Pitufa.at

Last year we visited the 2 week long culture and dance festival in the Gambier where only two dance groups competed, but there was something going on every day and the whole village came to the foodstands and activities. Everything was for free, but on a rather small scale – no wonder with only 1000 people living there and hardly any tourists.
This year we expected a huge festival in Tahiti, but there doesn’t seem to be going on a lot apart from the (expensive) shows in the stadium. Maybe we also missed out on a few things because the two anchorages around Papeete are both far out of town.
Anyway, yesterday we went to an evening show: in the beginning we were a bit disappointed, because the spectators are far away from the dancers on a tribune and you’re not allowed to wander around. The first group didn’t seem any better than we had experienced during the small festival in Rikitea. The second group consisted of professional dancers, they won last year and apparently will win again this year. They were really great and worth the 18 euros per ticket!

… seems impossible at times and is immensely frustrating. Everybody knows that they have a monopoly on whatever trade they’re in and we spend most days running after people trying to persuade them to take our money. The last boatyard we were in was extremely unfriendly and dirty (Technimarine in Papeete) and as we have to haul out another time we tried to get hold of the other yard further south (TNC in Port Phaeton). What a suprise that a professional boatyard neither answers to emails nor answers the phone. In the end we made an appointment in Raiatea for the haul out.

Another good example is the rigger (Api yachting): Pitufa needs some new rigging and we visited the rigger in his loft at the beginning of June. He told us to write an email with details and to order immediately afterwards and to have everything ready within 3 weeks. He never answered to our emails, ignored phone calls, came up with lame excuses (of course i answered your email, didn’t you get it…). Now he’s finally sent a quote, but it turns out that he only orders after a deposit of 60% has been made (more than 1000 euros), but he’s only got a polynesian bank account (our bank doesn’t even have an internet form for such a transaction) or cash payment. Why couldn’t he have told us before, when we were almost daily in town? As we have to leave for Raiatea tomorrow (later on the wind shifts to the north and it’s impossible to go) the only option was to visit him personally this afternoon. By bus/hitching rides it’s an odyssee to town and you never know how long it’ll take so Christian took the dinghy to make sure to still catch him. 5 miles along the lagoon in our little dingsy were quite an epic journey, but now the deposit’s done, let’s see how long it’ll take until we actually get the wires…

Hopefully the ordering will work out, t

The second part of our article about the Gambier islands isn’t published in the july/august, but in the september/october issue. Sorry, we mixed that up.

We’ve just added a few more pics to the Moorea gallery.

This visit to Moorea was less sporty than planned, because it poured down during the first week and the rain turned the footpaths into red-dirt-mudslides–no good for hiking. When the weather turned sunny we tackled the highest summit on the northern coast, Mt. Rotui, but the descent turned out to be too steep, slippery and hot for us (only shrubs and ferns grow on the slope and they provide no shadow at all). We gave up after about two thirds of the way, but at that height the views from the precariously narrow path that leads along the ridge were already great.

Today we used the northerly wind (quite an exception here) for a fast sail back to Tahiti where we’re now parked in the huge anchoring field off Marina Taina.

Time flies by and today we celebrate another cruising anniversary: we’ve already spent 3 years cruising the world on our floating home and we still haven’t grown tired of it
This year’s statistics don’t look as spectacular as the last ones, as we’ve ‘only’ been around French Polynesia:

Visited country: 1
Islands: 11
Nautical miles: about 3000
Days on passage: 30
Expenses: EUR 18,680, of which EUR 8,960 (48%) for boat repairs and new equipment.

Hiking with surprise effect

After finishing the watermaker project (we produce potable water again!!), we did some more hiking on Moorea. There are many paths all over the island, clearly marked, well kept, but lacking one essential feature: signs that reveal the destination of a path. The descriptions in the tourist brochure are also vague and we suspect that tourists are encouraged to do something for the economy and hire a guide… We rather explore without paid company, even though that’s a bit risky. Yesterday we walked up to the Belvedere again and then into a path on the right. It took us down into the valley and then steeply up to the ridge of the mountain chain which is the remainder of a huge caldera all over the island. We got an impressive view of the northern and southern coast with the fringing reef. Up there, a sign informed us that we were at the 3 coconut’s pass. Hmm, a pass? That should mean that continuing down the other side of the ridge would take us to the southern coast. Right? We gambled and walked down the steep path always fearing that it could lead to yet another ascent instead, but we were lucky and reached the south coast through a wonderfully lush valley with several streams and waterfalls.

The return way along the coastal road was 22 km, too far too walk and it seems no buses run around the island that direction (just to the ferry terminal in the east), so we just stuck out our thumbs, hoping to catch a ride as quickly as on other Polynesian islands. But despite the heavy traffic nobody stopped. White faces, local faces, all staring at us, most alone in the car, but none of them interested in helping a tourist out. After almost an hour a little car stopped. The retired schoolteacher was sad to hear about her unfriendly fellow islanders, told us about the school system (there’s 7 primary schools, older pupils take the ferry to Tahiti at 4 o’clock in the morning and get back in the evening) and took us all the way back to Opunohu, despite the fact that she lived on the other side of the island. So we were lucky in the end

The past days have been quite an emotional rollercoaster. Monday morning the bearing arrived at the shop (yippee), but then Christian and Adrian spent a frustrating day hanging head first in the engine compartment, trying to wiggle parts together. Imagine the scene: two sweating, swearing guys lying on the floor, each one stuck with head, one shoulder and one arm in the engine, barely able to reach the things with one hand. (There’s never enough room around engine on sailing boats. Adrian suggested that every boat should carry a gnome taped to the end of a long stick…) There was lots of dirty talking going on (stick it in! harder! no, stop, put more vaseline…), but in the evening they were running out of time with the connection still not done. Knowing that we had an appointment to get the boat into the water in the afternoon, work started at 6 o’clock in the next morning. By ten the thrustbearing and its housing was in place, but the CV joints wouldn’t go in–there just wasn’t enough space. Fearing that we’d have to remove the engine to get them in we fixed a pulley to the mast trying to pull the engine block far enough to get them in–still a few millimetres missing. They undid the engine mounts, pulled again–and finally all parts were in. At 1 o’clock Pitufa was hanging in the belts under the crane, at 2 we got into the water–quickly, check under the engine: no water coming in, hurray! Then we started the engine and suddenly water trickled in from the exhaust. Shit! Tell the crane people we need more time, fasten the hoseclamps even more (always fearing to break them) and finally the flow stopped. Another scary moments followed when we put the engine into gear, but everything held and Pitufa could finally float into freedom again