Tahiti—Updates from Paradise
By Zuzana Prochaska
I’ve been to Tahiti seven times—six on charter and once as crew for a couple of yachties. Over the 25 years that I’ve been visiting, it’s changed dramatically. Yet, inexplicably, it has also stayed the same.
Lounging on the flybridge of our Sunsail 454, I had time to think about this dichotomy as I toasted the nighttime skies of Bora Bora and specifically the Southern Cross, a constellation that never fails to hypnotize. As the Crosby, Stills & Nash (1982) tune reminds us:
…you understand now why you came this way.
I had it on a loop, belting out the lyrics off-key, hoping nobody below would hear.
Earlier that afternoon, I dropped the crew off at Arii Motu Grill, on the southern tip of Piti Au Island at the southeastern end of Bora Bora’s lagoon. The place had picnic tables on a white sand beach, a hammock strung between palm trees, and a proprietor only too happy to fetch Hinano beer or some deadly rum punch. A group of Americans called out from the next table.
