So today was our third day at anchor here on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands. Our friends Angus and Rolande on Periclees took off early this morning for the Tuamotu Islands about 575 miles southwest of here. They have been around the Marquesas for about three weeks and it was time for them to move on. We had a great couple of days playing with them on shore. They even had us over for dinner last night.

At 0900, we went ashore to go about getting checked in now that the Gendarmes were open. There is no immigration here, it's all done by the local police. Actually the National Police. Our agent(signed up for an agent to help us get settled in the islands) met us at the dingy dock shortly after we arrived. You can only check in in the morning. Just about everything closes about 1130 and reopens about 1420. A nice LONG lunch break. Now they do open at 0730 so they still put in their hours. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes and then given a nice tour by Regina, our agent. She not only lives here, but also has a small hotel here in town. We had been told that we HAD TO HAVE our Zarpe(exit documents from Mexico) when we arrived or we would not be allowed into the country. Well, if that is the case, no one told the folks we talked to. All we needed was our passports and documentation for Zephyr. Fill in a few forms and voila, we were done. Now would I leave Mexico with out a Zarpe???? Heck no. As soon as you do that, you know you will be asked for it. That's just Murphy's Law.

Once done and with the town tour under our belts, we headed for the local grocery store to get another loaf of French bread(this time with a nice crispy crust), a coke or two and back to Puff for the ride back to Zephyr. We passed another dingy on it's way into shore from "What ya gonna do"(yes, that is the name of their boat). They are having electrical problems also. They can't start their engine. Their batteries won't even turn their starter though the battery is at full charge. Something is wrong with their electrical lines from the battery or the switch that turns on the battery is bad. He's got a bit of work cut out for him finding the problem.

When we got back to Zephyr, Tracy started in on another load of laundry. This time, we were going to hang it outside. Yesterdays was done inside as it rained off and on all day long. We got lucky today and while it looked like rain most of the day, it never rained. With five loads done today, she is just about done. We are doing it ourselves as the charge for 1 load of laundry is $10.00--Wash only!! No dryers are available. All is put out on clothes lines to be dried. If it rains, well, it just takes longer to dry. The average time for a load of laundry here is two days. It's just too humid to dry anything fast here.

In between loads, she added another layer of our special teak oil/sealer to our pretty teak rails. The trip over had been a bit harsh on it and it needs another coat. She got the top rail done today and we should be able to finish the rest while standing in the dingy tomorrow.

I rebuilt the water generator unit off our DuoGen. It had made a ton of amps for us during the first two thirds of our trip and then it pretty much shut down. The bearings had just a bit too much salt in them and it slowed the revolution of the propeller on the unit. It took a while, but I finally got it apart and then I greased the heck out of it and reassembled it for our next voyage. It should do much better now.

We ran our generator again today so we made more water while it was cranking away on the back deck. We will get more than just a full battery every time we start the generator.

Tracy is too tired to add any comments so you will just have to wait for another day.