Its been a While!

Just when you all thought that Legend IV had sailed into a black hole, I return to blog once more
and hope that anyone out there still cares!

 My only excuse for the silence is that we have been having a good time and sometimes its better to live the moments rather than to take time out to write about them.

Taking up from where I left off in Bora Bora..

New Cockpit Cushions -Handmade Gift from Helen-Thank You

From here we were headed for Tonga. We left early in  the morning after the Oyster Party at Bloody Mary's. The Oyster parties get wilder and wilder as we go further west and the fleet lets its hair further and further down.

Rumour has it that an average of 2 bottles of wine was consumed by each person at this particular  party. I probably skewed the average as usual but hopefully no one remember this. I certainly don't.

Oyster fleet quietly at anchor in Bora Bora...calm before the storm.

After this fracas, we sailed soberly across the Pacific for 7 days, in a  hurry to get to our next port. The reason for the haste was the fact that Ryan and Nicole were due to meet us in Tonga.

We had miscalculated how long it would take us to get there...foolishly forgetting that we were going to sail across the   International date line at 173 degrees west. This line of latitude has now stolen 2 days from our lives. The first one in 1988 was not  sorely missed but considering that we are now on the   downhill side of middle age we are now reluctant to surrender even one minute of our golden years.

Full Moon setting as we cross the International Date Line

We needn't have hurried  though, Nic and Ryan arrived almost 3 days late. Their flight from Johannesburg to Sydney was delayed by 24 hours and all their complicated connections fell to pieces leaving their impatient parents champing (or is it chomping?) at the bit to see them after 5 months.

Coming into Tonga 25years ago..who is this young lady?

Tried to get the old lady to pose in exactly the same spot on our way in this time.

Ryan had just finished his final exams at Edinburgh so he was ready for some sun. Nic is on a short gap before she starts at the Pratt Institute of Design in New York in August.. Looks like we have instilled a wanderlust in both of them!

Proud Dad welcoming pale Chicks back into the nest

Tonga was marvellous and it was wonderful to have Ryan and Nic back on board.

We tried out the outdoor adventures on offer...go karting....

Power kayaking...

Cave diving....

Some activities were more successful than others!

There were Tongan feasts to enjoy....pigs on spits...

And pigs in restaurants..

Fish to catch...

Beautiful sailing..

Sundowners to share...

Friendly locals and good markets if you like yams...

And of course the obligatory enthusiastic Polynesian dancers.

Stunning Society Islands

From the Tuamotus we headed for Tahiti..."The Cartier of holiday destinations" according to one of our tour guides. He coined  this phrase in his explanation for the fact that many of the 5 star hotel resorts on the island have gone out of business in the face of the current economic crisis.

Troubled Paradise.

Crisis or no crisis, the Society Islands are true gems. We spent 3 weeks in the area, enjoying one marvellous anchorage after the next in the company of our friends Keith and Lindy...who had braved the mammoth journey from Cape Town via New Zealand to taste this tropical treasure.

Lindy shopping for Grass skirts in Papeete Market.

Our boom had been admirably repaired by Eddie, the Oyster Doctor, as soon as we arrived in Tahiti so Legend IV is now in ship shape and, fingers crossed, will remain so all the way back to Antigua!

Cook Bay, Moorea...Legend back in business.

For good measure, Oyster arranged to have the skippers of the fleet blessed by a Tahitian priest..just to cover all the bases and to keep the wind Gods smiling gently and sweetly on us all!

Feeling a little self conscious Skip?

 

The Big Kahuna busy anointing.


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 Continuing my geography lesson of the previous blog, the Society Islands are middle aged in geological terms. They consist of volcanic inner islands  surrounded by coral reefs..the best of both worlds...much the same as a  middle aged man?

Middle aged man in search of surf spots!

I could go on for hours about the Society Isles..we are in Bora Bora at the moment. "The Pearl of the Pacific" according to Captain Cook. 

Sailing into Bora Bora..Keith checking to see if surf's up.

We toured the island on a motorbike...ate at Bloody Mary's (twice). ..AND.... Al bought me a fabulous pair of black pearl earrings...embellished with diamonds! So it was worth the wait and all is forgiven....Thanks Skip!

Magical Atoll Idle/Idyll

The Islands of French Polynesia present a spectacular contrast from one group to another.

There are 5 separate groups, each characterised by geographic features which reflect the geological age of the group.

Niku Hiva, Marquesas-breathtaking scenery.

Our first port of call,  the  Marquesas islands, consist of volcanic outcrops,  not yet old enough to have had coral reefs develop around them. The islands are steep sided with deep anchorages in bays which are formed mainly by collapsed craters.

Four and twenty Blackbirds enjoying the Polynesian scenery along with Legend.

The next group on our route, the Tuamotu's,  are the most ancient of the French Islands. The Volcanoes have eroded away leaving only the coral reefs which surround them. The reefs now form a ring of coral outcrops and small islands around a lagoon.

Rangiroa Lagoon- Tuomotes- Palm Island fringes

The lagoons are accessed by passes, large and small, terrifying and placid, which need to be negotiated in order to enter the shelter of the shallow, sandy anchorages therein.

Al and I used our week in the Tuamotu's atolls to rest and relax after the Pacific passage.

We swam and snorkeled with sharks and rays and colourful fish in coral gardens, read our books, ate at restaurants large and small, went for walks and the toughest test of our mettle was the odd bicycle trip around the sandy islands.

Brompton folding bikes circumnavigating the globe....

We finished our idyllic sojourn with a visit to a Black pearl farm..where poor Al misread my words...which stated that I wasn't "that keen on black pearls".

 He didn't get the real message ..("I'd love some black pearls but am waiting to see if you care enough to buy them for me.") and when he didn't actually buy any for me, I sulked for an ungracious week!

I had to wait until Bora Bora before he got the mixed signals and unvoiced sentiments.. but he did come through in the end..... Watch this space.

Beautiful black pearl and a dud....bit of a gamble considering both oysters required 5 years of nurturing.

Pearl farmer tending his crop.

Husband of sulking wife wondering what he has done wrong!

Niku Hiva Marquesas- The Land that Time almost forgot.

TAIOHAE BAY -The remains of an extinct volcanic crater

After 18 days at sea we finally arrived safely and relatively sanely in Taiohae Bay, Niku Hiva.

Add caption

Land Ho-Clean Shaven Skipper.


If you are looking for the Marquesas  in an atlas (does any one do that any more?) they are always missing because the publishers seem to think its a waste of ink to include those few dots in the middle of all that blue Pacific Ocean so they end the page somewhere to the east or west of them. Essentially this part of French Polynesia is one of the furthest archipelagos from any landmass on earth.

The islands are a visual feast of enormous volcanic peaks and lush valleys. Our cameras were constantly on the panoramic function, focusing on one magnificent view after the next.

We spent a week in this paradise. We were careful to be polite the locals. The islands were hotbeds of Cannibalism a few centuries ago and we had no wish to be the "long pigs" on anyone's buffet table!

 

'If you're very good, I'll save you a piece of the fat one in the white hat.'

In fact the locals were nothing but friendly and welcoming and the bureaucracy was nonexistent so we were relieved that the fierce tattoos covering most of them, male and female, were only fashion statements and not statements of murderous intent.

Oyster Owner Alan with painfully fresh tattoo blending in with  the locals-whatever will his children say?

Niku Hiva could quite well have been the Eden that Adam and Eve so thoughtlessly abandoned .The island is lush and spectacularly green and the trees are laden with fruit and flowers of all descriptions.

Biodegradable shopping bag.

Pampelmousse-enormous sweet grapefruits- a speciality of the Marquesas.



DNA testing has proved that the fore fathers of today's Polynesian people hailed from Asia-probably Taiwan. They certainly got much bigger and stronger after paddling all that way! Most of the men and older women are enormous.

We took a fascinating day tour with  a guide who was incredibly knowledgeable about the island's flora and fauna and history.

Ancient Fossils

Enormous Banyan Tree which was decorated with skulls of enemies and ancestors in ancient ceremonies.

Bone Pit on Ancient Altar...the skeleton of a 19th Century French soldier complete with Tricorn hat was unearthed recently.

The Marquesians pride themselves on their hose riding prowess.

Oyster arranged a marvellous party to welcome us to the Marquesas and we were lavishly fed and  entertained by the locals.  Goat and chicken baked in an earth oven were the highlight of the feast..the raw mud crabs didn't go down as well...

The Haka featured several times in the male dancing routines and the frightening sight of the tattooed warriors  would instill terror into even the most fearless All Black rugby player out there.

 

Budding Warrior -Hair stylishly gelled!

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Luckily for the All Blacks, and the Springboks, the Marquesians are not into rugby and prefer dancing!

Things get Better...almost there!

We are now almost at the end of  our Pacific passage. We have 2 or 3 more days to go depending on the wind and the morale on board has improved somewhat now that it appears that the boom is stable.

We are however going a little stir crazy.

Al has grown a beard and for the first time today "caught food in it!"  For some reason he seems to think that this is  remarkable. He has never had a beard before and it's all pretty ghastly...the beard and the food in it!

Who is this man?!

 A sunrise to inspire.

As Al gets more philosophical, I get tougher..managing the guys  for the spinnaker pole!

Mean squall on radar...Legend IV in the middle.

Sodden, bearded skipper watching squalls on radar.

Mean Squall on the horizon.

Sunset on our last night at sea before the Marquesas.

On a more esoteric note, I am meditating at sunrise and coming up with all sorts of profound contemplations...something like "the sea is breathing for the earth' seemed to be significant this morning but the insights been better!

Actually Al waxed lyrical in the log last night...

"WE SEEM TO BE FLYING OVER THE CRESTS OF THE WAVES ON THE WINGS OF A GREAT WHITE BIRD."

Could  the beard be altering his personality?

Every morning and evening we listen to to the roll call of the Oyster fleet and catch up with the positions and wind and sea conditions of the boats on the rally as they make their way to the Marquesas.

Several boats are very near to us according to the roll call but we have seen none of the fleet and only 3 fishing boats in the entire 2 weeks that we have been at sea.

Al and I keep a good watch at sea and  one of us is on deck at virtually all times of the day and night. We do shifts of about 4 hours on and 4 hours off 24/7.

After 2 weeks of no one and nothing out there, it seems tempting to turn on the lights and go to sleep at sundown...and to hope that other boats are keeping a good watch.

NEXT DAY
Sod's law...I stopped blogging last night in order to help Al deal with several murderous looking squalls hitting us one after the other.

The boat was sodden and being a fair weather sailor supreme, I huddled pitifully in the cockpit during my watch trying desperately to keep dry and to see what was happening out in the pitch black night.

The skies cleared for a few minutes and who should be within alarmingly close range of us but one of the other Oysters.

I called our exhausted skipper up on deck and he cursed me soundly/roundly while turning on the engine and motoring away from what he maintains was a sure collision.

A potential crisis  averted but yet another dent  was made in our fond recollections of the "float across the pond" we enjoyed back in '87,

As a matter of fact however,   when I actually got down to reading our log from the first trip, I see my perception of this passage all those years ago was completely wrong. That trip  wasn't that great  either....there is an entry in the log that states..

"WILL THERE EVER BE AN END TO THIS INFERNAL BATTLE WITH THE WIND AND WAVES! AN END THAT INCLUDES A HOUSE ON TERRA FIRMA ..PREFERABLY ONE IN CAMPS BAY PLEASE!"

Well 25 years  and several houses later, including one in Camps Bay, I can safely say that there could possibly be magical power in heartfelt wishes written in a log at sea.

I think I had better be more specific in the log in future..."SEAT 1A ON THAT 747 PLEASE!"