Arue Bay, north shore of Tahiti

Sunday, July 4th 
Our friends on Delos over at the yacht quai downtown had  a "pool party" on the dock.  They set up a couple of inflatable kiddy pools on the dock to sit in.  It's quite warm there during the day because it's very sheltered from the breeze.  There were a few americans, with some canadians, english and aussies to keep us company.

After dark, we followed Capaz in our dinghy back to our moorings.  Although the  channels are well marked, it's pretty confusing in the dark.  If you go astray, you end up on top of the coral.  So we're both blasting along, trying to follow our gps.  Bill tried to follow Bakers close enough to not lose them yet not too close to run into them if they suddenly slowed.  PJ was yelling at Brad, I was yelling at Bill.  It was a challenge.
 
Monday, July 5th
Our big adventure to "Just get propane".  I thought we'd be gone an hour. Par contre, we were gone all day schlepping all over town.  To get propane, you go by dinghy to the gas plant (no dock access).  It's easy to spot from shore, as one of they tanks looks like a giant Chia Egg.  You have to run the dinghy up to the rock shore, climb up, crawl through a hole in the fence, cross the highway and enter the complex.

Anyhow, Bill got the propane ok.  Next was a "quick trip" downtown to drop off the
laundry.  Fat chance.  The laundry was closed, despite their sign to the contrary.  So we lugged two big bags of laundry several blocks to another laundry.  Once free of our burden, we grabbed a sandwich (mine was mostly air), and Bill started a search for a new backpack.  Then we thought, OK we'll go to Nautisport, a combination chandlery and dive shop. 

Of course, about every store we try to go to is closed for 2 hours for lunch.  Fortunately, we bought a Tahitian cell phone, so we can call first to check. Most businesses have an English speaker on hand, so we can communicate, once I've garbled the French.  So we had to kill some time at the 3Brasseurs brewery where Bill was able to get a decent beer and I had a cider.

At Nautisport, Bill bought fins, a dive knife and we both got weights, which Bill lugged around the rest of the day,  After we emptied the bank account, we started a circuitous search for the outboard motor parts store.  Their listing in the yachtsman's guide directory from Tahiti Tourism only gave their neighborhood, so we asked several different people for directions, none of which seemed to work.  We had given up but one set of directions mentioned "les pompiers", the firemen,. we passed the fire station and were able find the shop around the corner.  The big Tahitian guy was very knowledgeable and really nice.  He said he could order a carburator from Australia, but it would take 3 weeks.  We passed on that, but were able to get various other stuff.  We somehow made it back to our boat before dark.

Tuesday, July 6th 
We went diving.  Eric, the dive master, picked us up downtown and took us their base at the Hilton.  We dove Moray Plateau to 25 meters.  Yes, there were plenty of morays.  The guide swims around with a giant fish head and attracts quite a following.  A very large Picasso Triggerfish stayed right with us, with a bevy of yellow fish trailing along.  The guide uses the fish head to lure the morays out of their holes.  Sometimes that's not even necessary.  They just swim around.  You really have to stay off the bottom.

They really treated us well there,  The base has nice outdoor showers and provide towels too!  When we were done, Eric drove us back downtown.

Wedneday, July 7th
We stayed on the boat all day.  We did lots of computer stuff, Bill tried to diagnose the faulty plotter and I defrosted the refer.  Thanks to PJ on Capaz, it went really fast.  She lent me the all purpose garden sprayer.  It just cuts right through the ice and then you can pry it off with an oyster knife.  In my life, that is a big thrill.

Par contre, the plotter is DOA and we'll be ordering another one from the US.  (There are no international dealers.  Doh!).  Once we  track down our yacht agent to figure out how to receive it, we can pull the trigger.  We're not hanging around here waiting for it for days or weeks.

Thursday, July 8th.
We've been here in Arue, a suburb of Papeete on a mooring ball at Tahiti Yacht Club for several days..  We're supposed to leave today, but it ain't gonna happen.

Capaz is also here preparing for their trip north to Hawaii.  There's always lots of activity in the water here.  There are lots of pirogues, both singles and 6 man boats.  There is a big canoe race this coming weekend, with up to 2000 paddlers (rameurs) according to Mahina Radio (the Tahiti coastal government radio).