Pitufa.at

French Polynesia is doing a good job to prevent Covid-19 from spreading. People generally still wear masks in shops and public places and remain cautious. Vaccinations are going on rapidly, in many places everybody 18+ can get an appointment for a shot.

However, we have noticed that some cruisers think that as soon as they have their two shots they can drop all precautions, they are already kissing again and going back to business as usual. Vaccinations only give a partial protection from experiencing severe symptoms, they are NOT a 100 % protection!

It’s really not so hard to wear a mask, wash your hands regularly and wave a friendly hello instead of kissing cheeks…

Raiatea in the morning is quite often simply magical: the lagoon is glassy calm, the island is mirrored on the surface of the sea and soft, white clouds sit on the soaring peaks. The landbreeze that gently blows down from those mountains is incredibly fragrant–a mixture of flowers and pine scent. We usually use this cool morning air to do exercises on deck before it gets too hot. Today we got the dinghy up on deck, unpacked the sails and prepared the boat for a passage. We’d love to stay, there are still many quiet corners left we’d love to explore, but we have to sail to Tahiti! A steady northeasterly is predicted for the next day and we’ll use it to sail the 110 nm there.

We’ve been hanging out around Raiatea and Tahaa (the two islands share one, big lagoon) for two weeks now. The infrastructure around these islands is very convenient: 4G internet, little supermarkets everywhere that get stuff from the supply ships several times a week, but sell also local produce. The nicest way to get locally grown fruit and veg is to walk down the coastal roads: whenever somebody has too many bananas/pamplemousse/rambutan/avocados/… they just set up a table in front of their property–great to get fresh things and to have a chat.

We’ve anchored in various spots and most locals who go by with their boats give us a friendly wave. Only the NW side of Raiatea (Pr. Mirimiri) is ‘famous’ for disliking cruisers. In the muddy bay there we got chased away a few years ago ‘because we destroy the coral there’ (in mud??) and this year a boat came by out on the shelf to tell us that we were disturbing their spearfishing area (by parking there?). Two years ago a local cut the anchor chain of a cruising boat and according to the verdict of this February he was found guilty and got a fine of 50.000 CPF (approx 500 USD), because he had ‘an understandable reason’…

It’s a hot autumn here, so we’ve spent quite some time in the water. Many reefs are dead and overgrown with algae, but some coral in the shallow areas is in surprisingly good shape, despite temperatures above 30°C. There are not many fish around and the ones we see are small and skittish–there’s too much spearfishing going on. At least we’ve seen a few turtles, and they were rather relaxed, so they don’t seem to get hunted here anymore.

We quite often criticise how little untouched wilderness remains here in French Polynesia and the lack of efforts by the government and other organisations to protect the environment. We complain about locals who still hunt turtles and collect sea bird eggs and blame a lack of education and awareness.

Yesterday we read on the Austrian News that the fishermen and fisherwomen there have finally managed to get the right to shoot cormorants as they do damage to the fishery… We hypocritical Europeans are so good at knowing what other countries have to preserve: there’s a public outcry when the Indians shoot their last tigers or the Brazilians log their rainforests. But beware if a single bear sticks his furry snout over the Austrian border, or if a swan poops in a lake, or the aforementioned cormorants dare to eat fish–they immediately get the death penalty.
What are they supposed to do instead? Order a burger (from a cow that used up incredible resources being fed under quite often horrible circumstances, transported around half the world, etc.) at MacKing?
Wouldn’t it make much more sense to be happy about every wild animal that has somehow managed to adapt to the environment we have made?

The problem with humanity is that we assume that we own the planet and all other creatures are only tolerated if they are of use to us. Why don’t people grasp that we are just one of many species who are supposed to share this beautiful planet in a sustainable way?

Somehow I assumed that everybody has better internet than we and would have no prob just letting a google translator do the translation of our info sheet for them
As people have been asking, I’ll simply put the translation of the link below into this blog here:

Don’t you like sailboats?
You’re not alone, many people would like to chase them out of their lagoons.

But why?
Traditionally the reception in French Polynesia was warm and welcoming, but this has changed recently. We think that lack of information and false information are responsible for that.

As cruisers and visitors we would like to present our point of view here:

Why don’t you go back home?
The sailboats are our floating homes. Many cruisers are retired, others want to give their kids a chance to see the worlds, others (like we) simply live and work on their boats.

Why do you stay in French Polynesia?
Because we love Polynesia! The people are friendly, nature’s gorgeous, the culture is really interesting and the climate pleasant.

Why are there more sailboats here now?
Because of Covid most borders are closed and sailboats have nowhere to go.

Is it true that you destroy the coral?
No, that’s not true. We anchor in sand and put floats on our chain to avoid touching coral.

Are you responsible for pollution?
We would never throw rubbish into the sea or on the beaches. We use the sun and the wind as energy sources. We love and protect nature!

Do you bring rats and other pests to the motu?
Sailboats are small and it’s very unlikely that we would not notice such blind passengers. Big freighters and fishing boats carry such pests…

Don’t you pay for your stay here?
We contribute lots of money to the Polynesian economy. We buy spare parts for our boats, we use the haul-out facilities, we provision on a large scale, we rent cars, go to snacks and restaurants and pay for medical expenses.
Different than other tourists we spend money in local mini-markets and buy local fruit, veg, fish, souvenirs, etc.

Do you consume local resources for free?
Many cruisers take nothing from nature. We don’t hunt or fish in lagoons. We only appreciate nature and hunt with our cameras.

Is it true that sailboats bring Covid?
The passage to French Poly from Mexico/Panama/Chile/etc. takes at least 3 weeks, that’s a long quarantine. Most sailboats have been here for a long time. Our life-style means that we are quite often isolated ‘in quarantine’ on our boats, so we are less exposed and less at risk than other people.
When we sail between islands we keep a voluntary quarantine to avoid spreading the virus.

Why are there so many negative news about sailboats on the television/in newspapers/on facebook?
There are influential people in Tahiti who would like to get rid of sailboats to build a hotel complex in the area of the Marina Taina anchorage. They use the media and social networks for their own means. They also turn away attention from their own faults (sewage in the lagoons, no recycling, polluting industries, herbicides and pesticides in the rivers, etc.) by blaming cruisers for everything that goes wrong. It’s unfair and dangerous to incite fears and aggressions against a minority that’s vulnerable, simply because they have a different life-style. We hope that the Polynesians will look through those lies.

We decided to spend the cyclone season on an quiet, friendly little island to get away from the anti-cruiser hostilities in Tahiti and the Society Islands. Unfortunately it turns out that even here in Raivavae a campaign against cruisers is going on…
Ironically enough it’s the environmental organisation (who should be our friends as fellow protectors of nature) and the protestant priest (who would be supposed to love his fellow humans instead of inciting fears and prejudices) are leading the propaganda which is full of false information and lies.

They claim that sailboats pollute, destroy coral, spread pests and Covid…

In response to this we have composed a little FAQ in French (download pdf) to counter those rumours and to present our point of view. We have put up this sheet at shop windows, talked to the mayor and other influential people.

If you are in a location where cruisers are defamed and attacked you may want to download and spread this info sheet (in French) or write something similar to show your side of the story.

Our little ship’s cat died last week.

I still hear her everywhere and see her everywhere. Our day was so full of cat rituals: sunbathing and petting session in the morning, making sure she ate a few bites every few hours, waking her during the day so she’d be tired at night, sitting out in the cockpit during the evenings to ‘air’ the cat, then down to the saloon for ‘couchtime’–she’d already hop on the sofa and wait for us to get cuddled from both sides while we were watching some telly series. We’ve never been on the boat without her (just a few weekends when we had the boat in Croatia, but we always took her along for sailing holidays) and now Pitufa feels horribly empty without her.

She was right in the centre of our lives for a long time. Keeping the cat safe and happy was a priority for 21 years: our choice of houses/flats in Austria, Sweden and the Uk, the decision to go cruising instead of other forms of travelling, the destinations we could sail to, the fact that we could never leave her alone with the boat, our itinerary to keep her ‘cool’and comfy–it’s become second nature to see the world through her eyes, what she’d like and dislike.

In a house in Europe with a vet to help with her aches, a pet shop to supply her with different brands and flavours every day (even though we brought bags full of expensive food from Austria and ordered a big package from the US last year she just sniffed the cans I still have left, not enough variety on the menu…) and an extra room (preferably sound proof to give us some rest at night) we could probably have nursed her for another year. Or she may have had a stroke next week–we’ll never know.
On the other hand if we had stayed in Europe we would have both worked long hours, she would have spent most of the days alone at home instead of having us constantly around, she would have long starved without me around to coax her into into eating tiny morsels during the day, she might have been run over by a car years ago–who knows what could or would have been.

I just keep telling myself that she got more love and attention over the last 21 years than 99% of all other cats on the globe and probably most children as well (given the fact that kids grow up and move out at some point). She filled our days with joy, love and purrs in return. Brrrreeeow, mrrrrah, meeep, she had a whole array of little sounds and I can’t believe I’ll never hear her again. She turned high maintenance towards the end, but she gave us so much during her long life.

Leeloo leaves a gaping cat-shaped hole in our lives.