Flying internationally has never caused me any grief in
regards to baggage allowance. Sure, the days of being able to bring two 25kg (50
lbs) free bags with you as checked luggage are mostly over, but any respectable
airline carrying you over an ocean, allows their passengers to check one bag of
25kg (50 lbs) for free, no problem, even if it is packed to the brim. Flying from and
back to Tahiti – through the US and the UK – therefore did not prove to be a
worry or a hassle on Air France, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. The issue
on my way back home arose for the last leg Nuku Hiva – Tahiti.
The checked baggage allowance on Air Tahiti (to Tahiti and
elsewhere within French Polynesia) is a mere 10 kg (20 lbs)! Yes, we are
talking about the luggage which is being stowed in the bowel of the airplane.
If you prove that you have a connecting international flight within days of arriving
in Tahiti, you buy a return ticket and you arrange for your file to be adjusted
in the computer, Air Tahiti allows you to check 20 kg (40 lbs) of luggage. Much
better, but… still 5 kg or 10 lbs less than what every visitor to the islands
bring from home or what they assume is allowed. When I made all my arrangements
for the trip to Tahiti in Nuku Hiva, nobody mentioned anything about carry-ons.
The flights from Belgium to Tahiti were long; the lay-overs
as well. By the time I wanted to check in with Air Tahiti for my last leg of
the journey, I was tired. While the previous check-ins and flights went smooth,
with no issues in regards to my big duffel bag, my regular sized carry-on and
my laptop bag, at the desk of Air Tahiti, in the airport of Faaa (Tahiti), I
came to a stop. And, so did other tourists. My duffel bag weighed 22 kg (44
lbs), so 2 kg or 4 lbs too much. Then, the employee wanted to see my carry-on,
which fits in the normal overhead bins of other airplanes. Without blinking,
she told me this item was not allowed in the cabin of the plane (even though I left
Nuku Hiva with it in the cabin of the same Air Tahiti plane) and that I had to
check it. On top of the restricted size for this flight, the allowed weight for a carry-on is... 3 kg (6 lbs)! Mine weighed 18 kg (36 lbs). With a blank face,
she told me I owed her the equivalent of $160 in overweight charges!
I complained. Other tourists did as well, after the first shock of this unwelcome news, but all paid the required fees, rather promptly.
I did not. I tried all the arguments I could find – how unfair this is to
someone who arrived on connecting flights allowing this luggage arrangement,
how it was not an issue on the leg TO Tahiti, how none-obese people should not
have to suffer from the adjusted luggage allowance limits conducted every three
years and getting 5 kg (10 lbs) less each time, how the weight issue must not
be much of an issue if you can get everything on the plane anyway, as long as
you pay huge amounts of money for it, how – if weight was such a problem – they
should weigh passengers AND their luggage together and come up with a total
allowance (South Pacific people are known to be relatively heavy) - to no avail.
Appalled by the ridiculous and mandatory fee, I uttered
again how expensive the plane ticket was to begin with (over $700 for a three
hour flight) and that the overweight charge really was a lot of money. Then, the
woman at the desk mentioned that I could try to check my carry-on bag as cargo.
Time was running out, but I managed to find the freight department and – to
make a crazy expensive story a tad less expensive – shipped my carry-on as
“cargo” with the same plane for about $110. I could have sent the luggage on
the next day’s flight for about $60, but… then all the chocolaty contents would
have melted! The plane from Tahiti to Nuku Hiva carried about 20 passengers,
spread out over 70 seats, bringing the empty seat – paying passenger ratio to
3:1 …
When there is no competition or customer consideration,
companies like Air Tahiti can charge what they want and take advantage of every
chance to do so! My recommendation for cruisers wanting to fly to their home countries or for guests to come visit, is to wait until the boat is in Tahiti.
After three and a half months of living on land and
accumulating a lot of “goodies” to bring back with us to Tahiti, Mark and I
were a bit anxious about returning home to Irie. With four bulging checked bags
and three carry-ons, we kept wondering how we would manage to take everything
back, on the plane, into French Polynesia, towards the marina and over water to
our boat on a mooring ball. And, how would we adjust to the challenging boat life again after all that had happened? All in all, the trips went pretty smooth, except
for a small glitch in LA, which had nothing to do with our luggage, but
everything with poorly defined computer screens and infrastructure.
Our plane landed in Faa’a (Pape’ete) at 5am, customs was no
issue (we didn’t stand out with our cart piled high), we arrived by taxi van at
marina Taina at 6am, where a friendly cruiser – Bonnie from SV Romany Star –
picked us up a half hour later, and let us use her dinghy to bring all our bags
to Irie. At 7am on Friday, August 15th, we were officially back
home. Irie was in decent shape for having been in the tropics this long without
us, thanks to some of our cruising friends. Her waterline was very filthy, a whole foot up from the water surface, because of the big swell and chop and the scum
passing through in this area. Her decks were gross with the city’s particles
falling out of the sky. The bimini was ripped in a few places. All to be
expected. 
Our biggest surprise came when we looked forward of the bow
and found only one mooring line attached - running from one bow to the other,
highly non-recommended and something experienced cruisers would NEVER do,
because of chafe, let alone the fact that Irie was sitting on top of the ball
and the line was rubbing underneath the boat taking all our new bottom paint off!
– while we had left our floating home secured by two mooring lines in the
safest and best positioned way, and a “back-up” line in the middle! None of our
friends had anything to do with this set-up, so the mystery remains unsolved…
Why would a stranger get on our boat and replace a perfectly safe and well-prepared
situation with one that can cause damage and loss of our boat?
But, Irie was safe and sound (and still there!), so we got
to work immediately. By 10am all the bags were unpacked and all the contents
stored somehow. A short nap followed. In the afternoon, Mark fixed the outboard
engine which was seized from laying on its side for so long, still containing
salt water. And, we got the little motor – our lifeline to shore - running
again. Our old toilet seat was replaced and a broken burner as well. When it
was time to cook, another problem arose. The solenoid for our propane stove
didn’t work anymore. Luckily, a new one was found easily (we love our spare
parts!) and an hour later, we could make dinner. On Saturday, we both jumped
into the water early and cleaned the nasty waterline, while the bay was
relatively calm. Good idea, because by noon, the usual choppy waves had
arrived. The afternoon was spent searching for healthier food options in the Carrefour
supermarket and stocking the boat up with groceries. By the end of the weekend,
we had paid our hefty mooring fees, bought a few more odds and ends, had both
diesel engines running smoothly, and moved anchorages.
Following the advice of our cruising friends Birgit and
Christian on SV Pitufa, we motored two hours north, to arrive in the comfortable
anchorage of Arue, where we used our new chain for the first time. Happy to be at anchor again and not bounce
around anymore, we enjoyed the new surroundings and figured out a way to obtain
decent internet (by paying lots of money and having a great WiFi product!),
which kept us entertained for the rest of the day. When the sun set at 5:45pm,
a local woman onshore kept yelling at us to move. We promised her to do so
first thing in the morning, since it was getting dark quickly and we couldn’t see
the reefs. But, she did not let up, screaming and urging us to move NOW. So, against
better judgment, we upped anchor and plopped ourselves in the middle of other
anchored boats, only to have to move again later on, when the wind shifted and
we were too close to our neighbors. No surprise there… This was the first time
we were approached in such an unfriendly and inhospitable way by a Polynesian
resident!
We met up with our friends on Pitufa after many months of
having different experiences and adventures, and the chores on Irie continued:
scrubbing the decks, cleaning the roof to be able to collect rainwater again,
installing a new accumulator tank, changing the oil in both engines, and
performing other engine maintenance. We have much more cleaning to do and a new jib (head sail) is waiting for us. It’s good to be back on Irie! :-)
