8/6/09  08:30

I didn’t manage  a diary entry yesterday.  We went for a very long walk ( 3 ½ hours) in the afternoon  and when we got back I was too knackered to do it. We walked around the Western end  past the tiny airport eventually up a road  which cuts across the middle through the  hills.  Its only a rise of 292 metres but I found walking straight up a 30 degree slope for  40 minutes pretty cardiovascular.

The night before we had 40 plus knot wind for over an hour with sheeting rain.  It rained less hard in the morning and by afternoon stopped enough for  our walk.  We were even treated to a few minutes of sunshine and it only sprinkled on  us a bit.  Our chain is still wrapped around a coral head and Steve added a rope line to take some of the strain off the chain.

We met the French family on the  43’ red sloop anchored  in the bay.  They have been sailing for  7 years and the children have never been to proper school.  They keep up with a correspondence course and seem very happy with their studies.  10 years ago they converted two houses in Lille  into flats and the income from the rentals keeps them going. 

We met another French couple on our walk who left New Zealand  more than a month before we did.  It took them  34 days, they had  several  50 knot gales and were even becalmed for  5 days. I think we were lucky in our crossing.

Last night we witnessed a spectacular full moon rise through the clouds.  It was one of the biggest moons I’ve ever seen, the show was short as it disappeared into the cloud cover. It rained heavily most of the night but the wind went SW and wasn’t so strong as the night before.  This morning we’re immersed in a thick blanket of cloud. 

We might move to a different anchorage later.  Or we might not.