Cleone - in Tahiti Vol 2

We've done Moorea, met our friends and moved on.

 

The tour of Tahiti was a memorable and happy day, spent in the company of 120 of our WARC friends.  Three buses, 3 guides - one a native english speaker, educated in New Zealand - meant that it was a well-briefed tour, and we visited the main beauty spots of Tahiti.  These included the landing site of the Bounty mutineers, a famous blow-hole and a waterfall, lots of lush scenery and a delicious meal in a Chinese Restaurant, run, as you would expect for a Chinese Restaurant in French Polynesia, by a Brit.  He'd been shipwrecked in Tahiti in 1963 whilst circumnavigating in a yacht with four equally inexperienced friends.  He had - naturally - taken advantage of a now long recinded law which decreed that shipwrecked mariners were entitled to Thahitian citizenship!  Despite that 120 hungry yachtsmen and women descented in a bunch, the restaurant coped manfully, and we all got plenty of pretty good food to eat.  But getting a drink was a problem, particuarly as we hungry yachtspersons knew that we would have to pay for it.  But eventually the all-important beers started to arrive.  Meanwhile, Peter from Asolare, who had recently celebrated his 70th birthday quietly in the Tuamotus, sprang a surprise.  Suddenly Andrew Bishop from World Cruising got to his feet and made a startling announcement.  Peter had very kindly bought everyone on the Rally a drink!  This gesture was typical of Peter's generosity, and done in Peter's typically modest way.  So once we'd downed Peter's beers, we crammed back onto the coaches to stop at a wonderful tropical garden with most if not all of Tahiti's indigenous plants included, a final temple and then back to the boats for a reflective, restful and restorative beer.

 

The next day, the Skipper was off bright and reasonably early to catch the ferry to Moorea to spend the day with friends JB from Quasar and her husband David, who had managed to get time off from work to catch a quick fortnight's trip to Tahiti.  JB and David had hired a car, and they drove our man clockwise around the wonderful and very beautriful small island.  They stopped to look at disappointing temple-sites, to snorkell briefly before driving up to one of the most spectacular view points ever seen by any of the party.  A breath-taking view of the island and two of its bays made the windy and steep drive up the hill more than worth-while, and the journey down followed in quick succession by a very cold beer and a delicious sea-food meal in a lagoon-side restaurant run by two charming frenchmen rounded off a strenuous morning's sight-seeing in fine style.  At this stage, the Skipper realised that there was really no point in trying to catch the last ferry home - by the time they reached the terminal it would have been gone 4 pm and the last boat would have already fled.  There was then no alternative; we had to go back to JB and David's luxury hotel (and I mean luxury - Ed) for some proper snorkelling.  The hotel consists of charming and luxurious palm-thatched beach-side self-contained rooms, each beautifully sited so that it had a sea view and did not overlook its neighbours.  And the snorkelling directly off the hotel was almost matchless, beaten only by the swimming-with-sharks episode in Fakarava (qv).  There followed a drink with John, the third and as yet un-met skipper of Quasar, before dashing madly down the road to find Cleone's Skipper a bed in a (cheaper) hotel.  There is no such thing as cheap in Moorea (or in the rest of French Polynesia for the matter of that), but the New Zealand/Frenchman in charge of the hotel was no match for JB's bargaining skills, and soon let our Skipper have a room at a reduced rate.   A decent lagoon-side supper was followed by an early retirement; sightseeing and living well is very exhausting!  And more snorkelling next day before the return trip on the slow boat to Papeete.  JB, David and Lindsey (who had joined us for dinner the night before) then caught the Gozome Bird back to Blighty and a short spell of RnR; we hope to catch up with them again in Bora Bora.

 

The Skipper arrived back to find Cleone gleaming like a new pin.  So the next day, the four other crew set off for their own awayday on Moorea (four you ask?  That was Chris, Elizabeth, Will and Will's awful hang-over, which had assumed a ghastly character of its own).  They left the skipper to do his own bit; servicing the outboard motor and one or two other tedious little jobs around Cleone.  And he found time to go off shopping for supper, mince, which he then cooked all on his own, with minimal swearing.  His time away obviously did him good!

 

Early yesterday morning we slipped from the Town Quay and made our way to the Marina Tahina, which is queiter and handy for the fuel berth and the huge Carrefour, which, except for the ruinous prices, was much like shopping anywhere in Europe.  So, stocked up, watered up, fueled up and beered up (no, delete that, Ed.  What you mean is "having bought a couple of cans of beer so we can entertain our friends in the future), we were fully ready for the next phase - our trip to Raiatea and the Pearl Regatta.   But we also had time to give our first real dinner party, to entertain Gerry and Isolde from Northern Sky, who had looked after Elizabeth so well on her return from Canada.

 

Come this morning, more shopping in Carrefour, two visits to the Agent (for some reason they all seem to find it difficult to get their bills right), off to the fuel berth and finally set sail - motor sailing to the west and towards Raiatea.

 

Meanwhile, all well and happy.

 

James, Chris, Elizabeth and Will