Goodbye, Moorea

On our last day in Moorea a couple of cruise ships anchored in Cook’s Bay and Opunohu Bay. Rather than be annoyed by the sudden crowds, Jack and I know by now that the locals welcome the influx of shoppers and we hurry ashore to see the activity. Sure enough, a little souvenir village sprouted overnight and we browsed the booths of pearls and pareus and carvings along with the cruise ship passengers.    

     
We strolled through the village to a farm stand for fruit and on the way back I said to Jack, “Bet that guy’s a bass player.” Sure enough, he’s in one of the cruise ship bands, a great life, he says, and he listed all the places he’s been.  

Sheldon is from Trinidad and we told him how much we love his country and how we miss the national breakfast food called “doubles,” the spicy, messy curried chick peas on two little pancakes that starts the day right. He high-fived us in agreement, and we laughed that he was carrying four big bags of Doritos back to the ship.

Back on EV we weighed anchor, motored out of Cook’s Bay and said our fond farewell to beautiful Moorea.   

   We were only going the twelve miles back to Tahiti but the wind didn’t cooperate for a nice day sail. First we had 30kt gusts, then 20 on the nose, then the wind died altogether and we ended up motoring the whole way back in lumpy seas.  

 Our budget won’t allow us another week at the Papeete town marina so we motored an hour down the channel that wraps around the airport to the anchorage. As we passed each end of the runway we had to ask permission to proceed because we could be a hazard to a plane on takeoff or landing. I’m thinking they’d be a serious hazard to us, too.   

  We’re a bit off the beaten track but we have a view of the sunset over Moorea. Not bad. not bad at all.