Raitea

May 22 - Simone (Francois' sister-in-law of a previous marriage) came to Papeete's Quai d'Yacht at  2 pm with garlands of flowers for each of us.  A sweet gesture.  She waited till we pulled away from the pontoon at around 3, probably glad that we were finally on our way and would not show up at her house again to borrow her car that we'd used extensively during our prolonged stay at Papeete.

We made our way out of Papeete harbor's northern pass and headed for Raitea which lay about 120 miles to the north.  Having spent more time than planned at Tahiti, we decided to give Suwarrow in the Cook Islands a miss.

We arrived at the pass into Raitea's main harbour at 11 am the next day and made for the town wharf.  It was still in the lagoon and as we motored through it, we could see a smal town with widely spaced buildings.  At the wharf, we found a spot between two sailboats that were tied up there.  We tied Skylark up and set about doing the usua arrival tasks.  Futile calls were made to the port authorities, but no one was answering, the day being Sunday.  No way to check in and pay any port fees that might have been levied.

The wharf is by the main road with free public access and a number of somewhat unsavoury looking characters hung out on the benches by the waterfront with some apparent interest in us.  The American yacht to our stern told us that they'd been broken into and had lost 2 laptop computers among other things.  We decided to have someone onboard Skylark at all times.  When Serge, Francois' nephew showed up, Ed volunteered to stay while we went to visit with Serge at his house.  Serge had built his house from scratch atop a hill on a large property all by himself and lives there with his wife Sondra and their two daughters (pictures later).  He has a variety of fruit trees and a large managerie of cats, dogs and chickens all of whom seem to co-exist in relative harmony, or at least succeed in ignoring each other.

Some of Sege's animals

Later in the afternoon, we went with Serge to pick up his family at the home of Sondra's cousin.  It was an extended family compound with a large house on the hill, a beach front home and another house for their son -- all at a lovely sea front setting.

Serge and his family

Back at the wharf, the waterfront was by now deserted.  It was a Sunday evening and there was only food to be had at a nearby Roulotte -- the ubiquitous restaurant on wheels found all over French Polynesia.  Food was served up by a group of transexuals, one of whom was well on his way to becoming a woman, except for the deep male voice when he spoke.  We brought the food back to the boat as we were still uneasy about the security at the wharf.

Some pictures of the lagoon at Raitea:

May 24 -- It was a Monday but a public holiday, and no one at the port was answering the VHF.  So we left Raitea without paying any port fees, having made best efforts to contact the authorities.  We reached the pass, took alignment with the leading marks and set a westerly course for our next destination -- Niue, some 970 miles away.