The Tuamotus (#10)
Carl Strange Oct 31, 2019
20 July
Your Wasabe Wings sounds like something we’ll try when we reach somewhere with propane refills. We are being fairly conservative with our supply of propane since we don’t have French Poly. adaptors and don’t want to pay their outrageous prices. As a side note, it might be interesting to see just how much money the French government doles out to each individual islander. We balk at $3 for a small box of cookies – the locals walk out with handfuls. Few of them seem to have jobs – store clerks, post office employees, dump truck drivers. Lots of folks sitting, swimming, drinking, and generally enjoying life [Carl is talking about the locals and not the cruisers visiting the island].
Got to go. Another boat is due for smoked salmon and champagne in a few minutes. A celebration and thanks for the work they did to help us with the repairs. I need to be slicing limes and onions instead of typing.
8 August
We’re still in the Tuamotus anchored in tiny little Tahenea. This is a large lagoon with no distracting village and only one other boat to play with. The numerous grouper make it simple to get dinner so I should have plenty of time to write. We’ll linger here for a bit over a week then make the 250 or so miles to Tahiti. Looking forward to fresh vegetables and fruit after a steady diet of coconuts We are also looking forward to the big dance festival that happens next month.
12 August
I loaned one of my Mares Cyrano spear guns to a guy we’ve been buddy-boating with for several weeks. He is just learning to snorkel and hunt and is having a great time on the reefs. We split up for a few days to enjoy our individual islands at the lovely, unpopulated, Tahanea atoll in the Tuamotus. Today he told me, with a hang-dog expression, he had lost a spear. He’s especially embarrassed since he was doing something stupid – shooting a small shark off the back of his boat. Apparently, he hit the thing, it snapped at the line, bit it in two, and swam off with an embedded spear. He’s amazed he did something so silly since he couldn’t have dealt with the shark on board and had no idea what he was going to do with it anyway. Reminds me of hunting sparrows with my BB gun! Anyway, he has offered to buy me a new spear, once I find out the price for one.
20 August
Hand-Woven Wall
Typical backyard in Ua-Pou
23 August
Throughout the islands, we found some huts with walls woven out of coconut palms. However, they are not really used in regular housing anymore but they make useful sheds and snack bar walls. We saw a few women and older children weaving mat fronds in an assembly fashion. The kids split the fronds and lay them out. The women smoked hand-rolled cigarettes, talked, and joked as they wove. It only took a few minutes to make each section. A useful process to know when you need a quick bit of shade or something clean to sit on around a beach fire. We still need a bit of practice to make them well.
24 August
Try to find two delightful stories – the creation myth of the Marquesas and the revenge of Mataheuna. You’ll know you’ve found the right myth if the story is about a man and a woman in a tropical setting. The woman asks the man to build her a house. He asks the gods for help and the process starts. The name of each island translates into part of the structure. I only remember Ua Pou as being the two beams supporting the structure.
The Mighty Spire Mataheuna was a young rock with a spire from one of the other Marquesan islands that traveled through the island groups smashing the lesser spires to the ground. He swore revenge, grew strong, smote all the other spires, and is regarded as the mightiest to this day.
These stores were told to us by a delightful young man who runs a tiny museum on Ua Pou. Many people have donated items for him to present. He changes his exhibits every three months or so and passes the stories and traditions along especially to the school children. He’s a great storyteller and we really enjoyed our time with him.
26 August
We left the peaceful harbors of Tuamotus to continue our explorations. One day out we hooked a 9-foot marlin. That is it measured 9 feet from head to tail and we didn’t include the spear shaped snout. Getting it onboard was a two-hour struggle.
I broke my favorite cleaver trying to cut steaks. Then I switched to a hack saw to cut through the spine but soon gave up on that. Finally, we spent a couple of more hours cutting it into fillets. We gave lots of fish away and I can’t count the number of ways we prepared it. Next time we’ll release anything over four feet or so.
Author: Carl Strange
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.
