The fearsome women's paddling team (Ann on the left)

Woman's team in action

The men's team...

Heading off to war...

Ann celebrating, um, finishing...

First, before I share about the day let me tell you about last night. As we posted last night several boats in the anchorage were having issues with their anchors holding. Twice during dinner at Gato Go last night, Bob and I excused ourselves jumped into the dinghy (really an amazing feat as I did not fall in the water doing this) and hurried over to boats about to crash into Charisma to make sure their skippers were attempting to change their holding. Fortunately both were and Charisma made it through the night unscathed. Upon returning to Gato Go we found that a boat in front of them had dragged anchor and was about 10 yards off their bow. Very disconcerting in the dark. Again, the skipper jumped to it and reset their anchor. Another boat to their port side was all over the place. Not a comforting atmosphere.

Our writer friend, Sarah, noted that the only time she had seen extreme reactions from sailors was during their anchoring. Now she knows why. Crazy, shifting winds and your home is under attack! When we got up this morning, to our surprise, Gato Go was gato gone! Apparently THEY had dragged anchor early in the AM and moved to a different spot in the anchorage. Fortunately Charisma held firm all night long.

But back to the fun and games!

Update – Ann’s canoeing team’s name was Tiare Tahita – which means flower of Tahiti. Vicky, from Inspiration at Sea, came ashore with “tattoos” for all of us! Really it was a shirt with interesting sleeves that had a skin colored background with tigers on it. Vicky brought us all parts of it and we did look like we had fierce tattoos, which must have inspired our fierce attitudes. We, Vicky, Rani, Barbara and I, proceeded to try to intimidate all other teams and claim victory before the races began. Unfortunately our tactic did not quite work. We were fearsome; everyone wanted to take our pictures but we did not win our heat. In fact I think we lost our heat. But not by much. And Nui, our forward Polynesian, was very entertained by our spirit and our chanting and thought we should have won. (We have developed many reasons as to why we lost but I will refrain from boring you.)

So when Bob’s team, the Bilge Rats, participated, we were hopeful for a victory. Unfortunately, weight seems to have been an issue. Nui pre-warned them that there was a lot of weight in the canoe. And they lost. Oh well. Fun to be in an outrigger and fun to participate! Who cares who won if we didn’t.

The day also included demonstrations on how to tie pareas, the favored attire for men and women in the South Pacific. (A parea is simply a piece of brightly colored cloth that wraps around the body.) The demonstrations were hysterical and not only included Bob, displaying a very stylish top and bottom outfit (where were these guys when I was making his mermaid top?) but a very funny demonstration on how men can wear them also. Our favorite Japanese cruiser was a great model that the big Tahitian physically picked up and turned around so we could see both sides of the outfit. Very funny!

The day also included traditional foot races including a bamboo stick with bananas on either end like weights. I joined Bob’s rowing team to make the required team of five. Running through the palm trees and handing off the bananas to the next teammate, we were holding our own. On the final leg I think we would have won but were disqualified when Bruce from Gato Go decided that he could launch our bananas across the finish line. Good try but no banana.

Additionally there were coconut husking contests and a tug a war contest. Arts and crafts were available too as the locals taught us to weave palm fronds and dye pareas. And know that I know so many ways to wear my newly dyed parea Bob should be entertained for a long time!

The day ended with Bob rescuing Orcinius’ runaway kayak! He was standing there talking with Sarah, the writer, when he noticed a kayak floating sideways across the sunset, with NO rider! Quick reactions and a loud whistle caught the attention of a departing dinghy who assisted in capturing the escaped dinghy! After that, we towed back to their boat for the night!

Thank goodness for a relaxing evening back on Charisma, “paddled out” but with lots of great memories of silly times and Tahitian traditions!