Our Tahiti weather briefing confirmed the lessening head winds giving us the opportunity to depart. A threatening frontal passage was to be off to the west. We delayed our departure time to 6 AM so it would be daylight when we encountered it. As it turned out the front had somewhat decayed and was mostly aloft with little weather or chop at FL 060.

The head winds had somewhat abated but not as much as we had hoped. Prudent reduced power settings gave us assurance of reaching our destination with ample fuel reserves. Fuel flows started at 14 GPH and progressively reduced with burn off to almost as little as 11 GPH. These fuel flows gave us 23 hours endurance.

Tahiti ATC expressed concern and cleared us to land at any airport if necessary..It was comforting to know but something to avoid since there was no Avgas at any of the out islands. So with reduced power and airspeed our total en route time was 19:01. Our tails were dragging.

At Tahiti we were handled by Air Tahiti agent Erik making customs and immigration easy. Having handled us he was finished for the night. He graciously drove us to the Hotel Mandarin in Papeete where we stayed at Nicolas' recommendation. He said it wasn't too great but would do for just one night. For $110 it was not too great, but convenient to the waterfront with about 20 mobile restaurants with all sorts of food choices. Ed had chicken, Dick shrimp. Delicious.

We were not too thrilled with Tahiti and decided to leave the next day, Monday for Rarotonga.