We've been here, on Nuka Hiva, anchored in Taiohae Bay, for 3 days now and are settling into island time. Sitting in the cockpit every morning, we enjoy our coffee, while watching the sun come up over the volcanic mountains, listening to rooster's cock-a-doodle-do and hearing the waves break on the beach in front of us. Every evening while sitting in the cockpit, we watch the sun go down, still listening to the waves break. We relax in the cockpit until the darkness surrounds us then we venture down to the cabin area and have a later dinner. Not a bad life on island time.

On the first day we arrived in the bay, after we had the anchor set, we celebrated with some ice cold beers (even though it was 9:00am) and took in the scenery. We began the process of turning Tanga from an ocean voyager to a livable home again. Let's just put it this way, the boat was a wreck from being on the ocean for 34 days. The heat and humidity got to us every once in a while, so we would take a wonderful plunge into the water to cool off. That first dive into the water was well worth the 34 day price of admission! Very exciting and great day for us! We weren't sure when we would crash and go to bed, considering we didn't sleep that much the night before due to the excitement. I ended up crashing around 5:00pm and Tom was later in the evening.

On day two, we launched the dingy, loaded the outboard, and headed into town to start the clearing in process. We visited the Gendarmerie Office, filled out the necessary paper work and were then told to go to the bank to post our bond. Here in paradise, the French don't want visitors to overstay their time, so it is required to post a bond, for the price of a plane ticket back to your home country, and then you can stay for 3 months. Unfortunately, the bank's copier isn't working, so we were told to return on Friday to post the bond. After that, we walked the main road a bit, found an open aired place to eat, and we both devoured steak and French fries (our first meal off Tanga in 34 days). While eating our meal, we saw a local eating this piece of fruit, we don't know what kind of fruit it was, but on our way back to our dingy, we bought one of these fruits to eat for breakfast the next day.

Day three was a chore day. We put some tarps up over the cockpit and bow to help provide shade and still allow the wonderful island breeze to pass through. We dropped off our laundry to Yacht Services and bought some Wi-Fi time. While on the quay area, we saw this open van with a menu for crepes right near Yacht Services. So we walked over and ordered up 2 deluxe Crepes. Oh my, this was the best meal we have had in quite some time. The crepes were filled with eggs, Swiss cheese, bacon and ham. So delicious. We then found a small market, bought a pineapple and other one of those fruits. Oh, those fruits we don't know the name of, taste like a grapefruit/orange combo. Very good and very juicy.

This morning, we are enjoying our fresh pineapple and coffee. We'll be heading into town, to drop off our propane tank to get refilled, go to the bank to post our bond, and then we are on the hunt for the very popular French bread. We also will be getting 5 gallons of unleaded gasoline, since we lost our previous jug in the 2nd storm at sea.