Wed, July 9: Day 4 at sea to the Tuamotu Atolls
Weather: Rain all morning, sunshine in afternoon, squalls all night
Meal: Chicken fried rice
School: No school
Movie: Magnum PI (Sean and Casey)
Other: We hunkered inside Adventure as several rain squalls hit this morning, bringing heavier winds and seas. But when they were past, the wind died to 15 knots and the seas were more manageable. We're hoping we're through the worst of it, but if we get blown off course by more bad weather, we have enough bananas, watermelon, and pamplemousse to survive for months.

We ran the generator for many hours, trying to get our batteries fully charged before making more water. We need to be completely full of water when we arrive at the Tuamotus because water is difficult to find there.

We had finally gotten our sea legs and the seas were less rough. As Sean was below sleeping, the girls laid in the cockpit with me. The trick to a rough passage is to find a good spot to lay down, where you're pinned up against a wall on the down-hill side of the boat or have something to hold onto or brace your legs if you're on the uphill side of the boat. Since the cockpit only has one really good place to recline when we're healing, we were in a jumbled mess of tangled limbs that seemed to cling together just enough to make it semi-comfortable. Because of the rough seas, we hadn't been able to bathe thus far on the passage. We were all smelling kind of ripe, but the brisk breeze helped to neutralize any lingering scent. The girls were both in a talkative mood and I was exhausted from doing watches all night. Casey's conversation topics are always about how big our new house will be, will she have her own bathroom, funny quotes from movies, and can she get a dog (she'd be really happy to have Ginger shipped to New Zealand, but don't get excited Scott, we keep telling her "no dog"). Tara's topics usually have something to do with humorous stories of family members or friends or what restaurant back home we miss the most (her list always starts with La Bou). As my eyes involuntarily closed, I heard, "Blah blah blah blah. Mom! What do you think?" "Mom" is what usually caught my attention and I'd pull myself from the sleep world and say something lame, like, "Uhuh." The girls caught on real fast and complained that I never listen to them. It struck me that when teenagers usually say this to their parents, they mean the parent can't see things from their perspective, not because she's sleepy because she's been up all night trying to dodge squalls and make sure their ship doesn't run into anything.

In the afternoon, I couldn't stand it any longer and decided to attempt a shower. It was a death-defying act, sliding back and forth on the stern seat with a shower bag full of cold water swinging above my head. But once it was over, I was glad to have done it. Everyone else decided they would wait to shower when we get anchored tomorrow. I started to cook dinner and the 20+ winds and high waves returned. Sean altered course to try to keep the pots on the stove, but even with the gimbaled stove it was a bumpy ride. Later that night, the wind slowed to 10-15 knots and the seas calmed, but we were tormented with squalls all night, forcing us to pull down sail when then wind started gusting to 20-25 knots. Heavy seas always follow the heavy winds...

Thu, July 10: Day 5 at sea to the Tuamotu Atolls
Weather: Cloudy, with squalls throughout the day
Meal: Leftovers
School: Full day of school
Movie: Spencer's Mountain
Other: When I awoke at 7am, we were just 50 miles from Rangiroa, the second-largest atoll in the world. We were excited because it looked like we'd make it to the pass to get inside the reef at a good time to go through, although three different tide charts all gave different times for slack tide. Because the current is so strong and choppy at the only two passes deep enough to take a boat through, there are only two short windows that allow safe passage each day. We decided to go through Passe Tiputa, the wider, clearer pass that is the main entrance to the 40-mile long and 17-mile wide lagoon framed in by coral. When we arrived at the pass, the water and weather conditions were not good. The sea looked like a caldron of boiling water with breaking waves, darker in the deep center of the channel and light blue extending out from the sides where the coral lay just beneath the surface, calling to wayward boats to come near. A rain storm that had tormented us on our approach had given us reprieve ten minutes before, but was threatening us again with ugly, black clouds. We'd heard that the pass could be difficult, but weren't sure if what we were looking at fit into the you'd-have-to-be-crazy-to-go-through, difficult, or this-is-how-it-always-is category. We'd never passed through the wall of an atoll before and had picked the second-largest in the world to cut our teeth on. There is a tremendous amount of water flowing into and out of this atoll. We could heave-to outside the pass, in the big seas and storm, or we could go for the pass. We assessed the situation. I told Sean that there was room to turn back and abort our entry at any point, so we should go for it and bail if it became too difficult. He agreed, and I steered for the center of the channel, while lining up the two white guide posts on Motu Fara, a sandy coral cay just inside the pass. Dolphins frolicked in the mass confusion of waves caused by the strong incoming and outgoing currents colliding. It became extremely difficult to keep control of Adventure's steering, the current and waves threw our bow one direction and then another. When we'd go hard to port, I'd have to turn the wheel more than 45 degrees to starboard to keep our course. A few seconds later, another wave pushed us to starboard and I'd have to make a huge steering correction to counteract it. About half-way through, my right arm muscle started cramping. We were hit with a 4-5 knot current, which slowed us to less than one knot. I gunned the engine, meeting eyes with Sean who was on the bow looking for lighter-colored water that would foretell a shallow reef area, to see if he wanted to turn back. He looked concerned, but didn't give me the bail-out signal. Inside the reef, there was a flat calm. The rain hit us in a torrential downpour, limiting our visibility above the water to just yards and below the water, to zero. Our guide book states that, once inside the lagoon, one must avoid the coral heads on the way to the anchorage by steering clear of any light blue water and brown coral patches. We slowed to 2 knots and hoped for the best. Sean is writing a blog from his perspective about our hair-raising entry.

There was plenty of room in the anchorage, where we settled below as the downpour continued. Once the rain stopped, the girls ran out and jumped in the crystal-clear, 82-degree water. We can see 30-40 feet below our boat to the white-sand bottom. Because of our rough passage, they hadn't bathed in 4 or 5 days...a near-death experience for teenaged girls. As they lathered their hair and bodies, the rain started again. "Great!" I said, "Just stand out there for a few minutes to let the rain rinse you off with fresh water."

Fri, July 11
Weather: Clear and sunny
Meal: Cheese burgers
School: No school
Movie: 12 Angry Men
Other: We put the dingy in the water and went for a quick drive to check out our surroundings. We had told the girls to finish breakfast and be ready to go to the village with us in 20 minutes. We saw our friends on Trenelly and stopped by to say hello. They'd already gotten fresh bread and knew we were too late to get some today, so they gave us two baguettes to tide us over until the next day. We'd been out of bread for 4 days and our passage had been too rough to make any. The girls were ecstatic when we came back to Adventure with the bread and both tore a large chunk off to eat in the dinghy. We are required to check in with the gendarmerie on this island, so we headed to the concrete pier. Our guide book mentioned that the gendarmerie office was located at the 5-star Kia Ora hotel, a mile from the dock, but a fellow cruiser had told us that it had moved closer to the village, 7 miles away. We decided to walk to the hotel and then find out what the scoop was. For a mere 920 dollars per night, you can stay in one of its small bungalows that sits on stilts above the lagoon. Each has a connected wooden patio that lies just above the high water line, so guests can enter and exit the water right out of their front door. The bungalows along the beach are a little cheaper, but way out of our price range. We hung around the lobby of the busy hotel, looking in the boutique and the black pearl shop. We'd get to town too late to catch the gendarmerie before lunch break, so we decided to have lunch at the hotel. Tara and I split the 2300cfp curried shrimp with sweet potatoes. It was fabulous. Casey and Sean split the pizza, which they said was just o.k. Sean and Casey also got chocolate milkshakes, which were wonderful. Hotel guests lounged at the endless pool that overlooked the turquoise water a few yards from where we dined. Was that lady bare-breasted? Yep. It was our first encounter with a topless sunbather. Casey hadn't even notice her. Sean pretended like he hadn't. Tara sat up straighter in her chair and pretended that it was perfectly normal. I guess this is where the real French people vacation...

We took the girls back to Adventure and then set out again to go the gendarmerie. We first dinghied to the other side of the pass we'd come in the evening before. This village, Tiputa, was closer to our anchorage than the main village. One there, we found that there is only one gendarmerie office and it's in the main village, Avatoru. Tiputa looked like the neighborhood on the wrong side of the track. The houses, churches, and village were run down. We hopped back in the dinghy and headed back across the pass, which was completely calm. This is when we should have made our attempt to enter the lagoon! We tied to the dock. Avatoru was 7 miles away. Sean wanted to take a $13 taxi ride. I wanted to hitch hike. We decided that whatever came along first, we'd take. A lady had just climbed into the passenger side of a truck about two feet away from us. I asked her where the gendarmerie was. She tried to explain in limited English and then said I should take a taxi. I told her thank you, but we'd try to hitch a ride. We started to walk away and she said to wait, ran inside a nearby building and then came back out with a really large lady, who climbed into the driver's seat. They were going past the gendarmerie and dropped us off. We got our paperwork done and then stated walking to the village. We didn't know how much further it was, but eventually came to a small store, where we bought a few food items. We continued to walk and came to winery. That seemed really odd on a coral atoll. We went inside and took a tour of the aging room. They gave us four different wines to taste and we bought 3 bottles of 3,000cfp ($40) wine. We loaded the wine into the backpack Sean carried and continued down the road searching for the village. A mile later, we found the outskirts of the village, where the post office and a grocery store were. It was getting late, so we bought a few things at the store and then wondered how we'd get back to the boat. We started to walk back and noticed that no cars were driving down the road. There aren't many cars to start with because there's only 7 miles of road that they can drive on. There is an open-ocean pass on either end of the small strip of land so the cars are land-locked on this part of the atoll. Finally a few cars came and a lady picked us up. She took us a few miles and then dropped us off. A few cars later, the village doctor picked us up and took us as far as the airport. A little later, another woman who was going to the Kia Ora hotel picked us up. We were happy to walk the mile from the hotel to our dinghy, but she kindly drove us all the way to the dock. This was the first time we've hitch-hiked and it was actually faster than taking a taxi (one hadn't even passed us once on our trek to the village or back).

Sat, July 12
Weather: Clear and sunny
Meal: Grilled cheese and tomato soup
School: Full day of school
Movie: Myth Busters
Other: I worked with Casey on her history for three hours, helping her study for a major test. Sean got the internet working on the boat, although it costs about $6 per hour. He spent the morning surfing (on the internet). At 11am, Casey and I were sick of history, so we had some delicious watermelon and then went for a swim. We were amazed how clearly we could see the sand, coral, and fish, 40 feet below Adventure. Sean had gone to pick up our baguettes we'd reserved the day and joined us when he returned. Jason from Trinelly came by and we gave him a watermelon and two baguettes to replace the ones he'd given us the day before. After lunch we finished up with school work and then Sean and Casey went to Motu Fara, just a few minutes dinghy ride away, to snorkel. They said it was the best snorkeling yet. Tara and I searched on the internet to find out when the New Zealand and Australian school years begin. We'll be in one of these places in November and were hoping school would start some time around then, but found that it doesn't start until then end of January. We'll need to order more school books to keep the girls boat-schooling going until then. Luckily, Sean's father will be visiting us for a few weeks in Tahiti, so can bring books with him. We found out that shipping from the US to Tahiti costs $60 per kilo (about $24 per pound) and text books are really heavy!

In the evening, Sean and I set off to see if we could find tap water around the dock. We need to wash clothes and have calculated that, because of the $9 per gallon fuel price and our power-hungry water maker, it now costs $1.50 per gallon to make our own water. But here in the Tuamotu atolls, there aren't any mountain peaks to gather rain water into streams and fresh-water springs. The land formation is basically a big ring of divided strips of coral that barely rise above the pounding ocean. The residents collect rain water by running a pipe from their roof gutters into large, black plastic containers.

We stopped by another boat to chat and it was dark by the time we made it to the dock, where we met another couple and stopped to talk. Finally, we broke away and searched for a water spicket. No luck. We came back to Adventure empty handed.

Sun, July 13
Weather: Clear and sunny
Meal: Corned beef hash (Tara's favorite)
School: Full day of school
Movie: None
Other: At 5:45am, I was awakened by a speed boat passing at our bow. I decided it was a good time to get online and start ordering items Stan, my father-in-law, will bring when he visits next month in Tahiti. The girls have a long list of books they want and we need a few text books for the new school year. We also want a few T.V. show seasons. Sean woke up an hour later and sat beside me so he could tell me where to click on the web pages I visited. He seemed to enjoy this as much as I didn't. Three hours later, I'd completed most of the purchases. We're not too concerned about how much space these items till take in Stan's luggage because he really only needs to bring his Speedo...

For a break from studies, the girls and I went swimming around the reef under our boat. The water looked like it had a little bit of an algae bloom clouding the water, but the visibility was still excellent.

After lunch, Tara started trying on everything in her (and Casey's) closet to determine what she'd wear to the dance show we were going to that evening. Casey rolled her eyes and watched as Tara tried on outfit after outfit and mixed in various shoes to see what looked best. "I," Casey said, "am just wearing my best shorts and t-shirt." "Come on Casey, have a little class," Tara replied. Before she knew what was happening, Casey was being dressed in various outfits by Tara. The dining area of our boat had exploded into a room full of clothing that was cast aside as new outfits were pulled from the closets. Luckily, Sean had gone to shore to try to find water...

I washed a small amount of clothing, using the last of our dock water from Nuku Hiva. Sean returned with the bad news that there was no tap water available near the dock.

That night, we dinghied to the Kia Ora hotel for the dance show. For a mere 5,500cfp ($75US) each, the Kia Ora was hosting a fancy buffet and traditional dance show. We tried to get a reservation, but they were sold out. As it turned out, this was to our advantage. They said we could come to the show only (no dinner) for 500cfp ($7US) each (the girls were half-price). We met some other cruisers from Schlep Near there. We'd heard about them in the Marquesas because they'd hit a log on the passage between Panama and Galapagos and almost sunk their boat. The log went side-ways between the hulls of the catamaran, ramming one hull, bouncing off it, and then ramming the opposite hull. The action was repeated down both hulls until the log cleared the boat. The boat held together and they dove to inspect the damage when they arrived in Galapagos. The fiberglass over plywood hulls looked sound. But the rough sea between Galapagos and the Marquesas continued the damage done by the log and the hulls began to separate from the bridge deck. The boat began taking on water. Through SSB radio nets, they found out that the closest boat was 3 or 4 days away from them. The two men on the boat put full sheets to the wind as Schlep Near slowed its progress. Once the other boat caught up, they followed close behind in case Schlep Near sank. They made it to the Marquesas, where there are no facilities for boat repairs, and did as much as they could to bond the hulls to the bridge deck. They'll pull out in Tahiti for the full repair.

The dance was nice, but we keep thinking they should add fire to the routine to make it more interesting...We hung out after the show for a few hours to talk with friends from two cruising boats.


Mon, July 14
Weather: Clear and sunny
Meal: Fettuccini with alfredo sauce
School: Full day of school
Movie: Rebel without a Cause
Other: We didn't leave the boat today. We're focusing on getting schoolwork finished for the year and it's taking quite a bit of time. Sean's in a strange state of mind. He's been napping throughout the day, which may mean he's depressed, but while he's awake, he's constantly bombarding us with (what he thinks are) witty comments and humming or whistling movie theme songs. Tara's trying to concentrate on her school work and keeps yelling at him to stop with the theme songs.

For lunch, we sat in the cockpit to eat our mac and cheese. I saw some fish and threw in a macaroni noodle. A bunch of fish gathered, including two remoras, the fish that suck onto sharks. They were not shy and it seemed like they would eat from my hand. I held the noodles at the waterline and they'd swim up and eat it. Casey wanted to try, but was afraid. I told her they didn't look like they had teeth, and she'd be o.k. She chickened out. I fed them some more and they began to get more aggressive as the two fought over the noodles. In the battle for one noodle, one of them took my finger into its mouth. "Yep," I said to Casey, "they do have teeth." It didn't hurt, but I definitely felt many tiny teeth scrape against my finger. The fish had a feast as we rinsed the dishes in the sea.

Our friends from Astra dinghied over. They'd just arrived and we hadn't seen them come in. We thought they'd already be in Tahiti, so it was a very nice surprise.

Tue, July 15
Weather: Clear and sunny, sprinkles at night
Meal: Ham and cheese panini
School: Full day of school
Movie: Myth Busters
Other: The girls worked on school in the morning while Sean and I went to shore and walked the short distance to the open-ocean side of the atoll. We wanted to see how the channel entrance looked. It was wild, with waves breaking quite a ways into the lagoon. Dolphins jumped out of the water and surfed along the waves. What's fun for them is sheer terror for boaters. We walked to the store to pick up the baguettes we'd ordered the day before. We stopped by the boat Beatrix on the way back and met Jim and Kathy. They had gone to the Blue Lagoon, a small atoll inside the Rangiroa atoll and on the other side of the lagoon. We'd heard the anchorage could get rough on that side and wanted to get some pointers from them. We mentioned that we were going to tour a pearl farm in a few hours and they decided to come along, rather than leave for Tahiti.

We picked up Sally from Astra and headed to the Kia Ora dock. Jeremy, Sally's husband, had said he'd been to way too many pearl farms and didn't want to go. Sally scoffed, telling me he'd only gone to one, which was evidently one too many. She showed us some loose black pearls she'd bought at a different atoll they'd visited.

A new, air-conditioned bus picked us up at the hotel and took us to the pearl farm. The tour was interesting. Two guys sat at stations, operating on the black oysters to place in them a DNA graft and small ball made from the shell of Mississippi river fresh water clams. The guys that do the operation make the equivalent of $7,000 per month ($84k per year!). The clams are then strung on color-coded ropes (each operator-guy has his own color so they can see the end result of his operations) and put into the lagoon for 18 to 24 months, where some form a pearl around the implant. The black pearl trade is strictly controlled here. All pearls must be sent to Tahiti to be inspected by a government official and if the minimum amount of pearl material hasn't covered the implant ball, the pearl is crushed and thrown away. In this way, they ensure that only the higher-quality pearls are sold. The black oyster is a protected animal and it is illegal to collect adults in the wild. Therefore, farmers must collect fertilized oyster eggs by hanging 1-foot long netting material in the water. The eggs cling to the netting and then grow for two years before they are large enough to accept a graft. With all this government control, I'm sure there is a strong black market going on in Tahiti.

We looked in the shop at all the beautiful pearls. Friends from another boat bought a necklace with two pearls and earrings for about 1,000 dollars. Prices for loose pearls started around $40. The girls and I are going to get some, but decided to wait until Tahiti, where we've heard there's more competition, so lower prices and greater selection.

After the tour, Sally, Tara, and I walked the mile or two to town and everyone else went back to the boats. We went to several grocery stores, looking for eggs. Every store was out of eggs. We bought a few bags of groceries and then saw a taxi-van. The fare was 500cfp ($6.50 per person). I told him I'd give him 1,000cfp for all three of us. He said, "No" and turned his head away from me as if it was rude to even have asked for a lower price. A local woman in the seat behind him said something sternly to him in French and then said, "He'll take 1,200 for all three." That was close enough. We jumped in. There were five other people in the van with us, two from the Kia Ora hotel and three locals. We asked the helpful woman where to buy eggs and she said she'd show us. Half way to our destination, she made the taxi driver stop and wait for us while we ran in a store to buy eggs. The store was also out of eggs. We've since found out that even Tahiti is out of eggs.