Position: We have ‘hopefully’ less than a week to go to get to French Polynesia. Our position is:
08 05.94S 126 25.11W
*Note: I am told you can copy and paste these coordinates into google earth and it will show you where we are.
Mileage: 900nm- 742nm = 158nm
Number of miles to go:742nm to go of approx. 3850nm. French Polynesia keeps getting closer.
Fish count: The count remains the same. 4 Mahi Mahi, 2 Cero and 6 tuna. One Marlin that we were happy got away! No fishing rods out still. It is much too rough out here to fish safely off the back of the boat, let alone try and clean the fish we catch. So fishing on hold until the waves calm down.
SAME ROUTINE ON SPIRIT OF ARGO
We have all slipped into a routine here on Spirit of Argo. Not that we are complaining. We do not want any more sudden mechanical issues. As we move South the winds have gotten a little lighter. The humans had planned to put another foresail up, but as usual, they made a slight error. They ‘acquired’ another pole for this extra foresail, but there is no room on the existing mast mount to fit two poles. They will have to attach another mount to the mast. Where they are going to find one of those now??? They could use the boom as a ‘poor mans’ pole, but it is set too far behind the shrouds to get the right shape on the sail. So it looks like we will loose some of our speed. Winds are predicted not to get too light 18-20 knots, so we should be fine with just the one foresail poled out.
What is it like on the boat? Just start singing ‘Rawhide’ and you will know how we all feel aboard. ‘Rolling, rolling, rolling, rawhide!’
FRENCH POLYYNESIAN HISTORY
How did people get way out here?
Around 4000 BC , a great migration began from Southeast Asia across open ocean to settle the Pacific Islands. Many researchers conclude that Tonga and Samoa (islands to the East) were settled around 1300 BC and from here, colonization voyages were launched to Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. Over the next several centuries, great migrations to colonize all the other Polynesian islands and, ultimately, nearly the entire South Pacific took place. This area is now called the ‘Polynesian Triangle’ and includes Hawaii to the North, Easter Island to the South East, and New Zealand to the South West. As a result of all these migrations, the native Polynesians, Hawailians and the Maoris of New Zealand all originate from common ancestors and speak a similar language collectively known as Maohi.
The era of European exploration began in the 1500s when ‘ships without outriggers’ began to arrive. In 1521, Magellan spotted the atoll of Pukapuka in what is now the Tuamotu Atolls and, in 1595, the Spanish explorer Mendana visited Fatu Hiva Island in the Marquesas. More than 170 years later, Captain Samuel Wallis, aboard the English frigate HMS Dolphin, was the first to visit the island of Tahiti during his journey to discover ‘terra australis incongnita’ – a mythical landmass below the equator thought to balance the northern hemisphere. Wallis named Tahiti ‘King George II Island’ and claimed it for England. Soon after and unaware of Wallis’ arrival, French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, landed on the opposite side of Tahiti and claimed it for the King of France.
European fascination with the island grew as news spread of both the mutiny of Captain William Blight’s crew aboard the HMS Bounty, and the tales told of the beauty and grace of the Tahitian people. Western knowledge and fascination of Tahiti and the South Pacific continued to expand with the illustrations of Tahitian flora and fauna and the first map of the islands of the Pacific that Captain James Cook brought back. In the 1800s, the arrival of whalers, British missionaries, and French military expeditions forever changed the way of life on Tahiti, while also serving to provoke a British-French rivalry for control of the islands.
The Pomare dynasty ruled Tahiti until 1880 when King Pomare V was persuaded to cede Tahiti and most of its dependencies to France. By 1958, all the islands of Tahiti were reconstituted as the Overseas French territory called French Polynesia. In 2004 French Polynesia became an Overseas Country within the French Republic with self-governing powers and a mission to provide for her people through commerce and investment.
More on this group of islands and atolls tomorrow.
END
