We wrapped our diesel fitting project today. That out of the way we are almost ready to take off. Our final challenge was getting our propane tanks filled. Our tanks are 9kg (good) and made out of steel (bad). Steel tanks are heavy and they rust. They don't belong on a boat. Aluminum tanks are good. They are light and they don't rust. Fiberglass tanks, recently approved the US powers that be, are the best IMHO. They are light, they don't corrode, and you can actually see how much gas they have in them!

We really like having two 9kg (20 lbs) tanks. A pair of full tanks has lasted Hideko and me as much as 9 months. This is great for cruising remote islands. The bummer is that our tanks don't have bleed valves and no one here seems to be able to fill them. We have been able to get them about half full.

As I was thinking things over at the Carenage office the skipper of Miss Molley, a nice 60 something Oyster, came by to pick his nice new 9kg fiberglass propane tank up. I tried to bribe him but he wouldn't part with it. Hopefully down the road we'll be able to swap our steel tanks out for a nice pair of 9kg fiberglass units.

We finished up a lot of little projects today. We drilled holes in the Saloon table legs and the nav station chair post, inserting pins. Both used to slowly sink over time. I suppose the adjustable height is nice but we never really adjust them except to put them back where we want them after they sink. The nav chair needs to be the height of the nav station and the saloon table needs to be eating height. Now they are.

It is not looking good for our one year stay in French Polynesia. On the other hand we have been getting excited about heading west. We have one more avenue to explore but should that fail we will be off to the Cook Islands.

We will try to hit Maupiti on the way out of French Polynesia. Maupiti has been described as Bora Bora 50 years ago. We like the sound of that. The only pass opens to the south and with anything more than 2 meters of swell from the southwest through southeast it is supposed to be unreasonably risky. Mauphilia is another stop we'd like to try but this atoll is supposedly even more dicey than Maupiti. If we can stop on the way we will, otherwise we'll just make for Aitutaki in the Cooks. Aitutaki is also supposed to be a fantastic Bora Bora like lagooned island. From the Cooks we'll head to Niue with a possible stop at Palmerston Atoll on the way. Niue is the world's largest raised atoll and due to its lack of soil there is no heavy run off. This reportedly leaves the waters around the island shockingly clear making it one of the most amazing dive sights on the planet. From Niue we'll head on to Tonga, Fiji and then up the Solomans to Micronesia for cyclone season.