Pitufa.at

Instead of grinding down our nerves sitting on the boat in Rikitea while waiting for the right weather to leave we have now decided to seize our remaining days in the Gambier. We have sailed over to Taravai, visited the village caretakers again, got some veggies and fruit, did some laundry and enjoyed a sunny afternoon on Pitufa. +++++++++++++++++++ Anstatt sinnlos herumzusitzen und unsere Nerven beim Warten auf das richtige Wetter zum Wegsegeln aufzureiben, haben wir jetzt beschlossen, das beste aus unseren verbleibenden Tagen auf den Gambier zu machen. Wir sind nach Taravai gesegelt, haben die Dorf-Instandhalterfamilie wieder besucht, Gemuese und Fruechte bekommen, Waesche gewaschen und einen sonnigen Nachmittag auf Pitufa genossen.

Our word of the month is definitely ‘weather window’. The weather changes so quickly here that it’s even hard to find a sunny spell that’s long enough to quickly go ashore, or just have a shower… we’re constantly waiting for ‘weather windows’ to get things done, get ‘grib files’ (wind prediction charts) every 6 hours. Slowly we’re wondering if we can’t find a weatherwindow to buy Baguettes, how should we ever make it to the Tuamotus or the Marquesas?? One winter storm after the other wanders by south of the Gambier bringing very strong southerly winds, then the wind clocks around to the north, another low arrives with southerly winds–the wind seems never constant enough to allow us to go north.
Our friends on Irie were just as undecided as we are, but they have finally left yesterday for the Marquesas. We were also tempted, but the wind just looks too light for Pitufa (our smurfette’s got 14 tons, little Irie about 4…). This morning we wanted to hop over to Taravai (just 6 milrd), but then spontaneously got the boat ready for the passage (the grib promised some more wind). At 9 we were ready to go (dinghy on deck, Leeloo high on seasickness medicine, etc.), got a final grib: less wind predicted. We didn’t want to take the risk to lie becalmed on the way up, but by then the tide was too low to go over to Taravai as well (shallow entrance).
After 5 times back and forth ‘let’s go to Taravai, no Marquesas, no Taravai,…’ we’re again sitting in Rikitea and the mood is VERY low on Pitufa. Tomorrow the game will start again–hopefully with more outcome.

For days we’ve had the wind howling over the boat with around 30 knots, frequent squalls and freaky changes of weather. Black clouds rush in, rain whips horizontally along, 5 minutes later blue skies follow and so on… Trips ashore become adventurous, just going to get a baguette in the morning requires putting on full foul weather gear and we’re both sneezing and sniffling all the time. We can’t wait to get away, but the last front was too violent for us to venture out (6m high waves) and if we arrived in our next destinations in such conditions we wouldn’t be able to enter the lagoon anyway. We’d like stop in the Tuamotus on the way to the Marquesas. The Tuamotus are a chain of tiny atolls that stretch out from here to Tahiti, but most motus are just a ring of coral with some palmtrees on and only one or two channels into the lagoon. Getting the timing right to enter the lagoon is tricky even in calm conditions, but when the wind has been blowing hard for a few days the high waves fill up the lagoon and the current in the channel can get too strong for a sailing boat to enter.

The weather forecast predicts the end of the stormy weather for tomorrow, but unfortunately then the wind will drop below 10 knots for several days–not enough to carry Pitufa away under sails. We’ll have to wait for the next southerly winds from the south and hope that it won’t be a strong as the last one.

We used the sunny weather yesterday to hike up Mount Duff, the highest summit of the Gambier (441 m). The hike was quite steep, but we were rewarded with incredible views of the whole archipelago. Today the weather’s back to ‘normal’ winter weather with dark clouds, lots of rain and ferocious gusts. We’re finally growing tired of the cold and are discussing moving north to more pleasant temperatures soon.

The festival here in Rikitea has been going on for a week. Unfortunately we missed a few days because of the terrible weather, but two days ago the wind died down, the sun came out again and we could go out for activities again. Now the serious competitions start: yesterday the theme for the two competing dance groups was Mangarevan dance–they both danced different stories and legends from the local history, depicting ships, battles and love stories (one reminded us of Helena and the siege and battles between the Greeks and Trojans . The costumes and dances seemed very archaic, the dancers looking like fully grown shrubs and lots of foot stamping. Today’s competition will be on Tahitian dance – we except lots of hip wiggling from the girls and knee wobbling from the guys

On Friday we came back to Mangareva for the annual cultural festival. This festival’s the most important event of the year here, it lasts two weeks, there are lovingly decorated food stands and each day some event is scheduled. The two competing dance groups of the island have practiced every day for two months (we heard them drumming every night and checked on their progress a few times) so they’re quite good and they’ve made pretty costumes and a complicated choreography. They danced yesterday and there will be a competition at the end of next week and tonight Mr. and Miss Mangareva will be elected

Unfortunately, a front is slowly moving over the Gambiers and it is damn cold, pouring down like crazy, and blowing hard. For tomorrow even gale-force winds are predicted, so dinghy rides to watch the performances ashore take some preparation and dedication…

Usually the cruising yachts are evenly distributed around the many anchorages in the archipelago, but at the moment everybody’s come back to Rikitea for the festival, so it’s quite crowded (more than 20 yachts), but the holding’s great, so there shouldn’t be any problem even in gale force winds.

During our second stay in Taravai we anchored in the southern bay, because we wanted to visit the few families who live here. We did several dinghy excursion, were received with Polynesian hospitality, talked to the people and heard lots of interesting stories.

There’s an abandoned village on the eastern side of the island. Only one family lives here als caretakers. Herve and Valerie maintain the church and the houses and take care of the gardens. They’re happy to have visitors, we were invited for a cup of tea and as they both speak good English (a rarety here) it was informative talking to them and by far less demanding than our usual efforts in bad French mixed with mime. There used to be a real village here, but during the last 25 years the population slowly moved to Mangareva, drawn there by the possibility to make money with pearlfarming. Only on the weekends some of them come here. Valerie teaches their two kids herself using French material and she’s also an artist: she uses the multicoloured sand of the island to make pictures with traditional motives. They’re happy in their little paradise and only take their boat to Rikitea to go shopping–they think it’s too hectic and noisy in town (Rikitea has less than 1000 inhabitants ). We brought a book for the older son and cookies for the younger one and left loaded heavily with fruit and veggies.

A bit outside the village we met Didier, a French cruiser who came here 10 years ago on a rusty steel boat. He stayed, got a house, the boat slowly dissolved, but now he’s got a new one and plans on going cruising again. Didier’s dog accompanied him on his journeys, enjoyed life on Taravai, but now he’s 18 years old, can barely walk anymore and so Didier waits with his departure until his long-time companion leaves on his own journey to doggy-heaven.

Edouard and Denise have cleared some land in the south of the island and have built a pretty house there, where they live with their little granddaughter. I call out ‘Enakoto! Peeakoto’ (Hello, how are you?) as we land the dinghy, eager to use my newly acquired Mangarevan vocabulary (Valerie taught me some phrases). Denise only shakes her head and answers in French–she’s from the Tuamotus and speaks Tahitian, also a polynesian language, but very different. We write into their guestbook, buy a necklace made of shells and head back to Pitufa with the dinghy filled up with basil, mint and rosemary.

The house of Herve’s aunt stands on the little island Agakauitai south of Taravai. Auntie only visits ocassionally, the three permanent residents live underneath the house: three piggies who run out squealing and grunting when a dinghy arrives. After a short period of uncertainty it became clear that they’re not aggressive but happy to have visitors. They want to be scratched behind their ears and have their bellies stroked.

Strong winds out of the northeast put an end to our excursion. The island protects us from waves, but the wind howls in short gusts around the cape and down from the mountains. First it’s perfectly calm, then the wind howls towards us with up to 50 knots, beats up the spray from the crests of the chop, spins Pitufa’s bow around and pushes her on the side only to calm down a few minutes later. The situation’s uncomfortable, but not dangerous, as we have 70 metres of chain out and a very trustworthy anchor. We use the calm weather that follows the northerly wind to move back to Mangareva.