The capital and only sizable settlement in the Gambier archipelago of French Polynesia is the town of Rikitea. Located in a shallow bay on the southeast flank of the island of Mangareva, the town has around 1,000 inhabitants.
A single paved (mostly) road winds along the waterfront, and town stretches for a half-mile/1 km or so in either direction from the main pier. The town hall, a small medical clinic, the police station, and a tiny post office are clustered together along with a few small food shops, or magasins, and a cathedral marks the western end of the main street.
A few cars and mopeds meander by from time to time, scattering the neighborhood dogs and chickens that roam the road. There are a couple of restaurants open for lunch, and a small one room kitchen serves carry-out pizza on weekends. Nobody is in much of a hurry, and nearly everybody waves as they pass.
While the anchorage is open to the southeast – the direction of the prevailing winds – the fringing outer reef of the giant atoll and the smaller inner reefs just offshore of Mangareva make conditions very nice. No swell gets in, the wind chop is minimal from the short fetch to the nearby reef, and there’s plenty of room for the 15 or so boats, all of whom have completed a long sail to get here.
After a passage, there’s always a long list of things to do onboard – cleaning up from the constant salt spray, straightening up, and converting the boat from a passage-making sailor to a liveaboard anchorer. It’s hard to imagine a nicer place to do it.
