Stingrays, Harps and Birthdays
16 July 2009 | Moorea, Huahine and Taha'a
Jane
Bob and Roz have been here two weeks today and we seem to have been too busy to keep this up to date, which I suppose is a good thing! They are now seasoned sailors having done six Pacific islands and an overnight passage. Neither of them have had any sea sickness. In fact, Roz seems to be able to go below and knock up supper fairly effortlessly which is something I can't do without feeling a bit on the queasy side. (This might mean, of course, that she'll have to do all the cooking on our forthcoming 10 day passage!)
We stayed in Mo'orea a couple more days after I last wrote the blog. It is so beautiful there, it was hard to leave. One highlight for Roz and I was a snorkel with, maybe, 20 Stingrays! Over by one of the resorts is a reef where stingrays are fed daily. There are a few places here where sharks and rays are fed which I don't think I really approve of. As the Lonely Planet says, encouraging sharks to associate divers with a free feed can't be a good idea, can it??! Having said that, it was amazing! As we arrived at the site, you could see several other dinghies anchored on the reef with people standing in about 4' of water. As soon as we got in, five or six rays rushed (?) over to see if we had any fish. They swim round you, some brushing their wings over your arm. The feel really soft on the top, like chamois leather, with rough edges. Once we were spotted, another 10 or so joined us. Very freaky at first but once you put Steve Irwin out of your mind, fantastic! About 30 metres away on the edge of the reef, we saw half a dozen black tip reef sharks cruising by.
Our next stop was Huahine, another lush, green island with good surfing and snorkelling. It also has one of French Polynesia's most extensive complex of marae (pre-Christian sacred sites) in the little village of Maeva. Roz and I hired bikes for the day and cycled up for a look around. Maeva was the seat of royal power on the island apparently and there are nearly 30 maraes scattered along the shoreline. We also got a little boat across to a pearl farm where you could see how the pearls are cultured. Pearls are big business all through Tahiti and the good ones cost many thousands of francs. They call them black pearls but they are actually many colours ranging from pink to copper to dark grey!
Whilst in Huahine, we were invited to an American boat called Hypnautical for a harp concert (actually, I don't think we were invited but we went anyway) Sounded a bit high-brow but the boys agreed to go despite this. Roger turned out to be a sound engineer and Bobby-Jo taught music but had been in various bands all her life. He played guitar and she played harp, guitar and flute and they were absolutely fantastic. They sang stuff they had written, a bit 70s folksy which all us oldies loved and Roger sang a few nautical songs he had adapted from others like the Eagles lesser known hit, Dead Dorado! Such a good night. Bobby-Jo (shouldn't all Americans have a name with a hyphen) made my evening complete by not only singing Forever Young (which I'm having at my funeral) but also 'Once I had a Sweetheart' which I haven't heard since I used to play Pentangle's Basket of Light for hour after hour in my bedroom instead of studying for O levels. If they're reading this, thank you so much for a special night, hopefully to be repeated further down the track.
Our next stop was the double island of Ra'iatea and Taha'a, a five hour sail away (motoring again, no wind). Taha'a is famous for being the largest producer of vanilla in French Polynesia so I'm now looking for recipes with vanilla in. We had arranged to meet Lyn and Paul from White Hawk and Ian and Ida from Ishka there to celebrate our birthdays. We had a fantastic birthday. Bob and Roz gave us cards and a CD with every birthday song ever made which they got from the Thai House restaurant. (I guess you Canberra lot will know the tape from celebrating your birthdays there for years!) Ishka invited us to their boat for sundowners where we were also joined by Kirstie and Jeff from Nemesis and Dell and Gary off T Rex. We then all repaired to a cracking little restaurant at the Yacht Club where we had fresh tuna and prawns. Very expensive but a treat. We finished up on White Hawk where Lyn produced chocolate chip muffins WITH CUSTARD and Paul serenaded us with his saxophone! We actually stayed out until 1 am which is almost unheard of for us cruisers. We're usually in bed by 9.30! Thanks to all of you as well for making our birthday so good. It will be hard to beat next year.
Then it was off to Bora Bora - so good they named it twice!
To be continued. Jx