|
A Very long Letter...
The last few weeks we have been 'Tourists'. Since
Tim got here i had a great excuse to get out of the boat and do something. We
have seen most of what Tahiti has to offer and feel pretty good about it. We
have seen three Waterfalls and swam in one of them. We have been at two famous
surf spots and been slammed into the sandy bottom at one of them. We have been
to Point Venus where Captain Cook set up a lighthouse to observe the transit of
venus (pic. where i am jumping). We have had Stake Frite from the 'Rulettes' in
Papeete (Nb. one thing to do according to lonely planet) and much much more.
After being a tourist for 14 days it was time to change gear and do something
different so we decided to sail up to Papeete and stay outside the big marina
there. Where we were in Taravao one could not swim because of the muddy water
and there was really nothing to do. Besides my good friend Paul is up in Papeete
and English speaking friends are hard to find here in French speaking Tahiti. In
fact Paul is the only not French person that i have found here!. The sail up was
only 30 miles and was done in a day but what a sail. Having Tim as new crew was
no problem and he got the hang of stuff pretty quick but to sail one needs wind
too. So far the biggest problem i have had with the hurricane season is not
hurricanes but unpredictable weather. The first two hours of ouer sail was great,
we did record time and was up to 7 knots on several occasions but after that the
wind turned to the nose and died down. We had to motor sail and could still not
do more than 4 knots because i had been too lazy to clean the propeller before
we left. Well lazy and lazy, i had to work on the engine for two hours and
forgot it.
To
get inside of the reef in Papeete one should have a close up harbor map but as
usual i don’t have money for those kind of things. It can’t pay up to 30 dollars
for a map you really only use once. When you have done the entrance one time you
know how to do it and don’t need it anymore, nevertheless it is dangerous not to
have one because you could run aground, so what do you do?. I make sketches; the
one you can see on the right side here is my Papeete sketch. I guess it is only
me who can read it but i took a photo of it for fun. The idea is to come in from
the bottom of the map, line up with the two red markers but wear a bit to
starboard as you get close, then go along the shore, pass a yellow and two green
buoy’s before turning port to the anchorage. Sound simple doesn’t it? PS Don’t
forget that if you miss the boat with no insurance will be on one of the many
corral heads.
As
we approached marina Tahina we got a hold of Paul on the radio and he came out
to greet us in his dingy. The anchorage here is quite tricky and to fit in
between Paul and 'Bernard the French' on the small but nice 4 meter anchorage we
had to set two anchors in a T. One towards Bernard and one towards Paul. In the
middle i hook on and Voila, the anchor is set good. Well, Voila and Voila, Paul
(being an engineer) dove down and connected the anchor chains manually before he
dug down the main anchor so now i owe him another one; in fact i am starting to
be in serious favors debt to this guy. When the anchor was set it was time to
teach Tim another tradition, the Anchor Dram. When the anchor is set, whether
you like it or not, you have to have a shot of something and milk does not count.
After giving Tim his first sail on Spetakkel it was time to show him what
sailing really is about. Cleaning salt of the boat and keeping it up that is. I
decided to put him in the hole. "The Hole" on my boat is a storage that is so
big that all the stuff you never use and then some ends up there. The hole
always stinks and so does the cleaning job. From time to time it needs to be
emptied, washed inside and things put back in a better and smarter order than
the last time. On the right side i put 4 pictures of Tim, look closely and on
some of the pic. you can see piles of things laying left and right. As a reward
for a job well done he got to clean himself. Since he reeked much more than a
normal swim would take care of i told him to climb the mast and try to get rid
of the dirt by jumping from the spreader about 7 meters up. I figured this would
be almost the same as a power wash and Tim agreed so up he went. We made a Video
of this event.
Press here to see it.
Of course it did not have the desired effect but we had fun so who cares.
Whenever i talk to people from back home they always ask me if it is hot where i
am. Well i have still not found a thermometer to look at but the fish finder is
showing 28,2 degrees Celsius in the water and the weather in the newspaper say
it will be between 22 and 34 degrees this month. The 22 is at night of course so
sleeping with fans or as Tim is in one of the pictures, outside is a must. Me
and Darryl never had power so we struggled a lot to keep cool but that has
changed now. Since i got new solar panels and battery’s i finally have
power. Sponsored things. In addiction to bringing me an Alberta Springs
(32 year old) Whisky Tim sponsored a brand new spear gun. This is something i
have wanted for a long time but never could afford. Under water Fishing will now
be very, very different. The Hawaiian sling i had was for professionals and i am
far from there yet. The new gun is so strong that it actually kicks when you
fire it. I have only tried it once but i am totally in Love with it already.
OK,
That's it from Tahiti
this time. Hope you did not get to bored reading this. I know it turned out to
be long but right now i don’t have anything better to do ;-)
Kjell O.
Stave & Tim Logue |
English
