June 19 - Tahiti update

We've been really busy around here. The Tahiti Yacht Club is a wonderful spot. The moorings are (approx) $11USD/day - a real bargain. Included in that price is the use of the Club facilities - hot showers, restrooms, laundry ($3.50USD wash and $3.50USD dry), and there are 2 small restaurants here that are open for lunch. The big draw found everywhere are the 'roulettes' that come out at around 6:30pm. These are trucks which are set up as portable kitchens, fire up a hibachi grill, and (usually) serve Chinese food, chicken, fish and meat dishes. We've found prices are about 1000-1400 xfp (about 80xfp/USD); the food's been fresh and delicious! There are a few roulettes that show up outside the YC but more are found downtown; every night the vans/wagons fill the square on the waterfront, with their tables set up it's quite a scene. We also pulled Infini up to the TYC fuel dock and got duty free diesel (approx 72 xfp/liter or about $4.02USD/gallon at the exchange rate). The public buses run just outside the Club and go downtown to the yacht quay area; we walked around the commercial area in and out of chandleries, an ACE hardware and other local stores. We rented a car with our friends Dave & Sherry on Soggy Paws -(expensive at approx $110USD/day unlimited mileage) and have been seeing many parts of Tahiti far away from the Yacht Club. The big news is that we took Matt to the airport last night for his flight back to Florida. He'd been aboard about 10 months, and decided it was time to return to other priorities and places. We'll sure miss him around here and know it will take a while to adjust to his absence. We'll be staying occupied; more sightseeing today and preparing for the Tahiti-Moorea Yacht Rally that many of the Pacific Puddle Jump cruisers participate in which takes place Saturday. We'll be continuing our moseying west across the Pacific from there (Moorea).