Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Tahiti

  • Boats, Grottos, and A Tahitian Sandbar party

    After the rest of the house woke up yesterday morning, you’d think everyone would hug, say their goodbyes, and head home. No…. that’s not exactly how it went. The food leftover from the night before was reheated and thus, breakfast was served. I’ll eat spaghetti morning, noon, and night so I was a happy, happy camper!

    Jet ski and boat gased up, we all took off for a day out on the water. Youenn’s jet ski will make most look like a stick in the mud. It will haul butt!!! We followed along behind him and Youri tried his best to keep up. We floated up into a small river, anchored the boats and walked about a 1/4 of a mile to this grotto back in the woods. Everyone jumped in and splashed around. Pretty much everybody but me.

    I wrote in an email the other day that something about a dark cave and not being able to see what’s around me just doesn’t sit well with me. I have a pretty bad fear of water I cant see through…and sharks. I know that each time I let those thoughts creep up in my head that I am missing out on incredible opportunities here. It’s just difficult. Drew tries to be patient with me and says I have a better chance of being in 400 car accidents than I do of getting bitten by a shark but I haven’t been able to get over it yet. I’m hoping that the more and more time I spend in the water that my fears will eventually subside. A fear of sharks and certain waters is not good if I am going to be living on a boat, huh? And here I am dating a man who I swear has fins instead of arms…
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    After the grotto we spent about three hours anchored out on a sandbar about two/three hundred yards offshore. There were sea cucumbers everywhere so the guys had a blast throwing those at the ladies while they screamed their heads off. Lucky for me I’d seen and held a few of these last year while we were snorkeling so they didn’t freak me out as bad as they did some of the other girls. I’ll just let y’all google those if you wanna know what they look like…

    Much of our time on the sandbar was spent explaining to Lydiane what it meant when Youri was being an “asshole.” I have never laughed so much in my life as she tried to figure out what it meant. I taught her how to say it Meet the Fockers style! Youri could have done no right the rest of the afternoon as everything he said or did got a big ol’ asshole in response. You probably had to be there but it handed us a pretty good laugh nonetheless. Lydiane is pretty good with her English and incredibly eager to learn. All the time she’s asking us how do we say this, what does it mean, how do we say that… I assure you that most of the time the things we tell her are proper but we just couldn’t resisit this one!
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    I also got to watch our friends, and Drew, munch on raw, straight off the reef clams that they dug up. I made an attempt but man, it was gross. I love seafood but THAT is pushing it….

    The sun will drain it out of you here so after a throwdown on chow mein for dinner we headed back to the boat and turned in for the night. Sundays here are the epitome of rest and relaxation. Nothing but books, a few episodes of Friends, dinner, maybe a movie, and an eight o’clock bedtime calling our name…
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  • It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere….

    Yesterday Youri and Lydiane drove over from Papeete (about an hour by car) to Youenn’s house in celebration of “holiday.” We never could get the name from anyone as to what exactly they were celebrating or honoring but everyone had the day off and that meant it was time to party. After Drew and I had breakfast I made some homemade lemon bars to take with us, along with the stuff for spaghetti which I had promised to make for dinner. Around three we began our treck to Youenn’s. Oh man it was hot so when a guy pulled over in a jeep to offer us a ride we gladly accepted. Hitchhiking here is about as dangerous as clipping your nails. And believe me, the way some people drive over here, you are better off in the back of someone’s truck than you are walking on the side of the road!

    So anyway, friendly guy in the jeep turns out to be from Hawaii and comes here enough times a year to surf that he has purchased a vehicle. So…we’re guessin’ he comes a good bit. He carried us as far as his driveway and about five minutes of walking later Youenn and Youri pull up from a day out on the jetski and we hop a ride with them the rest of the way. Lydian’s younger sister, Julie, was there for the day along with a friend. So we had a house full!

    Nothing like a cold beer on a Friday afternoon, music on the ipod, sitting on the back porch, listening to the sound of the pacific ocean crash against the shoreline of your buddies backyard! That night Youri grilled a huge fish (Drew thinks we call it a Moonfish in English) on the grill and I made a big ol’ pot of spaghetti. American pop culture music is very well known here so we jammed out to everything from the likes of Notorious B.I.G., U2, and Bob Marley to Jason Mraz and Lady Gaga.

    A few groups of people came and went throughout the night and amidst one of them was a guy named Danny. He was from Hawaii and here for the Billabong contest. He told us he took fifth place last year so chances are we were talking it up with someone a lot of young surfers would have drooled over but we are unfamiliar with the sport. Better internet connection and we’re gonna have to do some research on him!

    9 o’clock rolled around and amidst the haze of Hinanos and my bedtime, I was ready to turn in for the evening. Youenn had a room all reserved for Drew and I so we crashed at his place and had ourselves a Polynesian slumber party. Which reminds me…the roosters here…they have no concept of time. Early in the morning, early in the afternoon…they are crowing. You never have to set an alarm clock cause one of them is guaranteed to wake you up. And bet your bottom dollar Drew and I were up at seven, Hinano haze worn off, ready to embrace another venturesome day!

  • Sailing and Reading – Books, books and more books

    Eight days on the boat, three books down. Man…I don’t know why it is that I never find time for literature when I am back home. Good literature. Learn a thing or two from it literature. Not Cosmo or US Weekly. I guess I make excuses as to why I don’t have the time or something. Over here, even if I wanted to read a gossip magazine I probably couldn’t. 1) You can’t stand and read a magazine on a rack here like you can at Target or Walmart. Someone comes along to tell you “you read, you pay.” 2) At a some odd $20 a pop here, there’s no breakup, plastic surgery epidemic, or good celebrity deed in the world that would persuade Drew to buy one of those. Lucky for me I don’t miss ’em that much and I can still log into people.com every now and then if I really need a fix.

    We do have a lot of books though. Most every port/marina you pull into has a book exchange. It’s a really awesome, common, and free concept in the sailing world to trade bags upon bags of books at a time. I read as many as 5 books in a week so it’s great for me! I can get so nose deep in a novel that Drew will sometimes have to remind me that there is tropical paradise floating right around/beside/underneath me. Maybe I should learn to put the book down a little more during the day…

    Nonetheless we both love reading ourselves to sleep at night. And the coolest part about it is it doesn’t give us a hangover in the morning : )

  • A Little Warning to Fellow Cruisers

    We two day hopped it over to Teahupoo from Papeete hoping to snag a good spot for the surf competition starting next week. It’s only 40 to 45 miles and easily could be managed in one day. We decided to “bebop” (as my dad may say) our way over. There is a reef that runs pretty solid from the time you leave up until you get here so for the most part it is green light/red light the entire way here. For those who might not spend much time on the water, green and red lights mark the channels and are a guide for where to go and where not to go.

    Advice for those who may be headed this way next week or anytime in the future, approaching Teahupoo (right now you can’t miss it because there’s a massive Billabong tower built on the reef in front of the wave for the judges), the channel markings fade out. It’s a curvy little channel right in front of the Teahupoo marina. At the end of the markings headed easterly we suggest you cut a hard left (but not too hard) and head towards the point of land that juts out. Dead ahead….coral reef. We found this out the hard way and spent an hour stuck right on the edge of it. Not so bad with the usual calm lagoon waters. A little more difficult when a storm bringing winds and rain up to 25 knots hits a few minutes after you do though! Drew fended us off by standing on the reef pushing the boat back against the storm. That kept us from going any farther into the coral while the wind broad-sided us. Me…well I did what any first timer would do in this situation…I panicked.

    When the wind and rain died down some nice fellas came and gave us a little tug and we were off in two seconds and moving again. A couple of small scratches on the bottom paint but other than that she pulled through just fine. Drew’s a little worried that I’m going to start to think that things like this happen all the time on the boat. Ahhh…I’m not too uneasy about it. A little scare every now and then as a reminder to always stay on your toes and keep a good lookout. There goes Dosia with her damn upperhand again….