Ia ora na. The Deckers have been caught up in the life of Papeete for the last few days. We arrived in Tahiti Iti last week and enjoyed two anchorages to ourselves on the way up to Tahiti Nui and Papeete, the capital. Tahiti is another beautiful volcanic island that rises steeply out of the sea. The passage was uneventful but our wind died and it was necessary to motor the last 12 hours - the most on our entire trip. We arrived in Papeete Wednesday, late morning.

The channel into Papeete was not difficult for navigation but it had its own challenges. First, a call to Port Control for clearance into the channel because this is a large port with many large cruise ships, freighters and ferries constantly going in and out, and it is a narrow channel. Once in the channel and in order to sail to the north anchorage, away from downtown, it was necessary to call Port Control two more times to get clearance to cross two airport runways. Meanwhile, airplanes are landing and taking off and landing immediately in front of and behind the boat, below the top of the mast, and pirogue paddlers are all around us at sea level. Once we made it to the anchorage, we found it very, very crowded but were able to find a small hole to drop the hook, only sticking out into the channel occasionally! There are some of the largest and fastest private sailing yachts in the world tied up at the marina here and much activity by all sorts of water craft up and down the channel, making it a very busy and noisy place.

It's been easy to get caught up in city life since we arrived. Papeete is a very vibrant city - not a great vacation destination but a fun place to be after being on isolated islands for three months. Many friends here, many rendez vous, and much socializing. Downtown Papeete is about a 15 minute "Le Truk" ride from the marina/anchorage making it too easy to go downtown every day, but the restaurants and people watching make it worth it. And the people here, especially the Polynesians, are extremely friendly and helpful. The Polynesians are a very gentle people. The "Maltese Falcon", which we've been told is the largest private sailing yacht in the world, is tied up to the quay in the middle of downtown and is quite the sight (but not what I would call a pretty boat). The Papeete Market is an amazing, colorful venue for fruits, veggies, flowers, crafts and people watching. In the evenings, the large plaza by the quay is filled with "roulottes", a diverse variety of mobile diners where one has a choice of many different cuisines for a very reasonable price (in Tahiti standards). Since last night was our last night on Tahiti, we got together with four other boats that we've known since Mexico for the trek into town for a feast at the roulottes. This was a bitter-sweet occasion as it was probably the last time we'll see some of our friends and definitely the last time we'll all be together. Now we've "done Tahiti" and are ready to move on to a more relaxed pace - Moorea! As I write, David is downtown yet another time on "Le Truk", checking us out so we can leave a little later today for the short sail over to seductive Moorea and more time in Paradise. Our time on Chinook is growing short and we plan on a superficial cruise through the highlights of the Society Islands before returning to Colorado. It's great to know that we'll have next year's season to more thoroughly check it all out.

Be sure to check out the new photos - finally got a program to condense them so we could post them on the blog. Parahi. A bien tot.

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