Renova: supply ship!

John waits with the locals for his turn at the water tap.

Another fabulous day on the beautiful Maupiti. We've now left the land of
plentiful internet, and are relying our on sat phone, so photos will be more
selective. We wish we could show you the enticing scenery that surrounds us.

In any case, John had an interesting encounter this morning. Of course, this
island of 1000 are all very familiar with who we are already! We are the
only non-charter boat here, and we're proudly flying our Canadian flag. But,
I suspect the main reason that the locals may recognize us is our dinghy. We
come to shore in a rarely seen hard dinghy (not the inflatable that most
cruisers have - smartly so, I might add). And then we go to some lengths to
tie it to the concrete dock, but so that it will not touch the dock. And
maybe the ancient outboard is also somewhat noteworthy. In any case. They
know who we are when we walk through town. So....that is a long way of
getting to this story. As John did an early morning run to the store to grab
a fresh baguette for our breakfast, a lady stopped him and said that she had
heard we may be going to Mopelia, and would we be willing to take some
supplies with us for her family member that was living there.
Hmmm...What to do. We've heard Mopelia has the trickiest entrance into the
lagoon in all of French Polynesia. We were willing to go and check it out.
But we didn't want to be committed, if the conditions didn't look
appropriate. And they rarely are. We think about it, and talk about it,
while we enjoy our day...
In the early evening, we returned to the kind lady's house, and told her son
we would take the supplies, but they must understand that we may not be able
to enter the atoll. That was fine, and we arranged to pick up the goods the
next morning.