31 August 2024 – Tahiti

It was a fair morning when we woke- a mixture of sun and grey cloud. We had a good breakfast of fresh fruit and cereal. Mrs M (Corrine) had had a good night’s sleep which was excellent and we chilled as we had coffee and watched the boats going by.

Mark wanted to make Mango Chutney and so he set about making that and then he cooked some chicken and prepared for this evening’s supper – more about this later.

It was a Saturday so nothing was going on in the marina. I had various emails to reply to about crewing etc and thought I would tackle the Raymarine problem again. By trial and error, I did various updates to each piece of equipment so that each element had the most up to date software. The key piece was the chart plotter at the helm which had been playing up the day before. However once updated that worked well but the other problem was the one by the companionway. Once this had updated it worked. My updates had cleared all the favourite pages on the instruments. We therefore set about restoring these. Slowly but surely the updates and changes seemed to iron out issues and by the time I turned all off they all seemed to be working properly. I will try them all again tomorrow and check that they are all working properly.  

I heard my name and there was a guy called John on the quay who we had met in Shelter Bay Marina Panama. We had a chat and caught up and I had a few jobs which I will ask him to sort out. Small world.

Once ready we headed to the car and we headed South down the west side of Tahiti. It was quite sunny by now and we were seeing Tahiti in good colour. We  decided to stop at Morea Taata which is an ancient religious place for Tahitians and religiously significant and you were only allowed in those days to go to certain Morea depending on your village and clan. This sight consisted of about 3 large and 2 small rectangular areas of stone where they used to congregate. They keep these Morea in good conditions so you can imagine what it may have been like in those days. Today these ancient sights are surrounded by housing.

The second Morea Arahuraho was more into the hillside but had some Tiki -stone male statues which look quite menacing. This sight was grander and more had higher altar like stone steps. It is clear they still look after such structures and are still quite important to the population.

We carried on south and then it began to rain and it has been in the same area each time I have been down this side of the island. By this time, we were hungry so we stopped at a pizza snack bar, Whilst we ordered some pizza to keep us going lots of the locals were coming to buy in addition to pizzas, ice creams and cakes. They do have a weight problem out here and we can see why. The pizzas were ok and filled a hole and we eat them in the rain looking at the waves crashing on to the reef.

We then carried on further south and came to some famous gardens built under the hills which had waterfalls and ponds and lovely trees and bushes. It was still beautiful despite the rain. However, it did have a shop selling tee-shirts and shirts and both Keith and I bought a Tahitian shirt so we will look Harrington Dash (flash) when we go out.!!

We retraced our steps and as we go more North the weather improved and by the time we got back to the marina it was lovely sunny and warm. En route we bought some yellow bananas, fresh fillet tuna and some avocados.

We got back to Stormbird and had a cup of tea and Corinne had a rest. We read and chilled before supper. Mark cooked an amazing supper of fresh fillet tuna medium rare (which melted in your mouth) with a pesto butter sauce, green beans and garlic and bread fruit chips. It was great and one of the finest meals we have had although we have always generally eaten well.

It had been a good day and I had seen new places I had not been too and Keith had not seen really any of Tahiti. We will most likely go into Papeete tomorrow for the Sunday market.

The picture of the day is looking over some Morea.

Urgent Crewing Opportunity

Mark will take Corinne home so if anyone would like to join Keith and I to see some more of The Society Islands now and until 29 September 2024 please get in touch. This could be a unique opportunity to see these islands. This is your chance.

Crewing Opportunity Year Two

In year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com