We are back in our favorite atoll Tahanea. On our way here we stopped by Tikehau, Rangiroa and Fakarava. There were no fresh vegetables or fruit to be had anywhere. The supply ship from Tahiti starts up again on Jan 14 and it is expected to reach the Tuamotus a week later. We have canned and frozen so we will manage until mid February when we need to go back to civilization and use the internet at Fakarava Yacht Services for Guy's long-stay visa. It has been a year since we had Chava varnish the wood in La Paz, Mexico and the caprail is showing signs of deferred maintenance. We put 3 more coats on a third of the caprail in Tikehau and are hoping for another weather window to finish the rest of the caprail here in Tahanea.

We are watching the cyclone weather updates carefully. We had cyclone Mona about a month ago south west of us but nothing else so far. This means that we feel safe enough in the Tuamotus for a while. It is windy (30 knots) and squally and we have changed anchorage twice because the wind has been shifting and introduced wind waves thus creating rolly anchorages. Now we are in the far south east corner of the atoll. Remarkable enough there are no other boats in Tahanea as far as we have seen while moving around inside the atoll. The freshwater pump stopped working yesterday and Guy replaced it - what a guy : ) We found some really good floats washed up on the beach, almost new, that we replaced our old ones with. Snorkeling hasn't been that great yet but it should be better at the pass. We are picking coconuts again and enjoying the bird life, (the rare Tahanea sandpiper) and off course we go swimming several times a day.