Tahiti - Marina Taina
Questionable Logic
Ewan Briggs
Fri 17 Jul 2009 09:28
Position: 17:35.31S
149:36.93W
We've moved over to
Tahiti and are anchored just south of the capital Papeete, near the main marina
here. It's quite a change to have a massive Carrefour supermarket just around
the corner and to be anchored just opposite a drive through MacDonalds. There is
also a dual carriageway, pedestrian crossings, busses, planes and loads of
people. All of which has taken a bit of getting used to after the isolation of
the pacific, Marquesas and Tuamotos.
Shopping has been
fun, although prices are pretty steep here (when the shops are open - but mostly
they're still 'FERME' here, just like the rest of French Polynesia). In the
evenings the square fills up with vans selling great food (and is about the only
thing in this place that is reasonably priced).
Unfortunately, the
main reason for coming here was to say goodbye to my hareem - Jem and Tuck - who
have flown back to their respective real lives. It has been fantastic having
them onboard and I'm definitely mising them (like today when the wind got up and
the anchor started dragging towards the marina...!).
I've been keeping
busy with the folk from Sea Topaz - Mum, Dad, Stefan and Yael. We hired a car
last weekend to explore the island, including a trip down to Teahupoo, which is
the home of a world famous big wave surf break. Unfortunatley whilst we were
there it wasn't very big and noone was out. I did get the chance to go surfing
on the inside on the grom wave though which was fun - good to be back in the
water for a while.
It is the Heiva
festival here, which seems to have taken over the Bastille Day celebrations
here. We got out one evening to see some of the traditional dancing and
chanting. The dancing was great - what those ladies can do with their hips is
hard to believe, even when you're sat there watching it! The chanting wasn't so
great, infact it sounded better with a finger in each ear (probably just as much
to do with the sound system as the chanting).
The wind has mostly
been pretty light and variable during the last week, so when the wind got up
this afternoon, it turned out that the anchor had been gift wrapped in it's own
chain and tripping line (probably due to the boat swinging around all over the
place over the last week in the variable conditions). This isn't good. Logic
started dragging slowly, but it came clear pretty quickly that something needed
to be done. Luckily Dad was able to come onboard and give me a hand. Pulling up
the anchor with half the chain wrapped round it proved impossible, so we tied a
fender to the end of the line, chucked it over and motored to a nearbye mooring.
Pulling the anchor and chain up over the side of the dinghy wasn't fun, but
eventually it was all safely stowed back into the forepeak. Going to stay on the
mooring now until we head back over to the swimming pool anchorage in Moorea in
a couple of days.
