Day 1
26 April 2014 | Raiatea Carenage
Tired Bill
We slept later than usual, awaking at 0700, had a spot of breakfast and headed to work. During the night, the island's night life awakened us a few times: dogs barking, chickens clucking, roosters crowing at dawn. It's a pretty rustic location.
As we sat with coffee, we listened to tropical birds that I did not know. The slight breeze kept temperatures moderate and it was a delightful morning. We gazed at the palm trees, sipped coffee and ate fresh papaya, and enjoyed reading world news on the bungalow's Wifi. Not too bad!
There's an odd electrical device that is totally quiet but seems quite effective in repelling insects. With no screens on windows, we were concerned about bites, but it proved not to be problem. We imagine that the device vaporizes some liquid and disperses it.
Of ll the crazy things, the thatch on the little structures is actually plastic! Conni says that she remembers seeing such material in California when she was a kid, at the height of the Tiki Lounge craze.
We always hope to accomplish more, but it's always MUCH slower than expected. The first order of business is always to re-install the electronics that failed and were either replaced by vendors our that we were forced to re-purchase. We got exactly ONE device installed! You name it, we had trouble with it. By 1500, we were hot and cranky, so decided to bag it and start earlier from now on. In between the rain, we cleared the boat and went back to the bungalow. After showers, we drove to town and bought groceries.
Conni did such a spectacular job of buying groceries for the crossing that we have weeks worth of food remaining. We could probably buy nothing but fresh food and leave for three weeks!
We've decided to arrive at the yard at 0800 and work until 1400, plenty of time and allowing us to quit before the afternoon heat begins to wear on us.
Today wasn't a complete loss, since we were able to get a lot of grunt work done and prepare for a more efficient day tomorrow. I'll let you know.