We arrived at Papeete Marina, Tahiti around sunset on the 17th of June after a quick 260 mile sail from Fakarava. First order of business was getting work going on replacing the missing rudder, which meant dropping our remaining rudder out of the boat so that it could be used by Technimarine as a template. It was a pretty straight forward procedure, though we were very careful not to drop it to the bottom! Unfortunately inspection of the remaining rudder showed there was some play on the shaft so we decided to get 2 new rudders built. This also allowed Technimarine to pull the rudder apart to check on the construction that was used on the originals.

While the work was continuing on the rudder, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Tahiti. We met a local French family Laurent, Delphine and Lucien when we stopped by to join in a game of ultimate frisbee, which led to a great friendship. We ended up hiking with them to waterfalls on Tahiti, a BBQ at their place, a visit to the annual Polynesian games and they joined us for a weekend on Por Dos in Moorea. Laurent worked in the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Tahiti and also gave us a tour. It was great to see where the call would go to if we ever had an emergency.

While in Tahiti we started the process of getting ready for the end of our trip. The plan at this point was to sell Por Dos, hopefully before we get to Australia to avoid importing her, then visit Australia and finally fly back to Boston. We took lots of photos of the boat, put together a marketing video and package, and placed her on the market with Multihull Solutions in Mooloolaba, Australia.

For some socializing, we joined in the Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendez-vous which was a two-day welcoming event for cruisers, with a race to Moorea from Papeete (we crewed on Misbehaving as we didn't think it advisable to race with no rudders ), followed by two days of fun activities in Cook Bay on Moorea. We stayed in the hotel where the event was, which was quite a luxury for us.

Alec and Roan were particularly excited to have Andrew and Will dropped off by Eric and Effie for their annual Camp Por Dos that started on Tahiti and would finish when we met Sarah and Dak on Bora Bora 4 weeks later. Once again it was great to have them with us for another visit.

After almost 4 weeks in the marina in Papeete, we left in the afternoon for Tahaa, stopping for a couple of hours in the evening at Cooks Bay on Moorea to make sure we arrived late enough the next morning to have good light at Tahaa. In the Mediterranean and Atlantic we would enter well charted harbours at night, but it was not sensible to do that in the reef strewn waters of the South Pacific. We always made landfall during the day with good light. This was also a new adventure for Will and Andrew as it was their first overnight sail on Por Dos.