17º 35.965s 149º 36.992w
Wed Aug 28 2019
Well
there we were anchored at Point Venus when a shindig broke out. Turns out there
was a big international outrigger paddling competition between Moorea and Tahiti
yesterday (Saturday) and the finish line was not far from JollyDogs. It’s quite
a paddle across open ocean, maybe 12 or 15 miles or even more depending on the
starting point, and there were apparently competitors from a bunch of countries
as far away as New Zealand. At the headland where the finish line was there’s a
big lighthouse. On that lighthouse is a big plaque that has a remembrance of
Robert Louis Stevensen. Apparently he got a bit emotional when he visited that
lighthouse, as his dad was the designer and involved in the construction.
Interesting factoid.
When
the paddlers finally arrived in the bay there were maybe 100 power boats loaded
with fans, cheering them on and chasing the leaders to the finish line. The
completely tranquil, flat water bay turned into about 2 feet of white water as
the power boats churned about, many very close to us but fortunately nobody ran
into us. This was a serious Tahitian party, and late into the evening a heap of
boats were still rafted up blasting away with local music. It would seem a good
time was had by all.
On
Sunday we meandered down the channel to the anchorage by Marina Taina which
would allow us easy access to buzz up and secure the dinghy up to Marina
Papeete, then go see about extending my Carte de Sejour (long stay visa) for an
additional year, and also visit a local dermatologist. I’m fair skinned as is
Isabel, and keeping any eye out for developing skin cancer is a big deal to us.
We had made an appointment a week prior without any problems, something we
could never have done in the US as there seems to be a supply and demand issue.
The
Dermatologist visit was impressive – a French physician trained in Paris had
taken a 2-year assignment in Papeete. She spoke excellent English and looked us
each over thoroughly. Isabel had a clean bill of health, and as usual I had to
have a few spots burned off the backs of my hands, my forearms, my chest and my
right ear. It’s nothing I did recently and we do our best to shelter from the
sun these days; turns out my ill spent youth as a life guard and glider pilot are
the major factors for problems now. There wasn’t a lot of knowledge about that
when I was a young adult – hopefully kids these days are getting a better
education on that subject. Anyway, it cost us a grand total of about $115 for
the whole excellent experience. Even with our health insurance it would have
been a lot more in the US.
We
visited the Haute Commissaire (high commissioner) office to see about my long
stay visa extension, and we’re certain neither of us has ever met friendlier or
more efficient government bureaucrats. Even with a US passport which would
expire before the long stay visa needed to be renewed the guy was cool – “just
email us a copy of the new one when you get it”. Wow. Compare that to trying to
dealing with a train ticket agent in France. They enjoy making your life hard,
even treat their own countrymen the same way.
We
celebrated our small victories with lunch at Les Trois Brasseurs, the one
brewpub in Papeete. Smokin’ deal Monday – half off on their excellent IPA and
pizza-like objects. We had hoped for some of that free WIFI, but it seemed the
entire area was without data so there was no podcast updating or boat part
shopping. At $10 per gigabyte of data our Google Fi plan is cheaper than the
local Vini cell service, and generally cheaper than eating out just to get free
WIFI, but sometimes it’s a great excuse to let someone else do the cooking and
pouring.
Back
from the excursion, a hammock ride ensued then off we went for our major
provisioning run at the local Carrefour hyper market. They’re cool about
letting you push their carts all the way back to the marina dinghy dock, so we
loaded that sucker up. By the time the checkout lady got done ringing us up
there was smoke coming out of her cash register, and my credit card got very
warm to the touch. I think we spent around $725 on a cart load of groceries.
Imagine all the credit card points were earning! Dammit man.
Anyway,
all 4 of the cart wheels castor, so on the store’s smooth level surface you can
drive the cart sideways and easily maneuver around inanimate objects like other
shoppers. That feature becomes a bit of a liability when pushing the cart up an
inclined surface, and downright dangerous when the surface slopes towards a
cliff. It took both of us to keep the bloody thing on the nice new sidewalk,
but we managed to reach the dinghy dock without spilling the contents. A young
Danish fellow we had met a few weeks prior helped us get everything down the
pontoon to the dinghy, and by the time I had it all loaded up there was perhaps
200 pounds of food and other bits aboard. Naturally this day was threatening to
rain after weeks without any hint of such weather, but we made it back to
JollyDogs without mishap or getting wet.
About
that French Navy ship conducting gunnery practice. While anchored at Point
Venus on Sunday morning we heard a VHF radio call on channel 16 announcing the
position of the vessel and a warning to remain 10 kilometers distant due to the
conduct of war exercises. Maybe some boats out there didn’t take the radio man
seriously at first. The last radio call we heard from the French Navy vessel,
there was very clear gunfire noise in the background, what I reckon was 50
caliber if not bigger. Maybe that helped get other boater’s attention. While
conducting a flight test on the French Navy ship Guepratte, I had the good fun
to witness such gunnery practice; they would toss a float or balloon into the
water then take turns trying to sink it. Good fun, that. A bit more interesting
was watching the radar controlled, turreted sea whiz gun fire at a radar
reflective target they had deployed. That didn’t last too long and there was
only 1 go, but those bullets are kind of expensive.
Just
another day in the life of a cruiser.
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