We often run into unusual conditions on the tennis courts on tropical islands. This large crab was just hanging on the sidelines watching us play tennis. When we rolled the ball to him he seemed to jump on it. Despite our attempts at training, he failed to serve as a ball boy. As we left the court, Steve carried him to a safer area in the sand.

June 6-10, 2011 Bora Bora

We spent these days getting Dream Caper ready for the 1100 mile crossing to American Samoa with a possible stop at Suwarrow (Cook Islands). We filled up with fresh water at Bloody Mary's Restaurant dock, a free service which was a good thing because we took on 150 gallons. We have a fast watermaker (reverse osmosis makes seawater to fresh) at 20 gallons per hour but we would have had to have run the generator and watermaker for almost 8 hours to fill our tanks which costs fuel and, more importantly, wear and tear on the equipment. Bloody Mary's also provides 9 free moorings and a good wifi connection to the pay-as-you-go (about $2.50 per hour) internet services. We took care of numerous personal and business issues on the internet since we will not have land based internet for approximately 2 weeks during this crossing. We were happy to be on this mooring yesterday, Thursday, as the winds were blowing 25-30 knots with intermittent rain. We finished cleaning our hulls a few days ago, scrubbing off the mossy growth which seems to flourish in these waters. For exercise, we walked 4 miles yesterday and found 3 tennis courts in reasonable shape at the island's sports complex! Too bad it was on our last day. However, we dinghied there this morning and played for 1.5 hours. It felt good but we are out of shape and rusty, not having played for two months. We will look for a court in American Samoa.

We went to the grocery store and bought fruit, vegetables and baguettes. You never know what produce they will have. On Monday, the supply ships had not come in yet and there were only a few packages of brown lettuce, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. Today, they had fresh lettuce, bananas, and limes. We put two baguettes in the freezer and left two out to eat. We prepared food which can be easily accessed during the crossing to minimize the need to cook: egg salad mix, tuna mix, and carrot sticks. We also have peanut butter, instant noodles. snacks and iced tea already brewed and chilled. We are ready! We leave tomorrow morning.