072711

Wednesday 07-27-2011

Moorea has been lovely. We arrived Saturday after a only a small hiccup on the big engine. We motored out of the lagoon southwest of Papeete into an 8 - 10 kt breeze, got the sails up and were going along at around 5 kts for the first hour or so. The wind died down to almost nothing about an hour out, so we decided to go back to motoring. When we turned the engine on there was a huge squealing noise. A belt on the water raw water pump was malfunctioning. Since we are a sailboat, we put the jib back out, let out the main and went back to sailing - very slowly. Dennis fixed the problem quickly and we were back to motoring in no time. He was a little seasick after that - a common side effect of working on the engine underweigh. It wasn't real bouncy, but the whole head down, butt up position is very conducive to motion sickness.

As we approached the anchorage to Moorea it started to sprinkle, which is okay and we were treated to two beautiful vertical rainbows. We anchored without a hitch and prepared to get down to the business of relaxing.

We had a very mellow day on Sunday. Dennis even laid down in the cockpit for awhile - amazing. It was very nice to just hang out on the boat and putter around. We went to Moondance for drinks and hors d'hourves in the afternoon. Nice to just sit around and chat. We made plans to go to Cook's bay with our dinghies the next day.

Monday - turned out to be the dinghy engine's day to have problems. We made it to Cook's bay with lots of stops and starts. Dennis cleaned out the fuel filter when we got there hoping that was the problem. Once again we managed to arrive at the "witching hour". That is the 1200 to 200 timeframe when just about everything is closed. We explored the area for awhile then decided to dinghy further into the bay to the store which about to open, buy the rest of our picnic lunch and eat it. Cleaning the fuel filter didn't fix the problem, but we pressed on. Lunch was good, cheese and pate on baguettes with oranges, pretzels and beer. Doug and Carla ended up giving us a tow back to the boat. We motored when we could, but sure got home quicker than if they hadn't. Dennis and Josh immediately got to work on the problem and by dinner time it was fixed. Some sort of carburator problem. So now all of the engines have had some attention and hopefully that will be the last of it for awhile.

Tuesday we took our dinghies to the west side of the bay exploring. We stopped at the little town with one of the oldest churches or at least it is on the site of the original oldest church. Anyway, nice little town. veryone made their phone calls, we picked up another picnic lunch and headed off further to the west. Quite beautiful, white sandy beaches, clear, clear water. We had a great picnic on our own private section of the beach, walked around the little motu and finished our tour with some wine at a picnic table in a very pretty little bay. We ended up at the same village we started in so Dennis could call NZ to order the final parts for the generator. Was very nice to have a day where nothing needed to be fixed!!!!

Doug and Carla had dinner with us that evening. Yummy steaks and garlic potatoes and greek salad with port and chocolate for dessert. After dinner Josh taught us to play a card game called spoons. Bascially a card version of musical chairs. What is that saying about "age and cunning will overcome youth and vitality"? Poor kid didn't stand a chance. We all had a good time though.

Today we will prepare for the overnight passage to Huahine. It is about 70 miles, so we will leave around 5pm in order to arrive after dawn tomorrow morning. So it will be a pretty mellow day around here. We are looking forward to seeing someplace new and Josh is hoping we catch up with some of his friends. Would be nice