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H&M's
2001 Adventure
Voyages of Sugar Blues
Sugar
Blues
Flowers
in the lagoon
Aitutaki
- Maybe this
time
Niue and Tonga
Godzone
- Life in
the
left lane...
Tonga
II
I
Got My Sevusevu
in Savusavu in my
Vulavula Sulu
Rotuma
- A Split
Island
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Flowers in the Lagoon
by Harry and Mary Abbott
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Sixteen years ago, Antigone
sailed into Fatu Hiva, then, and still, one of the most spectacular
anchorages in the Marquesas Islands. Now, as the island appeared from
under the clouds, I wondered if what they say is true, that you can
never go back. Goats still stood adhered to the green, towering
vertical cliffs, watching as we dropped the hook from our new boat, Sugar
Blues, into the narrow bay. Except for a few more yachts, Hana
Vave was unchanged. Practically the first person we met took us home
and gave us fruit and vegetables. Throughout the 23-day passage from
Mexico, I had studied my old dog-eared Tahitian dictionary, and now I
wrestled with a few rough-but-helpful phrases. French, besides being
the colonialist language, was 'difficile' so I figured Tahitian, with
only 13 letters, had to be easier, right? Wrong. With 9 vowels in each
word, I was always exchanging an A for an E, and telling someone that
I had just eaten his grandmother. I'm convinced, however, that the
main reason for our good reception on every island was our attempt at
speaking the language. This is something that never changes, wherever
we go.
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Hana Vave
Sugar Blues at Anchor
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| "Bonjour." they
say. "Ia orana," we answer. An eyebrow rises. "Eaha te
huru?" (How are you?) Two eyebrows go up. "Oe ite parau
Tahiti?" (You speak Tahitian?) "Rii rii." (Very
little.) I answer. I must confess that, although the numbers are easy,
it sometimes takes me so long that they will finally blurt it out in
English. We sailed for Taipivai on Nuku Hiva, the location of Herman
Melville's semi-fictional book Typee set in the valley of the
cannibals. In the morning, on the beach we met three guys trying to
fix a flat tire. We helped, with the loan of a sharp knife, then
walked into the village and beyond. It would be difficult to starve
here, as fruit actually is just lying on the ground and road. That
aspect of island life certainly has not changed. We picked up some of
it and, by our return, the tire was fixed, the chicken (New Zealand
frozen) and the breadfruit were cooking on an old piece of corrugated
roofing, and we were handed a plate (a taro leaf) along with a glass
of wine. Now was the time, I guessed. I told them I had been here 16
years earlier and had met two brothers, Thomas and Luc Tata, and asked
if they were still around. Remember that all this is in Tahitian with
a few new words of Marquesan, and I was really stretching my
vocabulary. Anyway, I guess I didn't cook anyone's grandmother, as
they all laughed, and then ….. pointing at someone ….said
"Thomas' younger brother." Another said: "He's a Tata,
and him, too." "Is everyone a Tata?" I joked. "Not
me." said the eldest. "Yes," they all laughed,
"but your mother was." Nothing had changed here. The next
day Thomas, now 33, with three tamaroa and a beautiful vahine, came on
board, picked up my same old guitar that he had played when he was 17,
and played… not Tahitian this time but rock-and-roll, country
western, and reggae. Well….maybe you really can't go back.. I was
reminded of an earlier yachtie who, on his second visit to Tahiti, had
complained that the prices had gone sky high, and that nothing was the
same. His name was Captain James Cook! The rest of the islands were
the same, a bit of Marquesan and Tahitian, introducing us to new and
unique experiences and the same nice hospitality. I remember a steak
and lobster at a carver's house on Ou Pu. With the exception of a jar
of mayonnaise, everything on the table came from the family garden,
their cattle, or the sea. A bit of English, a bit of French, and a lot
of Tahitian made for a wonderful afternoon with new friends. |
Harry and Thomas (R)
Marae
Tiki's
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| At the end of an easy three
days to Takaroa in the Tuamotus, Sugar Blues was tied to the
dock, with a 250-foot trading ship moored behind her. After a hectic
day of unloading supplies, food, and - considering that Takaroa is 90
percent Mormon - an awful lot of beer at $45 per case, the ship
departed. But the lagoon was now closed to yachts, for it had been
filled with pearl farms. That was an unwelcome change from 16 years
ago when Antigone had anchored just inside the pass by the village.
However, with the help of a new-found friend and guide, we crossed the
inner lagoon, zigzagging through pearl farm after pearl farm until we
arrived at his farmhouse. Half New Zealand Maori and half Tuamotuan,
Bob was a unique teacher for our continuing Polynesian education. We
dove together to check the progress of his oysters, went fishing,
watched as his Tahitian wife showed us the secrets of pearl seeding,
and listened as he talked of his dream of getting away from the 'rat
race' and wanting to buy a boat. (I left him lots of MULTIHULLS
magazines; of course, with no intent of influencing him.) With no
income for the first five years while the oysters and pearls mature,
it's a tough business to start. He showed a plastic bag of pearls that
represented seven years' work, for which he has turned down $40.000;
so his rewards should be coming soon. So, in Takaroa things are not
the same, but our new experiences were unforgettable. During our stay,
two maramus (intensified trade winds) came through the atoll. In the
lee of the motu we lay undisturbed; however, a hundred yards away, on
the weather side, waves thundered and crashed upon the reef with the
energy of thousands of miles of open ocean. "Don't leave
today," Bob said. "Ua tiare hia te roto!" Sure enough,
behind us, the small whitecaps did look like flowers in the lagoon.
After more than a week of blowing, the wind settled in at 20 knots and
we sailed for Tahiti. Over the two months in these islands, we had
rediscovered old friends, made new ones, and learned that, yes, you
can go back as long as you don't require everything to be the same. If
you can accept each of these new experiences as unique, and can enjoy
all as they are, then you too can come to love Vanua, the Pacific Way.
It is the friendliness, the generosity, and the openness of the
Polynesian people that truly makes them "the flowers in the
lagoon." |
Tahitian Pearls
Tikipipi
Papaete
Tahitian Phone Boot
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