Society Islands and Home

I last left you at the hotel pool in Tahiti and since then we sailed through most of the Society Islands and now I’m home planning my next move. I know this update has been either too long coming or not long enough. I’m sure most subscribe to the latter, but feel free to read on!

Tahiti is actually made up of two islands connected by a narrow stretch of land. The larger island includes Papeete which is the largest city in French Polynesia. Papeete has all the amenities of Miami and many of the same problems, including traffic!

We spent about two weeks between these islands. We were picked up from the hotel and anchored off Mavea beach near Marina Tiana. Tied to the Marina dock were about a dozen mega yachts. They were all over 100ft and included both sail and power. I attempted to trade up, but nobody took me up on my offer.

We spent most of our time here traveling into town and wandering around the market in Papeete, obtaining boat parts, surfing, and of course checking out the local watering holes.

Tahiti had a large number of good surf breaks. Ben and Rob really enjoyed the time in the water. Marina Tiana was near a break at Taapuna pass. It was a fast barreling left. One morning I went to the break with Ben and Rob to attempt surfing again. As we got closer, I told those guys it looked a little shallow. They disagreed, but I turned around and went back to the boat. Rob came back to the boat a few hours later bleeding from several encounters with the reef. The worst part for Rob came when he followed advice given to him by some locals on how to prevent infection. It involved pouring lemon juice on all the cuts!

Everybody wanted to see Teahupoo which is known as the world’s most powerful wave. So from Mavea Beach we attempted to sail to Tahiti Iti and failed to reach our destination on the first attempt. The wind went from zero to a 25 Knot headwind. We turned around, spent the night back at beach at Mavea Beach, and made it the next day. Tahiti Iti was quite nice. We were the only cruising boat around and the villages were more my speed.

Our first stop was Tapuaeraha pass. This was another nice surf break. Ben and Rob surfed while Kitty and I just chilled on the boat and admired the mountain scenery. The next day we headed for Teahupoo. Teahupoo is the name of the village. The famous break is in Havae pass. I am hardly up for the world’s most powerful wave so I watched from the inflatable. The waves weren’t huge, but big enough to drown me.

During a weak moment I was convinced to go surfing a couple of miles north of Havae pass. We anchored the inflatable inside the reef and paddled the quarter mile into the pass and out to the break. The waves were head high lefts. I let wave after wave go by before enough courage came to me to attempt a ride. On my only attempt, I was pitched over the falls and held under until I was blue in the face. The wave finally let me go and I came up gasping, but was elated that I didn’t hit the reef. When I went to pull the leash to get back on the board, I noticed there was no board. It was ripped off my leg and was washed over the reef. My fat ass then had to swim through the break into the pass and behind the reef to get the board. I then proceeded to the inflatable and collapsed. That was the last of my surfing except for some very small waves at Huahanie.

From Tahiti we sailed to Moorea. What a great place. It was a bit touristy, but had much charm. Moorea means “golden lizard”. Its name came from a vision had by a Polynesian high priest visiting the island. Using my navigational skills I plotted a bike route of approximately 16 miles round trip to Cook’s bay on the other side of the island. . Mark’s place rented us the bicycles. They also had nice low budget camping sites and bungalows for rent. It was a cozy place with many interesting people from all over. Cook’s bay turned out to be a deep beautiful bay with high wooded mountains surrounding it. We returned some six hours later exhausted, only to find out the trip was 40 miles. I’m still hearing about that mistake.

From Moorea we sailed overnight to Huahine where we spent two nights. This was another beautiful spot. It had a similar terrain to Moorea with lush green mountains. Huahine is similar to Tahiti in that it is actually two islands. Polynesian legend says the island was split when the god Hiro ploughed his canoe into the island. This certainly sounds more realistic than parting an ocean. While we were eating dinner on the island one full moon evening, some locals were giving us a history lesson and pointed out that their island’s mountain silhouette outlined a mother giving birth. Even I, who failed the ink blot test, could see the outline with her hair flowing into the ocean. We also met Erin here who was teacher from Utah in search of waves across the South Pacific. She sailed to Raiatea and spent four days hanging out with us. Somehow Ben even got her to help with the awful job of sanding the cap rail. That alone would have sent me back to Utah, not to mention living with us slobs. Before leaving for Raiatea I did manage to have fun surfing on some very small waves with Ben, Rob, and Erin.

It rained non-stop on the day sail to Raiatea. I was sure the first thing Erin would do was get off the boat when we arrived, but the rain finally stopped when we anchored the boat. Raiatea was to be our last stop before departing French Polynesia for the Cook Islands. The Tahitian Bikini team never signed on as crew and Rob made his plans to go back to the UK. Ben and I didn’t find crew and instead we made the disappointing decision to pull the boat out of the water and fly home. Given this, a majority of our time in Raiatea was spent putting the boat away. Even with the work, we did manage to spend some time on the island. It’s not too crowded, and has very little tourism. It is a toss-up between Raiatea and Moorea as my favorite of the Society Islands. Legend says that Raiatea was one of the first islands in French Polynesia to be settled, and Raiatea’s first king, Hiro, built great canoes that sailed to and settled Rarotonga and New Zealand.

I had actually been to Raiatea prior on my honeymoon. I will not say the date. The likelihood of me giving the wrong date is high and the consequences of doing so are too great.

Ben and Rob will return next year and continue next season (March). I haven’t quite given up on finishing this journey. One thing I noticed while looking for crew is that there are more boats than people, so I sent my name out to several people we met along the way as available crew. If I don’t hear anything in the next eight weeks, I’ll be dusting off the resume.

Even if I don’t make it back this year, this trip has been the experience of a lifetime. This is something I talked about doing for over a decade. When I finally decided to do it, I thought my the friends that didn’t already know I was insane would certainly know now, my wife would divorce me, my mom would be hospitalized for anxiety, and I would be destine to hold up a work for food sign. To date none of this has happened, and that is thanks to my family and friends.

I couldn’t begin to write all the things Kitty had to do to allow me to do this, not to mention our time apart which I know was a concern for both of us. My sister was down from NJ every week watching over Mom and I know her trip to Italy with Mom chasing guys was a real imposition. If it wasn’t for Mom’s encouragement and support I don’t think I could have made it beyond my driveway and my Dad’s memory was certainly with me the whole way.

When I think back throughout my life, I realize that I’m the luckiest person on earth and have no idea why. There is absolutely nothing in my life that I’ve desired that hasn’t come my way, and none of it is due to some grand ambitious plan.

My Mom gave me a book by Bernard Moitessier before I left. I read it during the crossing. He quoted somebody by saying there are two terrible things for a man: not to have fulfilled his dream, and to have fulfilled it. Moitessier’s answer to this dilemma is to go beyond the dream, find its essence, and never return.

A singer/writer that I follow closely said he has no great plan or dream and that sometimes he knows that is the way he’s supposed to go. “So whatever thrills you anything you love to do just say someday I will”.

All of it is too philosophical for me, but when you sit on a boat for six months you have a lot of time to think. The problem is questions come by the masses, and the answers don’t come any quicker or clearer than when I am at home. I know I still have a stack of “someday I wills….” and we will see if they are worthy of their own blog.

Unless an invitation to the South Pacific comes soon, this blog is concluded. In the mean time I need to build me a deck on the Miami River. If you’re really bored and want to see the pictures, I have 1.5 gigs of pictures being uploaded to the web. Send me an email at mlingswiler@bellsouth.net and I’ll sign you up to look at them. Also, if anybody wants to buy a third of a Whitby 42 sailboat complete with experienced crew, let me know.