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| The lighthouse marks Point Venus, where Captain Cook came on the ship Endeavour in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus across the sun. The information gleaned was to help make a better estimate of the distance of the earth from the sun. |
Tahiti looked beautiful in the evening light as we sailed in
just as the sun was setting by Moorea – we moored off Papeete and to be greeted
by friends was wonderful. As we were running out of cash and fresh food we decided not to stay in the Tuamotos but to head here and stock up.
Even the children race in canoes
After a couple of days enjoying the town, the shops and the end of the
Heiva festival we went round to the west of the island and picked up a mooring
buoy off the marina.
The rather grim waterfront has been transformed into a lovely park since we were here in 2000
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| The Notre Dame cathedral in Papeete |
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| Sunset over Moorea from our first mooring |
Harry was already at the marina having stayed over with friends.
There were lots of teens around and they were calling each other on the
VHF radio as soon as they’d finished school (usually by 11am) and racing around
to collect each other in dinghies to go off snorkelling, swimming, playing
games or even to walk down to McDonalds (first one since Panama City!) for
milkshakes.
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| Birthday parties on board |
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and ashore 
Waterfalls and mountains
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Meanwhile on the boat we had
a big problem as our generator, which we installed in Guernsey just over 2
years ago, decided to pack up just after we arrived. Although we can charge the batteries from the
alternator on the engine, the solar panel and the wind generator we can only
run the lights and our laptops from the batteries. We need the generator to
cool the fridge & freezer and to run the water-maker, microwave &
toaster.
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| Our good friends on yacht Banana with Dinghy their dog, took Harry off to Moorea with them for 5 days |
Harry with his friends, Oscar and Marie on a trek in Moorea
'One girl and her dog' in Moorea - one of my favourite photos
It took John a huge amount of
work to sort it out including having spares sent out from Italy at vast
expense. This still didn’t solve the
problem, so when we knew we would have to stay here until it was fixed Harry
& I booked flights home and returned with a new water pump. The only good thing was that we were able to
get ice from the dock so we used the fridge as a cool-box, and for 10 weeks
every drop of fresh water we used was hauled on board in 5 litre bottles.
It was lovely to have a brief & busy visit home and despite packing every day to the full we still didn't have time to see everyone we would have liked to see.
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| Ready for another day at Thorpe Park! |
We have done may repairs to the boat and have had both of our headsails repaired at the local sail loft. The local store is a large Carrefour supermarket so we have stocked up for the trip to New Zealand. Treats such as marmalade, porridge oats, sweet chilli sauce & cocoa but no joy with golden syrup, ribena, Heinz tomato soup and cheddar cheese - though Cassis syrup is a good substitute for ribena & we all enjoy drinking it hot on night watches. Our marmite & tea bag stock is surviving as we bring supplies back from home.
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| No complaints from Harry when the girls come to pick him up! |
Canoes come racing past every day
One frequent visitor
We have been here far, far longer than planned so will not go to Fiji this year but will head for Tonga to wait for the right weather to sail down to New Zealand. Being out in shallow water near the outer reef we have dive boats mooring near us every day. Harry says that when the divers swim under us it feels like having joggers running through your back garden!
Next stop is Moorea where the photo at the beginning of this blog was taken.
Sara Jane in the early morning with Moorea behind.
