Heather
05/07/2012, Taha'a, Society Islands

This morning we at last got the boat pet we have been yearning for; no, Jonathan hasn't succeeded in adopting another cat or dog - but a turtle named Tilly. Don't believe us? We have the pictures to prove it.

Yesterday evening we ended up at the Hibiscus restaurant, bar, boat moorings, and rather oddly, turtle sanctuary. After tying up we went in for a meal and got talking to the owner about his 8 green turtles in a holding pen. This elderly French gentlemen has been buying turtles from local fishermen, usually from the Tuomotos, for some years. This saves them from the pot and he then brings them back to health (if needed), tags them and sends them back into the wild. They are usually older juveniles (under 9 years old) as they are the ones that get stuck in the nets (it doesn't happen to the larger or smaller ones because of the size). So far he has saved around 1500 of them. For a donation, you can adopt one and if you are up to it (ie have a boat and can handle a turtle) you can take one that is ready and release anywhere on the surrounding reef. How could we resist? This morning we were up bright and early to collect our turtle.

It turned out to be a healthy chap or chappette (difficult to tell until they are mature apparently, although if they are anything like tortoises, I would be pretty confident this one was male) we named Tilly, who was seriously pissed off at being captured and handled with so little dignity, and a bit sore from the tagging. We managed to get Tilly in the dinghy and into the cockpit of our boat and off we went to a part of the barrier reef that had moorings on the North East Corner of the island. It was an uneventful journey, and provided we were sailing, Tilly was OK with it and seemed to genuinely like being tickled under the chin, but strangely enough not splashed with sea water (Tilly also hated the engine and kept trying to swim across the cockpit floor when it was on).

Once we got to the mooring we decided to use the outboard to take Tilly to a swim platform near a luxury hotel to release. It was a shallow sandy area with the odd coral bommie but close to deeper waters with lots of coral and weed gardens - in other words pretty much turtle heaven. We have a video showing the release that we will attempt to post on YouTube. The minute Tilly realised we were going to put him back in the sea he got so excited, flippers flapping so he could hit the water surfing and, once in, took off at an impressive turn of speed but sadly without a backward glance. We now miss the little guy but so pleased we could play a small part in what we hope will be his long and happy turtle life.

What else to report? Yesterday we also visited a vanilla farm run by another former French foreign legionnaire (what is it with these guys and South Pacific islands). This time he was Danish and a bit of a legend in Denmark, they have even done a TV documentary on him. He now runs a vanilla farm and was kind enough to pick us up from the dock and show us around. It is a fascinating but slow, labour- intensive process producing organic vanilla, but the smell and the produce was sensational. However a word of warning for would-be vanilla farmers out there - apparently after a while you stop smelling the wonderful stuff, what a bummer.

Tonight we are staying at the reef moorings, hoping to catch a glance of Tilly, but so far only seeing a few large manta rays. Tomorrow we intend to head over to the western part of the reefs for a snorkel drift on one of the motos, stock up with water and anchor in a nearby bay ready for our sail over to Bora Bora on Wednesday.

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Jonathan
05/02/2012, Raiatea, Society Islands

Yes, we are still alive and kicking; we've just been a little busy hence the lack of blogs from matilda lately. We sailed from Rangiroa to Papeete in two days, and of course we had the second half of the passage without wind as usual!

Tahiti was good, but very wet. In fact it didn't really stop raining from the moment we arrived until just a day or two ago; so the better part of a week of rain. The ARC get-together was great fun, especially the dancing. This was made even more entertaining by the inclusion of one of Zoe's crew, Kelsey, who we were afraid might not leave Tahiti after the experience (the male dancers paid her quite a lot of attention...)

We did the tour of Tahiti, which was arranged by the ARC and would have been great if we had seen anything. Pretty much everywhere we went the rain was coming down in sheets, so we saw very little in the way of views. The visits to museums and the water fall and blow hole however made up for it; everybody had a blast (literally) at the water fall. We also spent a fair bit of time at the Carrefour stocking up for the next legs, so we should be pretty much fine now until Fiji (at least).

The crossing to Raiatea from Tahiti was a little daunting. We did it overnight so we could arrive in daylight, but we had a 6-mile squall engulf us and stay with us for hours. It didn't matter what we did, we just couldn't escape it - if we managed to slow down to the back, the wind would increase and push us back into the middle. If we managed to outrun it and ease out the front, the wind would die and we would be back in the middle of rain in all directions for three miles. And this was serious tropical rain; like solid water, so we couldn't see much even on the radar. It was great when we did finally escape, and Raiatea has been very fruitful, so we're glad we came (although unfortunately we had to miss Morea to get here in time).

The main reason for coming to Raiatea was to get our wind, speed and depth instruments fixed. A local expert by the name of Cyprieu worked his magic - he's not cheap, but he did get them all working properly again. We thought about asking him to look at some of our other electrical issues (SSB, engine, etc.) but I don't think our budget could handle it!

We have been staying here at the marina Apooiti (very cute name) in the visitor's berth, and we plan to head off tomorrow. The weather has finally cleared up for the past two days and we have got loads of work done. The marina here is absolutely gorgeous, and we have managed to explore the town and enjoy ourselves despite having so much work to do on the boat. We have met up with Kel, a Danish guy and his friends aboard an Elan 42 called "Freedom" - and they have been great company. We also bumped into Paul and Suzanna, our World ARC liaison team at the restaurant here last night, and we had a great evening chatting with them.

Our next stop will be the river at the south of Raiatea, where we can moor and dinghy up the river - supposed to be very beautiful. We will then visit the other islands nearby, including a Vanilla plantation, before heading for Bora Bora on 12th or so. We will be leaving Bora Bora in the second wave on 16th May, so we still have a week or so to enjoy the delights of French Polynesia. Fingers crossed that the fine weather continues for us; we feel like we deserve a little R&R after the last week of work!

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Heather
04/16/2012, Rangiroa, Tuomotos

Greetings from matilda.

We arrived safely in Rangiroa after some great sailing but a challenging pass entry - we went in way too soon but it made it nice and exciting. Gunvor wisely left it for a few hours afterwards. Sad to have missed Zoe who were leaving in as we were coming in.

Almost immediately invited to an evening of Polynesian delights at the nearby ultra luxurious Kia Ora Resort with the crews from Gunvor, Anastasia, Peat Smoke, Southern Cross, Sapphire and Serendipity - a lovely evening with some curious interpretations of hoola dancing. Last night we organised another ARC 'do' at Josephines place, a lovely elderly French lady who can cook up a storm which helped make for another very special night. Jonathan fell in love with yet another kitten but just managed to stop him from smuggling it back on board.

However this mad social whirl wasn't getting any diving done so rectified this today by diving the eastern pass. What a dive - up there in my personal top 10. Challenging initially as there is a lot of current and have to be very aware of buoyancy and trenches to duck into etc. However this was made less formidable by a very skilled and lovely dive guide. The clarity of the water was excellent (much to our surprise as there have been strong winds and choppy seas for the last few days) and I lost count of the number of sharks, albeit in the distance, some quite big but very shy. What else, where to start. A Napoleon fish, a flock of eagle rays, a distant dolphin who didn't want to play today, a myriad of the usual reef fishes, a stone fish (that I nearly put my hand on) morays etc etc. Stefan from 12 moons had done this dive yesterday but didn't rate it as highly as the pass dive in Fakarava, so really regretting not getting to dive there. Tomorrow we do an outer reef dive where the dolphins are supposed to be very friendly and love to play. In the afternoon we are going to the Western pass - hopefully that will be as interesting.

Most of the ARC boats have now gone on to Papeete, mainly to get various maintenance issues sorted. For once there is nothing ultra pressing for us (touch a lot of wood) so will head off probably on Monday, perhaps we will challenge Gunvor to a race (ho ho).

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Heather
04/13/2012, Tahuata, Marquesas Islands

Yesterday we said goodbye to the town in the main port at Nuku Hiva and motored around to Baie du Controleur for our last night in the Marquises Islands. Heather was particularly keen to at least visit this last bay since it was the setting for Herman Melville's book "Typee" (he also wrote Moby Dick after famously jumping ship in Nuku Hiva in the 1840s). We just rode at anchor in the bay and didn't bother going ashore as we had quite a few chores on board to take care of. Chores done, we set off at 10am for the Tuamotus, about 600 miles or so to the South-west.

As we hoisted our sails off the coast of Nuku Hiva, a pod of spinner dolphins came to frolic in our bow wave. They were the first dolphins we have seen since the Atlantic (we have seen whales, but strangely no dolphins!) so we were thrilled to have them around for half an hour or so. As they took off we had a squall come through with 20 knots or so of breeze, giving us over 7 knots of boat speed. The wind seems to have settled in now at about 12 to 15 knots and we are ticking along nicely on a broad reach at 6 or so knots. Who said Friday 13th was unlucky!!

A few days back we visited a place called "Daniels Bay" which is where some of the Survivor series of reality TV shows were apparently filmed. We met up with the crews of Zoe, Southern Cross and At Last for a few drinks aboard matilda before they headed back to the main town anchorage of Nuku Hiva. We stayed over night in Daniels Bay and did the 2 hour walk up to the waterfall the next morning. This is apparently the third-tallest waterfall in the world, and it was a spectacular walk. We had perfect conditions for walking, but the highlight for me was the evidence everywhere of a once great settlement here. This beautiful, fertile valley used to be the Royal seat of Polynesia, populated by thousands. There is an elevated stone track running for a few kilometres through the valley, about the width of a train track, which is still in good condition. In fact most of the dry stone platforms used for habitations and ceremony were in remarkably good condition, although overgrown with lush vegetation. It was a haunting walk through all these walls in the jungle, which left me wondering how it must have been at the height of its civilisation. Now there are just two families who live near the bay, cultivating the area beside the river as it empties into the sea. We met a few of these very friendly people on our way out, one of whom even treated us to a Haka when he learned Heather was a Rugby fan!

If this wind keeps up (fingers and toes crossed) we should reach Rangiroa within a few days. We plan to do some diving and snorkelling there, followed by a visit to Fakarava for more dives if we have time. We need to be in Papeete, Tahiti for our next ARC rendezvous by 24 April, so we still have eleven days or so up our sleeve.

The weather has become far more humid and hot since we arrived in the Marquises, which is a little uncomfortable at times. Thankfully though we were not too badly bothered by the nonos or mosquitos which we know gave others a hard time. We are sorry to have to leave this area; the people have all been so friendly, the landscape absolutely stunning and the sailing good. Let's hope it hasn't spoilt us for the rest of our destinations as we continue our journey around the world.

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Jonathan
04/07/2012, Tahuata, Marquesas Islands

I know Heather only posted a blog a couple of days ago, but it's been an action-packed few days! If you caught our last blog, you will know we were at anchor in Fatu Hiva having just walked up to the waterfall and had a lovely dip in the splash-pool there. A few hours later, David and Caroline from Peat Smoke came over for sun-downers before we made our way in their dinghy for our dinner date with the local family...

It seems the family the other World Arc-ers had dinner with was busy that night, so we ended up at someone else's place for dinner. Unlike the stories we'd heard of Simon, the excellent host Zoe and 12 Moons had, the head of this family was the local police chief, and a fairly humourless bloke he seemed too. The food was excellent though (mostly local specialities) so we had a great night, with Peat Smoke stopping at matilda for a night cap by moonlight on the way home.

Unfortunately we almost didn't make it to dinner at all. We were all 4 of us in Peat Smoke's dinghy, and as we arrived at the concrete pier in town I got out and held the bow line. The last person left on the starboard side of the dinghy made a move towards the pier, on the port side which left all three in the small dinghy on the port side before it capsized and the dinghy was upside down. With Caroline, Heather and David swimming for shore and the dinghy turned turtle, all I could do was pull the dinghy towards the beach by the line and try not to laugh too much. The dinghy engine has suffered a bit, but everyone was fine and dried out slowly over dinner. After our little dowsing we were pleased to see the police chief had driven down to the port to see where we were. We mistakenly took this for concern for our well-being, rather than annoyance at our lateness (we were only slightly late as a result of the dinghy capsize). When he found us he refused to give us a lift back to his place, even in the tray on the back of his ute! He just said "cést interdit!" - I guess he hasn't quite got the idea of hospitality when you have paying guests around for dinner at your house... Luckily they had another guest there from the Tuamotus (a guy called Peter), who was charming and walked us back down to help us back into our dinghy and see us off home.

Another unfortunate side-effect of our dinner in Fatu Hiva was the sickness Caroline and Heather are now suffering with. During the night about 24 hours after we finished the dinner, when we were already at anchor on another island, Heather became very ill with vomiting and diarrhea. It has been quite nasty, and I found out yesterday Caroline had been suffering with exactly the same symptoms at the same time. We couldn't figure out the cause until David came up with the idea of the ice - Heather and Caroline were the only ones to have ice with their drinks. I'm not sure where the ice came from, but it can't have been fresh drinking water. It has been a couple of days now and Heather has only just managed to eat some breakfast today, although she has crashed out again straight away. She seems to be getting much better today though, which is the main thing.

Yesterday while Heather was convalescing, I was snokelling with David scraping the barnacles off Peat Smoke's hull. I saw more wildlife doing that than I have on may dives I've paid for in the past! We saw loads of fish of course, but the highlight was the three large sharks which were obviously curious about the smell of crushed barnacles in the water and the odd scraping noise we were making. They each hovered around a little while until they decided there was nothing of any real interest and then took off. The biggest one was probably about my size, and the other two were slightly smaller. Earlier that morning I had also seen a couple of Manta Rays, which were swimming with the occupants of a neighboring boat at anchor, Pacific Bliss. It's amazing how curious these sea creatures can be.

I'd better trundle off and start preparing for our overnight sail tonight Nuku Hiva. We will stop there to see the third-tallest waterfall in the world. We will also refuel and re-water on Monday morning. Hopefully we can start out for the Tuamotu Island chain on Tuesday; a passage which should take 4 or 5 days depending on winds. Nuku Hiva has internet access, so perhaps we can start uploading some of our photos to our Sailblogs Gallery too...

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Heather
04/04/2012, Fatu Hiva, Marquesas Islands

Is this Paradise? - it cannot be far off. The scenery is stunning, the climate tropical, the people friendly, French baking, Euro standard cleanliness and the local beer isn't bad. The cons are the nonos (a small insect that swarms around at twilight - looks like a midge, bites like a piranha) and most things to buy from outside the islands are tres cher (very expensive).

We arrived in Hiva Oa early on Monday 26 March after a very bumpy and sleep deprived night. What a bay to enter - verdant high mountains sheltering this little inlet. The other remaining ARC boats gave a wonderful welcome in the harbour, or at least those that had surfaced, it was a great finish to a frustrating leg.

The following night we went up to Alex's place to celebrate Joachim (of Chessie's) birthday. Alex's life story should be made into a film but it might sound too far fetched. He joined the French foreign legion at an early age and was posted to wonderful places such as Somalia. He must have been posted here at some stage because he married a local girl to make a home in the hills (with another place in the Dordoign) with 5 children to follow. They have turned their house into a very relaxed bar and restaurant with a spectacular view and use of their pool, pool table and table football. For Joachim's birthday they pulled out all the stops. There was a tattooist (more about tattoos later) who did a celebratory tattoo for Jutta (Joachim's wife) a band and ceremonial costumes for the happy couple - they looked magnificent. It was a very memorable night. A special mention should go to Joel who managed to keep the kids happy in the pool for hours and still had enough energy to actively partake in the aqua-acrobatics and tower constructions overseen by Janet of At Last. I am kicking myself for not seeing Kathy of Southern Cross go up on Joel's shoulders, just hope the moment has been captured somewhere.

The following day we went into town to the bank and got involved in a school fete type event where there were lots of opportunities for the kids to experience some of their traditional activities. It was fascinating watching breadfruit being cooked and prepared (pounded in a beautifully carved bowl with, how shall I put it, a pestle clearly made to look like a male appendage - ho hum, very traditional apparently, and we are definitely not in Yorkshire now). There was a drumming workshop and the tattooists were hard at it again. The girls were all wearing the most beautiful floral head-dresses being made on the spot by some very skilled ladies. I missed out despite invitation, as I felt it was a bit cheeky to claim one as we are only passing through.

About the tattoos. Tattoos have always been important to Polynesian cultures and unlike a lot of places that were 'colonised' the Marquisians were allowed to continue the practice. However, even before Marquisian tattoos were seen as the height of the art - and it really is an art form here. Even I, traditionally not a fan of the ink, love a lot of the designs and the way they are worn. However I am told you have to be a bit careful, where the tattoo is and what it represents are all highly significant. Jonathan wants one, but indecision has scuppered the plan so far. (He even went as far as to have a turtle themed one drawn out but decided it didn't make the grade).

We wanted to stay in Hiva Oa until Peat Smoke came in so we could take part in the welcoming of the last ARC boat (particularly as they had such a trying crossing). However we also wanted to get the bottom of the boat scrubbed and see something of the islands, so we went for an overnighter to the most amazing bay on the next island of Tahuata, about a 2 hour sail away. It has all that a bay in paradise should have. Clear water to a sandy bottom, an empty beach edged with palm trees, colourful fish amongst the rocks at the edge of the bay. Never has been cleaning the bottom of a yacht been so enjoyable. I had three puffer fish following me, fighting over the various sea life I was scraping off. Every time I looked around their beautiful big eyes were looking up at me begging for more, it was like being followed by 3 aquatic labradors.

Peat Smoke made it in last Friday afternoon and they wasted no time in arranging a dinner at the Pearl Resort on the top of the hill above the harbour (one of the few resorts here). Again a memorable evening, use of their infinity pool and excellent food.

Yesterday we sailed to Fatu Hiva and are now riding at anchor in the Bay of Virgins. We arrived in the early evening to rain squalls, so the mountains were encased in rainbows that spilled over the sheer cliffs into the dark turquoise sea. Needless to say this is another amazing place. The bay is lined with distinctive tall stone pinnacles that, so the story goes, gave its original name of The Bay of, well here we go again, male appendages. However the church didn't like this so changed the French around a bit to make Bay of Virgins. How to describe it - think Jurassic Park meets South Pacific. Today we dinghied into the village and within 10 minutes Jonathan had been invited to join a pig hunt that was setting out (a bit of a tradition among the younger blokes, they breed lots of dogs to flush the wild pigs out on a nearby uninhabited island and then shoot them). Jonathan made his excuses (I am pretty sure he said I was the main one)- I think his knowledge of the lingo could get him into a lot of trouble here. We then walked/scrambled to a very tall and beautiful waterfall outside of the village. We were so hot it was impossible to resist swimming in the splashpool, but that was a bit nippy so I didn't stay in long. Tonight we will eat at a local ladies house (with Caroline and David of Peat Smoke - the crew from Zoe were there last night) - lets hope breadfruit chips are on the menu, our favourite.

Tomorrow we hope to start the sail to Nuku Hiva, to refuel and see the third tallest waterfall in the world, stopping off on the way at Tahuata to do a bit more lotus eating. Do I need mention we are both fine and spirits high?

Hope all is well with you and we will post photos as soon as we can find a reliable internet connection (which has been a problem).

Cheers, Heather and Jonathan xoxo

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