We arrived at the South end of Fakarava yesterday - taking the southern passage into the lagoon a few hours before slack tide (slack was around 4pm but we entered at 2pm). The wind and seas were so calm and still that it made the passage into the lagoon a breeze. It is really beautiful here - my favorite atoll so far! It is like being anchored in a huge aquarium. Fish (and sharks!) everywhere. Shortly after setting the anchor we hit the water with our snorkel gear to check our work, and assess some nearby coral heads to see exactly how shallow and close they were to Orcinius. As we snorkeled we were being checked out by a couple of blacktip reef sharks - about 5 foot long. Long enough for me! So back to Orcinius we paddled! The sharks here are suppose to be pretty docile as they are used to lots of people swimming about. I just haven't quite gotten used to them yet.

We spent the rest of the afternoon working on shaving off Orcinius's green beard. John started tackling the hulls with a metal scrapper and I worked on the port swim step and ladder. The furry green algae on Orcinius's bottom sides is growing faster than ever in this warm water. We will have to attack it in chunks over the next few days as it is quite a workout trying to get at it both at the water line and underneath. But it needs to be done - we notice we are probably losing at least a knot of speed underway because of it.

We were approached by a fancy power boat just as we were finishing up our chore for the afternoon. It was a local gentleman (Manihi), along with one of his kids and grandkids. He invited us to come over to his pension and have pizza for dinner - all you can eat for 1500 CFP per person (about $15 US). Twist my arm! So we started to head over in the dingy just before 6. We got one good start out of the dingy motor - then 20 seconds later it quit and would not start any more. Out came the paddles and 15 minutes (and about .25 NM) later we were at the dock - with a much better appetite than if we had motored! The grounds of the pension were beautiful! (Check out his website at www.fakarava.org for pics). He gave us a tour of one of the bungalows and the main house - all water (showers/drinking/cooking) is provided by rain, and the bit of electricity used comes from solar panels. After the tour we sat and visited with his kids, cousins, and some other friends while he cooked the pizzas in his adobe oven. His wife was in Tahiti, so it was just Manihi doing all the cooking. His one daughter lives with her husband in Hawaii, but they come and stay for a few months each summer while their kids are out of school. Not a bad way to spend the summer! We enjoyed the fish pizzas as we all sat together at a large dining table - best fish pizza I have ever had! Actually it was more than just quite good, it was excellent, and the crust was perfect! Shortly after dinner we headed back to Orcinius (paddled all the way), taking in the beautiful nighttime sky - the stars were very bright last night. When we got back to the boat we checked out our supply of rum. We had two bottles left. Manihi asked if we had any to sell them as the younger crowd was looking for something other than wine and beer to drink. So we gave him a call on channel 8 and struck a deal with him. They came by in the power boat about 10 minutes later to make the trade. Now we are down to 1 bottl e of rum - life on the edge.

Today is gloomy and rainy. Another good day for boat chores. John did one final disection of the dingy motor this morning - he is starting to talk to it now as he works on it. It's quite strange to watch. He tries a few words of spanish and some french, but we think it only understands japanese. We don't know any japanese not anyone to translate into japanese.

To catch up on other happenings the last few days... Sunday was our last full day in Tahanea Atol. We invited Bob and Ann (from S/V Charisma) over to Orcinius and with their dink in tow, we motored over to the eastern passage where there is good snorkeling and the remains of a deserted village. After setting the anchor, we had some lunch, headed to shore and went beachcoming - getting a lesson from Bob on how to find cowrys (I think I'm spelling that right) - a very pretty brown and white shell that sells in tourist shops for a few bucks each. Cowry hunting is addictive once you find your first one! We also rummaged around the ruins of the old village - which still had an intact little church ready for a service (bible on the pulpit, pictures on the tables, etc.) if anyone had been around to enjoy it and one stray cat (healthy because it is the only creature eating in town).

It was coming up on 2:30, so we headed back to Orcinius to grab our snorkel gear. Then using Bob and Annes dingy, we headed into the pass just before low slack tide - and just before a squall came over us. We each went overboard into the water and Bob tied the dingy to himself. From there we just let the current take us back into the lagoon as we floated by all the coral and fish. It was so relaxing and beautiful that we decided to do it again. So Bob got back in the dink drove us back into the passage with the 3 of us hanging on along-side the dink. We saw some black-tip sharks that hardly gave us a second look, and lots of colorful fish large and small. We were able to float and swim all the way back to Orcinius with the current, about 1/2 a mile away. Since it was getting late in the day, we jumped back on Orcinius, brought up the anchor and beat feet back to our original anchoring spot about 3 miles away. That evening Bob and Ann invited us over for some wonderful fish ch owder, chocolate chip cookies and great company. Early the next morning (Monday morning around 3:15am), John and I woke up to take up the anchor, trying to meet our slack tide (at 3:45am) departure of the lagoon. So much for best laid plans as it took us over 45 minutes just to get the anchor up. Our anchor line and a tethered fender were stuck on some coral that didn't want to let us go. After some fancy boat manuevers and cutting away our tethered fender, we were finally loose and able to retrieve our lone fender. Even though we were an hour late to make slack tide, our passage out of the atoll was very easy as there wasn't much wind to cause any havoc. We motored along and arrived at Fakarava about a 7 hours later. Here we are enjoying another day in paradise.

Well I better try and throw some lunch together since John has already gotten a few hours of bottom scraping in while I've been writing the blog this morning - so I'm sure he is getting hungry. All for now!

Lisa