The wind has been blowing hard all of today and tonight, but we are in a wonderfully secure little anchorage on the northwest side of Toau. There are a couple of families here and they are the sole inhabitants of all of Toau. We met Valentine yesterday and she proudly showed us her restaurant (where we will be eating tomorrow night), her copra, her small church (where she leads the services) and her pigs and little piglets. If the wind hadn't been blowing a steady 22 knots all day we were to go with Valentine to a small motu further out in the lagoon, along with a side trek to see a large resident manta ray that we could all swim with.

But, the wind is blowing ... still ... and shows no signs of letting up. I just checked the wind speed indicator and it's reading out a steady 26 knots. Not exactly good sleeping weather. We are on a mooring installed by the family (apparently the French government required them to install moorings before they'd let them open the restaurant so that the reef would not be destroyed in this small cul de sac), but I'd feel safer if we were on our own anchor. This will probably turn into one of those nights when I am up and down all night looking at the chartplotter, checking the wind, and making sure the anchor alarm is set while our dear Captain Sam snores soundly away.

On a different note: When I look at this photo I am amazed at how much the girls have grown since we moved onto Purrrfection in August 2004. Tori, who is now the (usually) ardent sailor, held a slightly different view three years ago when she was 11. She barraged our ears with her daily lamentation of "You have ruined my life." Then, slowly, over time, she changed her view. Alison, who was only 9, was too young at that time to really voice many protests. Thank goodness for that! I think I would have gone insane if I would have heard a double chorus of the Tori mantra every day!