|
April 26, 2006; 24º 13.10S; 132º 2424W. At sea. The ship is in a following sea, winds 15-25 kts. Whitecaps. The ship’s motion is relatively benign. There is mostly a pitching moment, and an occasional roll to port. We have an all-day cruise to French Polynesia, fetching Mangareva tomorrow. By noon the winds increased to full gale and the seas became quite lumpy. During lunch the ship slowed to 8 knots to ease the motion in the dining room. Re-cap this morning featured some under water footage taken by Dennis Cornejo at the reef off Henderson Island.
The afternoon session featured a slide show and video about voyaging in the Tuamotos by Jon Bowermaster, National Geographic’s guy aboard this trip. His video was professionally done and showed life among the native Polynesians. After the talk, he autographed my copy of his book. April 27, 2006; 23º 09S; 134º 54” W Mangareva Is. Gambier Archipelago (French Polynesia) We entered the lagoon early in the morning and the immediate effect was to calm the ship’s motion. The rough seas prompted Capt. Lampe to get on the intercom and “reassure” the passengers that we were not “off course” (in the Drake Passage) but that this really was the so-called calm South Pacific. The morning dawned sunny, but windy. After breakfast Paul embarked a Zodiac driven by Pete Puleston for a bumpy spray-filled ride to shore. We had a dry landing on a concrete wharf. I put my camera bag inside my backpack to keep it dry. The Gambier Islands once enjoyed a long-haul trade network with the islanders on Pitcairn and Henderson. However, around 1500 Mangareva, like Easter Island became deforested, which prevented the construction of the large double-hulled seagoing canoes used for this trade. As a result, the population was isolated. In 1834, missionaries, led by Father Honore Laval arrived. As the coming of strangers had been predicted by the previous chief, they were welcomed and quickly converted the populace to their brand of Christianity. Laval became the defacto leader and set about destroying the heathen statues and altars, dressing the natives in unaccustomed clothing, establishing morality police, constructing a 1200-seat cathedral and attempting to build a European-style city on the island. The results were disastrous. The declining birthrate and deaths due to tuberculosis resulted in a population decline from 9000 to fewer than 500 souls. In response to complaints, the French dispatched a warship to forcibly remove Father Laval to Tahiti in 1871. On trial for murder, Laval claimed that “… they have but gone more quickly to heaven.” He was judged insane and remained in Tahiti until his death in 1880.
Once ashore we explored the ruins of the cathedral, some went to the school, the gravesite of King Te Maputeoa, and the settlement of Rikitea. While in town we came across a black pearl cultivator (The lagoon is filled with oysters being farmed for black pearls). Although we’d been warned about imposters selling too-perfect plastic “pearls,” this guy looked legit, so Paul “invested” $5 in a black pearl! The trip back to the ship was uneventful until we pulled alongside the loading door, when our Zodiac was hit by a wave that soaked everyone. My cameras were protected, but all my clothing will need to go to the laundry. At noon we weighed anchor, retrieved the SCUBA divers and departed the lagoon out of its eastern portal. A cold beer in the lounge tasted good! When we got outside of the lagoon, the seas built up again as the winds are blowing 30-50 knots (Force 6-7). For a while the Endeavour pounded into the 15-20’ seas. Stemware was smashing in the bar; the ship was taking a beating, not to mention the passengers. The captain wisely reduced speed from our normal 12.5 knots to 6 knots. The ship’s motion became markedly easier. As a consequence, we will not be able to make our next scheduled atoll, Pukurua. Even if we were to attempt it, we would now arrive after dark with a narrow entrance to their lagoon (on the north – windy – side). So, depending on how long we need to run at reduced speed, we shall pick a different island – atoll to visit. We don’t have permission, but we’ll pick a place, arrive and try to make friends. April 28, 2006; at sea. We are heading for the Tuamotu Archipelago in rough seas. The naturalists gave well-attended lectures on sea birds, whales, and Captain Cook’s three voyages of exploration (He was killed in Hawaii on his third voyage.) We saw Thor Heyerdahl’s documentary about the voyage of the Kon Tiki from Chile to the island of Raroia. This formed the “proof” of his theory that Polynesia was populated east to west from South America to the islands. Dr. Claudio Christino explained that DNA studies and language studies have pretty conclusively shown that the Polynesians are related to Southeast Asians and populated the islands west to east, with a group of seven canoes setting out for New Zealand to form the seven tribes now found there. The movie after dinner was the “Search for Longitude,” the NOVA special about figuring out where one is while at sea. |
 |
|
|
The seas were fairly boisterous in force 7 gales |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
The ruins of Father Laval's cathedral |
||
 |
||
|
Black Pearls for sale ... cheap! |
||
 |
||
 |