Soon, to Sea
(10-Jun-2001-18-30): |
6:30 PM local time Sunday June 10th. (0430 June 11th UTC) 16 29 S 151
45 W. Bora Bora Lagoon, Bora Bora, Iles de la Societe, French
Polynesia. Temp. 85, Humidity 73%, cloud cover 10%.
Warm greetings from the crew of Maverick.
Here in Bora Bora, the tradewinds caress the hillsides and charm the
lovely coconut palms into swaying fetchingly as though singing and
dancing in harmony. Turquoise lagoon waters lap at the hull while
majestic Mount Pahia benignly oversees the play of happy native
children. Tourists take their ease at fabulous restaurants or join a
mesmerizing dive with sharks and manta rays.
Down in the cabin, the Captain is focused on one thought: is there no
way out of this hellhole?
We have been stuck here since the 30th of May. The earliest we may
leave, for a few reasons, is June 13. Although we've outrun, by quite
some distance, every boat save one that left North America this season,
we feel like we're getting behind. The prop arrived, through the good
offices of Rick Guenett at Bloody Mary's, a friend of old friend Steve
Fishell who permitted us to use the restaurant's address. Because of
some admirable, but in this case overzealous, care on the part of Fed X,
it sat in Papeete for four days before being shipped to Bora Bora as
they were unable to confirm we were here. This turned out to be a
blessing in disguise, sort of, because on Sunday Terry came down with a
fever that put him in bed for five straight days. He is just now
recovering his strength. Those of you who know Terry will appreciate how
ill he had to have been for his recuperation to have taken so long. We
are not sure what he had, but in any case had there not been a delay in
getting the prop we would very likely have been at sea when he became
incapacitated.
In the meantime the prop, which, although improved, could not be
returned to its pre-coral state, did arrive and a diver was hired to put
it on. By this time however, yet another problem had revealed itself in
that the outboard motor, which had been giving us some trouble, started
behaving in a way we could not diagnose. A very pleasant Tahitian
outboard mechanic determined that the rod bearing was shot. A rod
bearing would probably be about $25, but no parts for Nissan outboards
are available in Polynesia, so without another long delay in acquiring
and shipping parts from the US, the motor is toast. Bora Bora has a
small marine supply store and though no motor that would suit was in
stock, one was ordered shipped from Papeete and will be here Tuesday.
Bora Bora is not, as the reader may imagine, an ideal location for
discount shopping in boating supplies, but the alternative as we head to
more remote areas is so indeterminate that this is the only reasonable
option. On the positive side, when the people at Bora Bora Marine heard
my name, they remembered that at a very modest price they could have it
inscribed on the new motor. It wasn't all that much money, and I know
it's a little vain, but I can't wait to see it. Those French!
The Captain has sworn to himself not to speak of the expense of
Polynesia, as this is such a tired topic and no cruiser ever fails to
mention it. But since the cat 'o' nine tails is out of the bag I will
make a comment, in the hope that a stereotype may be put into
perspective.
Fruit, vegetables, and beer are expensive. A six-pack cannot be had
for under $15 and a small watermelon was $10. Meat, bread, eggs, and
wine--the kind we drink--are not. A whole tuna is about ten dollars and
would feed a large family. "Le Truck" which is the local bus service, is
about $3 on this island, about $1 on the others. Duty-free diesel is
only a bit more than in the US. Those nuts we had made in Papeete would
have cost double in a machine shop in San Francisco. Of course, if you
want to stay at the nice hotels and eat at the nice restaurants, well
then. But we're from San Francisco and we've been to nice restaurants.
And considering the lack of local laundry facilities, we'd look like
fools next to all those freshly purchased Hawaiian shirts. We much
prefer the eateries the Tahitians frequent, and they are friendly and
not expensive. As for a hotel, our lodgings are free, and we can anchor
anywhere we like the view and move daily if we choose. The Captain is
puzzled that others have complained about the expense of cruising here,
considering that the French and Tahitians, who pay just as much for a
tomato as we do, don't charge us a dime for camping in some of the
world's most adored real estate. End of rant.
Perhaps Wednesday morning, if all goes well with the new outboard,
dealing with the bank about our bond, and Terry's recovery, we may
finally head to sea. The delays here and in Papeete mean we have crossed
both Raratonga in the Cook Islands and Somoa off our list. At this
moment the thinking is to go straight to Tonga, with a possible stop in
either Nuie or Suwarrow, two rather exotic destinations on the way.
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