Underway Again

The week has flown by so far. We spent half of Monday the 14th in the village of Vaitape watching the Bastille Day festivities. There was a parade, speeches, a traditional foot race, all kinds of fun. There must have been a couple of thousand people in the parade itself, not bad considering the total population of the island is only 5000 or so. There were more in the parade than watching although there was a great turnout. They had floats, they had groups marching but what they didn't have was marching bands. All the resorts participated and for the first time ever, I saw pastries on display in a parade. The Intercontinental Resort had this elaborate display of pastries carried by 4 buff guys. The pastries were carried like a sedan chair. The rest of the group from their resort were carrying small plates with cookies and pastries on them, but they weren't giving them away. It was a bit bizarre. The parade came down the road, looped into an area that had been set up for the month long festival (dancing, choral) past a reviewing stand with appropriate dignitaries, back out onto the road again and through the village. Once that was all done, the local politicians got into their act and the Mayor of Bora-Bora who also happens to be the President of French Polynesia, gave a VERY long winded speech that repeated itself quite a bit. One of the basic truths in this world is that politicians like to hear themselves talk and assume that everyone else does too. The foot race was spectacular. There were maybe 10-12 guys and they had to run a course that had to be a kilometre long, carrying a pole that was 6 feet long and maybe 8 inches in diameter that had fruit tied on to each end. Not just any fruit. They had a full hand of bananas on each end as well as several coconuts on each end. These poles were heavy. By the time they got back to the finish line, they were hurting pretty bad, but everyone made it back. I went down and watched them inspecting the poles after the race and it was taking two officials to pick up and inspect each pole. They then brought out the free beer and pastries for everyone which we took a pass on. The crowds were pretty thick as you can well imagine.

On Tuesday (my birthday), we were in town early and checked out with the Gendarmes and retrieved our bond refunds from the bank. We did the last of our shopping and were back on board by 10:30. A few more chores and a saltwater scrub and we took our last few French francs and headed to the yacht club to enjoy a nice cold beer sitting on the deck looking out over the anchorage. It was great. We had Ann and Barry over for dinner and also invited Glenn and Marilyn from another Canadian boat called Tin Soldier. Glenn and Marilyn only stayed for a drink but it was great of them to come over. Ann made me a birthday cake which was way cool and Cathy prepared an awesome roast lamb dinner. I'll likely always remember turning 47 in Bora Bora.

We pulled up anchor this morning around 09:30 and said goodbye to French Polynesia. We are heading for Niue and hope to get there in 8 days or so. It's just over a thousand miles. We motored for the first couple of hours and then the wind came in enough to sail for the next few. It died out and we have been under power for the past 6 hours. There are clouds forming as I write so I am hoping to see some wind in the next few hours. It will come!! I think we must have got some bad fuel somewhere as we have been going through fuel filters at a great rate. The engine quit about an hour and half ago and once again it was a plugged filter. I'm really glad we spent the money in San Francisco and got the dual Racor fuel filters. A flick of a lever and you are up and running on the other filter and then you can change the plugged one while you continue on your merry way. Hopefully we are getting the last of the gunk out of the tanks now.
Sunday July 13, 2008 Bora-Bora Yacht Club
We moved from Bloody Marys to the Bora-Bora Yacht Club on Friday. There are new owners and they are in the process of fixing it up. There are a few moorings here but we decided to anchor as they charge or moorings here. Moorings are 2000 CFP per night, about $25 dollars but we are trying to conserve a bit, and we have a perfectly good anchor. The weather has been a bit strange with fronts passing through bit not much wind, just occasional gusts. The boats that have left to head west in the past few days have had light winds if they went north towards Suwarrov and those heading to Raratonga are getting 20-25 knots from the SW, right on the nose!! We are looking at leaving here later in the week if the weather settles down they way it has been predicted to. By Wednesday/Thursday the easterly trades look to build back in and stay steady for awhile, maybe long enough to get us to Nuie. Not mush happening around here the past few days, getting the boat back in passage condition after 3 months of short hops. Nuie is 1050 miles so we are looking at 8-10 days depending on the wind. Better wind, faster passage, we'll just have to see.

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