The past few weeks have been filled with highs and lows......

Huahine was the hidden gem of French Polynesia - very pretty & traditional.
We enjoyed our time tied to the town wall of Uturoa at Raiatea while we waited for repairs to be done on our swim ladder. The food from the local vans at night was to die for and cheap!
We drift snorkelled through the beautiful coral gardens of Motu Tautau at the island of Taha'a. The fish life was abundant and very friendly. Big sea anemones were everywhere, each with their own set of clown fish. A big red octopus made an appearance as well.

Unfortunately when we returned to Uturoa to collect our swim ladder last Monday PANNIKIN was boarded & broken into while we were out to dinner with our friends on TAKE TWO, Garry and Kerry. Our computer was stolen, which basically has our whole lives on it, including all our photos & diary from the past two & a half years as well as all our weather prediction programs, boat documents, survey & rigging reports.... to name just a few things. Luckily we had most things backed up onto a hard drive, so we've only lost photos from French Polynesia & we can always copy our blog back onto word from this site. Buying a new laptop has not been a problem, but getting to know Windows 8 in FRENCH has been very difficult & time consuming. Combined with the incredibly slow internet here it has been a hair pulling, expletive yelling process.

We decided to come across to Bora Bora last Wednesday where we have been very lucky to find a great computer man who has changed Windows 8 to English for us & changed the system back to Windows 7 format....so much easier to find our way around now, even with the keyboard being French (apologies for incorrect spelling etc!!!). He has also helped us with downloading our sat phone drivers again & downloaded Open Office - a bit like Microsoft Word. We are still struggling with internet & getting the final downloads we need before heading off to Samoa. That is another problem we now face....we have exactly ONE week left on our visa for French Polynesia & the weather is not being kind for a departure from Bora Bora. Very strong winds have been blowing for the past 3 days & a launch time for Samoa is not looking good for at least the next 7 days. We will approach the Gendarmerie (police) today & explain our situation. Hopefully they will give us a few days to wait for a weather window.

Again on a good note Bora Bora is very beautiful. We've swum with & fed sting rays and reef sharks and will head back to the western side of the island to snorkel over manta rays. The lagoon of Bora Bora is very big and beautiful blue water is everywhere as are over water bungalows. There is a huge amount of hotels here. We climbed a very steep hill yesterday to take some great photos. It is definitely a place to be seen from the air. We've had Happy Hour at Bloody Marys & seen traditional dancing in the town square.

Life is still good....just a little challenging at times!!!