In Vermont they say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." yesterday we could not drink enough water to replenish the sweat that was running... today we are bundled up... and we have used the lexan hatch board that we made years ago when we were in Maine in the fall. It is great... lets in light and keeps out the cold!

Well... even if it is only a short hop up the Cape Fear River to the City Docks... it is great to be on the water again and out of the boatyard. And here is some entertainment for us... This is the port Sunrise came into ... although this is a container ship

Honda provides a cool little fitting that allows one to flush the salt water out of the engine and also run the engine when it is on the hard... or on the back of your boat.... I had to get outside the push pit to pull the start cord.

We put the kayak in the water and suggested that the girl go for a kayak to look at the local wildlife... until we heard that there are 12' alligators here!! No Kayaking!

Here you can see how all the holes from the screws are filled and the mast step built up... Awlgrip is painted

Eric is an amazing craftsman. The teak decks have been a constant work project and source for many leaks through the top of the boat. He removed all the old teak... raised all the deck hardware up on blocks, rebuilt the mast step and painted on Awlgrip non-skid...

Never really thought of it until we saw it when they lowered us down into the water.... They called it the monkey ladder!

Well, it has been a long time since posting. Sunrise sat patiently in Raiatea on the hard while her crew investigated land life...

We found this bulk ship was traveling from Tahiti to Wilmington NC and would use her cranes to pick up Sunrise... She was strapped down next to 2 containers of explosives!!!!

Mid Pandemic Lara and Bill traveled to Wilmington to sleep in the car, get up to be on the ship at 0600 hrs... to take delivery... meaning: They assembled big straps with huge shackles and hung her over the side... we climbed on.... and after a quick check for leaks... they cast us off.... no signatures or anything!!

Well, we received a call on Saturday that there would be a birthday party on Sunday. Great! The only problem was that we were at the south end of the island and the party was at the north end. And there was no wind.

I am a sailor. We live on a sailboat. We sail, we only motor if we have to... Well, this is one of Isobel's friends... all the cool kids would be there... parents were invited... they do have a nice house right on the water...

So, we motored north completing a circumnavigation of Raiatea...

Everyone wears flip flops in polynesia. And eveyone takes them off when they go inside. At school, the kids take them off before going in the classroom... Stores you can wear them, barefeet are allowed. Offices... you take them off and leave them at the door...

I saw these guys as we came up toward a mark just inside the pass. They were surfing the wave in their Va'a... as we motored up to leave the mark to starboard, one of them crossed in front of us and stopped, just out our track... "what the heck"

He gave me a surfers wave, so I held my course, suddenly realizing what he was up to.

We had seen the Va'a do it with other boats...

As we came by they slid into position. We were doing 6 knots and they still had to pull to stay with us. The one on the left had the sweet spot, right in our draft. The other is trying to stay on our stern wave, which is not very big. They grinned at us a couple times, and turned down a drink of water... they were training.

As we passed the Va'a Club in Uturoa, they pulled away from us, waved and sat back for a drink from their water bottles