What a beautiful place! We are at anchor in a snug postcard-worthy bay in the narrow pass between Moturua Is. and Motukiekie Is. (still more vowels than we can pronounce). The weather is early summer perfect, a bit cool in the evenings, warm to hot during the day, and unbelievable on cloudless days and we have settled back into the old routine of school in the morning and playing on the beach in the afternoon. The island is a beautiful nature reserve with hiking trails to protected inlets and quiet beaches. We hiked to an old army base with an abandoned gun emplacement and have played hours of frisbee together on the beach. The kids both started their new Calvert curriculum for school and the initial report is that the very structured program seems to be working much better for everyone.

The water here is a chilly 62 degrees, but I bought a new wetsuit and have been the spear fishing fiend. Once the ice cream headache clears, it is not too bad. There are schools of very tasty and slow fish called Moki; they are not very bright and one fish is ample for a meal which suits me perfectly. This area is renown for the variety of fish, lobster and scallops, but I have not seen much yet, despite going out twice a day for fresh fish at lunch and dinner.

Yesterday was a wake up call though. I cleaned a fish before dinner, threw the carcass overboard, and two of the largest sharks we have ever seen showed up and circled right under our stern for about =BD an hour. These were beautiful creatures, longer and broader than our kayak which puts them both around 8 - 9 feet. We oohed and ahhed and took photos from the stern, and used the fish book to ID them as big bronze whalers. Timothy tied a chunk of fish on the fishing line and had an exiting moment with the rod bent and the reel singing as the enormous shark swam away effortlessly with the bait. These dwarfed the tropical sharks we have seen, and I think that I should fish from the dingy today.

I am working through some boat chores and just added a big one to the list. Mary hoisted me to the top of the mast to retrieve a halyard and inspect the rigging. Checking the headstay was a shock; about 20 percent of the strands have pulled out of the swage fitting at the mast head. (In non-sailor speak, the headstay is the cable from the front of the boat to the top of the mast and when it breaks the mast falls down.) I am glad that we did not have heavier weather on the trip here, and probably will not be doing any sailing until we can remove the furling unit and replace the stay.

The plan for the moment is to sit in our beautiful bay until we run critically short of food and then anchor off the town for a grocery run. As soon as we are recharged and motivated, we will take the boat into the marina to start necessary repairs.