Thursday 30 March – Tikis on the beach

Rowan and I went into town while the girls rested up, they had a late night last night partying it up at the Arc do and then on the beach afterwards. We had a lovely walk along the beach front . We came to the historical area which had loads of Tikis (carved stones) and stone platforms where buildings had been. The Polynesians arrived in 150 AD and came from Asia, but besides that there was no information on the site. The whole place is so well maintained and there seems to be a huge civic pride, it feels like the French are a real force for good here, unlike in the French Caribbean territories. The locals are hugely friendly.

Rowan and I had a salad for lunch at one of the few restaurants, we were not expecting much but landed up having a very tasty snack. Rowan had a rendezvous at 3pm at the Gendarmerie to meet Nevil and sign him off our crew and add him to the Crew of Cepa. They couldn’t do earlier as they had been on a tour. They all met at the Gendarmerie only to be told they had to come back in the morning, the Gendarmerie only do yacht stuff in the morning! We had planned to head off to Ua Pou but now have to stay until tomorrow.I went to the supermarket in search of tomatoes as a priority but seems there is little fresh produce available until the next supply ship. Prices are pretty steep too, Rowan paid $1.50 per egg from the market! $7.50 for a tiny bag of granola seemed a bargain.

We headed back to Polepole and the girls went off with the Argentian lads and some other crew to look for Manta Rays. In the evening lots of us arranged to go to the pizza restaurant for supper, shock horror we arrived and the place was packed out and we had to order take aways. We ordered a carbonara pizza to share as mushrooms and bacon lardons sounded delicious. What a disappointment when the pizza arrived covered in spaghetti without a mushroom in sight and very little bacon! Rowan and I headed back to the boat rather tired, while the girls went and joined the thank you party on Cepa. It only started at 9pm, way too late for us! The girls and the Argentinians came back to PolePole and were up until 5am on the trampoline, thankfully we never heard a thing.

The historical part of the beach, full of old Tikis and stone platforms from old buildings

Stone platform would have had a building on it

Never thought we would see Rowan in a Panama hat, but when in Panama one just has to do it!

Tikis with the Arc fleet anchored behind

No info about the place, we just admired it

We had a little rest on the black lava beach looking over to PolePole. The skylines are always intriguing, The Marquesan islands are the youngest geologically of French Polynesia

Han and Megan with some of the crew from other boats

Sunset behind the mountain