Moving On

We came back to Taiohae early Sunday morning from our jaunt to Daniel's Bay (English Name). We had rain overnight so mopped the boat all down and when we got all anchored up again, it rained some more, so we mopped some more. It is so hot here that it would probably evaporate quickly, but we are needing something to do for activity sake. Russell and John headed into town early afternoon, something about building courage to get tattoos done. Marquises is the prime location for tattooing here in the South Pacific and we have been admiring the exotic tattoos that many of the other boaters here have had done. It makes us feel a little left out not to have a permanent souvenir, Oh well, I did get a nice bone bracelet and a carved wooden bowl. Glen and I puttered on the boat a bit then went to shore to see if we could get internet service and find out what the rest of the world is up too. We succeeded on the internet, but it was so slow that we only got a bit of banking done and caught up on the recent news before we got fed up. Nice to see our dollar is over par right now. With beer at $7.00 equivalent here we need a good exchange. Only one restaurant/bar is open in town on Sunday and nothing else. Russell arranged for a ride for us to meet he and John for dinner (20 min walk otherwise). Luckily or un-luckily for our two guys, the tattoo artist is also closed on Sundays, so they just spent a nice afternoon chatting with all of the other boaters that came in and out of the bar. Dinner was good, because I didn't have to cook it or do the dishes. Russell offered to free the dingy from the fray at the bottom of the ladder at the dingy quay on our way back to the boat. It is quite the system, a large concrete wall with one ladder and one tie ring with a minimum of 10 rubber dingys floating out from the wall like a cluster of balloons. Anyway complications arose and Russell up ended our dingy earning himself an evening bath in salt water. Fortunately his final action before descending the ladder was to give John his camera, also fortunate is that Russell can swim as we were all too busy laughing to save him. It will take a few days for him to live that one down.

Today, Monday, we had to get up early to make it in to the bank, it opens at 7:30 am. We all need cash, the cash machines ran out of money on Friday, nobody here takes credit cards and we have to head out to places even more remote than this, so cash is essential. Early out also gets you a nice loaf of fresh French bread and the pick of the fresh fruit and vegis. We also had to have John on the dock for his ride to the airport, he starts his way back to his real world today. He looked a little reluctant to leave. After our farewells, Glen, Russell and I headed back out to the big boat, pulled in all of our gear and headed out. We are now on our way to the Tuamotos, 550 miles away. Piece of Cake, only three night shifts and we are there. The water is great, the sky is clear, the temperature perfect and light winds. We are driving from the fly bridge with a full moon over our shoulders. Yes, still in paradise.

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