We're below decks with the ever-present Honda roaring in the cockpit, and we're "making water": desalinating sea water. It's a chore every 3-5 days, and we run the desalinator for about an hour or so, and charge batteries if they need it. They always do. The water temperature is a warm 80°F, so we're desalinating 24 gallons per hour: a lot for two people. The key to the process is that if the filtering membrane does get rank if it sits too long without being used: the 3-5 day window. It must be used then flushed with freshwater to stay bacteria-free. Sterilizing the membrane is a hassle but fairly easy to accomplish, while the flushing is an easier alternative.

It rained all night and we had to leave the hatches closed. I was roasting in our cabin so took my pillow out into the cockpit. It was blessedly cool but at some point, the wind rose and I scrambled below and opened the big hatch. Were I cynical and believed such things, I'd swear that my opening the hatch caused it to begin raining again. Sigh. It poured that heavy tropical rain for most of the night. With rain on the cabin top, and it being dry below, it was a good morning to sleep in, and we did.

Last night, the Huahine Yacht Club held its usual Friday night party and the raucous laughter and music lasted until the wee hours. We were so comfortable abroad that we didn't make the trip to join the party, but I guess that we should have. There was simply too much noise to be from yachts, so the locals must congregate for the weekly ritual and party until Saturday morning. Most businesses are open only half-day on Saturday and not at all on Sunday.

We did make a trip to the grocery store yesterday. It's air conditioned! It's well stocked, even having some good American products, as well as some odd local ones. Paté-stuffed duck breasts, a hard-frozen quarter beef cow, odd vegetables the names of which I had never seen, and the usual expensive liqueur. They were notably less expensive than Bora Bora prices, interestingly. We had paid $US35 for two cocktails at the Intercontinental Resort bar, and we had two meals and beer for less than that at the Huahine Yacht Club. Experience can be expensive. Last let, as we left Tahiti to sail to Fiji, Conni decided not to cart a big tin of duck confit (ingredients: duck legs, duck fat, salt) thinking that she could find it elsewhere. Well, we couldn't. This time she had sworn to take a big tin home with her, and we bought it yesterday. Happy Conni. She demurred on the cans of goose fat.

There were sights that we wanted to see today, but the conditions are not pleasant so we may defer until tomorrow. If we go into the cockpit and brave some rain, we can connect to a French Polynesia-wide Internet provider named "WDG" and can send/receive email. I took the opportunity this morning to post some photos of our first walkabout in Fare, the main town on Huahine, and the one where we're moored.

The nearby Bali Hai Resort was destroyed by a cyclone in 1998, and some early work on the site uncovered a lot of archeological ruins. After a few years of work, the archeologists found some odd flat wooden weapons that are characteristic of New Zealand's Maori warriors, further enhancing the traditions that there were regular trading routes across the Pacific at an early time. That's terribly interesting to me. When you're using the South Pacific as a trading route, you've mastered a lot of problems: it's not your first trip. The sailing is more likely to succeed and you have some idea of what goods the recipients will purchase and what they have that you can sell.

There's been a resurgence in "native pride" that has led to the recreation of the traditional double-hulled voyaging catamaran. They are enormous vessels, up to 100-feet long, two masts with the traditional and (to Western eyes) oddly shaped sails. They could store a large volume of trading goods, of course, and island hopping was a skip and jump for them. From Huahine, it's a day of sailing to Bora Bora, to Raiatea, to Taha'a, and a day-and-half to Tahiti itself and Moorea. Once the traders are this far West, there are islands in these archipelagos that are closely spaced.

Similarly, we learned that the original name for Bora Bora was Vava'u. If that sounds familiar, they you remember that it's the name of the northern island group in Tonga. The legend has it that the island was settled by Tongans and they used the same naming strategy that Europeans did, naming their new home for their old home: New York, Plymouth, etc. The local king of the islands sent his oldest son, Bora Bora, to the island to claim suzerainty, and they re-named the island in his honor. Who knows?

Showers were the big work of the day. We're old hands at the cockpit shower and it does feel great to rid oneself of the sticky salt and sweat that one accrues while sailing.

As an update, we didn't go ashore today. We've had a bad bilge leak for a few days that I easily tracked to a leaking packing gland, the semi-watertight seal around the propeller shaft that keeps water out. I tightened it a bit and problem solved. Conni repaired a few cockpit items and we'll call it done today.

Cocktails chilling….