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8/9/2006 7:00:00 PM
Teahupoo
Teahupoo is the surfer's mecca of the Tahiti

Back in Tahiti

Touring Tahiti island and heading south to Teahupoo.

We had planned to stay another week or so in Papeete, to finish up Robert's computer work, stock up a few provisions and then move on... You remember that our dinghy was broken and we were able to fix it but it still had a bit of a leek and we did not know how long it will hold up. Once returning from our week in Moorea we received an e-mail from the manufacture that we would be granted a new dinghy under warranty! Wow! The question was how are we going to get that to Tahiti, the postage for that would have been about USD 800 (almost a new dinghy!) but within the US it would only be USD 70, quite a difference! We knew that our boat friends from "Seeker" were presently visiting back in America and thanks to e-mail we got a hold of them in time. Janet Lee was so very kind enough to agree to bring it with her, the only draw back for us was that she wouldn't return until August 17th, almost another 3 weeks out. We decided that we could not pass up such a great deal from the company and Janet Lee and stayed on. In order to see something else than just Papeete we planned to go down the coast a bit and explore some other anchorages, something not very many cruisers do - usually they all come to Papeete do all their errands and then go on to the next islands without seeing the rest of Tahiti.

Our friends Ross and Laura from "New Dawn" were still in town, since they both had been sick a bit. They were mentally prepared already to leave for Bora Bora but we could convince them to come along for a few days with us. Our first stop was the small bay of Papeari about 30 miles south, directly in front of the botanical gardens, which we had planned to visit anyways. Much to our joy we found out that our friends on "Van Diemen" (we were together in the marina in SD), as well as "Kaila" (we met them in Toau) and "Cheers" (Toya and Steven from Namibia, whom we also met in Toau and saw a few times the week before in Papeete) were also anchored there. Right after our arrival Robert and Steven went out windsurfing, thanks to finally the right wind conditions and it is a lot more fun with somebody than alone. We continued on in the evening with a lovely gathering on "Cheers", with some fun dishes and the next day we had a Mexican Fiesta - with homemade tortillas by Jeff on "Kaila"  - on our boat. Yummi!

During the day Ross, Laura, the boys and I went to the botanical gardens, that was established there by an American in 1919 showing about 450 different plants. Tahiti is not the most cultural city itself but the few museums that you can visit are very tastefully and interestingly done. The week prior we saw the "Tahiti museum" that had wonderful displays to bring us their culture, geography and history closer to understand. The Robert Wan Pearl Museum has lots of wax figures and models to show the growing and procedure of pearl farming and its jewelry making. They even had the original of one of Austrian's crowns! I personally love to go to museums and it was a nice change to see a few, since it has been a while - probably San Diego. We did not have enough time to see the Gaugin Museum in Tahiti, we did a little bit in the Marquesas, but we have to leave some things for a later visit....

Two days after the others all left for Papeete or Bora Bora and all of a sudden we had the anchorage to ourselves, something that hadn't happened in a long time! We wanted to see one more anchorage that was highly recommended by the others - Teahupoo. It apparently is THE spot to watch the local surfers. The week prior they even had one of the famous Hawaiin surfers fly in for some perfect days, waves up to 30 meters! We had hoped to see some of that but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and due to the heavy wind gusts the waves broke even before the reef - bummer. Well, we can't have everything in life, can we?! We still had some fun days specially since it was Benjamin's 7th birthday and we celebrated it accordingly. We skipped school and after the traditional present hunt we went to land to try out his new boggia game as well as the cool paper gliders Ross and Laura gave him, it is nice to see that small things in life still find pleasure. In the afternoon he got to play his new game boy game and much to his and our delight we had Sachertorte!

Next day we also headed back to Papeete. The week was filled with small boat projects on Lawur (part of our boom vang was broken and had to be repared) as well as on "Seeker". Peter returned a few days before Janet Lee and Robert helped him out on a few things - he said it was quite fun to work on some other boat rather than always on ours. The boys and I caught up on a lot of school work, ran our last errands in the "big city" and weather permitting I took them out skurfing (Similar to water skiing, except kneeing on a boogie board being towed by the dinghy).  We had planned to leave right after Janet Lee's and dinghy arrival, but due to the weather there was no chance. It had already been colder and cloudy the week before, rather unusual, we even needed a jacket sometimes. Saturday and Sunday it rained so hard and we had gusts up to 30-35 knots coming through the anchorage - a day to bunker down below with a hot cup of chocolate, some board games and movies - very enjoyable! Monday we finally got the boom vang back and since the next weather low was on its way for the week after we decided after all to visit some of the other islands in the Socities and wait for a better weather window there. Ra'iatea here we come!

Presently we are on our way to Nuie, having left French Polynesia over a week ago, but that's another story. I gotta go and take care of my watch duties checking if everything is alright.

So for now adieu, Yours the 4 Schmids - Niki and her three "men"

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