Tahiti to Tuamotus

Our home for far too many months now, the sun is setting on our time here in Marina Taina. This boat in the sunset was from Bermuda and they were celebrating Bermuda Day, and having the America's Cup, with all their flags a flyin. And more tourists arrive to Tahiti by plane.

I have to admit, the sunsets from here have been truly spectacular!!

Oh those purple colors!

On the North side of Papeete city is the Tahiti Yacht Club. The dolphins welcome us there.

There are quite a few boats both anchored and at the dock, while the kids learn on Optimist sailboats. One of the kids from this club represented France in the last Olympics, so they do take sailboat racing seriously here!!

This side of the island gets more rain and the mountains are a bit more dramatic. The rainbow entering the giant cauldron behind the houses on the hill.

The other end of the rainbow is in the direction of Point Venus, our favorite black sand beach anchorage.

Very intense colors in this rainbow!

We moved to this side of the city because it is closer to take the dingy to town and do last minute shopping to buy heavy things. On the way, we pass this amazing valley, where the mountain at the top is giving us the Shaka (hang loose) symbol. Poke out your thumb and little finger, then roll up your middle three fingers and there you have it!

After almost a week of going to the city every day by dingy, we were finally underway to the Tuamotu Island group 250 miles East of us. We had been waiting for quite a while for the wind to stop blowing from the East, so it would not be right on the nose, which makes for uncomfortable sailing. Wind came from the NNE and we set out for the 3 day voyage. Last time we were in the Tuamotus it was June of last year! We are excited to be under sail again.

We have Fritz, our windvane, back steering the boat and our brand new Yamaha 15 hp OB, one of our purchases while in town.

We are sailing close to the wind, but a beautiful day none the less!

The moon had just passed full and came up in front of us to light our way!

On the second day out, we had a lot of birds flying around. Some Frigit birds, several kinds of Boobies, including Red Footed ones, Noddies and Terns.

Normally when you see lots of birds flying over the ocean, it means fish! And sure enough one nice tuna decided to bite our line and give his life for us to have 4 dinners! He was delicious!

The sun was setting, and if you don't know the saying: “red sky at night, sailor's delight!”

Land Ho! Low lying atolls ahead! We had left Tahiti on Saturday night just before sunset, June 10. By Tuesday morning we had spotted Tahanea and Faate. We went between the two atolls and then on Tahanea we entered the main pass through the reef on the East side where our friends were waiting for us.

Tahitian Dancing

The first weekend in June we went to see our friends dance in their show. Our beautiful Polynesian friend,Tehani, has been dancing since she was 8, and she is tall and slender, so you know she is good! Our other Jess from the Silent Sun had been practicing with the dance school for 2 months. She was very dedicated at memorizing the routine and did a great job. The dance school puts on it's pre heiva dance recital in the local cultural theater downtown.

These girls have been practicing swinging their hips for months or years.

Each group had their own costumes and dance routine. Some groups were ladies (Vahines)

And others were just kids (kikis) (pronounced kee kee)

The teen girls danced to a sensuala song.

This little girl is going to be a hammer later in life!

These two boys were the only ones in their school and they did great with the male (Tane) style dances.

These little girls were giving it their all and having a good time!

The beautiful lady in red is the dance school instructor and choreographer and that is Tehani in the back behind her.

This group of ladies had beautiful flower crowns.

That is Jess front and center.

You go girl!!

After the show, this is Tehani's mom, me, Tehani, Jess and Kim (friend from yacht NorthStar).

Congratulation ladies on a job well done!!

Of course it is hard to see in these still photos how well the gals can shaker their booties, I mean hips. Someday I hope to get them on my Youtube page to see the videos (they are easier to watch from their than on this blog).

Life at Marina Taina Anchorage

The Marina Taina anchorage always has something going on. Sometimes it is an event and sometimes it is just weather or a sunset.

On May 9 & 10 we were stuck on the boat with high winds from the South. This anchorage almost never has winds from this direction, but we got them for those two days. The long fetch created waves and whitecaps making it look much more windy than it really was.

We watched one of our neighbor's boats flying up on the waves.

There were many boats behind us and lucky lots of room between us and shore.

It was Mr. Toad's wild ride. We sure were thankful when we could get to shore and walk around!

The sunsets always make up for what ever bad weather we had before.

These 4 guys were practicing in their 6 man Va'a in the setting sun.

On Mother's day in the USA, we had a big paddle race go by the boat, but this time it was not va'as, it was lay-down and stand up paddle boarders.

The guy in the red is in the lead, so I assume they gave the lay down guys a head start!

The guys on stand up boards were catching them fast.

The race was obviously sponsored by Suzuki, because all of the support boats were flying their flag.

They went down around the green channel marker and back to where they came from. That is the same mark I often paddle to in the mornings.

This sunset, had to be one of the most dramatic I have seen.

So lovely!

Our friends on Silent Sun, Jess and Chris, had to be gone from their boat all day, so they asked me to puppy dog sit with Martini. I was thrilled, as I still miss Sophie so much. Martini took right to Avatar checking it all out and doing all the same things Sophie used to do. Like, sit in my seat!

And poke his head into a port hole to see what is going on down below.

Finally he just chilled out in the shade of the side deck.

Mr. Martini, you are one handsome hairy man! Thanks for visiting!

The high clouds at sunset, looked to me, like a bird flying for the horizon.

An orange sky over Mo'orea.

Now I see a crazy man, waving his arms about, like he is mad that the sun has gone over the horizon.

The intensity of the sunset just kept getting better and better!

The boats in the anchorage in the waning light with an almost purple sky.

Then the water starts turning the same color as the sky. In Mexico this was called a Bermejo sunset. But I guess it does not matter where you are Bermejo can be anywhere!

Even in French Polynesia.