Thursday, July 03, 2008

Tahiti



Tahiti is a big city, quite the change from the remote little villages we've spent the past few weeks visiting. We tied to the quay right in the center of down town which allowed us easy access to the shops and to the market, a wonderful experience indeed. The market opens at 5am every day and on Sundays even more vendors come and they close off two of the side streets to accommodate the extras. Here you can buy fresh fish, meats, fruits and vegetables along with local handicrafts and much much more. Around noon each day, most of the vendors as well as most of the local stores, close for sieste, as you can see, the Tahitians work very hard! There was a huge paddling competition all weekend we were there, all the activity took place right in the bay!



Our first night in the city we went out for dinner, a rare treat, but in Tahiti, most of the restaurants are only open for lunch, if you want to go out for dinner, you go for a stroll along the quay until you get to this big open area where all of the local "Trucks" come to offer their fare. It is here were you can enjoy Chinese food, crepes, pizza, Steak and more! The kids ate hamburgers while we had an excellen T-Bone steak and fries, something we haven't had since we left home!
After three days at the quay we moved a couple miles further West to a popular anchorage where we were able to refuel and provision and the big Carrfour grocery store - awesome! I loved all of the French products and could have spent hours and a small fortune in there.


The girls are getting very proficient at handling the lines as we come into the dock for fuel.


Since we moved from the quay on a Sunday and were unable to pay, we had to travel back into Papetee one more time, this time, we took Le Truck one of the forms of local public transportation.
Pretty well everything in French Polynesia is more costly than home, but somethings more than others, such as Candy, Ice Cream, Alcohol, Perfume and Cars all considered to be luxury items and in an attempt to solve the country's problem with diabetes a very high tax is applied to sweets. Can you guess how much this little cache of candy set us back??????
Shockingly, this special treat cost 1100 Polynesian Francs which is just over $15 Canadian! We won't be doing that very often!
NOTE: PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR FRIENDS BLOGS AS OFTEN THEY HAVE PICTURES OF US AND DIFFERENT PICTURES FROM OURS.
ONE MORE SPECIAL NOTE: Larry Pruit, would you please include your email next time you post a comment, we would love to correspond with you. We really appreciate your support.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello dearest friends,

Long time..no talk. I just invested the last 1/2hour reading your blog and getting caught up. What magnificent pictures and updates. We appreciate all the info you provide as it makes the pictures more relevant. You all look great! It was nice to see you (Jay) spending some time with the boys. It's good for the soul.

We have been super busy with all the wrap up events at the end of school,sports.music and dance and we hosted an 80th birthday bash here at "Rainbow Park" for Sandra's Dad and another for Braeden's Grade 7 Grad party. About90 people between the two events. We are just gearing up for "Creation Fest" down at the Gorge in Washington State and then we are immediately off to the Maritimes for a couple of weeks. Braeden and Calsie will be going to "Stillwood Camp" with the church for the last week of Aug and Braedenn has been at another church camp on Vancouver Island this week.
We hope to make some time for water skiing in between these events as both Calsie and Braeden are keen to bringing some friends out on the boat.
Sandra is still instructing at Kwantlen University part time and has put in a couple of shifts in at the birthing ward at SMM Hospital to keep her skills up.
My business is booming right now and I am going to have to shut it down for three weeks as we head out on holidays.

We love and miss you!!

(Uncle)Cal,(Aunty)Sanrda, Calsie & Braeden

Curare said...

Hello happy travelers,

We are back in Canada for the summer where both of us have got JOBS! How weird is that? Right now our plan is to return to Mexico in September and we will continue south from San Carlos, probably spending one more month in the Sea.

Your trip through the South Pacific sounds fabulous. Where did all the cactii go? Thanks for posting the wonderful photos and interesting text.

Happy sailing and keep safe.

The crew of Curare

Larry Pruitt said...

Crandell family,

It has been a few weeks since we had checked your site. What wonderful photos that you have posted. My wife Karla and I spent over an hour reading your blog, swooning over your photos and looking at the blogs of your friends. I won't take so long to check-in next time. It is especially inspiring after having met you at Catalina Island while sailing our Hunter 36 'Bodacious.'

It looks like the Lord blessed you with safe travel and some good experience while sailing across the Pacific. During your crossing I was able to monitor your path and track your boat speed using your location link. That is really cool!

We love your photos and commentary. We shake our head in amazement of the overwhelming beauty that you folks now live in. What an incredible display of God's creation both above and below the water! I wish we could have joined you at the little church service. That sounded like a real treat. Mmmm and the lobster looks great! Our daughter Bethany and I SCUBA dive as well and I was impressed with your comments and photos on the black tipped reef sharks. That sounds a little scary to me. ;>) Keep those pictures coming as often you have time to do so.

I learned to sail in high school by trading baby sitting, of my cousin's young son, for sailing lessons. At that time I was 16 years old and have been addicted to sailing since then. Karla and I had a small C-15 in the early days of our marriage and later sold it when our children came along. Our prior experience was on lakes but we always said that we would go to the ocean someday. Two years ago we started our adventure at sea as we started the process of getting our ASA certificates and then spending as much time as possible sailing between Oxnard, CA and the offshore Channel Islands. Now, after 34 years of marriage we making real progress toward our goal of becoming cruisers. We are rehearsing our future dream of through your adventure and experience. Our next training step toward cruising is an 8 day bare boat charter in the BVI in November. Rich and Sheri Leimbach, that you met with us in Catalina, will be sailing with us then too. I'm sure we'll think of you many times during our trip.

Finally, if you have an email address that you can share, I can reduce and send a couple of great photos that I took of you folks at Catalina. The best one is of your beloved Diesel riding on the bow of your dinghy headed ashore at Two Harbors.

May the Lord continue to bless you all as you are are a blessing and inspiration to the rest of us.

Larry Pruitt
E-mail: larry.pruitt@comcast.net
3345 South Jackie St
Visalia, CA 93277
Phone: (559)308-6504