June 17, 2008

We plan to go to Moorea so we pulled anchor and headed to the fuel dock where we filled our fuel tanks and jerry jugs. I filled the laundry tub, a 5 gallon bucket plus two 5 gallon jugs with water. I need to do wash and didn’t want to worry about having enough water. It was so great to get lots of water. It took us about 3 hours to get to the anchorage at Cooks Bay, Charisma beat us, I guess they left earlier than we had planned. I made peanut butter and jelly crackers just before we anchored. We decided to go on a sunset cruise in dinghy, we were anchored in the outer bay near the reef but others anchored in the inner bay in deeper water. We wanted to see who was anchored there. We stopped to see Pacific Star and Argonaut, then Horizon who invited us all aboard and refilled our glasses. They said they were feeling lonely, so we had a nice visit before heading back in the dark.

June 18, 2008

We have a Free Internet connection that was pretty good so we called Mom and Julie on Skype. We tried to call Lyn but could not get through. Mike spent most of the day working on our Nissan 15HP OB engine. It has never run well and we had it fixed in Mexico so we thought we would try it here. First the lock to hold the engine on the stern rail was rusted, then the starter cord would not pull out, then carburetor problems and last fuel line leaks, but now it runs and it is so fast. Tonight we went to shore with Pacific Star, Horizon, Argonaut and Charisma and watched a Polynesian dancing performance. It cost 500 francs each but we had a good time. They had the audience come up for a lesson, they said we must participate as it was their culture. It was only about 15 minutes and there were about 50 people and it was outside in the grass. It was a fun night.

June 19, 2008

The wind howled all night and all morning plus it started raining this morning. Mike actually got the OB engine to keep running this morning so we went over to Charisma and made them go for a ride in the rain. They were good sports because we were so excited. We had a lot of fun using the bigger faster engine in Moorea. Now we can keep up with everyone and get on a plane! We had dinner on Charisma with Teri and Rick from Morning Star.

June 20, 2008

It is a sunny morning and Kristen and Alan came over for coffee and to do some scanning/emailing. Later we rented a car to drive around Moorea. We went to the scenic view Belvedere where we could see Cooks Bay where we are anchored and the bay next to it as well as the surrounding mountains. It is really quite pretty. We stopped briefly at a few other places and then drove around looking for a good lunch spot. We found a snack shack with a French man that spoke English. He was great, he served us breadfruit that was cooked and tasted like French fries only with a slightly smoked flavor, very good and free. He also told us how to cook it. He had a pet goat right there at the restaurant. We drove around looking at the homes and the beach, and we stopped at another scenic view spot and took pictures. And a few other places and the grocery store. We went to Morning Stars boat to have a spaghetti dinner and played a game. Mike was a good sport about the game, it really was fun.

June 21, 2008

This morning we went snorkeling with Charisma and Morning Star. Teri told me to follow her through the coral, and I did but I was freaked out going through narrow and shallow coral spots. So I didn’t stay with her long. We had taken our newly working OB and I was glad I was able to get myself back in the dinghy. Later Charisma went with us to Tahiti Juice factory. They sampled fruit juices and liqueurs, just like they do at wine tastings. Our server was great and it was really fun! After that back at our boat we jumped in and scrubbed the grass skirt off our boat bottom. It was hard work but we sure slept good that night and our boat looks great now.

June 22, 2008

Tonight we are having Charisma and Morning Star for dinner on our boat. So we continued cleaning and I boiled a chicken to make chicken and noodles. Before dinner we decided to move to the bay next door, the only other one we planned on going to on Moorea. When pulling the anchor we were stuck on coral. Mike had to dive to see if he could devise a plan but it was 40’ deep and cloudy. He thought he knew the direction to drive the boat to untangle it, I was praying the whole time. Well his plan worked, thank you Jesus again! Everyone came to dinner and it turned out quite good, Kristen made a yummy blueberry dump cake. We had a nice visit. Today we also made arrangements with Meridian to buddy boat with them and Blue Plains drifter to Huahine in the next day or two.

June 23, 2008

Today we were to meet 4 boats and take our dinghy out to a Motu where they feed sharks and sting rays and bring visitors to swim with them. However it was white capping in the lagoon and we weren’t comfortable going in that weather. I wasn’t sure I was getting in the water anyway with those big fish. When the group returned they said we missed it, they really had fun. The wind blew hard all day so we just relaxed.

June 24, 2008

This morning was beautiful and sunny and Mike thought we should swim over and say Hi to Sea Otter 2. We met Jeff and Karen and had a great chat. They invited us over at 1:30 for Banana cake and coffee. It was the best cake, so good! We had a nice visit but had to cut it short as we planned to leave for Huahine at 2 but as it turned out we decided to leave at 4PM so we wouldn’t arrive in the dark. We hope to see Jeff and Karen at Huahine in the next few days. We pulled anchor at 4 and touched base with Meridian and Blue Plains and headed west. There was no wind so we had to motor for about 3 or 4 hours. During the one night passage the wind completely clocked around but we had fairly steady winds for several hours of 10-14 knots and big rollers. Our boat did some serious rolling.

June 25, 2008

After 16 hours we arrived at Farerea on Huahine at dawn. It was a pretty easy pass with a well marked channel. Roxy was here when we arrived and we anchored near them. Mike put his head out to check our status and our anchor had drug a ¼ mile, yikes! Thank goodness we missed hitting Roxy and many coral reefs, thank you Jesus, this was scary. We pulled anchored and found a little bay with reefs all around and only room for one boat in 50’. Roxy pulled their anchor too and anchored near us in another little bay. We are both more protected now. They called an invited us for drinks tonight. We spent the rest of the afternoon planning how we would spend our last 2 weeks in the Society Islands. It is overwhelming because there are so many possibilities. So we came up with a rough outline. At 5PM we went over to Roxy’s boat. Really nice boat, a lot of similarities to ours only a little bigger. What is weird is they showed us pictures of their kids and their daughter looks an awful lot like Lyn. What a shock! We had a nice visit and motored back to our boat in the dark.

June 26, 2008

It is cloudy and rainy today. Mike started the generator today and it stopped shortly after. The solenoid burned up and was smoking. After reviewing our manual on the Kubota generator there wasn’t anything helpful. I opened my bible to Psalm 25 “To you o Lord I will life up my soul, in you I trust oh my God” I needed that today! I made Mike pancakes and breakfast he set to work on the generator. Once again, with God’s favor, he made a work around with a paperclip!

June 27, 2008

We planned to go to Fare today but since the day was sunny and warm we decided to stay and go ashore. Not much on shore, so we decided to dinghy out of the bay and down the channel. It was the most beautiful clear water, with a variety of shades of blue depending on the depth. Back on the boat we relaxed again over lunch. We planned to invite Roxy over tonight but they left. After looking through recipes I decided to make ‘tuna with mushroom curry sauce’. I had made enough to last for 2 meals but it was so good we ate it all.

June 28, 2008

We planned to leave today for Fare but the winds have been blowing all night and the pass doesn’t look good.

June 29, 2008

We planned to leave today but the winds have not stopped blowing plus I woke up in agony with a pain in my back. I wasn’t sure if it was kidneys or pulled muscle. I got out the medical books and still couldn’t decide. I took 3 Ibuprofen and spent the day on the heating pad. I ended up getting out the pain pills before going to bed and slept on the sofa as it hurt too bad to crawl in our bed. Plus the sofa was more firm, which I think helped. We watched several DVD’s today including ‘Church in the Wildwood’ which was really uplifting.

June 30, 2008

We decided to leave even though the wind wasn’t much if any better. We don’t have many days left in French Polynesia and we don’t want to waste them sitting here. My back is better so we are ready to leave. We said a prayer and pulled anchor. Going through the pass was uneventful! Out in open water was a different story, the winds blew up to 23kts and the swells were quite large. Mike raised the sail which made the boat more stable. Sailing 7.5kts we arrived at the village of Fare in two hours. We dropped our anchor in 25’ in rocky hard sand. We could see our anchor upside down with a rock on it. We decided to leave it because if it dragged it would hit some bigger rocks that would surely stop us from dragging more than about 5 feet. We went to shore and found the Poste’ and mailed our immigration papers. Then we stopped at the market and picked up a few things, including these great Lays jambon flavor chips before heading back to our boat. Kind of a cute town. We saw Yvonne and Eric from Arial on the dock, very nice people. Back at our boat we watched 2 teams of local men that shared one va’a. One group was in the Vaa’ and they did a big loop, once near shore there was another team of 6 men evenly spaced, standing in the water waiting for the vaa. When it was close they traded places, it took only 6 seconds, Mike had time them. They were so fast. It was fun to watch them. They came within inches of our boat with their vaa.

July 1, 2008

Greg, our grandson turned 14 today! Mike was up most the night with a headache and we didn’t drag. My back hurts worse than yesterday, so we decided to lay low today. So much for the planning we did.

July 2, 2008

Today we are going to Raiatea and it is beautiful and sunny with long low swells. Mike got out our camping chairs and put them on the deck for us to enjoy. We put out 2 fishing lines and read as we motored across to the next island. We arrived at 1:30 and dropped our hook in a small bay with 2 other boats. I made a dip for lunch that we really enjoyed, apples, pineapple, celery and a curry sauce, yum!

July 3, 2008

Today is really nice so we decide to dinghy 4 miles using the 15hp OB, only it won’t start again, errrrh! Mike finally gets it working and we go to town and tied up in the marina and walked to town. We found a post office and mailed Bud and Greg’s birthday postcards. We had lunch in a snack shack and we had decided on this one as they took Visa. As we were eating our lunch they took the Visa sign down. I guess they are new owners and weren’t set up to take credit cards. Good thing we had enough cash. Then we walked back and met Willow with Bonny and Greg from Bellingham, they built their boat. It was nice but very simple with no refrigeration. I don’t know if I could do that. It really limited what you can eat. But they were young and happy. They play guitars and said it was a great way to meet locals.

July 4, 2008

Today we motored to Haamene on the island Tahaa, we couldn’t sail even though it was windy as there were too many reefs and coral heads to watch for. When we arrived Horizons was already anchored there and they had gone aground yesterday. The locals helped them by towing them with a power boat off the sand bar. We anchored in 25’ so no problem. Horizons invited us to dinner along with Rush, Alan and Marilyn on a catamaran. We had a yummy dinner and great visit, a nice way to spend the 4^th of July.

July 5, 2008

Last night was very windy and rainy but today it is great. The locals ask us to move our boat, they were having a vaa race today and we were in the course. Both Horizons and Rush came by and traded books with me, which was nice. Mike and I went to shore just to see what was happening, we kept hearing music. They seemed to be having a community BBQ and everyone was watching the race. Very small town so we were not there too long. We planned to meet Charisma at the Apu Bay and tie to a mooring ball. We went to Charisma’s for appetizers and then went to the Yacht Club for dinner, the mooring balls were free if you ate or drank at the Yacht Club. It was great, very casual, until your dinner was ready you could sit in lounge chairs and visit with other cruisers as they came in. We really enjoyed that. We met a family from Seattle that had chartered a catamaran for a week, we met Meridian with John, Nancy, Sophie and Mattie, Scarlett O’Hara with Rene and John, Elusive with Steve and Wendy, Blue Plains Drifter, Charisma and us. Fun!

July 6, 2008

We were able to get water on the dock so showers and laundry are on the ‘to do’ list. We had lunch at the Yacht Club, Mike and I shared a salad and it was still expensive. We had dinner on Charisma and I made fried rice at Kristen’s request.

July 7, 2008

Maui the Yacht Club manager helped us tie our boat to the dock to get water before departing for Bora Bora. Charisma went to snorkel the coral gardens, which everyone raves about, we decided to pass on that adventure. We had a great sail to Bora Bora and once again, no fish! We anchored near the “Bloody Mary’s” dock, they have mooring balls but they were all taken, we are near Myah and Argonaut in 80’. Argonaut invited us over for appetizers, so away we went, and it was really nice.

July 8, 2008

Our visa is up today. We went to town this morning to see the Gendarmerie and after asking if we could stay for Bastille Day on July 14, they said “no problem. Just come back the day you leave and have your passport stamped. Just don’t try to stay 3 months”. We were really surprised, we expected them to say no, they seemed so strict when we were in Tahiti. We prayed first and obviously had God’s favor. Done with that we walked uptown and met Scarlett O’Hara again and Island Time, Mary Ellen and Ron. We checked on fuel as there were rumors going around so we wanted to be sure. You had to buy 25 gallons to be able to use the duty free discount, have copies of 4 boat documents and pay in cash, no credit cards. Later Mark invited Charisma and us to dinner at Bloody Marys for his friend Mary Beth’s birthday. We had a great time and took lots of pictures. The restroom had a waterfall where you washed your hands, it was neat. In the men’s restroom Mike said they had a male anatomy to pull to flush the toilet.

July 9, 2008

Tonight we went to the Polynesian Dance contest. We brought our camping chairs and were able to see pretty well without having to pay to sit in the bleachers. Our ride back to the boat in our dinghy in the dark was a little scary. We followed Charisma and made it back just fine.

July 10, 2008

This morning we decided to move our boat to a mooring ball but as we were just arriving a man and a boy in a dinghy rushed ahead of us and took the ball. That was kind of stinky. They said they had reservations and they were bringing their sailboat. Oh well, we just anchored nearby in 75’ of water. We went to lunch at Bloody Marys with Charisma as once again the ball was free if you ate there. Kristen and Alan came to dinner and I made curry chicken over rice, not bad.

July 11, 2008

This morning our generator wouldn’t start, what a bummer! We had already planned to go for a bike ride around the island, so we decided to go and just work on the generator later. It was a cloudy day, but that was a great time to ride bikes. We got pretty wet but that is life cruising. We met up with Schilling, Janet and Dennis, they had their own bikes and we all rented. We stopped and had a drink together to take a break and we had a nice visit. They are from England. When we finished the ride I am not sure what hurt worse, my back side or my legs. I had to take IB profen, and Mike said he was just fine. Mike was stumped and depressed about the generator, he just couldn’t figure it out, and the books we had seemed worthless. So I radioed Alan to see if he was free to help or just moral support. He came over with some trouble shooting books, which really did help. They still didn’t get it fixed but thought they had narrowed it down to a fuel injector. We had to run the main engine to get the refer charged up. Later we went to Bloody Marys again, there was a yachtie social there tonight and we really love meeting other cruisers so we decided to go. We talked to a few of the guys about our generator and Rick on Morning Star thought he might have a part.

July 12, 2008

It was a nice morning and Mike went right over to Morning Star and Rick had a used fuel injector that Mike thought might work. As it turned out it didn’t work but something about the used part helped Mike figure out how to take ours apart farther. He put it back together and it still did not work. So he kept working on it and I kept praying and low and behold it started working! Thank you Jesus. Although Mike doesn’t know what he did to make it work, so we are not sure if we need to buy a part or not. But the bottom line is there is no where to buy a part around here. I spent the morning reorganizing the food and making menus and grocery list for the crossing to the Cook Islands. Kristen decided to go to town, so we went grocery shopping together. She did a great job driving the dinghy and getting us out of a touch spot with a lot of rocks. Back at the boat I made dinner and then we watched movies and went to bed. There was another dance competition tonight but we were just too tired.

July 13, 2008

This morning started out sunny and then turned cloudy. We had decided to go to the Protestant church this morning. We picked Kristen up, Alan didn’t come as he had electrical problems. We got a little wet on the dinghy ride in but not too bad. Mike should have put more air in the dinghy and that would have helped. When we arrived at the church, they told us where to sit. There were other guests visiting also and they were from Seattle too. Half the church was part of the choir. They all wore white shirts and sat in the center of the church. The kids sat in the front rows. The music was very good, Mike was surprised at how loud it was. The only song I recognize was At the Cross. There were several women on the platform and one man. They all played a part in the sermon. One of the women read out of the Bible in English and welcomed us to the service. That was really nice. As you left the church, the group from the platform formed a receiving line and said good bye individually to everyone. Afterwards we checked out a couple of shops. Kristen bought a flower. Then we got in our dinghy and headed back, it had started raining and the wind was blowing. The waves came at us from 2 directions. It was a painfully slow ride and we were completely drenched by the time we got back. We changed clothes and had lunch and then Mike went over to help Alan with his electrical problem. I had to call him back to the boat as the generator would not go off. It wasn’t any big deal, Mike knew what to do right away.