Today is Bastille Day, July 14, and we are still in Papeete waiting for a package containing a part for our starter that was supposed to arrive yesterday. Since today is a holiday, there are no deliveries, so hopefully we will have it tomorrow. Last Thursday when our package was finally shipped and wasn't going to arrive until Monday, we decided we didn't want to spend another weekend in Papeete since the anchorage is crowded and noisy, so we left and went back to Isle Moorea about 13 miles away. We arrived Thursday afternoon in Cooks Bay, a scenic, tranquil spot, toured around the bay in our dingy, then visited another boat for cocktails and returned to Zephyra about 9pm. We tied the dingy alongside Zephyra and turned in for the night. The next morning, Debbie woke up and dressed to go for a walk, climbed into the cockpit with her water bottle in hand and there was no dingy along the boat. A quick look showed the lines were cut and the dingy and outboard gone. It is a strange feeling, like having your car stolen, but worse since you cannot even walk down the street to get help.
We radioed our friends on the other boat, who promptly brought over his dingy so we could go to shore and report the theft to the Gendarmerie (police). A young man whose English was much better than our French helped us and after a little going around about "the big boat and the little boat and the engine" figured out what had happened and completed the paperwork. We brought our friends back there dingy and spent the day hanging out on Zephyra since Russ was feeling sick anyway. The next morning, a fishing boat circled our boat and asked, "you Zephyra?" When we reply yes, he tells us the Gendarmerie has found our dingy and we should go see them. We asked if he knew if they found the engine and he didn't know. We borrowed our friends dingy again and went back to the Gendarmerie. The same young man is there and escorted us out to the beach to identify the dingy, which was ours minus the engine. Of course, those of you who have gotten our previous emails, know that the dingy is on its last leg and is being held together by adhesive (3M-5200) which Russ applies as each new area fails. The engine was 2 years old, a 9.8 4-stroke, that Russ got a promo deal on at Svendsen's while he worked there. It was about $1800.00, here they are twice that, or more.
Having the dingy back is much better than nothing and maybe I'll finally get some exercise rowing the damn thing. We also feel very stupid because all through Mexico and Latin America we raised the dingy at night to avoid this kind of thing from happening, but in French Polynesia we felt very safe. There is little crime as the population is not poor.
We found one guy in Moorea who had an engine for sale, but like everything else in French Polynesia, it cost twice what it was worth and he didn't want to sell it for what we offered. Everyone has been very sympathetic and helpful, both the local authorities and our fellow cruisers. Now that we are back in Papeete, we are keeping our eyes open for a used engine for sale. After our starter is fixed, we will continue on through French Polynesia to the Cook Islands, with or without an outboard. Not having one, does limit where we can anchor and what we can do.