Author: Pam
This journal entry begins our fourth week in Papeete, who would have thought we would be here so long? When we saw Antoni on Friday he brought a friend by the boat to talk about the problems with our engines. His friend made arrangements with his mechanic to come by on Monday morning to take a look at the outboard and the temperature gauge on the boat engine. We got up early on Monday, because no time had been set and who knows what time he might come, life starts really early here on Tahiti. I went about the task of rinsing out laundry while we waited. By noon he had not shown up and we were feeling a bit dismayed, are we ever going to get these issues resolved? We are feeling good about the water pump, but somewhere along the line while the engine has been being worked on the temperature gauge stopped working. Since the engine had been overheating it felt prudent to not leave without this gauge working, at least I am pretty dedicated to the idea. We left the boat to go have some lunch and call Antoni to find out if he could track down the illusive mechanic. He said he would come by later and let us know what he found out from his friend Jerry. Again, no time was set, so I stayed on the boat while Scott went to return belts he had bought for the alternator and to buy some hose for the new water pump. I used my time alone to wrap his birthday presents, I was wondering when I was going to get a chance with him not around. Antoni came by around 1600 and let us know the mechanic would be coming the next morning, for sure.
We went to the store and bought the ingredients to make a big salad for dinner, which in addition to the usual suspects included chicken, beets and black olives. We are still missing salad a lot, so it was a nice treat. We ended the day with anticipation of tomorrow being the day for the remaining issues to get resolved. Though we are a little tired of this feeling, we are trying to stay optimistic and enjoy our surroundings.
We got up early again on Tuesday morning, because as it seems to go no time had been set again for the arrival of the mechanic. He showed up at 0900 and Scott made his best attempt to communicate with him, which included a phone call to his boss to translate. He does not speak English and our French and Tahitian is coming along at a snails pace. After a brief chat he put the outboard in the back of his truck and said he would be back again in a few days. Once again, who knows when that might be? He did leave his phone number, so we decided we will call him on Thursday to check in if we haven’t seen him yet. He also said he would look at the temperature gauge when he brought the outboard back. We don’t know anything about his qualifications, but at this point he is our only option.
We decided to go out for sushi for lunch, I had a big hankering for some wasabi. There is a small restaurant in the mall near the quay and we had heard it was good. Long story short it was ok sushi at Papeete prices. The most disturbing part, was there were no prices on the menu. We ate light, but it was enough to get a taste. We decided after lunch we would buy some fish at the Market in the near future and get our wasabi fix that way.
After lunch we sussed out the jewelry store where Titaina works. She was very gracious and spent considerable time explaining the finer intricacies of “Tahiti Cultured Pearls” or more commonly referred to as black pearls. I had never seen a black pearl and of course I expected them all to be black. Tahiti cultured pearls are pearl-containing concretions that are secreted inside the black-lipped of pearl oysters of the species Pinctada Margaritifera cumingui variety. They are cultivated mainly in the lagoons of French Polynesia. They consist of thick pearly layers containing organic substances and calcium carbonate in the form of aragonite. They are characterized by a diversity of shapes, diameters, qualities and several shades of natural colors, ranging from pale grey, peacock green to anthracite black. Four basic qualities are defined A, B, C, D that classify the surface of the pearl, A being the most perfect. Titaina explained the technical classification of a pearl is the diameter, form and quality, color comes last. It is difficult to not get drawn into the colors, they are very beautiful. Many people buy pearls and design their own piece of jewelry. I have never been drawn to pearls, the white ones always seemed too old. I did spot a beautiful bracelet that I left with in my thoughts for consideration of a treasure from French Polynesia.
When we returned to the boat we discovered we had a new neighbor on the quay and as we approached the woman on board was calling to us. She was inquiring if we had a large hex key. Come to find out on their way into the quay they had run over the line we had on a mooring and fouled their prop, causing a problem with a part on their engine. Scott took over our hex key set, but we didn’t have the key they needed. At this time we discovered the fender we had put out to mark the line was missing. Putting out another fender didn’t seem like a good idea, since theft is suppose to be a problem along the quay. I emptied a Clorox bottle into a water bottle and Scott took it out and attached it to the line as a marker. We both felt badly they had run over our line, it definitely seemed to add to a fairly long list of issues they had arrived with.
We walked to the store and bought beef brochette for dinner to BBQ. When we came back to the boat we checked in with Starship (our new neighbor) and gave them some info on the lay of the land. Scott promised to bring a map over in the morning and give them some tips on the industrial area. We decided we had bought enough brochette for two dinners, it was yummy so two nights in a row won’t be torture.
Wednesday was a pretty mellow day, due to being in our holding pattern waiting for the mechanic to return with the outboard.
On Thursday we decided to take some time to explore the Market (Marche). It is two levels with a very high ceiling filled with tables displaying vanilla, body lotions, perfumes, jewelry, wood carvings, t-shirts, pareos, fresh flowers, local fruit, vegetables, fish and many other delicacies of the area. It is sometimes difficult to discern where one merchant’s area begins and ends. It is a sea of bright colors with all of the fabrics of the paroes and Polynesian shirts, mixed in with the flowers and fruit and vegetables. There is also a row of food stands that is always crowded with locals and tourists. The food is already prepared choices such as the infamous sandwiches with chow mein or some kind of meat and french fries, the fries are on the sandwich with ketchup, as much as I love french fries that did not appeal to me. There are also rice plates, though we can never figure out what the dishes are, as well as a stand that sells waffles with every combination of bananas, cream and Nutello (that is really big here) you can imagine. It feels like the heartbeat of the city, where you can get whatever you might need whether you are a local or a tourist. We bought two pounds of Thon Rouge (red tuna) for $1000 cpf ($10.00) for dinner, after our little foray yesterday with wasabi I was craving more.
We stopped back by the pearl store and I bought the bracelet, I have not bought any mementos of this adventure yet and a bracelet with a beautiful pearl was the perfect trinket for this jewelry lover, though I hardly wear any these days. While we were visiting Titaina and buying the bracelet we asked her to call the mechanic to find out the status of our outboard engine. He told her we need to get a new carborator and he would bring the engine by at 1600 that afternoon. We asked her to ask him if the caborator would make it to New Zealand and he said yes.
As Rachel and Frank on Starship had left earlier in the day, we came back to the boat and met our new neighbor. As we were walking by Paul and Cindy on Simplicity stopped us to give us a message from a reporter who had come by while we were gone. We had worked with our friend Mike back in the states to get a press release out about our pacific ocean crossing and arrival in French Polynesia. The release dropped yesterday and we already had a bite. Our luck with the media was looking better than our fishing. Not long after being back on the boat another reporter came by on the quay and we arranged an interview for the next morning at 0900. It was very difficult to hear him from the back of the boat and when he left I was unclear who he worked for. He also said the president of an association would be joining him, but this also wasn’t very clear. I figured we would just be ready for whoever showed up in the morning.
After we dropped the computer off on the boat we hustled to the store and back to meet the mechanic. He showed up on time and he and Scott put the motor on the dinghy, started it on the first try and went for a whirl. It seems to be running like a champ for the moment, we really won’t know until we get to the next anchorage and need to use it to get to land. We also are not entirely sure what he did to the engine while he was working on it, but we are hoping that whatever he did it will work better than before. The mechanic (we still don’t know his name) said he would come back tomorrow morning to look at the temperature gauge. We had a difficult time communicating about the time, as far as I could tell it would be between 0700 and 0900, it was a case of what he said and how many fingers he held up did not match.
We waved the tuna over the BBQ for a couple of minutes and ate it very rare with wasabi and soy sauce. I think I am now addicted to Thon Rouge, I asked Scott after dinner when he would be willing to have it again. All of the locals think the red tuna is better than the white and I would agree, though either would do in a pinch. Off to bed fairly early, it looks like tomorrow is going to be a busy day with reporters and hopefully some engine resolve.
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