Time stands still

La Orana!

This has been a strange week.  The wind or what little wind we’ve had has shifted from the prevailing easterlies to a north westerly bringing with it a lot of humidity, rain and heat.  There is a strange feeling about the place.  The boats at anchor are all lying the “wrong way”; the breeze is blowing back-to-front (literally) through Papillon; there are virtually no waves crashing at the reef – it must be a millpond beyond the coral; and the clouds are all different. We’ve become so used to vertical “cumulus” clouds forming amazing shapes in the blue sky above but this week we’ve had flatter, layered “stratus” ones  lying apparently motionless against a grey background – more like at home infact!

 

Cumulus

Boats at anchor lying to the north west

  

Stratus

Flat calm beyond the reef

Even the locals are remarking on the weather shift particularly the temperatures, which is reassuring I have to say.  It is clearly not the normal pattern and Uturoa seems to have shifted down a gear to cope.  There is less chat in Champion, less ukulele playing, fewer groups picnicking at the weekend, longer lunchbreaks involving more swimming and definitely less beats.  It seems like everyone is waiting for the weather to break.  We thought it had on Saturday.  Cyprien brought his friend Sebastien along to help him finish installing the solar panels.  All was looking encouraging.  The panels and connectors were laid out in their final resting place, drills were in hand and the wire route back to the batteries agreed on…again, when suddenly out of nowhere the heavens opened and the rains came down in torrents.  It was as much as we could do to bring everything back inside before those solar panels were washed away completely.  

Existing solar

Flexible panels in place

Needless to say, no more work happened that day - very frustrating but the right call.  It didn’t stop for 4 hours – admittedly nothing to remark upon back home but here 4 hours of rain represents a lot of water.  All the overflow dykes and channels that run parallel and perpendicular to the main street to protect the houses from flooding were full to bursting when we went for a walk after tea.  Sadly the rains did not break the weather pattern and as I write this the north westerlies continue.  The good news is that despite the sultry hot weather Sebastien is back.  He is drinking us out of mineral water as he battles away with those long travelled flexible solar panels out there in the heat on the coach roof but they are going in and maybe by the end of the day our current 300W of solar energy will have doubled.

It's been challenging getting much achieved in the heat. Malcolm has managed better than me but I have been pretty hopeless. Yesterday I took myself off into the forest for a long shady walk.  It was so still under the canopy – lizards darting about everywhere.  

Under the canopy

Out at the top

Maybe because of that a large bird was circling above that I hadn’t seen before.  I have tried to identify it and am hazarding a guess at a Henderson Petrel but if there are any ornithologist out there who know better than I then I would love to know.  None of the birds here are at all familiar.  Of the few that I have identified the zebra dove is like a miniature pigeon that refuses to fly without extreme provocation, the red vented bull bull is a bit like a crested starling with a bright red rump that flashes as it takes off and the common myna is a black and grey import from New Zealand about the size of a blackbird with the brightest of gold circles around each eye.  The mynas strut around the marina like they own the place chirruping away in an extremely talkative fashion.  They are very entertaining to watch. 

Zebra Dove

Red Vented Bull Bull

Common Myna

The differences are fascinating and raise other questions.  What happens to the plants, for example, when there are virtually no seasons?  People here have told me that the flowering shrubs flower all year round.  Does that mean the trees shed their leaves all year round too?  Certainly, walking through the forest yesterday I was aware of flowers at all stages of life from early blooms right through to decay but although it’s essentially “autumn” here the forest remains a verdant green with occasional brown flashes underfoot from dead palm fronds and curling banana leaves. No signs of autumn here!

With regards to our imminent departure, it was officially due for today but as no one has asked us to leave we remain stubbornly attached to the dock. We would like to pay for another few weeks on the understanding that we can come and go as we please but the “Capitaine” has yet to get back to us on our request so like the other permanent residents here, we wait for clarity and stay attached.  Such is the pressure on places at the marina that everyone is working on the principal of “possession is nine tenths of the law”.  IF our wish is granted we plan to head out next week for a shake down sail in the lagoon and see how the boat checks out over a week or so.  If there is a problem we can always come back and sort it out. If, on the other hand, all is well and the wind remains from the northwest, that elusive but favourable direction for Tahiti, then we will head off.  The showstoppers remain showstoppers except that now they are not stopping us from leaving. Unfortunately it turns out that the water maker would cost more to repair than replace so we have one on order to Tahiti expected to arrive in 3-4 weeks. The life raft and hatches are also expected in Tahiti around the same time, so the stars are all aligning for us to be there around the beginning of April.  The distance is 120nm.  We will use the old life raft, fill up the water tanks and hope for the sake of those poor hatches that it doesn’t rain!

Bora Bora in the next lagoon

Leaf cover in the forest

This week we had our first Pizza night in French Polynesia!  Like most new things here it didn’t work out first time! I was unable to reserve a table online or over the phone so we took our chances …and weren’t lucky.  The silver lining was a Polynesian lady stopping her car as we turned to stomp the mile back home for fall back curry mush.  She wanted to know if the restaurant was closed.  When I said (in French – yes it is getting better – Thankyou Babbel!!) that we had been unable to get a table she wanted to tell us all the alternative restaurants we could try, with her little boy chipping in to tell me if they were his favourite too.  It was so kind of her.  Cheered by her enthusiasm we returned on Monday night and were rewarded with a delicious pizza and bottle of red wine.  First pizza in months…

 Its the little things!