With Daniel at Daniel's Bay, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia

Sailing Faith: The Long

Way Home

The Vaipo Waterfall, around the two-hundredth tallest in the world, in Daniel's Bay, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia

The Gregg A Granger

Family Adventure

 
 Pushing a damaged Faith off the reef in Tahiti
 

Emily, Amanda, and GreggII in Moorea

The Marquesas

Oa Pou is a postcard to which words do no justice.  Massive rock spires jutting heavenward, splashed with tropical green. 

A lot of times, it feels like the return trip is shorter, maybe because our expectations are more tuned to reality.  The kids are tired and this return is not shorter.  When I try to remember the waterfall, I fail.  The waterfall isn’t what matters, but the time we share on the journey with these two families – that’s important.

The beautiful rock spires of Oua Po, Marquesas, French Polynesia

The Tuamotus

We leave Apataki in the morning for our best experience of the Pacific.  We plan to stay in Anse Amyot, on Toau, for two days before continuing to Tahiti, but are charmed into two weeks. 

Valentine is the matriarch of the world surrounding Anse Amyot; her husband, Gaston, is the only Frenchman – half French at that.  The houses along the inlet are painted white or not at all, constructed of wood, with tin roofs that are all painted to protect them from the salt air.  Valentine’s nephews, Jean-Paul and Mana live next door near the boat house.  Grandpa and Valentine’s ex-in-laws live on the other side of Valentine’s house, toward the lagoon.  Behind the houses is the copra shed, and between Valentine’s house and the boat house is a solar powered telephone booth that the phone company installed a month ago.  The smell of fresh and less-than-fresh fish blends with the copra and the sea air, and become more pleasing when Valentine bakes her special coconut bread in the coconut-husk fired barrel oven.  

With Davina, at Toau, Tuamotus, French Polynesia

Society Islands

On Sunday, we go to a Protestant church in Papeete. Most of the women are dressed in white dresses, wearing broad-brimmed white  hats decorated with big flowers, peacock feathers, stars, foil-paper, pipe cleaners, and other things. It reminds me of the cartoon of Curtis and his little brother in church, making fun of all the women’s hats.

Church lasts two-and-one-half hours, with five baptisms, a half-hour of announcements, and because it’s the first Sunday of the month, Communion.  It’s in French, so we don’t follow too well, but the singing makes it all worthwhile.  A song starts with an old woman sitting somewhere in the congregation, wailing a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard for a second or two before being joined by other men and women scattered throughout the congregation in beautiful harmony.  Then, a wail from a different location and another song begins.

At church in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia