BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATIONS IN BORA BORA We are safely in American Samoa at the moment. We had a nice passage from Suwarrow. I wanted to share these pictures from Bora Bora. First their was the big outrigger canoe races, then the parade and then the piece de resistance the races.

What would a parade in French Polynesia be without an entry of French pastries. One of the local hotels entered this float!!

This giant fish is a Mahi Mahi, very good eating. The fellow is there just to keep the flies off the fish.

The mermaid and King Neptune were the end of the parade. If you look closely you can see Neptune's sceptre and his gray hair. I couldn't get a good shot of him.

The start of the race. The things on the ground are tree trunks and there are palm branches and then at least four hands of bananas tied to the log, rather like a banana barbell. These guys ran in their bare feet for approx. a kilometer carrying these things on their shoulders, quite the feat of strength and endurance.

Heard from Captian Greybeard lastnight and all is well. The weather conition have been much tamer with wnds of 10 to 20 knots and they expect to arrive in America Samoa some time on Tuesday.

Ann and Barry are off again on the 450 nm crossing to American Samoa. The weather as they departed was beautiful with some light winds and good weather fore casted for the next few days. The sailors are hoping to catch the tail end of a large culture festival held in the American Samoa's. The cultural festival is only held every 4 years and over 70 pacific countries are represented. Sound amazing.
There is a small write up from a few boats that were caught in the nasty weather that Ann and Barry experienced on there last crossing from Bora Bora, here is a link if you would like to check it out.

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2008-07-21&dayid=143#Story4

We left Bora Bora on July 16, 2 days after Bastille Day. We had to motor for the first 3 miles and then we put up the sails and had light winds for most of the day and into the night. We had the spinnaker up and were ghosting along in the general direction that we wanted to go. There was a lovely full moon and clear skies in the early evening; it was so bright almost like the first light of dawn. About midnight things began to change, the wind and the waves picked up. We put in one reef and then a few hours later we put in the third reef on the main, we still had the Genoa out. We do not have to leave the cockpit to do any of this. When the wind had started rising, I had gone forward to hank on the staysail in case we needed it, 3 hours later we did, up it went. We ran most of the day with the triple reef and staysail, the winds continuing to build and the seas were starting to look really nasty. The roaring of the wind and the head long rush of the boat down the 2 meter waves convinced us that we had to reduce sail once again. We did not think we could put the boat into the wind to take down the main. We would have had to go to the mast to take the sail down and keeping your footing while trying to wrestle the sail down as the boat would have bucked and heaved like a horse trying to throw you off it would have been a daunting task. We decided to take down the staysail instead. This would involve going way forward and hauling it down to the deck. I put in my contacts, put on some shoes that would stay on my feet, buckled on my life jacket and hooked the harness into the lifelines and edged my way forward. The boat's motion as it surfed down the waves was not unmanageable, the waves were far enough apart and with Barry's steady hand on the wheel all was good. The task could be accomplished as long as the boat didn't round up and take it into her head to bash to windward or a rogue wave did not smash sideways into the boat and give it a good whack as well as washing the decks with gallons of water. I hung on to the mast for dear life as I undid the halyard and the crawled forward with the line in my hands to pull the sail to the deck. Barry let go off the sheet and from my seat on the deck I grasped the sail with my hands and dragged it down. At this point the sail began to flog, dangerously flailing itself back and forth, yikes, I tried to pull it down faster, I did not want to get hit by the 1 inch thick lines that were thrashing about. I managed to get it on deck and tie it down without any damage to life or limbs, whew!!For the next two days the seas did not abate. The waves had grown to 10 feet, the wind was howling at 30 knots and we were getting tired, unable to sleep very well with the motion of the boat and howl of the wind in the rigging, the whooshing of the waves and the creaking and groaning of a 25 year old boat. Every once in awhile, a rogue wave would thump the centre of the boat and water would carom into the cockpit, soaking us from head to toe and leaving a deluge of salt water to run off the boat. Then the squalls began, the clouds would move in and it would spit with rain, then the downpour would begin and the wind would increase 5 to 10 knots for 15 to 20 minutes. Now we were not only tired but drenched and in the dark. With the low cloud cover we had lost our beautiful moonlight. We had maintained our watch schedule of 2 hours during the day, 3 hours at dawn and dusk and 4 hours each in the dark, last night we were so cold and wet that we decided to only do 3 hours at night; it cut into our sleep but made the watch more manageable. Once the watch was over we would go down below and strip all our soggy clothes off, hang them in the head to hopefully dry a little and fall into bed. I have to keep at Barry to eat as he forgets, I am not drinking enough so maybe I will stop and go and coif something cold. Yes cold, it has finally cleared up, the sun is out and the seas have abated. I took the staysail down and we unrolled the Genoa and we are making headway to Swarrow, an atoll which is one of the northern Cook Islands. It is a national park, and it is supposed to be a beautiful spot. We hope to be there sometime tomorrow during the day. We have heard from other boats that the entrance is not a problem and there is plenty of room to anchor inside the reef. We are now safely in Swarrow and it is a lovely spot. We are drying out and catching up on our sleep. The only residents of this atoll are the park warden, his wife and his four boys. Tonight all the cruisers, there are over a dozen boats in the anchorage, are going to shore to have a pot luck for Virginia, the park warden's wife, it is her birthday. It is great to be in the Cook Islands because they speak English. Their first language is Cook Island Maori and their second is English, they are taught in school in both languages so we are able to converse with the boys as well. I am not sure how long we will be here but a few more days before we attempt the 450 NM trip to American Samoa.

*Click on image to enlarge*

Well the sailors called when they had land in sight. The position that is posted is approx. 4 miles off the atoll and they were actually under motor because the winds had died right off. Ann said that they had a marathon day of sail changing, up, down, on, off, and do it all over again due to the changing wind conditions...I believe that there were a few choice words muttered by Captain Greybeard. Even though the Cat's Paw was tossed around a bit by the wind and high seas and the sailors were having to put up with some discomfort there were some fellow sailors that did not fair as well. I guess there was a group of boats that left a day or two before the Cat's Paw and they were unlucky enough to get much rougher conditions. One boat actually rolled and broke its mast and another broke some crucial part while taking to long to jibe. Mom says there is a party being held by the sailors to celebrate surviving the crossing in mostly one piece, the Cat's Paw IV crew plans to be in attendance. Enjoy!!

The sailors have been dealing with winds of 25 to 30 knots and 8 to 10 foot seas, the boat is handling just fine but Ann and Barry have had some trouble sleeping in the rough seas and are eating foods that require minimum prep so they don't have to stand in the galley getting bumped around. They have an average speed of about 7 knots with a triple reef in the main and the stay sail up, when they took the stay sail down for a while the boat was still doing about 6.5 knots. At times they are surfing down some of the waves and have hit speeds as high as 10.2 knots, impressive. In a 24 hour period they made 162 NM is that a record? Must be close. So besides being a bit tired the sailors are doing well and hope to make landfall sometime on July 21st.

Hello All,
Trish here again. The sailors departed Bora Bora yesterday and are on there way to Suvarov which is part of the Cook Island chain. They left around 10:30 on July 16th and in a 24 hour period have traveled 113 NM. At the time of the call they were making 7 knots with a triple reef in the main so there is plenty of wind and the boat is handling well. Had a look at a few pics of where they are headed and it looks like another beautiful spot in paradise.
Remember to get a larger view of the map just click on it.
Will update again in a couple of days.

We have been taking in the festivities this past week in Bora Bora. I went to another night of singing and dancing and then Barry and I plus Tarun and Toketie went to the singles dancing and an evening of drumming. Each village had an entry into the singles competition, there was a male and a female dancer, after they had finished the drummers would set up and wail away. One of the dance moves for the males involves having your feet shoulder width apart and making your knees go back and forth, sounds easy right, well these guys would do a full squat, backs upright and continue to waggle their knees, my quads cried out in sympathy and I could just marvel at their athleticism. The drumming was very intricate and was a treat to listen to and watch some of the very large men put their whole bodies into their craft. It must have been exhausting.
We had bought tickets the first night but this time we chose to watch from the sidelines so we didn’t get such a good view of what was happening. The upside to this is that you are crowded around the edges with all the locals. The dancing area is cordoned off and then the locals put down mats around the edges where they can sit on the ground to watch from the sides, this is done during the day. Behind the mats everyone else crowds in, and I do mean crowds to watch. I had someone standing so close that I could feel her breath on my shoulder, her big curly hair was touching the back of my neck and her boobs were pushing on my arms, when she bounced her legs to the drum beats my body would vibrate. As someone who enjoys her personal space this was uncomfortable so I put my basketball training to use and flexed my elbows. That gave me some room for a little while. It was interesting to not only watch the show but observe the interactions between the Polynesian family members.
The other day Brian from Tarun and I got in our dive in French Polynesia. We had one dive inside the reef and one outside of the reef. We saw an eagle ray and an octopus inside the reef and outside we had some fairly close encounters with some sharks. There lemon sharks as well as black tip reef sharks. One of the lemon sharks was pregnant and she was huge, at least 10 feet long but very wide as well. They left us alone but it was a bit unnerving to be the last diver and turn around and look to see them cruising by behind you. The dive master explained that quite a bit of the coral was dead because something called the crown of thorns had migrated to the edge of the reef and was killing off the healthy coral. It was sad to see the grey dead carcasses of the coral on the ocean floor.
Today is Bastille Day and we are headed into town to watch the parade and then there are going to be some foot races where they carry loads of fruit on their backs. That should be fun to watch.
We have moved around to the Bora Bora Yacht Club anchorage, this is a famous South Pacific stop. Every night all the cruisers anchored here get together to share a drink and lots of “sailor” talk. There are boats from all over, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, England, Australia, United States, New Zealand and Canada, people share weather information, favourite anchorages, equipment tips and tall tales.

The rest of the pictures would not upload, will try again tomorrow

We have been having a lot of fun since the last time I wrote. We had a wonderful Canada Day party onboard with a couple of heartfelt renditions of Barrett’s Privateers to let everyone in the anchorage know we were celebrating far from home. There were 3 Canadian couples and a transplanted British couple (one was Aussie and one was French who had lived in Britain for 20 years) involved and we had a super time. We played Canadian folk music all night and ate Pacific smoked salmon, wonderful.
The next day we headed up to Tahaa again and went snorkeling in a “coral garden”. The garden was located between 2 islands or motus as they are referred to here which were just inside the reef. A pretty strong current was flowing down this narrow pathway and the coral was just spectacular. We walked down a path at the edge of the motu until we almost reached the reef and then we entered the water and floated through the coral garden back to where we started,. In some spots there was barely enough water to float, but there was a pathway in the middle which was about 5 feet deep. The bottom of the pathway was the white sand you get when the coral disintegrates and it was a stark contrast to the more colourful coral. We stopped and swam back against the stream when we saw some interesting fish or held on to the coral to get a better look at things. We could swim across the current and find other pockets of deep water with more fascinating coral structures. It was by far the best snorkeling we have experienced.
The Canadian navy consisting of Cat’s-Paw IV, Tarun and Toketie headed across to Bora Bora the next day. We managed to sail most of the 20 miles, but the winds were pretty light. As soon as we dropped anchor we all headed off to the bank to insure that they would save us some New Zealand dollars, for when we get our bond (that we had to post in the Marquesas) back. You can’t get your bond back until you leave the country and you don’t want to get Pacific Franks back because you have to leave and would have no where to spend them, SO you go to the bank and request that they please save enough New Zealand currency for you so you won’t have to exchange all your money once you arrive somewhere else, quite bizarre actually if you think about it.
On the way back from the bank we watched a traditional Polynesian sport. A bunch of men dressed in cloth which was wrapped around their loins and dropped to their knees where throwing spears. At first I thought they were doing their version of throwing a javelin, but I noticed that they were tossing them underhand and they were going quite high in the air. All the spears landed almost in the same spot so I thought instead of going for distance they were trying to hit a target on the ground. I just couldn’t figure it out, so I asked. I was told they were trying to hit a coconut so I was staring around on the ground trying to see it and the fellow I asked said, “en haut” so I looked up and there it was about 25 feet in the air at the top of a long pole. All the contestants (over 20) would throw about 6 or 7 spears and then if any stuck into the coconut they would lower the pole and pull out the spears and figure out which team it belonged too. One team had red cloths on and the other team had light blue with a white flower on it, I was routing for the team in the red!! This contest went on for quite awhile. That was a real thrill for me to see this performed.
That night we went to a night of singing and dancing. It is part of the celebration of Bastille Day and the fete will continue on for another 2 weeks or so. There were 2 acts the night we went to watch, one was mostly choral signing and the other was mainly dancing. The singing was a treat, wonderful harmonies with changes from major to minor keys all perfectly in pitch, at least to my ear, a lot unaccompanied, and then they added ukuleles and drums. The second act was mostly dancing. They told the story that the dancers were portraying in three languages, Tahitian, French and English. The dancing took place on a big rectangular area that was covered in white sand. The dancers would glide across the sand in their bare feet weaving in and out and around each other. The stunning red and white costumes stood out against the sand and the whole effect was mesmerizing, a wonderful evening.
The next day we moved away from the town and anchored the west side of the island in front of a sandy beach with a fancy over the water bungalow hotel just next to us. They don’t generally encourage cruisers to partake in the exclusive resort scene so we discreetly kept our distance. We saw a bunch of tour boats congregating out on the reef, we had heard that they fed the rays and sharks so we all hopped in our dinghies and motored on over to see what was going on. When we arrived there were a bunch of sting rays swimming about. We stayed off to the side and let the tour guide do his thing and just watched. The rays came over to see what we were up to and were swimming around us, we had our snorkels on so could get a good look at them. A few black tipped reef sharks about 4 ½ feet long came swimming by to join in the fun. Once the tour was almost finished a guide came over and offered Brian a fish and he fed one of the rays. After that they started coming closer and all of us had them brush up against us, it was rather like gentle touch of a feather brushing against your skin, quite the experience.
Today we are anchored just off the famous Bloody Mary’s restaurant. It was made famous in the musical South Pacific which I had a chance to perform in 4 years ago in Yellowknife. It was quite the thrill to actually see the spot and have our picture taken on the grounds. We hope to get in to see more of the islanders celebrations in the next couple of days, I am looking forward to it.

I wrote the blog on the vanilla tour about a week ago but just got a chance to post it today. Thought I would do a short update on our activities. We sailed to Tahaa and have been exploring that island. We have anchored in 4 different spots, one of which gave us a beautiful view of the famous twin mountains of Bora Bora. I spent an evening with my camera trying to capture the sunset, it was magnificent, and the picture does not do it justice.
The island of Tahaa is almost bisected by two bays. We anchored in the bay on the east side and then climbed up the road to see what we could see on the west side. We made a sorry looking couple, Barry gimping along with the help of a stick and me slightly limping even though I was wearing the prescribed supportive shoes. My foot is a lot better but still hurts when we walk a lot. Barry’s hip just hurts all the time! We had fun wandering about on this road.

Anchorage on the west side of island

We saw a papaya tree with fruit just falling off it, so helped ourselves to a few. I thought you might be interested to see how they grow.
The anchorage in the picture is on the west side, we sailed around the south side of the island and stopped there the next day. The following day I wanted to anchor near the motus on the north side of the island out by the reef. We tried several different spots but Barry was leery about the holding so we just stayed long enough for a snorkel and then headed off in a different direction. Generally the water is about 100 feet deep and then it shoals very quickly and you see coral and white sand. The trick is to find a spot where it is shallow enough to anchor safely and not too close to the reef so you don’t blow onto it and hit bottom. We had put the anchor down right near the drop off and when I was snorkeling I could see the edge of the coral where it got deep, I really enjoyed swimming around looking at the different types of coral and all the fish.
We are currently back anchored off Raiatea where I knew there was an internet site. We will probably stay here a couple of days and then head to Bora Bora. Hope everyone in Canada has a terrific Canada Day, enjoy.

A church along the edge of Tahaa, notice the boat just leaving the dock and if you look close you will see a bunch of villagers that were greeting the boat.

This was taken June 19, the day after our 34th wedding anniversary

We are in paradise, for the past three days we have been anchored in a gorgeous spot. There is a sandy beach with palm trees, the water is that amazing light blue that you see when you have a white sand bottom and with crystal clear water. It is quiet and serene; if you listen carefully you can hear the waves crashing on the barrier reef. The reef is wonderful, it stops the ocean swells from entering the anchorage and so we have a flat calm spot that allows an uninterrupted sleep. Simply marvelous: we live in our bathing suits and if we get too hot we just dive in and cool off.
We went snorkeling yesterday and the coral was spectacular. I thought I was in the Finding Nemo movie when the Dad was showing Nemo how to hide in the coral. We would swim close to a coral head and all the tiny fish would disappear into the mass of coral, if you just hung there in the water and didn’t move, in a few moments all the colourful little fish would reappear. I had never seen so many different types and colours of coral, I wish I had an underwater camera to capture their beauty. We had seen the stuff that looks like brains before and it is not too exciting but here there are fans and branches and all sorts of other kinds and the colours were exquisite.
A couple of days ago we rented a car with Cathy and Brian from Tarun and toured Huahine. It was a great change of pace and it was super to share the day and the expense with good friends. The island has a number of ruins from ancient times and they had been written up quite well. Barry exclaimed at how thrilled he was to see yet another pile of old rocks but he did admit at the end of the day that there was quite a variety of ruins on the island.

It was our mission to explore every road and we almost managed. At one point we turned around because the road was just a soupy mix of slippery clay. We stopped and fed the fresh water eels at one point. They were pretty creepy and I was glad that they were 10 feet away in very shallow water with no way of touching us.

Vanilla is one of the crops on the island so we stopped with great anticipation at the sign that proclaimed “Vanilla Tour”. We all had visions of the last tour we had taken on the atoll of the pearl farm and what a wonderful experience that had been. We got out of the car and there was one man that was fixing some old piece of machinery in a barn like structure. He eventually acknowledged us and waved us over to a stand he had set up. There was a briefcase on the stand, with great fanfare he opened it and waved it under our noses. We all sniffed with great enthusiasm; there were about 10 packages of vanilla beans in the case. Then he took out a package and opened it and waved it under our noses. Then he said 1000 francs for a package and then pointed at a sign that indicated that you were supposed to remember your guide. THAT was the end of the tour, we were actually quite stunned. We couldn’t believe what had just happened to us and as we drove away one of the other of us would break out into a guffaw and snort out "vanilla tour"!!!!
We are going to head to Tahaa, which is and island just north of Raiatea. Tahaa and Raiatea are surrounded by the same reef. We will spend awhile there and then head on to Bora Bora. We will leave French Polynesia from Bora Bora and we have to be gone by July 19 and we want to be in Bora Bora for Bastille Day, (July 14, I think) which is a huge celebration down here.

We have had an eventful few days. We moved around the island of Raiatea and I decided to go snorkeling. When I got back to the boat and took off my snorkeling booties I noticed that the ball of my right foot was very large, extremely so, in fact. I showed Barry and he who usually does not react to any of my hurts says “Oh, you had better get that looked at.” Well then I was really worried, I had visions of them cutting holes in my foot and draining buckets of puss out of it and me being on crutches, etc, etc.
We were anchored across the bay, about a mile by dinghy from access to town. It was blowing pretty hard and Barry would not leave the boat and come with me, so off I went in the dinghy with the slow leak! I made it across with no problems, left the dinghy at a lovely looking hotel and hitched a ride into town. I went to the hospital and in my pitiful but understandable French made them aware of the fact that I had a sore foot and wanted to see a doctor. Well I was nicely sent down the corridor, out the door and around the corner to a clinic, where there were a zillion people all apparently waiting to see a doctor. Once again my inadequate French was put to use and I was motioned to sit with the unwashed masses and wait!! Eventually they motioned me into the receptionist’s office and someone was found who could speak some English and after much toing and froing they sent me downtown to a fancier office to see a doctor, I must have been at the free clinic or something and once they looked at me they figured I could pay. Anyway, off I went and found the doctor and got to see him right away. He assured me that he would not have to cut my foot open, that all I had to do was to wear proper shoes, (he also gave me some prescription that I have to put on my foot for 12 days). All that walking that I was doing when we were on the hard to get money to pay the bill, apparently did my foot in. I used to have to come back to the boat and lie down with my feet up because my feet were so sore. I am now taking it easy and keeping my weight off my foot as much as possible.
Okay so I got through all that and then I had to get back to the boat. Well the wind had come up even more, the dinghy was on a lee shore and the waves were crashing into this area where I had it tied up. I had tied it off bow and stern and the waves would crash in under a dock and the dinghy would rear up with the wave and then come to the end of the rope and crash back down. It was rather spectacular to watch but a little daunting to think of getting into it and motoring out of the area!!! The dinghy was full or water and I had left my wonderful lifejacket that only inflates if it gets wet in the bottom of the dinghy. I picked up the lifejacket to put it on and whoosh it inflated. Oh well the cartridge was getting old anyway. I manage to pull the dinghy around the dock and had it tied off at the edge so as soon as I got the motor started I could just zoom away. Well I had a fellow waiting to untie me once I got going and I tried to start the motor, well I pulled and pulled and pulled on that stupid starter. It usually is a very dependable motor. I was nearly at the end of my rope when I realized I had taken the spacer out and without that in the motor was never going to start, man did I feel dumb. I put the spacer in and one pull and vroom! I got the guy to cast off and I set off for the boat. It was upwind and the waves were rolling and whitecapping in the bay. Man did I get wet on the way across, I was absolutely soaked. About 3/4 ‘s of the way across the engine sputtered and I thought, oh no what would I do if it quit, but it only sputtered once and then purred away. When I got back to the boat Barry had thought I had flipped it because my lifejacket was inflated and there was so much water in the dinghy.
A couple of days later we set out for Huahine, pronounced who-a-he-knee, which is east of Raiatea. That meant that we had to go to weather to get there or pound into the wind and waves. The wind was still up, we put a triple reef in and just had a bit of headsail out. It was only 20 miles, by the time we were halfway here, Barry figured we should turn around and go back and he wasn’t sure why we had ever set out in the first place. The boat was handling the weather fine and I was having a gay old time. Every once in a while though I would look at the waves and think man these are pretty big. They are probably the biggest seas we have ever been out in. About 6 miles from the entrance we had the full genoa out and the wind was whacking away at the sail and the poor old genoa just couldn’t take any more. I looked up and noticed that the top of the sail had parted from the halyard and was going to start coming down. We quickly furled it up and motored the rest of the way into the anchorage. Another adventure safely finished with.
Barry hauled me up the mast today and I got the halyard down and we managed to get the sail on the deck without getting it too wet. It has been very windy and rainy here for the past week so the timing of going up the mast was a little tricky, we would wait for a big gust to go by and then he hauled me up. We put on our smaller furling sail, our yankee which looks to be in much better shape than the genoa. The poor old genoa is pretty much beaten up, it is amazing what 3000 miles of ocean sailing will do to a sail. We are hoping to rent a car with the couple from Taran and head off around Huahine in a couple of days. We went to town today and scoped out the place. It was a nice little spot with a great grocery store. I look forward to seeing the rest of the island on Thursday.

If you managed to read this far, just wanted you to know that the picture is when we were approaching Tahiti. It has been too miserable to take any pictures the last few days.

Glory Hallelujah! The mechanic knew what he was doing and the engine started about 30 minutes after he came on board. Apparently it was air in the fuel line, we got a very expensive lesson on how to bleed your motor. We had never had to do it and the process was not described in the manual, so who knew??? We are back at anchor in Raiatea and all is well.

We thought we had troubles! We spent the day helping a couple from New Zealand decommission their boat and put it on the hard. Paul has heart problems, he could hardly walk 20 feet without sitting down and gasping with pain. Gina his wife was having to do all the work on the boat herself as he could not manage anything. They are heading home to New Zealand to where they can hopefully get the problem fixed. Barry and I cleaned and packed up the deck, deflating dinghies, put away sails, covering their bright work everything we could to lend a hand. It felt good to lend a hand where we could. We are going to hang around Raiatea for a few days and then hopefully head for Huahine.

We sailed to Moorea, an island just 12 miles away from Tahiti last week. We really enjoyed our stay there. We went to see Polynesian dancing at the Bali Hi Hotel there, they get everyone to participate. It is amazing the way those women’s hips gyrate, I did it for a few minutes and it was a real workout. Barry did get on his feet but could not manage the knees in and out motion, but he did get up and participate so good for him. His hip has been getting progressively worse and some days I wince as I watch him walk.

While in Moorea we rented a car and drove around the island. It has some spectacular views and we would not have been able to see them on foot. While driving around we found the road to the waterfall. It kept getting smaller and rougher the further up the hill we went. Barry finally refused to go any further when it got quite muddy. I headed up to the falls on my own as it was not a good hip day for Barry. It was a nice 20 minute stroll although I think I liked the small 2 foot waterfall in the jungle better than the huge falls. Well, there wasn’t hardly any water coming over the falls, it is dry season here, so that may have influenced my decision, hmmmm! We stopped and had lunch and did some shopping and then went down to a beach on the island so it was a good day; very busy.

I have a cookbook from the Bluewater Cruising Assoc. and at the start of every section is a picture. While I was paging through it awhile ago I noticed that there was a picture of Cat’s-Paw IV at the start of the dessert section. The picture was taken in Cook’s Bay, Moorea about 10 years ago when Cat’s-Paw was here with her former owners. I decided to have a dessert party once we were in Cook’s Bay so Saturday was the day. We had people from every boat in the bay onboard and I cooked 4 desserts and Cathy from Tarun brought another, so we had sugary sweet stuff and rum punch all afternoon. There was an English couple, an American trio, a Danish couple, a Spanish girl as well as 4 Canucks on board, a great mix. It went quite well, but I have too many desserts left. I froze some of the carrot cake so hopefully it will still be good in a couple of weeks when we can look a dessert in the face again!!

We left Moorea yesterday thinking we were just going to go to the next bay, but when we were in the pass on the way out of Cook’s Bay, the motor decided to quit. Luckily we had the sails ready and the wind was on the beam, so out we sailed into 20 knots of wind and 10 foot seas. Poor Barry had to check the fuel line, change the fuel filter and bleed the lines in an attempt to get the motor going. He was looking pretty green for awhile there. I just sailed away from land waiting until he could trouble shoot the problem. Well, shit, (sorry Mom) he couldn’t get the damn thing started so then we had to decide the best plan of action. There is a boat yard in Raitea so we headed that way; it was about an 85 mile sail. The seas did not let up and we both did not eat any supper and were pretty green about the gills, probably the most uncomfortable night I have spent aboard. Using the Sat phone we managed to get a hold of someone who was willing to come out and give us a tow. We sailed right up to the entrance to the reef and a boat came out and we tied up and he pulled us in. At the moment we are tied bow and stern to the boatyard jetty and someone is supposed to come this afternoon and help us get the motor going. We are glad we got here safe and sound and hopefully our problem will be solved later today.

Getting towed into Raitea!!

Pictures as promised from the atoll Manihi and the pearl farm tour.
Cathy ( from Tarun) and I on a pass through the reef in Manihi, I wouldn't want to try this on in Cat's-Paw IV!!LLooking for the very beginnings of the oysters out in the water. Barry on the dock leading to the building where the oysters and hopefully pearls are harvested.

Our guide examining the pearls to figure out thier quality.



Aren't they beautiful.

Looking in the pass into Manihi, thank goodness for GPS and good cruising guides. A boat that came in a couple of days before us touched bottom twice on the way in!!

The view from the back of the boat yard, see the moat and the seawall.

Our home for eight days. I hated the mosquitoes, they ate me alive. Damage to the keel, yech!

The view from the bottom

Damage to the skeg, looks worse than it is, we were quite worried about this crack.Repairs to the keel and skeg, the boatyard came in under budget and it looks great, time will tell if it truly is as good as it looks but we are back in the water and very happy to be there!!! It's been several days since I composed the last blog. We have been busy and are ready to leave Papeete tomorrow, I think. We checked out officially today and will head to Moorea an island about 12 miles away, not far. I forgot to tell you that Barry has shorn his locks. He couldn't take the heat and said that his hair was too hot on the back of his neck and those beautiful silver ( not golden anymore) locks are all gone as is the wildman beard, it is much shorter now so he looks quite civilized. I am going to try and upload some pics so wish me luck.

We are going back into the water shortly. The repairs are completed and the boat looks pretty good. We managed to clean her up and do some varnishing as well as get some welding done. Barry had a new connection for the boom vang made, it goes halfway around the mast, not all the way as he wished but hopefully it will hold better than the last 2 brackets have. He has to make more holes in the mast to connect it and he is not thrilled about that. We also had parts of the wind vane welded, a connecting strut had rusted and rather than just do a simple spot weld that may not have held, the struts are now welded to the vane so hopefully they won’t fall apart, knowing salt water and it’s corrosive actions I imagine it will go to work on a different part of the vane.
We had a SMALL part for the wind vane (I am talking 6 inches by 4 inches by 4 inches) shipped here. The part cost $90, the shipping $110, outrageous. Unlike Mexico you can get stufF shipped here it is just soooo expensive, unless you really need it you don’t bother ordering it.
Okay enough complaining did I tell you much about Papeete. It is a city of 170,000 people so it was a bit of culture shock the first time we came ashore after 2 months of being on the boat and going ashore in tiny villages. It has everything a city has, there are lots of traffic jams in the downtown area, the infrastructure has not kept up with the growth. The hotels in the downtown core are a bit seedy looking, needing a coat of paint and some upgrading of furnishings. Every third store downtown sells pearls, black, green, silver and shades of purple, they are gorgeous. There is a market that takes over a city block, inside there are all sorts of tourist treats, necklaces, fresh flowers which are made into wreaths for your hair, beautiful printed cloth that is made into clothing as well as coverups, palm fronds woven into hats and bags as well as fresh fruit, fresh fish and places where you can get baguette sandwiches (they are really good).
The women here are beautiful, the South Sea’s maiden come to life. There is a huge Chinese population here and the mixture of the 2 races, Polynesian and Chinese is often stunning. There is also an obvious French influence, the attitude just exudes from these women as they strut around in their long form fitting dresses with slits up to mid thigh and their high heels, it is all I can do to keep myself out of the stores, what do I need a dress like that for??? It helps that everything is “tres cher”! My limited French is coming in very handy and most times I can make myself understood. I find when in stressful situations though the words just fly out of my head. Most of the Americans here can not speak a word of French, so after Mexico where most Americans had a decent knowledge of Spanish, I feel vaguely superior in a linguistic sense.
Oh, I should tell you about the public transportation. It is called Le Truc and is a flat bed truck with bench seating down each side and a roof. The roof is not tall enough for you to stand up so you get in and hunch as you shuffle down the isle. There are usually only Polynesian people on board, no other white people unless they are other cruisers. The larger Truc’s have a extra bench seat down the middle and you straddle that seat and sit facing the front or back. The sides have half windows so you have some built in air-conditioning. The price per person is 130 francs or the equivalent of $1.50, this is a real deal and they run fairly often, every ten minutes or so. It is 45 minutes on Le Truc to get from downtown to marina Taina where we will anchor the boat once we get lifted in. At the marina you can dock your dinghy for free, there is free potable water and showers and there is a laundry, as well as good access to Le Truc, all any cruisers could really want. We haven’t made any plans on where we are going next but we will keep in touch.