Papillon in the Pacific

La Orana! It has been a huge week in Uturoa - up there with a win for Scotland in the 6 Nations Rugby.   Our additional bag arrived at Raiatea airstrip at 5.45am on Saturday morning, a mere 20 days after it was handed over to DHL in Glasgow for their “express delivery” service! To ensure no further hitches, skipper walked to the airport at 5.00am to pick it up in person and was waiting (all by himself) as the cargo plane arrived. A big yellow sticker on the bag declared its’ contents “CLEARED” and without further ado he was allowed to take it away.   What a massive relief.     Departure at the crack of dawn   The very welcome yellow sign When I surfaced the scene was reminiscent of Christmas morning devastation with the bag well on the way to being emptied and its’ contents strewn around the cockpit, packaging discarded everywhere!   Spot the dog (sorry if you haven’t read the books) was definitely in the building.   New...

It’s Tuesday in Uturoa – a good day for the shops as groceries come in by boat on Monday nights. Mondays, we have discovered, make for slim pickings in our local “Champion” supermarket; overripe mangos, bunches of tiny orange bananas, white turnip–like vegetables with no taste whatsoever, purple courgette-like vegetables with no taste whatsoever, coconuts and the inevitable Thon Rouge. That's about the pick of it Champion overlooking the harbour   Polynesian orange bananas   Turnip-like thing with no taste Tuesdays on the other hand come resplendent with green leafy vegetables of many varieties, peppers, citrus fruits, herbs and naturally… a fresh catch of Thon Rouge.   delicious! Monday night meals are challenging to say the least; Tuesday nights are inspired by choice.  This morning  as I perused the well stocked shelves it felt like I was playing Salade Niçoise Bingo: lemons, check; potatoes, last two from Idaho but big ones,...

Hello from Raiatea!  I have to start with the rugby. With a certain amount of jiggery pokery on behalf of the skipper (I’m not sure he would have been quite so persistent had it been the Scottish Rhythmic Gymnastics team!), we managed to get a live stream. So happy we did as that game was amazing. Sublime stuff – quite emotional, dare I say it, from this great distance away! Certainly, the shouting coming from Papillion’s saloon at 6.30am on Saturday morning would say so, even if it was a little perplexing to our fellow mariners here at the marina! We will give them forewarning of the Welsh match!  Supporters' bus? It turns out that even if the French Polynesians are not particularly interested in rugby they do have a passion for “it’s a knockout” - style challenges. Last week there was a competition over 3 nights between different towns in the Leeward Islands. We looked in on Saturday night (with literally hundreds of others) to see competitors trying to navigate an in...