Le Roulottes
05 July 2008 | Papeete
Randy
We decided to setup the pasarelle today. The Quai is fairly high and it is tough for some of our crew to get up onto the dock. We dropped the dink into the water between the hulls and tied it to the dock. Unlike Little Star, Shooting Star can't pass under the bridge deck. Too bad because it would be fun to explore the lagoons around here.
I trimmed our main halyard after setting up our new rig in Grenada so it will no longer reach back to support the pasarelle (it being two part). We used the topping lift this time which worked great allowing us to control the ramp from the cockpit and without the unnecessary overhead of the two parts.
The ramp made getting on and off the boat a breeze. We watched with good humor as others climbed across their dinghies to get to the dock. We almost gave our boarding ramp to George in Exuma just because we didn't expect to use it much and it is big and fairly heavy. We are very glad we kept it. We don't use it often but it is so handy when we do.
We went to the Le Roulottes area just down the Quai for dinner. Roulotte means caravan and there is a park where ten or twenty of these mobile eateries show up daily to serve every kind of cuisine you could want. In particular you will find crepes, steak frites, chow mein, pizza, along with other Chinese, Polynesian and French delights. Most things in French Polynesia are expensive in comparison to US prices but the Roulottes are the most reasonable place to eat we have found.