Pitufa.at

A weather window to sail to the Gambier has come up and we leave lovely Rapa Iti tonight. We are a bit sad, because we had such a great time here, but it’ll also be nice to sail towards warmer weather. 570 nm to go!

The low passed by as quickly as predicted: yesterday morning we had 25 knots from the east (still calm waters even though the bay is open to the east), at noon 35 knots sustained (some chop built up, but nothing spectacular) and in the evening the wind turned southeast and calmed a bit down, but since then we’ve had gusts over the mountains, some up to 45 knots and so sudden that little waterhoses are whipped up and the dinghy was flipped over floating behind the boat on its painter–fortunately we had taken the outboard, the floorboards and the oars out…

Our preparations were more serious than the wind turned out to be, but we wanted to be on the safe side. A further benefit of taking the sails, the rain canvas, the bimini and the pitufa-banners down was that we were able to service them, repair some tears and restitch some seams. Tomorrow things should calm down enough to get everything back up–including the potted plants that sit at the moment as refugees in the saloon.

Rapa’s a great little island with beautiful nature and wonderful people, but weather-wise it’s rather unfortunate…

It’s located outside the tropics and also outside the trade-wind belt. Variable winds prevail the whole year round which makes it somewhat difficult for sailboats to visit. In July and August the temperatures go down to 10 degrees with winter storms battering the lonely little rock.

The summer is short (only 3 months from end of December to March) and on top of that it happens to be the rainy season During these months the SPCZ (South Pacific Convergence Zone) likes to linger over the Austral Islands and they lie in the path of troughs and depressions that move along this zone towards the Southeast.

One of these lows is predicted to pass Rapa tomorrow, so we’re preparing the boat today for strong winds. We have removed both foresails, taken the bimini down and removed some other items to reduce windage and to keep bits from taking off. We’ve already had some violent gusts over the last weeks, so the anchor should be nicely set. Each forecast predicts different wind directions (depending on how close by the system passes), but the bay is enclosed by high mountains and the entrance to the east is protected by a wide reef, so the sea should remain rather calm. The high mountains result in acceleration zones and gusts that thunder down the slopes from different directions.

Rapa Iti (the old name is Oparo) was colonised by Polynesian settlers about 1000 years ago (sources vary on that). The limited resources of the small island (Rapa is only 40 km2 big, but most of that land area is rugged and mountainous) led to conflicts among the growing population and the construction of 15 fortresses on the hilltops. When the island was discovered by Europeans in the 18th century more than 2000 people lived on the island, but with the European ships diseases and alcohol were introduced and the population dwindled to only 120 by the middle of the 19th century.

Today the population is about 500 people, but many islanders have moved to Tahiti or other bigger islands to work there. The people are proud of their history and have managed to keep a special status within the French administration. Rapa is autonomous in many areas and next to the ‘maire’ (mayor) the ‘council of 7′ (Tohitu) makes decisions where land or culture are concerned.

The remnants of the fortresses are still visible along the rim of the main caldera and well maintained paths lead to 3 of them. So far we have hiked to Morongo Uta and Tevaitahu. Only some stone walls remain, but the impressive views over the main bay and the opposite coastline are worth the effort of climbing up. At the height of the ancient Polynesian civilisation the island was deforested, later on pines and other trees and shrubs were introduced and endemic ferns have regrown as well, so nowadays the overall impression is lush and green again, even though many of the steeper slopes have remainded barren.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a healthy, interesting, and successful year 2018!

Sunny days have been rare so far, so whenever the sun comes out we try to use the nice weather as actively as possible.
On Monday we went ashore to see the freighter arrive. It was a big spectacle as it didn’t only bring new provisions, but also the island’s kids who attend school in Tahiti or Tubuai and only come home during the longer holidays, so it was quite an emotional event with all those family reunions. Everybody was wearing beautifully woven flower wreaths on their heads and the arrivals (loaded with bags, christmas presents) were greeted with more wreaths over their shoulders.

For today the weather forecast had predicted sunny skies again, so we started the day at 6, had the washing done by 7, were ashore at 8, up on the summit of Morongo Uta (one of the higher mountains with some remnants of an ancient fortress on top) at 10 and at 11.30 we were back in the village to see the Christmas celebration of the primary school kids who had prepared songs and dances for this event.

I know we’re always praising the friendliness of the Polynesians, but the people of Rapa take this hospitality to yet a new level. It seems everybody we meet gives us fruit, invites us to their homes, offers the use of internet and even washing machines… If it wasn’t for the weather we might easily be tempted to build a mooring here and stay

Rapa Iti is the remotest island of French Polynesia. There is no airport, the cargo ship only comes once a month (sometimes it skips a visit…) and Raivavae, the nearest neighbouring island, lies 290 nm away. The anchorage inside the huge main bay of Rapa is well protected from waves, but gusts howl down from the mountains whenever there are strong winds–and that seems to be most of the time

The only two villages of the island lie on the sides of the bay and we used a brief break in the rain to visit both of them yesterday. We are anchored next to Area which is just a cluster of houses (a bit more than 100 people live here) and the main village Haurei (about 400 people) is about half a mile away. That’s where the primary school, the medical centre, the townhall and 3 minimarkets are located. We went to check in with the (only) policeman who opened his office on a Saturday for us. He told us that 2017 only 11 sailboats stopped in Rapa Iti (at the moment Pitufa’s the only boat here), so visitors get an extra-warm welcome here, which makes up for the cool climate: in winter the temperature goes down to 10 degrees and even now in summer we’re wearing long sleeves and socks while the cold front that still lingers brings howling winds and heavy rain to the island.

We met a French catamaran in Raivavae who had been in Rapa before and the friendly couple loaded Pitufa with pineapples for their friends here in Rapa. As they all got ripe during the passage we had to deliver them yesterday despite the rainy weather, so we’ve already made friends in both villages and returned to Pitufa loaded with peaches, bananas, fresh bread, popoi (a paste made from taro roots) and guava syrup

The weather’s still nasty, we’ve managed to do a short hike during a sunny spell on Saturday, but apart from that we’ve been at home working on boat projects, while it’s pouring down outside.
Fortunately we’ve already explored the island thoroughly during our first visit here 2 years ago, so we’re not missing out on anything new.

The Austral Islands are the southernmost island group of French Polynesia. Raivavae is just below the tropic of Capricorn, Rapa Iti even further down at the latitude of 27°35′. The Southern summer is the most pleasant time to visit these remote islands.