We're here! It's hard to imagine that we were in Anchorage a few days ago, but it's true. Through the wonders of air travel, we've 61° North latitude to 16.43° S.

After terrible problems with Air France's computer system, we finally sleepily walked aboard at 0100 or so. The seats were packed and small, and we had a rear bulkhead, so reclining was limited, not that I could have slept in those tiny chairs anyway.

Hey, got to watch Hunger Games 2 and The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug, so being awake wasn't a total bust.

We arrived in Tahiti, waited in an interminable queue for Immigration, but had absolutely no problems with either Immigration or Customs. Since we arrived late, we had to hustle to make the flight to Raiatea, but we did make it and had found our tiny Fiat car awaiting us, as promised. We arrived at the Raiatea Carenage by 0900 and had climbed aboard to see our girl.

Cathy Brie, our boat watch person, had bottles of water, a lei for Conni, and had left us a very clean boat. It saved us days of cleaning. So far, all of the equipment that we had ordered has arrived and was aboard.

The heat exchanger….WAS INSTALLED! Hurray! It certainly appears to be a good install and all of the hoses were correctly installed. I have a few minor tweaks to complete (installing the thermostat and thermometer sending unit, if I can figure a way to do it), but not the heinous job that we both feared.

I had not slept in almost 24 hours, so I was not at my best, so I selected some important but non-intellectual tasks for my focus today.

Man, it's hot and humid. Yes, we knew and remembered, but it's not the same as being here. We've got to improve our liquid intake efforts or we'll run into trouble as we did in San Carlos, Mexico.

Tomorrow, I install repaired electronics and continue working on a few tasks that I started today. I've installed on new 12V fan, and the galley and berth fans keep the air moving and help a great deal.

For dinner, we drove into Uturoa, the main town on Raiatea, and the second largest in French Polynesia, for dinner. Over some lovely dinner, we had our first Hinano beer, the Tahitian beer beloved in the area.

This place is stunningly beautiful. As we flew in, we passed over the pass through we passed when we entered the Raiatea coral reef. That while and yellow coral surrounded by the azure blue water..it's from a dream. Tropical birds serenade us, and Plumeria, or Frangipani, scent the air. I've never been in any place as beautiful

We're exhausted, so I'll post some photos tomorrow.