Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Food

  • Bloody Marys in Bora Bora

    Yesterday Drew and I drug up Dosia’s anchor from the depths of the Yacht Club and relocated her over to Bloody Mary’s. We’d heard rumors that in exchange for a little business in the restaurant that we could fill our water tanks at their docks. Well I had promised a great friend back home a hat from there, and we knew they had Hinano on tap, so case was closed. We were there!
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    Today after waking up and turning six “almost gone” bananas into two loaves of yummy banana nut bread, we headed to Bloody’s for lunch. Shocked to see a reuben on the menu, Drew’s mind was instantly made and I decided on a fresh tuna salad sandwich. We were pleasantly surprised by how good our meals were and highly recommend their lunch menu if you are in the area. Their lunch items range from 900 to 1500 CFP (some of the cheapest we’ve seen for lunch other than roadside roulottes) and it was good, quality food. I got completely schmoozed by a beautiful cat who has obviously made itself a staple at the restaurant. She so casually wandered up and gave me that “I’m so hungry” look so I shared my tuna. She’d no more cleaned her paws when she saw lunch delivered to another table and before I knew it I was face to face with her backside. Worked. Oh well…

    Full bellies, a hat, key to the water dock, and we were on our way, eager to get over to the east side of the island. Drew had dinghy explored the other day and said it looks absolutely gorgeous. Oh, btw, for any fellow cruisers who are in the area or will be here at some point and plan to stay at the Yacht Club…they offer laundry services. They have three washers, a dryer, and it is 700 CFP a wash, same for a dry. At 1400 a load, it too, is some of the cheapest we’ve come across. And we hang dry on the boat so 700 a wash seemed like a complete steal to us. Just wanted to pass the info along!

  • Headed to Huahine

    This afternoon we dinghied over to say hello/farewell to our buddies, the rays and the black tips. Like clockwork we pulled up and they surrounded us ready to feast but their interest in us lasted all of five minutes when they realized we weren’t equipped with rotting oyster meat like the last time we’d visited. We splashed around with them for a while, made a stop by the Moorea Intercontinental because they had French Mother’s Day festivities going on, and headed back to Dosia to prep.
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    Another short lived weekend in Moorea and we’re to set sail at dusk to head for Huahine. My first overnighter of the trip. I’ve whipped up a tuna casserole for an early supper to eliminate any need of cooking once underway. The whole concept of cooking on a stove that moves with the motion of the waves and makes a pot of boiling water look like it’s flying at my head is not one I’ve made friends with just yet. Being one that is prone to accidents on the boat, I eradicate all possibilities of a potentially harmful situation when given the opportunity. I’ve taken some pretty bad spills in the past week or so (hence the pic below). The swelling in my leg has just now subsided from a not too graceful fall I took in the cockpit trying to give Dosia her last fresh water bath back in Papeete. Oh my gosh did that crap hurt…
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    BUT I’m taking my bumps and bruises and an optimistic attitude and heading west. It shouldn’t take us more than ten hours or so to get there so we’ll probably pull into anchor late tomorrow morning. Since it’s a short trip, Drew and I will both sleep in the cockpit and he usually assumes most of the watch duties. On longer trips we do rotations, starting at 8 p.m., three hour shifts, you both get two shifts in a night, and it all ends at eight in the morning. It’s a system that works out well for us although each cruising vessel has their own way to get them through the nights. So with full bellies we’re ready to get underway. See you in Huahine!

  • Bacon, Beer, and Baguettes

    When you’re shopping in French Polynesia it’s important to have your priorities in order.   I won’t rattle off a list of items and their corresponding ridiculous prices but take note of the pic below. 1895 FCP is about $22 US and yes, that’s YELLOW TAIL!
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    You need to have a list and stick to it. For me, I walk into the Carrefour grocery store in Papeete with the 3 B’s mentioned above in mind and first, I make a “B-line” for the bacon. You have a choice of frozen American Smokehouse bacon, deli-fresh bacon, and classical French lardons. I usually gather a selection of all three since my rapidly expanding culinary expertise calls for all three and we all know there’s no such thing as leftover bacon. Next I’m off to the beer isle. At $50/case there’s only room for twenty-four in the cart with a hope and a prayer it lasts all week. There’s cans of Hinano, big bottles of Hinano (best deal but not realistic to store on Dosia), and regular sized bottles of Tabu. We prefer the Tabu but those cans of Hinano are just so damn easy. Lastly, it’s off to grab a couple of baguettes. No need for more than two. If they sit on the boat more than 36 hours, you’ll break your jaw trying to gnaw a piece off. For Marge, she agrees on the baguettes in her top three but her other top priority items are lunch meat (jambon de Paris is our favorite) and, of course, Diet Coke.

    We’ve been anchored out here in front of Marina Taina for a few days. It’s an okay place; really crowded but close to the best store in French Polynesia. My little Honda generator is still out with the mechanic. He brought it back to me when they got it running but it had some voltage drop problems when I turned on a heavy load item like the battery charger or water heater. Yesterday was a holiday here so everything was closed and EVERYONE was out on the water. We met up with Seth, Tim, and Jessica from Honeymoon and later Les, from Obsession, on the sandbar south of the marina for a few afternoon beers. Figured we ought to celebrate the holiday even though we haven’t a clue what the holiday is.
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    We’re heading over to Moorea tomorrow for the weekend. Sounds like we’re not the only ones so it should be a good time. Sending out a Happy Happy Birthday to Margie’s mom, Janice Kopp today!

  • My utmost apologies to Maybelline

    We’ve heard through the grapevine that it’s getting warmer back in the states. Right before I left to join Drew it was a constant 60 to 70 degrees during the day but at night it was still dropping down into the low 50’s. Stepping off the plane in Tahiti was like getting hit by a brick wall of heat. It was almost 80 degrees and only 4:30 in the morning. Man….is it HOT over here!!!! Thank heavens I did not waste money on too many backup supplies of my makeup because at this rate I don’t forsee myself wearing much, if hardly any at all! Tissues to wipe my forehead have replaced my mascara and concealer so it’s too bad for Drew he has to love me and think I look good regardless : )

    This past Thursday Drew and I decided to go people watch a little bit and headed to happy hour at the only microbrewery in French Poly called Les 3 Brasseurs, located on the waterfront in Papeete. On the way we stopped off to phone Youri, our friend from Ua Pou who helped us fix the boat last year. He had emailed and said he was going to be in Papeete so we thought it was worth a shot to call and see if he wanted to catch up over a few beers. Now…I know that there are courteous people all over the world. But for whatever reason it seems that there is multitude of them in French Polynesia and we must have befriended the cream of the crop.

    Youri was estatic to hear from us and said he’d meet us at the brewery right away. He had no more than sat down when he asked what we were doing for dinner. We shrugged and said we had planned to just head to the roulottes and pick something up there after happy hour was over. He said his wife was in the car and that we should “come back to their house and eat with them.” So we slammed our beers and off we went. Lydiane, Youri’s wife, is the sister of Fara and Paru, our good buddies we met last year. Kindness seems to be a staple that runs through the veins of every single person in this family because Lydiane was just as nice and sweet as her brothers, father, mother, and children.

    Over a delicious dinner of chow mein, lemon chicken, curry chicken, won ton soup, and pepper steak, we learned that Youri makes these trips to Papeete to train fire fighters here. He pretty much island jumps around the south pacific and teaches young men how to become fire fighters. Aside from that, he also owns the two fishing boats we spent time on in Ua Pou last fall and his main goal or dream is to own a ferry that carries people to and from the islands. Lydiane is in Papeete going to school to become a teacher, one of the few jobs she says is available to women on the islands. She has been living in an apartment in Papeete for several years now while she attends school and her parents take care of her and Youri’s two children back in Ua Pou.
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    Dinner was phenomenal. The bill from this dinner had not even been payed before they were asking if we wanted to stop off at the best pizza restaurant in town to grab a pie to take back to the boat with us. Despite being so full we could barely move, Drew probably contemplated the thought but I quickly shot it down! Drew + Pizza=true love

    So we made plans to tour the island on Saturday. Times got mixed up so Drew and I were sitting on the boat at seven a.m. thinking we were supposed to be ready for them to pick us up. Needless to say we were way off because they didn’t show up until almost eleven. Who cares though right? You’re on island time! We took off in their truck having no idea where we were going or what we were going to see. First stop…the only doughnut shop in French Poly. I thought I was going to have to wrestle Lydiane to pay for the doughnuts, as they had picked up the tab for dinner Thursday night.

    Afterwards we spent a couple of hours breezing down the road. We stopped at a natural grotto, a few fruit stands, and the home of their good friend, Youan. His house is right in front of the location for the Billabong pro surfing competition that will begin in May. A couple hundred yards out is the wave, Teahupoo, where the competition takes place.

    A mere hour later we were dining on poisson cru, baguettes, and getting to know some new friends. Youan owns a fishing store in downtown Papeete and is also the manager for one of the Tahitian soccer teams. He houses several of the players that he manages. Because of how far he lives from Papeete and because of traffic, Youan leaves his home at 3 in the morning to be able to make it to work by 6:30 or 7! Everyday…. ugh, I could not imagine…

    One Heineken after after another, Drew and I couldn’t help but feel like we had known these people for years. Youan said we are more than welcome to come stay at his home during the surfing competition if we would like. I wanna say he is housing one of the pro surfer’s but we never caught a name. It’s unlikely we’ll need to crash there seeing as how our boat will be anchored right outside his back door! But it will be nice to have a place to hang out and good people to pass the time!
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    So for now Drew and I are busy preparing the boat to move it around to the other side of the island. Grocery list in hand, we plan to stock up the boat because it’s not as easy to get food and supplies over there.  We hope to move the boat either later this afternoon or sometime tomorrow. The generator is getting all tuned up and as soon as that’s done, we’ll say bye bye to downtown Papeete!

    Dad-HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I love you so much : )