Our last day here in Fatu Hiva has been perfect -- I hate to say it, because it begins to sound as if I'm sugar-coating everything for the sake of literary effect, but really, this place rocks. It is so staggeringly beautiful, so alive, so green and red and brown and windy and tall and craggy that you just can't wrap your head around it.

Today started slow again, all of us up at 9 am (which for Greg isn't starting slow ...) and did some boat hang-out time. We had breakfast, then Allan and I took a nap. Hey, it's tough in paradise. Then we tackled some real stuff, like laundry, cleaning out the fridge, and checking out the steering column that was making thumpy bumpy grinding sounds on the Pacific crossing.

Guess what? Missing parts. Parts that were there awhile ago and were not there today, due to an absent cotter pin. Those cotter pins! Small and innocuous, and responsible for so much. What we found was that the big pin that goes through the rudder post and holds the rudder in place was missing, along with that aforementioned cotter pin that was supposed to hold it in. Got all that? Bottom line -- the rudder wasn't going to fall off, because it has other things that keep it secured to the actual boat, which is good, but it would have been unusable, which is bad.

I had noticed some metal shavings beneath some of the moving parts of the steering assembly when I was back there looking for scuba gear recently, and mentioned it to Allan. Coming from a background of mechanical things, specifically motorcycles and airplanes, I am attuned to drips and powdery shavings being where they shouldn't be. But I have to admit, in this case it was my recent experience with termites that informed my senses, since we've been dealing with properties in a coastal, termite-laden areas for the last few years, and I've gotten good at looking for those little tell-tale piles beneath critical support members in the house.

Anyhow, pardon my verbosity, but the shavings, as well and the thumpy sounds, led to the discovery of the missing parts and we were able to locate them in the little nooks beneath the steering assembly, re-lube them, and put them back. Allan is a full-fledged diagnostician, mechanic, electrician, electronics engineer, sailor, meteorologist, and ships' Captain; he's amazing. We all learn multiple skills when we are in charge of everything in our small world, and can't make a quick call to the doctor, dealer, or mechanic.

Then we went snorkeling again, a delightful dive along a sheer face of volcanic rock teeming with interesting stuff. Tiffany, who has been diving since she was 13 and is very savvy in the water, spotted a black Lion Fish down at about 20 feet. He was amazing, reminded me of the bad alien guy Serris (sp) in "Galaxy Quest" -- wild black feathery things protruding from his back that flared out when he was threatened. We also saw numerous octopus again, and Allan spotted the elusive but deadly Rock Fish.

Greg went ashore this evening for a ukulele lesson with one of the locals and we may never see him again, he is so social and so savvy with his French. He'll have to come back soon because his favorite dinner, Top Ramen, awaits.

In answer to a few queries: Greg and Tiffany are staying with us until Tahiti. From there, unforeseen circumstances notwithstanding, we want to try going the rest of the trip on our own; you know, over- rated naked sailing and all that.

And as far as the blurb goes, I am going to try to post daily, but circumstances may deter me and it may be every other day. I will still not be able to send out "blurb notifications" due to the limitations of Sailmail, so I guess the thing to do is check daily and see what's up. Thanks to everyone for all your fabulous support and encouraging, hilarious, relevant and kind comments on the blurb. We weren't able to read them enroute, but once we signed up for Internet service in Atuona, we spent an evening reading every comment since we left PV, and it was incredible to feel you all right there with us, many thanks for that.