06/03/2012, Yacht Quay, Papeete, Tahiti
Welcome to Paradise, well not exactly. Papeete is a bustling city of over 100k people. Traffic, noise and you can get most anything here, but it will cost you. We moored right on the main road at the yacht quay, Blvd. Pomare, named after the ruler for many years. The quay over looks the waterfront shops, hotels and restaurants. It is the main road in and out of Papeete, so the traffic starts at about 5am and on weekends, the city is still going until the wee hours of the morning. Along the waterfront there is a very nice park, which is the location to the annual Haiva festival, which takes place each July. Competition of dancing, paddling, music..... goes on for a week or two. The competitors come from all over, as far as the Marquesas. There are lovely gardens and views.
In the town/city, there are many boutiques, restaurants and businesses. You see people dressed like they are going to an office or on a boat with short, definitely a melting pot. Many of the shops are run by Chinese, apparently there are over 10K on Tahiti. Along with typical shops you have the Marche, which is an open air market that is huge. proprietors come form all over the island as early as 4:30am when it opens to sell there products, which consists of fruits, pastries, fresh fish, a wide variety of meats and cheeses, as well as flowers and other crafts made by local artisans. It is quite the spectacle. It is where everyone comes to buy their fresh food.
And like everywhere else in the world, there is a McDonalds, Paul and I would head over there for the coffee each morning, as it was the best price and quite good, then head out to find the real French pastries. There is a 2 hour walking tour of waterfront which goes from outrigger canoes to the ferry docks and commercial docks. Taking you through the park, the pearl museum, a few churches and the government buildings. You want to do it early, as the city gets quite warm under the tropical sun, without the tradewinds blowing like you would on the boat.
One can enjoy the many activities the big city has to offer. But it is Mothers day here, just like in the states and Europe, so churches are full and stores are closed. One thing we have noticed cars/motorbikes really stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk along Blvd Pomare, even though they are speeding along. Maybe a big fine for not stopping.
Back to the boat, we will meet the mechanic tomorrow morning and hopefully get the transmission cable fixed.
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06/02/2012, Underway, Fakarava to Tahiti
We are nearing the island of Tahiti. We have seen a couple of sailboats in the distance, the most traffic we have seen in a long time, now we have to be extra vigilant thru the night. The full moon is almost back as we get closer to land. Wind is getting light and we are almost there so fire up the iron genny, lets get there. We arrive at 9:00 AM again thru a narrow passage, but this doesn't look right. Correct according to course plotted but this is private boat marina not commercial where we need to go, they look the same on charts. Oh well, first navigation mistake in 3000 NM, well give me a break, thanks. So off we go back out of the pass to the "correct pass". We line up the channel markers, call the harbormaster (everyone needs to call in as the airport is right there and large cruise ships use the same pass, and they don't want any additional traffic in the small pass. We get to the transient dock but it is full. We maneuver around to another dock and the gear shift cable breaks. Lucky Sherpa was in neutral, or we would have been going in circles, maybe even backwards. The wind pushes us against dock so we tied up, no damage, though several charter boats sit there usually, but were out. A local friendly boater, Yves on a powerboat, helps us tie up Med mooring style (Stern to but in our case bow to) and offered to call his mechanic. Today is Saturday, so Monday he will come. Welcome to Papeete, time to explore the town, make that city.
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06/01/2012, Underway, Fakarava to Tahiti
Work day on Sherpa. Make water (last time for noise, Honda generator going strong), clean out the refrigerator (what is that smell?),cleaned the bilges, refrigeration drain lines were plugged so couldn't drain. Throw out suspect foods, we are going back to civilization got to be clean for inspection. For the most part, the boat has held up fine, no major issues, a few minor breaks here and there, as Kim W. said, sounds like it was a milkrun, and provisions actually went much further than anticipated. The sail has been routine, we have decent winds, but nothing like the passage winds we experienced over the open ocean. I would say where is definitely some island effect, even though small. We should be seeing the lights of Tahiti tomorrow.
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05/31/2012, Underway, Fakarava to Tahiti
Up at O dark hundred (0430 AM) to catch the early flood out the passage. 235 NM to Tahiti,final destination. Back to passage mode. Always takes a couple of days to adjust to sailing/sleeping/ and watch keeping. Transiting the pass went w/o incident, but you could see the small waves that are created when the outgoing tide hits the wind. They say htat is the real danger when the swell is big and winds have been blowing from the same direction over a certain speed the standing waves in these passes can literally knock a boat down and spin it around. This time A-ok. The trip is a bit longer than Rangiroa to Papeete as we are about 50 miles further east, so 2 more nights at sea. There are still a few small atolls to keep an eye out for, but once we pass them next stop Papeete, crossroads of the S. Pacific.
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05/30/2012, At anchor, Fakarava, Tuomotus
Just another day in paradise, snorkeling exploring the island. Got to the bakery on time (before 7am) to get baguettes (we are now hooked on French baguettes), they sell out fast. We checked the pizza restaurant (have to have pizza on all islands it has turned into a tradition with the three of us) but found it closed. Surprisingly, there were only a couple of restaurants on the island, and half of those are associated with the hotels, and don't always accept patrons that are not staying with them. Apparently, the school was to have a scheduled event and didn't want people not going to it. So Pete made pizza on board, umm, umm good. Hmmmm, maybe he should consider opening a pizza joint! We had planned an early departure to make it through the pass on the tide, so to bed early.
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05/29/2012, At anchor, Fakarava, Tuomotus
May 29, 2012 Pearl Farm tour - Pete had asked at a dive shop about diving and pearl farm tours. Divers need to be checked out first before they will take us out and tour is special so we just snorkeled off the boat. There was a pearl shop across the street and they offered to give us a tour. They inspect the oysters 7-8 AM and then again 1-2PM so we set up for the 1-2 PM tour. We took off for the dock to be at out tour start but had to stop for ice cream and chatted with the local kids just let out from local school.
arrived at the shop and met Gunter (originally from Germany), the Polynesian shop keeper's husband, who owns the pearl farm with his wife and son, a family affair. He drove us out to their farm. He explained the process of seeding the oyster with Mississippi oyster shells and letting their oyster create the black pearl. Which gets name from the coloration of the shell which then creates the "black" pearl verses the Japanese "white" pearl. It takes 18 months for oyster to produce a pearl and they can reseed it again with same size seed as pearl which was removed to make the next bigger pearl. This can be done 4 times. Then we got to see person doing as we had learned, a very delicate operation. Then we got a lesson in grading ...color,shape, brilliance and last size.
That was great. After that we were invited to go shopping. Very informative and educational, unfortunately the pearl industry has been hurting too during this world recession and many local farms are closing. Gunter had told us there were only 5 left in operation on Fakarava, his in fact was downsized with a minimul staff, just to keep the process going, as the investment is intensive to start.
Surprising the Tahitian pearl industry has only been around for about 30 years, but the pearls are found in many jewelry stores around the world.
Pete
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