Bastille Day Celebration

Christi started the morning by finishing the bottom. Much to her dismay, everything she had scrubbed yesterday had a fine little layer of growth return. She decided to just pretend like nothing had grown back and to just work on the previously uncleaned areas. It took her an hour.

From there we went snorkeling in the coral reef next to our boat. As we were swimming out there, the people we had met from San Diego, Eric and Gisela, came up to us in their dinghy. They were also going snorkeling, so we all went together. The reef had small spots of color, but was mostly all light brown. There were a lot of coral shaped like Bryce Canyon, which was neat. There were a few fish, but not a ton. We did see a couple new fish we have not seen before. One had a beak and came in a few colors. We saw one black tipped reef shark about 5 feet long. There were a lot of plants growing on the coral that had long spindly branches with thorny looking things at the ends. The most noteworthy plant looked like a single dark pink rose stuck on the side of a coral head. It almost looked like someone had glued a plastic flower to the coral. We only saw one. Continue reading

Touring Moorea

Today we planned to rent scooters and take a tour of the island. We took the dinghy over to the town of Paopao in Cook’s Bay, where the scooter/car rental place was located. The ride over was interesting. There is coral all around, so you have to be careful. There is a small boat channel that is clearly marked, and as long as you stay in the channel, you are fine. It just looks kind of crazy as you are in the channel because Continue reading

Welcome to Moorea

We left Tahiti through the southern pass, which is closer for us than going back around to the north. We had been leery of using the southern pass, reading in our cruising guides that it can be treacherous. The rally to Moorea had used the southern pass and it was no problem, so we were confident in using it this time. It is a bit hard to see, but check out the surfers catching waves on the reef. It felt like we were heading out to see through surf, but the pass itself only had minor swells. Going through was easy.

sandiegomooreatahaa1-013-large.jpg Continue reading

The Heiva Competition

Saturday continued”¦ We arrived at the ferry dock exactly at 1600 (4:00 pm). When the ferry pulled up, hundreds of passengers got off, all wearing clothing of the same material. There were people with them in regular clothing, also. We were trying to figure out what the group was. There was old people and young people, men and women, all sizes, shapes and fitness levels. One of the women in the uniform handed Christi the hat she was wearing and told Christi she could have it. The hat is woven from some sort of plant and was so freshly woven, it was still green. Christi proudly wore it the rest of the day. Continue reading

Moorea Fish or Fruit?

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. Continue reading