Tahiti 15-16 Nov, Brenda Departs for OZ

15 November 2008

The three of us picked up our tiny Renault rented car at 8 AM and soon set of on a round-Tahiti tour. We went clockwise from Papeete along the east cost of Tahiti Nui, the big island, then across to the east side of Tahiti Iti, the smaller island. We went as far as the road would allow a rented car to go but unfortunately were not able to reach our first anchorage at Tahiti. We then went back and did the Western side of Tahiti Iti as far as we could go, then returned to Papeete via the western side of Tahiti Nui. Along the way Brenda had two sessions of wading and swimming (while I had my siestas). In her second session in the water on the way back she once again swam amongst the tropical fish and saw one or two species that she had not seen before. We also checked out a pretty nice botanical garden that offered some interesting walks up the gorge but we just were not prepared for that.

Some of our impressions from our drive:

Most of the people live in the narrow coastal belt, as would be expected
Everyone seemed relaxed and happy.
The housing was of pretty good standard with locations that people in the “developed” world would kill for
Lots of children around, and they all seem well cared for


I bored my companions for the upteenth time asking what retirement dreams these people could possible have. Perhaps the word and concept of “retirement”does not exist in their culture.

After dinner on a whim I suggested to Brenda that we visit the adjacent jetty so that I could have a closer look at the catamaran that “lives” there. We crossed the little bridge between the 2nd and 3rd steel pontoons and I got so engrossed in my inspection of the boat's cockpit setup that walking to the stern of the boat and looking up in the dark I managed to drop into the gap between the pontoons. After beer and wine in the afternoon followed by a big meal I was a bit dopey and didn't see it coming. One instant I was dropping through the air, next instant I was in the water. I hit the big chain on the way down and banged my shin and elbow pretty hard but when I managed to climb out by using the chain Brenda knew that I was OK. Fortunately there does not appear to have been any serious damage. I did not have my camera on me. My watch survived the dunking and I managed to dry out my wallet and all of its contents. The next day I verified that my Visa card is still working OK. Brenda did a great job of dressing the shin and we have some pretty powerful antibiotic creams on board. We were pretty sure that no serious infection would set in but we would not be sure for a day or two.

16 November 20008

It was a sad day of seeing Brenda off for Australia. We got off to a late start. I had set my travel clock and Brenda had set her mobile phone alarm to go off at 4 AM so that we could be in the car at 5 AM. At 4.50 AM Brenda heard the birds chirping and had the sense to get up and check the clock. For some reason her mobile phone had not gone off. My travel clock was one hour slow and the alarm eventually went off at 5 AM. Anyway, we all scrambled but because we had done good preparatory work we managed to get to the airport at 5.18 AM.

After a cup of coffee we saw Brenda off with her back pack and ukulele as hand luggage. Later at the jetty I saw what must have been her plane lifting off from the runway at about 7.45 AM. I gave the plane a big two-arm wave hoping that Brenda had a starboard side seat.

Brenda had been with us since mid-July in Eden, NSW, a whopping 4 months. She shared the difficulties of two winter gales in the Tasman, not to mention the trials of putting up with two Grumpy Old Men in a small boat. Arnold and I will miss her greatly and are looking forward to seeing her in Seattle. Attached is a photo of Brenda that I took at Tihiti Iti during our outing yesterday.

We returned the rental car and soon after that I was on the jetty washing clothes using our plastic hand-crank camp washing machine. I noticed a group of Polynesian locals expressing some interest and before long they were on the jetty with me getting a demonstration of the washer. They thought that it was a real hoot and kept laughing. We had a short conversation, I shook hands with the head of the family, and off they went.

I then took photos of a boat that had come in the previous day while we were out. It is designed to travel on biodiesel fuel and be carbon neutral. Apparently there was a lot of fanfare upon it arrival with various government ministers partaking in some sort of ceremony. Morry says that the boat must be traveling slowly because he and Irene saw it in Panama a year ago.

Speaking of Morry, he gave tours of the Lagoon 500 to Arnold and myself. To me the boat had everything except a soul, but that is OK too. It all depends on what kind of experience the owner wants.