Yep I'm still alive and quite well.

We have to appologize to all the onlookers for not having blogged in several days. It gets quite hectic with my two grandsons, chasing down parts, going to doctors, sailing a regatta from Papeete harbor over to Morea and meeting up with many friends we haven't seen in a month or two.

My medical ordeal from the dive incident isn't quite over yet. Over the past several months we have struck up a very good friendship with John and Pat on The Rose. Pat is a doctor and she analysed the cardiologist report and assures me he was quite thorough and his description of the symptoms and subsequent treatment is very positive. I will have an angio gram/plast done on the 6th of July and will have some closure on the incident. Will update as necessary.

We picked up Sam and Joey last Thursday night and caught a cab back to the boat. They were quite excited and seemed quite awake for such a long journey. Got them set up in their berths and fed them a sandwich and off to bed we all went. Latest we have been up in months. The bell was about to strike midnight. The next morning Joey was up at the crack of dawn and Sam followed shortly thereafter. Joey wanted to go swimming but I curtailed that for a day because we were in the harbor at the Quay. Not that it is overly dirty, quite the contrary but we were tied up to moorings with about 40 other boats and who knows which of them have left their holding tanks open.

We spent most of the day chasing down parts, getting the new dinghy and roller furling and then regestering for the Regatta. At the registration we became reacquanted with several cruisers. Sam and Joey were introduced to a couple of boys their same age from one of the other boats and they planned a few things together. The other boys names were Joe and Ray. After milling around the registration area and watching some of the local dancing we sasheyed over to the food cart court for dinner. The food court is set up each night when local vendors drive their food vans into the marina square, set up tables and large barbeques and start serving their meals. Mostly oriental foods with the polynesian flare and flavor. After dinner we walked over to the center of the square where there was a young vendor of a gyro toy that you sling into the air with a rubberband on a stick, it has an LED and lights up as it twirls down. Lisa, Sam and Joey each bought one and they played in t he square for the next hour. The toy attracted several local kids to hang around and play with those that had the toy. It was alot of fun and when the night was over, one little boy, probably Joey's age, and we assume the child of one of the food vendors, followed us all the way back to the boat. He seemed like a very nice boy and spoke very little english. When we all shared our names with him and then asked his he became very shy. When we got back to the boat and went into the gate we said our au revoirs and he just stood outside the gate watching for about fifteen minutes. Sam and Joey went up to the fly bridge and was just sitting there when the little boy finally decided to head back to the food court. As he left he hollared very loud kind of in a singing voice AU REVOIR hopping and skipping away.

Sunday, the morning of the regatta, I had to make a trip to the clinic to return my heart monitor and see the cardiologist. On my way back I stopped at the store and bought some pastries, tonic and cerial. We helped Charisma leave the mooring and then departed ourselves. The regatta race start was changed at the last minute over the radio which actually sent most of the cruising boats in circles. We had gone so far to the east not really planning on participating in the race portion under doctors orders to stay sedate that when the start happened and then got delayed by 10 minutes we were already full steam ahead and heading for the finish. We had pretty steady winds in the mid 20's so when we set up the main we had it set to a single reef. We were way out ahead of the pack and just taking our sweet time sailing a slow starboard tac until we hit a point that made wing on wing the choice and set that plan and headed for the finish. A 57 foot cat and a 56 foot monohul ca ught up to us about 3 miles from the finish and they came in fist and second with us at third. The first four places got a prize of a free Morea Island tour. We are doing ours this afternoon with the boys.

The rest of the day was playing games, outrigger races and a Polynesian lunch and shooting the breeze with everyone. The outrigger races were the hit of the day. The boys with their two new friends were on one of the teams and they came in second in their heat. There were six heats and all the first place teams went into a two heat elimination with the winners of their heat to go head to head. Well the boys were out but Lisa was recruited by The Rose to be on their team. They won their first heat by two boat lengths. Afte that heat, John was done. His angina set in and he had to sit out the rest of the races so they recruited Sam to be part of their team. Their team won their elimination heat by a half boat length. In the final race, The Rose team had a good start and were neck and neck with a team of all middle age adult makes with lots of muscle. Half way down the stretch to the finish the muscle boys were afraid they were going to lose so they grabbed The Rose's outrigger and pushed them backwards. Although they were catching up slightly there just wasn't enough time so the cheaters won. It was all in fun anyway so not complaints.

The boys participated in the banana carry relay race and the coconut husking. They learned how to crack a coconut and open it neatly. At the end of the day the hosts had more examples of the traditional dancing and how the men and women do their different moves. Sam got to participate in the dancing. Several of the cruisers commented to Lisa and myself that they were quite surprized at how eager both of the boys were to participate.

Yesterday closed with us loosing one of our kayaks and recovering it and then after we were all in bed by an hour a squal came through the anchorage. It was mayhem. Winds to 40 knots, torrential rain and several boat pulled free of with their anchors, running into other boats and trying to get re-set. Half the moorage never got much sleep after that. So that kept Lisa and I up until about midnight. The boys slept right through it. All is well this morning and we are off to swim with sting rays.

All for now. John