September 2007 2007

Hello everyone,

This month I have added a beautiful island to my private collection: suddenly taken by an urge to sail for a few days, for a little shake, at the end of three months spent in my favorite spots of the Austral Islands and the Tuamotus, I have suddenly, an evening at dusk, left the anchorage and sailed away ; I have skimmed past a few islands I had never seen before, Mitiaro, Atiu, Mangaia, in the Cook islands, I've made a short stop in Rarotonga just to fill up with good foodstuffs of New Zealand origin , of which I've grown fond last year (the Cook islands are a part of Polynesia, but where everything that iwould in Tahiti be French is replaced by the English or Newzealander equivalent) and then a very favorable wind brought back me the Australs.

One day, just as I went out into the cockpit a superb tropic bird came to fly above me : it's a bird that inevitably signals the proximity of land : effectively, on the horizon could be seen the island of Rimatara; but the wind was so favorable (a rare thing in these parts) that I sailed on towards the east, to Tubuaï, where I again never had made a stop: it is a spectacular, mountainous island, surrounded by a wide lagoon. Tubuaï is the administrative center of the archipelago of the Australs, and I was surprised, just a hundred miles away from very calm Raivavae island, to discover Tubuaï so active, with two banks, two ATMs, a gas station, even a small supermarket, things unheard of in Raivavae! I have nonetheless appreciated the beauty of the island, and especially the very warm welcome of its inhabitants, as well as the abundant agricultural production: temperatures are more temperate here than in Tahiti, and the soil is so rich that it grows a large variety of tropical fruit and vegetables of the temperate countries!

Then I returned to the lagoon of Raivavae, rather cold in this winter season (the water temperature was 23 degrees : ok, it's not Brittany, but it's a little cold for me) : I cannot get tired of the island's astonishing lights, and I'm at ease here to work on the films that will soon be released, as well as the compilation of 3 CDs (75 songs, among which 38 had never been published in CD) ; and also to gather strength before returning to France to face a busy schedule: lectures throughout France, with « Connaissance du Monde », paticipation to TV programs, publication of the compilation, and of two new DVDs (and blu-ray!), and the Paris Boat Show at the beginning of December.
Goob bye to all