We've had a pleasant few days, here in Daniel's Bay. I hiked up to the much-heralded waterfall on Saturday, in company with Aurora B and Mohea. The idea is to take the dingy into a lagoon, which is fed by the river which comes from the waterfall, for a couple of hundred metres, tie it to a coconut tree then walk through the village and up the hill/mountain for a couple of hours (less for the more energetic). The first minor problem was that it was low water, so the dingy grounded just before the entrance to the lagoon, in a fairly lively ground swell (we were all in my 'deflatable' as it was the lightest). Hopping out, we lifted/dragged the dingy over the entrance bar to the lagoon [nope, not that sort of bar, I'm afraid] then I had my 'African Queen' moment [and definitely not that sort of queen, either] and dragged the dingy by the painter through the shallo part of the river whilst the others walked along the bank.

Dingy duly tied to the coconut tree, we proceeded at a leisurely pace for the two hour walk; this was pretty easy, a couple of river crossings to make then an 'interesting' one where the choice was wade through fairly deep water or balance on a log laid between two rocks. After a while we reached the water-less waterfall, known locally here as the third highest in the world and the largest in the Marquesas, I doubt both statements and in any event the only water we saw coming down was when it rained for twenty minutes, and even then there were more rocks coming down than water!

Still, it was a refreshing swim and there are two largish eels which live in the pool, of which we saw one, presumanly the larger. Not too sure what they live on, swimmers probably :)

There was a farewell snacks N drinks 'do' for Franz, Helmut's brother-in-law, on Mohea, after 10,000 miles with the boat his wife feels it's time he went back home!

Today, Monday, we're off to the Tuamotos, probably Ahe or Manihi as a first stop. The weather looks reasonably settled although there is a vigourous couple of weather systems further south of the Tuamotos, hopefully they'll stay south. Winds are forecast to be favourable, if a little light after today (35kt gusts and frequent squalls then!).

I'll make a position report tonight, the Tuamotos are UTC minus ten hours, which is making the sunday phone call increasingly difficult [this week, the lack of a mobile signal made it impossible]. The trip should take around four days and allegedly there is a phone system and wifi in at least some of the atolls, so we'll see.