We're still at Rotoava having spent the last four days getting some rest. I slept almost 12 straight hours the first night recovering from our 620 mile trip from Oa Pou in the Marquesas.

We spent Saturday refilling our water tanks having been lent 6 five gallon jugs from our friends Angus and Rolande on Periclees. We were stupid when we left Mexico and didn't purchase any water jugs to bring water back to Zephyr from shore. OK, yes we do have a water maker and yes, it will make 8 to 9 gallons per hour, but the kicker is that in order to use it, you better have a good battery bank or be prepared to run the engine or your generator to keep the power up as the first thing to cripple a water maker is the lack of juice it requires to run. So if we want to run the water maker, we have to run our generator. Now we charge up the batteries about every other day depending on our use but they only run about two hours. In two hours, we will make about 18 gallons of water. When you are ready to shut off the machine, you have to flush the system with some of the fresh water that you just made--about 5 gallons of it. So now you have made only 13 gallons. Not bad, but since we hold 265 gallons and we hadn't really made much water since we left La Cruz, we needed a bunch to bring our tanks back to a reasonable level. With the addition of 60 gallons from shore, we are now at about 85% if capacity. I'd rather have too much water than not enough. When we reach Tahiti in a few weeks, I plan on buying some tanks. After all, we have two extra diesel tanks as well as five tanks for gasoline.

On Saturday night, we had Angus and Rolande over for a nice dinner. We've known them since last year when we were in Mexico and have stayed in touch over the last year. We had run into them when we reached Nuku Hiva and spent several days taking hikes and having some fun. Now we had caught up with them again. As they were leaving on Sunday morning, we wanted one more chance to get together. They were lucky enough to get the one mooring buoy here so when they took off, we upped our anchor and took their spot. Anchors and their chains have a way of wrapping themselves around coral heads out here and that we did not need. When that happens, the anchor won't come up and most times you have to dive on it to get it unwrapped. We were lucky this time and our anchor came up just fine though a boat that was leaving with Periclees got their anchor stuck and needed to dive on it to get it free. Now all we have to do is untied from the buoy and we will be off.

We toured through the local cemetery to see the history of the local people and found out that they do their cemeteries differently than we do in the US. Children, when they die have their own section of the cemetery. Men go in another and women another. Families are not buried together. Many of the plots do not have markers as to who is buried there. Some of the plots are surrounded by old 2 X 4 lumber while others have concrete or marble as their surrounds. Some have pictures of the loved one while some just have a small wooden cross as a marker. There was even on old crematorium on the property. I have no idea when it was used last but it had obviously been quite a while ago. The coralscape of the grounds(no dirt out here folks) is neatly raked and kept clean. All in all, there are only about a hundred plots in the entire cemetery so I'm not sure where they have buried the rest. Now, when you are born, well that's another matter. When you are within two weeks of birth, you get flown to Tahiti where you give birth and are then flown back. There are no doctors on Fakarava.

The Post Office here is open from 0730 to 1130 and then closed till 1300 when it opens till 1430. A total of 5 1/2 hours a day. It is the only place where cruisers can get internet. They also act as the local bank and will change US dollars for Francs at the normal conversion rate of 80 to the dollar. A two liter bottle of Coke runs $720 francs=$9.00. A box of Sugar Pops cereal is almost $10.00!!!! It's like I said, it's expensive out here. I know I said it was expensive when we stocked up in Mexico, but it's crazy out here!!!! I'm just glad Tracy stocked up so well before we took off.

Today, the Paul Gaugin cruise ship showed up. It steamed into the harbor just after 0700 and neatly dropped both it's anchors and started ferrying the folks on board to shore. Many left on dive trips as the water is amazing around here. You can see the entire town of Rotoava in about 20 minutes if you take your time. Many just hit the small beaches and went for swims. Others bought some black pearls to take home. We stopped in town at the local "Snack Shack" for lunch after finding the boulangerrie(bread store) closed. He close as do most of the stores from 1130 to 1500. They then open till 1700-- maybe. Now, at the Snack Shack, there is no menu so you really have no idea what is offered let alone what they charge for it. We did know that a can of coke runs $300 francs--about $3.75 US. Tracy ordered a hamburger with frites(fries). I opted for a "Steak Sandwich". Actually, it turned out to be maybe two small patties of hamburger with some fries all tucked inside a chunk of french bread with a sauce of mayonaise and ketchup mixed together. All totaled, it came to $1900 francs or about $24.00 for lunch. MacDonald's is looking pretty good right now--at least price wise. I've got to admit, I've never had a sandwich with the fries tucked inside the "bun".

We expect to be casting off tomorrow for the south end of Fakarava to do some more snorkeling and beach walking. A few days there and then off to another atoll farther south.

More to come folks so stay tuned.