Ia ora na. Our day on Toau was delightful. Valentine and Gaston are gracious hosts and entertained us for hours. David helped Gaston dismantle a fish trap for half a day while I spent my time with Valentine looking at her pearls and choosing some really pretty ones for my bounty of TP and paper towels. The four of us had a grand party with rum punch, horrible box wine, French pizza, all the lobster we could eat, BBQ fish, poisson cru avec lait de coco, coconut fish, coconut bread and coconut cake. The next morning, Gaston and Valentine came to our boat to say good-bye. We hope to come back next year and stay longer. We've been promised visits to their pearl farm and the other family motus and fishing and snorkeling trips to their special places.

Our sail to Apataki was delightful - 10-12K on our beam, Chinook's favorite point of sail. Pakaka Pass was a piece of cake - we seemed to have hit it at slack tide, totally by accident. We arrived to find four of our good friends anchored here, "Fearless" and "Linda". Had a great snorkel with many new fish and a lion fish - my first lion fish ever! The end of the snorkel added some excitement when the current dragged us and our dinks over some very shallow coral - lucky we escaped with all skin intact. Cocktails on Chinook the evening before we all head different directions.

We have just weighed anchor in route to Tahiti. Again, a totally accidental passage through the pass at slack tide. We have visited 4 atolls in the Tuomotu, successfully navigated through eight passes and are looking forward to coming back next year.

WE're planning on a two day sail to Tahiti, depending on the wind. WE would have liked more time on Apataki but the winds are forecasted to die in 36-48 hours so our choices were to leave now, have a long motor to Tahiti or spend at least 5 days on Apataki. The allure of Tahiti was strong, we have friends to rendez vous with there, and here we are on our way. We've begun our passage to Tahiti in beautiful conditions: blue skies, calm seas and steady tradewinds - what could be better?

Parahi. A bien tot.

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