Papeete, Pals, Pompiers and Heiva

The outstanding street art in Papeete. This one was so beloved it was made into a postal stamp.

We've been in Papeete for over a month, taking care of boat repairs/upgrades, visiting with friends, and seeing the sights of beautiful Papeete.

Our marina neighbors aboard BIG FISH showing off their outside fuel tank. We met these guys last year in Fakarava. Adrien (right) is the local kiting instructor.

One night we were enjoying the sunset behind the mega-yacht Ethereal who was doing sail maintenance.

Then we noticed this guy WAY at the top. Bet he had a good view.

Upon arriving in Papeete our first order of business was to have a new lazy bag, aka stackpack, constructed for Cinnabar. Our old mainsail cover was in shreds and our huge mainsail, brand new, crisp and slippery, was almost impossible to handle the old-fashioned way by flaking it on the boom. Almost all the cruising boats that don't have in-mast or in-boom furling seem to use these long boom bags that double as sail covers. The idea is that you drop the mainsail directly into the bag and then zip it closed.

We had contracted Tahiti Sails last season to make the bag and put us on their schedule since we knew we'd be here during the "high season", and boy was it crowded at the downtown City Marina when we arrived. We came smack in the middle of the Pacific Puddle Jump fleet who were all waiting to do the popular Tahiti-To-Moorea Sail Rally held at the end of every June. Additionally, this year there was also a big Oyster fleet doing a group circumnavigation and many of them happened to be there too.

Sebastien measures the sail for the new lazy bag.

Sebastian from Tahiti Sails came out to measure CINNABAR for her new "outfit". We provided the fabric and special Tenara thread which we transported aboard SHINDIG when we did the Puddle Jump earlier this year. 

Sebastien finally installs the finished cover weeks after his first measurements.

Cinnabar's new look, no more sail hanging over the boom, now it's all on top.

We had also noticed a small leak in one of our main cabin windows during a heavy rain, so one of Tom's first projects was to remove the old sealant (sticky, gooey and black) from all four windows, tape off the windows, and re-seal them. Luckily the glue that was holding them in place was still good so he didn't have to remove them for the job.

NOT a fun task but Tom did a great job.

This was a several-day project, very messy, but the end result was perfect as all the windows passed the shooting-water-at-them test.

One of my projects was to purchase some tropical material and make cushion covers for our exterior and interior cushions. So Cinnabar got a new facelift inside as well as out. 

Many thanks to TUMBLEWEED who loaned me their machine.

One night we were surprised when a stranger stopped by to introduce himself. Turns out it was Josh from North Sails New Zealand who had sold us our new sails last year. He was working for North Sails when they made our original sails in 2001. He was on his way to Nuku Hiva to do a major sail repair on a huge yacht. He noticed Cinnabar in the marina and offered to go sailing with us on his way back home to check out the new sails.

Josh is a great guy and we appreciated him spending time with us. That's what we call great customer service!

There are many festivals and sports events in Tahiti throughout the year and one of the most important is the Heiva, a month-long celebration of Tahitian dance, music, culture and sports. Last year we missed Papeete's Heiva, so this year we were determined to enjoy some of the festivities. The climax to Heiva is the big dance and music competition held in July, but there were many other activities leading up to this that start in June.

Random parade in honor of Heiva

This Polynesian beauty was more interested in me than the parade.

My dock neighbor told me about a celebration of crafts, called Heiva Rima'i, representing the five archipelagos of French Polynesia, so one day at the end of June I took off my sandals, donned my walking shoes, and walked the 1.5 miles from the marina to the fairgrounds. The grounds were filled with tents where people were selling crafts unique to their archipelago. I saw booths filled with pearl jewelry, woven goods, colorful dresses, quilts, pillows, shell jewelry, hats, etc. 

French Polynesia is known for its beautiful woven products.

As I wandered around enjoying the sights a nice woman grabbed me and put me in a long line. Turns out it was a line for a traditional Marquesan buffet filled with breadfruit in different forms, small steamed crabs, bananas prepared different ways, and other things that were a mystery to me.

The Marquesan buffet reminded me that the cuisine from this island group was not our favorite

A woman handed me a large leaf to use as a plate and then put various items onto it. Quite frankly none of it was very tasty and I worried about those little crabs sitting out all day so I slyly slipped it into the trash at the first opportunity. 

On my way back to the marina I passed a large park filled with all of Papeete Fire Department's vehicles and boats. It was kid's day and hordes of children were climbing all over the trucks and taking tours. I stopped to check out the water rescue demonstration which was very interesting. 

Les Pompiers (firemen) and kids enjoying the water rescue

Eventually many of the Puddle Jump and Oyster Rally boats left for the big party in Moorea, so the marina calmed down a bit. Our friends PANGAEA and TUMBLEWEED arrived and it was fun to hang out with them and hear about their journey from the Marquesas, through the Tuamotus, and on to Tahiti. 

Mojito night with Kate and Mike (PANGAEA) and Douglas and Morgan (TUMBLEWEED)

We had some very fun times introducing our friends to Papeete, everything from showing them the best marine supply stores to Girl's Day Out lunches, walks, shopping and enjoying Papeete's fantastic street art. 

We celebrated Kate's birthday at the wonderful cafe La Perchoir, Betsy (ALCYONE), Kate (PANGAEA), Sylvia, and Annie, Kate's visiting friend from Colorado (Photo courtesy of PANGAEA)

Interesting street art at an apartment's entrance

This beautiful piece also decorates an apartment bldg

The highlight for Tom was when he and Mike from PANGAEA took the bus to Point Venus for a day of kiting. 

Our friends aboard SHINDIG, who had stayed longer in the Tuamotus for some good kiting, eventually arrived and it was terrific to spend time with Rob and Nancy again. When they arrived and I went aboard SHINDIG it felt just like home. Imagine that!

The cruisers who had been at the Heiva dance competitions last year raved about them, so we purchased tickets to some of the shows. 

Kate and Sylvia all dolled up for Heiva. 

The shows were nothing less than amazing. Picture at least 100 dancers, men and women, dancing for an hour, with several costume changes, and all the costumes made by hand most of which were woven with leaves, bark and flowers. The women shook their hips so fast it was a blur, all the while moving around on their toes keeping their upper bodies so still, except for graceful hand movements, that it looked like they were floating, not walking. 

The groups went through several costume changes. Who wove all those fantastic costumes? (photo courtesy of Info Tahiti)

Meanwile the men were bounding around, shaking their knees while doing squats and other things that seemed physically impossible for such long periods of time. 

This guy won first place in the men's solo dance. (photo courtesy of Info Tahiti)

All this dancing took place to a large orchestra of drums (various kinds), singing, ukuleles, and nose flutes pounding out a tribal beat that was truly primal and enthralling. The last show we saw was the last night of Heiva. We paid $20 each to see FOUR dance/music groups perform for six hours! We had never seen anything like this spectacle and were completely blown away. 

On our last night we were fortunate enough to see the woman who took first place in the solo dance because her troupe, the 2nd place overall winners, were performing that night. A MUST - Check out this stunning video of her (eat your hearts out Shakira and Beyonce): Hauhani Taputu, best dancer

Now we are doing some final tasks and provisioning in the comfort of Papeete's marina because in a day or so we'll sail over to nearby Moorea which we hear has some fantastic snorkeling and possibly diving. We're looking forward to exploring some new locations in anticipation of our friends Mike and Linda who will arrive to visit us in just three weeks. Inspired by Heiva, Linda and I are already making plans to weave our own outfits.

ALBUM: PAPEETE

Raiatea to Tahaa to Huahine

We sailed from Raiatea (Uturoa area), to Tahaa (anchored in SW Apu Bay, red dot, then Mahea black dot), then on to Fare, Huahine

We left Raiatea on a Friday, ultimately bound for Tahiti, but since there are a couple of islands very close to Raiatea we thought we'd take some time to visit them and do a little "research" for when our friends come to visit in August and September.

The weather predicted that some strong southeasterly winds (called "Maramu" in Polynesian) would be headed our way so we thought we'd check out some possible anchorages in the nearby island of Taha'a, looking for protection on the west side. We left Raitea and went north to Taha'a which shares the same fringing reef as Raiatea. What we found was that because of Taha'a's tall mountains the western anchorages were directly hit by strong katabatic winds that rushed down elevated slopes at great speeds. We thought about anchoring at the famous Coral Gardens halfway up the west side (supposedly good snorkeling), but anchoring next to the reef would have put us on a lee shore in those strong katabatic winds. (Lee shore=when the wind blows you toward a shore or reef. Not good.) We tried a couple of other anchorages and they were also a bust for various reasons (too deep, too windy, anchor wouldn't hold). After what turned out to be our day-long island tour of western Taha'a we went back south to a mooring field we saw earlier in the day in Apu Bay. It is a favorite stop of all the boat charters and we were extremely lucky to grab the last mooring ball late in the afternoon. There was a big charter cat right behind us hoping to get the mooring but we beat them to it. It was a Friday and apparently a resort on land does a Friday night feast and dance festival, hence the crowd. We could hear the drums and music late into the night, followed by loud talk and laughter as the oversaturated cruisers dinghied back to their boats.

Aerial view of our anchorage in Apu Bay, Taha'a. (photo courtesy of Moorings)

We had a nice surprise the next morning. The Tahiti Pearl Regatta was happening that weekend and Cinnabar was right next to the buoy race course! Many of the boats sailed by and eyeballed Cinnabar's racey-looking red hull, wondering if we were racing. But we don't race our home anymore so we just saluted them with our cups of coffee and relaxed into our beanbag chairs for the show. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the 38 boats racing right next to us. 

We were surprised to see our rigger Fred sail by on this boat.

This colorful spinnaker had a wicked wrap and they were passed by the green spinnaker following them.

Then green spinnaker had an epic round down (crash), lost their spinnaker and finished last. 

We stayed in Apu Bay for 5 nights while the winds raged over us, but the mooring was strong and we were pretty comfortable. Once the winds subsided we decided to head over to Motu (Island) Mahea on the east side of Taha'a so Tom could check it out for future kiting sessions.

Mahea is a small island in the reef surrounding Taha'a (photo courtesy of Moorings)

Motu Mahea has a lot of coral heads so after making a few circles around the area we picked our spot and dropped the anchor. When we jumped in the water we saw that the chain was snaking over a coral head so we had to attach a buoy to lift it. The snorkeling wasn't great, but it was interesting to snorkel around an old, abandoned pearl farm. This was the second abandoned pearl farm we'd snorkeled, and we were struck by the fact that everything was just left there, piles of junk under the water. It was eerie.

After a couple of nights at Mahea we departed for the nearby island of Huahine. We knew our friends on JACARANDA were there and we were hoping to see them before they left.

We anchored near the town of Fare and VERY CLOSE to the red channel buoy. 

Sunset behind our close friend the red buoy.

After a couple of nights on the anchor a mooring ball became available so we moved over to it. We reconnected with Chuck and Linda on JACARANDA and met some of their friends, a father/daughter sailing pair, on a Swiss boat called KYORI. Linda, Sondra and I treated ourselves to a wonderful girls' day out and lunch at the deluxe Maitai Lapita Village Resort. 

Girls' day out with Linda (JACARANDA) and Sondra (KYORI) (photo courtesy of KYORI)

The village of Fare had a laid-back, surf town sort of vibe which we really liked. Although small, it was a bustling town and had a huge, well-stocked, grocery/hardware store, not to mention outdoor market stalls for fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and prepared food. The supply ships came in and out of the small harbor daily to keep the island's people and resorts stocked with goods.

A big ship in a little harbor. It was fun to watch these maneuver into and out of the passage.

Fare also boasted a wonderful beach-side bar and restaurant called the Huahine Yacht Club. Bars-on-the-beach abound in Mexico but are a rarity in French Polynesia, so we were extremely happy to find such a place. Not to mention they have an excellent happy hour that you can enjoy while watching the sunset.

A spectacular sunset from the Huahine Yacht Club. 

Much as we loved Huahine and wished to explore the island further, we had work waiting for us in Papeete and it was time to leave. Since the voyage from Huahine to Tahiti is "uphill", i.e. against the prevailing winds, we watched the weather and waited for a time when the winds might shift more northerly and make for a more pleasant voyage. Eventually the winds did shift in our favor and we left one evening before sunset. We had a very nice overnight sail with the wind on our beam (side) most of the time, so it was pretty comfortable. Cinnabar flew through the night with her new sails and we made great time. We arrived in Papeete early the next morning and found a nice spot in the marina. 

And that is where we are now, taking care of business and enjoying Papeete.