Tag Archives: rikitea

Valentine’s Day Fundraiser

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The College St Rapahel De Rikitea is a middle school in Mangareva, Gambier.  They host several fundraisers each year to help pay for school supplies, books, dances, and school trips.  We were lucky enough to be present for their largest fundraiser in February.

There were many events held over Valentine’s Day weekend.  Here is an idea of the line up (just from what I heard; we did not have the actual schedule):

Fundraiser Events:

  • Friday evening included movie night and games
  • Saturday day held more games, sporting events, an artisan market, and bake off
  • Saturday evening was a school dance show with dinner
  • Sunday was a “3k fun run and valentine lunch”

We gathered a few of our cruiser friends and met for take away dinner (typical Polynesian steak frites, chicken frites, poison cru, waffles) and grabbed some seats to watch the dance show.  Our good friend Poerani (the English teacher) is one of the MCs for the night.

Poerani (Popo)’s class went first.  They did a traditional dance with about 40 kids (bottom photos in red and yellow).  Then the older classes came out and continued with the “traditional Polynesian” dances.  I loved the costumes, albeit not as flashy as the Heiva dance costumes, still colorful, bright, vibrant, and beautiful.  The kids costumes (upper right corner) were colored leaves and were just beautiful!

The older kids also put on a few “modern / rap” dances interspersed with Polynesian moves – super creative!

The musicians were also students showcasing their musical talents.  Poerani upper right corner and Danny (dance instructor lower right corner)

Then the teachers came out and did a beautiful Polynesian dance.  Poerani captured the show as she radiates beauty, grace, and style!  I was so proud of her!

Fun Run Fundraiser

We managed to convince 4 boats to join us on the “3k Fun Run.”  There was a total of 39 teams and our participation included a T-shirt, flowers, and a raffle ticket.  Everyone had their arms marked with their team number. We were number 1 simply because we were the first to sign up.  This is our cruiser group.

Because it was 13 February it was a Valentine themed event.  All the balloons were red and white, some shaped as hearts, the shirts were red with a big heart on the back.  Matt and I and our friends Jan and Daniela

A lot of our local friends joined in on the race as well.  Teva (center photo with me), Danny (upper right), Poerani and Danny (bottom left), Titoan and Juliet (right center), Poerani and I (bottom right).

As many of you know, I am not a runner!  I don’t even like to run when someone is chasing me!  I do love to walk and I can walk at a pretty fast clip (or so I thought).  Matt wore flip flops as he was convinced, we would go slow.  I was outfitted in a work out top, shorts, and tennis shoes!  Yes, I wore shoes.  As it turned out, our friends Jan and Daniela came in 4th (lost to the 3rd place couple by 9 seconds).  We came in 13th and that was only because Matt pushed me.  It was fun, but let me tell you, not my cup of tea :0

Raffle

After the race there was a Valentine lunch where they did the raffle.  Some how each of our cruiser friends won something, which was super cool!   We won a heart shaped candle set and a photo shoot. 

The weekend was a huge success.  I believe the fundraiser generated to $10,000.  Keep in mind that Mangareva is one of the richest islands in French Polynesia!!!

We showcase Gambier highlights and our favorite spots with our friend Wayne.  Did you see Part I and Part II?  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Meteo Weather Balloon

Up, Up, and Away: Weather Balloon

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Meteo France has a weather station on Mangareva and I’ve always wanted to go to see the process.  It was a little anticlimactic, but cool none the less.  Every day at 1400 they release a weather balloon in 4 weather stations.  Gambier, Marquesas, Australs, and Tahiti.  They also have stationary, automatic weather sites but they are not truly weather stations as there are no people.

One employee puts out the modem box which has all the sensors (temperature, wind, barometric pressure, GPS, etc…) about 20 minutes before the weather balloon launch.  We could not go into the area where he inflates the balloon but assume its like any other inflation (smiley face).

The employee attaches the balloon to the modem box and unceremoniously lets it go.  No big aha moment or “ta da” or anything.

It was a slightly windy day so the weather balloon took off rather quickly.

Weather Balloon

The weather balloon is about 1 meter in diameter when it is launched and expands to become larger than a house.  It will continue to slowly expand as it climbs up, up, into the sky.  It will continue to ascend until 30 kilometers (21 miles) before it explodes. 

The temperature was -11 at 6 kilometers!  Man, that is cold!

The data collected by the weather balloon is transmitted by satellite to the local weather station, then transmitted to Papeete (where all the weather is collected and centralized) and then sent to Paris – Meteo France (weather).

Each modem costs approximately 18000xpf (pacific francs) which is about $180.00.

Views from the weather station which is situated about 1/4 of the way up a mountain.

On the way back to town, I captured the view of the Rikitea Anchorage (at Mangareva).  Can you find Sugar Shack?

In our last blog post, we bring you into our many boat projects..  Events from this blog post occurred in January.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Rainbow across Mangareva

A Community Coming Together

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A nightmare = getting injured in remote places.  A blessing = a community coming together.  Do you remember how the United States pulled together and stood as “one” a truly “united” country after 911?  Where you were proud to help your neighbor and proud to be an American?  I had that same feeling again (on a much smaller scale) with our local community here in Gambier.

Several boats were anchored near a small uninhabited motu called Tauna (pronounced Towna) which is about 7-8 miles from the main village of Rikitea.  It takes a sail boat about 2-2.5 hours to get from Tauna to Rikitea. 

A father of two girls was up early to foil board (kite boarding on a foil).  He fell near his boat and was stung by a jelly fish.  The father, now patient, had a severe allergic reaction.  His friends brought him on his sail boat where he was ferociously vomiting and in extreme pain.

Sugar Shack was located in Rikitea.  We first heard about the incident on our hand-held VHF radio.  However, we only heard bits of the conversation because our handheld was not strong enough to receive the transmission.  We turning on the ship VHF because it has a larger antenna and we could hear better.  Not expecting to be able to do anything – just being curiously nosey.

The Help

Eve from “Auntie” was visiting us on Sugar Shack during this time which was around 0830.  Nathan, a 14-year old boy on a neighboring yacht in Tauna, hailed us on the VHF (thank goodness we switched to the ship VHF). He asked if the physician was in at the clinic.  Their plan was to bring the patient to Rikitea on their sail boat, which would take 2-2.5 hours.  That’s a long time to be in severe pain.  As I am communicating with them, Eve flags down a panga with 75hp outboard (super-fast).  The men on the panga are part of the pearl farm community, we did not know them.

We were able to communicate the medical emergency using broken French.  The panga had a dozen empty water jugs and a cooler in their panga.  These items had to be removed and were quickly unloaded onto Sugar Shack. Matt jumped in with them to take them to take them to the patient at Tauna.  The plan was to load the patient and bring him back to Rikitea in the panga.  The panga can make this route in 15-minutes vs the 2-2.5 hours in a sail boat.  Of course, this is in the midst of a rain storm and the arrival of the supply ship.  But our community did not waiver. 

With Matt on the way to the patient, I convey to Nathan (who is on a boat near the patient’s boat), that they should not head this way in their sail boat.  I told him that a panga was on the way and will transport the patient and his family to the hospital.

Community

The community jumps into action.  I call my friend Stephan (local) and ask him to help me secure to take the patient from the dock to the hospital.  He calls his friend at the gendarmerie (local police) and tells me they are on standby to help.

Another cruiser went to the hospital to tell the doctor a patient with a severe allergic reaction to a jelly fish sting was coming in and to be on standby.

And yet another cruiser went to the dock to wait for the panga to arrive to help load the patient into the vehicle.

In the meantime, it is still raining, the dock is getting more and more crowded in anticipation of the supply ship and we have no way to reach the panga to tell them we made transport arrangements on shore.

The VHF and the SSB are constantly in use as Sugar Shack becomes the central hub for all communications.  We end up using the SSB radio to communicate with the boats in Tauna and use the VHF to communicate with shore.  The community was calling me on three different VHF channels and the SSB trying to solidify arrangements.

About an 45 minutes after they left, I see the panga on the horizon and call everyone into action.  It worked seamlessly.  The transport and gendarmerie met them at the dock and rushed him to the waiting physician who was able to treat him and get him stable.  He was released and feeling much better within 5 hours.

What Happened?

Once the patient was onboard his boat, he would not stop vomiting.  He was in extreme pain.  The patient’s wet clothes were removed just before the panga arrived.  He was laying on the floor of his boat as they helped change him.  This caused tremendous pain and his breathing became labored. His breathing was so bad that he almost stopped breathing.  They gave him an epi pen injection which helped tremendously.

As the patient and his family were coming to Rikitea, one of his friend’s was hanging his swim trunks.  He found a 3’-4’ barb / tentacle inside the patient’s shorts.  They called me to tell the physician and family.  Yikes!

The Outcome

The patient had massive welts all across his belly.  The same panga brought him back to his boat and he was resting by evening. 

The rain finally stopped and the community was able to retrieve packages, water, propane, and fuel from the supply ship with no delay.

The local community and the sailing community reacted quickly, efficiently, and professionally.  It was one team coming together to provide aid and care for this human.  It was so fulfilling to be a part of this community.

I did not have an opportunity to whip out my phone to take any photos which is why there are none for this blog.  Imagine that?

Events from this blog post occurred on 9 February 2021.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.