Anchoring around the capital Papeete has been made rather difficult, not allowed, except in very few, inconvenient spots. And those spots are chock full of boats. There are other, logical places to anchor, and typically one can claim to stay there for the first 24-48h, but then the water police may push one out. The hotels and lodges are doing their best to lobby politicians and public, for further legislation to disallow boats at anchor. There is a large mooring field, but when we called Marina Taina for a spot, we were told the moorings are only available with a one year contract. WTF? Boats still anchor there, enforcement is not always there, but we also know boats that have been told to "leave now!".
We have a bit of boat work to do (next post), and wanted a spot where we don't get chased away. Phaeton Bay is a natural harbor, protected by reefs from the swell. The village of Taravao is on the isthmus between mountains and has supermarkets, hardware store, marine stores, and a boatyard. It is perfect :-)
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| Taravao @ Baie de Phaëton |
Dinghy landing (1) is on public land by a "Boulodrome", we tie to a tree
and a have short (<10 min) walk to a shopping mall with Carrefour (2) .
The shopping mall also has a Nautisport shop with marine parts. A
well stocked Sin Tung Hing Marine store (3) is 10 minutes further on foot.
ACE (4) is another 10 minutes, on the other side of the isthmus.
We did eat and enjoy at Terre-Mer (5), at the waterfront, great food, expensive as anything in French Polynesia.
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| Silvie's new ride? |
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| When in Rome... Canard and a tiny bit of foie gras |
Later we learned, the restaurant owners don't like the boats anchored out, so we probably won't repeat
the visit here. Some boats left here do look rather ratty, some should definitely be removed, they give us cruisers a bad reputation.
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| Baie de Phaëton |
