Back in Papeete

We came back to Papeete yesterday to provision, clear out, take an island tour, etc. Toketie was due to arrive Tuesday so we thought we could catch up with them for a few days before we continued on. We put the sails up outside of the pass in Cooks Bay and after tacking a few times and some rather major wind shifts, we better motor sail the rest of the way. We came back in the pass at Taapuna which is close to the anchorage and not recommended when a southerly swell is running. A southerly swell was running and for a some weird reason, the current was strongly against us out of the pass. Strange as there is only about 80 cm. of tide here. We made it through with many revs on the old diesel. Anchored in close quarters as there are even more boats here than when we left. Tomorrow we will book a land tour for Thursday and then Friday, hopefully we can get away back over to Moorea then on to Huahine. Toketie arrived around lunch and found a hole to tuck into. We will catch up with them later, after they have a bit of a rest. Had a long talk with Randy, the net controller for Pacific Seafarers today. The family off a boat we know is having their boat delivered back to Seattle and they are flying to Hawaii for a month. Randy runs a B&B there and I asked for a bit of info on longer term accommodations for them. The guys that are on the HAM nets are a great help and I can't say enough good things about them. Randy cruised for 11 years throughout the pacific and we talked about what he had seen and the changes since he went cruising. I mentioned that I could see over ine hundred boats at anchor where we are. When he was here in 1990, there was no facilities really other than the navy repair yard. Now there are a couple of yards, chandlers, marinas, all the frills, if you have money. French Polynesia for boaters can be summed up I think as "a wonderful place, bring cash".

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