Thursday, July 5th<\/p>\n
We arrived safely in Papeete, Tahiti at about 2:00 p.m. today.
\nWe are actually staying in a little lagoon just west of
\nPapeete,Lagon de Punaauia. To get there you have to navigate
\nthrough a 4 mile long channel that is bordered by a reef which
\ntakes you right by the airport. You have to call the port
\ncaptain and ask for permission to cross the water in front of
\nthe runway before you proceed. There are at least 100 boats
\nanchored here so it took us some time to find a spot and get
\nourselves safely tucked away. We saw Intiaq but it was too
\ncrowded near them to anchor. We heard several people calling on
\nthe radio, and they were all boats we have seen and\/or met in
\nother places on our trip, and all around us are familiar boats.
\nI guess this is one spot that no one can bypass if they do a
\ncircumnavigation. Papeete is a big town (over 100,000 people)
\nand we hope to get a lot of work and shopping done – we also
\nhope we can see some of the festivities that are going on in
\npreparation for Bastille Day. Our passage here from Taou was 230
\nmiles and took about 32 hours. It was a fast and windy passage.
\n One other boat, “Madam”, left the little bay in Taou at the
\nsame time we did, and we established radio contact with them
\nduring the trip. They are a French boat – owned by Katherine and
\nBruno – who are on their second circumnavigation – their first
\none being completed over a several year period, with breaks to
\ngo home and work.<\/p>\n
On our last day in Taou it was extremely windy and most of the
\npeople in the harbor went into shore to hang out at Valentine
\nand Gaston’s guest-house. We had become friendly with pretty
\nmuch everyone there, and the afternoon turned out to be a very
\nfun informal party. Valentine likes to trade the black pearls
\nthey harvest for goods from yachters, and she spent much of the
\nafternoon with all of us – letting us pick out a higher quality
\npearl or two in exchange for goods such as rum or good kitchen
\nutensils, and lesser quality pearls in exchange for whatever the
\nheck we can come up with. We gave her a bottle of rum and some
\nof the other stuff they needed such as toilet paper, soap,
\ntoothpaste and some super-glue. Valentine had Gaston drill a
\nlittle hole in the nicer of the pearls I got so I could wear it
\nright away as a necklace – a nice souvenir of our lovely time
\nspent in Taou. We were sorry we had to get ready to leave the
\nnext day as we liked all the yachties who were there – and our
\nfriends on Yara had just arrived. Gaston and Valentine are also
\ntruly hospitable people. It is just incredible how welcoming
\nthey are to all the boaters there. They are happy to accept
\ngifts, but they give a tremendous amount in return. As an
\nexample I had asked Gaston if they had a small amount of
\nfilleted fish that I could cook for dinner. At sunset Gaston
\ncame out to the boat with about 3 pounds of beautifully cleaned
\nand filleted parrot-fish – and didn’t ask for a thing in return.
\n– although I did run below and grab a big bar of chocolate for
\nhim. Parrot fish is not something I would normally want to eat
\n– the parrot fish are so beautiful, it doesn’t seem right, but
\nthat is what they eat here. It was actually very delicious. It
\nwas sad to leave Taou.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday, July 5th We arrived safely in Papeete, Tahiti at about 2:00 p.m. today. We are actually staying in a little lagoon just west of Papeete,Lagon de Punaauia. To get there you have to navigate through a 4 mile long channel that is bordered by a reef which takes you right by the airport. You … <\/p>\n