First Week in Tahiti

First Week in Tahiti

May 12, 2015

What a busy stop this is turning out to be! At midway across the Pacific it is the major hub for repairs, flights, and provisioning. Australia in Sept will be the next chance for many things. Luc and Jackie with the BPO have had many activities planned for us as well. Interestingly, also because of its position in the Pacific, there are no lunar tides. There is only a solar high at noon each day, with lows at 6 am and pm. Therefore, you can get through the passes into the reef without difficulty.

Rob wrote the last blog and was kind enough to leave out my poor docking job. With a good audience of line handlers and a good wind, I managed to hit the post with the water and electricity controls. The marina doesn't even officially open until June! But all is repaired except scratches on Maggie and my pride and our pocketbook. The laundry isn't set up yet and the internet stopped working midweek which has been frustrating. But we are right in the middle of downtown Papeete which is pretty cool. The city has wonderful parks and public places. There is a cruise ship next to us only on Saturdays .It is refreshing to see so many local families and individuals exercising and enjoying the facilities. They have also been welcoming.

The tourist department hosted an information session on the sailing destinations in the Society Islands. You could easily spend a season just in these waters. We have met sailors from Germany on "Fat Cat" who will be here a year. Stefanie's presentation was followed  by a traditional dance and music performance with a cocktail party and food .It was a great welcome despite the deluge near the end. We were huddled with our drinks in the laundry/shower entrance. One of the full size palm trees planted for the marina even came down. The media were there and there was an article about the BPO in the local paper. It included a photo of Rob and Bob deploying our drifter buoy.

We went out for dinner with Bob on his last night at "Les Roulettes", which is an area with many different  food trucks and picnic tables. Although we enjoyed it at the time, Rob got food poisoning and couldn't do much for 2 days. We do have meds for that and he is fine now.

I made the visit to the recycling depot one of those days. I also went for training on doing eye testing on some of the more remote islands. Sunday we had 4 cars on an all day island tour. I'll write about those events in another blog on a more leisurely day.

We are waiting now for the electrician to come to install the new batteries. We are having a challenge with the space and wiring as they are larger. But with that and new solar panels we should be back functional on power. That will be worth the work and expense. The repaired mainsail came back yesterday but we had to return it until Wed as it was not finished properly.

 There have been several days of pouring rain but things are finally drying out, and boats are starting to leave. No set time yet for us but we hope soon. We still need to rent a car to provision and get to some chandleries as well as the rest of "the list".