… seems impossible at times and is immensely frustrating. Everybody knows that they have a monopoly on whatever trade they’re in and we spend most days running after people trying to persuade them to take our money. The last boatyard we were in was extremely unfriendly and dirty (Technimarine in Papeete) and as we have to haul out another time we tried to get hold of the other yard further south (TNC in Port Phaeton). What a suprise that a professional boatyard neither answers to emails nor answers the phone. In the end we made an appointment in Raiatea for the haul out.
Another good example is the rigger (Api yachting): Pitufa needs some new rigging and we visited the rigger in his loft at the beginning of June. He told us to write an email with details and to order immediately afterwards and to have everything ready within 3 weeks. He never answered to our emails, ignored phone calls, came up with lame excuses (of course i answered your email, didn’t you get it…). Now he’s finally sent a quote, but it turns out that he only orders after a deposit of 60% has been made (more than 1000 euros), but he’s only got a polynesian bank account (our bank doesn’t even have an internet form for such a transaction) or cash payment. Why couldn’t he have told us before, when we were almost daily in town? As we have to leave for Raiatea tomorrow (later on the wind shifts to the north and it’s impossible to go) the only option was to visit him personally this afternoon. By bus/hitching rides it’s an odyssee to town and you never know how long it’ll take so Christian took the dinghy to make sure to still catch him. 5 miles along the lagoon in our little dingsy were quite an epic journey, but now the deposit’s done, let’s see how long it’ll take until we actually get the wires…
Hopefully the ordering will work out, t
