Currently anchored in what is referred to as Carrefour Bay only due to its location to the mini Costco like store that is the focus of most cruisers stop here in Tahiti for re provisioning and generally a taste of commercialism and first world shopping after several months out in the islands and remote cruising locations where there are no such stores since leaving Panama or Mexico or the West coast of North America. We have yet to go ashore after arriving two days ago having several priorities on board to attend to but we are caught up now and it is Sunday morning early, the day everything is closed throughout FP. It is also sunny this morning for the first time and we can see the mountains of Moorea 30 miles away like it is across the bay. This anchorage in front of the largest Marina in FP is extremely crowded right now being the major stopover for cruising yachts in the Pacific and the start of a rally / sailing race to Moorea next week that we are supposed to participate in. After that the area will slowly get back to normal but currently there are at east 150 or more boats in here very close together and a line up of Super Yachts med moored to the quay that would surprise anyone. They are over 100 to 180 feet long and something else to look at. From our little spot here we look up onto the steep sided hills that are very developed with condos and large homes, no lack of rich folk out here. The crossing from Fakarava was a rushed decision to get some wind before a long calm that was forecast showed up and would have had us motoring or remaining in the Tuamotus for a week or more and possibly face head winds after that to get to Tahiti so off we went to get out there in forecast 16 knots dropping to 10 to 12 by the time we closed on Tahiti, Not the case at all. Many of the boats on the radio net claimed their wort night ever reporting up to 50 knots, others certainly 40's and we saw upper 30's at least. There was no moon, cloudy and heavy rains, so as black as you know who's ass and really rough. Seas were organized at times and confused at others, or was that us being confused by the organized seas? Organized, that's what it was, they had a plan and put it into action, a plan to scare the shit out of a bunch of sailors crossing the same part of the sea, thinking they were getting away with something, makes sense now that you look at it that way. I can tell you that many of those out there with us would agree there was a oceanic conspiracy going on during those few days. On the plus side we had great speeds, seeing 10 and 11 knots with just a reefed mainsail and better on some of the surfs. This boat surfs really well and when you get up on a wave it is a few moments or even minutes of silence and relative calm that separates you from the mayhem long enough to let your shoulders relax and un tense before dropping down into the trough and riding the full wrath for a bit until the next wave arrives and up you go and,,, right, we have been there already. We had some extreme gusts and one of them contributed to further destruction of our stack pack sail bag but worse was the extent of the rain. It was so heavy and wind driven that it filled the sagging sail bag both sides adding hundreds of pounds to the boom making these gigantic saddle bags of water and of course tearing the bag even more. Nothing could withstand the wild action of several hundred of pounds of water flailing around. There was a point where it was bad enough that we were concerned for the boom and rig, how bad do you think that was, so I reached out through the forward hatch in the pilot house and cut the bottom of the bag with a knife so it would drain. Not something we would normally do to our expensive gear but it was already toast and it did help drain it, although there was so much rain it was almost pointless. To add insult to the stab in the wallet we already received from good ol mother ocean, (maybe if we throw a few thousand dollars in gold coins or doubloons into the sea while offshore she will cut us a financial break for a while) the pilot house, our safe and comfortable enclosed sanctuary at sea, the envy of everyone who comes on board as a place to stand watch in sheer luxury and one of the reasons we sought out a Sundeer in the first place, could not withstand the deluge and we had rainwater, way better than sea water mind you, pouring in the overhead hatch and bypassing the soft sided back curtains attachment points sufficient to completely soak the posh cushions and everything else. Gwen rigged up all manner of deflectors and catchment systems to direct most of it to the sole and away from all the expensive electronics and mainly our navigation computer and remote control for the auto pilot and winches and furling etc... Lose all or even one of those and things change for the worse before you can say "you gotta..." well you would say something wouldn't you, and it would be that quick, so the leak brigade was pretty busy the entire trip. Beyond that the trip was really fast with some fantastic sailing and awesome heavy squalls to keep you on your toes. These were far and away the biggest, longest lasting and heaviest squalls we have seen to date. One in particular lasted more than three hours and it really wears you out. Given the high speeds, we arrived just offshore of Tahiti around 1:30 am in another gale/ squall over 30 knots, with slashing rain and seas that were piling up after exploding on the volcanic shores and fringing coral reef of the Eastern shores of Tahiti so we decided not to pound further North and try to enter the Papeete pass, listed as "dangerous when North or North West Swells are heavy" in such conditions but to simply "circumnavigate" Tahiti, mostly on the leeward side in calm conditions, making water and arriving in daylight at the Southern pass entrance. It was a good plan and mostly worked out except the wind dropped to zero for a while and caused us to have to motor then veered West to put us on the lee shore, not out favorite position to be in, and then the rain started, heavy at first but becoming really heavy soon after then just plain stupid heavy the rest of the way. We opened up the water fills again and presto or rather, voila! full water tanks again. Wow a good thing!

We were going to take a photo of our first look at Tahiti at day break but never actually saw anything until we were closing in on the entrance, then we saw it. That sail boat just ahead, wait is that a boat? I had to go out and hand steer in the rain that was so intense and wind driven there was no way to look into it without glasses on, I was considering getting out a dive mask, but it was dark so Gwen go out the yellows that made it all bright and nice, sort of. The "sailboat" was not a sail boat but the green/Starboard pass entrance marker (everywhere out here the navigation aids follow the international format Green right return NOT red by the way,,,a very good thing to know up front and to remember least old habits put you and vessel in peril real quick like!) and just then the rain let up enough to reveal surf breaking. Big, big surf, breaking all around us fore and starboard and even aft of us. Oh Ohh what kind of error did I make putting us here? We were right near the entrance to the channel which is just an opening in the fringing coral reef and you need to line up on it and be right on, like right on, because a few feet away either side is coral reef with breaking seas. To make it more interesting there is current galore running as the Atoll fills and drains causing at times standing waves. Very calming! Just as the rain let up a little and we could see, (I'm not so sure this was a good or bad thing) Gwen says from her perch looking out the forward hatch of the pilot house "the water changes colour quite a bit up ahead, look, look" now this is not the thing you want to hear when you cant see it yourself and you are in close proximity to coral reefs. You see, pardon the pun, water colour is everything when navigating amongst coral, darker=safe deep water, lighter=not so good! My heart jumped about seven beats and I scrambled to make out the water colour through the pelting my eyes were getting. The surface had a distinct line where the water changed to a light beige / brown. Panic!!! that's coral reef,fifty yards ahead but where to turn, its all around us, I've sailed us into a dead end death trap, we're going to fly right up onto the reef into the breakers, oh, breakers, there are no breakers directly ahead, chart says 3000 feet deep here,wait stop freaking out it is muddy river water run off from the deluge, ohhh man, relax a bit, un pucker a bit. Hey what the heck is that? A tree? A raft of tree debris with roots sticking out goes by nearly scraping the port side, oh no, its all the dead crap washed down the valleys and out to sea from the storm, there's more there, turn left, no right, ahhhhhhh,,, 20 minutes of this crap threatening to take out the prop or worse, jungle bunches of stuff surprising you as you drop into each new swell. OK got a line on the marks deep breath, heading in, oh that surf breaking really makes me nervous, nearly chicken out, hold her steady, go a little more, alright, I can see it is flatter in the pass, keep going,wonder if the engine will keep running or will the cooling pump fail just about now, what does the sounder say 10 feet!!!, no it's set to meters,,whew ok keep going, make it through the first marks, look back and our wake through tea brown sludge is hard to explain,we should take a photo of that, never mind that now, eyes front, next mark is a bit to starboard but they are off set so you need to line up over a shallow spot that's lighter coloured on the chart, hair raising and nerve racking and satisfying all in one second. We make it through and into calmer waters inside the reef with huge rollers breaking into crashing surf just off to port, whew, that was exciting, wait we also need to call Port control and advise our position and obtain clearance to continue forward crossing in front of the airport runway. Another first time experience. I call Port Control twice, no response, guess there is no aircraft coming or going right now I hope?? Imagine the landing area is a mere few hundred yards in from the coast so they would be pretty low on final and would definitely have issues with your mast 75 feet up into their landing path, then again I guess we would have issues about that sort of thing too. We push on through the maze in near zero viz and sight the anchorage after 20 min. What fun that was. Our arrival in the anchorage required a bit of adjustment to civilisation and the amount of boats anchored here, we had no idea it would be so busy and crowded, It took over an hour to find a suitable spot to fit in without swinging into one or two neighbors but before we dropped the hook, we called the Marina Taina to see if there was any slips "NO", how about the Med Moor wall where the super yachts are, "NO" ok a mooring ball then, "NO, they are for maximum 45 feet boat, you can drop anchor in the country side"! remind me to post a complimentary comment on their web page. And so we anchored and watched to see how we sit, an hour later, nope, too close to that cat, up we go and moved 100 yards North, this should work, it is 50 feet deep and thick mud so no worries about dragging and a short scope should work. OK all good and we can relax while we start the drying out of cushions and everything, we even ran the furnace and cranked the heat to a million degrees inside the cabin to get the drying started.

Wednesday now, we have settled into city life, there has been sun and rain, we picked up the new wear plate for the raw water pump $23 Can, I did the re and re on the pump last night and after the 3'rd time, as you know everything you do on a boat is 3 times, we have excellent flow and no leaks so fingers crossed this one is behind us for now. The Carrefour store is a 10 min walk away and is a really good store with everything one needs. We have rented a car for Thursday Friday with another couple from Code Blue and plan on an Island excursion which should be cool then use it for stocking up. We dropped off our propane bottle yesterday a few blocks down the road at a service station and get it back on Friday. What makes this news? There has been no propane and wont be until NZ or AUZ as everything out here runs on Butane and we did not want to make the change so this is good. The outboard seems to be experiencing carburetor woes, so I will have to remove it today and get it tidied up, one or perhaps more of our house batteries has a short or dead cell so I need to isolate them all and do some testing before purchasing replacements here in Tahiti where Everything is cheaper than Japan by about 1% making it the second most expensive place in the world. Oh, getting them out and in the dinghy and reverse will be fun at 200 lbs each while bobbing and rolling out here at anchor, but we will persevere on that one. After dropping off the propane tank I was sniffing the air to sort of get a scent for this new Tahiti place like I do in any new spot and something got my blood going, it was very familiar yet confusing, it didn't make any sense, it made me think of eating, it made me think of driving a car back home, I was getting hungrier, I've got it,, I was having a Mac Attack! Sure enough next to the service station the Golden Arches were right there and the smell of french fries and fried meat and I guess grease, that we all know so well as we drive past a fast food joint in our cars. Weird to see one way out here but it is not really way out here for them is it? Little wonder bears can't resist the small of greasy bacon and frying foods! Yes, of course we went in and had a burger and fries, no 1/4 pounders here though, you can have a Mc France, yes a Mc France or a Royal with cheese or one or two others but you do get those fries though. Cost was $23 USD for 2 Royal w cheese meals. MMMM Good!