Jane's Visit
21 August 2009 | Seattle - Papeete, Tahiti
Jane Shea - the weather is nice and hot!
I finally decided to fly to Tahiti to visit Linda & Brad about a week before they were to arrive in Papeete. Without sailmail to keep in touch I was hopeful they would be there on the 20th like they had planned. Monday night Linda emailed a list of items to bring and by noon on Tuesday I had the charts from Captain's and the parts from Fisheries. Now I would need a tube and another bag to carry some parts, M&Ms and the 24 boat diapers (they're good for soaking up oil but don't compact very well).
Thursday started early, leaving Seattle at 6:30am. I had a great view flying right over Mt St Helens on the flight to LAX. On the flight to Papeete, I sat next to a young man from Paris and we tried to converse with lots of help from my Rick Steves' French for Travelers book. With the time gains from Paris to Tahiti, Christian figured his August 20th would be 33 hours long! Immigrations & Customs were no problem and Linda & Brad were waiting for me at the airport. I was so relieved I wouldn't have to find a place to stay at 10:30 at night (remember Tahiti is 3 hours later than Seattle).
We stayed up talking, but I woke with the roosters and took a few pictures of the sunrise, Moorea and laundry drying on Kattywompus. Linda needed to check-in with the Port Captain so we took the bus into Papeete while Brad did some boat projects. We checked out the Tourist Info center, had a delicious hamburger & fishburger, browsed some shops and strolled the Marche Municipal. When we got back to Marina Taina there was live music outside at the restaurant/bar so we cleaned up for a drink and had dinner back on the boat. Nice start to my vacation.