American Spirit II - Day 113; Paul and David Fox Arrive; for Their Second Leg; Saturday, April 26, 2014

Up at 6:30 Am. Typed 1 1/2 logs. Get further behind when anchored because there are more 'distractions' to impede the writing of the logs.



Breakfast at 8:00 AM; followed at 9:00 AM by a cab ride to downtown Papeete. Before leaving I offered a ride to 2 other sailors, one of whom was on Dasha Away. We split the cab ride, which totalled 2,300 French francs. Once downtown I went shopping for me black pearls. While downtown I also ventured into the 'market' where all sorts of fruits, meat and fish are sold.



Back at the boat at noon; then left again to walk to McDonald's near the boat. Ordered a double cheeseburger, fries and coke. First time in a McDonald's since leaving on the trip. Only problem was that I expected the double cheeseburger to be smaller than it was. Ate it, but shouldn't have. Joel ordered a frappe and got a serious case of ice cream forehead. I'm glad he didn't pass out because I wasn't giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation. I felt sorry for him so I ordered an Oreo Mc Flurry...and got 'ice cream teeth.' Never experienced that before. Must be the constant heat we've been enduring. While in the restaurant I noticed a frail, 4 foot tall worker whose job it was to clean the tables. Nice lady. Good worker. Made her day by giving her something unusual. Every now and then we all deserve a break today. I believe that's an old McDonald ad line. Or was it Burger King?



At 3:00 PM walked to grocery store, a place called Carrfore's. Think Wal-mart with the grocery section but a smaller retail section. About 1/2 mile from the marina. Interesting grocery cart policy. You put 100 French francs, about $1.00, into a coin holder on the cart, then after shopping you wheel the cart to the marina and put it back into a line of other grocery carts and get you 100 francs back. On the way back to the marina the grocery cart underwent the 'mountain effect.' Golfers know what that is. Whenever you play golf in Phoenix or some other place where there are adjacent mountains, the fairways tilt in a specific direction, even though you can't see the 'tilt.' When I pushed the grocery cart back to the marina it kept wanting to roll left into the highway. I had to steer 45 degrees to the right to keep from crashing into the traffic.



Back on the boat at 4:45 PM Brian Ramsey, a 16 year old from Follie a Deux and nicknamed by me 'Fisherman' because he's caught more fish than any one person on the rally; came by the boat to 'consult' with Joel and me about how we can catch more fish. For his consulting he was given a Rebella fishing lure.



Happy Hour at 5:00 PM was a bust as no other boaters in our rally were there. One drink and we're out of there. At 6:00 PM while strolling around the docks to see how many rally boasts were still around, I found that there were quite a few. They were just having 'happy hour' on their boats. Tommy and Marianne invited me onto II Audeacious for a glass of white wine. To get on their boat I had to 'walk the plank.' Meaning, they were 'med moored,' backed into a concrete dock, so I literally had to walk on a plank, in this case, a steel plank that was part of their boat, to get to their boat. Not fun. If you slip, you're in the water.



Back at the boat at 6:30 PM I spent the next hour putting away the non-perishable provisions.



At 8:00 PM I took a taxi to the airport that was only 10 minutes away. Cost 2,300 francs or about $28.00. Cab rides in Tahiti are not cheap. The airport in Papeete was entirely 'open air,' meaning there were no walls to the waiting area. You didn't enter thru a door to get inside. They landed at 8:37 PM, 13 minutes early; and cleared customs in 5 minutes. Impressive. Once they exited to the public area, we rented a 4 wheeled drive car for our ride around the island the next day. The reason we wanted a 4 wheel drive vehicle is that we were hoping to find the road that would take us to the top of Tahiti's highest mountain. I was advised by our bus tour driver the day before that the road required 4 wheel drive to traverse it. David and Paul had been on the boat once before during the circumnavigation, for the Panama Canal Transit.



Which reminds me, I can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous log, but Sail Magazine has an article in its May issue that has Joel's picture in it; and references my name and American Spirit II. The same magazine, in their video section on line, has a 10 minute video that primarily focuses on the boat Nexus, with us and II Audeacious alongside during the Panama Canal Transit 'rafted' to them. Paul has quite a bit of air time in the video as he's seen on a few occasions on the bow of our boat tending to lines tossed to him by the canal workers.



By 10:00 PM we were back at the boat. Paul and David were berthed in the forward V-Berth. I had installed a lee cloth down the center of the V-Berth so we could sleep two female or male crew members with their own privacy sleeping compartment. Cozy, some would say 'tight,' but very functional.



Brian Fox