With either no internet or service that is so incredibly slow we haven’t been able to update our blog for a while or send emails. Now it’s time to catch up...
We left Rangiroa on Sunday 17th at 5am to catch the slack tide through the pass. It was a slow old sail to Tahiti with less than 10 knots of wind all the way – the gennaker was our saviour again. Around 9.30pm on Monday we approached the pass into Papeete harbour & along the marked channel inside the reef to Taina Marina where we picked up a vacant mooring ball at 10pm. The amount of boats here is amazing – so many that in the dark we decided not to attempt to anchor – too many boats & a lot of reef. Not a very exciting birthday for Steve, but we arrived safe & sound.
Tuesday morning was bright, sunny and inviting & we introduced ourselves to our Aussie neighbours on TAKE TWO, Gary & Kerry from Buderim on the Sunshine Coast. They kindly filled us in on the area around the marina & we were stoked to learn a large Carrefour supermarket was only a 10 minute walk away. Once we organised the dinghy we went ashore & checked in with Tahiti Crew, our agent who is handling the Tahiti/Moorea side of things. Then onto the marina office to try & organise a mooring ball for a couple of days while we sort out the damage to the bow roller caused by the big swell at Rangiroa. While we waited on the availability of a ball we wandered down to the shopping centre – hamburger & chips for lunch – absolute heaven!! Once in Carrefour, Ange had to exercise all her self control not to throw herself into the leafy greens & roll around in ecstasy!! How awesome was it to see beautiful fresh produce & lovely fresh meats!!! We spent a good hour or so wandering through the supermarket oohhing & aahhing at all the groceries we haven’t seen for so long.
With a bit of wrangling with the marina office we were able to stay on the mooring ball we had picked up the night before – nice & convenient to the marina & not too close to the reef. We noticed how much the swell was picking up outside the reef.... 12 foot waves were crashing over the reef & causing the anchorage to be fairly joggly. The local chandlery had a few bits & pieces that we needed & after lunch Steve took the dinghy all the way up the channel to the Papeete industrial area to source a few more things that we needed. Our agent at Tahiti Crew arranged for a welder to meet us at 9am on Wednesday morning to talk about repairing our bow roller. All good here at Tahiti – we are stoked at how easily we have found parts & services – such a change from walking for days to find parts! Nothing else to do Tuesday afternoon then apart from have a few beers on TAKE TWO & help get their sat phone up & running.
After meeting with the welder on Wednesday morning we did some grocery shopping at Carrefour & odd jobs on the boat until we decided the anchorage was getting too rough. Neither of us had slept very well the night before & Ange was even starting to feel seasick down below as PANNIKIN was being thrown about pretty hard. The marina office was very understanding & had no problems with us leaving after spending all that time juggling mooring ball reservations around. We motored up the channel past the airport to Papeete harbour where a new marina has almost been completed where the old town wall used to be. There were a couple of boats in residence that we knew from Fakarava & Rangiroa so the company would be good! Until the end of June the marina is offering ½ price berths.... so for 20 Aussie dollars a night we decided to stay for a week. Not all the facilities are completed yet – no laundry etc but the showers are hot & new!! We had a peaceful night of sleep even though there is traffic noise – at least we weren’t rolling around.
Thursday morning Steve headed back down to Taina Marina to pick up our welding job from the nice bloke, Jean-Marc. He did a great job on the bow roller at a decent price. We then hit the industrial area of Fare Ute for the last of our bits & pieces. It was a good walk away & great to stretch the legs. We ran into Gary & Kerry, so had lunch with them at a small ‘snack’ (cafe) & continued our search for parts. Thursday afternoon all the boats had a ‘pontoon party’.... just got together with some nibbles & drinks while we watched a huge super yacht being unloaded from a container ship across the harbour. Apparently the guy who owns it decided he wanted to cruise the South Pacific for a couple of weeks, so had it shipped across from the USA. Someone has a lot of money!
Yesterday was a quieter day... odd boat jobs for Steve and a little bit of retail therapy for Ange!