6/9/09   13:00

The promised the North Wind arrived in the night and by midday was blowing 30 knots.

We have 70 metres of chain out in 12 meters of water and are holding fine.  We are reasonably protected from direct sea. It has stopped raining but is still completely overcast.

Steve and I went ashore to try to find a guide to do an excursion.  The town hall is here and it is election day for  French Polynesia and indeed all of France They gave us a name of a man two villages away which is much too far to walk. Will try to ring him later and explain in my battered French, what we want to do.

The extravagance du jour:  a medium sized frozen loaf of sliced whole wheat bread from New Zealand, a snip @ £4.70.  They don’t sell local fruit and veg as they just give it to each other. I’m still rationing the grapes.

The night we arrived we could hear  the locals slaughtering a pig.  This turned out to be for  a Funeral Feast yesterday, which I hasten to add, we did not attend.

18:00