Papeete, Tahiti

June 9, 2008—On Thursday, Yvette from sv Liberty and I went downtown to do some shopping. I found a jeweler to set my two pearls into necklaces and two smaller pearls into earrings. We spent some time at the Central Market where we enjoyed crepes for breakfast and bought some fruit and vegetables. It is a very colorful and lively place. The floral head pieces the women make are amazing and smell wonderful.

Friday night we took Le Truk downtown along with John from the sv Iris. We went to the square where dozens of food trucks are set up. There are a variety of foods available, but we decided on Chinese—sort of. I had shrimp fried rice, and Steve had a T-bone steak with French fries. The food was excellent, and it was fun to sit and watch all the people who had came down for the evening. There were a lot of families with small children. Afterward we stopped at a restaurant that had set up chairs and tables outside, and they had a wonderful local band playing music. The bass player was using a trash can with a wooden pole and string attached. There was a guitar player, and the singer was playing a homemade Ukulele. Several other band members joined in throughout the evening. We had a great time and enjoyed the local music very much. Everyone there was having fun.

On Saturday, we went downtown to pick up my pearls, and then we caught a bus out to the Marquesan Exhibition. We never found a wood carving that we really liked, so we went there to shop. We found a nice piece that we purchased, but we also enjoyed just walking around looking at all the crafts. The wood carvings were very intricate and beautiful, and many booths had jewelry made from plant seeds.

Sunday was our work day so we cleaned up the boat, cleaned the waterline, did some laundry, and polished the chrome. The anchorage was very busy with boats and jet skis. They seem to like coming close to the sailboats so we end up rocking through the wakes.

The mechanic will come to the boat this afternoon (we hope) to replace some of our beer shims with good ones. He was sure that this would fix our engine so we plan to leave Tahiti tomorrow and sail over to Moorea, which is about 20 miles. We are definitely ready for some quiet anchorages. We will provision today and head out sometime tomorrow morning.