April 29-May 1, 2011 Papeete to Moorea

With a borrowed shopping cart which was in the marina parking lot, we collected our 2 filled propane tanks from the gas station, 2 blocks away. 49 liters (13 gallons) of propane cost us $233 or $18 per gallon. Wow! We paid our marina bill and took the tanks via our dinghy back to Dream Caper where we carefully loaded them on board and secured them. This propane should last us the next 7 months. We unhooked from the mooring and motored to the fuel dock at the marina. We were lucky that no one was there so we tied up right away and filled up the dinghy outboard motor tank (3 gallons) with gas and then filled our 3 diesel jerry cans and topped off our main diesel tank for a total of 32 gallons of diesel. Diesel cost $6.50 per gallon. With the fuel dock water hose, we filled our 160 gallon water tank with drinkable water. Since it took some time to do this, we used the fresh water to quickly scrub down the decks and wash off the solar panels.

We left the fuel dock and Papeete at 11:00 am for the 20 mile trip to the north side of Moorea. There was enough wind to sail 2 of the 3 hour trip. Calm seas. We put out our fishing (drag) lines as usual, but caught nothing. We sailed into the entrance of gorgeous Opunohu Bay with the beautiful "Bali Hai" peak in the background. We anchored in 11' of water just east of the entrance near SV Magenta, a boat we were aware of last year and who we met this year. All of the boats that we know from last year moved on to New Zealand, Australia. Hawaii or New Guinea for the cyclone season. SV Magenta stayed at the marina in Papeete because Larry needed to seek medical treatment in his home country of Canada. They are heading to New Zealand and we will definitely be meeting up with them in the coming month as they are following the same route through the French Polynesia Leeward Islands.

We have spent 3 days here in Moorea, snorkeling and just relaxing. At times we are able to get internet from our boat. We bought a wifi antenna from a wifi provider in Papeete which has helped with our connection to the internet. There are 3 wifi companies in French Polynesia that we know of. Usually one has to go onshore to the local post office which has its own wifi or get close to the wifi being beamed from shore. We have to prepay for hours at a cost of around $2.60 per hour. We have accounts with two companies because sometimes one doesn't work or one works better. HotSpot worked well in Papeete but doesn't work at all here in Moorea. In the mornings here, we watch sometimes 10 colorful Hobie cats (small catamarans) sail off the shore in what appears to be a sailing school for kids. This morning, a small powerboat pulled 8 little skiffs, each filled with 2 small children into the bay for some sort of instruction. They squealed, laughed and yelled all the way. It was like a mother duck with her babies following behind. We have spent an extra day here because we are waiting for the wind direction to change from the northwest, which would be right on our nose as we head to Huahine. The weather reports project a wind change from northwest to southeast tonight, a much better angle for our sails. We will leave this evening, May 2, at 6:00 pm, for the overnight sail (75 miles, 13 hours) to Huahine.