an even shorter trip

babelfish
tony zwig
Mon 24 Sep 2007 18:20

19:43.93S

174:18.27W

 

An even shorter trip

It is now 6am Tue.

Yesterday we sailed 4 miles (actually motored) to the next island of Foa.  We followed a twisty and turning path through reefs into an anchorage off Lotofoa Village.  We have only sketches from guide books and no chart details of this.  One marker was only visible at low water.  We followed instructions to head to the house; unfortunately we could see 3 houses.  We dinghied ashore and walked 3 or so k to the northern end of the island to the Sandy Beach Resort.  We walked in and had a drink.  Aside from the beautiful beach, this place seemed to be right out of a WW II movie.  Upon seeing us, the German owner started playing the type of music one heard on old movie reels put out by the third Reich along with unintelligible speeches.  I learned that the owner had come a long time ago.  Who knows; maybe he was really from that place and time.  We had drinks; Ken and Tony had wonderful cocoanut juice in the cocoanut.

We got a taxi to the main village of Panghai.  It was one of these roadstead towns with very very little going on.  We ate lunch at the Mariner’s Café, owned by a South African and Polish couple who lived on their 37 foot boat in the harbour.  Very nice.  Everyone seemed friendly.  Kids, who are refreshingly the same everywhere, were fun and hammed for photos.  But for me, the town was a bit of a disappointment.  Everyone seems to be doing fine but as a place to visit; not much or anyone to get close to.  Maybe I have seen too many of them.

 

Sorry about the underlining; I can’t seem to get rid of it and everyone else is asleep right now.

 

We finally explained to Ken that  earlier on our trip, we found the equator with our gps, not by going over a bump with a big yellow line.  Ken displayed his culinary knowledge by making a great salad last night and telling us Neapolitan, as in pizza, was named for Napolean.  Others thought maybe Naples.

Dick was passing on his sage advice to Thom by singing?, explaining the virtues of 50 year old women.  Thom (22 yers old) hasn’t bought in.

 

Today we hope to go about 30 miles to Ha’ava island, about 30 miles away.  All is well.  Generator is not, which is frustrating, nor is hot water tank, which doesn’t seem to matter.  We seem to get warm water anyway.  Some concern about engine shaft again but we will have to watch it.

Hi Marla

 

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