Tahiti and Moorea

Tahiti and Moorea of the Society islands. The Tuamotus were so amazing, but after more than 6 weeks in the boonies, we were looking forward to getting to Tahiti. We hadn’t been to a city since leaving Puerto Vallarta in Mexico..

Arriving at the Tahiti Yacht Club in Arue. All the anchorages in Tahiti were getting packed to the gills due to he upcoming Tahiti Moorea Rendervous, and were lucky to find a space at the Tahiti Yacht Club with the help of S/V Songline..

Even better.. all their moorings were taken up so they put us in the Marina for the price of the mooring bouy (about $10)! Sweet!!!!! Finally my luck was changing.. hopefully..

Our time in Tahiti was busy busy busy because we had to leave for the Tahiti Moorea Rendervous in 6 days.. We ran around like headless chickens provisioning and shopping getting it all done in the nick of time.. We were so tired in the evenings that we eat at the roulettes (not so cheap mobile eateries) nearly every night.

The famous market in Papette, the capital city of French Polynesia..

Leaving Tahiti Yacht Club in the morning with S/V Merkava and the Japanese to head to the start line for the Tahiti Moorea Rendezvous race..

Moorea in the distance.. The finish line was at the entrance bouys at Opunohu bay and the start line was a committee boat and red entrance bouy at Papette.

Just after the start of the race..It was supposed to be a fun race, but I hadn’t raced in more than 3 years and was eager to see how we could do.. We won the start but that wasn’t saying much. We were the only starboard tack boat close to the line.. and the gun went off 60 seconds later than it was supposed to.. I realized that I was probably taking it a little too seriously 😉

The race started off in really light winds with a big swell running, making it very difficult to fill the sails.. Then at around noon the usual south easterly winds filled in.. Then it was zoom zoom zoooooommm at 8.5 knots with the G2 asymmetric.. Only 7 boats out of the 40 or so boats in the race actually sailed the whole way.. We came in 4th place out of the 7, and all the boats ahead of us were bigger than us, so we felt we did ok.. It was fun to get some of our racing juices going again..

Arriving at beautiful Opunohu Bay in Moorea

The anchorage was jam packed with all the boats from the Rendezvous.. We were lucky to find a spot in the sardine can.. The upside was that we were able to reconnect with boats we haven't seen in a while as well as make new friends..

They had a lot of fun activities for all the boats the next day after the race.. The best was outrigger race..

We finished in 2nd place, but alas not good enough to get to the semi finals :-(.. Cyrille was leaving the boat after the Rendezvous and it was a great opportunity to have one last party with him before he left.

So.. I learnt Tahitian dancing.. well not sure how much I actually learnt given I have two left feet..

..and Glenda learnt how to make hats the traditional way.. Traditional hats, traditional coconut bread.. Glenda will have to take on a Tahitian name soon!

Sporting our new permanent “Pacific Puddle Jump Survivor” tattoos

The view of Opunohu pass from the tropical botanical gardens we visited after the Rendezvous celebrations died down..

The snorkeling on the other side of the pass was amazing.. Someone had left these fake polynesian stone sculptures in the water for us to marvel at..

Anyone know what type of fish this is?

I got up close and personal with some rays.. They got very close and even rubbed themselves on us.. Let’s hope those were the females ones 😉

Glenda hovering over a whole bunch of them.. We also fed them by literally putting bits of fish into their mouths.. I almost lost two fingers!

They were also plenty of black tip sharks that came to see what the action was about..

We had a chillaxed motor sail to nearby Cooks Bay..

Stops Anchored in beautiful Cooks Bay.. Cooks bay is named after the famous explorer who arrived in 1769..

Amazing panoramic view of the two bays in Moorea from the high up at the Belvedere.. thanks to Cyrille’s new super duper camera..

Next stop the leewards islands of the Societies..