The propaganda war against cruisers goes on in Tahiti. We saw in a magazine (Tahiti Pacifique) that after a horrible accident where a cruiser kid was killed by a speeding motorboat right next to his parents’ boat, not speeding in lagoons is critizised, but again the sailboats are blamed for ‘blocking channels’ and posing a risk?! The big anchorage off Marina Taina is (yet again) scheduled to be ‘cleared of boats’ and according to a pamphlet by the harbour master of Papeete anchoring will soon be forbidden (or already is) everywhere in Tahiti. Cruisers get blamed for polluting, damaging coral and loitering in the lagoon.
Last week we had heavy rainfalls and Pitufa was floating in debris that had been swept into the lagoon: plastic bottles, plastic bags, flip-flops, cans, but also a flatscreen (who would have thought they’d float?), tyres, a motorcycle helmet (no driver attached, we checked) and the sea smelt like a sewer from all the overflown cess pools. It’s so much easier to point at cruisers (who don’t have a lobby) instead of admitting and tackling the serious problems Tahiti has…
