Graptolite - More Wreckage
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Mon 14 Apr 2008 04:55
Grapto made landfall Tahiti yesterday morning. It's a fantastical landscape
of mountains and cloud covered spires. Moorea, the island you can see nearby
is similar. Approaching Pape'ete there is a long coral reef offshore with a
huge swell running and 2-3 metre breaking waves. There were a lot of surfers
about and mostly surfing in the slightly less dangerous waves in a narrow
break in the reef that theoretically leads behind the reef to Taina Marina.
While fairly adventurous, surfing a 14 metre yacht towards the beach is not
a sport I'm intending to take up anytime soon. Giving up on that entrance,
we retraced our steps and eventually crossed the reef at Pape'ete town and
got clearance to sail across the end of the airport runway between flights
towards the marina. What an exciting place this is!
An early start (5:00AM) had us hitch-hiking (no taxis) to a Sunday morning
street market in downtown Pape'ete. The fish stalls were as good as any
coral reef visit.
This afternoon we had another diving trip, not to a reef this time but to a
dive site called 'The Wrecks'. There was a shipwreck and a seaplane wreck to
dive around at about 18 metres. Diving again tomorrow.
The satellite phone is still broken but there is WiFi hereabouts.
M