We did not post a blog last night because we were cultured-out! Really it was a day full of the best of French Polynesia. The first weeks of July feature the annual Heiva celebration. For 30 years the Polynesians have celebrated their culture with art, music and games. The first of these events occurred when the Queen overrode the doomsaying missionaries who banned music and dance. The queen saw that music and dance and games was good for her people and declared the first festival.

Our first glimpse of the festivities was with the outrigger race from Tahiti to Moorea, around Moorea and back. Remember, it took Charisma 3 hours to sail to Moorea. The six hour outrigger race started in the channel right off the quay that we were tied to. It was wild. The support motor boats and fan speed boats outnumbered the outriggers five to one. And the wave action was crazy. The enthusiasm was contagious.

The Heiva also honors the best arts and crafts from all of the islands with a display of their creative abilities – all for sale of course. This year’s craft theme centered around sea shells and weaving. And the Polynesians brought out all of their best work. Bob and I walked to the “fairgrounds” (about 1.5 miles) down Prince Hanoi street. As it was Sunday there was very little activity but a pleasant walk. The show itself featured quilts (yeah!), jewelry made from carved shells and mother of pearl, tattoo displays (again and again we were stopped to talk about the origins of Bob’s tattoo), carving, weaving and some good food and music. We were overwhelmed by the variety of uses for sea shells. The creativity was overflowing.

We have spent many hours looking for cowrie shells on the beach. I know now why we found very few. They were used for stunning necklaces, purses and other household decorations. The quilting was pretty rudimentary but fun to look at anyway. The weaving ranged from credit card holders to floor mats to hats of all sizes and shapes. We had hoped to run into some of our favorite artisans from the Marquesas but did not. However some of the carvings looked very familiar. All in all, a great show but mostly we are even more pleased with the unique items we have collected thus far directly from the artists.

During our stay at the quay we could see the stadium that had been set up for the musical performances and nightly we could hear the different groups performing. So of course we needed to see a show. Eight of us decided to see if we could get last minute tickets and were fortunate enough to be first in line when the ticket office opened. We snagged the last batch of good seats. These dance groups include 100 dancers, up to 30 ukuleles and drummers, 5 costume changes per performance and one or two costumed personnel whose sole job is to wander through the dancers picking up parts of the costumes that fall off. The dancers were fabulous. The choreography fascinating. Man are these guys and girls in good shape! And the joy that they projected in their dance and smiles….I agree with the queen – it is good for the soul!

There were also two chanting/singing groups that performed in between the dance groups. Unfortunately we didn’t get the full experience due to the language barrier. Even knowing the story in advance it was hard to really appreciate their efforts. But the Tahitians seemed to love them.

We were exhausted by the time we returned to the boats at 11 pm. Can there be too much culture in one day? Perhaps.

Today was spent waiting for our duty-free alcohol delivery. Held hostage by rum. Luckily the siege ended around 1500 with us getting our delivery in time to leave the quay and move about 4 miles around the island to Marina Taina. And while waiting for our delivery I took advantage of the dock water and got caught up on all of the laundry while Bob updated some pictures.

Being tied to the quay was a special experience. Most of the famous sailors, from Cook to Slocum, have docked here. I wonder if they too had to climb over their bowsprits like we have to exit their boat. Every time we made the maneuver Bob wondered if we would make it. I tried not to think about it much. Well today, as I hurried to help a boat that was coming in next to us (Bob was fending him off of the solar panels) I moved too quickly and found myself dangling from the bowsprit. Gotta love adrenalin because before anyone on the dock even noticed I was able to pull myself back up onto Charisma and try it again. Success! And the incoming boat was thrilled to have help tying up.

So now we are tied to a mooring ball off of Marina Taina where we hope to go ashore to the Costco-like store that was too far from the downtown quay for us to visit. Tomorrow we’ll dinghy ashore and provision (all except liquor which we have already completed!) for the next part of our journey.