Sailing with YELO

13 January 2024 | La Paz
10 January 2024 | San Evaristo
07 January 2024 | San Evaristo
04 January 2024 | Punta Salinas, Isla San Jose
02 January 2024 | Punta San Telmo
01 January 2024 | Agua Verde
28 December 2023 | Puerto Balandra
19 December 2023 | San Juanico
17 December 2023 | Punta Chivato
16 December 2023 | Punta Chivato
28 November 2023 | Santa Rosalia
18 August 2023 | San Carlos
05 July 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
05 July 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
10 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
03 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
02 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
01 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
31 May 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos

Taravai Island , Gambier. Easter BBQ with Hervé and Valerie

23 April 2019 | Gambier
Rolf
Another Sunday and this fabulous couple did it again. They invite ANYBODY from anywhere every Sunday. You just bring your side dish and he does the BBQ with fish etc. This time I anticipated a weird BBQ since there were 4 Swiss-German boats at anchor. Is it going to be a Fondue party or a yodeling contest?�...we'll see. We were the first delegation that got out of the dingy and had the usual lovely greeting from the family. But a serious Hervé told me that the day started not so well for him. One of the Swiss boats used his drone and began flying over Hervé's property. The Swiss had not gone ashore yet to meet Hervé or to ask for his permission He just flies into his garden and at a few meters hovering over your head, there is nothing much you can do. Maybe shoot it down. But Hervé launched his boat and went out to the Swiss yacht and asked him to stop. I can't understand why anybody does this kind of invasion into your privacy. But new technology requires new rules. I had those drones flying over my boat before and then I usually take out my boat hook and get ready to whack them down. That usually helps. If not, I moon them. We had a nice get together and it was sort of strange to hear our language all around the table in many groups. Swiss-German everywhere is not something we are used to. It's more like we Swiss have to adapt to the larger groups and speak their language, like French, English or Deutsch. It forces you to be multilingual, which is a pain to learn it all .But in the end you are happy to be able to talk to anybody. I often see the yachts from English countries sitting quietly at a table that speaks anything but English. And even worse for the poor French. I never see them mingling with the Americans or Germans, or any foreigner. They only talk English if there is nobody else around. They usually hang around other French boats. They often hang on me like ticks if they find out I am the only one that speaks French in a group. Then they love me and bombard me with questions about those other foreigners. If I meet the same French family in a different place with other French boats, then they usually ignore me. Pretend they never met me. So much for the French. The same is true for our Swiss Romand community. The French speaking Swiss were not present yesterday. So this subject about their linguistic paralysis is a favorite conversation piece among the Swiss Toto as they call us. We all agreed that when we meet Swiss from the French speaking part, it's always the Swiss-German that has to speak French .Never the other way around. The Swiss come with huge designer boats with designer prices. Some have designer wives, some have trophy wives. What's common to them is that they stick out with their wealth. They like to talk about their latest 50 000$ satellite phone, that doesn't work like it should. Or their fancy �"Code Zero�" sail that makes their bucket go faster than the wind. Many of them buy this silly Parasail in Europe, a spinnaker with air holes in it that cost between 6000 and 10 000 $. Then they wrapped it around their mast at least once. The second time it usually gets shredded and 10 000 dollars are gone. They have the drones, the diving equipment, the paddle boards, kayaks, kite boards. You name it; they have it. One even had a captain, paid to do his job. What was common in this group was the urge to see it all in 3 years. So they are carrying with them an air of speed and rush, to move fast at any cost. When I ask them, they deny that they are stressed. In the contrary, they claim to be at ease here in paradise. At ease with the speed and urge to achieve SOMETHING!! An urge they brought with them from home. We look at them and are happy to talk our native language. But we are also happy that they left. Peace came back to the anchorage. When you have a whole bunch of �"new�" cruisers in a bay, they drive you nuts. Zooming back and forth to explore anything and everything and to organize more beach BBQs and fuggn pot lucks. It's a nervous energy, that us �"old timers�" don't have any more. I am happy to sit on land and blab for hours with the locals. I like to listen to them talk about Mururoa and the atomic mess the French created there. Or about their traditions and habits�...we both find this extremely interesting. The Polynesian's are very different from us, thank God. If you sap around the world in 3 years in this mad speed, you see nothing from the people. You don't feel a thing what is happening to them. They become �"decoration�" for your image of this tropical paradise. And a tropical paradise it is NOT. They have serious problems here. But no fast moving tourists wants to hear that. It would bother him, it would destroy his pre-conceived image of paradise he wants to have. You want to come home and tell your friends that you have found it: the place with the palm tree and a white sandy beach. They don't want to hear us talking about their corruption, their obesity, their dope, their booze, their huge gap between the haves and have not's. My friends back home think those negative things are all our fault anyway!! So shut up and enjoy the beach. All Swiss sailed away happy and were able to fill up their boat with fruits and veggies for the desert Tuamotus were you can only get fish and coconuts. Hervé caught a free running pig and sold us tons of happy bio ham. Every island has free running pigs and goats. They eat the falling fruits and coconuts. When you're hungry you go out and get one. Pigs are easy to catch: just build a cage-trap with coconuts in them. They had a happy life with no enemies, but it ends quickly and we eat it. The big mother swine's he lets go, so they can re-produce. The pearl dealers were happy as well. The Swiss bought like crazy, since a few hundred dollars is peanuts for them. We are good for business. In big numbers we must be almost as good as the Japanese tourists. I started to collect deformed pearls. If you mount them well you can make acceptable ear rings etc .You just have to hide the imperfection, that often is just on one side. The rest is pretty. I got into this and start to appreciate their colors and their brilliance. When you move them and let the light come in at different angles, it's amazing how they change. Too bad I don't have pierced ears!! Next week is Rikitea again. SE winds are in the forecast. That's great for biking and hiking. And a bid of internet and TV news in the evening. I like to hear the latest Trump fuck up, or Macron lying to his dwindling fan club. And there is always ARTE, the channel that is bilingual and comes in German. You just have to click on audio and voila: TV all in Deutsch for free .Vive la France. It's all possible with a tiny 10$ USB stick attached to your laptop�...technology is amazing.
Comments
Vessel Name: YELO
Vessel Make/Model: CATANA 431
Hailing Port: LANGKAWI
Crew: ROLF & DANIELA
YELO's Photos - Main
First sunny and hot, then the fog moves in and the boat gets all wet. You feel the light drizzle
16 Photos
Created 20 March 2023