With the LosLocos, everything always is well planned and organized and that’s why we always are so extremely relaxed. This for example means that the day after we arrived from Bora Bora we spent the whole day emptying out the ship and cleaning everything on the inside with fresh water. The night we had two friends of the Bruno staying for a sleepover. Next day we started at 06h with birthday action and later had a nice party on the beach. Just when everything was over and we had cleaned the dishes, we went anchor-up and left for Tahiti.
This time we stayed at the pontoon in the city. Next morning at 06h Gui was already underway to get her carte de sejours – to extend her allowed time in the country. On the way back through the city we bought about 50 kilos of fabrics for Coquito and had to wrestle everything back to the ship. Right after we get everything on board, we leave towards the Marina Taina. It’s a few miles south and is closer to the airport in Tahaa. But I’m a bit nervous about the anchorage there as the wind is supposed to shift to the south on the next day and that can lead to a Maramu: a strong wind from the south that get’s accelerated in between the islands. We’ve seen it before and know that we could not get ashore in our dinghy in those conditions which means we might have to plan for a water taxi.
When sailing towards the marina we are amazed by the number of boats here. The main season really has arrived. No free mooring balls and plenty of yachts in the limited space there is to put an anchor. But we boldly throw the iron right in front of the dinghy dock into the 16m deep water of the lagoon. While Gui fights to fit 60kg of luggage into two bags a 23kg and her hand luggage, I take the kids to Carrefour where we get some good food for the coming days. While there I run into Lily from the SY Portal who contacted me earlier to talk about selling the windvane of the Rancho Relaxo. We agree to postpone the negotiations to dinnertime in the pizzeria. At sunset we’re in the restaurant and enjoy our last minutes together – and we also sell Wendy our windvane.
On wednesday at 04:50h in the morning the buzzing of the alarm clock throws us out of bed and I take Gui and her luggage to the dinghy dock where the cab is already waiting. Later at about eight in the morning we see how the windvane is dismounted and transported to the SY Portal. That’s when we also see the dark clouds approach from the south. We quickly say good bye to our friends, get the dinghy up and leave before the Maramu hits…