Anchored in Tahiti

We first approached Tahiti as the sun was setting, it was such a beautiful sight. We were both more than ready to relax and anchor inside a calm, beautiful Tahitian lagoon. the timing was off however and we had to heave to about 12 miles from the island so we could go through the pass in the daylight. The evening went smoothly and the next day we found that we had forereached 6 miles toward the pass, everything was going in our favor. The winds were still fairly strong and Richard noticed the large ground swell from the south, in opposition to the wind. This meant that the swell was not created by the local wind but that it was a southerly surf swell coming into the island.      Taapuna pass has a shoal about 7ft deep at its center but most of the pass is 16 ft deep. At the entrance there is a narrow width of about 200 ft to pass the boat with reef on either side. With this swell, which turned out to be 4 meters (13 ft) that created breakers of over 20 ft, the pass was impassable. We turned the boat around and headed back to the pass at the Papeete harbor.      We finally made it to a beautiful mouillage (anchorage) at Maeva Beach. However, because of the swell it was not the calm lagoon we had been reading about. We weathered the rolling anchorage for about 3 days before it calmed down. We have been here for 10 days now. There is a small marina close called Marina Taina and the woman who runs it, Constance, is very nice and extremely helpful with information and she speaks English. The marina has a little store, fuel and water available for filling jugs and washing the boat down although with our fantastic Spectra water maker we hardly need supplements. There is also a very nice French restaurant there called Casablanca where you can sit on their lawn and watch the sun set over the island of Moorea before dinner.

The city of Papeete is 9 km (6ml.) to the east of our anchorage and we catch "Le Truck" right in front of the marina to get there.

Sunset over Moorea from the marina clickphoto to enlarge

"Le Truck"

Papeete is a busy and bustling city, the center of business for all of French Polynesia. We found it a bit dirty and traffic to be horrendous but we enjoy the distinct European feel of it. However, there is no distinct architecture here, just a hodgepodge of 60's style buildings and most of those in disrepair.

rainbow over Papeete click photo to enlarge

City Hall during rehearsal for the Miss Papeete beauty pageant click photo to enlarge

We have also taken the time at the end of a long day of searching to stop and have a drink at some beautiful spots like this one at the Beachcomber Resort near our anchorage.

Marche de Papeete click photo to enlarge

We have spent many hours in the city trying to find sail maker lofts, plumbing shops and marine stores to get supplies for the many projects that need attention on the boat.

Amazing Grace is anchored just to the left of the Beachcomber Resort click photo to enlarge

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Society Islands

Richard discusses the sail repairs with Victor and Maeva of "Api Yachting" click photo to enlarge

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