Various hassles – and new friends!   Tuesday, 15/08/2023

Had an easy sail from Fakarava to Tahiti. Almost ideal sailing conditions: set off in a 20 knot wind, which just over halfway fell to 12-14 knots. The result was doing the last 18 hours under full sail at 6 knots. 

Arrived at the capital, Papeete, at dawn on Saturday. Made my way south down the coast – effectively an inner channel protected by a miles-long outlying reef. Tried to get a place at Marina Taina, but nothing available, so anchored in a large anchorage opposite the marina and went ashore to do some shopping. Found my old friend Patrick in the marina, who has his wife Fay visiting. Back at the boat I was a bit dismayed when 3 officials in a launch came up at 4pm and told me that this was not a public, but a private, anchorage and that I had to move up to the airport 2.5 miles away. There is no indication of this on the charts, so it seems people are regularly caught out. I argued with them a while, and basically made up a story that I was waiting for a friend to help me move – knowing that these guys would stop work at 5pm! So I stayed the night there, but left at 07:30 on Sunday morning to avoid tangling with them again. 

Ashore I found out that Marina Papeete was a viable option, because it doesn’t take bookings: it’s first come, first served. So motored the 5 miles up to it and tried phoning, repeatedly. No answer. Eventually I decided to just tie up to a free space on the outside dock. Eventually, after 2pm the marina guy arrived and told me I couldn’t stay because a catamaran tourist boat ties up there. Fortunately though, by being in the marina, I had spoken to a few people, and a young New Zealander had told me he thought it possible to tie up to a long concrete dock about 200 metres away that borders a public walkway and park along the water’s edge. It’s not clear what the status of this dock is – the marina guy said he couldn’t tell me to tie up there, and that if I did I must not say that he said it was ok! 

So, with the help of the young Kiwi guy, I moved there. And then left the boat and went for a long walk – meaning that if anyone turned up to tell me to leave they would be unable to do so because I wouldn’t be there! This worked. And in fact I spent two nights there, without any official interference, until a space came free in the marina this morning. So I now have a great place – and I benefited from spending two nights without paying alongside the park! (Usually life does seem to turn out well! I have given up worrying…). 

There’s a great community in this marina. Have spoken to multiple people, and everyone appears to be doing their best to help everyone else – a brilliant example of what is great with the sailing community. When I came into my place alongside the outer dock this morning, a French woman came running from a neighbouring boat and took my lines and tied me up.

The city of Papeete is nothing special. A very bland town centre, with a lot of luxury shops selling pearls, jewellery and designer clothing – very obviously aimed at passengers of cruise ships. It reminds me very much of Aruba in the Caribbean. Cruise ship passengers stream ashore and walk the streets and spend money buying (alleged) bargains. What a strange world. There are however some very nice restaurants, which seem to be aimed at both locals and tourists (the cruise ship people are gone before nightfall). And supermarkets! This is great, because I haven’t seen a large supermarket since Panama City in early May. Prices are not cheap – probably 40-50% more than you’d pay in the UK – but are noticeably lower than those in the small outlying islands. It’s great to have choice again – and I’m taking the opportunity to stock up. 

The island of Tahiti is mountainous and from the sea looks very attractive. I think I shall hire a car and drive around it for a day. The coastline is very scenic, with lovely clear water. The heart-shaped small island of Moorea is about 6 miles off to the west – Patrick and Fay took the ferry over there and stayed a couple of nights, reporting that it’s north coast is beautiful, with two large bays. One great thing here is the weather: steadily sunny, with a daily maximum of 25 degrees (feeling like 27 because it’s fairly humid) and a minimum of 22 degrees. Pretty much an ideal climate. It’s cooler because we are now quite far from the equator: 17 degrees 32 minutes south. And 149 degrees 34 minutes west (12 hours behind Central European and South Africa time, 11 hours behind the UK).

Marina Papeete is very much a town marina – over the road is the centre of town. I have avoided getting a spot on the town side, because that is adjacent to a busy road. Instead, I’m on the outside, with the closest land being the end of the park. You do get some movement here, especially when a large ferry passes three hundred metres away, but that’s a minor issue. What is strange in Tahiti is that there are so many yachts coming here and not enough space for them, suggesting a complete failure on the part of the authorities. A Frenchman told me that the problem is that the government doesn’t need to try too hard because they receive large sums of money from France. And of course there’s the ocean terminal a few hundred metres away, regularly bringing in all those cruise ship passengers and their lovely money.

(At this point I broke off to go outside and help a French catamaran tie up just in front of me – they’ve got the last available spot today, a good day because three boats left). Anyway, I’m in and set for a few days wandering around as well as getting laundry done and making a couple of minor repairs to things on the boat.