A slow day. Slow in that we didn’t do too much. Slow in that it takes forever to not do too much in the South Pacific. First we had to hitch-hike into town, which is about 10 miles or so away. Fortunately that is a very accepted way of getting around the islands and it only took about 10 minutes before a very nice gentleman named Simon (his English name) picked us up. He was Tahitian, lives on Raiatea and works the Travel Lift at the Moorings base here (i.e. he drives the big crane that lifts boats out of the water). A very responsible job. He considers himself very lucky as in an area where there are not a lot of jobs he’s had this good one for 24 years. He’s also a musician and plays Tahitian drum and ukulele in a local troupe. He goes to Japan for vacations with his group to demonstrate Tahitian music, presumably along with the hula dancers. Anyway, a very nice man and we were so glad to get the ride.
Simon dropped us off at the Gendarmarie so that we could “check out” of French Polynesia since our 90 day is complete. After waiting for almost an hour, we were chagrined that the Gendarme didn’t speak English at all. He also would not process us since we wanted to get a short waiver for the weather ( It’s very windy, into the 30’s and we’d like to have a more comfortable ride when we depart) as well as wait for a part for the engine we’ve ordered for safety. It’s a spare impeller and they are sending it via air from Tahiti. It’s due in tomorrow. He also was not interested in dealing with that and sent us across the street to the Ministry (I’m not sure of what). I guess they trump the Gendarmerie. They were very friendly, spoke English and when we said the Gendarme wouldn’t let us wait two days, in typical French fashion then snorted in the air and rolled their eyes to indicate the Gendarme was being, um, French? Anyway, they were very nice and after many considerations they decided what would be best is for us to get the receipt for the parts and THEN just go to the Gendarme and check out, even though we’ll be a couple days later than our 90 days. When we asked if that would be a problem, their answer: “If you were in France (snort, roll eyes) you would have big problem, but here, nothing!” OK, so we’ll check out in a couple days. To be on the safe side, we’ll bring our paperwork for the part as well as the broken part itself just in case. If you don’t hear from us, call the U.S. Embassy please.
Since that took most of the morning, once we were done, we decided lunch would be in order. Don’t have lunch here unless you have at least two hours. I won’t go into the whole story, but more of the day, gone. Finally the store and then a taxi ride back with four bag and two backpacks of groceries. Not enough beer yet, so we’ll go back tomorrow sometime I think-although we have a couple boat projects including changing the oil, so that takes priority.
We’re back on the boat now. Ann washed all the vegetables and fruits that we bought in anti-something-or-other and I took apart a winch that has been squealing in order to grease it. Turned out it was full of water and all the grease was washed away. Hopefully that’s now fixed. I also checked our mooring (future cruisers, do this many, many times/day for moorings and anchors-chafe is you enemy) and found the shackle I put on the harness was unscrewing itself. I neglected to safety wire it and in about 12 more hours it would have unscrewed and we would have gone walkabout in whichever direction the wind was blowing at the time. I hate it when I don’t do something I know I should do and then find out I should have done it. What do you call that? Oh yeah, lazy, I think. Boy, you can’t be lazy out here, the consequences are too high.
