Day 211, Year 1: Working on Your Boat in Exotic Locations
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Warm Days with Cool Evenings
Location: Hanavave Bay, Fatu Hiva, Marquesas
I hope that the log for Day 209 has finally been posted on the website. I sent it last night (Monday night) at about 9:30 pm local time. Late this afternoon we received a message that none of our e-mails send last evening had gone through. They have been sent again and hopefully successfully. We are hoping that this was just a chance occurrence and that we will not have similar difficulties with future e-mails, but only time will determine that. Please hang in there with us while we figure out the communication system from here in the South Pacific.
We’ve often heard that cruising is really just all about working on your boat in exotic locations, and now we know why that is said. We have been here since Sunday afternoon and all we have done is work on the boat. All of us who have arrived here recently are absolutely amazed at how dirty our boats have gotten since leaving the Galapagos. The bottoms of our boats have become literal gardens of gooseneck barnacles. And we all have a brownish-green slime growing about half way up our hulls that is very, very hard to remove. We have finally done as much as we can do for now. The hull is not as white as it once was, but you learn to adjust your vision of what is acceptable. It will do. The barnacles have been scraped off the bottom. And now we can start to enjoy where we are.
Late this afternoon we went to town and visited with one of the wood carvers here. His name is Christian Vaki. He carves and his wife makes tapas-cloth made from tap-tap-tapping the bark of local trees until it is beaten into a pliable, cloth-like material. I did end up buying a bowl from Chris and might go back tomorrow to buy one of his tikis. We also visited the tiny general store in the village, the only commercial venue here, and checked out what they have for sale. We saw the children playing at recess in the school lot adjacent to the store. We learned that the store will take American dollars and give you change back in Francs, but since this is the only store in town, all other dealings are done with individuals. And what they want is something in trade, not money. I have a bag full of earrings, extra shoes, a bolt of materials, and various other items ready to trade tomorrow.
We will probably stay here until Thursday morning before moving on. We will certainly keep you posted on our progress. If a log isn’t posted you will know that it is because we have had poor communication to the internet.
