We sailed back to Tahiti
yesterday morning by a beautiful flat calm day. Not a breath of wind and had to
motor all the way. When we arrived in front of the pass through the coral reef
to get to Marina Taina, we spotted a big red “thing” on the surface
of the water. Coming close to it we saw that it was a broken pirogue (local one
man outrigger canoe type boat). No one was around. We lifted the wreckage
onboard (photo below) and looking at the pass, Mike decided that there was too
much swell (some 3 meters) despite little or no wind to risk going through. Attached
some photos of the waves breaking on the reef. You can see Tahiti
behind and on some photos the masts of the boats in Marina Taina. So we turned
round to get to the main pass in front of Papeete.
Then the weather turned rapidly and from no wind it went to 20 knots; from flat
calm sea, to having waves crashing on deck! But we reached Papeete pass without any problem and made our
way following the channel alongside the airport runway through to the marina. An
extra 40 minutes but safe!!
So here we are again in Marina Taina, same berth as we had
last time. Luckily the nasty port side neighbour is not living onboard anymore
and our nice starboard side neighbours, Charles and Noelle of TIGRESS are still
here and welcoming.
Very hot here in the marina. We far prefer being in Opunohu
bay in Moorea, our favourite anchorage (some photos below).
But the remaining parcels we were waiting for to repair the
water maker and waste pump have arrived so we had to come back to collect them.
Tonight Tahiti Ocean
is organising a Jazz party on the quay to which we are invited and we are
looking forward to that.
We will probably stay here until Saturday and go to the
Intercontinental Beachcomber hotel on Friday where we were told by locals that they
have great Polynesian dance nights. Also a yard contact from NZ will be in town
on Thursday for a local weekend regatta and we will be meeting up to see what
he can offer for our next lay up period in NZ. Believe the regatta is an annual
event and could be fun if not sociable. Reports to follow.
We will also have our last chance this week to raid
CARREFOUR and stock up with groceries. Although we don’t need much
really. It is just that we will not see a supermarket anymore until we reach New Zealand so
it is fun to go here!
We will also have to go to Immigration in Papeete
and check out even though we will not leave French
Polynesia until August. Papeete
is the only place to check in and out!
Sunday today and Father’s day here in Tahiti and also
in the UK.
So Happy day to all the fathers!
Love
Mike and Catherine