Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Papeete

I already love Papeete. We have been here and the surrounding islands for three weeks. I have already found my favorite park (right on the waterfront near the city marina) place to watch the sunset (Pangaea), restaurants (Le Perchoir and Villa Thai) ice cream shop, best internet (Le Perchoir), and Jewler (Pearl Artists). In order of importance, of course.


My (our) view as Mike and I perform three sets of The Betty Rocker workouts every morning. The pond is filled with many koi fish!


We had a hawksbill sea turtle eating algae off of our dock yesterday. We bonded. I loved being so close to him!


Mike bought me pearls for crossing the Pacific (and for my 50th). The sunset is my favorite time of day and I think all of the colors of the Tahitian sunset are reflected in the color and lustre of the pearls. 



Once again, I am a lucky lady!

We went to the last day of Heiva with our friends Tom & Sylvia. 

 Sylvia with her Polynesian flower wreath 

The Heiva festival has a strict policy against photography, but the festival posted several YouTube videos you can check out here:

 

Nana,

First Mate Kate

Thursday, July 13, 2017

My 50th


I woke up this morning and felt different being 50. I really feel this will be my best decade yet! I feel strong, brave and adventurous and am living life to the fullest. I am balancing work and play and am getting to do research that my full-time teaching and clinical position wouldn't otherwise allow.

My friend Sylvia bought me a Tahitian flower wreath for my birthday!

After a little boutique shopping, we went for lunch at a lovely restaurant and patisserie called Les Rêves de Lucie and Le Perchoir. 


That evening our spouses joined us with our friends Fred and Michele at Villa Thai for dinner.  It was delicious!


It was a very happy 50th birthday.  I am one lucky girl and am grateful to have such amazing friends!

First Mate Kate

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Annie

We had a really fun time with our friend Annie who flew in from Denver.  We spent three days exploring Papeete and then sailed to Moorea for five days. Here are some of the highlights:

A visit to the local market

A trip to the Street Art Museum with our friend Sylvia.

Octopus art on the outside of the museum

Turtle art on the inside of the museum (both junk art)

We took to the streets to see the art on the sides of local buildings. Here are a few of my favorites:




The city of Papeete hosts an international street art competition every October and the paintings represent the work of the winners.

We had a great lunch at La Rêve de Lucy



We managed to squeeze in a dentist appointment for Mike who had a painful abscess. Mike was put on steroids and an antibiotic and told to return in a week. Just enough time to get out and explore with Annie!

 
We went to the opening night performance of Heiva, a song and dance competition that occurs every July throughout French Polynesia. No photos were allowed.
A small troop performed outside before the performance began.

The next morning we sailed to Moorea

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Sundowners at the Hilton 

The next day we went snorkeling with black tips and sting rays. That was pretty amazing!

Our last day was filled with an island tour on scooters.



Moorea is very beautiful!







We had a little poisson crus as a late lunch and they served it in a coconut shell!


The anchorage was particularly beautiful today as we took the dinghy back to Pangaea.


First Mate Kate

Leaving the Tuamotus


We had a perfect day in Hirifa yesterday.  The water was so calm my paddle board around the lagoon doubled as a snorkel.


To top it off, we had an incredible jam session last night on Liward with Steve on guitar and vocals, Ted from Restless on fiddle and sax and me on ukulele and vocals.  None of us had met before but we got together and made amazing music.

Steve and Ted are gracious and talented musicians and even accompanied me on some tunes I wrote. They really turned them into songs.  It was so awesome!


We left Fakarava yesterday morning to head to Tahiti.  I was sad to leave. We have had two amazing months here! 



 As we headed out of the south pass, our friends Kristy and John from Raynad were heading out to dive the pass.


Just as we cleared the pass I thought I saw the blow of a whale. Then I saw it again!  It was a whale. Two minutes later a big humpback breached right behind our boat! Really close and very exciting!


Fish number 2 was caught last night right before dinner. It was a skipjack and he ended up getting thrown back. 

We had a glorious sunset to end a pretty awesome albeit sad day. We will just have to come back!




It is day 2 and we are having an idyllic downwind sail wing on wing with a poled out jib and tri-sail (no boom to deal with). We are clocking 7 knots!


We are sailing 250 miles to Tahiti to meet our friend Annie who is flying in for a visit.


First Mate Kate