Hi Mom, Dad, Autumn, Tim, Devin, Charissa, Analise, Cameron, Mavi, and Elena,

I hope you are all well. Sorry we have not written in so long; there are many mediocre reasons I have not kept up with email and blog, but not one really good reason.

Anyway, just after I write this, I or Steen plan to update the blog, so look for that...

Happy Late Father's Day - Dad, Tim and Cameron. Hope you had good ones.

We are just finishing up our time here in the Marquesas Islands and getting to head on to the Archipelago Tuamotu, a chain of coral atolls NE of Tahiti.

The Marquesas are beautiful, steep, and lush with vegetation; only a few sand/coral beaches, pretty but with lots of 'nono's', (biting sand flies). I am currently covered in itchy bites.

Wish we could send pictures of our trip because I'm much better at taking pictures than sitting down at the computer to write. It's very hot here, especially when it rains, and we have to close up the boat. By 7:00am, it's about 78 degrees in the boat; by 9:00, it's 85, and goes up from there. Mostly the reason I haven't written is that I am usually so warm and have beads of sweat on my face, that I can't tolerate sitting inside the boat at the computer. Also, our batteries are not as charged as we'd like, and we use a great amount of power to run the refrigerator and water maker, and sending email needs a lot of power.

We don't run the engine very often due to the heat and the price of fuel here, ($5.00 / gallon).

Since leaving Hiva Oa, we have visited three other islands and the locals on all three have been very friendly, trading us fruits for clothing and linens. They practice their very little bit of English and we attempt to speak a few words of French, and we get along well.

Just a few days ago, I was touched by the gift from a couple in a small 'village' (only a few houses). I had given their two little girls a Minnie Mouse t-shirt and a bunny rabbit t-shirt, and the couple a ball cap and some linen place mats. In return they gave me a bag of limes and six pamplemouse, (a local sweet grapefruit). The wife brought out a small guest book for me to sign, and as I was writing she walked away and returned with a 3 ft. long Marquesan flag, handing it to me. Wow! It's red white and yellow, with a black native drawing of a tiki god. I told her we would proudly fly it from our boat.

The locals are remarkably generous with their time, patiently struggling with the language differences and gathering and bagging up fruit from their yard for the cruisers.

We have also been spending much of our time with our new friends from the boats 'Tuscany' and 'Lasse'. Ciel and Angela aboard Tuscany are a young couple from San Francisco, and Ben and Carola aboard 'Lasse' are from Germany and they have a boy and girl named Nils and Lisa, 5 and 3, with whom Malou has been enjoying playing. We have shared dinners with both couples on their boats and ours, and have had some really enjoyable evenings talking in the cockpit in the candlelight. We are making some more new friends just now in Daniel's Bay, as we prepare for the 4 day trip to the Tuamotu.

There is much more the pictures could tell, so hopefully in Tahiti we can get an internet connection.

All for now. We will hopefully write more often as we venture a little farther away from the warm Equator.

until next time, Take care, Angela