After a two night sloooow sail from Fakarava, Tuamotus, we arrived in Papeete, Tahiti in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, the attachment to the sheets on the Genoa ripped on the first day, making the sail a few hours longer as we sailed only with two reefs in our main sail.
There are not many places to anchor in Tahiti, most go to a marina or anchor by the airport. When you enter the pass, you have to ask permission to sail past the runway. Wouldn’t want an airplane bumping into our mast 😊
When we arrived, we saw there were at least 50 other boats at the anchorage, including the ones on moorings. It was a huge contrast to the remote atolls of Tuamotus arriving in a crowded anchorage right next to a busy airport and a big city.
We met a Norwegian sailor who arrived with his boat here five years ago. He has settled down and since started a rental car company on the island. He shared with us that there were no boats at this anchorage back then, and that things have changed a lot during the past five years.
It is becoming clear that there are many more people who have started sailing lately. Covid has had its impact, and more are now fulfilling lifelong dreams. Also, popular YouTube sailor channels are inspiring people to head out on the waters.
The challenge is that small island states in popular areas, like French Polynesia, are not set up to receive so many boats each year. There is a big debate locally about what to do. While we were here, the news dropped that it will become much harder to sail to Tahiti already next year. From 2025, the authorities will not allow any boats that have not pre-booked either a spot in a marina or have a pre-approved anchoring location.
The challenges these places face with catering to more boats, include expanding the infrastructure, such as onshore garbage disposal systems and places to land dinghies, more rescue services, increased immigration and customs workloads, etc. Things like these are not easy to set up over night, and new systems for how to get paid for these new services also need to be put in place.
The local population is normally not happy about the increased number of boats as well. Some gets their ocean view polluted by getting a forest of masts outside their property. It is easy to understand that they want to restrict things.
We are happy that we came here a year earlier than planned, and set out to explore the island before our spot on the boatyard became available.
Tahiti is the biggest island in French Polynesia, and also hosts the capital, Papeete. The group of islands here are called the Society islands, and is younger than the atolls in Tuamotus. It really looks like a combination of the mountainous Marquesan islands with reefs from the atolls in Tuamotus surrounding them.
There are lots of great hikes in the lush and tall mountains of Tahiti, and we quickly set out on one of them. After several months on the flat atolls, our legs needed the exercise. It started pouring down just as we were at the spot furthest away from our car, so it was a rather wet affair. But, it was also very refreshing, and as we entered a pine forest, it almost felt like we were back in Norway.
We had the rental car for three days, and enjoyed exploring lots on the island. We were impressed by the diversity, from the big waves in the south where the recent Paris summer Olympics hosted the surfing contests to the crisp air in the high mountains, reaching 2,200 meters. Almost as high as Norway’s highest mountain!
The buzz of the city was overwhelming, while the selection of the supermarkets were awesome. We enjoyed visiting restaurants and coffee bars, and had a little taste of the city lifestyle. We don’t miss it that much, but it does feel good when you have that cocktail, pizza or ice cream, though!
10 days after arriving in Tahiti, the yard was ready to welcome us on the hard, so now it’s work time again! It will be a week of focusing on getting all fixes done 💪