Post #339915 by Vonratnick on Mon, Oct 22, 2007 6:50 PM

Right next to Thor on my bookshelf is a book called Toward Tahiti by W Crealock. Written in 1951. The author sails a square rig schooner around the Pacific with friends exploring some beautiful locations.
Galapagos
San Blas
Mangareva
Marquesas
Tuamotus
Nengonengo
Fakarava
Bora Bora
Tahiti

In a dive in Florida: "The entertainment consisted of watching a succession of females cruise up and down under very short canvas, and eventually under bare poles."

In the Marquesas: "...and together we climbed the wooded hillside in search of tikis which were said to lie there. We found the place, a small clearing draped with foliage and overgrown with grass, and the edge of the clearing we saw what seemed at first to be black blocks of weathered stone. We went closer and saw that each was hewn into a squat, life size figure with faintly leering features."

Mangareva: "As the visiting male, I was naturally the target for Terumi's hula, and the sight of her weaving towards me with her hips keeping in time with the guitars, was a devastating one for a timid bachelor like myself. We were to see many hulas after that, and learned to judge fairly well the ability of a particular performer, but I doubt of any other had quite the impact of the first hula in Mangareva; and only the great Augistine in Tahiti could match it for skill".

Nengonengo: "Having marked the channel, we motored up the lagoon and came to a most perfect little anchorage, where a beach formed the corner of the reef and palm trees ran along behind it for a hundred yards or more. I, for one, blessed the reef which had imprisoned us in such a place".

Lotsa good B&W pics and maps in the book

Been out of print for a while, but Google it. You can pick it up for a few bucks at second hand booksellers. I have just ordered his earlier book written in 1948: Cloud of Islands: By Sail to the South Seas

Get into this book. You'll be glad you did.

[ Edited by: Vonratnick 2007-10-22 18:57 ]