PRESSURE COOKER

After an extended but involuntary stay in US, 11 days in and around the LA terminal, also called LA-LA-Land, my friend Paul invited me to San Francisco to stay at his place. The first few days I spent in sight of Signal Tower and near the Golden Gate Bridge where all the docks are located. A historic place with interesting, some fascinating stories to boot, friendly people and on the other side cops who showered Occupy Wall street demonstrators with a good dose of pepper spray to express the government’s view about peaceful demonstrations. When I arrived at Paul’s place in Discovery Bay, the excitement of being close to the action subsided and gave way to another kind of peacefulness; that of there is nothing going on like in SF. A gay couple living in the place was to be my company until I could return to Tahiti. Their demonstration was not punctuated with pepper spray but with slamming doors and out of control swearing when one of the boys was upset about the other. One was reserved, the other insistently full of help to display his knowledge about everything. On days when they were not arguing, they were like ghosts and I felt to be alone in the house. A few times they called me for supper which was about midnight and then the younger boy worked in the garage till about 0400h in the morning with the electric door going up and downright under my room with a sound of a Russian T 34 and made me recall some hard times. Kenny, one of the boys lent me one day a bicycle to use when I needed some shopping done and when I wanted to use it the second time I needed to search for it since he was not around to ask where it was. I found it, used it and returned it to where I found it. The next time I wanted to use it it was locked and when I asked if I could use it, he told me it was not working, something broke he said. So I walked 7 km one way and returned with the goods dragging on the street because my arms got stretched that much. Kenny’s partner asked me why I did not take the bike and I told him what Kenny said. He’s gotten angry and confronted Kenny and that got another round of door banging until I told Kenny that I would talk to Paul if he does not cut that out. That got him to apologize like a nun caught sinning. He offered me chocolate candy, help with anything including good advice and I informed him I liked him better when he slammed doors. When around the Christmas holidays the boats in the slough paraded their lights, he wanted to know what I would like as a present for Christmas and he was upset about me telling him that I don’t celebrate Christmas but Solstice. During the day when I felt alone in the house, I played pool and got a bit better and when he felt like playing he challenged me for a game. His style was to slam the balls like he slammed doors and I asked him if he does that with everything. His answer was that that’s the way his partners like it. When finally the day came for me to leave, I felt like stepping out from a dark cloud into sunshine. Paul’s house is beautiful but filled to the roof with clouds with the young man in it. The flight to LA was short and there was a bit of confusion at the counter when I checked in but in the end I boarded the plane and returned to Tahiti.

Kenny

Patricia the Hungarian girl in Bora Bora

Cook Island Queen

The Marsters Family on Palmerston Atoll, Cooks

Muri on Rarotonga

I write this from memory because I really did not have much time and to run to the internet cafe in French Polynesia and it is prohibitively expensive. After returning from the States to Raiatea I looked after my boat. My friend Jako did a wonderful job keeping the boat afloat by pumping out the water twice a day every day. I still owe him a lot of wine for that. also my friend Alfonce was happy to see me as was I; we have great philosophical talks whenever we meet and he took me fishing one day to go after fish living in 300 meter deep water. He baited the hooks and I managed to catch one while he got 8. Their eyes popped out of their heads when they came up on the surface and it did not appeal much to my sensitive nature but he grinned from ear to ear. The real fun was when I TRIED TO GET THEM WITHOUT THE BAIT. Oh, Alfonce will never let me live it down. I was sure the bait was sucked off the hooks, these fish were trained in the way of Tao and knew who was after them, no doubt in my mind, but he insisted I did not bait the hook. I still smile thinking about our jokes. Then there is Sensei Fabien who is the instructor of the Budo school in Uturoa. He allowed me to train in his classes and after 12 years of not practicing martial arts I felt very out of form. Nevertheless, he was kind and patient with me and I became good friends with the whole team and one of the younger students by the name Heiki became my special training partner. Sensei Fabien is a veterinarian by trade and is a kind man and I feel the strongest desire to return to Raiatea and live there and practice there because of the friends I made there. What I most liked about the Leeward Islands was the relative closeness of Huahine, Taha'a and Bora Bora. only a day away by boat, the lagoon with its relative calm waters and the friendliness of the people in spite of the French presence. Their generosity is legendary and I had felt more welcome there than any other place on this planet with perhaps the one exception of the Marquesas and Moorea. My intention is to travel to Vanuatu and from there to the Philippines and on to Thailand to see what is there and if it is just so-so I will go back to Polynesia to live. A doctor Baud was also a great man to mention. We became friends and after he purchased a boat he wanted me to teach him to sail but what he lacked was not the sailing part but the use of the engine and navigation, He also expected me to do repairs on his boat regardless of the work I had with my boat and in the end that friendship got clouded over by his expectations of me. Too bad because I liked him the way he was. For a few days I worked with a cruising couple from Germany and when I met them the first time in Hiva Oa we started a friendship and it was great to see them again in Raiatea. Wasabi is the name of their boat and it is Heribert and Hildegart who gave me some work that helped me greatly to earn some money. Heribert was also in Bora Bora and we tried to figure out how to get the GPS working on the computer and thanks to him it does. At this time I'm in Fiji and waiting for my pension to be paid by Canada but so far it has not happened. I have left Raiatea sometime in July and sailed to the Cook Islands. Neptune is wearing it for a crown on Wednesdays I suppose. The trip was exciting; winds 25 knot and again, it ripped my fixed main sail about 30 nm West of Bora Bora and I powered back there to get some calm waters to fix it. There I met a young woman from Hungary with a great child and she assisted with the sewing of the sail and made some Hungarian food I did not eat since I left from Hungary when I was still a child. It was difficult to leave but my time to stay in French Polynesia expired and I needed to go. With not a word do I want to mention that I fell in love with her and the kid. Two days out again, the mainsail ripped in 25 knot winds and I continued sailing with the Genoa and made still more than 7 knots. In fact, I even got 11 knots with a partially ripped, yeah, you read that right, Genoa. My average speed was 7.3 knots all the way to the Cook Islands. On my arrival I contacted the harbor authorities and informed them about my presence and they gave me instructions to contact Avatiu harbor. Starting the engine I discovered I lost the propeller. This seems to get to be a habit. A tug towed me into he harbor and did a bit of damage to the bow fitting and the quay did a number on the port side of Symbiosis in the neighborhood of about $1500 US. I tried to get another dock to be tied on to but they had other big ships coming in and needed the rest of the harbor. For a whole week I tried every possible trick to keep away from the wall but the northern wind kept blowing right into the marina and kept doing the damage. That is when I decided to move to the South-Western part of the Rarotonga where some small islands gave a good protection from wind but the entrance was tricky and very narrow, the depth only 1.7 meters at high tide. During entering I did touch bottom twice but finally got into deeper water and tied up to a mooring ball left there by previous cruisers. My impression of the Cook Islands is good and I happened to be there in August and they celebrated their Constitution day and the festivities were something to see. I had met some very interesting characters there I will talk in detail in my next book. A month later I left with a big cargo and a husband and his wife, Andy Duncan and Kathy to Palmerston Atoll after I mounted the spare prop and on the way to Palmerston one blade fell off the feathering prop and the unbalanced shaft beat the hell out of the cutless bearing and the bushing and since then I could not use the engine for propulsion and done the consequent trips on sail alone. On the return to Rarotonga the roller furling broke and the newly repaired jib ripped in heavy winds 25 nm SE off Palmerston. We decided to return to Palmerston. The guys in Palmerston helped me to jury rig the boat, fix the sail by giving me one they have salvaged from another wreck and I left for Rarotonga under sail, leaving the crew to wait for another vessel to return to Rarotonga with them. Winds were blowing 25-30 knots from the South-East and the waves about 3.5 meters. At around 1900h a rogue hit the boat just as I laid down to rest. The sound of the wave was like a full broadside salvo and laid the boat on her side with the mast touching the water and filling the interior knee deep with water. It washed me over the side and in desperation I grabbed for something and got a hold if the lifeline, pulled myself back onto the boat and surveyed the new damage. The boat was rearranged. I had agreed to take back some cargo to Avatiu, Rarotonga and that included two large propane tanks and some packages. The tanks were lashed on deck, one port the other starboard and now they piled up on the starboard side, the outboard engines were gone and the propane bottle I had for cooking was gone, mainsail ripped and the lower shroud on the port side broken. All goods inside were now untidy on the floor and the settee. This called for a long day of work. I was wet, tired and pissed off. Over this the wind came from the direction I needed to go and forced me to go SW and that put the strain on the starboard side and allowed me to jury rig the broken shroud on the port side. As I sailed on south Neptune must have gotten into a compassionate mood because the wind gradually changed from SE to East then NE to N and eventually at the latitude of Rarotonga to West and I arrived at Avatiu harbor 5 days after my excepted date to hear that a lot of people had already began to celebrate my demise. I had to inform them to postpone the celebrations until the confirmed facts indicated my death. A week later again I left for Palmerston to deliver some things like 400 liters of gasoline, two small and two large propane tanks and a weather forecast calling for strong winds from the north. What I got was swells from all corners, confused seas and square waves all the way to Palmerston. The repaired mainsail ripped again on the way, a second rogue hit the boat again and I arrived tired and beaten up like a price boxer after a bout with Mohamed Ali. At Palmerston my friends helped me to recover, sewed my sails, fed me, provided me with propane for cooking and other things and I set sails again for Fiji. A word about the population of Palmerston; The inhabitants are the descendants of a William Marsters who sired 27 children with three wives and there are now three families, all from the same family, who govern the whole atoll, seventy of them now. They are very generous and friendly folks and I celebrated my 65th. birthday with them, Andy and his wife their anniversary and it drove tears into my eyes. They have worked hard to help me and I can recommend only to visit there and experience their kindness first hand. I zig-zagged my way to Fiji and although I would have loved to see Niue and Tonga's Va-vau Group, I made it to Vanua Levu, Fiji's NW second large Island where I am now in Savusavu at Waitui Marina, awaiting the end of the world and the cyclone season; But hey, why am I repeating myself? There is a lot of repairs to be done before I can continue to Vanuatu and see what's next. I also need to have my eye surgery done because in fact I'm blind by any standards. The surgery will be done in February and until that is not done, I can't leave. I noticed how my eyesight got worse and worse since I left Mexico but since Tahiti my right eye was completely finished and the left had only 20/60. Now if I don't have bright light, I cannot see faces at 3 meters, cataract is the name, stumble into people is the game. If the computer did not have a bright background I could not write this. A week ago we had a visitor, T.C. Evan and had a hell of a ball. We danced for two days and a night then he left to do his thing somewhere else and we are cleaning up after him, Nobody want to see him again but as they say; the dance is not over until the fat lady swings.