Our trip to paradise began with a hop from DFW to LAX where we met up with our friends from Houston. The Air Tahiti Nui flight from LAX to Papeete was inbound from Paris where it had been delayed due to the Icelandic volcano. The extra four hour wait wasn’t as bad as the shortened night’s rest when we arrived at Papeete – a 1:30 am arrival with our next flight to Raiatea departing at 7:20 am. But a couple of hours sleep after a shower definitely recharges the body!

We were apprehensive about the weight of all our baggage for the Air Tahiti interisland flight – their website says 44lbs/person with an extra 11 pounds allowed if you can prove you’re a diver. We had closer to 100 lbs. each. But as we experienced 5 years earlier, it was not a problem. Our friends had to pay an extra $30 since one bag was over 25 kilos – all of our bags were 50 lbs or under.

We got to the Moorings just after 9 am and had our bags aboard our 40 ft. Catamaran swiftly and had our chart briefing done by 11 am – just needed our provisions and we were off! But provisions were seriously delayed – worst provisioning experience from the Moorings in all the times we chartered with them. We were 3.5 hours delayed and were frustrated – grrrrrr. Could the volcano be affecting provisioning in Tahiti ?
We were finally off to our first nights destination close to 4 pm.

Jeff-iti, the tahitian nickname of our our friend from Houston made pina coladas for the fine women we had on this cruise and we then deployed our new hand line we had acquired to start the hunt for fish! We decided on an anchorage at 16’36.61 S / 15xxxx. Beautiful view of Tahaa and we could hear the waves crashing on the reef 300 yards away. Dinner of fresh tuna (provided by the Moorings, not our hand line – yet!) and we were off to the trampoline up front for the star show – remarkably clear night.

Tomorrow we are off to Huahine – we are sailing again in paradise!