Author: Pam
First of all when you are trying to pronounce the places we are visiting, keep the following in mind. You pronounce each vowel and boy are there a lot sometimes in one word. A is ah, E is ay, I is ee, O is o, U is oo, well at least this is close. Before we left Mexico we heard the names of many of the places we would soon visit and they went flying over the top of our head. I have found out I might as well wait until I am going there to try to attempt pronouncing something with fourteen vowels.
Huahine is the place visited so far that gets the prize for seeing the least square miles. Between the weather, the dinghy engine, boat chores and perhaps laziness we did not venture past the main street through the very small town. There is a decent sized and stocked grocery store, so we were able to get a few provisions. We are becoming more and more uncertain about our food options between here and New Zealand. Without another trip to the store we could make it to NZ on what we have on board, but we will be bored by the time we get there.
The outboard engine continued to give us trouble during our entire stay. The positive side is Scott now knows how to perform surgery on all of the internal parts of the engine, including taking apart and of course putting back together the carborator. It looks like this diagnosis is proving to be true. Klaus from Wanderlust spent at least an hour helping Scott trouble shout the beast on Tuesday. He was very determined to help us get it going so we could all meet up at the Snack Bar later. We were looking forward to getting to know him and his wife Florence, they are on their way home to France. As irony would have it, they did not make it into shore later that day, their outboard died on their way in. Hopefully our outboard ailment isn’t contagious. On their way out of the lagoon the next day they drove right up beside Tournesol (a maneuver we would never attempt) to give us their contact info, hopefully we will see them again along the way.
Tuesday afternoon Scott was swimming and giving the tarp we had used for the anchor a bath when the couple from a boat anchored nearby swam over to say hello. Unbeknownst to us there was a green and white 32’ Westsail anchored just a few feet away, also from the US. Stephanie, Warren and Scott treaded water like seals while I sat on the side of the boat and we began what was clearly the beginning of a new friendship. There was a nice connection almost immediately, which I would attribute to our closeness in age. We don’t meet a lot of people close to our age, most everyone is older. We are looking forward to getting to know Mico Verde (little monkey), we have very similar itineraries for the near future so crossing paths or even making a passage together is likely. We hung out with Stephanie, Warren and Jack from Fleetwood on Tuesday evening. Incidentally Jack is single handing from Los Angeles to Vietnam.
Thursday we seemed to be wearing our meet the local’s magnet. In the morning we jumped in the dinghy and headed in what we thought was the general direction of a water tap on shore that Warren had told us about. I remembered it was supposed to be near canoes, Scott remembered it was supposed to be near fishing boats. Hmmmm, it didn’t help that we didn’t even remember the same bits of information. When we got close to shore we actually came across canoes on racks and a fishing boat in close proximity, well this seemed promising. We crawled up on shore and began to walk along the shoreline looking for a water tap. It became clear fairly quickly we might as well be looking for a needle in haystack. We walked back and forth along a stretch of beach front that felt promising, but produced nothing. I don’t even know how many times we each walked in both directions, but I can only imagine how it must have looked to an onlooker and sure enough there was at least one. After I am not sure how long we had been there a young woman approached me and I assumed was asking me in French what we were looking for. Ugh, I don’t even know the word for water in French or Tahitian, so I resorted to my usual attempt at charades. I only got a blank stare until we brought the two jerry cans out of the dinghy. The light went on and she motioned for Scott to move the dinghy to the boat landing and for me to follow her. The next thing I knew we were in her yard and she was filling the jerry cans with her hose. She motioned it was ok to drink and told me the word for water in Tahitian is oh (spelling). Who would think getting ten gallons of water could turn into such an adventure. We would have liked to get more water, but we will wait for the next convenient and perhaps more obvious opportunity.
We went to shore for dinner at the Snack Bar and just as we were thinking about leaving the two guys who were performing local music struck up a conversation. One of them spoke quite good English and clearly liked the opportunity to practice. The other guy was expressive and passionate about “his” island and insisted on sharing his French fries with Scott (who had just eaten a pile of his own), both are natives. Before we knew it we were surrounded by friends of theirs and were filled with stories of the past. One of the musicians worked for the vanilla plantation and said he wanted to bring me some vanilla the next day. We said we would come by to say hello. We got back to the dinghy, holding our breath Scott gave the now infamous pull, nothing. He turned on his charm, but to no avail. The beast barely even coughed. There was a young local girl sitting on the dock talking on her cell phone when we got in the dinghy. When it wouldn’t start after the umpteenth try, she leaned over and asked if we needed help and the next thing we knew she called to one of her friends nearby. In a matter of minutes our dinghy woes turned into the evening entertainment for the teenage population of Huahine, it was like they were multiplying. Every time I looked up on the dock there were more kids laying on their stomachs, leaning over the edge of the dock and staring down at us. The next thing we knew their was a teenage boy and a boy of maybe ten in the dinghy with us, the ten year old was pulling on the starter cord with all of his might. It was quite the scene. Finally Scott said lets move away from the dock and see what I can do. I didn’t exactly hear it that way, I thought he was suggesting we row back to the boat, which was fine with me. We said goodbye to our support team and began rowing. Once we were a few feet from the dock Scott wanted to stop. With the current that was pushing us into the pass and the fishing boat that I was aware was preparing to leave I found I was not comfortable sitting out there while he continued to troubleshoot. After some frustration with one another we ended up paddling all the way back to the boat. Fortunately it wasn’t windy and I like the exercise. Scott was less than amused, even with all of his cleaning, blowing and sucking on hoses, dissecting the innards it looks like the outboard is going to be the bane of our existence until we get to New Zealand. Ugh.
The weather was beautiful when we first arrived, the boat hardly moved at anchor. Late Thursday night the wind picked up and by Friday it was blowing a hoolie as our friends on Novia would say. It rained off and on all day. We stayed on the boat all day on Friday, in case the anchor dragged and of course Scott spent more time performing voo doo on the outboard. We did chance it and go to shore Friday evening since we said we would come by for the vanilla. True to his word I was presented with fresh vanilla pods and the lei he was wearing. I have to admit I assumed it was going to be of the bottled variety, but come to find out the pods are far more precious than the already processed potion. I now have in my possession at least $25.00 worth of vanilla pods. I am hoping to get Rachel’s recipe for vanilla sauce, it is apparently to die for. As we were leaving a couple from Australia said hello and invited us to join them. Why not. We sat down and watched the Snack Bar turn into the Friday night dance party. Scott’s dance partner was a local woman of probably seventy years old and boy could she shake her boody. After he danced with her once, she was his new best friend and kept his name on her dance card. My dance partner wasn’t a day over sixty, he was from Tahiti and was visiting his daughter. The couple we were chatting with had house swapped with a family and were leaving on Sunday after chillin in Huahine for three weeks. Hopefully we will see Robbie and Don again in Australia, they were a hoot.
The people who live on Huahine are very proud and friendly. It was easy to fall into the relaxed pace and environment and before we knew it five days have gone by.
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