Category Archives: South Pacific

Moorea Maintenance

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Tomorrow is Bastille Day, one of the biggest French holidays of the year. According to Lonely Planet, when a holiday falls on a Saturday, everything is closed the Friday before. Since (we assumed, at least) everything was closed, the plan for today was to do some boat chores, then go snorkeling.

Conditions were ideal for several chores. It is much easier to change fuel filters when the tanks are full and when you are in a calm anchorage, so Eric changed all the fuel filters aboard. Christi assisted. Continue reading →

Touring Moorea

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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

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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 →

Getting Ready to Leave Tahiti

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We decided it was finally time to get moving. Since we were leaving the only real city we will be in for a long time, there was some stuff we needed to take care of before leaving.

Eric changed the oil on the main engine and generator since there was an oil disposal site nearby. We loaded up to the brim with fuel. We were by no means low, and yes, we can get fuel at other places, but we wanted to get it here since it is a modern fuel dock with reported very clean fuel. The duty free diesel was $3.00 per gallon, up from $2.90 we paid in Nuka Hiva. If you have to pay duty, it costs closer to $5.00 a gallon. We had to wait a half hour for fuel. A big mega-yacht had just pulled in the day before and sucked the storage tanks dry, and the fuel dock had ordered an immediate fuel delivery that we were waiting on. The station holds 8,000 gallons, and the mega-yacht holds 16,000 gallons. The mega-yacht was going to be back soon to suck the pumps dry yet again, so we snuck in at a good time. Continue reading →

Tour of Tahiti

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Today we rented a car and took a tour of the island. Our car was brand spanking new we were the first ones to ever drive it. Eric did all the driving. It is the first time he has been behind the wheel of a car in two and a half months. A friend of ours put us in touch with a local on the island he knows. The local is named Peter and Peter and his wife (whose name we cannot pronounce, let alone spell) were kind enough to escort us on our tour of the island.

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The sun was shining and it was pretty out, but it was kind of cold. Christi actually put on a jacket. The road around Tahiti parallels the ocean the entire way. Our first stop wasMaraa Grotto, a series of caverns with pools of water at the bottom. The caverns are right off the main highway, in a small, pretty park dripping with a variety of foliage. Check out the giant, funky looking bird of paradise. Continue reading →