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25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

25,000 NM & TAHITI

By on May 16, 2014 in Domino
April 15, 2015 – Marina Taina, Tahiti (French Polynesia)

S 17°34.717 – W 149°37.187

Taapuna Pass: S 17°36 – W 149°37.75

Meteo: VHF16 @0803, 1200, 1803 – AM 740 shortly after 7 AM

Contact: MRCC Papeete – VHF 16 &  SSB 8291 kHz

Tides: solar tides  (high at noon and midnight) 50cm high

HERE WE ARE!

– 4 years, 3 months;
– 31 countries;
– 400 anchor drops;
– 1 trans-Pacific crossing; AND
– 25,000 nautical miles… all this to get from our origin (Asuncion, Paraguay) to our dream destination: Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Our goal had been to dock downtown Papeete, at the “Quai des Bateaux” (originally Quai Bir Hakeym) but we were directed to Marina Taina in Punaauia, some 9 miles south of Papeete Harbor, because the downtown dock is being converted into a marina and is out of commission, the “front de mer” on Blvd. Pomare obliterated by palissades (though we’ve heard of yachts overnighting there anyways.)  A coffee at the “Retro” somehow doesn’t feel the same without the view on the docked yachts.
Here is the deal with Marina Taina.  There is no room for boats the size of Domino inside the marina, neither any mooring for large yachts (>50′) on the mooring field.  What was left for us was a small patch of free anchoring between the marina and the moorings south of the Beachcomber Hotel in 15meters of water and a very crowded anchorage, rotting boats included.  Another tricky part of Marina Taina: the unmarked reef that extends north of the dingy dock and that we unhappily hit while dinghying over to the dock… a word of advice: give the dinghy dock a wide berth if you approach from the anchorage area!
Docking at the “Quai des Bateaux” at marina Taina was indeed an option, for $200/night and a hideous surge that generally slaps the yachts into the dock, no thank you.
This said, Marina Taina is great.  The 24-hour gas station-cum-convenience store outside the marina has fresh baguette every morning; Carrefour is a block away and you can take your shopping cart with you (make sure to get a free Carrefour Fidelity card on your 1st trip: more savings to you!); a shipchandler can arrange for most of your pressing needs; and 2 really good restaurants can relieve you from your galley slave duties… for a price, but the food’s great.  A Casa Blanca on Wednesday nights you can be sure to find a member of “Les Freres de la Cote” having a drink and waiting for a visiting brother.  We were invited to join their dinner and oh-what a happy and helpful bunch of yachties they are!  How helpful?  Claude (“s.v Moemiti”)had helped us contact John Deere Panama when he provided us with Inmarsat Internet access the morning we got hit by lightning in San Blas 2 years ago, and we were very glad indeed to reconnect with him in his home harbor of Papeete.
Of note: while we were at Taina, we met the most extarordinary boats.  First, “JAMBO,” the Sunreef powercat owned and designed by French great sailor Laurent Bourgon.  Then, “NEODIS,” a Hobie-cat style catamaran owned by Laurent’s younger brother, Yvan, currently doing a solo-around-the-world… yeah, on that little cat: sporty, even if Yvan has a support boat following him!  Best of luck to you, Yvan!
Of course, our Tahitian friends Caro and Williams were waiting for us too, letting us use their car as we needed.  How nice!  No need to dinghy in the lagoon for 20 minutes to Papeete; no need to wait for the elusive bus to town (awe… the “trucks” no longer exist;) no need to hail a cab that is sure to charge the tourist double for the fare.  We were free to drive and hit the good spots as we pleased: the haulout facility Technimarine, the ship chandlers in Fare Ute (Papeete harbor) and, not to be missed, the Sunday morning fresh produce market at the Papeete market.
It was a full week of shopping, maintenance planning, visiting with friends and hardly time to breathe before the big Easter weekend that will see us in Moorea, with of course Caro and the kids for an Easter egg chase in Moorea…
Until then…
dominomarie
Our 31 Countries….
1-Paraguay
7-Trinidad &
       Tobago
13-Antigua
19-Puerto Rico
25-Guatemala
2 -Argentina
8-Grenada
14-Barbuda
20-Bahamas
26-Honduras
3 -Uruguay
9-St Vincent & Grenadines
15-St. Barth- elemy
21-Cuba
27-Panama
4 -Brazil
10-St. Lucia
16- British Virgin Islands
22-Mexico
28-Galapagos
5-French
     Guayana
11-Martinique
17 – U.S.
Virgin Islands
23-U.S.A. Florida to Nantucket
29-Marquesas
6-Suriname
12-Guadeloupe
18-Spanish Virgin Islands
24- Belize
30-Tuamotus
31-Society Is.

Tahanea

By on May 12, 2014 in Domino
Tahanea
April 9th, 2014
Tahanea _ Tuamotus (French Polynesia)
If you’re going to play Survivor Tuamotus, few places are better suited for the game than the atoll of Tahanea.  Nobody really lives here since the atoll is a bird reserve for the local sandpiper who breed on an island inside the lagoon itself, far from any preadator.  Did we see any sandpiper?  Perhaps a small flock… but we never found their roost.  Oh well, we were not there for the birds anyways, but for the fun of diving and more hunting.
Tahanea East in the morning

 Pass Teavatapu is the central pass on the north-east coast and located between 2 smaller passes.  I won’t comment on the best time to take the pass.  It seems that as we go south, all our tide predictions are wrong and we are able to go in 30 minutes to one hour before our predicted time.  Low water level in the lagoon, not much wind or weather over the last weeks, three passes to empty the lagoon, all this may account for the time lapse.  Now, we just show up outside the pass around low or high tide and just check the mascaré.  Usually, we have no problem going in.  But, we have had fair weather.

Fishing is oh-so-good!  Take this 35-lb Mahi Mahi caught between Faaite and Tahanea.  The head itself, yummy-grilled on the BBQ, fed us 2 full dinners.  
As for the hunting, we’ve been our daily take of marbled groupers: 2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon.  When do we stop hunting?  When a fish takes away through a tunnel in a coral head, trailing behind JP’s arrow AND gun and JP has to come up for air, then dive again and cut the arrow while I keep the sharks at bay.  Finally, we just have time to hop in the dinghy, throwing in gun and arrow, abandoning the wounded fish to a very happy shark or four.  By the time we motor away, the poor fish is floating around, its tail end cleanly sliced away.  And the sharks are gone!
We were getting used to our little routine of 4 hours of diving per day, long naps, and fish dinners, when 2 more boats joined us: “Estrellita” and “Miramis” and the kids showed us how to really play Survivor Tuamotus.
TEAVATAPU ANCHORAGE

S 16°50.718 – W 144°41.75

The coral heads are really visible and it’s no problem to find swinging room
Rather than drop the hook in the indicated anchorage, a deep channel off the hoa where the corallian sand does not hold very well and where you can’t see the heads at the bottom, we pushed a little bit more west and picked a spot between the scattered heads with 4 meters of gin-clear water under the hulls.
The kids on “Estrellita” and “Miramis” challenged us to drift-snorkel the pass at Motu Puapua, just west of Teavatapu… oh what fun to drop in crystal water and let the current take us in, faster and faster as we repeat the dives and as the slack turns into incoming current.  It’s like flying a magic carpet, except that the carpet is what we’re looking at, a carpet of live and multicolor coral, teeming with kaleidoscope lagoon fish.  We couldn’t get enough of it and just as we were motoring back out for our 4th pass, we came across giant manta rays.  Lina and May, the 2 Swedish girls on our dinghy squealed like little girls (well, they are only in their 20’s) and jumped overboard while JP maneuvered around the gentle rays to keep them in place.  Just the beaming faces of our young friends were our reward for the day.
Collecting sea shells is a treat: giant cones!
We came across many giant spiny sea stars.  We’d never seen them before, but there are plenty in the Tuamotus, especially here in Tahanea.  They are beautiful indeed, all spiny like an orange Christmas tree, but they are nasty.  Not only are they prickly to the touch (JP tested the sharpness) but they destroy the coral.  The healthier the coral, the more happy, hungry spiny sea stars.  And when the coral declines, the little monsters dwindle and vanish, giving the coral a chance to come back to life.  Another balancing act of nature.

TAHANEA EAST ANCHORAGES

1) S16°57.30 – W144°34.928 – Great hunting & shells


Tahanea East shores, from the top of Miramis’ mast

2) S16°58.118 – W144°35.867 – BBQ beach

Time to build a fire with Team Estreillita

3) S16°56.383 – W144°34.678 –

Playing Survivor Tuamotus
4) S16°53.232 – W144°34.828 – Coconut beach

“Coconut Beach” at sunset

We spent 10 days exploring the various anchorages on the east end of Tahanea (see WP above).  By far, our favorite was (2) where “Estrellita” once more challenged us to cook our dinner on the beach.  A feast it was!  

We kind of managed to braid this serving tray

The Swedes gathered some 20 green coconuts (some added rum); Livia (Estrellita) built and impressive coconut fire to roast fish and Spider conch on a home-made palm frond grill; we all gathered to braid a green palm serving tray and I even had gathered a dozen of very large oyster shells to use as plates. Livia rolled some fresh bread dough around some wood sticks, arranged the spears over the fire and presto we had fresh bread!  Meanwhile, the guys who had set up traps for coconut crabs went on their gathering expeditions… nothing that night. 

After the rain….
That is, in a nutshell, the way we spent our cruise in the Tuamotus: diving, snorkeling, catching fish, gathering shells, baiting coconut crab (only found 1 big enough to eat) and just pinching ourselves!  Life’s good, even without Internet!

And now…. Tahiti!


Variety of cowries
Until then