we saw two more bat rays, this must be bat ray sanctuary. So we went back to the boat, got our dinghy anchor and headed out into the reef for some snorkeling.  Once again I saw even more new fish that I had not seen before. The most striking was a bright yellow trumpet fish. We stopped for a while to watch him swim.  David found another beautiful shell, but there was somebody home so I made him throw it back. I told him we were not going to kill another crab!  We spent several hours exploring the reef and decided to come back at 11:30 so we wouldn’t get too baked.  We saw the folks from Sawleeah out snorkeling too, while we were watching them from our boat we saw very large ship heading towards Moorea, we thought it might be the ferry, then it came over to the pass by the bay we were in, how weird we thought. And sure enough it came in through the pass and turned out to be a giant cruse ship. How odd it looked against the quiet serenity of the sailboats. All of the sudden it just dropped its anchor in the channel. It didn’t even go in the bay. How weird. We could see all the people standing on deck looking out at us. What a clash of worlds. It soon lowered one of its boat pods to take people ashore. It looked like a space ship being lowered into the water.  The even weirder thing was that this particular cruse ship was called the Paul Gauguin, I think the real Paul Gauguin would have been rolling in his grave if he saw this huge thing with his name on it. Well, enough of that. David wanted to bake some bread today. So below he went while I just relaxed.  After David’s bread was safely out of the oven he took off in the dingy looking for some place for us to go ashore.  When he got back we had the folks form Sawleeah over for a few drinks and snacks as the sun began to set. To our amazement we saw another giant cruse ship coming out of Cooks Bay! Wow must be cruse ship day at Moorea.  There was lots of activity over by the cruse ship; a big sailboat that does dinner cruses stopped by to drop off people in the space pod to be delivered back the cruse ship. We saw the pod go to shore several times and pick people up and take them back to the boat.  As the vial of darkness settled over the mountains of Moorea the lights of the cruse ship came on. Good grief, they probably use more electricity in one night then we will use on our entire cruse. It looked like a floating building from downtown Seattle. Between the light of the full moon and the lights of the cruse ship the anchorage was pretty well lit tonight. Friday June 16th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA This morning I took a walk on the deck of the boat and saw more spotted rays swimming around the boat.  Then I did some laundry in the sink while David worked on our starter problem.  We later packed into the dinghy and headed to the other side of the channel towards the Beach Comber Hotel through the marked channel. As we headed over there, lots of big tour boats came speeding by, getting us wet in their wakes. We finally made it to the Beach Comber with all its little bungalows strung out over the coral.  We had a nice look around and then headed back to the boat. We were hoping to find out what was going on here on Moorea, but sounds like a “la truck” only comes around when hotel guest need to get to the ferry.  We got back to the boat and were eating lunch when Locky stopped by. He and his friend Lewis were heading out snorkeling and wanted to know where to go. While they were sitting in their dinghy, 4 bat rays swam under their boat.  Apparently Ed had moved over to the other bay this morning while we were gone and was leaving for another island tonight. So we pointed Locky in the direction of some good snorkeling and went below to finish our lunch. All of the sudden it started to rain like crazy. We ran around closing hatches and then went outside. It was too late to rescue the laundry so we started scrubbing the deck of the boat. It’s always nice to get a fresh water rinse, including us. After the rainstorm we thought we better go see Ed, we weren’t sure when we would run into him again. We hopped back into the dinghy and proceeded into the bay. We finally saw his boat, at the very furthest end of the bay. So it ended up being about ½ hour dinghy ride to get to him. We had a nice visit and then another big storm was heading over the bay so we thought we had better leave. On the way back to our boat we went in close by shore so I could get a close look at the local architecture. There were certainly some beautiful little island houses and some tin shacks mixed in here and there. I would have gladly taken any of them to live in this beautiful paradise. As we neared our boat we noticed the Sawleeah folks were on a new boat in the anchorage called REBA, from San Francisco. They waved to us to come over; it was a beautiful 48-foot catch with all teak decks. They offered us a few drinks and snacks and a few good stories. The wind was picking up pretty good so we decided to get back, I still had laundry hanging out and I didn’t want to loose all my clothes again. As the sunset we watched our friend Ed go out of the pass under the full moon and hopefully some wind. Saturday June 17th, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA We were out and about early today for we wanted to go scooter riding, but when we started assessing the weather it didn’t look like the best day. So we opted to take a dinghy ride over to the other side of the bay and check out the little grocery store. As we approached it began to rain so we scurried in. It had a lot of things like potatoes and eggs that we had forgotten to get in Papeete. As we waited for the downpour to end a fellow rode up on a scooter and went in the store and came out and produced 2 beers and asked if I wanted one. I looked at my watch and it was only 8:30 am, so I politely said sorry I haven’t had my breakfast yet. He kindly smiled at me and I noticed he was missing his two front teeth. The rain let up and we ran to the dinghy and made our way back to the boat.  After a breakfast of fresh baguettes, cheese and coffee we decided to go for a walk on land. We found a secure place to tie up the dinghy and started walking towards Cook’s Bay.  We weren’t sure how far we going to walk but it just felt good to stretch the legs. After about an hour we were in Cook’s Bay and decided that we would walk around to the other side of the bay where the hotels and restaurants were, by now were hungry and thirsty. It ended up being a long windy road and another hour of walking, but it was worth it for we found and good Chinese restaurant right on the water. We ordered up a Tahitian beer that really hit the spot and then just enjoyed the scenery while we waited for our food. The view from our window seat looked across the bay at the tall spires of black basalt, with gray clouds looming over. The hillsides are covered with coconut palms, pineapple plants and vanilla trees. It’s hard to believe we are sitting here in such a beautiful place on a peaceful Saturday afternoon.  Well after our wonderful lunch it was time to walk back, according to the road markers we had walked around 5K to get there. So we had a long walk ahead of us. By the time we got back to the dinghy it was raining hard and it felt like we had walked 2k too far! We went back to the boat to rest and clean up. We noticed that folks on Sawleeah were out in their dinghy looking around their boat when we heard them Say they had lost one of their anchors, so David dawned his mask and fins and went to help them retrieve it.  Good luck, they found and recovered the anchor so they invited us over for a few drinks and snacks with the folks from REBA. While we were there the “Flyer” family arrived and anchored in our neighborhood. We had a fun night of sitting in the rain and exchanging stories.  When we got ready to go back to our boat we noticed that there were guys out snorkeling about with underwater flashlights catching something that they were throwing back into their little canoes. Jamie on REBA said that she had seen 2 foot lobster below their boat that day. Well that’s all David needed to hear. We were soon out in the dinghy with our underwater flashlight looking for lobsters. We have heard that the time to find them is during a full moon, which it now is. After about 45 minutes we were still empty handed, but David had a fun time snorkeling at night with me following him round in the dinghy. What a day of activity! Sunday June 18th -  Tuesday June 20, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA The last few days lots of other boats have arrived in the anchorage that we know, so we have been having fun snorkeling and visiting with all the other boats. Phantom arrived and then Shiriri. One night the flyers had us over for tea to meet some New Zealand folks that are on their way to Canada. I said isn’t it funny, we’ve been dreaming about sailing to your country and you’ve been dreaming about sailing to ours. Just goes to show you the grass is always greener on the other side. They gave us some very good information on New Zealand and wrote names and places of the best places to get boat work done.  The flyer girls came by one afternoon and we all watercolor painted together. A couple of budding young artist those two little girls are.  The weather has been great and the water so clear that everyday we see spotted bat rays swimming under our boat. We jump off the boat and just swim around looking at fish and coral. Every where is a good snorkeling spot. Today we went for another big hike with Ann, the Phantom family (Dale, Tina, Austin and Katlin) and a new person to us, Sandy off of Arahena. We walked to some archeological ruins and then continued on to an over look up the mountain further. Along the way we saw many banana trees and papaya trees that were just waiting to be picked. Once we got to the look out point it was absolutely spectacular. You could see both Cooks Bay and Opunohu Bay with the giant towering spire of basalt in-between. It was a beautiful site. We sat and ate our lunch there and admired the beautiful scenery. There was a mother chicken with her little gang of chicks that came by looking for crumbs. On the way down the boy’s couldn’t resist the free-range bananas and papayas along side the road, so they went for a giant size stalk of bananas. Once they got it off the tree they began sawing the bananas off the stalk with a handy rigging knife that Austin had brought with him. There was probably somewhere between 150 and 200 bananas on this stalk so we cut them up to fit into everyone’s packs. Everyone went home with at least 50 bananas. Boy when those things start to ripen we will be eating a lot of bananas. Austin picked a giant papaya (close to the size of a large cantaloupe) and then tired of carrying it, so we ended up with that too. That will be good when it ripens. After our long hike we were so hot that we immediately jumped in the water and went for a snorkel. First thing we saw was two more spotted bat rays.  We swam over by shore and I spotted a trigger fish that was bright orange and blue stripes. It was very unusual and had bright orange lips. It was the first time I had seen one of those. Not too much longer I spotted a huge sea anemone that looked like soft orange-pink coral. There was many orange clown fish swimming in and out of the tentacles of the sea anemone. It looked just like a picture off of the cover of my Jacque Cousteau book. After we watched that for awhile we swam back towards the boat when we spotted another sea anemone that was about twice the size of the previous one. This one had black clown fish swimming in it. This was the first time we had seen any of this wonderful sea life. That was enough excitement for one day so we went back to the boat to rest.  Ann, Tina and Austin swam by for a visit on their way out to snorkeling. Then we just enjoyed the beautiful sunset and called it a day. Wednesday, June 21, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA Today I decided to get my bike out of its crossing storage and get it back together! The weather looked iffy, but David thinks we will leave Moorea tomorrow and I wanted a chance to see more of the island. Right when I was ready to go the Shriris' came by in their big dinghy and offered to take me and bike ashore. Finally by 10am I’m on land and riding my bike. How happy I was. There is nothing I like more than riding my bike through a lovely countryside. First I thought I would ride towards Cooks Bay and explore some things over there. I found a very interesting pottery shop/garden/water garden. It used to be an aquarium, but they have filled up all the aquariums with black pearl jewelry and pottery. This guy had very interesting pots, he would make bottles and then turn them on their sides and make faces on them with the bottle opening being the person mouth. They were very interesting and many of them looked like people faces with plants growing out of the top imitating hair. Behind the pottery shop they had a huge garden that you could walk though. The potter had taken lots of pottery and made it into water garden features, with plants and water flowing though the pottery. What a site it was. I spent a good hour taking it all in.  In front of the shop he had all kinds of water wheels and fountains and catches going all over the place, I can only imagine that it took years to progress to its final state, if that is its final state.   I rode on a few more miles exploring hotels and shops, when I got to maker #5 I figured I should turn around if I was ever going to make the other side of the island. There was a Tiki village somewhere around marker 40 something. I had the hand held vhf with me so I could call David and let him know where I was. By 2:00pm I was back over on the other side of Opunohu Bay and had been rained on for the last 2 hours. Ick! But at least it’s warm tropical rain and not cold Seattle rain.   I called David and it had been raining there too so he was inside reading.  I decided to keep going even though i was getting tired of riding in the rain. I rounded the top part of Moorea and started down the west side, it seemed much nicer, the sun was out and it wasn’t raining but there was a terrible headwind. I just can’t get a break today. But I had a good time exploring all the shops by the fancy hotels and found a few galleries to wander in. I never did find the Tiki village, David wanted me to be back by 4:00 so at 2:30 I turned around at marker 40 and began the long trek back, just as I neared Opunohu Bay I spied the octagonal church everyone was talking about. So I took a slight detour of the path to go see it. It truly was an eight- sided very interesting piece of architecture, so I snapped a few shots of this building with a beautiful rainbow in the back ground because it was raining again. I sat and watched some kids playing baseball with a tennis ball. Boy did that ball fly when they hit it. And getting it back to the playing field was pretty funny; it usually had a couple of good bounces before it made it back to the infield. About 4:14 PM I finally arrived back at the little landing spot for David to come get me. I had ridden a totally of 68 kilometers, not bad after the long hike yesterday. I was one wet and tired girl, but I had a great day of exploring so it was all worth while. I got cleaned up, fixed dinner and went to bed very tired. Thursday, June 22, 2000 Latitude = 17 degrees, 29 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude = 149 degrees, 51 minutes West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- MOOREA This morning we started to ready the boat for departure. We made one last trip to the little grocery for our fresh baguettes and then stopped by to visit the folks on Arahina for a bit. They are actually from Idaho. Seems like everyone in this anchorage is from the Pacific Northwest. Just as we were getting back to our boat the “Flyers” were leaving on their way to Raiatea. That is where we are heading too, but will leave a little later. Its 100 miles to the pass on Raiatea and so we will sail all night and hopefully arrive around sunrise sometime.  We got the boat all ready to go, and had our anchor raised when “Phantom” came over and said that “Flyer” was trying to reach us on the radio. I went below to give them a call and see what’s up. Jodie said they were on their way back, that there was not a breath of wind and the seas were very sloppy and rough and they were all getting very seasick. Well that’s all we needed to hear so we reset the anchor and decided to wait for another day. Since we are all still in the anchorage and it is the Winter Equinox here in the South Pacific, we decided that we should have a big party on our boat tonight. We invited the “Flyer’s”, the “Phantom’s”, and the “Shiriri’s”. David cooked a ham that has been in our freezer since we left and everyone else brought plenty of tasty things to share. All the kids were so excited to see a ham. Most of them had been gone 1 to 2 years and hadn’t seen the likes of a ham in long time. We were glad to have them help us eat it. We had originally brought the ham for a gift for Daniel at Daniel’s Bay on Nuka Hiva.  He has fresh water for cruisers and in return you are suppose to bring him a gift. But we never went there to get water so we still had the ham. We had 9 adults and 4 kids crammed into the cockpit of our boat eating dinner and having a good time. We had quit the Pacific Northwest reunion for the “Flyer’s” are from Surrey, Canada, the “Shiriri’s” are from Vancouver Island and the “Phantom’s” are form Seattle. After dinner all the kids retired to the salon for some competitive backgammon.  Everyone seemed to have a good time; it was finally the little kids that reminded the adults that it was time to go home. Another fun day on the little island of Moorea. Friday, June 23rd - Saturday June 24th, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 38 minutes 5 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 30 minutes 9” West 123 nautical miles traveled FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- RAIATEA / TAHAA A very interesting fact about French Polynesia is that the French Government very heavily subsidizes most of the islands. And this was very apparent on Moorea. The roads were in much better condition and cleaner than those on Tahiti. When I was out riding my bike I actually saw road crews mowing and cleaning along the sides of the roads. Some of the items in the grocery store are subsidized as well, and one of the biggies is French baguettes. Everyday the long slender breads are delivered all over the island. Homes here have two boxes in front of their houses, one for mail and one long one for bread. The breadboxes are about 2-3 feet in length for the Baguettes are about 2 and half feet long. I took pictures of all the different styles of breadboxes I saw. Some looked like little houses with roofs on them. Some were just PVC tubes, and others were open baskets with corrugated metal arched over the top. Today we cleaned up after the big party last night, returned a few forgotten items then readied the boat for departure once again. The Flyer’s had left at 11:30 am, so we gave them a call on the radio to see what the wind was like. They said it was pretty good and they were going to keep going. They are now known as the wind testers. By 12:50 p.m. we were headed out of the pass of Opunohu Bay and on our way to Raiatea. The conditions were fantastic and in no time we were within 1 and half miles of the Flyer’s, so we decided that we better slow the boat down a bit, we didn’t want to be too close to them and we didn’t want to get to Raiatea before sunrise.  We had a very pleasant sail under a clear sky filled with stars and a half moon. I think it was the best day of sailing we have had on the trip so far. At 7:30 am we entered Teavapiti Pass by the island of Raiatea. The Flyer’s had entered just few minutes before us and we caught up to them quickly for a little chat. Neither of us knew where a good anchorage was going to be since the wind was blowing hard out of the north, all the anchorage’s we had been planning on were no good in this wind. The islands of Raiatea and Tahaa are both encapsulated by the same coral reef and you can sail from one island to the other without having to exit the coral reef.  The flyers headed around to the backside of Raiatea while we headed over to Tahaa to look for a safe anchorage in the deep bays on that island. We tried several bays on Tahaa but the anchorages were all 80 to 100 feet deep and the wind was still pretty strong. We finally ended up in a bay called Hurepiti on a mooring buoy owned by the Vanilla Tour Company. We were planning on taking their tour of the island and decided this would be a good spot to be since we were getting tired after being up most of the night. I called them up on the radio and they said it was fine to be on their buoy as long as we planned on taking the tour. I asked if we could take it on Sunday, but they are not open on Sunday, so it looks like we will be here until Monday when we take the tour. By 12:30 p.m. we finally landed and had a good nap! Sunday June 25th, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 38 minutes 5 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 30 minutes 9” West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- TAHAA Sunday was a very windy day and it made it hard to leave the boat even though we were on a mooring buoy, there were other boats that were anchored and that always makes us nervous. The wind was blowing hard out of the west, and our little bay opened right up to the west so we were taking it hard on the nose all day. There were even whitecaps in the bay.  So we spent the day on the boat working on chores. David worked on our house batteries and we tore apart the refrigeration pump to figure out why it wasn’t working anymore. It turns out it was clogged with seaweed from the anchorage in Moorea. So once we got it cleaned out and put back together things were working fine.  I spent the majority of the day working on digital photos and David watched a few movies and read. Later in the afternoon a large charter catamaran came in and took the buoy next to us. They had 6 people plus two crew. Their 6 people are taking the vanilla tour Monday also. The man from the vanilla tour came out to our boat to arrange our tour on Monday. Sounds like it should be very interesting.  Hope the weather is better tomorrow. Monday June 26th, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 38 minutes 5 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 30 minutes 9” West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- TAHAA The wind howled through the anchorage all night and into the morning. It made for a sleepless night but we decided that we would give the tour a try any way. We rowed our dinghy ashore at 7:45 am to get to the tour. A French man named Alain and his wife Cristina lived in a very simple home along the shore and run the tour. While we were waiting for the charter boat people to arrive we had a nice chat with Alain and his wife. They too had sailed through the South Pacific 17 years ago. She was from Italy and he was from France and they sailed through the Panama Canal, through the South Pacific and to New Zealand. They decided that they like Tahaa and would come here to live and raise their family. They cleared the land and built their home in the traditional Polynesian style. He shared with us the architecture of his home that he designed himself. The first building they built was about 300 square feet and was made from coconut palm trees, bamboo and fiberglass for the windows. The posts for the building were made of the coconut trees and then they wove bamboo for the walls that come half way up the sides. The roof was made of woven coconut leaves and tied to the rafters with string made from tree bark. The roof has to be replaced every 4 years or so. They had windows (made of fiberglass) that were on hinges at the top and folded down in bad weather or were flapped up in good weather to let the gentle breeze in. This first building is now their bedroom. Their property had a series of 4 buildings that were interconnected by walkways. The building where they sat us down was like the kitchen, dinning room and living quarters. Again all made of the same materials and all very open and very simple.  Behind these two buildings was a separate building for the bathroom and further up the hill was the kids building, made of the same materials but much larger. This was the building where the children slept and kept their belongings. He told that a few years ago when a cyclone came though that his house held up just fine, and that there was only a few holes blown in the roof. With it being so open the wind just blows through. They had also planted many trees and plants in their yard. He walked us around the yard showing us the various fruit trees they had planted only 12 years ago and now towered over their home and us. They have a fichus tree that looked like any giant tree you would find in your own yard. They also had orange tress and a very large star fruit tree that was producing way more star fruit then they could ever hope to eat, so he let us collect some to take back to the boat. He also had many bread fruit trees, but the fruit is not in season right now. Breadfruit is suppose to taste like a potato and you can make French fries out of it, so naturally I was very excited to try one, but we have yet to find a ripe fruit.  His property was covered with many beautiful flowers and plants. Alain has made himself an expert on the botany of this island and its history and the uses of all the plants and this was the tour we were about to embark on. He told us that there are over 2000 plants on Tahaa now and only 250 are indigenous to Tahaa. One of the first stops we made was at the vanilla plantation. Vanilla is actually in the orchard family and grows on a vine. When the plant flowers, it has to be fertilized by hand. Each flower has to have the pollen inserted into a flap in the flower so that it can get pollinated. In Mexico where the plant originated from the bees do this work, but here in Polynesia the bees do not survive and so human hands have to pollinate each flower in the plantation. Once the flower is pollinated a long vanilla bean begins to grow; the whole process takes about 18 months before they can harvest the bean.  Then once the bean is harvested it has to be dried, and messaged by hand and then fermented. It sounds like a lot of time consuming work. He drove us through the countryside of Tahaa over the mountain in his landrover 4-wheel drive. The next stop was at the pearl farm where a young lady showed us how pearls are seeded and grown in oysters. It was very interesting. Now I can appreciate my pearl from Manihi even more. After her lecture we were lead across the red dirt road to the shop where they sold the pearls. They were all mounted in rings, bracelets and necklaces. The cheapest thing I saw was around $500.00, so I guess I got a bargain getting my pearl for a beer! The next 4 hours Alain drove us around the island showing us the various plants and their uses. There is one plant that has been introduced here called the Nono plant that is being used to cure all kinds of things. It is good for high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and possibly aids so they are growing that like crazy now. The Pamdamas tree has many uses, the leaves are woven together to be used as roofing material. The leaves are also used to make the skirts for the dances. The fruit of the Pamdamas tree is about the size of a football and looks like a giant green pineapple, when it is ripe we are told it turns a bright orange and the individual fruits can be pulled out. This was the first plant used in the fermentation of alcohol on this island and the flower is called the Hinano flower. This also happens to be the name of the local Tahitian beer. We stopped at an overlook where we could see all the bays on the island and get a beautiful few of Raitea. While we were stopped here, Alain cracked open a couple of coconuts for us to drink and then taste the fruit, he also treated us to some Pompomuse, which is like a grapefruit, but not as sour. On the way back we stopped by a copra shed, this is where coconut meat is dried and then shipped to Tahiti where the coconut oil is extracted and used in many things. It was a very interesting and informative tour. We had a lot of fun getting to meet the people on the charter boat and talking with Alain. The weather appeared to be getting better, but figured we should stay the night and head to Bora Bora in the morning. The wind is still out of the wrong direction and very strong. So it looks to be another interesting night. Tuesday June 27th, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West Total Nautical Miles traveled = 26.1 FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA It was another windy night, but by morning the wind had died a bit and finally changed direction. At 9:00 a.m.  We prepared the boat for departure. By 9:30 we were headed out of the pass Paipai and were heading northwest to Bora-Bora. The waves were huge because they had been building up with the wind the past few days. The exit through the pass was very rough and Dewey and I were not feeling too good. Even after we got through the pass there was still an 8-foot swell with some breaking waves. We had plenty of wind for we were going between 7 and 8 knots and sometimes even more then 8! It was a pretty lumpy ride all the way to Bora-Bora. The wind was out of the south, southeast. At 12:50 p.m. we entered Teavanui Pass in the coral reef that surrounds Bora-Bora. We found and anchorage in the Bay of Faanui in 70 feet of clear blue water. There is a huge volcanic mountain that towers over the bay called Mt. Otemanu.  There are just 5 other boats here in this bay so there is plenty of room to spread out. The wind cant seem to decided what direction it wants to come from, for we have made a 360 degree circle several times.  After we got the boat settled in David and I began putting things back together below deck, it was such a rough ride that everything got bounced around pretty good. We got the other anchor ready to deploy incase the wind gets strong. The dinghy is back in the water with the outboard back on ready for tomorrow’s exploration. I finished the pillows that I started in Papeete, all I left to do was put in the buttonholes and sew on the buttons. While I was doing this David gave Dewey a bath. Poor little guy had a pretty traumatic day, but at least now he has a clean bed and clean fur! Wednesday June 28th, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Bay of Faanui Today we decided to go into town for breakfast. We rode in the dinghy to the Bora-Bora Yacht Club. We heard that we could leave our dinghy there and we wanted to be gone most of the day. Sure enough they had a pretty nice dinghy dock. They yacht club isn’t what one might expect in the United States. It was just a dock; an open air thatched roof restaurant and a few mooring buoys out front. We walked through the restaurant to the bar and asked for the proprietor. An older jolly man came bouncing through the flowers to greet us. He told us about all the services of the yacht club for sailboats. We can get water there, tie up to a mooring buoy and have free showers (cold) and all we have to do is eat one meal there. (Makes me wonder about the prices and the food) We pumped him for all kinds of information about the festivities that were going on and where the nearest town was. He pointed to the south direction and said that Vaitape was about a half-hour walk. So off we went down the road. It was a nice sunny morning and it felt good to get in a walk. We had only gone a few blocks when we passed a yard with children playing in it. I stopped to take a look and they had all scrambled into a tree that had been partially cut down. (Like they had done this hundred times before) they all took their positions and then the one boy motioned for me to take a picture. They were all so cute, with their brown Polynesian skin and dark curly hair with big wide smiles. They wanted me to take another and so they did another pose for me. Then they all smiled and said good bye! If we go by there again we will have to remember to bring them some treats. Or maybe I can print their pictures out for them. We walked a little bit further, when we noticed another little boy running down the road after us. He jabbered something at us, but it wasn’t in English or French. I think he was speaking Tahitian. So we had no way of communicating with him. He followed us for quit some time still jabbering away until someone came by in car and picked him up. Well, our half-hour walk had turned into an hour but we were finally on the edge of a town. We saw a few grocery stores and the bank, which we needed first to exchange some money. After we left the bank we heard some drumming and cheering going on so we went to see what the entire ruckus was about. We got in on the end of the canoe races. These finely toned Polynesian men with green palm leaf wreaths on their heads were fighting it out to the finish line. One after another they crossed by the green flag cheered on by family and friends. Finally at 11:30 am I’m going to get my breakfast. We found a little snack shack where I had palm frits (french fries) and a milk shake. While we were sitting there our Canadian friends from Sawleeah came by and sat down to join us. We hadn’t seen them for over a week. They are anchored on the other end of the island so it was a pleasant surprise running into them. We went off shopping together to look at the little tourist shops. We eventually lost them in one of them and went to explore all the buildings they have up for Bastille Day.  Bastille Day is actually a month long celebration in French Polynesia. It is a time when all the islands put forth their best show of music, dancing and song. They have many temporary structures erected to house the events. There is an outdoor stadium that is built just to watch the dancing. There are also many buildings that house things such as arts and crafts, restaurants, discos, bars and arcades. It’s like Christmas for these kids around here. I guess they must not have school this month, because we always see kids running around. They were certainly packed in the arcade playing pinball and table hockey. After a full day of walking around checking out town we headed back to the dinghy. This time the walk seemed much longer, maybe because we had been walking for 6 hours. We thought we might go back to town tonight to watch the dancing, but we were walked out and called it an early evening. There is a little church at the end of our bay and we could hear drumming and music coming form there, so I sat outside with my drink in hand listening to the beautiful Polynesian music as I watched the end of another day. Thursday June 29th, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Bay of Faanui Today seemed like a lazy Polynesian day. In fact it is some sort of holiday here in French Polynesia (and not Bastille Day) they sure have a lot of holidays in this country. The sky was filled with gray clouds and it was fairly cool. David was actually complaining that it was cold. When we looked at the temperature gage it was only 80 degrees. I guess we are becoming acclimatized. David worked on a few electrical projects, while I did some laundry and a little sewing. When it became clear that we weren’t going anywhere immediately, David settled into another book while I got out my watercolors and worked on a painting I hadn’t finished yet. Around 4:00 pm  we decided to go into town to watch the dancing which starts at 8:00.  By 4:30 we were in the dinghy heading towards shore when a huge thunderstorm struck and we got caught in it. By the time we made it back to the boat we were soaked. Oh well, another fresh water rinse. We pulled the dinghy back up for the night for it looked like this storm was here to stay. It poured rain for the next 5 hours. That night on the radio chat it sounded like it was raining on Tahaa as well. So we weren’t the only ones getting wet.  David started up the generator so we could watch a movie and made some chilly to take the chill off the evening. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better and we will get to see some dancing. Friday June 30, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Bay of Faanui Today we decided to walk into the little town of Vaitape and see what was going on. We hadn’t walked very far when a pickup truck full of Polynesians stopped to offer us a ride. Not one spoke any English so it was an interesting ride.  When we got into town I got jumped out to thank him and he pointed at the arena and said beer. We thought he wanted us to buy him a beer for the ride. Everywhere we went they were out of beer. We soon found out why. They were giving away free Hinanos over by the dancing arena. We did get some sandwiches, cake and few pops. Apparently we had just arrived to catch the tail end of another celebration. They had a parade in town and then all kinds of traditional competitions. The most interesting one was where the men carry a long log over their shoulder and race on foot.  On both ends of this log is tied bunches of bananas, taro root, flowers and palms. They are very heavy! I know because I later tried to pick one up and was lucky to get it up to my waist let alone walk with it or run! Well we wandered around a bit admiring all the costumes and floats from the parade, but everything was soon dismantled and dispersed. It is hard to imagine the amount of detail that is put into everything they do. Every light post, sign post, and post around the arena had a palm branch woven around it with a nice spray coming out of the top. All the temporary structures had palms and flowers potted outside and inside. Some of the little restaurants looked like miniature tropical jungles on the inside. Its hard to imagine all the work, time and effort that goes into this celebration. Not one little detail is overlooked. Or so it appears to the untrained eye.  We ran into the folks from Sawleeah who were provisioning for their crossing to Hawaii in a few days. We helped them carry their groceries back to their dinghy and then headed back to the yacht club. We told Sawleeah that we would meet them later at the dancing, but alas when it came time for the dancing it was raining again. So we missed another night. So tonight I sit painting and David is reading while we listen to the beat of the Polynesian drums outside. Saturday July 1st, 2000 Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Yacht Club This morning we decided we had enough of this solitude in this bay and motored over to the Bora-Bora Yacht Club to fill the tanks with water and pick up one of their mooring buoys. To fill the water tanks we had to pick up a mooring buoy that was close to their dock and then stern tie the boat to the dock. They had a hose of about 100 feet with a very small diameter, causing the water to come out in just a trickle. It looks like it was going to take hours to fill our tanks and it did. All this service of the yacht club is free as long as you eat one meal in their restaurant, so we had lunch while we were waiting for our tanks to fill. Three hours later we were finally ready to leave the dock and pick up a mooring out in the bay. After we got settled in, we dinghied into town to have dinner with Sawleeah and Flyer and then attend the dancing. We found a nice little place to have dinner in the temporary structures they have erected for the Hiva festival and then found a place to watch the dancing up close with the locals. The Hiva festival in Bora-Bora lasts for at least two weeks with 14 nights of dancing and singing competitions. Apparently every little village on the island can send a group to the competition. The winners of the competition are sent on to Tahiti to compete in the festival representing all the Society Islands. Wouldn’t that be a sight to see? First up on the program is what they call the chanting, which is actually singing. The large group of 60 or more dances out on to the sand arena to the sounds of ukuleles and the beating of the drums. Once to the center of the arena the group huddles together on their knees and forms a circular bunch. They perform all their songs in this crouched position. Only the drummers and strummers get to sit on little log stools. After singing about 3- 4 songs the band and a few singers move to the side while a group of about 25 –30 women dance to the songs. Very similar to the Hawaiian hula except the singers all have long dresses on. The arms and hips sway so gracefully to the beautiful Polynesian melodies. The songs are sung in their native Polynesian dialect and even though we don’t know what they are singing about the songs are still beautiful to listen too. After two groups of chanting the dancers finally arrive. They have a band made up of drummers, ukuleles and guitar players. The band situates itself in a little shelter made of coconut tree pillars and pandanas leaf roof. Once the drumming began, out came all the dancers in their glorious costumes. I have never seen anything like it. Men and women dancing with grass skirts made of palm leaves and wreaths on their heads of beautiful flowers and leaves. They had a large wreath they wore around their neck that was made of some kind of nuts. The women were holding spears that were wrapped in a green vine. Spears and hips swinging like crazy! The women had clamshells in the palms of their hands which they would clap together to make a noise. In the mist of all this dancing a group of scantly clad men carried out the princess on their shoulders and laid her down in front of all the dancers on a palm leaf mat. It was absolutely spectacular! This group preformed several dances in what appeared to be the native costume of years ago. Soon they all ran off the arena and a single female dancer came out and preformed in front of the princess. Soon the whole group was out again in a new costume, this time they appeared to be made more of man made materials. The skirts were made of a long white looking grass and they had huge headdresses on. The men were dressed in a similar style but their skirts were a little bit shorter. They preformed several dances in this costume and than ran off again to come back in a new outfit. This time all the women were wearing long gowns that had long sleeves as well. The gowns were made of cotton and each one was a different color. Their hair was all tied up in a bun on the back of their head. The men came out in long skirts as well. The dances preformed in these costumes appeared to be a little more subdued. All we could conclude was that the first dance costume was the Polynesian wear of years ago, then when they became more exposed to other cultures and materials the costume changed from natural materials to some man made material, then the last costume we figured was the result of the missionaries influence on the islands having the women cover their whole bodies. I will have to say that the first costume was the prettiest and most interesting to watch. Well it was a pretty exciting night of dancing enjoyed by all. We took a starlit dinghy ride back to our boat and called it a day.