Monday 13th August

Faanui Bay,
Bora Bora.
16 29.425 S
151 45.672 W

Abigail and I were up at the crack of dawn, we were going to pre cook a few meals ready for our next trip which we will be starting out on tomorrow morning. We chopped onions, opened cans, sautéed meat and vegetables, stirred in sauces and herbs and finally bagged up enough meals to cover at least four days worth of travel. At least we know that even if the weather is dreadful we will be able to eat something hot for dinner. Gerry, once he surfaced, topped up the fuel tank with the jerry can fuel and then made some water. By the time we had cleared up the mess we made it was almost lunchtime. We showered and changed into decent clothes and then sat enjoying fresh bread, cheese and pickles for lunch before getting into the dinghy and motoring into the town dock. We arrived at the dock at about 13.30hrs – half an hour too early to get our clearance from the gendarmerie, we hung about for the half hour, looking at the craft stuff that was for sale on the dock; a lot of it was lovely but it was made of shells or platted plant fronds which we were certain wouldn’t be allowed back into Australia. Finally the Gendarmerie was open and Gerry went to clear us out, having done that we headed to the bank to reclaim the bond money that Gerry had had to deposit for himself (Abigail and I didn’t need to post bond as we had EU passports). It took a while to get through the process but finally we got the money back and then made our way to the marine store where Gerry bought a couple of essential things that we needed for the boat. Our next stop was a café where we had a drink and then it was on to the jewellery stores to see if we could find some pearl earrings. Gerry got a bit put off by the prices and began to get antsy so we ended up not buying anything. Our last stop was the grocery store where we filled up a basket with the last minute things we needed for the trip. Having loaded the groceries into the back pack and carry bags we trudged back to the dinghy and then headed back to the boat. After unloading the bags, Abigail headed into the dock with the trash and her shower gear whilst I prepared a roast lamb dinner. Of course as soon as I had the oven going full blast it began to rain and we had to close the hatches down which made it very hot inside the boat. We eventually sat down to eat at just after 19.00hrs and by 20.00hrs all the clearing up was done; Gerry and Abigail were sitting chatting and I typed up notes on the computer. Our plan is to leave in the morning and head to The Cook Islands, we expect it to take 4 -5 days so there will be a bit of a gap until I write anything else for the blog

Sunday 12th August

Faanui Bay,
Bora Bora.

16 29.425 S
151 45.672 W

Well we are getting lazy; we woke up and decided that we were going to do nothing today. I cooked breakfast and then had to do the dishes – there was something wrong there! Gerry did a run into the yacht club and paid for another night on the mooring and checked out the time for lunch as Rappa (who runs the club) had invited us along with a few other people to a Polynesian lunch. We were to go to the club at midday and we spent the couple of hours left reading our books, answering emails and loading photos onto the computer. We got showered and changed and dinked into the club dock. To our surprise the restaurant was closed, we expected it to be open for the Sunday lunchtime session; we feel certain that they would have made a killing if they had opened. We made our way to Where Rappa had set up a table and had a fire going, he was just pulling a couple of breadfruit out of the fire. We watched as he peeled the blackened skin off of them and put them in a bowl, the inside was cooked through to a soft but firm consistency. We were joined by 2 other families and Rappa and his wife served up the breadfruit with a hot beef mixture over the top of it and a fish / tomato dish on the side.
We all ate with gusto and enjoyed the flavours of tis typical Polynesian lunch. For the next 3 hours wee sat and chatted to each other in the garden of the yacht club, exchanging stories of our travels and listening to Rappa telling us that he had only taken over the yacht club area 4 months ago and was in the process of building up the services to the visiting yachties. We all added our ideas of what would be good to have available (simple things like a book exchange and bread delivery) and Rappa promised to look into providing these things fro the boats that will follow us. Just before 15.00hrs we collected our laundry from Rappa (we had to be quite firm about a certain polo shirt of Gerry’s that Rappa almost demanded we give him as a gift, it was the lime green Heineken Regatta shirt that I had bought for Gerry at great personal effort in St. Martin) We ended up giving him one of new boat hats but he was still asking for the lime green shirt as we climbed into the dink to return to our boat. I would have given it to him if there was any chance of being able to get another one but there just isn’t. At least the cost of the laundry here was more acceptable than it was in Tahiti – it only cost $7. 40 here for the same amount that we had washed in Tahiti for $100! We exchanged some books with one of the other boats in the afternoon and then Gerry went across to Isabella to chat with Max and John who had anchored nearby, he arranged to have dinner ashore at the club with them in the evening. We had a late afternoon nap before getting changed to go back in to the restaurant. Looking ready for a decent night out we all climbed into the dink and headed towards the dock, stopping by Isabella on the way to arrange a meeting time. We reached the dock and found that the place was locked up. Gerry went to find out from Rappa what was going on as we had a booking and so did Isabella. Bad news followed, the restaurant manager wasn’t going to open the place this evening! We were disappointed but got back in the dink and headed to our boat via Isabella to let them know the bad news. There went the evening, we got stuck at Isabella, had a few drinks and chatted well into the evening. Eventually I kicked Gerry under the table and said it was time to get something to eat. Half an hour later we finally got going; arriving back at the boat we settled for a bowl of soup and a few crackers before hitting the sack for the night.

Saturday 11th August

Faanui Bay,
Bora Bora.

16 29.425 S
151 45.672 W

Many Happy returns Zachary, we hope you have a great day.

It rained overnight and we woke to a humid overcast day. We all decided that this would be a quiet relaxing sort of day with no pressure to do anything. I sat about and read my book for most of the day – the last Harry Potter book which I have to finish so Abigail can take it home with her. Gerry did a quick trip into the dock to pay for the mooring (having never found the guy to pay yesterday) and we asked him to enquire about laundry whilst he was there. On his return we learnt that we needed to bag up the laundry and get it back into the yacht club where it would be done for us by the morning. Once the laundry issue was sorted out it was almost lunch time.
Abigail then decided that she might take the push bike and go for a ride around town. Gerry pulled the bike out, pumped up the tires and got it ready for her to take ashore. Once she had got her money, camera, a radio, sun screen, emergency toilet paper and sunglasses packed into a backpack she was ready to go.
Gerry took her and the bike to the dock in the dinghy and set her up ready to ride off. When he returned we had our lunch and then I typed up blog notes whilst Gerry read his book for the afternoon and updated the virus scanner on the computers. We were quite surprised that Abigail didn’t reappear until about 16.45hrs, when we got a pleading sort of whine over the radio to come and pick her up at the dock.
Abigail had had a long ride all the way around the island on the bike – it was about 32kms and took in a couple of rather large hills, I have to confess that I was surprised she did it as she isn’t the most athletic of people and usually deems opening her eyelids a form of exercise. On the way she had taken quite a few photos and had some good views to show us, she had also checked out all the places shown on the tourist map as places to go. What did she get for all her effort? – a sore bottom, sweaty body and wonky knees! Once we had all had showers and changed our clothes it was time to dink back ashore for a drink in the bar and an evening meal at the restaurant. This time we remembered to take a camera in to the bar with us so we managed to take a few pictures of the club. Once again we had a nice meal but were disappointed that the restaurant was under utilised. As soon as we had finished eating we returned to the boat as Abigail was desperate to go to bed – at 20.30hrs

Friday 10th August

Faanui Bay,
Bora Bora.

16 29.425 S
151 45.672 W

The dawn occurred during my watch and after it began to get light Abigail appeared followed by Gerry. We were soon passing the second island – just leaving us just 25 miles to go before we reached the anchorage at Bora Bora. Having caught nothing yesterday Abigail was keen to put the fishing line back in the water today – not that we caught anything today either but we tried! The wind also dropped away to nothing so we gave in and dropped the main, switched the engine on and motored for the rest of the trip.
By 11.00 hrs we were entering the anchorage at Bora Bora yacht club. I say anchorage but very few boats can actually anchor here as the water is over 80 feet deep and most of us don’t carry enough chain to anchor safely. Luckily the yacht club has a few mooring buoys and we were lucky enough to grab the second to last available one and tie ourselves on to it. The very last one went as we were tying up; if we had arrived any later we would have been out of luck and had to motor to a different bay to anchor. Once we were safely moored Gerry and Abigail jumped in the water for a swim, I held back as their squeals told me that the water was freezing cold, they didn’t stay in the water long and once they got out we put the dinghy into the water and attached the outboard. Gerry took off into the yacht club dock to find out about paying for the mooring and checking in with the gendarmerie. He was soon back telling us that we were booked in for dinner at 18.30 hrs and that happy hour began at 17.00hrs. The checking in was at a different dock so he then took off to investigate that. Meanwhile Abigail had a nap and I tided up the cockpit mess from the trip. Gerry returned and suggested that we all go ashore into town; we locked everything up, gathered up our gear and headed off in the dinghy for the town dock - quite a distance away, where we tied up and proceeded to walk into the town. As it was nearly 15.30hrs by now most places were closed or closing, Abigail and I had a quick look at the pearl shops whilst Gerry had a beer with John who he had bumped into outside a bakery. After that we decided that we needed to go back and have a rest before happy hour, when we returned to the dinghy Gerry was certain that someone had syphoned some of the fuel out of our outboard tank as it seemed a lot less than he expected, still there was enough to get us back to the boat so it was OK. Although the plan was for a nap none of us slept, Gerry hooked up the internet and we found out that there had been a plane crash off of Moorea – this presumably was what the mayday calls had been about as we were under way to here, we didn’t know of anyone who was flying out at that time so we assume that we didn’t know anyone onboard the flight. When it was time to go ashore for happy hour we climbed back in the dink and roared into the yacht club dock. As we tied up we saw that there were about 5 other dinghies following behind us – the news of happy hour was well spread! The yacht club as such is a bit of a non event, it really doesn’t operate as a club which is a shame but there is a restaurant next to it with a loose affiliation. The restaurant is a tiki hut which opens onto the water front, it is very well done with white sand as a floor covering and white billowing curtains tied back at the entrances (the sand is a pain as it gets in your shoes though). We drank a few cocktails, with Abigail giving the barman instructions on how to make her favourite one, and then it was time for dinner. The bar had been full for happy hour and we were quite disappointed to find that the restaurant wasn’t quite so well supported by the visiting yachties. The food was good and we enjoyed the meal before climbing back into our dinghy and heading back to the boat for the night. We were all very tired and soon in bed sleeping soundly.

Wednesday 8th August

Opunahu bay,
Moorea

17 29.318 S
149 51.059 W

We decided to stay for one more night at Opunahu Bay as the place was so pretty and we all wanted to go for another snorkel. After having a lay in and a late breakfast we prepared the dinghy for a trip out to the reef. All the snorkelling gear was put into the dinghy and then we all found a space to sit. It was only when we got out to the reef that we realised that no one had thought to put the ladder in the dink – we were going to have to struggle to get back into the dinghy from the water, I was all for going back to the boat and getting the ladder but the other two just laughed at me and donned their snorkelling gear. We all jumped into the water and began a slow swim around the reef. It was well spread out and I’m happy to say alive with beautifully coloured coral and loads of different reef fish, unlike any of the ones we had seen in the Caribbean. We all kept pointing out different things to each other and dragging each other to different spots to see things – it was really a good spot to snorkel. After about half an hour Gerry had had enough and told us he was heading back to the dinghy, Abigail and I wanted to stay a little longer so we snorkelled back to the dinghy via a longer route. Gerry was already in the dinghy and Abigail was easy to haul over the side and on board – that left me. I started to giggle as soon as I had my hands over the edge of the dink; the other two didn’t help much by laughing and offering feeble advice on how to get in. I eventually climbed up the back end and for a while laid half in the dink and half out, it took an exhausting effort to get myself onto the seat but I got there in the end – next time I’ll be the one checking that we have the ladder with us before we set off! Back at the boat Abigail and I sorted out the rinsing of swimmers and packed away the snorkelling gear whilst Gerry dinked across to Isabella, a yacht we knew from Panama, to have a chat with them. On his return we learnt that they had invited us for drinks that evening. It was by now around lunchtime so we ate on board before succumbing to the heavy eyelid syndrome. Once we were over the afternoon nap we packed a cold bag with some wine, rum, beer, fruit juice and nibblies and dinked across to Isabella. The owners, Max and Tracy along with their friend John welcomed us and we sat chatting, eating and drinking in their cockpit for the next 3 hours. It was interesting to chat with some Aussies who had undertaken roughly the same trip as we have at around the same time, their tales were fairly similar to ours and we have crossed paths with the same boats along the way at different points in time, no doubt we will meet up with them again before we get home. Lorie – just to make you laugh – as we boarded their boat we could smell curry cooking and both Abigail and I commented that it smelt good; Tracy’s response? – Well, I had this meat in the fridge that I wasn’t took certain about so I thought that it would be best to make curry with it. So you see it’s not just us! Anyway it was pitch black by the time we made our way back to our boat (and the beef curry that I had cooked the day before!). After dinner we all sat reading until it was time for bed.

Tuesday 7th August

Opunahu bay,
Moorea

17 29.318 S
149 51.059 W

The water was flat calm first thing this morning so Gerry decided that today was the day for going up the mast to fix the anchor light and replace the spinnaker halyard. Abigail and I manned the winch and Gerry squashed himself into the bosun’s chair. It was a great deal easier to hoist him up the mast with the 2 of us taking turns at the winch and soon he was threading the trace down through the mast with the new halyard attached to it (after managing to drop the new halyard once and causing us to have to find some way to get it back up the mast to him). Abigail climbed on to the boom to hook the trace through the right exit point and we managed to pull the new halyard through and tie it off. Then it was another few feet up the mast so that he could change the bulb at the anchor light. At last all the replacements were done and we reluctantly let him back down again. Of course it was stinking hot by now and we had all caught the sun a little. We though that we were going to be able to go for a swim next, oh no, Gerry wanted to get the stitching done on the jib (it had come apart along the sacrificial edging about half way up). Out came the heavy duty sewing machine onto the foredeck, down came the jib and then the cursing and swearing began as the thread kept breaking, the tension kept going wrong and the sail was difficult to get underneath the foot to stitch. One broken needle and about a million yards of thread later I had managed to do a repair job that was just acceptable. Abigail went off for a swim whilst Gerry and I struggled with the sail but she was back onboard in time to help us put it back up and furl it away again.
Once we had the sail away we debated whether we wanted to move to the next bay around, as we had snorkelled the reef in Cooks bay and there was supposed to be internet available in Opunahu bay we decided to move around there and see if there was. We hauled the anchor in and motored the 5 miles around, dropping our anchor amongst the dozen or so boats already there. We ended up re anchoring twice as Gerry wasn’t happy with how close we got to other boats when the wind changed direction. Abigail took herself off for an afternoon nap whilst Gerry and I went for a dink around the shore line – lots of coral heads dot the shoreline and although they are marked by channel markers we still managed to hit the top of one of them, luckily there was no damage done but we took a very wide path back to the boat. I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking up a curry and making up kebabs for dinner. The last of our bananas were soft and squashy by now so when Abigail got up we threw together a couple of banana loaves. Gerry bar b qued for the second night in a row, I guess we will be cleaning the bar b que out tomorrow as he didn’t do it after using it. We had all caught the sun today to various degrees and the Aloe Vera was applied to areas of red skin quite liberally before going to bed.

Monday 6th August

Cook’s bay,
Moorea.

17 28.874 S
149 48.922 W


It was a fairly laid back sort of start to the day, not that Gerry wanted it to be that way but he was outnumbered. Once we were up and dressed we loaded the dinghy with the trash bags and plastic shopping bags, clambered into the dinghy ourselves and after rearranging everything so we could all fit in, set off for the dock. After tying up we deposited our trash in the dumpster and then set off walking along the main road heading towards the Carrefour supermarket which was a short distance away from the marina. We had noticed that there were a great deal of supermarket carts lining the marina dock – all from the Carrefour supermarket, so it was obviously OK to “borrow” them in order to transport the groceries back to the marina. They use the coin in the slot and lock to another cart deposit method to control the loss of carts but obviously if there is another cart at the marina then you just have to lock your cart to it to be able to retrieve your 100cpf coin (a little over US$1). Once we reached the supermarket complex we decided that we might as well have breakfast there before doing the shopping and we picked one of the two cafes and ordered ourselves cooked breakfasts, it was OK but quite frankly Gerry cooks a better breakfast than they did. Once we had finished with eating it was time to collect a cart, paying our 100cpf deposit, and begin to load up with groceries. The Carrefour was a large, well stocked supermarket which carried electrical goods and clothing as well as groceries. It didn’t take us too long to fill our cart with all sorts of good things along with a few pairs of new swimmers; it wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination but we had to replace the foods that we had thrown out due to the lack of refrigeration whilst the boat was in the boat yard undergoing repairs. Abigail and I hung back whilst Gerry pushed the cart along the road to the marina; it is obviously a regular thing as no one batted an eyelid at the sight of a grown man pushing a cart loaded with groceries into the marina. Our only problem was that by the time we got back to the marina all the carts that had been lined up there were gone, the supermarket had collected them all – it looked as if we were going to loose our deposit! We wheeled the cart as close to the dinghy dock as we could get it and there we found just one single lonely cart, we locked our cart to it and retrieved our deposit after transferring the groceries into the dinghy. We were down quite low in the water by the time the three of us got into the dink with the groceries but we managed to motor back out to our boat without incident, albeit a little slowly. Abigail and I had the job of unloading and stashing away the shopping whilst Gerry hoisted the dinghy on to the davits. As soon as everything was away the engine was turned on and Gerry was itching to get underway. The anchor was hauled in and we began motoring towards Moorea – the island that was just 19 miles away. As we cleared the reef we turned westwards and were going to try to sail except that the wind was coming directly on our nose so we continued to motor for a while. Eventually the wind began to clock around to our beam and we unfurled the jib and slowed the motor. Bear was put in charge of the steering for a while; Gerry can be seen in the photo supervising Bear at the wheel. It took us around 4 hours to get to Moorea and we followed the channel markers into Cooks bay. The views of the bay were quite breathtaking and at times it didn’t look real. There we had a choice as to anchoring – either inside the bay or out near the reef; most of the boats seemed to be out near the reef and we elected to go there too as we wanted to be able to snorkel from the back of the boat. We dropped the anchor and once we were happy that it was set we donned the snorkelling gear and jumped in the water. Abigail and I spent quite some time investigating the small bits of reef close to the boat, gradually working our way outwards to the bigger patches. We saw loads of pretty tropical fish of all shapes and sizes amongst the reef, some of them I had not seen before. The reef itself wasn’t alive with colour but it wasn’t as dead as some we have seen in the Caribbean. When we tired of swimming around we returned to the boat for a shower and an afternoon nap. Dinner was a bar b que on the back end of the boat and then it was time for bed.

Sunday 5th August

Marina Taina,
Tahiti

17 35.399 S
149 36.985 W

It rained during the night so we woke up to a wet cockpit and cushions as we hadn’t closed the curtains down for the night. The sun soon came out though and the drying process began. We had all sorts of plans for the day but these were somewhat thwarted by the weather – the wind got up and was blowing at 19 knots from the south. Our plans to hoist Gerry up the mast to change out the anchor light and run the new spinnaker halyard were put on hold until there is less wind and our plans to go ashore and do the rest of the grocery shopping were also scrapped for the day as we would have gotten soaked going by dink as the wind had whipped up the water going into the dock. The morning was spent reading, changing the engine oil, doing the accounts and email stuff.
After a delicious lunch prepared by Abigail, both Gerry and Abigail went for an afternoon nap. I stayed up and sewed up an Hawaiian shirt and bandana for Bear and fixed the torn cockpit seat cover. By the time I had finished with the sewing it was cocktail time and we had a drink on board before heading into the marina for another meal ashore. Yet again - not a particularly exciting day and one which left us with jobs to do early tomorrow before we head off on the next part of our trip.

Saturday 4th August

Marina Taina,
Tahiti

17 35.399 S
149 36.985 W

Our first job of the day was to get the little bit of laundry done whilst we were still where there was freely available water. Gerry planned to change out the oil in the generator Whilst Abigail and I wanted to get to the market and stock up on some vegetables and fruit for the next few days. I stopped at the bank and raided the cash point yet again so that we at least have some cash for the next few days then we walked over to the markets and began filling our bags with fresh produce. We bought 3 ready made salads for lunch and then made our way back to the boat where Gerry was itching to get going. We stowed the produce away, unhooked the water hoses and cast off the lines. Our destination was only about 5 miles away – at an anchorage just off of Marina Tahina. We had to get the harbour control permission to cross at both ends of the airport runway and at the furthest end we had to go into a holding pattern for a few minutes as 2 planes were coming into land. As soon as we cleared the runway we were just a short distance from the marina where we stopped to refuel. Having now got full water and fuel tanks we are almost set to leave – just a few more grocery items to purchase and we will be good to go. We anchored amongst the fleet of boats in 47 feet of water and spent the rest of the morning watching to make sure we didn’t drag anchor. The dink came off the foredeck and we ate lunch in the cockpit before deciding that we all needed an afternoon nap which extended into the early evening. We elected to go ashore for our evening meal and dinked into the marina dock. The al fresco bar and restaurant at the marina was very pleasant and busy. We caught up with some Australian yachties that we had met in Panama who had arrived in Tahiti just after us then we had a nice meal before dinking back out to the boat for the night. It wasn’t the most exciting day but it was quite relaxing.

Friday 3rd August

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Happy birthday to Katie and Leora, hope it’s a good one!

Well we were up, showered, car loaded, checked out and on the road by 07.20hrs,
of course not all of us were properly awake but the driver was and that’s all that matters. The drive to town took an hour and a half – longer than normal as the traffic was heavy and slow. We stopped at the bank and raided my card again – we just about had enough to cover the bill now. Our next stop was the propane depot to collect our bottle that had been filled 3 days prior and then we headed to the boat yard where we quickly unloaded the gear from the car and put it on the boat. Overnight some idiot had gone through the area with a paintball gun and we now sported 3 pink paint ball splatters on the boat – Gerry was not a happy chap! The car had to be returned by 11.30hrs so Gerry took off with Abigail, stopping on the way at the port captain’s office to add Abigail to our manifest and to check out (we sort of plan to leave on Sunday and the office is closed all weekend). Meanwhile I went on board and made the mistake of opening the fridge, with no power for the past 4 days everything needed to go in the bin, there were fruit flies inside the fridge and there was blood running in to the fridge from the defrosted meat in the freezer – oh joy! I threw out everything and proceeded to clean out the freezer and fridge, ending up with buckets of foul water which needed to be disposed of. I couldn’t get them off the boat until Abigail and Gerry returned as someone moved the ladder away from the back of the boat and I was stranded aboard. At last I managed to get the fridge and freezer smelling normal again and then put away the laundry and shopping in their right homes. By this time Gerry and Abigail reappeared having dealt with the paperwork and car hire place, they were a bit cross as the car hire place wouldn’t give them a ride back to the yard and they had been forced to get a taxi back – using cash we didn’t have to spare. Gerry went off to pay the yard and luckily they hadn’t deducted the tax from his bill so when they did that we had a little left over (enough for a drink and dinner at the vans that night). We spent the next couple of hours washing down the decks and trying to get the paint ball splatters off of the boat with some success. At around 15.00hrs our boat was back in the travel lift and going back into the water, it was nice to be back aboard with all our stuff at hand. Once we were free of the travel lift we motored around to the town lagoon and tied up alongside for the night (Abigail had befriended the port captain and he had not charged us for the one night, as long as she emails him the photo of himself with Bear). Once tied up we hosed out the cockpit again and Gerry ran the generator – it was a delight to hear, so quiet again and running smoothly thank goodness. At last it was time to go ashore for happy hour, we had just 2 drinks in the closest bar and then went to the food vans and had a delicious Chinese dinner and soft serve ice cream. We walked back along the waterfront to our boat and spent the remainder of the evening listening to music before going to bed.

Thursday 2nd August

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Happy birthday Scott, hope you are enjoying Australia.

Today began as a beautiful sunny day and Abigail and I seriously thought of cancelling our plans to visit the pearl farm and stay at the pension and go swimming and kayaking but in the end we got in the car with Gerry and headed into town. We took the slightly longer route into town along the winding road; Gerry dropped us off at the tourist information booth so we could use the facilities before heading to the pearl market.
Once we had managed to cross the busy road we walked the short distance to the pearl farm, stopping to buy Abigail a couple of new pairs of swimmers on the way. The pearl farm building was 3 stories high and each floor had a classification of the type of pearls they exhibited there – Charm, Elegance and Prestige. With over 200000 pearls on display it was difficult to pick the one that you wanted and we spent the rest of the morning admiring and oohing and ahring at the pearls. We learnt how the pearls are categorized by shape (round, semi round, semi baroque, baroque and circled); quality (A, B, C and D); size (usually between 8 and 12 mm) and finally colour (green, blue, golden, silver, purple, eggplant, rainbow, fly wing). After much deliberation Abigail picked her pearl and a ring setting to suit it then it was my turn; with the expectation that she will inherit my jewelry Abigail watched carefully over my choice of 2 pearls to go in a pendant setting. Once we had chosen we took photos of Bear amongst the pearls (everyone’s a sucker for Bear!), paid for our purchases and arranged to collect them after lunch so that they could be set for us. We had about an hour to go before we had to meet Gerry for lunch so we took a slow wander through the market and shops on the way to our arranged meeting place. Gerry arrived after we had been waiting for 15 minutes and found a parking spot right outside the café we had picked to eat at. It was getting close to the end of lunchtime and the service was pretty slow but we eventually got a lunchtime special meal and explained that we had to go back to collect our pearl purchases after lunch. Gerry was pleased with the way his morning had gone – the frame for the generator was done and he had reinstalled the whole thing; unfortunately the test run was going to have to wait until the boat was back in the water as it is water cooled. The bushes for the rudder were installed and had to be left sitting in the same spot to allow the epoxy to harden overnight – it was all looking good. Gerry had the bill in hand – this presented us with a slight problem as the yard only took cash and we have a limit on our cards as to how much we can draw down each day. Gerry’s card gave up working a week ago and despite Abigail bringing him a brand new one from home he still couldn’t get any money out. This left us with just my card to draw money on and by drawing the limit each day for 3 days we would just about be able to pay the yard as long as there was nothing else to add to the bill. We were going to have to use the credit card for any other purchases we made for the next 3 days or use our emergency US $ from our ditch bag which we didn’t want to do. So after lunch our first stop was the bank to draw down the limit on my card then we headed back to the pearl farm to collect our purchases. We agreed that we were happy with what we had chosen and then hurried back to meet Gerry at the tourist information place. This time we only had to wait for 5 minutes before he turned up. We showed off our new jewelry which he did his best to admire and not ask the price (it’s only money after all). We then set off for the supermarket where we loaded up the car with the essential cans and heavy goods that we were going to need to stock the boat up with – this would be our last chance to use the car for gathering the heavy stuff as we had to return it the next day. The drive back to the pension seemed to take forever and once we got there Gerry did some quick emailing before we went out for dinner, this time returning to the same restaurant we ate at on our first night in the pension. As we were checking out the next day at 07.30hrs we packed our bags on our return from dinner and left everything ready to load in the car.

Wednesday 1st August

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

The day began with Gerry feeling unwell, he had an upset stomach, anyone would have thought he was on his death bed from the way he carried on. Abigail and I had decided to spend the day at the pension and go swimming and relax at the water’s edge so with out too much sympathy we waved goodbye to Gerry and set about relaxing for the day.
I did a small amount of laundry – just to keep it under control as the load that we took to the launderette here cost nearly AU$100 – that was expensive in anyone’s book! With the laundry outside drying on the deck I had a cup of tea and some left over bread for breakfast, by now Abigail just about had her eyes open and muttered something about going for a kayak around the bay. The pension has kayaks which are free to use so she went off to commandeer one whilst I set up the computer and typed up the last couple of days’ worth of blog notes. I kept being interrupted by Abigail calling out to me – I had to take photos of her kayaking, bear kayaking, her snorkeling and so on, it just made the time it took me to type notes even longer. Abigail finished with her water exercise and came to join me in time for us to go and see if we could hook up to the free WIFI here. To cut a long story short – we failed! Everything we tried was a disaster and in the end we packed up the computer and decided to leave it until Gerry came home to see what we were doing wrong. The woman who runs the pension dropped by with a bowl full of fresh ripe bananas from one of her trees just before lunch time. Abigail and I prepared a feast of left over pate, cheese, bread and fruit for lunch and sat eating it on the balcony outside of the chalet. When we were full we laid down and read for a while, Abigail dozed off until Gerry suddenly appeared at the balcony doors – he’d had enough for the day and had come home looking for sympathy and something to eat, not that there was much of either. We told him that we had experienced difficulties connecting to the WIFI and he huffed and puffed in exasperation and stomped off with the computer to get closer to the source of the WIFI. It took him quite a while to sort it out and get connected but he eventually got there. So how did his day go? He managed to pick up the alternator for the generator from the airport without too many problems. The customs people wanted proof that he was on a yacht in transit and luckily he had thought to take all the boat papers along with him to the airport so it wasn’t any problem. The alternator fitted in the space that the old one came out of – a relief as it is a different (newer) model. The frame for the whole generator was in the process of being welded up and the bushes for the rudder were being installed so all was good on the boat for the moment. As for his stomach ache – what can I say? One day of having the shits and he was feeling like death warmed up – it was a good job it was me who was sick with food poisoning on the 5 day trip to here, as he would never have survived! Even Abigail showed him no sympathy, poor Gerry.
He laid down on the bed for a short doze and I ended up waking both him and Abigail up in time for dinner. We went to a different restaurant close to where we had been last time. The food was good but it wasn’t cheap, this restaurant seemed to cater for a different crowd – the early, family crowd and we were the last to leave the restaurant as they were clearing all the tables away for the night – and it was only 20.30 hrs! After the short drive home we were all in bed and asleep by 21.30hrs.

Tuesday 31st July

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Gerry was up and itching to get moving early, unfortunately he was outnumbered and we took our time to get ready and underway but even with the hour drive to town we were still there by 09.00hrs. Abigail and I were dropped off in town where we stopped at the bank to empty the account and then made our way to the port authority to pay for our stay. Today we were in luck (?) it was open and we were the only customers there, we quickly sorted out the bill and paid it. The port captain was very nice to us and even agreed to have his photo taken with bear (I told you it was going to be a very silly month) Once we had got the bill paid we walked over to the town center and began window shopping in earnest. Abigail bought a nice dress and tried on 3 others that I liked which didn’t quite fit her and they didn’t have any other sizes so she missed out on those. After wandering up and down a couple of streets we found the central markets and browsed around those – lots of good food stuff, some nice materials, a lot of crappy tourist souvenirs and some half decent ones. By the time we finished walking around the market it was getting close to lunch time and we had arranged to meet Gerry at midday at Macca’s (it being the one place we knew he would be able to find with no problem!), so we walked in that direction, stopping at a couple of shops along the way but buying nothing else. We had to wait for about 15 minutes until Gerry arrived and then we upset him by saying we didn’t want to eat burgers, after finding a parking spot we walked to a nearby restaurant and ordered the “plate de jour” which turned out to be a very nice mild chicken curry with rice and green beans. After lunch we were going to leave Gerry and go to the pearl farm but Abigail was feeling a little nauseated and dizzy so we postponed the trip and went back to the boat with Gerry, where we sat waiting until 15.00hrs, when the yard stopped working and we headed off home. We stopped for a couple of photos at scenic points along the road and also at the supermarket for some bread, cheese, pate and fruit which was going to be our dinner. Once we reached the pension we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon until the sun began to go down and the bitey creatures began to put in an appearance. We then retreated to the inside of the chalet for our evening meal and ended up having an early night.

Monday 30th July

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Many happy returns Matthew D., congratulations on your coming of age.

At 06.30hrs Gerry was out of bed and itching to get things moving. The boat was going into the yard at 07.30hrs. He woke Abigail up to close and lock the hatch over her bunk, then we both joined him in getting everything put away ready for the move across the bay. We cast off the lines at 07.00hrs and began the short motor across the bay, arriving at the yard early. The yard was just getting ready for us and Gerry was soon backing the boat into the travel lift whilst Abigail and I handled the lines. This was the first time that we had been hauled without having to remove the backstays - a definite bonus. As soon as the boat was securely in the slings we all jumped off the back end onto the dock and watched as the boat was lifted out of the water, happily without incident. We had thought that we were going to be put onto stands straight away and hadn’t taken anything off of the boat that we needed for the stay ashore; to our surprise they told us that they were going to leave the boat in the slings until they had the rudder removed. This created the problem of us having to get back onboard, collect our gear for the shore stay and then get off again. Gerry and Abigail did the climbing back aboard bit – I don’t think that they trusted me not to rock the boat, anyway we got a bag of clothes, some wash gear and a couple of books – anything that we hadn’t got would have to be collected later. Gerry prepared the floor for the removal of the rudder and then we spent almost the rest of the day sitting in the car waiting for the guys to get the rudder out, I think they tried everything to get it loose including the hammer (I suspect they used even heavier gear when we weren’t looking). Abigail and I spent most of the time reading or dozing – it was hot just sitting there and as the only person authorized to drive the car was Gerry we were a captive audience to the yard workers. Gerry of course spent the time supervising the workers and getting in their way. Eventually the rudder was removed, and the work ground to a standstill – it was getting close to 15.00hrs and they stop work then! Gerry pushed the point that we wanted to get the work done quickly and they continued to work, removing the bearings so that they could get straight on with machining new ones at the beginning of work the next day. By 15.00hrs the bearings were out and we were ready to go home for the night. After locking up the boat we drove home via the port authority where we were going to pay for our 3 nights in the lagoon unfortunately they closed at 15.00hrs too so we had to postpone paying them until tomorrow. We encountered a car accident on the way which held up our side of the road for about an hour but finally we got to the turnoff. We stopped so that I could buy some breakfast foods and then made our way to the pension. We all showered and changed clothes then headed out to the closest restaurant, a French place where Abigail ate snails and kebabs, Gerry ate kebabs and I had goat cheese salad and duck breast, it was good food if a little expensive. We drove back to the pension and discussed plans for the morning before going to sleep.

Sunday 29th July

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Many Happy returns of the day Russell, we will be having a drink for you!

We were all awake early – the excitement of having Abigail with us I expect! Gerry cooked us breakfast and then we all took our time getting ready to go out. I began to do the bits of laundry that I could manage easily on the boat but got chastised for using the water and then had to leave it half done as Gerry was ready to go out. We decided to take a slow tour around the island and find the pension that Abigail had booked just incase we weren’t at the airport to meet her. We had a vague address for the place and we knew that it was 70Kms from the airport. We set off on the East bound road and found ourselves driving along a small coast road with lots of twists and turns. The drive was very picturesque with it’s backdrop of mountains, roads bordered by the varieties of flora which thrive in Tahiti and the fantastic sparkling blue sea which has breakers big enough to surf in places along the route. On our way we stopped at Pointe Venus – a scenic lookout point, the views were spectacular and we took a few photos (mostly of bear enjoying the views).
When we reached the 60Km mark we were exactly half way around what is essentially a circular island with a polyp hanging on to the end of it. The big circle is called Tahiti Nui and the polyp is called Tahiti Iti, we detoured off of the main island onto the smaller island and began to drive along the east coast. About 10Kms along that road we suddenly saw a signpost announcing Pueu Village – this was where the pension was located. We drove into the driveway and found ourselves looking at a half build (or half demolished) building; we decided that we had got the wrong place and maybe it was further along the road. We turned the car around and continued along the road further but found nothing else; eventually Gerry asked a young girl where the pension was and she pointed us to the place we had gone into – oh dear. With a sinking feeling overtaking us we returned there and actually got out and made enquiries this time, we were shown to the bungalows which were a short distance from the half built building and to our surprise and relief they were actually very nice self contained chalets. We arranged to take a chalet from Monday night as long as they could put an extra mattress in it - that was no problem. Whilst we were there we had a look around the place, there was a communal kitchen, pleasant gardens with a large fish pool; the entire place is on the water front and you can swim there or use the kayaks provided for free by the pension. The biggest drawback is the lack of food – there are no shops close by and the nearest restaurant is a good car ride away – good job we have the hire car. Having sorted out our accommodation for the time that the boat would be out of the water having the rudder fixed we said goodbye to the owners and began our return journey to the boat; this time taking the west coast road which the pension owners told us was quicker even though it was 10 Kms longer than the east coast road. Along the way we passed the Grottes de Maraa – an area of caves just off of the road which look like they will be worth a visit and the Paul Gauguin museum which although I have issues with his lifestyle I think we should probably see too. It was mid afternoon by the time we got back to the boat and we were all feeling a little tired. Gerry drove the car around to the boat yard where he intended to leave it for the night and Abigail dinked across there to pick him up and bring him back to the boat; meanwhile I finished doing the bits of laundry that I’d begun in the morning and hung it all out to dry. Gerry and Abigail decided that they needed a short nap and I spent the time reading my book; I woke both of them up when it was getting near dinner time, the pair of grumps weren’t keen to get up but as they wanted to eat they roused themselves. We walked to the closest restaurant which unfortunately didn’t open its kitchen on a Sunday so we ended up going just a little further to a large open entertainment area on the shore line where a lot of food vans set up and serve meals in the evening. We picked a van serving Chinese food and had a delicious feast for a very small cost. It appears that a lot of the local people eat at these vans on a regular basis; we weren’t sure that they would pass health regulations in Australia but they were all licensed so I guess they have to meet some standard.
After eating we waddled back to the boat for the night. Unfortunately there was a large luxury motor boat docked in the lagoon across the water from us and they had a party going all night, because the lagoon is flat cam the sound traveled and we were entertained into the early hours of the morning by the music coming from this boat.

Saturday 28th July

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Again we were awake fairly early and breakfast was over and done with at break neck speed. There is another half hour time difference here and as we had altered the clocks yesterday Gerry got the time wrong for the radio schedule and missed speaking with the others. We then seemed to take an age to organize ourselves to go out, mostly as we were trying to connect to the internet via the provider we had paid for in Nuku Hiva; our attempts we unsuccessful and frustrating. We have a Swedish boat behind us and as we prepared to go exploring we stopped by their boat to see if they could get the internet. It appears that they have the same problem with the same provider that we were having, not a good thing but at least we are not alone! We chatted with them for a long while, exchanging charts and stories and even getting an invite to drinks and dinner with them that night; we accepted the drinks but as we had to pick Abigail up form the airport we took a rain check on the dinner. Eventually we took off in the hire car and drove around until we found the airport, the marina to the other side of the town and then a huge cash and carry store where we wandered around eyeing up things that we need and filled a trolley with the essentials for the moment (NO there wasn’t a single bit of chocolate in the trolley!) Having done our grocery dash Gerry tried to force Micky D’s on me for lunch, luckily there were no vacant parking spots and the drive through was tailing back out on to the main road almost to a round about; we headed back to the boat and ate lunch there. We spent the afternoon clearing all the stuff off of the V berth bunk, airing it out and making up the bed there for Abigail. At 17.00hrs we joined our Swedish neighbours and their friends for cocktails; we had a great time chatting and establishing a new friendship with them. As we sat there we were suddenly watching a large plane coming in to land, Gerry was a little concerned that we might have the time wrong for Abigail’s flight and we quickly bid our neighbours goodnight and headed out to the airport. Of course it wasn’t her plane at all and we had another 2 hour wait before her flight landed, we filled the time by having a quick bite to eat and then sat people watching until the arrival of the Sydney flight. Gerry bought some Leis which we festooned Abigail with as soon as she cleared the customs hall; it was so good to have her with us again. As we left the arrival hall Abigail pulled our “Bear” and had to have an arrival photo taken with him at the airport.
Bear belongs to a friend of hers and Abigail asked if she could take bear on a holiday with her, the condition being that there had to be a lot of photos. I can see this is going to be a very silly month! We arrived back at the boat, settled in and chatted for a couple of hours until we finally dragged ourselves to bed, there was still so much catching up to do but it would have to wait for the time being.

Friday 27th July

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Despite not getting to bed until midnight we were both awake and ready to get up at 07.00hrs. Gerry spoke to the Guys on the radio schedule and let them know we had arrived safely. Wandering outside along the dock Gerry discovered that there is a security guard on duty along the quay 24 hrs of the day, he asked a few pertinent questions about where the trash is, where the customs and Immigration offices are and was made to feel quite welcome. We cooked breakfast and planned our day. As soon as possible we walked to the tourist information office which was a short distance away and then on to the customs and immigration office to report our arrival. The form filling was, like everywhere else, time consuming and tedious but we finally got it all sorted out. Next it was a short distance further to a hire car place where we took control of a small car for the next week. Gerry was in his element again – driving around at break neck speed trying to avoid all the cars that seemed to want our bit of the road. We drove around to acclimatize ourselves to the area and made our way around to the haul out yard to arrange our timetable for having the work done to our rudder, the boat will be coming out of the water on Monday morning at 07.15hrs (how disgustingly early is that!) Once we had organized that it was time for lunch and we parked in a multi story and made our way to the café center where we had a typical French style lunch sitting under umbrellas on the pavement listening to 3 guys playing ukuleles and singing – it was all very pleasant. Following lunch we both flagged badly and had to return to the boat to have a sleep – it was catch up time! We revived at around 17.00hrs – time for a pre dinner drink. We set off to find somewhere to eat, settling on a Vietnamese place however it wasn’t open yet so we found a street café where happy hour was in progress and settled in for a couple of drinks whilst watching a huge cruise liner pull into the quay and dock. Once we had finished our 2 for 1 drinks we made our way back to the restaurant; the doors were now open but they didn’t begin dinner until 19.30 hrs, with half an hour still to go we were the first customers of the night but by no means the last. The food was pretty good and we made pigs of ourselves, once we had eaten our fill we returned to the boat for a relatively early night. With the urgent stuff now under control we could spend tomorrow exploring a bit more.

Thursday 26th July

Papeete,
Tahiti

17 32.422 S
149 34.279 W

Many happy returns Matthew Baker, hope you have a great birthday.

Neither of us managed a great deal of sleep, again the boat was heeling over far too much and far too often meaning we were either rolling from side to side or were sliding up and down the bed; we think the only solution is to hook up a hammock somewhere and sleep in that – of course it needs to be someplace where the rain can’t get us either which limits where it could go. By the time the sun was due to rise the skies had clouded over completely and we were doubtful that we would see the sun at all. The sky turned an ominous red behind the clouds – a sign of things to come for the day! Gerry spoke with Y Not and Timella on the radio schedule, telling of our overnight trip and asking if there is any sort of qualification needed to be a weather man, Gerry is sure he could do as well as some of the predictions we have had recently! Anyway we spent the entire day trying to hold ourselves into the boat, the wind speed picked up during the late morning and we had a steady 21 knots of wind which was moving us along at a good 6.5 – 7.5 knots with a full main up and a reefed jib. Once the winds established a constant speed of more than 18 knots we put a reef in the main to try and steady the motion, in retrospect we should have put both reefs in at this point but you know about that hind sight stuff! Mid afternoon Gerry went for his nap and after about 40 minutes reappeared as he was unable to sleep due to being almost on his head with the heeling over. As he reappeared our wind speed hit 23knots and he decided that it was way past time to put the second reef in the main. So as we roared along, heeled over so far that the gunwales were in the water, Gerry donned a harness and went out on deck to put the second reef in, a foolhardy action which luckily had no negative results. As soon as the reef was in we steadied up a little and our speed dropped to 8 knots from the 8.8 that we had been doing. It was still a very uncomfortable ride but fast! The skies remained cloudy all day but at least it didn’t rain on us. Gerry spotted a rainbow some way off from us in the early part of the afternoon which was the excitement for the day until at 16.28hrs the cry went up – Land Ho! There in the distance were the peaks of Tahiti poking up through the clouds, still about 36 miles off but at last we were getting close. As we got closer to land we thought the wind must be due to drop a little but this was not to be, instead it increased even further and reached 32 knots a few times. Gerry even took over from George and hand steered for the last 2 hours before we got into the lee of the island as he didn’t want to wear George out! It was 21.35hrs by the time we reached the lee of the land and at long last the wind dropped, in fact it died away to just 3 knots – a huge difference from 31 and suddenly we were wallowing along with 6 miles left to go before we could turn into the harbour entrance. The good thing was that we were now sitting level in the water and Gerry thought that we would be able to run the engine without sucking air in along with the fuel. We took the chance and furled away the jib and dropped the main then started up the engine, it miss fired a couple of times but then burst into life and we managed to motor into the harbour. We called the port captain (as per instructions) and were surprised to get a reply this late in the day (it was now just after 22.00hrs). We were told to proceed in and tie up or anchor inside the harbour in one of the designated areas. We followed the lights in and found that there is a large new tying up place inside the harbour and we picked a spot alongside and tied up for the night expecting to have to move in the morning. By the time we were in, tied up and shut down it was 23.55hrs – we had just made it before midnight and it was time for a decent night sleep without the boat moving. We were very relieved to have finished this particular part of the trip, it was far worse than the 21 day and 12 hour crossing from the Galapagos to the Marquesas; and we are in good time to meet our daughter when she arrives on the 28th!

Friday 20th July

Anse Hakatea (Daniels Bay)
Marquesas

8 56.753 S
140 09.937 W (at Midnight)

A very happy 9th birthday to Max, we are thinking about you today.

Our day started with Gerry doing the bakery run, picking up bread for ourselves, Y Not and JJ Moon who were due to arrive here mid morning. The morning began with rain but it soon cleared up and the sky began to look like it might give us a nice day. We were going to take off today but decided to wait until JJ Moon arrived so that we could at least say hello to them. It was about 10.00hrs when we spotted JJ Moon making their way into the anchorage. Gerry jumped into the dinghy and motored out to greet them. Meanwhile Mags was on the radio asking where we were anchored. They were soon dropping their anchor between Y Not and us; Gerry and Ross helped them to secure a stern anchor. They gave them the fresh bread, had a few words of wisdom and then it was time for Gerry to haul up our Stern anchor whilst I gathered in the extra line. We stowed the stern anchor plus about a ton of mud in the bracket then we took the outboard off the dink and put it away on its bracket and secured the dinghy to the davits. Finally at 100.00hrs we began to motor out of the harbour; we were going to stop first at Daniels Bay which was just a few miles away as that was the place to get fresh water and we needed to fill our tanks before setting off. As the bay was so close we motored all the way, it took jus an hour and we found ourselves entering a completely protected bay which was peaceful, calm and picturesque. Once we had anchored we put the dink back in the water and Gerry went over to one of the other boats at anchor there to ask where the water tap was located. The guy off of the boat, Howard, went with Gerry and the water containers to the place where you can fill up, it was a short distance away up a river which we couldn’t see from the anchorage. After 2 trips we had enough water to last until we reach Tahiti (as long as it isn’t more than a week at sea!) On the first trip Howard introduced Gerry to the locals who live in the house where the water tap is and they invited us all to dinner at their house that night, which was gratefully accepted. It meant of course that we wouldn’t be leaving the bay until the next day but who cares. We weren’t expected to take anything along but I made chocolate brownies as a gesture. Around 17.00hrs we set off in the dink, up the river to the house, Howard and his wife Shira were just a bit ahead of us and we all tied up at the same place and made our way to the house where we were greeted by Maurice and Charlotte – the owners and our hosts. Our hosts pointed out the waterfall at the back of their property which is the 3rd largest in the world; it can be hiked up to but we weren’t going to be doing anything that energetic, and contented ourselves with the distant view we had of it. We chatted and had a couple of drinks and as we waited for dinner more people arrived from the anchorage; soon the whole place was alive with yachties passing the night at Daniels Bay, in total there were 7 boats there for the night and I think the owners of 4 of them plus us had been invited for dinner – it was an epic multi cultural gathering. Everyone had brought something along to share and Charlotte and Maurice had cooked up a feast of Polynesian foods for us to sample. We tried everything and had a wonderful meal of beef in coconut milk, rice, bread fruit, pasta, pawpaw sauce, Polynesian bread, a black bean dish which was fabulous and some mixed vegetables and exchanged stories with the others at the table. Our closest neighbours were an older French couple who spoke about as much English as we did French; between us we managed to carry on a good conversation all evening despite our miss pronunciations. Finally it was time to say good bye, Charlotte invited us again the next day to help ourselves to the fruits on the heavily laden trees in their garden and again for dinner the next night but I had to tell her regretfully that we were going to be leaving in the morning for Papeete as our daughter was flying in there to join us. It was a good job we had taken a torch with us as it was pitch black finding our way back to our dinghy and then back to our boat. This bay was one of the nicest surprises that we have found so far in our travels, the bay it self was lovely and to top it off the people who live there were so generous and friendly to all of us who were total strangers to them – it kind of restores faith in the human race. Once back on the boat we ran the engine to top up the batteries and then turned in for the night.

Thursday 19th July

Nuku Hiva
Marquesas

8 54.888 S
140 06.115 W

So much for a good night’s sleep! The rain and wind continued all night, at about 01.30hrs we seemed to be rolling a great deal more than previously so I made the huge mistake of getting up and peering out of the hatch to make sure we hadn’t
drifted off. Well we hadn’t drifted off but we were not pointing in the same direction that we had been when we went to bed – we should have been as we had both the forward and a stern anchor out. I called out to Gerry to come and have a look and to try and work out what was happening, we concluded that our stern anchor had given way in one of the gusts and was no longer effective, we were swinging around our forward anchor and were now side on to the swell hence the rolling. We decided to try and drop the stern anchor again, Gerry got in the dink and I hauled the excess line in on the stern anchor. With the wind gusting quite badly Gerry motored out in the dink to reposition the anchor, unfortunately the dink couldn’t compete with the wind and drag the stern of the boat back around enough to drop the anchor. We tried 2 or 3 times without success, I even had the motor running to try and keep us facing the right way whilst Gerry dropped the anchor – that didn’t work either. We then had to make the horrid decision to move completely as when we swung on our forward anchor we were getting far to close to Y Not who had a stern anchor out behind us and we didn’t want to bump into them in the middle of the night. Gerry tied the dink onto the boat and climbed back onboard; we donned the headsets and then proceeded to hoist the forward anchor. It was pitch black and we knew that there were a couple of other boats nearby so we had the radar going as we picked our way through the anchored boats and over to a spot where there was nothing anchored for a good distance around us, unfortunately it was opposite the harbour entrance directly in line with the incoming swell but at least we weren’t going to hit anyone when we turned. We dropped the anchor and sat watching the boat swing around it, doing figure of eights but at least not drifting off. We didn’t bother trying the stern anchor, knowing that trying to get it to set in the gusts was not going to be a happening thing at 02.00hrs! I went back to bed and Gerry watched for a while then joined me, the rest of the night was rolly and we managed to get the minimum of sleep. By 06.30hrs we were back up and preparing to move the boat back to a better anchoring spot. We went further in towards the dock and took the space left vacant by a boat that departed yesterday. Gerry got in the dink and took the stern anchor out and this morning had more success in dropping it and getting it to set – the wind had dropped and he was able to tug the boat around into the swell. Once we were set I cooked us breakfast before we ran the engine to top up the batteries and cool the fridge down. Once we had finished with the engine running Gerry went into dock to collect our laundry, it was just beginning to spit with rain again so I stayed on the boat. When he got back the rain had let up and we both jumped in the dink to go ashore to do the last minute stocking up of food. We took the boat documents with us as we had to check out with the Gendarmerie – we were going to be leaving in the morning. At the supermarket we found most of the things that we needed but had to limit ourselves to what we could carry in the back pack and bags. As the back pack was very heavy Gerry decided that he would come back in the afternoon to check out. We stopped at the craft building on the return journey and I bought a piece of tapa cloth and a carving, this was just about the last things that we could manage so we got in the dink and returned to the boat where we stowed everything away, ate lunch and then had a brief afternoon nap. Mid afternoon Gerry returned to town and checked out at the Gendarmerie and picked up our last bag of laundry whilst I cleaned out the fridge. On his return we took a couple of beers and our slab of bacon over to Y Not – they have a slicing machine and were kindly going to slice up our bacon for us. We spent an hour or two on their boat and then it was time to go ashore for dinner. We met up at the only restaurant we have found and had a pleasant evening meal together, this time the restaurant had vegetables! Following dinner we headed back to the boat for the night, it was a much better night as we stayed firmly in place for the night. Tomorrow we are off; first we are stopping at Daniel’s bay which is just 4 miles away as we can get filled up with fresh water there and then we are taking off straight away heading to Tahiti where we are picking up Abigail who is joining us for a month. There won’t be any photos for a while but hopefully my sister will be kind enough to load the blog for me for the next week or so.