Pitufa.at

We weren’t too lucky when buying veggies and fruit on the market, despite our efforts to get the greenest available from all species we’re already under pressure eating ahead of decay We got more wind than predicted and Pitufa’s pounding close-hauled into high seas (30 knots in the beginning, now down to 20-25), but she’s storming ahead bravely, even though we overloaded her yet again with goodies from the huge supermarkets of Tahiti. We got carried more north than we wanted that way, first course towards Rangiroa, then Apataki, then Toaoa, then Fakarava–all of them winking seductively on the chart, but alas, the bananas are ripening and too much for the two of us with Leeloo refusing to eat any, so we’re trying our best to keep our course towards Tahanea, where friends are waiting for a fruit delivery We saw a whale on the way out from Tahiti and we’re hoping to see some more as we’re now in the middle of the humpback season here. We’re also doing our best to catch some fish (not whales) to put on the BBQ on the beach in Tahanea!

For the first time on our journey we’ve made miles towards the east. Up till now we mainly sailed with the prevailing trades westwards. There’s a saying “a gentleman never sails to windward”, but going back towards the Tuamotus and later on the Gambier should be worth some bashing close-hauled on the wind. We’ll just have to be patient and wait for rare southerly and northerly winds.

First we still have a few errants here in Tahiti: we’ll change some of the rigging, get a new anchor chain (the old one’s terribly rusty), install new engine mounts (they took ages to arrive from the UK), go to the dentist yet again (my old fillings use the opportunity of having dental care in Tahiti to break now, really considerate of them) and last but not least we want to spend some fun time with our friends Liesbet and Mark (SY Irie), who’ve just returned from a battle against cancer in the US and definitely deserve some holidays!

The last few days it’s been sunny and calm, so we tried out some anchorages along the outer reef. Our system of floating the chain over the coral heads with 2 or 3 fenders work nicely in these spots. The barrier reef is great for swimming and we even found some coral heads with a few elk-horn and brain corals still alive.
Yesterday we took another hike to the 3 cascades in Vairahi. It was a real jungle hike with lots of slippery roots and plenty of opportunities to get wet feet or twist an ankle while crossing the creek several times. While Christian gracefully leaped ahead (no idea how he’s doing that) I tottered along slowly and carefully and still managed to get wet feet
After about 2 hours we reached the first waterfall and were quite impressed by the several metre high cascade with a deep, clear pond. The second one expelled the first and the third was absolutely amazing–pictures will follow soon!

The last two days the weather has been gorgeous, a cool breeze and azure blue skies, so we took our dinghy up Faaroa river, the only navigable river in French Polynesia. We passed through lush vegetation, lots of gardens with bananas, bread fruit, papaya, manioc, soursop, etc. A man waved us to his garden and we bought a big stack of bananas, got some papayas for free and a plant we’d never seen before: Iliam – purple and green leaves that are cooked like spinach.
Yesterday we got our backpacks out to get our wobbly limbs moving again. Walking up the road towards a pass we were soon huffing and puffing and decided to hitch-hike up the mountain and to only walk back down. The locals in Raiatea are great and the first car stopped when we struck our thumbs out. Up on the pass we were a bit disappointed, the view wasn’t great, so why not walk down the other side, take a look at the southern coast and hitch back? We walked 5 km down to a lovely bay. There was still quite some traffic, so why not see a bit more of the coast? We got another ride to the next village on the southeast side and a bit beyond where not less than 21 water falls tumble down from the steep mountain (as our driver pointed out when he stopped for a photo session for us ). Now that we were already back on the east coast we thought it’d be easy to hitch back up on the coastal road, but alas, no hitch-hiking without cars. We walked for more than an hour (5 km) without anybody passing by, then a rental car with tourists, but these never stop (maybe thinking something like ‘pay for your own car you hobos’). Finally a local pickup stopped, but it only took us 1 km to the next little village. After walking another 4 km (there’s big signs announcing each km), we finally got lucky: another pick-up stopped and the young Polynesians were willing to take us all the way up to our bay. When we passed a large religious site, they stopped and urged us to visit the marae (ceremonial platform) in Opoa while they waited for us
We saw about 45 km of the island and were quite exhausted, this excursion was a bit more than we had planned for our first day out after the dengue, but it was worth it

Today we got a phone call from the hospital. The results for our dengue tests are definitely positive. The doctor told us that more cases from the carenage area had come up and advised us to warn our friends and fellow cruisers to be extra careful and use mosquito repellent at all times when going ashore.

It’s been two weeks now since we got ill and we feel fine again. We found a cozy spot behind a motu on the outer reef that’s protected by a very shallow reef almost all around, only a narrow, 30 metre deep channel leads in. The weather’s windy and rainy at the moment, but it’s a snug anchorage and we need time anyway to catch up with boat work after our illness.

We didn’t want to worry anybody while we were in the middle of it, but the last week wasn’t funny at all. Christian and I both got 40C fever on Tuesday, together with thundering headaches, backache and pain behind the eyes all seemed to point to Dengue. I searched the internet for emergency numbers (only took me 1/2 an hour to find out that SAMU means emergency number, from then on it was easy…), because with Dengue you always have the potential threat of inner bleedings if it’s a severe case. I called the medical centre in Uturoa (main town of the bigger island) and was reassured that the medical on Tahaa (where we were) had emergency transport. Ooof. OK. Fortunately it wasn’t necessary to call and we just spent our days lying, sweating and eating loads of Paracetamol (painkillers). At some point the batteries of our thermometer gave up and then we ran out of Paracetamol, but each time friendly cruiser neighbours helped us out–I only got suspicious looks when approaching charter boats. We were really glad when our friends Lisa and Charly on SY Bomika came to our help, bringing Paracetamol and provisioning and cooking soup and rice for us
After 3 days the fever got slightly down, but then Christian got diarrhea and I a painful, burning rash, so it seemed to be something else than dengue after all. When I couldn’t stand the rash anymore I called the medical centre in Tahaa for transport but they knew nothing of it, so I had to hitch-hike the 10 km there, not so easy in my shaky condition. The people there were really nice though and my rash got better after two anti-allergic, anti-toxicologic injections.

Today (day we were finally fit enough to get out of bed and sail down to the hospital in Raiatea (slightly ironic, isn’t it?). The doctor was very thorough collecting the details of our story and tomorrow we have an appointment for a blood analysis to find out what was actually wrong with us. If it was dengue we have to be extra careful from now on (the second time would be dangerous), if it was something bacterial we may still have to take antibiotics. We’ll see and let you know.

Leeloo was uncommonly calm and patient during all that time, not molesting us with cry-attacks, just snuggling up with us during the night

Today we felt finally fit enoug

Yesterday we sailed out to an anchorage on the western barrier reef of Tahaa, where we wiggled Pitufa in between coral heads to a shallow sandbank where we anchored with less than 2 m under the keel. At a first glance the place was just perfect: a turquoise swimming pool with Pitufa swaying gently on a short chain that we had buoyed with two fenders to avoid touching coral heads. Behind us four tiny motus with palm trees, the thundering outer reef and further in the background Bora Bora’s impressive silhouette.

Only when we stuck our heads under the water we were slightly disappointed. Just like in Moorea and on the other side of Tahaa we found mostly dead coral, overgrown with some algae and lots of sea urchins, but hardly any fish (apparently there is not much Ciguatera and so the lagoon is fished empty). Today we took the dinghy to the famous ‘coral garden’ in the channel between the biggest motu (with a fancy hotel on it) and the next island. This snorkel area’s highly recommended in guide books and it’s true, there are lots of fishies in the area and at least some live coral as well. Unfortunately there seems to be no awareness of environment protection: the sight of hordes of tourists trampling over the corals, touching everything while swimming and thoughtlessly kicking the delicate structures was sad though. Even worse is that they were accompanied by local guides who acted just the same.
If they keep acting this way they’ll soon have the last coral remnants destroyed. If they aren’t interested in protecting the environment for its own sake, they should at least realise that it’s the main tourist attraction and protect their source of income.