July 10, 2012
We arrived early this morning at the anchorage of Fare, Huahine. The winds on the crossing from Moorea petered out so we had to motor for about 20 nm. There is a strong Depression forming to the South of us which will bring strong E'ly winds to our area over the next few days. Like all of the South Pacific islands we have seen, the approach to Huahine is beautiful.
July 11-15, 2012
It has been blowing a gale here over the last few days so we have been boat-bound. The strong E'ly winds from a depression to the South of us are reinforced by the mountains here in Fare. The result are gusts of wind exceeding 40 kts which shrieks through the rigging. Fortunately, we anchored in a good patch of sand in 25' of water so we were able to put out 150' of chain which is holding well. We have made a couple of forays into town for short periods of time. Fare is a charming small town with shops, restaurants and a very big supermarket which has about everything a cruiser needs.
Since July 14th is Bastile Day in France, French Polynesia has been celebrating the event with canoe racing, singing and dancing. Over the last few nights we have gone to the local stadium where, at long last, we have seen the TAMURE DANCING competitions. After viewing the beautifully sexually charged Tamure dancing by the men and women, I have an inkling of understanding why Scott and Kitty named their Valiant 40 "TAMURE". Does "Tamure" gyrate, weave and bob, roll and pitch it the arms of Neptune?
I have read a little about the Tamure dance which originated from the Upa Upa. Once the missionaries arrived, it was outlawed as being too sexually explicit. At the same time Tattooing was banned. What we see today is a sanitized version of the former dance. Tattooing is very much in vogue and many of the men and women wear them. Many of yachties have acquiesced getting a tattoo. This started in the Marquesas and continues in Tahiti and the Leeward islands of French Polynesia. The tattoos are black ink, without color and very well done. I have never seen one that I would care to wear for the rest of my life which gets shorter by the year.
We will be sailing over to Raiatea in the next few days. I would have liked to see more of Huahine but we are anxious to move on.
Don, we have always said that the reason we named our boat "Tamure" is because the Tamure is a fast sexy dance and our boat is a fast sexy boat. We are so jealous of your adventures and wish we could be back out there with you. Thank you for posting such fun and interesting blogs. However, it does sound like the South Pacific has changed somewhat in the 24 years since we were there last and has changed A LOT since our first circumnavigation in 1971 - 1974.
ReplyDeleteScott & Kitty