We are still in Cooks Bay and enjoying the tranquile anchorage after the hustle bustle of Tahiti. Tahiti is another Velcro Bay and we are glad to have escaped There are always the ubiquitous roosters kawwing here as in all French Polynesia and it gives the places we have stopped a real relaxed country feel but there are also dogs barking more that we would like to hear at night so time to move on. But before we move we had to attack the stack pack sail bag that got shredded enroute from the Tuamotus to Tahiti in the heavy winds and rains so today was as good as any other. After hoisting the main and assessing the extent of the damage and what would be required to affect repairs we elected albeit reluctantly to remove the demon permanently. Mixed blessings here because you let the halyard go and the monster mainsail drops passively into the bag and any possible drama is over in an instant. Very handy! However it comes with some issues. It is 22 feet long and 4 feet high creating significant windage at anchor and while sailing reefed down, which seems to be most of the time out here. It makes seeing the lower part of the sail impossible and, we discovered the hard way, was not designed with adequate drainage to withstand the torrential tropical rains and as such becomes a huge liability when full of water. All that weight is not only up high affecting stability but over loading the boom and supporting fittings, a dangerous and possibly expensive situation we really needed to eliminate. But before we could do that we had to locate the sail cover I thought I brought just in case something like this happened as it would be nescessary to cover the sail to protect it from UV damage which is amazingly fast in the tropics. It can destroy a decent sail in a matter of a month or so if left expossed on the boom. Now there is not an infinite and never ending amount of room to store all that extra stuff one would like to bring along, like the entire contents of the garden shed and workshop tools from the garage and all that kitchen ware and cloths (who knew cloths would be such a waste of space) and the spares, god the spares, (Im in da spares) for any and every possible ocassion but this one item I had rolled up tight as hell and zap strapped it into a soccer ball size and stored it where we could find it if needed but out of the way of all the other stuff we might need to access in a hurry or more frequently, I thought. But where was it? We emptied out 75% of the forward garage, this took about an hour and spread it all out on deck which was a good thing since there had been salt water get in during some of the rougher times at sea via the chain hawser. Of course we brought several things to plug this opening for rough passages and they are still ocupying valuable space but we never used any of them,,,next crossing for sure. Anyhow it was good to air out all that stuff and re organize it going back in. But wait where was the sail cover? The contents of the garage disgorged onto the fore deck, siide decks, mid deck, cockpit and every other flat surface did not reveal the sail cover So we dug deeper into the garage, below the waterline in fact and in the end it was beneath the very last possible sail in the bins. How does this always happen? Now we can cut away the monstrosity of a stack pack. So we raised the beers then the main sail. It was really smokin hot with a slight breeze coming into the bay,,,to start with. Once the sail was up we could see the extent of damage and it confirmed we made the right decision to be rid of it. All this thinking about how to remove it since it was sewn to the foot of the sail and a belows was also sewn part way up the sail and, and, and, resulted in a trip to the tool crib for the trusty and now somewhat rusty, everything rusts out here at an acellerated rate, old Olfa knife. Suprisingly it did not take long to pull and slit and cut and yank and drag and cut some more to get the thing removed then hauled through all the lazy jacks and dump it on deck. It has to weigh 60 lbs. What a difference in appearance of the boat, ability to see what is going on with the lower part of the sail which is critical to proper sail shape and all that windage is gone. But during all this the wind decided to come up a little sending us pioroetting around the anchor creating a havoc of its own for us to deal with. No big deal we have dealt with much worse. Later during our stand and stare at the sail act from the shady side where all sensible people were standing, we noticed two wear spots, not tears but wear spots and a slight de lamination in a couple of spots on the main sail of a total about two feet long,,,argh more repairs to do but not today, way too hot and we have a dinner date and the mess on deck to deal with and I swear I can not sweat any more or I will become a raisin. So now the contents of the garage which truly looks like a garage sale gone bad, need to go back in but it is really hot,,more beers might be a solution. All good now with stuff stuffed back in, sweated about 9 pounds off, put back 4 lbs in beers, a ratio of diminishing flab at work here. So all this done, Gwen decides to bake brownies, not just any brownies mind you, but Ghiradhelli Chocolate Brownies in 120 degree cabin temp so we can bring them to our dinner engagement over on Sequoia, a buddy boat anchored nearby. No issue with moisture in the main cabin these days whew, the Sahara Desert, would be considered a wetland after the oven was up to temp and the baking was in full swing down in the galley. Sequoia is a 53 ft Mason ketch and is just lovely. We were very impressed with her and had a great time with our friends Jan and Carl and a wonderful dinner prepared by Jan. Not a bad day in paradise but still way too busy and where is that sandy beach and umbrella drink under palm trees on a nice little Atoll, we were supposed to be having anyway? Seems that illusion painted by those magazine bastards is something we need to accept as "not in the lifetime of a cruiser". Tomorrow weather permitting we plan to sail to the next bay over for a day or so before heading to Huahine, pronounced, "Who a heenie," remember you pronounce every syllable here, then Raiatea pronounced "Ra ee ah tee ah, then to Bora Bora, bet that one is self explanitory, before clearing out of FP. But in the next bay over reportedly you can swim with and stand around in the water with, yup, sting rays and other rays that will rub up against you looking for hand outs, what is this Oceanis Halloween or something? It is true however. Seems there has been a "feeding the rays" schedule for some time so they are quite friendly. Now this might be counterintuitive given Croc hunter Steve's demise at the hands of or rather business end of a stingray but folks say it is the thing to do round here. So we will go have a look and maybe even let them rub up against us so we can feel the "wet velvet" feeling you get when you let them rub up against you! They say is not to be missed! How can you not want to do that?