Friday, March 11, 2011

Moving to High Ground

Before dawn, John and I were hiking along dirt roads in search of high
ground. We were not hoping to snap a photo of the sunset. Instead, we were
seeking shelter from a possible tsunami.

As a result of yesterday's earthquake in Japan, a tsunami warning was issued
for much of the pacific, French Polynesia included. At 4:30 am, a LOUD siren
went off. I assumed it was the boat yard security system. John immediately
assumed it was a tsunami warning. I convinced him that he was a worry wart,
and we went back to bed. An hour later, a boat yard employee knocked on our
hull, advising us to get to high ground. Which we did. Quickly. The
uncertainly went on for a few hours. We had brought our computer with us,
and checked online from our mountain top refuge, to discover that other
island nations reported very small swells, so we finally returned to the
boat, having lost the best hours of the day for labour intensive boat work.

The rest of the day was spent sanding and adding epoxy to the bottom (John),
and digging out our v-berth (me). Small jobs that would take an hour or two
at home take the entire day in this heat. You simply can't move too fast, or
work too long without rest.

We've also managed to get to the magasin (store), and we're now fully
immersed in the land of baquettes and brie! Ahhh... It is good to be back.

When we find the camera...we'll take photos.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

We've Arrived!

We're back in French Polynesia. After a very long 30 hours of travel, we arrived back to the boat in Raiatea! We quickly had a quick look around, and here is the result:

Good News:
  • Boat is in great shape, no major problems!
  • Batteries seem to be in great shape! Hurray.
  • The boat yard has re-finished the bathrooms with paint and tile - what a wonderful change.
  • Our new fridge-freezer made it through customs, and is keeping our juice nice and cold. 
  • All of our bags arrived without any breakage, or any additional fees!! Over 100 kilos of stuff!

Bad News:
  • We found a small leak, which has resulted in one of our cushion becoming super moldy. Yuck
  • The mosquitos are back.
  • We have very little food on board. We had canned tuna for dinner, and spagetti for breakfast.
  • We didn't keep much food on board that had been opened, but what we had, was thrown away. No more spices!
More updates to come...