For most people mention of Tahiti conjures up images of cocktails, beautiful sunsets, coral reefs, bungalows over the crystal, clear blue waters etc. For a cruiser, particularly if you have just spent a couple of months in the remote islands of the Marquesas and Tuamotos, you think of “civilisation” ie the chandleries and the spare parts you need, collecting parcels that have been sent (more spare parts…) and of course the well-stocked supermarket shelves. The Carrefour supermarket in Papeete is legendary amongst cruisers, a huge supermarket and variety store stocked with mouth-watering French cheeses, French wine, NZ meat etc all at eye-watering prices. I won’t bore you with the details of the multiple excursions to this and other supermarkets, needless to say it lived up to expectations. Our fridges and freezers were restocked again!

After visiting most of the Society islands I would have to say that Tahiti is probably the least exotic and interesting of them. However we did enjoy spending some time here and experiencing the sights and sounds from a cruisers perspective.

The 256nm sail from Fakarava was fairly uneventful. We left with Mai Tai and along the way we passed Beez Neez and Mehalah who both left a little before us. Mehalah took some lovely photos of us under sail, and as you can see we had great reaching conditions. We had two nights at sea and started seeing lights on land around midnight on the second evening. By 4am we were just off Point Venus on the NW corner of Tahiti. We slowed right down so we would come into the main port of Papeete, with good light.

It’s close to impossible to get a marina berth at Papeete, unless you are willing to barge in as someone leaves, so most cruisers will “do time” and the infamous “Airport Anchorage”. The name is a dead giveaway for its location. The harbour entrance takes us through the fringing reef and just outside the entrance the Papeete Port Control officer called us on the VHF. We had to report our intentions and call them back at the South Cardinal mark which is just to the NW of the busy runway. We did this, got clearance to pass by the end of the runway and were given 5 mins to do so. The anchorage is on the NW corner of the island off the main town of Papeete. The fringing coral reef protects the anchorage from the swell it gets the trade winds wrapping around the top of the island and funneling through the channel . It’s also very crowded, with lots of boats on mooring buoys but we find a spot to the north of them and happen to be right near our buddies Kumo.

On the east side of the anchorage is the airport runway, which is really not that bad, it’s hardly LAX and if you have visitors arriving you can watch their flight land. Across a short stretch of water to our west we can see the towering peaks of Mo’orea, the next island we will visit. It’s a spectacular sight, particularly at sunrise and sunset, and at times thick clouds cling neatly top of its peaks. From the anchorage it’s a long dinghy ride the dinghy docks in either direction, to access the town and the supermarkets, so if its blowing 25kts through the anchorage you are in for a wet and wild experience. If conditions are nicer there is some interesting snorkeling in the bay with a few plane wrecks – ones that fell short of the runway - as well as eagle rays on the coral reefs. Dive boats head out to the reef and day tripper boats (super-sized “wakas” – the Tahitian equivalent of the Turkish Gulets) ply the waters here as well. Out-rigger canoeing (less traditional wakas) is very popular in these parts and mornings and evenings the channel and anchorage sees dozens of teams out doing their training.

We wasted no time going ashore to the Carrefour Supermarket. It felt like Disneyland after the remote places we have been. Fresh fruit and veg and well stocked shelves. The cheese section is amazing, they have appliances including bread-makers! (I am tempted… but unknown brands). We spend a small fortune and afterwards treat ourselves to a café lunch.  The next day spend a day of traipsing around the industrial zone looking for anodes & various other bits and pieces for repairs, maintenance and boat projects – in keeping with usual practice we tick off about 30% of items on our wish list and add a few that weren’t there. As a bonus we find a lady selling home-grown pamplemousse out of the back of her car! Just when we thought we would never see one again after leaving the Marquesas!

We hired a car and headed off around the island with Ollie and Sally from Mai Tai. First stop was the lighthouse at Point Venus. It was designed by Robert Louis Stevenson’s father. It’s a square affair and as light-houses go, not really earth shattering design wise – I guess there are limitations. There is a black sand beach here and a great view over to the island of Mo’orea, which will be our next destination. We find here a memorial to the crew of the Bounty, who apparently also made a visit to this anchorage.

We continue on to some waterfalls, via a supermarket to get some bakery treats. There are 3 waterfalls, one with a small pool in front of it and another 2 that we can see from a viewing platform. They are surrounded by beautiful rainforest.

We continue on around the end of the island, looking for somewhere for lunch but don’t really find anything much and end up at a food truck for some baguettes with grilled meat and lots of sauce (and fries). Not so healthy and huge. Final stop is the Botanic Gardens but sadly it closed last week, for 2 years(!), for renovations! We sit by the shore and eat our lunch, feeding the local ducks. A local guy comes by and warns us not to sit under coconut trees, as they can fall on your head and cause death… Ooops!

​Of course we finish the day with another trip to Carrefour and do a big shop. The car is packed to the rafters with Ollie’s beer and food for the four of us. It is a bit of a drama pulling up at the Marina where we left our dinghies - we have to do an illegal U-turn in heavy traffic to get onto the other side of the road! It’s all good though and we quickly unload whilst Keith takes the car back.
 
With lots of fellow cruisers arriving in the airport anchorage at the same time, we have invited friends over for a pot luck BBQ. It is quite a feast as everyone has been stocking up thanks to Carrefour! It’s a really fun night - lots of washing up though and quite a few empties!

​We go ashore again in the morning for yet another foray into Carrefour -  Sally from Mai Tai comes along with us. There was some live entertainment in the shopping mall with traditional singing and dancing - such a treat. Teams are in warm-up mode for Hieva, which is a festival of traditional singing and dance that is coming up shortly in these parts. More on that when we get to Bora Bora…

We loaded up the dinghy with all our loot and took off back to the boat. Keith decided to follow in the wake of a dive boat which gives us a smoother ride in the flat water behind them. All good until they started heading off in a different direction and we came out of their wake with a splash, ended up coming out of the channel and next thing we know we are in the middle of a bommie! Another boat went past and their wake washed over the back of our dinghy and nearly swamped us. We quickly had to lift the shopping off the floor so that the bread and weet-bix etc would not get too soggy and start bailing. Got the oars out and tried to gondola our way out of the bommie, with a fair bit of scraping and scratching on the way. Some interesting looking coral here and I guess that saves us a snorkelling trip. Finally got into deeper water and could start the engine and take off again. Phew! That could have been a bit embarrassing!

​When it comes to shopping, it’s not all about the Carrefour. The local markets are colourful, lively and offer a great selection of fresh produce, fish and meat, cooked meals, crafts, flowers, souvenirs, fabrics etc. It’s a fun opportunity to mix it with the locals and practice my French, chatting to the ladies on the stalls.
 
Its open every day but an early Sunday morning excursion to the markets is a must. Unlike most places where everything is shut, this precinct is quite lively. The under-cover market area itself is a bit more low-key than usual but the surrounding streets are closed off to host stalls selling home grown produce and home cooked meals, treats and crafts. It’s all very animated, a little chaotic and very entertaining. Walked back through the town which we had not really seen much of, there are some lovely parks which are well kept and enjoyed. By the Marina Papeete we find a memorial to the victims of nuclear testing. Of course the Muraruoa Atoll in the Tuamotus is a well-known venue for French nuclear testing. Montebello and Maralinga are also mentioned here, as are Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

​It’s a long time since we had a visitor so we are very excited that Pam is coming to join us for a week! It’s her second time on ITIKI, having joined us in the first season for a week or so in the Balearics Pam’s flight arrived at 22h15 and we watched it come in from our vantage point in the airport anchorage. Wanting her to have a warm welcome I booked what I though was a private transfer to the dinghy dock. Turned out to be a shared transfer with a maniac driver who didn’t speak English, talked and texted the whole time and drove like a bat out of hell! Also he didn’t have change of a XPF50 which caused quite a bit of drama at the time. The 2nm trip in the dinghy in the dark was challenging to say the least. Navigating at night with so many shore lights around and some unlit navigational marks is pretty difficult but fortunately we had Google maps to avoid complete disaster. We took it slowly coming in a bit too close to shore by the runway but made it eventually around the point and to the dinghy dock. Pam was pretty tired and frazzled by the time we finally picked her up and the drama with the taxi driver didn’t help. The dinghy trip back was a little easier but we still had to keep our wits about us to find ITIKI in the dark amongst hundreds of boats. We were all pretty tired and emotional but we had a tot of rum before heading to bed around 2am. Hopefully things can only get better! Well maybe…

At 5:30am we woke to some strong winds. A squall went over which brought us 38kts. Went back to bed once the worst of it had passed, but it blew dogs off chains all day so we could not go into the dock in the dinghy. Instead we had a lazy day on board, admiring the views of Mo’orea and hoping we can get there soon! We had to wait until the next morning for the wind to back off so could do a trip ashore to the markets and bakery, and square up with Sally who sorted out the taxi driver for us. Finally we can up anchor and say farewell to Tahiti for now, head out past the runway again and make for Mo’orea.

We sailed with the gennaker most of the way from Tahanea but had some rain in the wee hours of the morning and then the wind died. We had to motor approaching the top of the atoll to get around the NE corner. We pulled the gennaker out to try and dry it, but refurled it as we came into the North Pass. It’s a very wide pass, hard to imagine it would ever be problematic with current running through it. Once we got inside we were greeted by the most fantastic rainbow. Ollie on Mai Tai seems to have fallen behind but we found out later he hooked a couple of Wahoo and was trying to land them. Sadly he lost them. The Rotoava Town anchorage is deep and we decided not to float our chain. Nobody else seems to be. We find out later that there are rocks and bommies on the bottom so hopefully we don’t have any issues lifting the chain.

Even though the supply ship has just been through here yesterday, we are shocked to see there is no fresh produce left! The shelves were reminiscent of the toilet paper aisle in Coles during Covid! Apparently yesterday there was a massive “feeding frenzy” of cruisers and what little fresh produce that arrived was gone within the hour! The locals have no chance! We did manage to get some eggs, though as surprisingly there were a few dozen left. We find a shelf-stacker at the back of the store and Keith asks about bananas. He goes out the back and returns with a brown paper bag of fairly dodgy looking specimens but after a week without them, its gold! We also ask about tomatoes and again he disappears out the back, returning with three unripe but healthy looking specimens. Jackpot! No luck with carrots though. I do hope that they hold some produce back for the locals, particularly as we went past one yacht in the anchorage who had a very full bag of fruit and veg on the back of their boat. Went on to the bakery but the baguettes were already sold out so we ordered some for tomorrow. They had carrots and apples though so I picked up some of those - I can’t believe my heart rate went up when I saw the carrots! Only fellow cruisers will understand the bizarre relationship we have developed with supermarkets and small shops in these remote locations. Shopping has become quite opportunistic – ALWAYS take a look inside and if you see something you may want, grab it as you never know when you will see that again. The well-stocked produce shelves in Coles and Woollies seem like a dream compared to what is on offer here. We swear never to take that for granted again!

​After picking up our bread and croissants from the bakery the next morning we head over to a pearl farm for a show and tell. The famous Tahitian black pearls are grown in the atolls of the Tuamotus. It is quite a fine art involving a delicate operation to produce them – think IVF meets dentistry.

• Firstly you must find the best “donor” oysters - these are ones with with a strong black colour inside their shell. These donors are “sacrificed” to remove their “lips” which are then cut into 19 (?!) pieces.
• Each lip-piece is transplanted between the shell and the body of the “recipient” oyster, whilst a small “seed” is placed in the stomach (or possibly the gonads – that one got lost in translation…) of the same oyster. The "seeds" are smooth, perfectly round balls of shell which come from Japan. The recipient oysters are the placed in a net bag and returned to the sea to do their stuff.
• After a few months (maybe as many as 14 or 18) the recipient oyster is partially opened and the donor “lip” is removed. This may be coated with oyster shell (mother of pearl), producing a funky-shaped bead. These beads used to be tossed out but are now used for jewellery making.
• The oyster stomach/gonad is also checked to see if it has made a pearl from the round “seed”. If it did, this can be harvested and a new, slightly larger seed ball, is placed in the oyster’s stomach/gonad and the process is repeated. This can go on for 2-4 times, depending on how productive the oyster is.

I should mention that, unlike the picture, all of this intervention is done with the oyster shell only cracked only about 1cm, to avoid breaking the adductor muscle and killing the oyster!

The pearl itself can vary in quality and is graded after cleaning. In cross section the pearl is solid white inside (the shell ball that was placed in the stomach) with a 1-1.4mm coating of black on the outside. A bit like a Malteaser. The different colour pearls are made from different types of oyster. In Australia we can make yellow pearls, Indonesia has pink ones and Japan has the pure white ones.
 
We ogle over the pearl jewellery (and eye-watering prices) in the hotel gift shop, and stopped by a nearby boutique and craft shop as well. The jewellery made with the odd shaped pearls is much more interesting.

​We have not watched much TV in our 5 years on ITIKI, but now that more and more boats are getting StarLink (satellite internet) downloading movies and TV series is quite common. Went over to Mai Tai for movie night, Ollie had rigged up a bedsheet the back of the boat and had a borrowed projector. Watched a movie called Following Sea about a family who sailed around the Pacific and Antarctica in a boat they built themselves, after getting shipwrecked in the Tuamotus with their first boat. With bed-sheet flapping in the breeze and the familiar pacific surrounds, it really felt like we were with them on board!

There is not much land on Fakarava, like most atolls there is a narrow strip of land around the windward side. Fakarava at least has a stretch of road. We joined Gill from Mehalah and picked up hire bikes from FYS, they are pretty basic with no gears and back-pedal brakes. We cycle the 10kms to an old pearl place and we are pretty knackered even though it is flat its into the southerly wind! Hmm, should have got electric bikes. The pearl farm has actually closed down but a German guy and his wife are selling off the remaining stock. Gill buys a lovely white pearl, and I buy a few imperfect seed pearls. It’s an easier cycle back with the wind behind us as we head into town. I stop at the church to take a look - It is decorated with lovely shell “chandeliers” made by the local community. Not too far further along there is a Mormon chapel as well – quite a few of those around French Polynesia in fact.

I suggested a walk to the old Topeka lighthouse on the North east side of the atoll, one afternoon. We had seen it on our way it and had been told it was worth a visit. It’s still pretty bouncy in the anchorage and we pick up Ollie, before heading across to the airport dock, all the time thinking we are going to get very wet on the way back. The conditions at the dock were pretty awful so we could not leave the dinghy. We headed back to the boats and yes, as anticipated, got absolutely soaked. Ollie was wearing his “old” leg on which he is not supposed to get wet, but we all got totally drenched. Ollie and I decided we still wanted to go for a walk so Keith dropped us off at the town dock. We were both sopping wet and couldn’t really dry ourselves off but it didn’t really matter. Ollie was squeezing the water out of the foam covering of his leg. It was a 30 min walk from town to the light house and slow going. We passed a colourful village (well small group of houses) with lots of pearl float and shell decorations. The lighthouse itself was made from local materials, so mainly coral gravel made into concrete. I’m not sure it was ever used as a lighthouse but it’s a pretty solid structure. There was a rusty ladder climbing up to the top, but it did not look that trust worthy. I walked down to the beach to check out the reef on the windward side of the atoll. There is a small rockpool here and I also spy a couple of purple sea urchins shells that someone has left lying around, and score a few spines for the shell collection. The walk back was slow and we are still not completely dry by the time we get back.

With the swell backing off we decided to lift anchor and head down the channel. Unlike Tahanea we actually have a well marked channel to travel in, so we know that it will be clear of bommies. Put the main up and unfurled the genoa and we had a great sail down. Still had to keep a look out though as its easy to get pushed out of the channel and down onto a bommie when you are sailing. It was good visibility although we had to kick an engine on at one stage to bring us back into the channel, avoiding a bommie we were getting sucked down onto. Note to selves: Better to go to leeward of the bommies when sailing! Hirifa is a large anchorage with plenty of space. We find a big expanses of sand to drop the pick and have such a calm night it feels like we are on land.

The wind has turned west, defying the usual trade wind pattern, and we are getting a lot of fetch, also lots of rain so everything is wet. We get the clears up and tuck ourselves in. Not much to do but get stuck into boat jobs, maintenance and cleaning. I won’t bore you with detail but there is always some grotty job to do! The reward is a nice, slow cooked, beef stew for dinner - great comfort food. The following day the wind swings to the south and eventually the wave direction caught up so we were more settled. Everyone cleared out of the northern anchorage and started heading south as well. Apparently it got pretty nasty up there, pretty uncomfortable on a lee shore, with lots of swell. Most boats also reported getting their chain wrapped around a bommie, but were able to work together to help each other out and get sorted. We enjoyed going for a SUP ashore, into the mini lagoon between the motus. The tide was running out of the lagoon so we had to paddle hard to get into it, and then we could drift back watching the fish and coral pass below us. Apart from that there is not much else to do here, but relax, appreciate the ambiance and spend some time socialising and catching up for morning coffees, sundowners ashore and lovely dinners with fellow cruisers whilst we were here.

​It’s time to head to our final anchorage in Fakarava (and the Tuamotus), the famous South Pass. Here we find the most fantastic snorkelling we have seen outside of Australia. There are a huge number of boats here, 35+,  as people have come from far and wide to witness the annual grouper spawning, which happens on the full moon at this time of year. It is a challenging spot to anchor as there are loads of rocks and bommies, so we need to be careful picking a place to drop the anchor and of course to float our chain – which by now we are getting pretty adept at.

Drift snorkeling the UNESCO World Heritage listed south pass is one of the most amazing things we have done in French Polynesia. We go through each day, at least once, sometimes twice, on the incoming or outgoing tide, and each time was different. In fact each day just got better. Depending which way the tide is flowing you can either go from the outside to the inside, or the inside toward the outside. Its preferable to go from outside to inside to avoid the risk of getting swept out to sea. We get quite confident jumping in and towing the dinghy as the current carries us along. We are swept past coral gardens and huge variety of colourful fish including giant bump-head wrasse and of course reef tip sharks. Under the restaurant dock on the shore of the pass there are huge “walls” of fish, enjoying the shade and maybe hiding from the sharks, while waiting for some scraps. Reef tips sharks circle around here, on the off chance of a free feed or if any smaller fish break loose from the pack. The shallow lagoon by the restaurant is home to turtles and smaller sharks as well as some colourful parrot fish and worth a side trip if you are not swept past it.

​We enjoyed a dinner ashore with some fellow cruisers at the Dive Centre Bar on the north side of the pass with some fellow cruisers. It’s tricky getting the dinghy into the shallow lagoon at night and we gently touch bottom. Hopefully we didn’t run over any turtles!

We had a sumptuous buffet with pizza, local reef fish, chicken, beef and a lovely custard and coconut pie for dessert. The sharks waiting under the dock are lucky tonight, they get the leftover fish carcasses and chicken bones and provide the after dinner entertainment in return!

Took the dinghy into the rustic-looking dinghy dock, well actually just a big pile of rocks with some stakes in it, and walked along to the "village". No matter how small a village is, there seems to be a reasonable sized church and this small village is no exception. We watched the sharks swimming around the restaurant dock for a while and also found a lady selling souvenirs, pearl necklaces etc. Didn’t bring any money so will have to come back later… Further along there is an abandoned resort with its grass huts out over the water, and a lovely view of the anchorage. It’s still in reasonable shape and we wonder what the story is. Possibly a victim of Covid.

Mid-morning we went for our final snorkel in the cut. So many different fish, lots more sharks than previous days, and plenty of huge bump head wrasse. The wall of sharks didn’t disappoint either, they were there in numbers to bid us farewell. We are off to Tahiti which is 256nm. Left the anchorage and went through the cut at about 4pm. It was a bit bumpy on the outside, but no dramas as we turned right and put the main up as well as a genoa. Great reaching conditions initially, doing 7-8s and a chicken curry for dinner! What more could you ask for!