Back to Tahiti

We left the lovely island island of Moorea and enjoyed a great sail back to Tahiti. The wind shifted just enough to allow a reach most of the way in fairly flat seas. During the transit we tried our luck at fishing and had two lines over. The hand line was rigged using one of Barbara's favorite lures they call the "Mexican Flag" (the colors of the streamers are the colors of the flag) and we tried one of the LL Bean lures I brought on the pole and reel. Neither had any success. No fish tonight for supper!

We tried to moor at the Tahiti Yacht Club, but they were full, so we worked our way back to the Taina Marina. On the way we had an exciting rescue of a young Tahitian boy whose single outrigger canoe had capsized, breaking off its outrigger and the empty canoe was floating in the channel. We saw him in the water clinging to the broken outrigger about 300 yards away from the canoe and upwind in a freshening 20 knot wind. He was very tired and scared. Barbara was called on deck as she was making supper (chicken pie) and she dug out a floatation device tied a quick line to it as Michael skillfully maneuvered Astarte in a very narrow channel as we tossed the float to the young boy who spoke no English. As we brought him on board he kept pointing to the drifting canoe and was more worried about his canoe. So while Barbara comforted him (her French is much better than Michael or me), Michael turned the boat 180 degrees and we chased after the canoe which was approaching the reef. We managed to capture the canoe and our crazy turns in the channel must have been seen ashore as a dive boat came zipping out to help. The boy was grateful to being returned to shore with his canoe and we continued our journey to the marina because it gets dark here at 17:30 and we need to anchor or find a mooring.

Tomorrow, the day will be spent trying to get gifts for everyone back home (and my family knows how much I hate shopping).