We have several days of storm on the way, and as careful mariners, we’ve been working on our plan. We’d have gone to Huahine for a few days, and then on to Moorea overnight, but the storm is passing south of us and that’s the Moorea direction. Huahine, within sight, is a few hours away but is extremely popular with cruisers and moorings will unlikely to be available. It’s not that we don’t trust our wonderful anchor, but we’re always concerned about losing it in coral.

It appears, then, that we’ve decided to stay here in Tapuamu Bay for a week, or at least until conditions moderate. Things are nice until Wednesday, then the wheels come off and we get 14-foot seas and 24-28 knot winds from the SE. Tapuamu is on the West side of the island and should be protected from swells and winds from the storm front. We are also just a few dingly-minutes away from shore with its gasoline, minimal groceries, water, and we have good Wifi.

On the bright side, after working on the wonderful refrigerator all morning, we finally got it going. The unit works superbly and a refrigeration guy in Fiji pronounced it in great shape. The fuse cap, though, has been damaged and won’t keep a good connection with the body of the unit, so the thing shuts down in minutes or days, depending on its mood, I guess. I found a loose wire on the body today, tightened it, and got the thing going and it’s been on for an hour, now. Let’s hope. [Update: no such luck!]

By the way, if you enter the coordinates into Google Earth, you can see our location here in the bay. Just south of our position you can see the tiny harbor where we land for fuel, food, and water. it’s our take-off location for our walkabouts, too.

The fridge is still running, amazingly. We just finished dinner and we’re in our evening routine of charging everything using the Honda generator. Phones, laptops, iPads, and house bank batteries are all slurping up the energy.

We’ve got two interesting neighbors out here. One is a lovely ketch, beautiful lines, and nicely outfitted. The other is a pair of Frenchmen in a (at least) 60-ft sloop. It looks like a Tartan but we’re not sure. They eschewed a mooring in favor of using their hook, although I don’t know why unless it’s just the size and weight limitation on the state-placed moorings.

I’ll sleep in the cockpit tonight if weather permits. I do hate not sleeping with Conni, but our two bodies create more heat than the sometimes closed ports can remove. I’ve never slept out there but I’ve concocted a way to span some of the open distances between surfaces so that I can manage.