Rain rain and more rain!!

It started raining the day of the Papeete rendezvous on Wednesday when the boat crews gathered at the main town quay in Papeete for a demonstration of a traditional sailing canoe. This was followed by a briefing for the skippers advising the best places to sail around the Society islands. Such a shame we will not be able to do much cruising as we are getting the boat hauled out next week we will probably have to sail straight to Bora Bora for the next rendezvous on 10 May. We have booked a few nights in a hotel whilst the boat is on the hard as there will be no fridge or freezer or showers available on the boat! So this means for Peter's birthday we will be staying in Hotel Tahiti Nui in Papeete which is only a short walk from the boatyard.

After the day time activities on Wednesday we gathered in the Town Hall for drinks and canapes and the usual prizegiving for leg 3 from Galapagos to Marquesas (the longest passage of the rally). Trompeta was winner of class B cruising division for having the shortest corrected time (there is a penalty for motoring).

Thursday was the day of the island tour and when the bus arrived at the Marina to collect us sure enough it was raining - again!! It was disappointing not to see the view of Moorea the sister island of Tahiti due to poor visability. The one good thing about the day was the excellent lunch laid on by the Gaugin Restaurant which was plentiful and hot which we all needed! It is surprising but the rain does cool everything down and it felt cold and damp just like an English summer?!? We did stop at a lovely botanical garden and were shown the white flower of Tahiti which is not to be confused with the plentiful white frangipane flowers. There are 9 different varieties of ginger flowers one of which reminded us of foxgloves.

After the island tour we were exhausted so an early night was the order of the day. Last night we had a very entertaining time with the Scottish couple David & Caroline (Peat Smoke) who came over for dinner. This morning was my visit to the hairdresser so I am now respectable again!! It was raining when we woke up today but it has sinced dried out but there are still lots of rain clouds hovering.