The following four days are pure waves orgies. It is hard to look away when you have such a show, even when the sun burns your eyes and heat exhausts you. Pierre’s photos, whether taken from water or swinging from his harness in coconut tree or hidden in the jungle are better than any description. They symbolize the cliché (in a sincere way) of any surfer’s dream: an empty island with a perfect wave peeling through a tropical landscape. This is one side of the trip. On the other, because of a stomach virus, Lou and Shadé had to go on a hunger strike, while a benign cut on my left foot trebles in volume within 24 hours. Ill-omened long red stripes rose up from my ankle towards my calf. Pierre joins me in the infirmary, noticing his little cuts turning to red and giving him a pale complexion despite the tropical sun. The rain water we drink does not seem to help our bowel movements.
Greg our cameraman, freshly arrived from Paris, was reassuring in his adaptability to unknown lands, he “camped in Galicia”, he said and his activity aboard the Kwai was a good omen. Unfortunately, his morale dropped first. In addition, he confessed to being burnt out as well as having a broken heart.
Days go by, and less and less people have an appetite at the delicious table of “La Belle Etoile”. Only Carine with her legendary appetite preserves our honour as she eats for six people. Lying miserably in our beds with churning stomachs, we hear her accepting a plate full of vegetable stuffed crabs, a few slices of grilled huru (from the breadfruit tree) and raw soja fish. “We cannot waste those poor lobster claws”, she concludes with Bruno, her partner-in-gorging.
In the meantime, the Kwai unloads its supplies in two days and loads the copra in 24 hours. It doesn’t take any seaweed, the sale of which a few months ago provided most of the islands’ jobs and income. The Chinese buyer is not willing to buy anymore, he has supposedly found cheaper completion in south-east Asia
This is a plight for the island where copra is not enough to compensate for loss of earnings. Consequently the barter system, used here for ages, is coming back and is more and more widely used.
Tourism is a long gone memory since, the last flight to use the old airstrips built during the Pacific war was in 1993. Even though the
authorities have been promising the locals to resume the flight, it is safer to rely on the Kwai. Such is our choice when we see it continue its journey towards Washington Island promising to return in a week…or so.
