Life on a boat

Day 10 (August 1, 2011):

I actually slept through the night!! I was so happy!! I woke up at 6:30AM (which is super early for me under any normal circumstances without any alarm), but felt rejuvenated. I think I am finally getting used to living on a boat (as long as we are anchored in a very sheltered area that allows me to get enough sleep). I woke Curt up and encouraged him to get moving so we could check out the Apoomau River with our dinghy. We set off for the mouth of the river at about 7:30AM.

The river water was a bit murky and we had to be careful of shallow waters, but the fauna was incredible. There were many coconut trees, papaya trees, breadfruit trees and hibiscus growing along the shore. I manned the camera, while Curt handled the motor. I kept trying to convince him that I'd seen “river monsters,” but this didn't startle him at all (if anything I only made myself nervous that a giant river monster would take a bite out of the dinghy & gnaw on our calves for breakfast). We went up the river as far as we could, but passageway grew narrower and more shallow the further in we went. We turned back & headed to our boat for a leisurely breakfast.

By the time we reached our boat, all the other sailboats that anchored in Faaroa Bay had headed out to the lagoon. We decided that we needed to tackle some of the fruit we had purchased, since we only had a few more days on the boat. We grilled our pineapples & topped them off with a bananas sauteed in a coconut milk glaze. This was an incredibly sweet & scrumptious breakfast, with a side of bacon to balance out the meal (more like dessert & bacon for breakfast). Curt helped me brew a pot of coffee & we used coconut milk instead of cow milk (this is very Tahitian & done by all the locals).

After we'd cleaned up breakfast, it was time to pull our anchor up and head out to Motu Iriru. This motu was a public park and you could snorkel up to the motu & picnic. We set a perfect anchor just inside a huge drop off point near the reef and decided we'd put on our snorkel gear and swim for shore.
I was so glad that we rescued our snorkel the day before, so that we both were able to snorkel properly and check out all the colorful fish swimming around the coral.

On our way into shore we noticed what appeared to be a boat shipwrecked near the reef. We decided that on our way back to the boat we swim out to check it out. Once on shore, we saw a family of locals barbequing. We said hello & went about exploring. There is a small hut on the motu that the caretaker must live in, which is set near the barbeque pit, shower stalls & bathrooms. Most of these buildings were clustered together, which left the remainder of the motu untouched. We wandered about checking out the crabs, shore and different reef points. I was surprised at how hard the motu's ground was (lots of coral loose on top & hard packed coral below), as I had expected it to be more like powdery white sand.

Curt spotted a couple kittens (their mom was being fed by the locals). Once the kittens spotted us they ran over to us, meowing & purring. They definitely wanted us to pet and feed them. Curt was freaked out at how close they were getting to him & went down by the water to escape them. I on the other hand wanted to play with them (despite the fact that I'm allergic), but Curt warned me not to and said I'd end up bringing fleas back to the boat. The caretaker on the island must take care of them because the didn't look mangy like many of the stray cats and dogs on the main islands (although these kittens were scratching and awful lot). I shot some video & was stunned at what I caught on tape. You'll have to check out the video posted below, as the kitten made itself a toilet, used it and then carefully cleaned up after itself. It was hysterical.

We said na-na (goodbye) to the locals and headed out for the shipwreck. As we got closer we saw that it was a catamaran. We thought it wrecked out in the ocean and up onto the reef, eventually getting stuck on the coral near the motu. It had been there for quite some time as the interior had decayed quite a bit. Curt took some pictures with the camera and I swam back to the boat.

Back aboard the boat we decided spend the rest of the morning reading on the trampoline. The sun was shining brightly and the wind was pretty mellow – perfect conditions for relaxing. We pulled up our anchor at 1PM and headed towards Marae Taputapuatea. This was the site of one of the largest Polynesian temples discovered. Our journey from Motu Iriru to Marae Taputapuatea was quite far, so we motored to save time (since I wanted to spend the afternoon discovery this large archeological site).

As we neared the Marae, Curt & I debated where we should anchor. Our Sunsail charter information warned us that Baie Opoa was difficult to anchor in, unless you anchored in one small area at 20m. The other option was to anchor on the other side of the Marae at Baie Hotopuu, which was right near the Hotel Atiapiti where we wanted to have dinner. We decided to first check out Baie Hotopuu to see if there were any moorings near the hotel, since we'd be headed back in the dark after dinner (it would be better to be close to the boat, since there was a lot of shallow water with coral near the shores).

There weren't any mooring near the hotel, so we decided to attempt the difficult anchor in Baie Opoa. If we anchored in Opoa, we could easy tie our dinghy up to the concrete quay that is 5 minutes away from the archeological site. I prepared myself for what could end up being another squabble during our anchor attempt. However, I was pleasantly surprised that we anchored successfully without any trouble at all. We've anchored so many times in the past few days that we are pros now! Curt decided we should open up some wine while we waited to make sure we were set properly. Somehow he managed to take a huge chunk out of his thumb with the corkscrew & had to wrap it up with gauze and tape (he told me he nearly lost his finger).

Curt sat with his wrapped thumb for a bit to make sure he wasn't going to bleed out before we prepared the dinghy for shore. I packed our backpack with both guide books (huge nerd), both cameras, sunscreen & our travel info (just in case). We tied up at the quay and headed into town. The locals were very friendly, but there really wasn't much to the town (a few houses, 1 snack shop that had a pool table), the Marae & the hotel).

We came up on Marae Taputapuatea & was marveled at the site. I instantly broke out both guide books & used the walking tour (from one of the books) to explain what we were looking at. Unfortunately, neither of my books had a map of the Marae, which would have helped immensely because there were many temples & buildings that had different functions.

We entered the Marae from the beach & instantly saw a rectangular courtyard of black volcanic rock & assumed it was the main temple. We walked all around trying to find the markings and special rocks that my walking tour mentioned, but couldn't really find anything that stood out. We decided after sufficiently exploring this temple that we'd search the grounds to see what else was there.

We found a large area at the center of the Marae that actual had plaques with information (still not a map of the Marae) but helped give a better indication of what we were looking at. We went off again & found each spot noted in my walking tour.

This is one of the most significant temples in all of Polynesia. It is situated at the mouth of Te Ava Moa Pass & fires on the marae were beacons for ancient navigators.

Here are some of the sites we discovered:

Hauvivi – the welcoming platform. This is the most simplistic area in the entire complex & right at the waters edge. Guests would be led to the main temple from this platform to participate in rituals.

Hiti Tai – (we stumbled upon this site as it's really overgrown by fauna, but you could still see the outline of the building). This is a sacred temple where meals were served.

Opu Teina – Was the farewell platform. Departing chiefs would take a stone from this marae to be planted elsewhere, which would also receive the name Marae Taputapuatea. **We took a stone (even though this area was a replica) and will place it at outside the house we eventually buy/build in California (guess our home will have the name Marae Taputapuatea).

Oro's Shrine – this is at the main temple of Taputapuatea. It's an oblong shaped temple and was considered the home of Oro (god of war & fertility). Local lore has it that 4 men were buried alive in an upright position in the temple to guard Oro and keep him from straying.

The Sacrifice Stone – We think we've discovered the correct location, which is about 9 meters from the main temple. It's an obelisk-like basalt slab where unfortunate victims met their fate in a very bloody ceremony. The right eye of the victim was removed for the priest & the left eye was taken for Oro. If the priest deemed the ceremony unworthy, the poor victim was taken to a large upright slab of limestone (resembling an large gravestone) and was scraped against the rough surface until what was left of his body dripped in blood. A great number of human sacrifices took place here. In 1969, during excavation, 5,000 skulls were discovered at the temple site. **I was really surprised to hear of all the human sacrifices here because Tama had insisted that there weren't any human sacrifices in Bora Bora. I just assumed that they lived similar lifestyles, but had different chief & kings. I guess I was mistaken.

After thuroughly discovering Marae Taputapuatea, we went off in search of Hotel Atiapiti. Our guidebook said they had scrumptious lobster & I was really craving a lovely sit down dinner, after making due with what we had in our pantry. We found the small hotel (7 little, self sufficient bungalows) at the end of a dirt path). It was very clean & charming. The owner Marie was on the phone when we arrived, so we walked around the grounds for a bit & waited until she was finished (she was on “island” time and not to concerned that we were waiting).

I eventually sent Curt to ask her about dinner (since he was the one who “claims” to know French). He spoke to her in English (which annoys me to no end because I really wanted to take French lessons before we came on this trip but Curt said we didn't need to because he knew French) & she couldn't understand him (we knew she didn't speak English because the guidebook told us she spoke French, Tahitian and understood very little English). In any case, after their brief interaction, he came back and said she wasn't serving dinner but we could stay for drinks. Curt had Hinano (local Tahitian beer) & I had a glass of white wine. We sat & watched the sun disappear. After our drinks we decided to head back to the boat to make ourselves dinner. Curt paid Marie & used the restroom (their public toilette wasn't working so she let him use one in an empty bungalow).

We were off to the quay in the dark – armed with our flashlights. We made it back to the quay & boarded the dinghy. I held the flashlight while Curt tried to start our engine. It was a bit difficult in the dark, but after many attempts we were off. Back on board I quickly did a Kettle Worx DVD before showering & starting dinner.

After my shower, Curt told me that we had a slight problem. He couldn't find his wallet. He had it at the hotel because he paid for our drinks, counted his change and put it back in his shorts. He thought it may have fallen out of his back pocket when he used the restroom or perhaps it fell out when we were in the dinghy battling with the motor. He called the hotel & left a message for Marie. He told me not to worry about it tonight & that we'd go back first thing in the morning to check the restroom.

I put together dinner with what we had available. I really wished we had purchased fish from a local fisherman or had even purchased frozen fish from the supermarket on our first day. I pulled together dinner with spaghetti, tomato paste (Curt picked this out at the grocery store & told me it was tomato sauce), olives, ham, cheese & milk (my best attempt to turn the paste into a sauce). Curt said it wasn't bad & I instantly responded that it wasn't good either. Dinner was ehhh! I planned on grilling the white bananas with melted nutella for dessert, but we were full on the starchy pasta, so instead we settled in to watch Captain Ron.

After the movie, we turned in early since we had planned to head into the village bright and early in search of the missing wallet. I was so thankful that all our travel documents & passports were safely tucked away in my holding place. I was a bit panicked that we'd be in trouble without Curt's wallet because he had all our Francs & the only thing I had in my wallet was my checkbook, credit cards & debit card (which wouldn't help us a ton since most places only accept cash here since the villages are so tiny).