We are greatly enjoying the lovely Raiatea Lodge. Oliver, Eric and their families have been wonderful hosts. They serve excellent coffee and baguettes with home made jams at 7AM everyday. Lunch is at noon and dinner is at 7PM and both are excellent French/Polynesian cuisine.

You can always stir up someone for a patonk game (popular in France and elsewhere, throw a small light ball and get close to it with bigger heavy ones). The grounds are lush Polynesian standard (watch out for falling coconuts). They have a nice pool, bikes, a great dock with boats for rent, and can set you up with all sorts of tours and excursions.

The dock has been great for us because it is much faster (and easier) to take the dingy to the boat yard than to drive. I am getting into a routine of coffee at 7, boat yard at 8 and home at 4. Hideko is enjoying the free wifi and getting caught up with her Mixi (the hip Japanese online social network). We enjoy a lovely dinner together at 7 and repeat.

Today at the yard we had the rudder shaft straightened as it was bent ever so slightly. Fred and I were impressed by the stocky build of the shaft. It will not be departing the boat without serious trauma.

I did a lot of work inside the boat today. It was hot with little breeze making it in through the escape hatches. The constant threat of rain (though in retrospect it almost never did in the yard) looming up in the highlands kept me from opening the over head hatches. On the bright side the solar panels were kicking out 20 plus amps at high sun. The rail angle actually helped produce more power! I once again find good reason to recommend our air cooled fridge and freezer, which hummed along on solar power unbothered by the fact that they are 15 feet up in the air.

The yard is all 220 so we are without shore power. I asked about a transformer but I got one of those, "I'll look into it", answers that you can interpret as "not going to happen".