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| Singing comptition |
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| Add caption |
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| Tamure Group dances. |
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| Solo male dancer. |
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| Muscians accompanying the sole dancer. |
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| Student from Seattle Washington whom have learned the Tamure dance. |
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| Newer generation. |
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| Oldest generation, she 92 yrs old. |
Monday, July 16, 2012
We went to a sing and tamure dance contest in Huahine and we will be witnessing the final results tonight July 15th
FARE, HUAHINE-LEEWARD ISLANDS OF FRENCH POLYNESIA
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.
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.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Moving from Robinson anchorage in Opunohu Bay to Cooks's Bay for a change in scenery for one night and then sailing of to Huahine ,an overnight trip. Will be here several days weathering out a strong weather system.
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| Phyllis boat bound after being bitten by dog. |
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| Coming into Cook's Bay. Change of scenery. |
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| Church not far from where we anchored . |
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| Cook's Bay |
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| More of Cook's Bay. |
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| Catching up to Adventure Bound on our way to Huahine |
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| Catholic Church in Huahine. |
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| Inside the Holy Family Church. |
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| The Baptismal Font. |
Papeete to Opunohu,Moorea and anchoring in Robinson Bay
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| Opunohu Bay |
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| The village of Opunohu Bay |
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| Our friends on Adventure Bound waiting for us |
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| Beautiful view of the mountains. |
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| More of Opunohu Bay |
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| The beautiful Robinson Bay where we anchored |
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| More of Robinson Bay |
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| Hope I'm not boring you, these mountains were just so beautiful. |
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| Change of senery, We went to watch a group of dancers and drummers at the Bali Hai Hotel at Cooks Bay |
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| Beautiful bird |
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| Goldfish pond at the Hilton Hotel |
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| Fan shape palm tree, very unusual. |
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
These pictures are from the day before we left Papeete. It was a protest of the French nuclear testing program on two of the Tuamotus Atolls in the years 1966 to 1998. Atotal of 195 nuclear testing carried out by the French.
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| Some of the participants. |
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| Isn't that too cute. |
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| Ladies singers dressed in traditional costumes. |
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| Men in traditional costumes with their drums. |
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| More drums. |
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| Even young boys with drums |
Monday, July 9, 2012
PAPEETE TO OPUNOHU BAY, MOOREA
July 3, 2012
We left Quay de Yachts this morning at 0845 and motored through the channel to Marina Taina which is about 5 nm to the South. This was only for a fueling stop. We took on 35 gals of diesel and motored back through the Chenal de Faa'a channel to the main Pass de Papeete. Once outside we set sail for Moorea. The distance across the channel is only 10 nm but we had another 10 nm to Opunohu Bay. The scenery in this bay is absolutely stunning: high mountains and a range of colors and hues that are constantly changing. Most of the picture postcards feature the mountains found at the head of this bay. We dropped anchor in 25' of water with a mud bottom.
In this bay we met up with friends on a yacht called "Adventure Bound". It's a Tayana 37' with Bruce Parsons and his wife Marcell aboard. We first met them in the Holandes Cays in the San Blas Islands. At that time we had John Warner and his wife Karin Schupennies travelling with us. We have maintained SSB radio contact with them since the Galapagos Islands. Since we are going in the same direction with New Zealand as the goal for this year, we'll be meeting up with each other quite often.
On July 4th (Independence Day) Phyllis and I took up the old practice of hitchhiking into town. Our first ride was just wonderful with three young Mooreans. There were two men and a woman driving. After getting into the car they lit up a "joint" and passed it back asking if I wanted some"medicine". I haven't smoked pot in a long time and it was early morning so I declined but the smell was exhilarating!
That ride took us to a beach on the other side of Opunohu Bay and we were heading towards Cooks Bay which is about 5 nm to the East. The Bay is named after Capt. Cook who entered there in 1764 on his ship "Discoverer". While walking alongside the road, we passed a small village where several dogs were roaming free. There were two pit bulls and one smaller dog. This smaller dog attacked Phyllis and bit her on the right leg just above the ankle. I fended him off and we found aa fisherman who went to his house and brought back a bandage and some salve. The puncture wounds were not deep but bleeding quit a bit. I managed to find a woman who was willing to take us into Cooks Bay to the doctor. After examination it was determined that Phyllis didn't need stitches but the big danger here in the tropics is staph infection. The doctor was certain that that would occur. He gave us a prescription for amoxicicline, some disinfectants, bandages, gauze and paraffin dressing. That was five days ago and, fortunately, we haven't noticed any staph infections to date.
July 8, 2012
We weighed anchor today with the intention of sailing to Huahine Island which is about 85 nm to the SE. On our way out of the pass, some friends from a yacht called "Bombaleiro" came alongside in a dingy and asked us if we had heard that a storm was brewing in the South. I hadn't heard this so we canceled sailing and came over to Cooks Bay to anchor and get more information on the internet. Sure enough, there will be some very strong SE'ly winds blowing over the the next several days. The Polynesians call these winds "mara'amu". Essentially, they are very strong persistent Trade Winds that blow 20-35 kts and set up large rolling seas. We're on hold right now to see what we can do or just wait it out for several more days. Anyway, it's enjoyable to change scenery and be over in Cooks Bay which is another stunning display of beautiful surroundings.
We left Quay de Yachts this morning at 0845 and motored through the channel to Marina Taina which is about 5 nm to the South. This was only for a fueling stop. We took on 35 gals of diesel and motored back through the Chenal de Faa'a channel to the main Pass de Papeete. Once outside we set sail for Moorea. The distance across the channel is only 10 nm but we had another 10 nm to Opunohu Bay. The scenery in this bay is absolutely stunning: high mountains and a range of colors and hues that are constantly changing. Most of the picture postcards feature the mountains found at the head of this bay. We dropped anchor in 25' of water with a mud bottom.
In this bay we met up with friends on a yacht called "Adventure Bound". It's a Tayana 37' with Bruce Parsons and his wife Marcell aboard. We first met them in the Holandes Cays in the San Blas Islands. At that time we had John Warner and his wife Karin Schupennies travelling with us. We have maintained SSB radio contact with them since the Galapagos Islands. Since we are going in the same direction with New Zealand as the goal for this year, we'll be meeting up with each other quite often.
On July 4th (Independence Day) Phyllis and I took up the old practice of hitchhiking into town. Our first ride was just wonderful with three young Mooreans. There were two men and a woman driving. After getting into the car they lit up a "joint" and passed it back asking if I wanted some"medicine". I haven't smoked pot in a long time and it was early morning so I declined but the smell was exhilarating!
That ride took us to a beach on the other side of Opunohu Bay and we were heading towards Cooks Bay which is about 5 nm to the East. The Bay is named after Capt. Cook who entered there in 1764 on his ship "Discoverer". While walking alongside the road, we passed a small village where several dogs were roaming free. There were two pit bulls and one smaller dog. This smaller dog attacked Phyllis and bit her on the right leg just above the ankle. I fended him off and we found aa fisherman who went to his house and brought back a bandage and some salve. The puncture wounds were not deep but bleeding quit a bit. I managed to find a woman who was willing to take us into Cooks Bay to the doctor. After examination it was determined that Phyllis didn't need stitches but the big danger here in the tropics is staph infection. The doctor was certain that that would occur. He gave us a prescription for amoxicicline, some disinfectants, bandages, gauze and paraffin dressing. That was five days ago and, fortunately, we haven't noticed any staph infections to date.
July 8, 2012
We weighed anchor today with the intention of sailing to Huahine Island which is about 85 nm to the SE. On our way out of the pass, some friends from a yacht called "Bombaleiro" came alongside in a dingy and asked us if we had heard that a storm was brewing in the South. I hadn't heard this so we canceled sailing and came over to Cooks Bay to anchor and get more information on the internet. Sure enough, there will be some very strong SE'ly winds blowing over the the next several days. The Polynesians call these winds "mara'amu". Essentially, they are very strong persistent Trade Winds that blow 20-35 kts and set up large rolling seas. We're on hold right now to see what we can do or just wait it out for several more days. Anyway, it's enjoyable to change scenery and be over in Cooks Bay which is another stunning display of beautiful surroundings.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Friday June 29th was the start of the celebrations for Bastile Day which will happen on July 15th.
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| Getting ready for the outrigger races. |
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