May 26-31, 2011

Rae and Beatty quickly adapted to living on board learning to conserve fresh water by washing their hands with just a trickle of fresh water and taking a shower after getting out of the sea with a light rinse of fresh water or to rinse out their hair of shampoo and their bodies of soap by jumping into the sea water, followed by a light rinse of fresh water. They learned to do the same thing with washing dishes and laundry. First wash in sea water followed by a light rinse of fresh water. Consequently, after 5 days, the four of us used only 6 gallons of fresh water per day. Rae was happy to be vindicated of her “unfair” reputation of using lots of water on a charter we shared into Tonga some 12 years ago. Beatty enjoyed her first snorkeling experience by marveling at the different fish. She quickly morphed into being a fish herself as the days went by jumping into the water at every chance. When we fed the fish at the coral garden south of Motu Teveiroa, Rae and Beatty were amazed by the numbers that surrounded us. A brightly colored triggerfish which have brazen personalities even tried to bite through the plastic bag holding the bread. An aqua and pink parrotfish with two buck teeth bravely grabbed some bread from us. We saw sea anemones with clown fish crouched inside. We fed the stingrays on a rainy day from the dinghy. Rae bravely stood among them and lightly petted them as Steve fed them squid. Beatty touched their velvety skin from the dinghy as it was too deep for her to stand comfortably. Portia and Beatty pedaled the kayak to Motu Topua and walked around the tiny island finding miniature shells and coconuts. Beatty chose the coconut that seemed to have the most liquid inside to take back to the boat as Beatty loves fresh coconut milk and the chewy coconut meat. We spent a morning in Vaitape, the main village, where Rae and Beatty did some tourist shopping, we had lunch at the St. James Restaurant overlooking Dream Caper at anchor, and we reprovisioned at the Supermarket. We than had 15 wonderful minutes of full sails up as we crossed Baie de Faanui where the winds rush through the valley and then motored within the lagoon to the eastside of Bora Bora. We have hooked Rae and Beatty on playing Mexican Train dominoes. We played late into the night twice with Steve coming out the winner both times.