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

Welcome to Tahiti

We pulled into the lagoon at sunrise using the main pass, which is in downtown Papeete. Since we approached in the dark, we didn’t get to see the views from the distance, but from here it looked like Tahiti is a single large mountain that slopes down to the water. It is much less imposing than the Marquesas, which are taller, steeper, and clearly had many mountains. There were buildings all around, including many big buildings that were 4 and 5 stories tall. There appeared to be buildings all the way around the shore and most of the way up the mountain. A bunch of trash floated past us. Yep, we are in a city. Continue reading

Fakarava to Tahiti

We started the day with another run through the pass during the morning incoming tide. The wind was blowing at 22 knots, so the wind kept blowing us away from the coral wall. We had to get in the dinghy and motor back over to the coal wall a couple of times. Conveniently, we were more sheltered from the wind halfway through the pass where the snorkeling is best, anyway. The rest of the ride was fun. We did it again, this time starting at the sheltered spot instead of all the way at the edge of the ocean. There seemed to be less fish out today than in the previous two. Guess the sharks were hungry last night. Continue reading

Selling Nordhavns and Watching Movies

This morning we went back to the bakery as soon as we got up. We had already eaten all our Danish and wanted more. To our delight, they also had chocolate croissants and banana tarts. The banana tarts had a layer of mashed banana, a layer of pudding, and a layer of meringue. Yumm. It is quite possible that bakeries are the best thing in the world.

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