Tours of the Carenage yard and Raiatea

I took a tour of Raiatea on Friday, then dropped by the Carenage to do some work.  Raiatea is a beautiful island.

 

What a beautiful place! This photo is just through the window as I was driving, but as you can see, it's lush and beautiful.  I have no idea what the mountain's name is.   

Again, just a shot that I took because it was so beautiful.  

This bay is on the Northwest side of the island.  I'm sure that it has a name, but I don't know it.  People live here on the bay,  Just imagine...

House plant! In our home, this is a tiny plant that barely clings to life.  Here, it grows by the roadside and is as tall as I!

Perhaps it's an odd photo, but the roads on the East side of the island were re-paved and this is one of the trucks that was used.  It's from Tahiti!  Workers must have loaded it onto the ferry, alongside the various road equipment that we're all used to seeing at work.  I'll bet that the cost is a bit higher.

From my vantage point, this is a photo toward the other direction.  There are shades of bluegreen water that show the shallows and deeper channels.  

Here's another gorgeous, volcanic peak covered in verdant greens.

A sad sight for a sailor to see: a sunken sailboat. I have no information about the wreck, but it was recent enough that the vessel is intact. The reef is fairly close so she could have been dragged over reef, and went aground on inner reef. Who knows?

A new resort is being built, the first we've ever seen.  It's on the rainy, windy side of the island but there are fewer people.  Looks fancy.

This sign could be in the rural Southern US.  In English?  Mystery House?  Truly odd.

This is one of my favorite sights but we don't always have time to drive to see it.  What a gorgeous tower and I'll be that it's never been climbed.  I'll bet that no one has ever even thought of climbing it.  

As I was walking through the Carenage yard, I came upon a Lagoon 620, a 62-foot catamaran.  It's HUGE!  It hit a reef very hard and the damage was extensive.  It lost both rudders, as this port-side rudder shows.

    

These odd things are sail drives.  They are the propulsion for the big Lagoon and they were damaged by the collision then ruined by immersion in the salt water.  When working, they protrude vertically downward through the hull.  I don't like them for that reason.

There was a keel here!  The impact completely removed both keels (it's a catamaran).

This photo is from a different catamaran, but one that sustained similar damage. Note the new keel! The yard has its positives and negatives, but it's the best and most experienced yard in the Eastern South Pacific.