Get Lost On Purpose

Category: Papeete

  • 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 : )

  • Allow the bruising to commence…

    I arrived in Tahiti around 4:30 this morning after three flights and almost a solid 24 hours of travel. Last year when I made the journey to join Dosia in Nuku Hiva it took me four flights and a two hour alterain vehicle ride up and down a mountain. So when I boarded the flight for Tahiti last night in LA and knew that this was it and Drew would be waiting at the end, it made this trip feel like a cinch compared to last September.

    This go round the only anticipation I felt was that of wanting to just see Drew, hug him, give him a kiss, and hold his hand like all the other couples I’ve been watching for the past month back in the states. Drew’s mom and sister even commented prior to me leaving the airport yesterday that I was MUCH calmer than last year. That’s because traveling out of the country for the first time, and doing so all by myself…the anticipation was ridiculous. I had flown several times before but not to that extent. Changing my bags over in LA was quite an experience. I’m a southern girl. In LA an “excuse me” can often be mistaken for getting an attitude with someone. I was completely out of my element. This time around, I breezed through there as if I might have actually known what I was doing! I returned to the same grill where I sat waiting for my flight last year and had myself a couple of Miller Lites. It’s gonna be a LONG time before I get anything other than a Hinano or Heineken again.

    Getting off that plane and seeing my boy there smiling and waiting was so awesome. Ummm…skinny, mini over here has lost a ton of weight. He always does that when he leaves the country and is by himself for a while. Not to mention I could not look more ridiculous walking next to him as he has been kissed many times by the sun and I appear to have lost touch with it for quite some time!  As long as that’s all he was kissed by while we were apart then I can deal with it : )
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    So here we are back on the boat together again! Drew began to unpack my things earlier to give me a chance to get a nap in but I found myself getting up to explain why I needed four bottles of leave in conditioner and ten of the exact same tank tops. They are totally not the same…they are all a different color. It’s great to be back, great to be next to him again. We hit up a local, what seems to be always packed and popular, eatery called Oasis in downtown Papeete for a grilled fish sandwich. We came across them last year, fell in love, and today it was just as good as I remembered. Highly recommended to anyone who might find themselves downtown in Tahiti’s capital one day.

    We haven’t quite mapped out our complete journey yet. All I know is I’ve been on the boat for approximately eleven hours and have already formed three nice bruises on my legs and we haven’t even left the dock. Thus….is boat life! All you can do is hope that you tan well enough to cover up the evidence that no matter how much experience you have, the boat always has the upperhand…

  • Maeva Anchorage and Marina Taina

    Today I moved over to the west side of the airport to the huge anchoring and mooring area surrounding Marina Taina.  I think it’s called the Maeva Beach anchorage although from where I am, I can’t see any beach and I don’t know technically where that anchorage begins and ends.  There’s A LOT of boats around here ranging from ultra elegant 100’+ yachts to the rusting, hard-chine steel hulls that seem to form a some sort of niche with French sailors.  I’ve seen them along the whole trip, through the Caribbean and Latin America, but the number of these homemade-looking boats around here is staggering.  This anchorage is like the Coral Bay of the west; it’s filled with boats you can barely believe made it this far.  I don’t mind it here all that much.  It does get rolly on a monohull and I find myself staring out the window at the catarmans with a wanton desire.   The bar at the marina has bands on the weekends and you can hear the music out across the water which I love.   It’s especially handy right now since I was unsucessful at cranking the outboard.  With the wind, current, and traffic here, rowing a RIB dinghy single-handed with one working oar lock is more likely to send me in circles than anywhere close to my intended destination.

    I decided to grab a mooring since it’s so crowded over here and this area does have a reputation for getting nasty when a big stanky westerly wind blows through.  It’s not that I don’t trust my anchor but I figure the last place I want to be is up on the bow in the middle of the night, butt naked, wrestling with the anchor as Dosia drifts through a crowded anchorage in 50 kt winds.  Some things are just plain easier when your by yourself!  There’s probably fifty moorings out here but all the ones up close to the actual marina are taken by Frenchies who came here and never left.  I tied up to one of those when I first got here but within an hour I had a guy in a “mankini” on a Beneteau hovering over me explaining in French it was his mooring.  So I moved down to another which also has lines on it and certainly belongs to another boat but no one’s come yet so hopefully I can stay the night.  I plan on moving back over to the quay tomorrow where I can begin the official “Margie Cleanup” before she gets here on Thursday morning.

    Tomorrow is Sunday.  Perhaps the worst day to be alone in the South Pacific.  As Paul Theroux wrote, “there is nothing more pacific than a Pacific Sunday”  and there is no better description.  Business stops, the radio goes quiet, and the people disappear into their churches and homes.  Tahiti is the one island where you can expect a little more action on Sunday and even here it still feels like a ghost town.  Once I get the watermaker pulled out and ready to ship, I’ll probably spend my Sunday looking into our passage west.  I want to learn more about the islands in our path.  I’ve realized my eyes were a bigger than my wallet in planning our time in French Polyneisa so we won’t end up using the full six months of our extended stay visas.  Everything is too expensive here.   We’ll hang out as long as we can but with similar, cheaper islands on the horizon, it’s hard not to think about following the sunset sooner than later.

  • Papeete, Roulottes, and the Quay

    Back in Tahiti now, I spent last night at the Quay (the main dock area in downtown).  I don’t mind being down here all that much.  A lot of other sailors hate it.  It does get hot and you can’t swim but at least stores and repairs facilities are in walking distance.  And the roulottes at night are a big plus.  A roulotte is a mobile food van.  Every evening at dusk, a bunch of these things converge on the main square at the head of the cruise ship docks.   Maybe 15-20 different vans set up open air restaurants with plastic tables and stools and the place gets packed with locals and tourists.  They serve all kinds of different cuisine from pizza to Chinese to salted crepes.  Roulottes are the only places to grab quality food in these islands on a budget.  I’m putting together a little youtube thing about them.  I hope to have it up soon.

    The reason I came down here was to work on the outboard engine for the dinghy in a place with a hose and access to some parts.  Also, the port captains don’t really care about charging you if you’re only staying a night.  I came here believing that the carb on the outboard needed cleaning (which it did). I’ve been cleaning all day and the thing still won’t start. I think I might have water in the gas I got on Raiatea. If it turns out to be that simple, gas quality could also explain why I can’t get my little honda generator running.   One can only hope.   Looks like I
    have to send the Katadyn Powersurvivor Watermaker back to Minnesota or somewhere for repair.   I’m positive the problem will end up being something stupid that I either messed up or missed in all my repair attempts.  I’ll pay a ton in shipping.  No, it’s not the best attitude to have but sometimes, living on a boat, I feel like buying one of these stickers and slapping it right on the transom.
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    This afternoon, I’m getting out of here regardless of what’s fixed.  It’ll be the weekend and most of the stores close anyways so the appeal of being “in the middle of it all” disappears.   I want to be somewhere I can swim and that certainly isn’t here in the middle of Papeete harbor.  I also think it’d be best to save some cash before Margie gets here.   I’ll head to the westside for the next few days.