We’re slowly going through our list of projects, replaced the old, rusty engine mounts, cleaned engine and bilge thoroughly and finally got the stays from the rigger (incredible after a 3 month long battle). Now we’ve started to get the stays back up, a task that’s not made easier by the squally weather we’ve been having recently.
We’ve stopped using the slow bus system and succesfully hitch rides not just to the shops in town, but even for longer trips around the island. Hitching rides not only saves quite a lot of time and money, but it’s also a funny way of meeting people (a university professor held a lecture about an Austrian inventor we’d never heard of, a Mormon sang hymns while driving, etc.) and many times people make detours to set us off exactly where we’re headed. Last week we set out with Liesbet and Mark (Irie) to a hike to 3 waterfalls on the northern side of Tahiti. We split up (as it’s not very likely that someone picks up a big group) and met up at the starting point of the hike. After only about half an hour we reached the impressively high waterfalls. As it was still early we stopped at Point Venus on the way back, where Captain Cook built an observatory to watch the transit of Venus in order to determine the distance between the sun and the Earth in 1769. Today there’s a lighthouse and a popular beach inside Matavai bay, where Captain Cook spent much time. Later on Captain Bligh anchored the Bounty here while the crew of the Bounty collected bread fruit plants and had such a good time with the islanders that they weren’t keen on heading back to England at all (the mutiny happened after they left Tahiti).
