Rarotonga is our candidate for coolest place yet. Beautiful, friendly people, nice weather, but not much Wifi. Sorry for so few blogs, but we have to walk a way to connect.

Yesterday, Sunday, Nate departed on an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland, then on to Los Angeles. We miss him already. He was a great crew mate: easy to get along with, a good sailor (although with a racer's experience), and willing to help do anything. Man, will we miss him on watches!

Saturday night, he awakened us at 0230, saying that he thought that the boat was too close to the concrete pier, and he was right. Wind shifts had pushed us against our anchor and perilously close to the dock. I rousted out a 5/8" dock line and went ashore to fasten it to a bollard, and that seemed to fix things. Nate was right on to awaken us, of course, but it did shorten our sleeping!

Sunday, we awakened early enough to catch the round-the-island bus service. Our driver was an enthusiastic local who sang most of Elvis Presley's repertoire, albeit with a slightly islander twang. Round the island was a slow speed, but it's a small island and the tour was over in 50 minutes. We returned to the boat, loaded Nate's baggage with broken gear headed for home and repair, and went for the airport. We had planned to just hoof it, but the Australians on the big catamaran LBO III (Leveraged Buy Out 3…no kidding) offered us a ride as they were leaving for lunch, so we didn't have to carry the 50-lb duffle. Very nice offer. Previously, they had invited us for coffee aboard LBO, and we were entranced once again with the vast space and stability of a big cat. Washer/dryer, air conditioning, a king-sized bed for owners Peter and Veronica, and the ability to have a sit-down meal with plates, even when passage-making. Cats have such stability that they only heal just as they capsize! As mentioned, they had bought LBO in the Caribbean and were sailing her back to Australia. Since it was their first Pacific crossing, they had hired (imagine this!) a rigger and a mechanic. Wow! What a perfect pair to have aboard. I think it was the cleverest crew choice I've ever heard of. Peter and Veronica are business folk who've obviously done well. They're also some of the kindest and most thoughtful folks we've met.

Today, it's sunny and windy, so both the solar panels and wind generator are doing their jobs. I hope that we can forego the usual hour's generator charging this afternoon.

Today has been task day, so we've been completing our long list of things to be done before departing on Wednesday. That'll be a long passage for the two of us: 580 nautical miles (nm) to Niue. I think that we've got a livable watch schedule to use, but it won't be as luxurious as when Nate or Chip were with us.

Another nice thing about Rarotonga, and specifically Avarua Harbor is that they have CLEAN, STAND-UP SHOWERS WITH HOT WATER! Wow! And, they don't move around! As is usual, we're beginning to covet those small conveniences that everyone takes for granted at home. It always happens at some point, but it's sure nice.

This morning, two more boats arrived, one from Toulon. France, the other from Oslo, Norway. The Norwegian, especially, are very nice folks. I don't know if they had done any other sailing, but the man said that they had just purchased the 2011 Jeanneau 53 and started out. Man, some vessel, with a bow thruster, electric winches, etc.

On Saturday night, we grilled some small steaks that we had purchased and opened a bottle of Culprit wine that our good friends, Toby and Peter, sent with Nate. We thought it appropriate that if he carried it that he could enjoy it, too. T and P, thank you for the wine, Economists and Wired magazines. What a thoughtful care package.

We're going to try to find a place to post the blogs, so more later. We're not sure when we'll have another blog/web site post for a while, since Niue is not known for it's Internet access.