Subj: Bora Bora
Date: 8/4/2001 4:21:31 PM Pacific Daylight Time

Our anchorage provides protection from the sea and the prevailing easterly wind. We are now in about 24 feet of crystal clear water above white coral sand. The sun plays a multitude of blue green hues in this water. The Caspian terns, white when viewed normally take on a mint green hue when they skim along the water. Five years ago we called this anchorage Paradise ll and we see no reason now to change the name. We look across at the mountain that provided some inspiration for the Bali Hai theme. It is always wrapped by a wisp of clouds and conveys a message of mystery.

Yesterday we snorkeled with manta rays that were about 6-7 feet accross. Wonderful looking graceful creatures. Quiet and calm.

Today we did a drift snorkel. We motored the dinghy as far upwind toward the crashing waves on the reef. We jumped in and the 4 knot current swept us over a coral garden 5 feet below as we clutched the dinghy painter. We hardly noticed a squall roll through. A black tipped shark surprised us by his presence in shallow water. After the first pass we did another, and then we determined to return tomorrow.

We introduced Pudge Ingebritson (who joined us several days ago) to Voyager, Stella, Someday Is Here, Aldebaran, Sundance, and Talisman at a cocktail hour at 4:00 PM, an hour before sunset. Pudge learned cruisers are truly time disabled because the party broke up about 11:00 PM! While we thought that we were fully provisioned, we find now we may need a few more things before we leave for Raratonga in the Southern Cook Islands.

Last night we viewed a Bora Bora Tahitian dance group and devoted further time to the fascinating study of Polynesian tattoos. We will move around to the other side of the island Sunday and proceed with check out procedures Monday. To remain legal, we will have to leave by Tuesday, which we will do, weather providing.

It has been great to hear from several of you.

Nana as the Tahitians say.

Jeff & Ann & Pudge
S/V High Drama
Paradise ll
Bora Bora

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Subj: Huahine: The Untouristed Island
Date: 7/19/2001 5:36:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time

We have spent a very relaxing week in Huahine. We first anchored off the largest town on the island, Fare. This island was controlled by 10 chiefs in Cook's time (1770s) and still has 10 chapters or political districts to day. To celebrate Heiva, the one month long celebration ending on Bastille Day (the islands are French after all), the Huahine people from each district entered a choral group and a 50-person dance group in competition. Competition was held in the high school gym, a steel roofed outdoor building that looks like a structure used by Freeborn County to hold livestock judging competition. The basketball backboards were raised, the floor taken up and bleachers were erected. By the time the first group danced, Tahitians packed the place. I sat next to a 25 year old Tahitian named Asman, who had chiseled Polynesian features. He learned some English from surfers and spoke enough to help us understand some of the competition. The groups wore were elaborate costumes and the people represented a broad range of ages. They were clearly having great fun, although they took the competition very seriously. We capped the evening off with a beer at the local surfer hostel, which surfers from around the world call home when they visit. Cold beer, but very humble sleeping arrangements, indeed. Saw surfers of all ages and several nationalities.

The next morning we were asked to move because we were anchored in the main fairway for the canoe races. We moved and then enjoyed a dozen heats of the final canoe races for the island. On Sunday we moved to a bay surrounded by sandy beaches on one side, and on the other, a white coral sand plateau leading out to the reef. The surf pounds on the barrier reef so hard that the crashing waves sound like distant thunder all night. The number of shades of blue that the ocean water takes on at sea and in these reef areas defies description. We peer through 40 feet of turquoise water to see the anchor set in white coral sand below.

Another cruising couple heard drums while on a hike. They approached and heard a man give instruction to dancers in English. It turned out to be the Stockton, California Tahitian Dance Club. They had stayed with local families while learning better technique. We saw their show and the locals turned out in mass. All of the young people in the group were high school or college age and their parents sang back up and played the drums. Check out their website at http://tepoe.tripod.com. See also www.perlesnoires.com for the web site of the pearl farmers we met on Ahe in the Tuamotus.
Tomorrow we will make the 20 mile passage to Raiatea and Tahaa, two islands contained within the same barrier reef.
Let us know how you are doing!
Jeff & Ann
S/V High Drama
Avea Bay, Huahine
French Polynesia

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Subj: High Drama Still in Tahiti
Date: 6/30/2001 11:53:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time

We continue to have a blast in Tahiti. We are inside a reef 5 miles from downtown and just far enough from several luxury resorts that the music is not too loud when they do Polynesian dances at night. We travel into town by dinghy or Le Truck for a buck.
Yesterday we watched the Autonome Day Parade and listened to speeches in both Tahitian and French, and of course we didn't understand them in either language. We ate crepes for dinner at the Roulette Trucks on the waterfront. These are quaint state fair type trucks that serve good food. At night we saw one of the best fireworks displays ever.

This morning we dinghied back to town at 7:30 am to watch the canoe races. One-man outrigger canoes, 12 man doubles, and 16 women double outriggers. Although there were only 8 16-woman canoes, there were hundreds of men in one-man canoes. The start of each race was a sight to behold. The women all wore traditional long pareus the same print, and leis of flowers. The men also wore pareus and each wore a palm leaf wreath crown. We cheered for the same canoes that the Tahitian family next to us rooted for. I wish there had been a betting window, because the mother really could pick winners. The language barrier prohibited us from finding out if they were all her kids, or whether they were just from her village.

I dove a shipwreck and sunken plane the other day just off the runway of the international airport. It was in about 75 feet of water inside the reef. The water was clear and the experience quite eerie, even though the plane did not really crash there.

We will wait for generator parts (an alternator and voltage regulator) then re-provision with products that we will not be able to buy until New Zealand, and probably move on to other islands in the area in the next few days.

A cease-fire is in place in the War on Roaches. We have seen very few carcasses, but we have great confidence that we have bombed them into submission. We will break the truce and kill the inchoate generation of babies next week. Patton Annie is one tough soldier.

Jason will have our web page moved in the next few weeks and then you will be able to see some recent pictures of this life.
Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama
Papeete, Tahiti

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Subj: Two Weeks in Tahiti: We are Serious Now
Date: 6/23/2001 4:48:17 AM Pacific Daylight Time

The War Zone
The rising sun sends pastel streaks across the lagoon from the shore to the boat. Ashore a dog, quite well fed by Central American standards, barks forlornly. Aboard High Drama General Ann "Patton" Brooke rallies her troop. She gives a half time speech that brings me to my feet and makes me want to kill. I feel an adrenalin rush as I reach for my weapon. I charge the forward compartment where Patton has removed every article, vacuumed, and washed all surfaces with a mild vinegar solution. I blast wantonly in every direction with my Australian made aerosol called Lure'N Kill. I can't see the enemy, but I know it is out there. I blast in every cabinet, cupboard, locker, and bilge access hole. I return after expending a 16 ounce Special Sized Lure'N Kill, my lungs searing and my eyes tearing and swollen. The FDA and USDA don't allow Lure'N Kill to be sold in the US. Now I know why. After the Battle of the V Berth, the General issued protective 3M 6100 respirators to her troop.
We battled every inch of the boat. We had seen about one cockroach every other day. Most were quite small, and didn't eat much. I urged restraint, indeed, compromise, detent, and peaceful coexistence. Patton said, "No, we must make war." And so we have and so we will, because the ones we killed hid eggs to rise up and surprise us again another day. But we have them at bay now, and we can rest and re-provision. We can settle back and enjoy paradise.

Paradise
We gave our jib sail to a sail maker for repairs, and we continue to do other small maintenance and repair items. We have been thoroughly enjoying urban life. Newspapers, the Internet, hanging out at sidewalk cafes. We ate supper at the roulettes, which are small trucks with great food on the waterfront. Today we joined a group of cruisers for a brewery tour. A former New Yorker started exporting local vanilla and slowly produced other beverages over a period of time. We sampled beer, rum, coconut liquers, soft drinks, and chocolate in various forms. My favorite was a dry pineapple dunked in dark chocolate, sprinkled lightly with ground coconut. Of course we ended up buying some rum, which was available for a very good price. We met some cruisers in the tour group whom we had only spoken to on the radio, and others whom we had only seen motoring around in their dinghies. We continue to enjoy fresh baguettes, pain au chocolat, and good coffee.

Eating Cheese
We recently had an interesting conversation with a comparatively anxious, high-strung friend about fatal diseases. He said that if a test was available for a certain disease, he would have the test, because he would want to know if he only had say, 5 years to live. I challenged him about what he might do differently armed with that knowledge, since he is now retired and sailing his own boat in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Indeed, he is living a life that is the dream of many people. He acknowledged the point. The next day he advised, "I'd eat more cheese."

We always enjoy hearing from you. Thanks to Karin, Deb, Kris, Chris, Kelly, Louie, Pudge, Norski, Christy, Jim, Mickey, Bob, Ginny, Vince, John, Lois, Jason, and Jesse for writing. Here's hoping you all eat more cheese.

Annie & Jeff
S/V High Drama
Papeete, Tahiti

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Subj: Views from High Drama: Papeete, Tahiti After a Week
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 4:23:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Language
The Tahitians speak both French and Tahitian. To say "good morning" in
Tahitian you simply say what you'd call a judge: "Your Honor". "Good bye" is
"na-na" and "thank you" is "ma-ru-ru". Each brings a smile to a
Tahitian, probably because many tourists simply speak French or English to
them. Maybe they are just amused by my pronunciation, however.

I now wish that I had studied harder in French class in college, but that is
de l'eau under the bridge. One thing that I found fascinating, however, is
that "avocat" means both "lawyer" and "avocado" in French.

Newspapers
Now that I have read three newspapers and have started into the June 3 Sunday
NY Times. Once again, a new President is getting a few days to break in
before the press eats him alive, and that his staff will spin everything. I
guess his daughters could use some help in the spin department. Bush actually
seems boring compared to good old William Jefferson. I never heard what
happened to the commander of the US submarine that surfaced under the fishing
training vessel, however. Continuity is a problem at sea. We note on the
financial page that our friend Steve Leuthold of Leuthold's Core Fund still
seems to be doing well, despite the performance of the stock market in
general.

The Reef
We are anchored just inside a reef about 5 miles from the city of Papeete.
There are about 50 boats anchored within a two-mile radius of us. Some are
close to the luxury resorts while others, like us, are out closer to the
reef. Some are permanent residents here, but the majority is headed west on
the Coconut Milk Run to New Zealand. The water is 64 feet deep under High
Drama and a cool 82 degrees. When the sun shines overhead, we can see the
bottom. We are anchored near a mooring buoy that the dive shops use to take
divers down for a twilight dive. I think they may feed baguettes to the
sharks, but we have not seen them.

Typical Day
This morning after drinking coffee and reading the paper (yesterday's) we
took Le Truck into town. Taxis are very expensive and most people who don't
have cars ride Le Truck. They are large delivery trucks with no discernable
suspension that can hold about 50 people on wooden benches in the rear. It
costs about $1 US to go downtown.

We first stopped at the Internet café to make arrangements for a mooring in
New Zealand, do email, and to Fed Ex our income tax returns back. We ran into
Gay from S/V Gisele (she danced with the Royal Ballet when she was younger)
and we ended up having lunch at a sidewalk café for a couple of hours. We
stopped at a travel agency for local info on the Bastille Day celebrations
and looked for a store to find a picture frame. Then we went to the marine
store to buy longer bolts for our steering head and see if we could find an
oil pressure gauge. (No luck on the latter.) We next passed a sidewalk cafe,
we ran into Natalie and her friend John. They were having a Hinano (local
beer) to celebrate their Tahitian tattoos: geckos with intertwined tails, a
symbol of love they said. (Natalie, age 33, is a Canadian lawyer on a leave
of absence after burning out. They return to Vancouver Saturday.) They
insisted that we join them for a Hinano, which we did, in order to be polite.
We returned for a quiet dinner on the boat. For the last three nights we have
had cocktails with other cruisers and we are too old for that every night.
Tomorrow night we will join a group of cruisers for the Tahitian dance show
at the Bali Hai Hotel. We can watch the show from the bar for the price of a
drink. (We have already seen the show for the price of a dinner.) Friday
nights they do a fire dance that is quite spectacular.

More Fascinating People
The cruising life continues to bring fascinating people across our path.
Yesterday we met two young women, age 25, a Swiss and an Austrian,
backpacking to New Zealand. They read in the Lonely Planet Guide that they
might be able to crew and sail there from Tahiti. We fed them and they slept
aboard High Drama for the night, arising early to snorkel on the nearby reef.
We helped them find a spot as crew on a boat being sailed by a single-hander,
S/V Shakti. He was delighted to have to new crewmembers and they were giddy
they were so happy to find cheap transportation within two days of their
arrival in Tahiti.

Tomorrow We May Sight Marla Trump or Maybe Elvis
Tomorrow we hike to the Mobil station to pick up our tanks of propane for our
stove, then we will buy groceries, and then put the propane away (removing
and replacing everything in the aft lazarette) and reinstall the steering
head bolts. If we finish early enough, we will try snorkeling nearby. When we
go ashore to buy groceries, we park at a dinghy dock maintained by a marina.
They usually charge $5 a time to park, if they can. There are some large
boats there, including one called "Princess Marla". The crew denies knowledge
of anyone named Trump or even Marla. The ship bears the same crest that
appears in the NY Times ad for Donald Trump's resort, however. The ship is
easily 200 feet long, six stories high, and boasts a crew of 12. But, the
view of the sun setting over Moorea as seen from Princess Marla is not as
good as the view from High Drama, and we wouldn't trade.

Let us hear from you.
Jeff & Ann
S/V High Drama
Papeete, Tahiti

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Subj: High Drama anchor down in Tahiti
Date: 6/8/01 1:06:44 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Greetings! After a two day trip High Drama dropped her anchor in Tahiti. We are anchored inside a barrier reef with about 50 other boats. And, the big batch of boats has not yet left the Tuamotus and there is still a huge glut of them back in the Marquesas!
Our passage produced different winds every half hour. The seas were very choppy the first day. We had several hours of hard blinding rain. We arrived in the middle of the night but declined to enter the well-marked harbor at night. We hove to and once again only move a couple of miles in several hours. I like being able to park at sea.
Tahiti combines terrain features of the last two places we visited. There are high towering volcanic spires with lush vegetation on the mountainsides, like the Marquesas. The Tuamotus, on the other hand, had no volcanoes, just reefs. (The volcanoes sunk, leaving just the reefs.) Tahiti and the other islands in the Society group have fringe reefs surrounding volcanic mountains. The space between the reef and land is filled with aqua colored lagoons, some of which are quite deep. The place is breathtakingly beautiful. The people are warm and friendly.
Tomorrow we will formally check in and scout groceries, liquor, boat parts, newspapers, Internet access, and laundry, to name a few. Although Nuku Hiva was a tiny town, Papeete is a city! Newspapers! Maybe even CNN!
Let us hear from you.
Jeff & Ann
S/V High Drama
Papeete, Tahiti
Society Islands
French Polynesia

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Subj: High Drama
Date: 5/21/01 10:50:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time

We are presently two days into a four-five day passage to the Tuamotu Archipelego. Unlike the volcanic mountains of the Marquesas, the Tuamotus are very low lying coral atolls with the highest point being a palm tree. The in the coral reefs are tough to navigate. We will keep you posted.
Jeff & Ann
Mike & Stacy
S/V High Drama
11 26 S
142 11 W
(At sea between the Marquesas and the Tuamotus
in French Polynesia)

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More supplemental logs: Marquesas