A few minutes after 1700, I left the dinghy dock at the
Quai de yachts, at the Boulevard de la Reine Pōmare IV, the dock I use for most errands in Pape’ete.

There was almost no wind, glassy see with a few ripples here and there. In the area of the Passe de Pape’ete there was, as always, the remains of the swell outside the reef to be felt. No other waves.

The sun was already pretty low at the horizon. I needed to pull my cap a bit down that I was not dazzled by the direct sunlight.

The sunlight refections on the flat water surface were still strong painting the surface red and gold but still, a bit away from the sun glitter, the turquoise and blue water color was to be seen.

At one area of the reef just south of the Passe de Pape’ete, the smaller rocks which look always out of the water, appeared black.

Where the reef is a bit deeper, I could recognize an outrigger boat with two people fishing. A few other boats but with motors where also out for fishing. As the sunlight was so low, all what I saw in this direction were the silhouettes. Black, sharp lines in the warmth of the sun glitter.

The dinghy was planning smoothly through the water out of the wake. The motor made its monotone sound.

There where plenty of sports outrigger out on the water. People, mostly men, but also a few women, like this sports. Some of them race occasionally with me and cannot only reach my dinghy’s speed but can hold it for distances around a kilometer.

The ones to my PRT side were perfectly illuminated in the warm sunlight. When they looked over to me and not only straight forward in the direction of their boats, I greet then always with the Polynesian shaka sign. They, no hands free, just greeted back with a movement of their heads and their friendly face expression was emphasized by the warm sunlight.

I passed a 6 person outrigger to STB with the glazing sunlight directly behind the outrigger, the outrigger and the boat moving through the water and the paddling person’s inside appeared like a silhouetted animation. Surprisingly nice.

While coming closer to MaRe the sun appeared more towards behind Mo’orea and turned warmer and warmer.

It was a wonderful dinghy ride were I missed my OBM very much.