When we asked permission from port control to enter Papeete pass, we were told to wait 5 minutes for a super yacht to leave. We could see cars on the highway, big jets landing and taking off at the irport, large ships

in port, and many smaller vessels coming and going. Laurent, our agent with Polynesian Yacht Services, had asked us to tie up initially at the downtown yacht quay, so that's where we headed. It was a med-moor in a stiff breeze, but here they provide the extra lines so there is no need to use your own anchor. There were just a few boats at the quay, which consists of three large floating docks constructed from large steel floats chained together.

The passage took just over two days. We lost one nice mahi mahi, and our engine driven refrigeration failed in mid passage. And here we are in the hustle and bustle of modern civilization. Cars, trucks, and buses roar by right at the end of the dock, and sirens sound from time to time. The huge green bulk of the central mountains
of Tahiti Nui tower in the background, reaching over 7,000 feet. The mountains of Moorea are visible out to sea, ten miles away.

Laurent met with us the following morning (11th) to check us in, and we arranged for a refrigeration mechanic to check our system. We spent the next couple of days exploring downtown Papeete. There is a good ship chandlery within 15 minutes walk, and here we bought new lures and a number of parts and supplies for assorted
repairs on the boat.

On Friday afternoon, we walked with Bruce to the bus stop and saw him off to the airport. He has been a great boat guest, and I think he really enjoyed the trip. He went from being very skeptical about diving with sharks to being a great enthusiast. He had numerous firsts, including his first encounters with a manta ray, sailfish, and of course sharks, while diving. Our numerous discussions about the merits of monohulls versus catamarans were fun. While catamarans seem to offer more indoor-outdoor living, the cruising versions don't
seem to offer a huge performance difference. Larger monohulls, like Brian and Isabelle's Oyster 56, Wasabi, also offer very comfortable living and excellent performance. Of course, cost is a huge factor, as is where, when, and how you'll be using the boat.

We've discovered that there is no way our current engine driven refrigeration unit can be repaired here. It uses R12 refrigerant, which is the original bad-news chloroflourocarbon, Freon. The quote to replace it started at $1500, with no guarantees. Since we have a 12 volt system as well, we've decided to leave any work on the engine driven system for New Zealand. This will mean running the engine more often to charge the batteries.

Three or four days have been spent working on the boat. The dinghy setup on the davits has been improved so that it will be more secure---the tie down lines chafed through the cover and into the hypalon material on the long crossing, and on smaller passages, the dinghy squeaks and groans as it moves slightly against the supports. The new system takes much of the load off the ends of the davits, and uses flat webbing to avoid the chafe problem.

We've had a major problem with salt water getting into the fuel tank. This is the source of the white powder that accumulates in the bottom of the Racor filter. It now appears this is coming in through a vent that was installed a couple of years ago. When we're heeled over to starboard, as we were severely when beating to Tahiti, water enters through the vent. It hasn't helped that the scoop was facing partially forward. Also, a huge rust bloom appeared around the vent on the outside of the hull. We've taken it apart, treated the rust, and installed a valve we can shut off when we're not fueling.

We've treated rust coming out of the two bilge pump outlets on the port side near the stern. Years ago, some cheap galvanized fittings were used inside for the attachment to the through hull. These have started rusting rapidly, so we've replaced them with plastic and treated the through hull pipes for rust.

Yesterday we took "Le Truck" the five miles to Marina Taina. This is where most of the transient boats have ended up. The marina is completely full, as are all of the mooring balls, and so there's a large crowd anchored as well. We've heard that everyone drags anchor when there's any real wind, so we've decided to stay where we are for the time being. There's a great collection of super yachts on the outer docks, along with a selection of cruisers and a large number of local boats. Gallivant and Lauren Grace are anchored in a cove near the airport, and we saw them from the bus.

There's a Carrefour right next to the marina. Caffefour is the French supermarket chain that is second in size globally to Wal-Mart. The supermarket here is huge, with a wide range of products including electronics, food, etc. We staggered out of there with a huge load, much, much poorer. The lonely planet guide starts its French Polynesia section with the warning that things are very expensive here, and we have experimentally verified the truth of this assertion. Cruisers either retreat completely, or simply try to avoid translating the prices to their own currencies, hoping that their bank accounts will stand the strain.

Just behind the large-boat dock area there's a park that fills each night with mobile food stands. The food here is excellent. Tuna sashimi, tatare, carpaccio, and chaud-froid (seared) are staples on the menus here and throughout the city. The sashimi is always layered over shredded cabbage. The fish is very fresh, and the
portions are generous. There are stalls selling crepes of all kinds, pizza, chinese food, and icecream. Beer and wine are not available, but there's a micro-brewery across the street with 2 for 1 happy hour every night from 6pm to 7:30pm. We've also eaten at several excellent restaurants around town.

Papeete, we're told, has about 120,000 inhabitants. We've heard many times in the past that it's a terrible place, but so far, our impression has been quite different. For a port city, it's clean and relatively attractive. The people are extremely friendly, and it's easy to get around. There are some wonderful parks.

There's a great Champion supermarket within a few blocks of our dock. There's a central market with fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, and the usual touristy stuff. We're finding it quite hot at the dock during the day as there has not been very much wind lately. However, the traffic dwindles to a trickle overnight, so although you can hardly hear yourself in the cockpit during the day, we've had no trouble sleeping. Since the buses stop running between Marina Taina and Papeete at about 6pm, and there's little around the marina except the Carrefour, we feel the access we get by being at the downtown yacht quay compensates for not being in a more postcard-like setting.

There have been a succession of huge cruise ships docking at the cruise ship dock just across from us. Oddly, the passengers all seem to be Kiwis! It's really odd to be walking around a French town that is flooded with Kiwis, branded with their little neck tags. One couple we talked to explained that their ship was in the middle of a swine flu scare, so everyone leaving the boat is scanned with a sophisticated system that detects any sign of fever. They also told us that the security checks they go through when re-boarding are every bit as stringent as for any airport in the US. There has also been a parade of super yachts. There are the standard "great white" plastic fantastic machines, of course, but here we've also seen a series of very large sailboats and a number of large steel trawler-like boats. One, the Arctic, is a converted icebreaker. We spoke with one of the crew, who is from Sri Lanka. As usual, he couldn't tell who owns the boat---it's a security precaution---but he did tell us they have 25 crew and have been sitting at the dock for the last six months.

A back-of-the-envelope computation indicates that just the upkeep on the boat itself, not including dock fees, would be at least two million US dollars per year. A remarkable feature of this boat is that the tenders/dinghies are all extremely fancy Italian speedboats--Donzis and Rivas--there are five of them stowed on board.

The Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendezvous takes place this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Friday festivities all take place near the downtown yacht quay, which is another reason we have stayed here. On Saturday morning there's a "rally" to Moorea. The remaining events all take place in a harbor in Moorea. A local has informed us that there's no possible way the anticipated number of boats can anchor in that bay, so it's going to be an interesting time. As the date approaches, the yacht quay has been filling up, and we're having a great time.

This morning, Gallivanter and Wasabi arrived on our dock, along with Nine of Cups. These were all at Tahanea with us. Victory Cat pulled in yesterday, and Mike with Arielle is on the second dock. We elebrated a birthday at the micro-brewery last night. It's all building to a mad cruiser's crescendo.

Victory cat (Seawind catamaran) has a tale of woe to relate. They were led into the lagoon at Manihi by a local dinghy, but it seems their guides were not the competent ones. They were led into an area with too many coral heads. When they went to avoid one, they discover that one of their propellors had fallen off, so they asked the dinghy to act as a tugboat to avoid the danger. Instead of nosing up the them and pushing, the dinghy rammed them repeatedly, smashing one of their side windows. After a great deal of frustration and fuming, they finally moved to another anchorage, much clearer and more appropriate, under the tow of another dinghy. There they discovered two other boats with major problems, one of which is on its sixth visit to French Polynesia, but hit a reef and caused major damage. Victory Cat managed to install a smaller propellor
and made their way to Raiatea where they spent two weeks being hauled out and repaired. When we first arrived at this dock, there was a Canadian boat here that had also hit a reef---we learned that their bulkheads inside the boat were all damaged and torn away from the hull, so they have some extremely serious repair work to be done.

We visited the Tahitian Pearl museum this morning, and added to our now vast knowledge of pearls and things pearl-like. Naturally, it's sponored by Robert Wan, the largest producer of Tahitian pearls, and the fellow responsible for trying to change the name from "black pearls" to "Tahitian pearls". And, also naturally, there's a store with a large selection of pearls and jewelry. The most expensive piece was a neckless of the finest pearls, priced at a modest 450,000 Euros.

After the sailing rendevous, we plan to continue on from Moorea to Huahine, then Raiatea and Tahaa, and Bora Bora will be our last destination in French Polynesia. From there, we'll head to Rarotonga, a passage of more than 500 nautical miles. Sally has booked a flight from Rarotonga to Melbourne, and then she'll attend a school reunion in Tasmania. Right now, she's downtown at the Air New Zealand office trying to sort out the fact that she ended up booking the flight twice because of poor internet connection problems. We've now purchased a much more powerful external antenna system and we're hoping this will improve things enough to avoid such problems, and to post our new batch of photos. Tane has already uploaded a photo of the large school of sharks (Fakarava post) and the sailfish (Tahanea post).