We had light winds for our two day passage from Toau to Tahiti and the other Society Islands.
A little lighter than ideal during the days, with a flat calm for a while on the second day. We were nearly out of diesel so could only afford to motor for one hour. Fortunately the wind returned as dusk approached and we had a glorious sail through the night, just as we did on the first night. Balmy breeze, gentle swell, brilliant moonlight. The moonlight is so bright here that we actually saw a 'moonbow' one night..if that's what you call a rainbow in the moonlight.
As dawn broke after the second night, we saw Tahiti allready rising on the horizon. Being 7000 feet high means it's visible from a long way off, along with the clouds it pushes up into the sky.
It was exciting to be approaching this, most famous of all islands. though we knew that it would be not the same as it once was. It's more for what it represents, in folklore and romantic notions and dreams. We felt like we'd really 'made' it.

We rounded Venus Point, where Captain Cook had set up to observe the passage of Venus 241 years ago, and into Matavia Bay, where both he and captain Bligh on the Bounty had anchored during their stays here.
We took a mooring at Yacht Club de Tahiti and luxuriated in hot showers. SO much water, and hot, that you didn't have to worry about running out of! We stood there for ages in bliss.
The next luxury was Carrefour, a huge supermarket, with Choices!. It's big, bright neon lights beckoned us from across the water, but we had to wait until next morning for it to open. We could have spent all day there, and our money, and probably would have if i hadn't been able to drag Isabelle away from the cheese section!
We spent Sunday cleaning and tidying the boat as my Mum was arriving on Monday.


Leona at Tahiti's botanical gardens

We were a bit hemmed in by rainy and windy weather for a few days so stayed on our mooring at the yacht club, with forays in to Papeete by bus to visit the market and take care of various bits of business.
Joe and Adrienne from Bluebottle, another Australian boat, suggested we hire a car to drive around the island, so we all took the drive of 120km or so.
It was nice..some pretty beaches and coves, grottos ( which were basically caves with water in them) but what we really wanted to get to was one of the enticing, deep, verdant valleys. Unfortunately, the island is not really well signposted for tourists so, try as we might, we couldn't find a decent road leading to the interior. The north -east side of the island was much less travelled and a bit wilder, which we all seemed to appreciate.


Joe from Bluebottle playing the Baguette Violin

When the weather relented a bit, we took the boat around to the main yachting area, the other side of Papeete. There must have been over a hundred boats at anchor, plus many more in the marina there. It was exciting to come across so many familiar boats from our travels so far. Kind of like a reunion, though there are so many friends to catch up with and not enough time.
Though Papeete is great for stocking up, getting important supplies and meeting friends, it's hard not to spend money and also it is after all, a busy, noisy city, which is a bit hard to get used to after all the far away places we have been to.
So, re-stocked and re-paired, we headed for Moorea, across the Sea of the Moon.