still cruising in French Polynesia

Hellooooo out there....yes, we are still afloat and enjoying ourselves in French Polynesia. Since our last blog, over a month ago, we sailed from Tahanea, Tuamotus to Tahiti (in a few days) where we picked up Lori's parents, then sailed to Moorea with 70 other boats in a rally and 3 day celebration put on by the bureau of tourism of French Polynesia and Lattitude 38 (a sailing magazine/organization out of California). The Tahiti tourism board was very gracious in organizing an awesome welcoming party with cultural demonstrations, dance performances, and all kinds of fun activities, including free alcohol!. At the opening party in Tahiti they had a live band with music we could dance to and a few important government officials came out to greet us. The best part though, was all the free food and booze. It was hilarious to watch all the cruisers, after eating canned food for months and having to ration their alcohol across oceans, completely remove all hors devours (sp?) from the hostesses before they could even make it out from behind the serving tables. You would think some people had more than two arms the amount of drinks they could carry off. We wish we could say we behaved ourselves, but we too joined the mob scene. The next day we all sailed together to Moorea, about 4 hours away, where they greeted the boats from their outrigger canoes and had a dance performance on the beach. Finding a spot to anchor amongst the other 69 boats was like vying for the last free cocktail at the serving booth so we decided to anchor away from the fray inside Opunohu Bay. The final day of the Rondesvouz we formed teams with other cruisers and competed in an outrigger canoe race, a rock lifting competition, a relay race carrying a bamboo pole with a bunch of bananas hanging from each end, and a coconut husking competition where we were taught how to break open a coconut, scrape the meat out into a cloth and squeeze the cloth to make coconut milk. Chris and Lori's dad had a great time participating in the competition while Lori and her mom took pictures and cheered them on from the side lines. After a couple of weeks in Moorea, and an exciting early morning awakening of another boat dragging in to us in the middle of the night, we motored (because there was no wind) overnight to the next island to the west, Huahine, which has been our second favorite destination so far. We anchored in a beautiful bay on the south western side that had white sand beaches, crystal clear water, and good snorkeling. Chris's parents came out to visit us for a week and we had a wonderful time exploring the island and eating yummy French Tahitian food at a couple of excellent beach side restaurants near the boat. Our first night in Huahine, one of the locals, named Teiria, paddled out to chat with us in his outrigger canoe. He spoke about the same amount of English as we speak Tahitian, so after a couple of hours of hand signals, cave man conversation and exchanging conch shells for abalone shells, we had a new friend. A couple of days later, we were getting ready to go snorkeling in the morning when Teiria and his friend Nui paddeled over to the boat. They asked us if we were going somewhere, because they had spent the entire morning cooking breadfruit over a fire, squeezing fresh coconut juice, and making poison crue (raw fish with onion, lime and coconut milk) and taro for us. We looked down in in to the outrigger canoe and saw an entire crate of steaming colorful food and a sack of freshly husked coconuts filled with refreshing coco water to wash it all down. We thankfully invited them aboard and had a wonderful traditional meal with great company. The island of Huahine has the honor of being the last island to become part of the French protectorate. In fact, they were the only island to repulse the French troops which attacked in 1846. It wasn't until 100 years later that the island decided to become French citizens and possibly because of this the locals have seemed to retain their culture and language more than other islands we have visited so far. After Chris parents headed home, several days of strong winds had us hunkered down until yesterday when we crossed over to Raiatea and Tahaa which are two islands surrounded by the same reef. The plan is to spend another week here and then on to Bora Bora to provision and prepare for the long upwind ride home. With only a few weeks left before we need to start heading back home to Southern Cali, we feel sad to have stayed so briefly at these beautiful places but are inspired to return one day very soon. So over the next couple of weeks we will be searching for sunken treasures, but if our dives don't pan out here, we're sure to subsidize our next trip out to French Polynesia with some cardboard signs asking for a few coins with the rest of the unemployed in Southern California! We'll keep you posted...

love,

Lori and Chris