So this is Winter!
30 June 2019 | Huahine
Grace
Our first day in Huahine was a Sunday and it had been suggested to us by the Puddlejump organisers that going to a Polynesian church service is a worth while experience. We weren't sure exactly which the church was in our tiny village of Haapu but we heard a bell ringing and headed in that direction. We were reasonably smartly dressed Grace in a skirt and Stephen with a collared shirt but shorts on, but my goodness when we saw the small congregation assembling near the church we realised we were seriously underdressed! Bright flowery dresses for the ladies complete with hats and flowers, and bright flowery shirts for the men with long trousers! In spite of being scruffy we were encouraged to enter - we still have no idea what sort of a church this was - we could tell it wasn't Catholic (most of the churches we have encountered in the Marquessas are Catholic but in the Society Islands the population were converted to Christianity by missionaries from The London Missionary Society - I think this is why they are known as The Society Islands). Whatever it was the only word we could understand in the whole service was'la ora na' (good morning!), nevertheless it was an incredible experience ! A sort of vicar dressed in normal suit conducted proceedings from the front and then at various unexpected times most of the congregation stood up and sang beautifully loudly and totally unaccompanied hymns which were very tuneful and were sung completely from memory. From the church we decided to take the dinghy and travel a mile or so along the reef to another anchorage that had been recommended to us but we had felt in the conditions it was a bit too exposed, it did have the advantage of having a beautiful beach and a smart hotel who also offered services to the yachts. We had also been told that we should try to go to the restaurant in that bay called Chez Tara where on Sundays a traditonal polynesian buffet lunch is served. We arrived to find the place totally packed with Polynesians and western tourists, and we did not have a reservation but thankfully two young Brazilian crew from the boat next door were there and let us share their table. We had the most delicious lunch of local specialities including a whole pig roasted in an enormous fire pit outside and accompanied by a troup of Polynesian singers guitars, ukulele, and dustbin players and dancing ladies from I think the audience (all the Polynesians were dresssed in their Sunday best complete with flower headresses ! If the internet would allow I would attach a photo!
So that was a great day! On Monday we took a taxi to the local town with the idea of hiring a motor scooter the weather was deteriorating so obviously Stephen was more keen on this idea than Grace, even the assistant in Europecar thought we were mad to hire the scooter for 48 hours considering the weather forecast! - still most of you reading this know Stephen! We took the scooter in the rain and the driver (Stephen) opted not to follow my recommended route but to take an unmarked track alongside the airport runway we should have realised this was a mistake when a utility vehicle carrying coconut pickers made signs to us that we were courageous going down that route! Not to be put off Stephen skidded and swerved down the unmadeup track avoiding stones, coconuts and fallen branches, being chased by dogs, eventually coming to quite a dramatically pretty bit right by the reef, then a few sort of farms and then further and further into coconut wasteland interspersed with small holdings and a lot of mud in the increasing rain. We began to feel we would never find ourselves back on the one road that pretty much runs round the entire island. Luckily we encountered a farm truck with a friendly husband and wife who thankfully offered to lead us through the maze of tracks back to the main road. Even once we were back on the road in what was now torrential rain we managed to take a wrong turning and didn't arrive back in our little village until it was nearly dark!
The following morning the rain was still with us but the winds were steadily increasing and the SSB nets and our grib forecasts were very grim. It was clear that we would not be able to get off the boat at all. The scooter thankfully was safely parked with a friendly villager. We are on a mooring in this bay we would really have preferred to be on our own anchor but the minimum depth we could find in the bay was about 20m and we didn't feel we had quite enough chain to hold us. Stephen checked the mooring as well as he was able (it was too deep to really see the size of the block ) but as far as he could tell it is in good condition and the the four lines leading from it our attached to our bow. By Tuesday evening the wind was gusting 30/35 knots and the boat was heeling over, the true wind was SE, but this was coming into our bay as a SW straight to us! Neither of us got much sleep and just dozed in our clothes Stephen going up every couple of hours to check the lines. We had agreed with our neighbouring boats to monitor channel 16 on the VHF all night in case of problems. We listened to the evening SSB Polynesian net and were amazed to hear Jeanne Socrates (she holds the record as the oldest woman to sail single handed around the world unassisted - and is now attempting another Guiness book or records to be the oldest single handed person) she sounded incredibly calm in a lot of wind and big seas, and also told us that there had been a partial solar ecllipse earlier on in the day - I don't think we could possibly have seen it with that much cloud anyway! Grace definitely did not enjoy the night watching every high gust on the wind instruments sometimes as high 42 knots. We heard over the radio that a large catamaran we know with a young family had broken from their mooring during the night and sustained a lot of damage on a reef by Bora Bora yacht club. Thankfully they were not on board at the time, you are required to use moorings in Bora Bora and not allowed to anchor.
Today the winds have eased and the scooter has been returned to the town having first driven through a flood as the roads to the south of the island have flooded! Its still raining! Apparently this is what happens in July!