Ia ora na. We arrived in Cook's Bay in Moorea two days ago. Moorea is the absolute epitome of a south sea paradise with incredible green mountains rising out of the sea and clouds hanging out on the peaks. It is a rare instant when it's possible to get a photo of the entire mountain uncovered. We were anchored just inside the reef in the lagoon with howling winds of over 20 knotts for awhile but it finally calmed down do we could meet our friends from Fearless for dinner in the village - $40 spaghetti carbonara and $15 maitais!! Up until then, we've been successful in finding the less expensive dinner options but the food was good and the company great. Yesterday, we had a quick snorkel where we saw a flounder, a Tahiti stingray, a Picasso trigger fish (great name!) and three of the dreaded crown of thorn sea stars. These sea stars are voracious eaters of the reef - have done a good job of decimating some areas of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and I hope they don't get established here. After the snorkel, we had pizza for lunch on Fearless and said sad goodbyes to our friends. Brett and Naomi have been off and on companions for the entire trip since Mexico and this may be the last time we see them before we head home. Who'd a thunk that a young couple in their Thirties from the big city of LA would become our closest buddies? They seem to be young versions of ourselves but we can't figure out why they enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed them. We're currently anchored in Opunohu Bay where Cook anchored. It's considered to be one of the most tranquil and picturesque bays in French Polynesia and, so far, I'd have to agree. Our intention is to set sail this evening for Huahine. We return to Colorado June 26 and our time is running out for this year. Too many places to visit and too little time. Parahi. A bien tot.

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