Ia Ora Na, folks. We now have shiny new rigging, and a staysail foil with furler. Our riggers have worked through torrential rain and, at one stage, thunder and lightning too. It's been well worth coming over here to have the work done as there is much better space here for laying out and working on great lengths of wire, and the riggers have all their kit close at hand. There's just one small tweak to be done, scheduled for next week, but apart from that it is finished, and we are very happy with the guys at Mat Rigging.

Our spares store has expanded again. We have kept one set of each of our old (and still sound) stays, just in case... We never thought we would end up carrying spare rigging around with us but it's all about self-sufficiency in the South Pacific.

It really is a very different world here at Taina. The marina itself is huge, far bigger than Marina Papeete, and there are some really big boats and superyachts here. It's west of Papeete itself, past the airport at Fa'a'a (all the 'a's are pronounced) and right on the big busy dual carriageway that runs round the island. It has all mod cons (which in our terms means showers, a laundry and a book swap), a couple of dive centres, three restaurants and a fuel station. There is really not much else around: a huge Carrefour just five minutes walk away, and that is it.

But we are enjoying our time here, partly because of the ease of access to all the boat services we need, and partly because it is so interesting to watch a completely different world go by. At lunchtime and in the evenings there is usually a glimpse of outrigger canoes (va'a) racing past the marina. There are also quite a lot of live-aboards at the nearby anchorage, and every morning we see children arriving by dinghy to catch the school bus, with their parents hurrying in to get to work on time or bringing the dogs ashore to be walked. All of the people doing work for us right now are young Frenchmen who live on boats; this morning our electrician appeared in a rib with a big promotional 'MarinElec' flag, a dog and a small child, and he buzzes around the anchorages fixing stuff. Most have pretty extensive Polynesian tattoos - and now G is starting to mull over possible designs.

That's it for now. Nana (goodbye), everyone.