For those of you who've been with us, we arrived on April 25, a Friday and today is May 6. By my count, that's 12 days. In the last blog, I erroneously stated that we're only off a day or so. Invalid. The problems that we've had in commissioning the boat have been expensive in dollars and time. ..doing boat repair in exotic locations, indeed.

The engine got its final approval today. Nicholas, the mechanic, stopped by at our request to give a listen to the engine as we prepare to go into the water tomorrow morning. He gave us a thumbs up, so I feel that we can venture forth tomorrow.

We might have launched today, but there's been a hefty storm blowing overhead all day. Winds in the 20-25 knot range and heavy rain. Why should we sit on a mooring when we can stay in the yard and be in no danger? We bought some subscriptions to weather sites that provide forecasts and such for any water in the world. I like SailFlow.com and Conni likes BuoyWeather.com. The weather will actually be in our favor for the next few days as we sail to Tahiti, then the prevailing trade winds will dominate. We should be in Tahiti, tied to a concrete dock by then, or that's the plan.

[Aside: I just had to leave the computer to close all hatches since a squall line breezed over us. Miss me?]

The revised plan is to leave tomorrow morning and motor (our sails aren't even bent on) to Taha'a, the sister island inside the reef. Thursday morning, we'll leave the area and sail overnight to Tahiti. Nathan arrives at Saturday morning and we need to be there, regardless of low wind speed or bad weather. We'll stay in Marina Taina, the lovely marina in which we stayed when we arrived on Tahiti last year. Warm showers, good laundry, nice facilities: nice place altogether. There is also a bar that serves a mean MaiTai. I'm hankering for a good MaiTai. We're also fairly close to the airport, so fetching Nathan will be a bit easier.

We've been unpacking gear and trying to find stowage space for it and us. Open any locker and there's STUFF popping out! Between extra food and all of my tools and spares, there's little remaining for personal gear. Luckily, clothing requirements are very low in French Polynesia!

Tomorrow, after we launch, we've got to motor to Uturoa, the main town on Raiatea, and acquire some diesel and gasoline. Diesel for the engine, of course, and we gasoline for the outboard that we hope is in Tahiti by our arrival, and the small Honda generator we use for our desalinator. We'll try the SSB (Single Side Band) radio tomorrow, I think.

This will be the last night of unmoving, stable living for a long time: boats don't rock when they're on land. How odd that is? For the next month and a half, we'll live on an ocean somewhere.

There are a lot of charter companies around here, and most rent big catamarans (cats). A few mornings ago, a big cat appeared, tied to shore and with a bilge pump that was very active. I inquired. Someone had rented the cat and promptly driven at speed onto a coral reef. Wow! They sent a crew to get it, our mechanic among them. They finally got that cat onto land today, and it took all day in the weather that we had, but I don't think that it would have survived a night of rock and roll in the water. I've posted some photos of the hull from the bottom to show the incredible amount of damage and the truly outstanding job that the crew did to salvage the boat. The hulls were severely damaged, but they might be able to repair them. I'd love to see it in a year. It'll either be back in the charter fleet or sitting here rotting.

As we've traveled around the world, we've noticed that people drink beer that's just perfect for their areas. Sometimes the beers translate well to otters areas, but many times they don't. Here, the "beer of Tahiti" is Hinano, a lovely, light, yeasty beer that seems perfectly suited for the tropics. It also has one of the most attractive cans that I've ever seen.

The winds should abate by tomorrow morning, or that's the forecast. Right now they're from the North and we're headed Southeast. As the words from Southern Cross (Crosby, Still, and Nash) say, "..and the downhill run to Papeete." Little is more relaxing than running briskly downwind to Tahiti.