Hi Folks,

Next stop in Blog our catch-up was Papeete in Tahiti

We set off from Rangiroa following recovering from a great birthday meal in the Kia Ora hotel (www.hotelkiaora.com)  – experiencing so many new French Polynesian food idea’s with light fresh and simple food – amazing and have already tried many new recipe ideas on many Babe victims with reasonable success!

So sail from Rangiroa to Papeete (Tahiti) was fairly uneventful, light winds so ended up motoring most of the way along with S/Y Spent (no racing this time). Scenery was beautiful however running along the coast of Rangiroa and past another Makatea prior to arriving into Papeete before nightfall on 1^st May. I also realised that my great all-over tan didn’t extend to my nether regions so decided to do a bum tan day – um thought about posting the photo but was persuaded not to, sorryJ!

Sail into Tahiti is fun – when in the coral atoll bit having to pass both ends of the airport runway, checking with airport control that no jets are taking off or landing! Managed OK and then down to the marina for a night session!

We had a 9-hour stopover in Papeete during our flight back to the UK in April and thought it was a bit pits (in comparison to the other places we’ve been, so accept we’re fairly spoilt!), so we weren’t really looking forward to the stay…..

Whilst we were in the Marquises we discovered a little water ingress into the steering section of the lazarette so Oyster arrange for Babe to be lifted in Papeete to investigate. We were therefore keen to stay and get sorted, however we had also entered the Tahiti Pearl Regatta, starting on 8^th May from Raiatea, hence were keen to get sorted and get her back in the water ASAP (no idea why the Tahiti Pearl Regatta is so named when it doesn’t even involve the island of Tahiti, ah well, we’ll update re that on the next blog re Raiatea / Huahine / Tahiti islands).

So we spent 4 nights in the Radisson hotel whilst Babe was out of the water. Also took the opportunity to undertake overall boat servicing whiilst she was lifted. At least nicer than staying in town, although most of daytime was spent working on Babe – flippin hard graft trying to service engine and generator in 34+ degree’s! At least we had a few days on Terra Firma and Trish (and I) had the opportunity to wallow in a double Jacuzzi bath, with a view out to the ocean. Hotel even had a traditional Marquiseian dance evening with a show of dancing and the obligatory getting of a few participants from the audience, for which both Trish and I obliged, although neither of us succeeded in pulling any local talent from our fertility / mating dances!

Also had the opportunity to have a boys night out in an attempt to further my survey, for those that are aware – what a miserable failure! Nightlife in Papeete really didn’t turn out to be great – started bad when our order at the bar / restaurant completely screwed our order up and ended in a bit of a row trying to get it sorted. Only really good part was at a buzzing pub with a live band, playing loads of Placebo tracks. Even the local gay bar was poor (not helped by us standing at the lesbian side of the bar rather than the gays side). So no price updates for Papeete, although we did hear that 1 group managed to get a taxi to a place of ill repute??

Did have a good night out at the Blue Banana restaurant though with Geoff, Sue & Tony, plenty of wine and again a local band – ended up dancing with some local Tahitian girl to cheers of other dinners, until someone commented that they thought she was a tranny? Couldn’t see it myself, but loads of fun anyway and wasn’t like I was going to find out!

So eventually boat got fixed and back in the water and then down to the marina for picking Raph and Sarah up for the sail to Raiatea in prep for the Pearl Tahiti Regatta. More about this in the next update.

Love

Paul & Trish

xx

Photos:

a)      Sea like a millpond on the sail to Tahiti

c)       Gorgeous sunrise the morning of approaching Tahiti

d)      Sail into Tahiti

e)      Babe cradled during lift-out

f)       Nice hotel room with Jacuzzi for two (of course we did!)

g)      Marquisian mating dance

h)      Too much food!