We had a nice night: no rain or wind so we could keep all of the hatches open and had cool sleeping. We didn’t need to jump up suddenly and race to close hatches as the rain suddenly started. We’re pretty good at returning to sleep after that excitement since we’ve had a lot of practice.

I washed some clothes in the sink yesterday, and hung them on lifelines outside to rinse. I think that I’ll let them rinse some more in today’s inevitable downpour. We did the same while back on Raiatea and it poured constantly for two days. Those were some rinsed clothes after two days of drenching rain water!

That huge weather system south of us is keeping the thick rain clouds overhead. If I get to post some photos today, I snatched a screen shot from Null Earth of the system causing all of the disturbance and it’s fairly large. I’ve introduced Null Earth a few times, but for those who don’t know, it’s a worldwide weather simulation in almost real time. It uses freely available weather data and a set of supercomputers to build a remarkably detailed weather simulation. One can drill down to very local conditions from a hemisphere-wide simulation. If you want to know why your weather is as it is, this is your site.

The fridge is still running this morning, amazingly. Conni prepared a family favorite that she calls, “sailboat chicken” that’s actually chicken piccata. She did so because frozen chicken is the most susceptible food we had in the fridge, so she decided to cut our possible fridge-failure losses and cook it. This morning, she pretended to whine because the fridge was still running and she had been forced to cook the chicken, “So, I cooked the chicken and now it decides to run!”

Over coffee and letchi nut yoghurt, sitting in the cockpit for the first time in two days, watching the unloading of the cargo vessel Taporo VII, we began to think of how the islanders live. At each house, we see a water meter, so they have drinking water from somewhere. There should be ample available on these large islands, and with minimum treatment needed. Sewage, well that’s another matter, and we’ve seen no signs of centralized sewage treatment. I have the feeling that they collect the effluent and pump it into the nearest deep water.

I’m going to break this narrative because an Aussie named Roger from one of the other cruising boats here in Tapu’amu just dinghied from town and delivered a fresh baguette. Wow! He stopped and chatted a bit, then motored to the next boat to deliver their fresh baguette. i like that very kind gesture so much that I’d like to usurp the idea. Luckily, I can write with my mouth full and you’ll never know, but I promise that the baguette is FRESH!

Each house has 220 VAC, of course, and that’s all produced locally by diesel-powered generators. Everything else, other than a few vegetables, must be brought in by boat or plane. What do they do with all of that garbage? Conni and I do well when at home, producing only a can per week for the two of us but they have no garbage service here. They seem to have started some recycling, using some large (4-feet diameter) open-topped cylindrical bags for storage, and seeing the boat offload some identical bags stimulated some thought. Perhaps they’re not offloading recycled material, as Conni first thought, but the large bags are used to offload collections of items, and then the locals use them to store and transport recycled material off-island.

Another break..Taporo VII just stowed its crane, used bow and stern thrusters to push out from the dock, spin about 120° bow out, and motor out of the bay. Imagine that, no tugs, no other help needed, and all the lifting equipment aboard the boat, leaving a clean dock and an island’s worth of supplies. I’m sure that the large door in her starboard side allows access to her mid deck where they can stow cars and trucks, fork lifts, and have access to fuel tanks so hoses can be run for gas and diesel to be offloaded. All in all, the offloading was a very efficient operation.

We see the locals burning trash every weekend, so whatever combustible garbage they collect probably goes up in smoke, but the cans and things that aren’t may be recycled now. The old vehicles, washers and dryers, appliances and such, I do not know, but I suspect that at some location on the island there’s a dump, either sanctioned or not. Even a vehicle will biodegrade in a decade in these conditions.

They’ve changed their lifestyles, so the ancient ways of eating are disappearing. No one bothers with coconuts, unless they’r involved in the copra trade. I think that’s why it was so difficult to find a machete, or “cutlass” as they call them here. No one kills and eats the chickens, unfortunately, since it’s so much easier to buy a frozen one. Most people buy their food in stores and we see no gardens here, no vegetable gardens, anyway. Fruit grows prolifically, so bananas and such are free for the picking. Still, one occasionally sees First World garbage on roadsides: Coke cans, chip bags and such. Many years ago, those would have been biodegradable husks and skins from local treats, and would have disappeared in days. Now, the same discards last for years.

We took the dinghy out sightseeing this afternoon, even though the seas were a bit choppy. The starboard tube was a bit deflated so I’ve got to rummage around and find a replacement valve and find a place to remove the old one and replace it with the new one without sinking the thing.

Just before dinner, I replaced a few teak plugs in our foredeck. I got to five and have more to go. It’s not difficult but a bit laborious