Winlink Registration

Can someone explain to my what is going on. I opened my RMS Express and was told I now have to pay money to register my callsign. What happened to cruisers helping crusiers?

Heiva Festival Bora Bora

Went to the Heiva festival last night. Great time. We wandered around the grounds and watched the dancers. They are amateurs but they make up for their lack of polish with large numbers and fabulous energy. The singing is amazing. Each "district" (we haven't figured out the definition of a district) sends a team. Performers range from very young to adult. We plan on going back this evening to watch more.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Polynesian Dance

While in Moorea we spent an evening watching a Polynesia dance group. The next night we went to the Hilton of another performance to discover it was the same group with double the numbers. I was selected to participate in two of the numbers. As you can tell (I am on my knees) my partner was the most diminutive dancer in the group. After the dance I noticed her holding hands with a young man. He was also my height!

Fair winds and following seas :)

Fair warning so you don't die

I purchased a Kindle fire to store books to read on passages and cruising information. I noticed that frequently books that I had downloaded would become unavailable due to a DRM error. The excrement hit the rotating blades on approach to Bora Bora. I could not get to any of my cruising guides as the all reported a DRM error. I contacted Amazon and was told that all of my downloaded content expires without an internet connection on a regular basis. Thus includes not only my Kindle Unlimited subscription but also things I have bought and paid for from the Amazon store. The bottom line is that if you are depending on your Amazon books to keep you safe you may be sorely disappointed.

Fair winds and following seas :)

MaiKai Marina and Yacht Club

This is Jessica, one of the owners of the MaiKai Marina and Yacht Club. We arrived here from Raiatea this afternoon. Davyd and Michael will be leaving Reboot here.

Fair wins and following seas :)

The 6,000 Nautical Mile fix

As we were exiting the Panama Canal we noticed that one of the through hulls had started to leak. With a 4,200 nautical mile passage ahead this was not a good thing. The Balboa Yacht Club was such a pit that we didn't really want to tie up for a day or two to find a replacement. Since this was a non-vital fitting; the water inlet for one of the two heads we decided to go for the destructive repair. We filled it with 3M 5200 ("What 5200 has joined together only God can rent asunder) and wrapped some zip ties around it to hold it together. It worked. On fact it worked so well that we made landfall a number of times before we replaced it in Pape'ete. We were, it seems, distracted by the rigging problems.

Fair winds and following seas:)

Wild night, easy day

For the past couple of days the anchorage in Fare (Huahine) has had a very strong current - likely 2+ knots and a beam wind. This is a very uncomfortable setup as the current holds Reboot at 90 degrees to the wind. All of the wind force is converted to heal. Last night the wind really picked up at at about 9 pm it all went to heck as the sky opened up with thunder and lightning (the way you love me is frightening). At about midnight it settled down to a steady downpour for the rest of the night.

Morning came and it was still drizzling. Today was the weather window so we put on our bathing suits and hauled anchor. About 2 nm off the island the sun broke through and the remaining 20 nm to Raiatai was beautiful. We are anchored inside the reef. Winds are about 15 - 20 and the waves are about 1.5 feet. Not the greatest anchorage but far better than we have had for the past 3 days.

Off to explore.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Huahine

We are in Huahine, about 100 nm from Tahiti and 40 nm from Bora Bora. This a beautiful anchorage. We are in 25 ft of water and can see bottom as if there was no water. The grocery store is amazing, the best we have seen outside of Tahiti. We hang out at the Huahine Yacht Club, a nice bar with a dinghy dock and a happy hour. The only downside is internet access. It is only available in a couple of places and noneof them are free.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Reef

Yesterday as we were heading up the west coast of Huahine we noticed a run of breakers across our path. They were not on our charts (updated 4 months ago.) We called the boats we were transiting with and gave them a heads up. We did wonder if we were making a big deal out of nothing. Apparently not. Today we met another boat that communicated that another cruiser had run up on the UNCHARTED reef. Not good.

Fair winds and following seas :)

10 mile hike

We are in Moorea, about 15 miles from Tahiti. We are anchored in Cook's Bay. On Friday night we went to a local hotel for an evening of Polynesian dance. Last night we went to the Hilton for a similar performance. This one included the men doing a fire dance on the beach. It turned out to be the same troupe with twice as many dancers. It was happy hour at the Hilton so the drinks were surprisingly cheap. Great fun.

We were planning to depart today but the forecast of West winds and 15 foot waves held us back.

We decided to dinghy to Opuhonu Bay. This is the others small boat anchorage. We knew that there were several boats we had met in Pape'ete Marina anchored in the bay. The pass inside the reef between the bays is quite shallow even for a dinghy. Fortunately Mike and Davyd had used it on a dive boat so they knew the drill.

We arrived in the bay and went through the anchorage. We decided to beach the dinghy on a beautiful sand beach. We ran into Alex from Dream Catcher and said hi.

At this point there was a need for a head call so we started walking. There were two problems with this. First, there is almost nothing for the 10 miles from the beach to the Intercontinental Hotel. Second, it was Sunday so almost everything was closed. We walked for 3 1/2 hours to Woody's ukulele shop. Mike had wanted to purchase one. It was of course closed. We trucked on for another 1/2 hour to the Intercontinental. No ATM. No Internet except for registered guests. Consulting our map we continued for another 1/2 hour to a beach bar that advertised free WiFi. Nope.

At this point we called a cab. We were driven to the ATM. Kaput! We rode back to the dinghy ($ 30 US) and headed back to Reboot. On the way back there was a pop. I thought the bottom of the outboard had hit a coral head. When we arrived at Reboot and stopped the engine a dead bird floated up from the outboard. Coral head? Bird? We will never know.

I have been surprised that everywhere we go the resorts seem empty. Even in Pape'ete the clubs were empty at night. Not so the Hilton and Intercontinental. Both were humming with activity. I guess the 1% are doing OK.

Fair winds and following seas:)

Kudos and Recommendations

I mentioned that the new standing rigging is finally completely installed. Whew! I want to highlight three people/organizations that were a great help and frankly hopefully direct some business to them. They are:

Rigging Only - Tom - www.riggingonly.com - they talked to Catalina, they talked to Kevin, they talked to Paul, they talked to me, we exchanged pictures of the rig. When the parts came they were beautiful (OK, now you know why I went to engineering school), complete, and fit perfectly.

MAT Rigging Services - Tahiti - Mateo (Matt) mateo.angelin@hotmail.fr - a very knowledgeable, hard working gentleman here in Tahiti. See him for your rigging needs.

Yacht Servies Nuku Hiva - Kevin Ellis - yachtservicesnukuhiva.com - Kevin is the "go to" guy in Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia. He spent countless hours on the phone and Internet getting everything going, helping with the shipping, finding a customs broker, etc. He also does fuel, butane, car rental, parts sourcing (he helped me get a new starter motor for the Yanmar, etc.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Its done

After 2,000 nm and three ports its finally done. We installed the new cap shrouds and forestay today. Hooray!

Fair winds and following seas :)

Great music.

Polynesian, French, and American rock! Very nice.

Keyboard

That Yamaha arranger keyboard is very familiar!

Dance

Theft

Last night about midnight one of the cruisers here at Pape'ete Marina had his bag snatched as he was walking back from the bathroom. It and the office are outside the gated area of the docks. Much to his surprise his calls for help were immediately answered by the police. Within 10 minutes they had arrested the thieves. Of course he then had to spend 2 hours filling out reports. The good news is that although they had dumped the bag they had kept his iPhone. Lucky.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Pape'ete food trucks

From 6 pm to midnight the food trucks roll into Pape'ete. About half the price of a restaurant meal. Food is good and the ambiance is great.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Memories

In this electronic age most of our photos are digital and online. On Reboot I do keep an old photo album with pictures of my sons when they were young. The other day I took it out and was reminded of our early days sailing together.

Fair winds and following seas :)

Feeling lighter

Two of the three new 4D AGM batteries. Yes, my pockets are empty.

I had helped a friend move a bunch of 8D's onto a boat while in Nuku-Hiva. They were really heavy so I was not looking forward to this project. The 4D's are quite a bit lighter.

Fair winds and following seas :)