Day 237: Cook’s Bay, Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia)
Date and Time: Monday, June 12, 2006, 1800 Tahiti Time
Latitude: 17 degrees 30 minutes
Longitude: 149 degrees 49 minutes
Weather: Awful!
See Pictures Here

We anchored in Cook’s Bay in pouring rain and fog this morning about 11:00 AM. Since midnight, the weather continued to get worse and worse. We had one squall right after another during the night, packing winds to 40+ knots, and as the sun rose, the heaven’s broke loose. It rained so hard that when we passed Tahiti and we saw only a glimpse of land. We were almost in the approach for the pass into Cook’s Bay before we could Moorea. We found someone (a boat named Diva) on VHF Channel 16 in Cook’s Bay, however, who gave us good directions. We entered the well marked pass and immediately the seas calmed down, but the rain kept coming. We chose this landfall because it is an easy bay to enter and lived up to its reputation. Stillpoint will be coming in around 9:00 PM tonight and we will be guiding them by VHF.

We did not realize what a toll the passage had taken on us until we ate lunch and started to relax. Every muscle in our bodies was aching from the constant struggle to remain upright and not be thrown across the cockpit in the tremendous winds we have had all the way here from the Marquesas. We are just grateful that we were able to run with the wind all the way here which made the high winds at least safe. We slept all afternoon and feel much better now . . . so much better that we are heading over to the Club Bali Hai Hotel for Happy Hour! We are truly happy to be here, safe and sound.

The bay here is named for Captain Cook who came here before us, landing here in 1769. We seem to be following his path around the Pacific. His ship, the Endeavor, actually anchored in Opunohu Bay next door and he visited here in his long boat. More history and full report on the beauty of this place tomorrow once the sun comes out and the clouds go away. The rain has stopped and even with the low clouds, you can see that this is a spectacular place.

Day 238: Cook’s Bay, Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia)
Date and Time: Tuesday, June 13, 2006, 1800 Tahiti Time
Weather: Stormy Morning, Beautiful Afternoon

See Pictures Here

We are still in “slow” mode and just kicking back and enjoying the beautiful scenery here. It really is beautiful, even more so now that the sun is shining brightly and the blue skies have returned. The stormy weather is over for now and the locals here are talking about the fact that they never have these kinds of wind this time of year. This is the dry season here and the torrents of rain were also unexpected. I think it is always that way with the weather, but this year seems to be more so everywhere.

We went to the Club Bali Hai Hotel for Happy Hour last night with our friends from Quantum Leap. The hotel is done in traditional style with little peaked huts with thatched roofs all along the waterfront. When we landed at the dinghy dock, we walked through an outdoor bar and restaurant that was closed last night, but went into what looked like the hotel lobby-still partly open to the outside. Hotel guests and yachties were all gathered in a circle with an elderly gentleman as the center of attention. I think he owns the hotel and likes to tell stories at Happy Hour of his many years here. We were a little late and didn’t get in on this, but we were in time for the crab races. Everyone bets on one of four crabs, and then they are let loose in a “race track” of sorts. It was great fun watching how excited people can get over a little crab! Number 4 was definitely the winner last night. We were introduced to Mark and Dana from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They are staying at the hotel, but they went to dinner with the Quantum Leap gang and ourselves. We actually went out to a Mexican restaurant and had enchiladas and tacos. That was fun, but I am looking forward to the Tahitian dance show at the hotel tomorrow night, and maybe some more traditional French Polynesian food.

Stillpoint arrived safely last night. Just minutes after we returned to the boat after dinner, we got their radio call announcing that they were entering the bay. Of course, we were having another squall at the time, but they made it in safely and were very glad to be here. We will commiserate over our passage experiences tonight at dinner aboard Windbird and then put that behind us and start exploring this beautiful place tomorrow.

Day 239: Cook’s Bay, Moorea (Society Islands, French Polynesia)
Date and Time: Wednesday, June 14, 2006, 2200 Tahiti Time
Weather: Fantastic!

The beauty of this place is indescribable. The mountains and spires that loom above us are just breathtaking. Today we took a ride with the folks from Quantum Leap in their rental car. We drove from here in Cook’s Bay around to Opunohu Bay and then up into the mountains to a viewpoint that was spectacular. The drive to Opunohu Bay took us out to the coral reef that surrounds the island. A number of boats are anchored out there now that the winds have died down and it looks most inviting. The waters are shallow and turquoise blue with lots of coral visible from land. The beaches have white, white sand. We had lunch at a hotel on the reef and watched kite surfers who put on quite a show. It was a great afternoon and when we returned to the Bali Hai, our homebase here, Mark and I set off for the internet café to try and send pictures to the website. Unfortunately we got there after 4:00 which is closing time, so we will have to try again tomorrow or Friday. The enjoyed the walk even though we were unsuccessful in our quest. The road that goes all the way around this island is right on the water’s edge, so the views are great as you walk.

As we drove around today, we all discussed how to describe to others what it is like here. Someone said it is like Hawaii 50 years ago. It reminds me of the western coast of south Florida in the 1960′s, with the addition of the mountains. It is much less developed than I anticipated, but at the same time I would say the people here are very much living in the 21st century with one foot embedded in an ancient past. Tomorrow when we drive the entire island I am hoping to have a better handle on how to describe it to you.

Tonight we attended the Polynesian dance show at the hotel. The dancing was not as good as some we have seen in the Marquesas, but it was still fascinating to watch. We had a great dinner afterwards and met more people who are staying at the hotel. Most of them own time shares here. If they didn’t have the time share, they would be paying about $170 per night at the Bali High. At another hotel on the east side of the island we hear the rooms go for $780 per night. I want to see this place tomorrow and will let you know what makes it worth that much money!

Day 240: A Tour of Moorea
Date and Time: Thursday, June 15, 2006, 2330 Tahiti Time
Weather: Another Fantastic Day

See Pictures Here

What a day! We picked up the rental car at 8:00 am this morning and we have just returned to the boat at 11:30 pm. It was a long, but fantastic day. We drove the perimeter of Moorea, met very interesting people, went snorkeling and saw fish we have never seen before and some very colorful coral, drove up into the mountains, visited archaeological sites, went to the Moore Juice Factory (which produces only “fermented” juices), and ended our evening at a local restaurant called Alfredo’s. Kathleen from Quantum Leap was going to be singing and playing guitar there tonight with Ron Falconer. He is a sailor who lived in the Caroline Islands in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s with his wife and young children, who now makes his living as a musician.

It was a day jam-packed with new experiences and I will have to write the details in the morning. After almost 14 hours on the go, it is time for rest. I’ll check-in early in the tomorrow with the details of today.

Day 241: A Tour of Moorea-The Details
Date and Time: Friday, June 16, 2006, 2355 Tahiti Time

This is the continuation of yesterday’s log. I had promised to get the details out early in the day, but as always, one thing led to another, and that didn’t happen. So I am just including the details of yesterday’s tour with today’s log. I’ll start with the details of yesterday and get to today later in the log.

Although Bora Bora has the reputation as French Polynesia’s most beautiful island, many think Moorea should hold that distinction. Moorea has beautiful white-sand beaches, a turquoise-blue lagoon encircling it, and lush volcanic peaks that make for very dramatic scenery. And all of this is mixed with a relaxed lifestyle. There are no high-rise glass and steel hotels. The resorts are big but they fit into the landscape with their thatched-roof bungalows on the water’s edge and sometimes over the water. The island’s shape is triangular with the flat top of the triangle cut deeply by two bays. It has an encircling coral reef which forms the wide blue-green lagoon. In places the colors are very vivid from a bright turquoise blue blending into a deeper turquoise and then a bright blue. As you drive around the island, the side facing Tahiti has surfing waves rolling in over the coral reef. Tahiti is only ten miles away and at night on that side of the island, you can see all of Papeete lit up like a Christmas tree. It looks huge from here.

The road that goes all the way around the island hugs the coastline and is 59 kilometers in length. Instead of mile markers here, you have kilometer stones. These are slabs of stone with the kilometer carved into the stone. The kilometers are indicated as PK’s. I have no idea what a PD is, but I will use that terminology to indicate distance as we traveled. If you drove and didn’t stop a lot as we did, you could drive it easily in an hour. We started our trek in Paopao at the Club Bali Hai Hotel. As I have mentioned before, this resort is just a very short dinghy ride from the boat and they are very welcoming to cruisers and let us use their wharf. We rented the car in the lobby of the Bali Hai and headed north to the top part of the island. The first little town is Maharepa. It is about 4 kilometers from Paopao and since it is an easy walk from the Bali Hai, we had been there on foot before. Once we left there, however, we were in unfamiliar territory. We continued to Temae where there is a huge estuary on the coast that is being “reclaimed” and developed into a US$75 million 18-hole golf course and 150-room five-star hotel. The residents here fought this for many years, but in the end, development won. Since other hotels on the island are closing, it is hard to figure out why another bigger hotel is being built. But we all know that is the way of “progress”. Next we went past the airport and then up a hill to the Toatea Lookout across the Sea of the Moon which is the pass between Moorea and Tahiti. It was our first view of Tahiti since she was wrapped in clouds when we sailed past on arrival. The view was beautiful. You look down on the Sofitel Ia Ora Hotel which costs $780 per night to stay in one of the thatched huts over the water.

The next stop was in Vaiare. This is home to the very busy ferry terminal connecting Papeete, Tahiti to Moorea. Cars were parked everywhere along the road and in a large parking area. It reminded us of the ferry terminal on the Cape going to Martha’s Vineyard. There is a marina in Vaiare, so we stopped to check out the local boats. There is also a large supermarket there, so we stopped to check that out. We bought bread and cheese and had this as an early lunch in the parking lot. Then it was on to the next town of Afareaitu. This is located at PK10. The views of the lagoon from here were really beautiful. There is a small motu, Motu Ahi, out on the reef here and the views of the lagoon with its turquoise waters were just beautiful. We were supposed to stop and visit Tahitian Gold here. We understood this to be a vanilla plantation and processing plant that produces some of the best vanilla in the world. Unfortunately, it is no longer in production here. We were told Tahitian Gold is now in Tahiti. This part of the coast of Moorea reminded us of the west coast of Florida prior to the development of high rises. This, of course, was only true when we looked out over the water. When we looked inland at the towering mountains, we no longer had that “Florida” feeling.

We were now driving through tiny little villages and coconut plantations. At PK24 in the town of Haapiti, we visited the twin-towered Eglise de la Sante Famille built in 1891. This was once the head church of the Catholic mission on the island. The setting was idyllic, but were were not able to go inside the church. By this time we had rounded the bottom of the island and started up the west coast. There is an anchorage here for boats entering the Matauvau Pass and surfer waves out on the reef. Beautiful place. We stopped at Linareva’s Floating Restaurant, Le Bateau, to have a cold drink and enjoy the views. It was a really unique little restaurant in a floating boat at the end of a long pier. You could watch the tropical fish swimming in the water as you walked out to the restaurant. Just a couple of kilometers further on, we could tell that we were entering a more developed area. We passed the Tiki Village Theater which is like a miniature Disney Polynesian World and then we saw this huge cement Tahitian warrior beside the road and a big sign that said Painapo (Pineapple) Beach. We just had to stop and check this out and we were very glad that we did. Pineapple Beach is a restaurant and the thatched roof hut with all of the tables was a beautiful replica of a traditional house structure. We met the owner who welcomed us to paradise and then went down by the beach. There was an older man sitting on the beach weaving the strands of coconut fiber into beautiful little rings. He said someone was coming to the restaurant for their 50th wedding anniversary and wanted rings for all the guests as favors. He was wearing a ring that was a black pearl woven into the braided coconut fiber. I loved it and we tried to find a way to meet with this man again so I could bring him a pearl and have it woven into a ring. He said he would be heading to Papeete soon for the month long Hieva celebration and I will try to find him there. He spoke very good English and explained that his name was Bozoo-not like the clown but indicating a beautiful small boat.

Next we came to the northwest coast of the island where most of the hotels and small tourist shops are located. The town here is called Tiahura. We had been here with the Quantum Leap crew a couple of days ago, so we were familiar with the touristy feel of this part of the island. We then headed back across the top of the island, down around Opunohu Bay and back up to Pihaena at the tip of land between Opunohu Bay and Cook’s Bay. We drove past the Sheraton where we had planned to snorkel and headed first to the Distillerie de Moorea Fruit-Juice Factory. All of the juices are made with no preservatives and they make 40-proof fruit liqueurs. The nice thing about this visit was the taste-testing. They were very, very generous with tasting, giving us a full shot of each product they had to sell. I ended up buying a few bottles for gifts, and then we were off to the Sheraton. We had heard that there was great snorkeling off the beach there and we were not disappointed. This Sheraton has thatched roof huts that go quite a ways out into the lagoon and the snorkeling around them was nice. The coral was as colorful as any coral we have seen on this voyage.

The final stop of this trip was all the way back to Cook’s Bay and back to the Vaire ferry area to the grocery store. By this time it was almost 7:00 PM. We had just enough time to make our 7 o’clock reservation at Alfredo’s. We had a great time listening to Ron Falconer sing and play the dulcimer. We made the reservations so that we could hear our friend Kathleen from Quantum Leap who had been invited to join Ron for a few songs. Kathleen plays the guitar and sings and it was a great combo. By the time we got back to Windbird, we were exhausted, but we had a great day.

Today we took it slow. Mark took down all of the canvas in the cockpit to reinforce the stitching and I cleaned the stainless. That was all we did today, but it took most of the day. Tonight we went to Quantum Leap. They had invited Ron, the singer from Alfredo’s, to join a few of us tonight. We learned more about Ron’s sailing adventures and he was very helpful in giving us advice on South Pacific cruises. We are anxious to read his book, “Together Alone”.

Day 242: Living at Anchor in French Polynesia
Date and Time: Saturday, June 17, 2006, 2200 Tahiti Time

We have been here for six days and each day has been wonderful. I think Moorea has just the right mix of beauty, tradition, and modern conveniences to make it a very comfortable place to stay. The businesses here follow island time and close at midday. That is still hard for us to get used to, but I think it is a good thing. Everything closes from noon and reopens two or three hours later. Life is easy here. I’m sure things will change when we cross the channel and go to Tahiti, but we know this place is only ten miles away. If Tahiti gets too rowdy, we’ll just head back here.

Today was a “work on the boat” day. We started out by taking out every single can of food from all of their hiding places aboard. We decided that it was time to access what we have and update the spreadsheets. When we started out we had everything logged into a spreadsheet, but as we traveled we sometimes forgot to record when we used things. This update will help us decide what we need to buy while we are in Tahiti where prices are high, but not as high as in the out islands. We are just a little more than half way to New Zealand, so it is a good time reassess. We still have cans of food sitting around and we will finish this job tomorrow. Around 11 AM we headed into the Bali Hai to walk to the internet café. It always closes at noon and reopens at 1:30, but I figured it would close at noon today and not open again until Saturday–right assumption. But we got there in time to download our land-based e-mail and send a couple of picture files to friends, but I was not able to send more picture files to the website. That will have to wait until we are in Papeete. On the way back we stopped at a local pottery place. The displays were beautiful, but very expensive.

When we returned to Windbird, we got into cleaning mode. The bottom and waterline of the boat gets an incredible amount of growth out here. And the growth creeps onto the white topsides. Every couple of weeks we have to do a major cleaning. This requires that Mark gets in to the water using our Snuba gear and dives under the boat to clean. I stay in the dinghy and clean around the waterline. It is hard and exhausting work. I guess this is our payment for living here in paradise. Not easy, but the return is certainly worth it.

We finished this work at about 5:00 PM here and decided to call our kids back in Massachusetts. We knew our son was visiting with our daughter this weekend and thought we could talk to both at the same time. We thought we had a five hour difference, but it is six hours. It was 11 PM in Massachusetts, but the kids were still up watching a tape of the US versus Italy World Cup Match today. It was wonderful talking with them even though the Satellite connection was broken. The kids had planned to call us tomorrow for Father’s Day, but we beat them to it. We had no idea that tomorrow was Father’s Day. Those things fall through the cracks out here.

Tomorrow we will finish repacking all of the canned goods and finish cleaning the bottom of the boat. At 6 PM, Tom, BetteLee, and Katherine from Quantum Leap will come over for dinner. We plan to watch South Pacific and see if we can identify any of the landscapes. Moorea is the mythical Bali Hai in that movie and I think Bora Bora is the site of the main airstrip. It will be fun to see if we recognize any of the scenery.

Day 243: Happy Father’s Day
Date and Time: Sunday, June 18, 2006, 2300 Tahiti Time

There’s not much to report today . . . just a typical day in the life of a cruiser. We spent the entire morning continuing to reorganize the food storage, and it is a great feeling to have that done. We now know much better where to store certain things where they will be accessible during passages and when we have guests aboard. What seemed like good storage space when we were living aboard has ended up not to be so while cruising. We just hope our new organization works better for us.

Our next task was to get the v-berth ready for company. Mary Ellen and Lee, Mark’s sister and brother-in-law, fly into Papeete on Friday. We use the v-berth for storage during passages and somehow it always gets filled with “things”. We’re not sure where all the stuff comes from and we find it amazing that we can get it all put away. Boats have limited storage, but you learn to use that space in amazing ways. So ME and Lee, if you are reading this, we are all ready for you.

Our next task was to get ready for company for dinner. Last night we went over to Quantum Leap to visit for a short time and invited them over for dinner tonight. Tom had a birthday last week, and he and Bette Lee had their 38th wedding anniversary on Friday night. Add Father’s Day to that, and we felt we had great reasons to celebrate together. We will be leaving for Papeete in the morning and probably won’t see them again for quite a while. About the time we return here with Mary Ellen and Lee, they will be heading to Papeete to pick up their family who will be visiting with them in July. I know I have said before that in this cruising life, you constantly make news friends but keep the old. We look forward to seeing Quantum Leap later in the summer or fall when our cruising schedules once again coincide.

So tomorrow we head across the channel to Papeete. There is a strike of some sort there and it is starting to cause cruisers some inconveniences. We aren’t sure who is striking, but we know the Custom’s Office and the largest chandleries are not accessible at this time. There are also reduced ferry and land travel schedules. At this point, the strike is not affecting tourists. Flights are coming in and out on a regular schedule. We’ll just have to get there and find out the details. Papeete is a big city, so things are going to be a little different for the next week or so. Some cruisers love Papeete and others really dislike it. It will be interesting to see how we adjust.

Day 244: Windbird in Tahiti
Date and Time: Monday, June 19, 2006, 2000 Tahiti Time

See Pictures Here

Windbird has arrived in Tahiti. We haven’t seen much of it yet, but it is certainly the biggest city we have seen since Panama. Moorea is such a quiet, low-key island. I can tell already that Tahiti is not. The sail from Moorea to here is about 28 miles from anchorage to anchorage. The pass between the two islands is only ten miles wide, but Cook’s Bay is a few miles from the pass. And once you get to Tahiti, you enter the Passe de Papeete and have a few more miles to go up the Chenel de Faaa. The reef separates you from the ocean and the airport is on your land side. When you first enter the pass, the city of Papeete is directly in front of you. Some people stay on the quay in town, but theft there is rampant so we decided to head to the area near the Marina Taina in “suburbs”. It is three miles from here to town by boat, but I’m not sure how far it is by land. This we will discover tomorrow.

We are anchored in a little bay close to the Marina Taina. The view from our anchorage across the reef is of Moorea with Tahiti’s resort hotels in the other direction. We can use the marina dinghy dock, the expensive laundry ($11US per load to wash and another $11 per load to dry, and the showers there for just a $10US deposit that is returned when we turn in the key. The marina is very modern and the facilities are better than anyplace we have seen on this voyage. We can purchase time on the marina’s wireless internet connection. They actually sell an antenna to boost our capacity to receive the wireless onboard. We have been looking for an antenna like this since we were in Bonaire, but have not found one. Matt, the internet guru here, is a very friendly and helpful young man. He will come to the boat with an antenna and let us see if it gives us the needed boost before purchasing. If we can’t receive wireless on the boat, at least we can take our computer into the marina and communicate from there. When we walk through the marina and out to the main road, it is just a stone’s throw to the left to a traffic circle where we can hop on Le Truck. Le Truck is the cheaper way to travel into Papeete, but you do have to transfer. To the right, we can catch the Tahiti “Greyhound” bus with air conditioning. The cost is $2US per person into Tahiti and another $2 back home. If we walk about 10 minutes to the left, we reach a huge shopping complex called Carrefour. We walked there today and were in awe of the huge variety of things available. Some things are extremely expensive ($11 for a US fresh artichoke) but others are very reasonable ($4 for a frozen chicken). Drinks are the really expensive items. It costs about $50 for a case of beer and about $15 for a case of coke. But you have to eat and drink, so you just pay the price.

We are looking forward to exploring downtown Papeete tomorrow and will report on that venture in tomorrow’s log. Every day is a new adventure and we are very much looking forward to our explorations here in Tahiti.

Day 245: Papeete, Tahiti
Date and Time: Tuesday, June 20, 2006, 1800 Tahiti Time
Latitude: 17 degrees 35 minutes S
Longitude: 149 degrees 37 minutes W
Weather: Tahiti Supreme

Talk about clueless. First we had no idea Father’s Day was on Sunday. Then late this afternoon I told Mark that I thought he should call his sister before she leaves in the AM headed for Tahiti. We thought she was arriving Friday evening, but we learned in the phone call that she is arriving Thursday evening. She has sent two e-mails just this week listing her complete flight schedule, but we have been so busy that we hadn’t carefully read these. We actually reserved a car today for Friday evening, but that will be easy to change. Mary Ellen had sent an e-mail early on listing Friday as the arrival date and that is what got recorded on our calendar. Sure glad we called!

We got up early today. I did the laundry (on Windbird, not in the expensive laundromat) while Mark went into the marina to meet Laurent, our PYS (Polynesian Yacht Services) agent, to get us officially checked into French Polynesia. All of the other check-ins in the Marquesas were just a formality. What really counts is the check-in here. We have felt that there are many more cruisers out here then we expected, and Laurent confirmed that this morning. He said the official count of boats checking into Tahiti is twice the number that came through last year. He says there are more cruisers this year than he can ever remember.

I think I mentioned before the reason we hired the agent, but just in case, I’ll go over that again. In order to be in French Polynesia, you either have to have a plane ticket out of the country or pay the $1100 per person bond. We, along with many others, found it impossible to get the money in the Marquesas, so we went with the agent. We will pay Laurent about $340 dollars, but he takes care of all checking in and out formalities, takes our propane tank to get it filled, gives us a 20 per cent discount at a local chandlery, plus we get duty free fuel anywhere in French Polynesia which saves us about half the cost of diesel here. We pay about $2.50 instead of $5.00 per gallon. If we had been able to pay the bond, we would have gotten it back, but we would have lost money on the exchange. It is a toss up as to which is really cheaper. Laurent seems very nice and is very helpful, so we are fine that we have gone this path.

We hopped on Le Truck this morning and headed into centre Papeete. We thought we had to transfer, but we didn’t. The traffic here is horrendous, so the three mile trek takes about 20 minutes. Papeete is a modern city with a mixture of architecture. There is nothing tremendously appealing about it, but it is okay for a city and people are very friendly. Most speak enough English to get us through. We walked the waterfront, found the Tourist Bureau and got brochures, walked to the far end of town where the chandleries are found, and then wandered back through town stopping at the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was built in 1875 and is very nice, but after seeing the beautiful churches in the outback in the Marquesas, it was diminished in grandeur. We knew better than try to eat lunch in any restaurant in Papeete. The cheapest thing on any menu is $18.00, but there are sub shops where you can buy a piece of pizza for $3.50 or a sub for $3.00. We bought one sub and one bottle of water and split them between us. There are McDonald’s everywhere here, but we opted to skip that one!

We walked back to the waterfront and headed in the direction of the marina. The main street runs along the waterfront, but there is room for a park between the road and the bay. We think this was Bougainville Park. We continued walking past an area where there is tremendous mount of construction. We finally realized that this construction is all in preparation of Heiva Nui, the celebration of independence here. The preparations are massive. When we passed this area we come to the Cultural Center. It was here that we found out about the schedule for Heiva Nui. It really doesn’t start until July1 and we will be gone from here by then. We are hoping that Mary Ellen and Lee will get to attend some of the competitions when they fly back here from Bora Bora. We might get to attend some preliminary shows, but that is still to be determined. No schedules are being issued until Monday, July 26, so we will find out then.

Tomorrow we will pull up anchor and head into the marina to fill up with fuel and water. Our watermaker has not been working since our passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas, so we have been filling up one jerry jug at a time when we have been in ports with drinkable water. Our new watermaker will arrive with Mark’s sister Mary Ellen, but we are very proud that we were able to make it until today without running out of water. We had water last night, but this morning when I turned on the faucet to brush my teeth, I heard the sound of an empty tank. Lucky it didn’t happen until now, although we have enough drinking water aboard in gallon jugs to get us through. It is just not as convenient as turning on the tap. When we move to get water and fuel, we will also try to find a better location closer to the reef and in range of wireless internet. That would be fantastic. Being able to swim right off the boat and to browse the internet from the boat is all it takes to make us happy!

Day 246: A Weather Flip-Flop
Date and Time: Wednesday, June 21, 2006, 2000 Tahiti Time
Weather: Cloudy, Rainy, and Cool (79 degrees)

Our plans to move the boat closer to the reef and to get fuel and water today had to be put on hold. A cold front from the southern ocean has flipped the weather here from sunny and beautiful to cloudy and rainy. It feels cool, but the temperature is still 79 degrees at 9:45 in the evening. I guess it is really not cool, but it does feel that way.

We will have to try again to move the boat tomorrow. We turned our attention today to getting the boat ready for company and I took advantage of the cooler weather to bake bread and make granola. I also worked on organizing pictures for the website and hope to get to a fast connection tomorrow to send those.

This weather is supposed to stay with us for a few days, but I’m hoping there will be a bit of sunshine for Mary Ellen and Lee’s first weekend in French Polynesia.