Tahiti South Coast & Moorea Sept 23 2005

Well, we left the Papeete area to go south on the coast of Tahiti to a placecalled Port Phaeton. A guy told us there was a good boatyard there, and wewere still sorting out our hurricane season plans. It took about 4 hours,and it was a very well protected bay with amenities close by. This wouldhave saved us flying back from Raiatea for our trip. A bust as it turnedout because the yard couldn't handle our width in spite of what the"happy hour" guy told us. Anyway, it was a nice change, and the local pubhad this beer called Delirium Tremens--a Belgium beer awarded best in theworld in 1997. It was $11 but, that night I determined to taste it.Right. Theywere out, but just last night we went to another place here in Moorea andfor half price happy hour, I tried one. don't know who the judges were butit sure wasn't that good. Maybe the one I got really was from '97!!! So,anyway, we schlepped back to Taina for a couple of nights and got out travelplans squared away. Oh, almost forgot, the windlass crapped out again as wewere anchoring in Port Phaeton. The Keystone Cops, once again, pulled off amiracle of seamanship as we had to manually lower and hoist a few timesbefore we found a spot where the anchor would hold. Turned out one of theterminals from our last repair was loose as was one of the crimps.The tickets we bought for our hurricane hiatus were outstanding! We finallyfound a Qantas office which is part of Amer. Airlines One World consortium,and had a great agent. This was, of course after interminable delays inbooking as AA.com doesn't do it, the "Gold" desk doesn't do it and even theAround the World desk won't do it over the phone! A brief moment of "blond"hilarity ensued when the French agent asked Rose where we were going inFrance. Rose responded "David and Martin's, of course". After Joey and Igot off the floor laughing, we tried to explain--"no, like where in France"Rose, in another blond moment said she couldn't remember the name of theairport. Oh well, maybe you had to be there. Anyway, we're leaving Jan 10for Auckland, Sydney, Johannesburg, Geneva (Martin and David also have ahouse there), London, Jersey, St Thomas, Florida, Las Vegas, LA and back allfor a cheaper fare, save the damn fuel surcharge, than I paid for a muchmore limited trip last year. We'll get back here about April 10.Okay, so the trip's set. Now we have to sort out where to put the boat andget an extension on our visas. By this time we had moved over to Moorea,about10 miles west of Tahiti, but took the ferry back this week to get Joey' footfixed and pick up mail, etc. I finally got the Raiatea shipyard and theycan do my work. Can't dry store as I'm too wide--again, but they havemoorings and will look after the boat while we're gone. We also got aresponse from the High Commissioner asking for a bunch of stuff. I calledthem and got the Tortola attitude--can't stay past the beginning ofhurricane season, etc. But when I commented that their regs allow the boatto stay, he said sent all the stuff in and get a letter form the yard sayingthey're working on the boat through January. So, that's all done and we arefinally squared away on the trip. Except, of course, I want to use miles toupgrade the AA legs of the trip. No problem, right; Gold for life, right.In typical AA fashion, they told me I couldn't upgrade for miles becausetheydidn't actually ticket me. This, of course, after they told me theycouldn't ticket me here in Polynesia, and to go to Qantas. Okay, after 40minutes of satellite time, asupervisor, and a few "holds", they suggested I call Sydney and maybe theycould help. Well, what a pleasure! Jenny, our agent in Sydney, was likethe AA of old. Afteranother 10 minutes, it was done, but I do have to fax in an authorizationandcc's of the AA leg tickets. So now we really are set.So we left Tahiti on august 31st and anchored in very shallow water justinside the reef on the east shore of Moorea. We were treated to a whale"show" just outside the lagoonthat evening, but there really wasn't much to do so we went around thecorner to Cook's Bay. Nice mud bottom--good holding--sure. About 8 thatnight, the friends we'd anchored close to called on the radio just as Joeyand I noticed we were quietly drifting by them. Now I've only dragged twicein 7 years, but we just couldn't get the trusty Delta to set in the mud.After 4 tries, I was about to pull out the Fortress anchor when we finallyheld. It made for a nervous night, but we held. Beautiful bay where theyfilmed South Pacific. Joey had a doctor's appointment on the 3rd and wemovedthe boat back around, all took the ferry back to Papeete, and spent theentire day sorting out all our plans,etc.. My stupid candy, shipped via USPS Global Express on Aug. 5th had yetto arrive and probably won't. My FedEx of mail arrived just as we departedon the ferry, so it's more schlepping around Papeete later. Fortunately,Joey hasto return next Friday and can do all the faxes, etc. when he returns.On our return to Moorea, we moved the boat to a cool anchorage at the mouthof Cook's Bay, and we'll be here a while. It's really nice with totallyclear water, a good SAND bottom and all sorts of cool restaurants, bars,stores, etc. They even have their version of the BVI's chicken bus, withrotisserie trucks selling rather plump roasted on a spit chickens for about$10. This is also where I finally got my taste of Delirium Tremens atMaria's Tapas, a TexMex place with really good Mexican food. Last nighttheyhad a Reggae band (go figure. we'll never escape the Caribbean) andanother of their specialties is fondue. Really good considering I haven'thad it since the 70's.It's Sept 20 and we're heading over to Huahine tonight--about 90 miles WNWofMoorea. We've pretty much just hung out for awhile here and it's been greatbut is time to move on. Our visas run out in 2 weeks and I've got to callthe High Commissioner's office to check on the status of our extensions.The boat yard has sent them something but I don't have a copy yet. In anyevent, it's just a matter of money as we can fly out to the Cook's for a fewdays and restart our ticker if the longer visa isn't grantedSo, goodbye for now. Another update from Les Iles du Vent---Huahine,Raiatea and Bora Bora---later.Tim, Rose & Joe