Greeting from the Pacific Ocean,
I hope those that are interested in travel will follow us as
we cruise the Pacific with a final destination being Tahiti in French Polynesia. It will take us sixteen days to get there,
arriving in Bora Bora on December 21st.
Today is our first sea day and we are 367
miles from our embarkation point of San Pedro Harbor in Los Angeles and 5,678
miles from Papeete. Right now we are
about at the same latitude, 30° 56, 36’N, as Ensenada, Baja California in
Mexico, 123° 21,72’ W longitude. That
was for all of you mapheads.
We will be five days at sea and reach Kauai in the Hawaiian
Islands on Wednesday morning. After
touring Oahu and Maui we will be at sea for another four days before we reach
Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, then Fakarava in the Tuamoto Islands before
we reach the French Polynesians.
We escaped the cold of Texas for this Holiday Cruise for
warmer climes. Unfortunately we woke up
to 16mph winds, 61°F, six foot seas and rain, as you can see from our
balcony. Oh well.
So how did the French Polynesians get discovered and
populated, you ask? Well, I will tell
you. It was not by seafarers from South
America through random drifting as some people speculated early on. No, no.
It was via intentional navigation by natives of Taiwan around 3000 BC. They sailed first to the Philippines then into
the region of the South Pacific now known as French Polynesia, a huge area
south and east of Micronesia. Think of
it as a gigantic triangle with the northern point being the Hawaiian Islands,
the southeast point being the Easter Islands and the southwestern point being
New Zealand.
The sailors traveled a spreading route from Micronesia to the
Marquesas to Tahiti to Easter Island and finally to Hawaii. They did it in twin-hulled sailing canoes
which could attain speeds of 7 knots and cover anywhere from 100-150 miles per
day. There were several possible reasons
for these early explorers to do what they did.
Adventure, pride in their navigational skills, avoiding conflict, exile,
escape, conquest, even following the migrant birds of the region…but one thing
is certain these were hardy, brave individuals who knew how to use the stars,
the winds, the currents and other navigational signals to get from point A to
point B in uncharted waters.
Fortunately, the islands and atolls in this huge triangle are
relatively abundant with a maximum of 310 miles between them. Some are as close as 50-200 miles between the
groups, a total of 23 contact zones. These
large sailing canoes were 65’ long and 20’ wide (beam) but could carry between
40-50 people. They could last between 2
and 3 years before the seas and elements claimed them. They provisioned the canoes
with breadfruit, coconuts (for food and water), pounded taro root, and, of
course, fish they caught on the way.
Enough for 30 days plus a reserve.
Some of the islands they encountered also provided wild sweet potatoes and
nuts.
How do we know all of this, well, it is a long story, but fish
hooks and oral traditions tell us what later sailors from the 19th
and 20th centuries confirmed by duplicating their predecessors travels
as well as their heroic journeys.
I will continue to keep you updated on our progress with
hopefully more enticing pictures than the above. In the meantime you can email me questions,
if you have any and, of course, I welcome your comments on this blog.
God Bless and Happy Holidays.
Jud and Vicki
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