It was only 270nms toTahiti but the wind was fickle and light so it took us three days.  It was so calm one night that my 3 star fix was only in error of our GPS position by 2nms!  We anchored in a lovely, peaceful lagoon at Tautira on the east coast of Tahiti.  It was amazing to be here and we had a wonderful feeling of achievement with only 2000nms to go to New Zealand.  The following day we moved around to Papeete suffering an autopilot failure on the way.  This was subsequently tracked down to the computer, which needless to say is no longer supported.  However, happily the spare took over the commission.

We moored up Mediterranean style stern-to right in the centre of Papeete.  It reminded us very much of Antibes with blocks of flats hanging onto the hillsides above the city.  There was heavy traffic around the port which stated up at about 0500 and did not stop until late.  We had a lazy few days with excursions into the city and we completed our formal check-in to French Polynesia.  Our forms sent from the Marquesas had clearly arrived safely.  A visit to Carrefour on the other side of the airport re-enforced the feeling that we could have been in France, apart from the prices and the transportation.  The local bus service was fashioned from trucks with wooden benches either side below large no-smoking signs which were duly ignored by the locals.  The bus fare was paid to the driver either as you got on or off the bus or sometimes not at all.

On our way back to the boat Sarah was saying hello to some fellow yachties on a German boat on the other side of the pontoon and whilst not looking fell down a gap between them.  Luckily, she just sustained some very nasty grazes and bruising particularly on her right thigh.  It was very fortunate indeed that her injuries were not a lot worse because the pontoons were flat-topped steel barges with a narrow bridge between them and no guard rail to stop you from falling.  Although we cleaned the cuts and grazes up and applied Fucidin cream, by the next day it was obvious that she had an infection in her thigh.  We started her on a course of anti-biotics from the medical kit and happily, that led to a rapid improvement.    Meanwhile, I lost a filling during lunch and went over to the dentist adjacent to the dock to make an appointment to have it fixed.  The dentist saw me there and then and when he discovered I was paying his fee in cash, he halved it!

The port filled up with the arrival of the ‘Maltese Falcon’ a truly remarkable looking ship painted silver with three huge un-stayed masts with cross-trees into which she furled her sails.  When she arrived the cross-trees were aligned fore and aft, but later when we saw her under full sail she really was a magnificent sight.  We moved out of the port to the anchorage which entailed getting clearance to cross both ends of the runway of Papeete airport.  It felt good to have a cooling breeze through the boat once again.  We were positioned amongst many others that we had met or seen along the way and there was constant activity with lots of boats going to and fro.  Outrigger canoes were extremely popular and were out from sunrise to sunset.  Those manned by more than one were co-ordinated by the helmsman (who also paddled) and on his command the crew would swap paddling to the other side.  This was all with the incredibly dramatic back-drop of Moorea only a few miles away.

For weeks Sarah had been on an emotional roller-coaster with Gemma coming to Tahiti then not.  Simon was not comfortable with the idea of his six month year old daughter travelling to the tropics, but at last the decision was made and they were on their way.  We moved into the marina Taina so we could get Gemma and Eloise safely on board with all the ancillary baby clobber.  And there they were!  Air Tahiti delivered them at 0510 from LAX.  What a joy to see them both.  We had found a little paddling pool which fitted inside the cockpit.  Eloise used it alternately as a swimming pool and bath – it was a great success.

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We navigated the pass and motored the 8nms across the lagoon to the village which we were to discover the locals called Kauehi City!  When we went ashore the following day (my birthday) the village – sorry – city was very sleepy and quiet.  Of course only mad dogs and Englishmen………….Anyway a lady stopped her car and apologised for the shop being closed even though we had arrived after the advertised closing time.  She was wearing the most magnificent black pearls and asked us (Sarah) if she was interested – silly question!  We returned to Moonbeam and watched as our anchorage was shared by a number of arrivals, one of which was ‘Robyn’ last seen in the Galapagos.

On Monday we went to find our pearl lady who owned the shop to find that her husband, who was also the mayor, ran the pearl farm.  They obviously had fingers in many pies because the pearl farm tour was not available on Mondays or Saturdays because of the airplane movements.  The mayor (a retired Tahitian policeman) looked like a Polynesian warrior with tattoos all over his body complimented by a dagger strapped to his leg.  We arranged for a tour for the following day and returned to the boat to find that the hull had been colonised by limpet fish.  These guys, who use suckers to hang on, obviously had mistaken Moonbeam’s blue underside for a passing shark!

Our visit to the pearl farm with the mayor (who was also the proprietor) started with a visit to the airport.  He was obviously very proud of this addition to the island’s infrastructure.  It was another example of the design we had seen previously, however, this terminal building boasted a coffee shop that was manned on Mondays and Saturdays by no other than the mayor’s wife!  The pearl farm was a collection of purpose built dwellings to house the staff – all of whom were Chinese, adjacent to the ‘factory’ which was built on stilts over the water.

Here each oyster was carefully prised open by one of the Chinese girls.  A seed of plastic was inserted along with a dye (to provide/assist the colour) and a growth hormone.  The oyster was then put in a fishnet bag and returned to the lagoon.  This process was repeated three times before the pearls were harvested.  It was here that we saw the purpose of the mayor’s dagger – he used it to open the oysters and we duly ate them.  The shells, of course, were processed for ‘mother of pearl’ so nothing in this enterprise was wasted.  He told us that he regularly flew to Japan and China to sell the pearls.  We bought a selection from the many pearls he spilled on the table for us.  Added to this sale, he charged for the tour, so it wasn’t a bad day for mayoral enterprises!  Kauehi City is not an example of a socialist state! 

By now, we had already come to the view that one atoll looked much like another; and so we decided to head for Tahiti to await the arrival of our progeny.  We calculated that the ideal time to navigate the pass was 0635 the following morning so we crossed the lagoon and anchored just inside the entrance.  We were hard on in 16mtrs with 60mtrs of chain out.  However, when we got up with the sun the following morning it was to discover that Moonbeam’s pirouettes during the night had tied the chain around a bollard shaped coral head.  It took an hour and a half with me in the water and Sarah using the engine and bow-thruster to untangle ourselves.  This delay made the transit through the pass somewhat exhilarating!

 


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