Journal Entry August 30 - Settling In On Raro

Author: Scott

It is amazing how excited one can get about a garden hose squirting fresh water when you are out cruising. Well, the last time Tournesol got a fresh water bath was in Papeete and boy did she need one now. You could run your finger anywhere across her surface and come up with your finger white and sticky with sea salt. On Tuesday morning, our first full day in Rarotonga (Raro), it was time for Tournesol to get a much needed shower. Now getting the hose over to Tournesol was not such an easy feat, because we were smack dab in the middle of two spigots, with neither very close to us. Fortunately, both Starship and Wallaby Creek were both leaving and they also wanted to clean their boats as well. So that we could all clean our boats we made a giant hose snake by joining all of our hoses together, allowing us to all have access to the glorious fresh water. Once clean we hoisted the Q flag on Tournesol and waited for the Customs and Agriculture inspectors to arrive on our sparkling boat.

The customs inspector arrived very quickly after displaying the quarantine flag and asked for a dinghy ride over to the boat since we were med moored. I jumped into the dinghy and paddled over to get him while he crawled down the precarious rusting steel ladder that hung on to the sea wall by a single support strut. It was a little humorous watching this poor officials hanging on to the ladder like King Kong hanging on the Empire State Building but soon I arrived packing him into the dinghy and providing safety. In a minute we were on the boat and answered all the typical questions like do we have pets, did we bring plants… Everything went along as per usual until he pulled out a spray can and asked us to close all the hatches and windows aboard Tournesol because she had to be sprayed for bugs. We quickly complied and he entered the boat and after a few seconds of shshshshshshshsh he emerged and told us to close the hatch boards and stay out for five minutes. Now we don’t have the slightest idea what was sprayed inside but he assured us it was safe. I figured that if he was spraying boats daily and still had the strength to hang on the sea wall ladder, then we would survive, besides after seeing a few bugs in the past few months anything that may kill them was welcome. That was it, we were all done with Customs, he told us that another man from the Health Department may show up later in the day but left this hanging in the air with complete uncertainty. This is the kind of vagueness that we have come to expect in the South Pacific. We paddled back and I watched Kong climb his way to safety and returned to Tournesol to face the bug carnage and aftermath of the aerosol attack. When we cautiously opened the boat back up we did not know what we would find, maybe legions of dying cockroaches laying on their backs with writhing legs in the air and gasping for their last bug breath, or maybe they would be sitting in a circle wearing tie dye shirts, breathing in deep tokes of the magic mixture and singing “Give Peace a Chance”. Well, when we entered we didn’t find anything like this, not a single pest, and you couldn’t even smell the pesticide. Maybe it’s all a sham and the guy comes on your boat and sprays furniture cleaner and looks official, or maybe the concoction is odorless but Pam and I will turn into giant Palmetto bugs in a few days.

Our next mission was to walk over to the Port Captain and check in. The Port Captain is located in a smart little blue A frame building with showers and toilets available to cruisers on the first floor and the offices upstairs. Starship came with us to check out while we checked in, typical of us to say goodbye to friends just as slow Tournesol arrived. The Port Captain’s name is John and he turned out to be unlike most of the stern and foreboding Port Captains we have met along the way. John was friendly and informative with lots of information about town and Raro. After our Port Captain visit we were off to explore with Frank and Rachel, they were looking for meat for their passage and we were directed to a store called Meat Co. we must be headed for the right place. Meat Co. was our first experience in a store with all the products labeled in English since leaving the states and Pam and I must have looked like screwy Americans as we lovingly fondled the canned spaghetti and jasmine rice, ah - what a luxury to read again. We held off buying groceries for now and settled with some ice and a cold drink. We walked back to the boats but made a quick stop for some fish and chips at this funky “take away” restaurant that was operating out of what looked like a circus trailer. The fish was tasty and we met the local cat that hangs out begging for food, and Pam gave the furry scavenger a snippet, but soon we were off so our ice would not melt.

Back at the boats we had a cold drink over on Starship and caught up on their experiences in Raro, but soon it was time for them to depart. We helped them with their lines and they slowly moved forward away from the sea wall. They didn’t get far however, because when they got out just about thirty feet they realized they had pulled up our anchor chain. In seconds another cruiser was there and they freed Starship and towed our anchor out to be reset in a better position. Once Starship had sailed off we moved Tournesol over to starboard two boat spaces so we would be far enough away from the side sea wall to allow the Navy boat that was arriving on Friday to dock without having to move Tournesol. We were now fully settled in on Raro! In a few short hours there were only us and another boat left at the quay on Raro and all of our friends were gone off to find their next adventure. Well fine, who needs those guys anyways! So what if we are a little slow and pokey, now we have an entire island to explore and we started out in style! After cleaning up we headed off for an almost perfect night. We stopped at Palace Burger for a giant cheeseburger, unfortunately not at the top of the South Pacific burger list, but a worthy burger overall. Then we made our way to the movie theatre to see our first movie since Mexico. We had a little scare when we were informed by the woman selling tickets that we would have to wait until ten people showed up or they would not show the move. We patiently waited in bright red plastic chairs until the all important number ten walked into the lobby and we were all sold tickets. Pam and I bought popcorn and sodas and settled in to watch “The Longest Yard” remake. It was not our first choice but it was what they were playing, and in the end it was light hearted, silly, and lots of fun. We walked back to the boat and I basked in a post cheeseburger popcorn haze.