We had a wonderful time in the Marquesas islands after a not so great 23 day passage from the Galapagos. Although we had to spend a few days repairing and reinforcing sales and running anew main halyard, the rest of the time was spent hiking around the islands, splashing around in waterfalls, feasting on baguettes, roasted pork and pomplamouse (huge grapefruit), and visiting local artisans where we purchased way too many beautifully carved tikis and war clubs. We traded perfume and nail polish for fresh pomplamouse, bananas, oranges and limes. We even traded a gaff for a carving.

The lady at one of the local markets wanted to trade my groceries for an iPhone. Unfortunately I don't carry spare iPhones and had to pay cold hard cash for my 600 Polynesian Franc (US$6) ouefs (eggs).

One of our prized carvings is a Marquesan war club. The are called oo oo's.

We have a lot of miles to cover this season so we left the Marquesas after spending 3 weeks there. We made a 4 day passage and are now anchored in the lagoon of Fakarava Atoll in the Tuamotus. Even though this is still French Polynesia, the culture is vastly different. There will be no trading for anything here. The want cash!

We went to a black pearl farm this morning. They taught us how they place the nucleus in the oyster, how they grow the pearls and how they harvest. Then we got to visit the store. If we had an extra US$31,000 laying around we could have bought a perfect 1/2 black pearl! I could only spare $35 but still got two beautiful black pearls.

Sailing friends that we met in San Diego and haven't seen since we were in San Carlos, Mexico just anchored and called us on the VHF. One of the best parts of cruising is that you always have friends in every anchorage, no mater where in the world you find yourself. We are going to go explore the town with them tomorrow morning.