13/7/08  14:00

17:30.299 S  149:49.282 W

We spent 5 days in Papeete, mostly doing a huge spring cleaning and reorganizing of a lot of “stuff.”  Steve serviced both generators and replaced a faulty float switch in the forward grey water tank. Lucy and Less left Thursday night and on Friday Russell arrived from Boston a half hour early but Demetra was not so lucky.  She had a two hour  slot to change planes in LA but unfortunately the new American system has done away with the concept of being  “in Transit” so she had to collect her luggage and clear immigration  before running to the check in desk 20 minutes after the flight closed.  British Airways did put her up in a Hilton Hotel having first suggested she carry on flying via Auk land to Tahiti.   I am not going to quote her reaction to the suggestion she fly an extra 8 hours…

After a lot of thought I have decided not to spend money repairing the Mainsail as it  would be a huge job probably  needing a couple of more weeks in Papeete, and I am planning to replace it in New Zealand anyway.  So we stripped out the clew block and gave the material to Nightwind, the boat we partied on in The Gambiers who arrived in Papeete yesterday.  Lucy took bag a big bag back to the UK containing the cockpit “Wendy House” which we had specially made for Antarctica and never actually needed.  It seemed a shame to toss it. And now that Demetra’s and my cabin is no longer a storeroom there was no room for it. 

As Monday is Bastille Day and they’re never open on Sundays, the Papeete Immigration office is closed until Tuesday but I was told we could come to Moorea as long as I go back on the ferry on Tuesday to do the paperwork.  So we left the big city in favour of a bay in which we can swim….with no traffic noise…and Moorea has some spectacular mountain peaks.

The holding here in Cook’s bay is a bit dodgy so we have put the Fortress anchor on 5 meters of chain in front the of the main anchor and it seems to have done the trick.

The WiFi merchant assured me that his system was working here in Cook’s Bay which turns out not to be true.