1st of July to 13th of August - Tahiti

01^st of July to 13^th of August  - Papeete, Tahiti (including sailing rally to Moorea)

Arriving in Tahiti. The sail down from Toau was quite rough and Lisa had to use the bucket one last time.... (Apparently only because she was watching television!). But we got there at around lunch time and made our way from the port of Papeete through the channel to the Marina Taina, where we anchored with lots and lots of other yachts outside the marina. As we came in we saw some familiar names on the boats. Tahiti was the end of the Puddle Jump Rally, where we had joined up for as well. It is a very loose sort of race from Panama to Tahiti, with the purpose more so of getting visas etc organised and safety net then actually racing. Anyway, this was the end of the race and celebrations were planned in Tahiti for the end of it.

We anchored the boat and took the dinghy in to the Marina where we met with the other sailors, like Sonia and Laurie, Harry, etc... for some save arrival drinks and discussions about what is here in Papeete. Sonia told me there was actually a really big super marked with lots of food! Anything you can imagine, like lots of meat, fresh fruit and vegies and shelves and shelves full of food! So exciting! (It is very sad, when for the big family outing it is an exciting thing to go to the super market! But we had not seen a big well stocked super market since we left Panama.)

Pete and I took the bus into the city the next day to do some exploring and visit the  pearl museum, where we learned  a lot about pearls (even though Pete still thinks, black pearls look a lot like ball bearings, which I have to agree to).

For the Puddle Jump celebrations a rally was organised from Papeete to Moorea, an island about 15nm from Tahiti. We set sails in a quite chaotic start where we hang back, as it looked like people were about to sail into each other. But then we set out in our puddle jump racing t-shirts and the kids thought it was quite exciting, as this was their first proper race!

 Leaving for the race, poor old battered Australian Flag!

 Leaving he majority behind, go Havachat!

 The racing crew

We had the main and head sail up, as the winds were quite strong to start off with, but soon switched over to the Gennaker soon when the winds got lighter. We started sailing past a lot of boats and were head to head with Amelite (from Sweden) and two other boats in front of us. We were going well, but then Amelite put their Spinnaker up and started sailing past us. Levels with us were also Jeff and Cherie on Grasshopper, but we left them behind as well after we put the Gennaker up. Jack wanted us to put the Parasailor up, but the race wasn’t long enough for this. Even though, we ended coming third in the whole race and also the first cat to go through! How exciting! The race finished in beautiful Cook Bay in Moorea! What an amazing back drop! The race finished in beautiful Cook Bay in Moorea! What an amazing back drop! 

 Arriving in Moorea

Yeah, we are third! Beat Amelite!!

 Evening dinner celebrations

Fire dancers

Jeff learning the Tahitian dancing.... He is doing great.

The celebrations continued with outrigger canoe races, traditional food and dance performances and other land games like coconut opening (in a team, Pete went well, but Ben let the team down), etc. So much fun! And with so much nice Company with Moana Roa being here, Grasshopper, Tehani Li,  Amelite and Argonaut and lots more. We had a couple of wonderful days here and we were very lucky that Karol was here, as Lisa had a very sore shoulder and Karol is a physio and fixed her up! So lucky, thanks Karol!

 Go Maslen Crew!!

 Pete doing great with the coconut opening....

...but Ben let the team down, too slow with the scraping out of the meat!

 Coconut carrying competition

 Our beautiful boat!

 Jeff and Cherrie doing well! Cherrie can wiggle those hips so well!

 Tug-of-war

 Some more dancing...

 Pete and Miss Moorea

Presentation of our trophy by Miss Moorea. Sorry Kate, you got replaced by Miss Moorea!

After we sailed back to Papeete, we hired a car and explored Tahiti by land. Of course we had to go for Ben to Teahupoo on Tahiti Iti (little Tahiti) to see the famous big waves! As the break is a fair way of the land, you need to catch a water taxi out to get close. We found Cindy’s taxi service, a lovely young lady with her own water taxi service who took us out. Ben took his body board and went for a surf. He had the best time in his live! He could not get the smile from his face afterwards. But the first wave he caught, he didn’t anticipate how fast the reef would come up and scraped his whole side on the reef!  When we got back to land Cindy gave him half a lime to rub into the sore so it wouldn’t get infected. Jack and Lisa enjoyed very much seeing their brother suffering like this!

On the way to the surf break in Cindy's water taxi

Cindy

Getting ready to jump in...

Having so much fun!

We finished the day with some lovely walks (Marae Grotto and Gardens at Papeari). Even though it was a bit hard, as we only had thongs with us and it was very muddy and we were slipping and sliding up and down the mountain face and especially I ended up with a very muddy bottom on white shorts!

Marae Grotto

Selfie....

Walk in the Garden of Papeari

Jack and the dinghy... Oomy Zoomy...

Anchorage outside Taina Marina, Tahiti

Lovely flowers from my beautiful husband!

The kids and I left Tahiti on the 8th of July, to get everybody settled back to school and for Ben to start Uni. Pete stayed back in Papeete to get warranty work done on the boat and had a good time with all the old and new friends he made at the marina.