July 12 - Taha'a

I don't really know why Tahaa was calling me over there so strongly. There's plenty to do and see in Raiatea, but the smaller island of Tahaa, encircled by the same fringing reef as its larger sister, beckoned me as surely as getting an email invitation. We had a delightful sail over there in about 18 knots of SE breeze and took a mooring at the Taravana Yacht Club in Apu Bay. Unfortunately, the YC is closed indefinitely, but the moorings are maintained by an American expat named Richard, who also collects the daily charges to stay there. We actually ended up on a brand new mooring (purely by happenstance) and invited Richard aboard when he came out to the boat. He's quite the raconteur, and we enjoyed hearing about the way things were in the old days; he'd been in Bora Bora over 30 years and at Tahaa for the last 6 years, so knows the local stuff going on, the people, and speaks Tahitian, French, English and Spanish. He finally had to get going and we settled down to a quiet evening of perfect temperature and no worries. In the morning we slipped the mooring for the Hibiscus Hotel and YC to see the turtle sanctuary there. The building is amazing; colorful flags from yachts of many countries hang from the ceiling beams, and the furniture reminded me of an old European inn. Meals and happy hours daily are served there but we took pictures and departed for the motor sail back to Utoroa. We filled up with duty-free diesel at the Total station (96 cfp/liter, or about $4.56/G at present exchange rates) and then anchored at the reef just across from town where our friends Dennis & MaryLee of sv Lardo were. We took two dinghies into town to provision at the Champion supermarket, and had an ice cream as well. Never shop on an empty stomach, right? The last few days have been busy, and tomorrow is the Bastille Day parade here in Utoroa. Lots of places to go, things to do, and never enough time!