Sept. 1st – REturned to Bora BoraRetrived my anchor

We mostly motored for six hours back to Bora Bora today because it is
the only time the winds would be favorable in the next 5 days and we did
get to sail the last hour and a half. It’s been squalls and rain showers
since we got here. Still just as beautiful as we are anchored in the
shadow of that magnificent mountain.

I just successfully retrieved the anchor we got snagged on the mooring
here in Bora Bora. This was the first time I’ve been in these beautiful
South Pacific waters since my infection took hold almost 2 months ago.
After a number of 50 foot free dives with no real progress made, I put a
rolling hitch on the mooring line and winched the anchor up to 20 feet.
This way my working time at the anchor was increased and I was able to
disentangle and retrieve it. It took about an hour. I was concerned for
my good ear especially on those deep dives as it hurt at times but feels
fine now. My knee was not up to tackling the job when I got it entangled
and the last time I was here and it feels like a big accomplishment to
not lose an anchor. I only have six and each one is important.
I then took the opportunity to wash the salt and grime off, get cleaned
up and we dingyed into town to get a few fresh vegetables.

Love Jim

Aug. 30th – Impressions and experiences of Mopeti

Hi

It seems my experience of our week and a half at Mopeti was a very
friendly culture. Or may be it was the opportunity to hang out with a
local all day for almost a week

The culture of Mopeti is softer and relationship orientated and I could
see staying here for while. The way people greet each other and place
relationship with each other on a very high priority. For instance, they
practice the Polynesian custom of putting a flower over the right ear if
you want or are available for a relationship and over the left ear if
you are committed or not available. If you are a woman then you wear
over your ear an open flower, which seems to make each woman more
beautiful, and if you are a man you wear a closed bud. This broadcasts
and publicly states you relationship status.
As it was explained to me by my friend Ui, if you see someone who
interests you, you tell them you like them and ask to be in
relationship. And you keep asking to show you are really interested.
This seems simple, clear, and straight forward. I compare our
complicated courtship rituals to this simpler way. How would
relationship be if it worked that way in our culture?
Because we were in Mopeti over a week and a half we had the opportunity
to have many unique local experiences. We accompanied Ui by boat out to
his land on a motu or island along the outer reef. The inner lagoon
portion of the motu was the typical white sand beach with the palm trees
reaching out in curved arches over the water you see in many of the
postcards. We walked from the lagoon side to the the outer reef with its
pounding surf and long coral shelves and volcanic rock ledges. This is
where earlier John had seen a whale easily swimming along parallel to
the outer reef. As I walked along the outer beach the large chips and
pieces of broken coral spread everywhere rang with musical notes as my
sandals shuffled and disturbed the coral.
We went to the motu to help Ui cut six to eight foot poles for some
outdoor furniture from the jungle in the center of the motu. The next
day we stripped the bark off of the poles wit machetes and knives in
preparation for lashing them together making the furniture.
We got a sense over many days of a slow easy life having many local
experiences.

Thank you all for listening to my ranting.
Love
Jim

Aug. 28th – Another Tahitian Feast

Today at noon all the cruisers (7 people on 3 boats) here in Mopeti are
went to another Tahitian feast today with some local people John and I
met here on Mopeti. Their names are Simon and Ui who speak some English.
They prepared a Tahitian feast for us just like the one I had the
previous Sunday but this time we got to see the pork, breadfruit, taro,
bananas and other foods removed from the hot rock oven in the ground
covered with banana leaves and sand.
This was a special going-away party for one of the boat’s son, Felix,
who today is flying home to Germany to start college after cruising with
his parents for a year and also for the other boat departing for
Mopellia this afternoon. It was just as much fun getting the opportunity
to eat all those different foods and most of all mashing them up with
coconut milk in my plate and eating them with my hands.

Love Jim

Aug 26th – getting to and exploring Mopeti

Hello

The motor through the Mopeti pass was not a problem with John in the
rigging looking out for coral heads and shallow spots. The wind was down
for two days so the current against us at the pass was not more than 3
Knots. The wind has picked up last night and today and is expected to
last till the weekend but we are safely anchored in 18 feet on a white
sand bottom.
While going ashore for the first time I slipped on a wet rock and
scratched the same left knee that the infection was in. So as
frustrating as it is I will continue to not be able to do any swimming
or diving in this warm aqua green lagoon until this new injury is
healed. I went to the infirmary to be sure as I now know to not ignore
any possible infection. It was well taken care of and I was given lots
of bandages and medical supplies to keep it clean.
Two other boats pulled into Mopeti just after we arrived and last
evening for sunset I went over to the ENDELIG which means “finally or at
last” in Norwegian for some rum punch and popcorn. We loaned each other
our available DVD’s so we have new movies on the computer in the
evening. Kiki and Henri on ENDELIG and I are taking a walk around the
island of Mopeti this morning. They picked me up in their dingy at
around 8AM this morning. We got over three hours of exercise on our walk
around the island. There is only one road so we didn’t get too lost with
side trips to a sacred marvre, a great petroglyph site with lots of
turtles, and a long walk along along what seemed like endless white sand
beaches. The sunrises have been spectacular oranges and yellows.
Everyone on both boats are going out to a restaurant to eat this evening

John is still sick with the flue and has been mostly sleeping all day.
He maybe going to the infirmary tomorrow if he doesn’t feel any better.
This island is the most rural, slow and low key of any of the islands of
the Society Islands with a total population of one thousand. To give you
an example of the difference while at the infirmary it was interesting
watching as each person came in, they personally greeted every other
person there including me with a hand shake from the men or the cheek to
cheek from the womwn. This was also done on the street. How would it be
if we did that in our society/ country? You would probably say “we’d
never get anything done.” That may be true, but maybe, our
relationships, what is really important would be completely working as
they should be.

Love to everyone
Jim

Aug. 21st – Had a fabulious local cultural experience today

Hello to everyone

John has been sick with the flu and sleeping all day and all night and
seems better today. Yesterday we were bobbing up an down at anchor in
Bora Bora hunkered down because the wind is blowing from the southeast
at 15 to 25 Kts. making two to three foot choppy waves with the fetch
the whole length of th inter lagoon. We’re anchored in a bay right next
to the main town on Bora Bora. I went ashsore to do a couple projects on
the dingy and walked into town to a big pink church where services were
just starting. I entered and was treated to the most beautiful sing and
service. While being greeted at the door upon leaving I was invited to
feast to celebrate baptisims of a number of people from Tahaa that they
were having at a building a little way down the road looking out on the
bay where INTENTION was anchored. It is a meeting hall, living area and
rectory for the church. Inside the hall were individual place setting
for about 125 people.
At each place setting was a topped green coconut for eating the meat and
drinking the milk with your food, a shallow bowl in which to put your
food, and a napkin. There were platters of pork and baked breadfruit,
possion cru (raw fish in coconut milk and grated carrots, cabbage, and
bell pepper), spinach and chicken, raw tuna and mahi mahi, three
different types of taro(yellow, green and brown), baked banana and
shreaded coconut, and a number yellow and of sweet gelitan substances
that was not Jello. Also were bottles of coconut milk one very thick,
white and rich and the other thinner, almost clear and not as rich and
sweet to be mixed with all your food. There was a pitcher of pompomouse
juice as well.
Eating was done with you hands as there were only serving spoons to
scoop the bountiful food from the platters to your plate after first
pouring in a liberal amount of the coconut milk from the bottles. After
watching how the others at the table did it I then began breaking up and
crushing the taro with my right hand into the coconut milk to absorb it.
Doing the same with each different dish in turn. All the food was
delicious but the breadfruit and raw fish with the cocomilk had an
extraordinary taste.
The band started and clean-up was handled with much fun and efficiency.
There was enough food left over to feed everyone all over again. They
even let me help by drying some of the just washed dishes with a towel.
This Whole experience was done in Tahitian and a little very broken
French.

Love
Jim

Aug. 18th – Sailing to Bora Bora

Hi to everyone
Had great winds for a exciting day’s sailing directly down wind with
INTENTION rolling like crazy 30 degrees from side to side and the seas
pushing from astern going from Raiatea to Bora Bora today. John is sick
with a cold and diarrhea so I am sailing solo. I tried a new sail
configuration with both the Jib and staysail poled out on opposite sides
to get the staysail to feed air into the jib. It was very effective an
kept the boat averaging over 5 Knots. I enjoyed all the sail handling,
the sail trim, and sitting on the bow watching the boat rush down the
waves. Accomplished some whipping of lines, having polenta for lunch,
and reading a book.

Tomorrow we’ll go check out of French Polynesia at the Gardarme and get
our bond back at the bank in Bora Bora. Then It’s on to Mopiti where we
will try to connect up and visit some friends of John’s with whom he
stayed a week. If possible, it’s next to Mopilia which is an interesting
island where very few people go and has only 50 part time inhabitants.
I’ve been told it has great fishing, diving, pearl farms and lots of
lobsters on the outer reef. Now that I am healed the leisurely
cruising/exploring lifestyle is in full swing aboard INTENTION.

Love to all,
Jim

Aug. 15th – Up the river in Raiatea

Hello to everyone

John and I are still in Raiatea moored in Faaroa Bay off a red dock
owned by a friendly American archeologist, Bill, who gave a very
informative 3 hour tour of the sacred Polynesian Maraes a little further
south. Yesterday we had an adventure going about a mile up the river at
the end of the bay with a friend, Jack,who’s on a boat called Fleet
Wood. Starting out around noon in our inflatable dingy we just got
patched and our 3.5 HP outboard we just got working again. There was
fresh water eels and lots of small fish. At a shallow part we beached
the dingy and all took much needed fresh water baths in a deep pool. At
this point the shear pin on the propeller shaft made the outboard
useless and we began paddling down stream until we came to a botanical
garden, Botanic Chez Lovine, where we took a great guided tour for an
hour. We were shown and given the names of many plants and samples of
flowers of all kinds. Our guide then towed us and our boat to INTENTION
where we fixed the outboard. We also had the opportunity to repair the
engine’s salt water pump and improve its pully attachment system. We
continue to Cruise – fixing our boat in exotic places.

Love
Jim

Aug. 14th – Back to sailing and exploring

Hi all
I am currently anchored at the end of a deep bay on the Island of
Raiatea in the Society Islands. John and I are planning to travel by
dingy about a mile up the river feeding the bay to explore what’s there
this morning.

Sorry for not being in touch sooner as I had some medical concerns. I
had an infection which was caused by a uncared for coral cut on my knee
while snorkeling which seemed to heal OK and then just festered. The leg
and knee swelled up to the point I could not bend the joint more than 10
degrees which limited my movements around the boat let alone doing any
kind of sailing. At that point I went into the hospital on Raiatea for 4
days where they did surgery to clean out the infection and IV drugs. It
was always fun every other day for the following 3 weeks at the clinic
when they removed and inserted one to two feet of gauze wick into the
opening on the knee without anesthesia to keep the wound draining and
remove the build-up of puss. After almost a month of care and
Antibiotics it is healing fine although I still can not get in the water
to swim or dive.
I was thinking that maybe I have an attraction for this particular
hospital as I was at the same hospital 15 years earlier for a broken
finger. The French medical care was again excellent and in comparison to
American health care very inexpensive.
I will try to be more in touch in the future. I would love to hear from
you if you get a chance.
Love
Jim

-

Monday, July 18

June 30th

We sailing along using Jib and Stailsail and are about 30 miles from the
entrance to Papette. Another night harbor entrance and if I didn’t know
the entrance and the harbor from having been here before I wouldn’t
dream of entering as it would be too dangerous and wouldn’t do it.
We anchored near the mooring area until being awakened at 5 in the
morning and told to move as there is a large ship coming in. So we found
a permanent spot on the quay and will stay until the morning of July 3rd
when some friends fly in to Papette. At that point it’s over to Cooks
Bay, Moorea with the friends, Mark and Peter, for some sailing and
playtime. Mark is bringing his surfboard so we will try to find him some
waves. Before they get here I want to provision with a bunch of special
foods and treats for them as well as getting fuel and water.
Darla is leaving the boat and flying out of Papette for her home in
Kauai, Hawaii on the night of July 2nd. She will be missed aboard on our
continuing adventure.

July 5th

Mark, Peter, John and I have sailed to Moorea and we are at this moment
anchored just in front of Mark and Peter’s Hotel and will be for 2 days,
the Moorea Beachcomber. It was a good thing John sailed with us as both
Mark and Peter got seasick. They took us to a beautiful dinner last
night at The Plantation Restaurant with drinks and fancy food and all. M
& P also have Hotel rooms for 2 days at the end of the charter in Bora
Bora.

July 7th

We are a fourth of the way on an overnight trip to Huahine. Currently we
have calm seas and are motoring. Watching the awesome sunset drinking a
Pinot Noir and munching on Briee cheese and crackers. It’s a hard life
here.

July 8th

We are currently on Huahine an Island I think you all would love this
Island with its quiet beauty and friendly native feeling. Neither of my
outboard engines are currently working and that is frustrating and
limits the range of travel and possible activities. I certainly get my
exercise rowing everyone everywhere.

July 11th

Had a wonderful sail from Huahine to Tahaa yesterday. Jib staysail and
full mainsail on a beam reach doing over 6 knots at times. Almost
circled the Island of Tahaa exploring the inside the reef by going
around the northern part of the island and anchoring for the night in a
bay next to our outgoing reef pass.
We left at 7AM this morning for Bora Bora. Had a great 5 hour sail and
are now anchored off the Bora Bora Hotel. Mark & Peter have checked into
their hotel about a mile away. John and I are going there later tonight
for drinks and dinner.

July 13th

Mark and Peter left today flying to Papette to see the Bastile Day
celebrations. I put a coat of varnish on my worst looking wood and some
what cleaned and organized my galley area. Going to go get water, do
laundry, and wash down the boat at “Bloody Mary’s”.

6/30 — Papette

Hi

We’ve arrived in Papette, Tahiti and are busy exploring the big city.
The reception with sail mail was very poor this morning but I will try
again.

Love to all
Jim