David the carver. Beautiful work. I bought two of his rosewood designs (not these two)

Breadfruit for the feast

Cooking Breadfruit on the coals

Husking the breadfruit

Entertainment while we were cooking

Some of the kids (the one with the Mandolin was the birthday girl)

Making Tapa (paper made from tree bark)

Some of the tapa art.

We are still in Fatu Hiva at the Bay of Virgins. So what did I win you ask? A day at play! But first let me tell you what Bob accomplished because he was a very busy man. First he identified the leak in our dinghy. Unfortunately it is actually a split seam and the special glue made for the dinghy did not repair the problem. Tomorrow he will try a different type of glue. Most exciting is that Bob installed a fan in the quarter berth – where we sleep. Woo hoo! The islands are warm even at night so this is a welcome upgrade. Not quite air conditioning but we can pretend. Bob also took apart the binnacle to investigate a squeak and a groan in the helm. Fortunately it was a chain and sprocket (which he greased) and teflon bearings and he feels good about the “fix”. Having never pulled the helm apart before he was a little apprehensive but all went well. And what did the winner (of no contest at all, just got lucky with a nice guy who let me go play -all day!) do? I joined the women (from Island Bound, The Rose, Blue Rodeo and Orcinius) and Mark (from Blue Rodeo) on the hike to the waterfall. What a hike! We all had heard part of the directions from different sources (kind of like this: go up the road that goes over the pass, after the second dirt road, turn onto the ranger road, pass the house with the barking dogs… obviously we were glad to see cairns when we hit the steep area because it meant we probably were on the right path) and by combining all our directions, the seven of us found the 200 foot waterfall. It was a strenuous hike, especially the last portion, but Lisa from Orcinius, an avid mountain climber in her pre-cruising life, led the way and we all made it. Mark did not succumb to the excess of estrogen and also enjoyed the hike. The waterfall fell down a granite face out of the lush green spires into a deep cool pool. Rebecca and Pat from The Rose and Mark and I could not resist the cool water and enjoyed a lovely swim before we all packed it up and returned down into the valley. We had to make a quick return to our boats and clean up in time for our 2 pm cooking lesson with the chief of the island – actually the matriarchal chief. She had offered to cook dinner for us for a set fee yesterday when we were at her house looking at carvings but as we said in yesterday’s blog we talked her into including a cooking lesson. Well Chief Kati had pre-prepared most of the meal by the time we got there. Coconut had been shredded, tuna and chicken cut up, bananas peeled and steamed. Our lesson consisted of putting all of the final parts together with explanations as to how she got to that stage. Works for me! The menu included papaya salad, steamed bananas, breadfruit (not my favorite but fun to watch the preparation), chicken in coconut milk, poisson cru, fried fish and baked chicken. Today also happened to be her granddaughter’s 9th birthday so we celebrated her birthday too. What we bargained for was a cooking lesson. What we got was an afternoon and evening of true Polynesian spirit. The two hours of “cooking lessons” also included playing with her granddaughter and 3 other 4-6 year old girls that Kati was taking care of. Two of guys that do carvings for her also came to help and were delightful. It felt like we had stepped into their lives and were at a family reunion. The little girls played with everyone’s camera taking lots of fun pictures. Kati did a fantastic job of communicating with all of us. The guys who set up tables and barbecues loved having us help and enjoyed teasing us about eating manta rays. Apparently they really do eat them but due to conservation the entire village (42 houses per Katie) split one every few years. As the meal came together our guys from the boats came and joined us for dinner. It was delicious and way too much food. We all sang Happy Birthday to her granddaughter, Caroline. And then the music really kicked in. Kati’s guys brought out a guitar and ukulele. Man can they play and sing! And the little girls got in on the act too singing and dancing. Caroline was as good a Polynesian dancer as any of us had ever seen. John, from Orcinius, was invited to dance by Caroline (yes, his wife Lisa and I encouraged it) and really played along. The little girls were hysterical laughing at him. What a sport! This musical entertainment lasted for several hours with all of us spellbound. It was so great to really be a part of this special family. We came as customers, we left as special friends. So much more than we expected. We saw the joyous side of Polynesia tonight! And to top it all off, a moonlit walk back to the water and a lovely moonlit shower on the boat, started with a quick jump into the bay to cool off! Winner, winner… and so very lucky!