Catching Up

Well, life catches up to us, even in paradise. Today I decided to sit tight,
and take care of some internet chores - submit my HST return, pay a few
bills, and look into our airline ticket refund. Since we have lighting fast
internet here (weird), I decided that this is as good a time as any. Most
things went well.

Here's my favorite part: While I called the airline (via gmail), and waited
patiently on hold...I took advantage of the down time, and loaded up a heap
of blogs that I don't normally get the pleasure to read, since our internet
time is pay as you go around here. I was thrilled to learn of our cruising
friends who have had a safe passage to the Marquesas, or who are almost
there!! (Ceileih, Adios, Southern Cross) and to get a glimpse into the
awesome blogs of friends [sonseastars.wordpress.com] - congrats! Now...if
only I can convince Mark [52weeks52eats.blogspot.com] to cook up a dish that
is made entirely from canned goods. No fresh ingredients, and a limited
spice cabinet. A challenge to you, my friend!!

Here's my least favorite part: the airline didn't receive the fax I sent two
days ago. The same fax that cost about $42 dollars to send 6 pages. Hmpf.
Since they are holding my $3200 hostage, I didn't feel as though we had a
lot of options. Still - just a bit disappointing.

Camera woes

Well, we have bad news on the camera front. I dropped the camera yesterday,
and broke the lens. It was our work-horse lens. The go-anywhere, wide range,
kind of lens. We now have only our super zoom lens. Oh dear. Needless to
say, the captain has relieved me from camera duty. And, if that wasn't
enough. Our little computer does not seem to want to read our SD cards. So
even though I can still take photos with our little camera, I can't seem to
upload them onto our the computer. Bleh. So...that is a long way of
saying...we have no photos for today's blog.

SO... In your mind's eye. Imagine. Cereleun blue lagoon. Lots of wee
fishies. Locals paddling their va'a (outrigger canoes) through the
anchorage. Oh yeah...about 5 charter boats that have anchored within 100 ft
of us. REALLY? In this HUGE space. Oh well. It normally wouldn't be so bad.
But since some french guy made a joke to John yesterday about Canadians who
only speak one language, our intrepid captain is pretty ticked off by anyone
hailing from the land of wine and cheese. In fact, John tells me that he
responded with a bit of german, with a touch of international sign language
to amp up the classiness factor.

On a side note, my french is getting better. I seem to be able to have a
very basic conversation, and ask for the things we need. Sadly, when the
locals answer me too quickly and I give myself away with that look of *DUH*
on my face, they usually switch to english, foiling any hopes I may have had
to use them as my practice victims. Even though we're almost moving on from
this french-speaking country, I continue to torture John with my daily
morning podcast of coffee break french.

We continue our leisurely circumnavigation of this island. We have noticed
that huge resorts have sprung up here in recent years...since the
publication of our guide books. Sadly, most of them are almost empty, as
tourism numbers are very depressed. The tour boats we see are almost private
cruises, and huge resorts have only a couple people on the beach or lounging
on their lagoon balconies.

Yet, we still revel in our cleverness in being able to anchor in a beautiful
lagoon, shared with a huge resort hotel, and enjoy the same snorkelling and
swimming, yet escape from the $500/night price tag.

We are currently anchored in about 12 feet of water at 016 31.98S, 151
42.32W.

Bora Bora

Here we are...in the land of honeymooners. If you've seen the movie "Couples
Retreat" - you've seen Bora Bora. It really is beatuiful. The lagoon is
clear blue, with small islets surround the main island.

We've been out on the sandbar, and saw many small manta rays, but have not
yet been able to snorkel with them. I think they know that we don't have
tuna to give them (like the tourist boats), so they aren't interested in
sticking around to play with us! I have mixed feelings about feeding the
wildlife to encourage encounters with us, but have to admit that they look
to be having heaps of fun out there.

We're so far ahead of the fleet of cruising boats that there is only one
other cruising boat here - Lady Meg - from Canada! But there are also
several charter boats around, so we're not completely alone. Yesterday, we
anchored with one other boat in 30 feet of clear water, with fish all around
the boat, in an area that would have 50+ boats in July and August!

We've been laying low here. Just hanging on the boat. A swim and snorkel
here and there. Yesterday we snorkeled an area near our anchorage, and while
there weren't many fish, we were pulled with the current so quickly,
swimming.

Today, we're heading to the main town here to check in with officials, and
do a bit of paperwork. Then, around the island. We may not have internet for
a few days over there.

The pics were taken on a small motu, with a great view of the main island,
and where a fisherman was giving some local youth a demo on de-scaling some
small fish they had caught with their net.

Current Position: 016 30.99S, 151 46.37W

Motu Nao Nao

At the south end of Raiatea, we visited a small motu (island) - Nao Nao. We
were looking forward to exploring somewhere less crowded and doing some
snorkeling. We were not disappointed. Although, we weren't the only
sailboat, it was a beautiful spot, with lively coral gardens. We didn't find
any more of the snails that were so delicious the other night, but enjoyed
our snorkel, regardless.

Unfortunately, the shore had TABU signs a frequent intervals. What a
disappointment! John had heard of an abandoned airstrip here, and was
looking forward to poking around the island, looking for signs of the past.

Throughout Polynesia, it is very common to see an empty canoe, and it's
occupant fishing in the waters below...towing his craft.

You can check it out on google earth or google maps with this location: 016
55.19S and 151 25.90W.

Moving On

We're ready. The boat is full of food, fuel and water, and we're ready to go. We went for a test sail yesterday, and Renova was at her finest. We tacked through the lagoon with ease, racing and winning against a much
faster catamaran (s/he may not have been racing...but that hardly matters)! Although, Eric, and his grinding skills were likely a key component of our success.

Tomorrow, we'll set off to explore a bit more around here, and after a day or two we'll head to Bora Bora. Which will likely be our last stop with decent internet.

If you have photos for us...send them now!

Hurray...success

See that grin? That is the grin of a very happy man. I did some internet research today and found the needle jet settings for our 1970's era outboard. John spent about 15 minutes doing a bit of fiddling, and then he was happily doing circles around Renova, with our new outboard speed - IDLE!

He's pretty pleased.

PS - the masts in the background are all boats in the boat yard.

To the top...

Well, not really the top...but at least to a great viewpoint! We hiked with La Familia - Anne, Kleng, Liva and Edgar - to a great view point this afternoon. Fabulous views.

More Passage Planning

We've had a program called Virtual Passage Planner for ages. Since Mexico.
And I've played with it. But I missed some very important features. So I
didn't find it very interesting, and we haven't been using it. But, Eric
mentioned over cocktails that this program will also optimize a suggested
route, based on time of year, and historical weather averages. All of a
sudden this program looks a lot more interesting.

So this morning, we booted her up and took a look at possible passages home.
Pretty cool tool. But still we wondered about it's accuracy. So we tested
the program with our previous two passages, from Mexico to the Galapagos,
and from Galapagos to the Marquesas. It turns out that it was bang-on for
each trip. It estimated 25 days for the trip to the Galapagos - we took 26 -
and an estimate of 24 days for the trip to the Marquesas - we took 23.

Of course, if you know John, you'll giggle when I tell you that this was too
little info too late!

Well...the wind is up...so we're off to try windsurfing on the other side of
the island. Wish us luck!!

Windsurfing

We had success windsurfing today. I managed to get a short planing tack, before being catapulted over the top of the mast. John got in a few planing tacks. This time at least, I was able to return to the boat, and John didn't have to row out to rescue me. But, I'm still having a tough time on this board (88l), in the gusty winds. DWD would have been having the time of his life! But, it sure was great to be out in the water again!!

Since we were already on the east side of the island, we tied up to the dock at Utaroa to fill the fuel tanks, and to do another big grocery shop. This is the last time we'll be seeing well-stocked grocery stores, or hardware stores, for a while, so we're filling up. We expect to be self-sufficient for at two-three months, until we reach American Samoa. John is ready. I'm a bit reluctant. It is lovely here. But we have not stayed in one place so long since Mexico! So, I expect we'll be on our way next week.

Chart-plotting Heaven

Yep...that is where we are. In chart plotting heaven. Before leaving home, I downloaded a new open-source charting program (OpenCPN), and I was able to install it today on our navigation computer. The fabulous part is it is compatible with a variety of electronic chart file types, so we have chart coverage for most of the world. I've managed to get it up and running, link it to our GPS receiver, and we're happily playing with a variety of different route options. Very cool.