Kosmos Travel Log

On Friday evening we went to a party put on by the Tahiti Tourism board for cruisers. The Tourism Board was sponsoring a rally from our anchorage area over to the island of Moorea, 10 miles away. We weren’t taking Kosmos in the rally, but we had been invited to be crew on another boat named Priscilla. This was the pre-rally party. There was free beer and appetizers. There was a Polynesian dance show, which was good. In addition to the female dancers, there were also male dancers. The female dances involved lots of hip gyration and flowing arm movements. The male dances involved lots of squatting, hitting one’s own legs and chest, and arm movements mimicking the rowing of canoes and use of spears. (more…)

The weather has improved so we decided to go into downtown to do a little exploring and then maybe go to one of the Heiva (cultural festival) competitions, which we know was going on now, but we didn’t know what time the competitions were. We caught a bus to downtown Papeete and got off at the theater where the Heiva competition was happening. The theater is right on the waterfront in the heart of downtown. We walked around looking for signs or brochures indicating which competitions were happening at what times, but saw nothing to that effect. We looked for the tourism office, which according to Lonely Planet was right there, but couldn’t find it. We gave up and went sight seeing, deciding to head down the waterfront first. (more…)

Up until now we have pretty nice weather ashore. But now the weather has been yucky the last few days. There is a big storm to the south of us and we have been getting some of the wind and waves from the storm. The wind was 24 knots, coming from unusual directions, causing the boats (more…)

Time for boating tech talk…

When buying the Nordhavn 43 you get to choose the size of diesel powered electric generator. The options are 8 kilowatt (kw) (66 amps at 120v), 9kw (75 amps), 10kw (83 amps), 12kw (100 amps), or even no generator at all. The short answer is we chose the 8kw and are happy with the choice for the way we use the boat, as live aboard cruisers not connected to shore power. The reason takes a bit of explanation. (more…)

Yesterday we had decided to go on a guided tour of Tahiti’s undeveloped interior. We booked a tour of the interior of the island with Tahiti Safari Expedition. Our tour guide picked us up about 9:00 am at the marina that we are anchored near. There were supposed to be five more people on the tour with us, but none of them showed up, so it was just the two of us. We are getting used to having private tours and will be sad when the day comes that we have to share a tour with others. (more…)