Lights of Papeete
02 June 2012 | Underway, Fakarava to Tahiti
Pete
We are nearing the island of Tahiti. We have seen a couple of sailboats in the distance, the most traffic we have seen in a long time, now we have to be extra vigilant thru the night. The full moon is almost back as we get closer to land. Wind is getting light and we are almost there so fire up the iron genny, lets get there. We arrive at 9:00 AM again thru a narrow passage, but this doesn't look right. Correct according to course plotted but this is private boat marina not commercial where we need to go, they look the same on charts. Oh well, first navigation mistake in 3000 NM, well give me a break, thanks. So off we go back out of the pass to the "correct pass". We line up the channel markers, call the harbormaster (everyone needs to call in as the airport is right there and large cruise ships use the same pass, and they don't want any additional traffic in the small pass. We get to the transient dock but it is full. We maneuver around to another dock and the gear shift cable breaks. Lucky Sherpa was in neutral, or we would have been going in circles, maybe even backwards. The wind pushes us against dock so we tied up, no damage, though several charter boats sit there usually, but were out. A local friendly boater, Yves on a powerboat, helps us tie up Med mooring style (Stern to but in our case bow to) and offered to call his mechanic. Today is Saturday, so Monday he will come. Welcome to Papeete, time to explore the town, make that city.