We've moved to the boat all of our stuff other than breakfast and tomorrow's clothing. We'll be out of the room and on our way to Wings by 0900 tomorrow. Goodbye, hot showers. Wifi, and air-conditioning, hello cold showers, no Wifi. and boatyard life!

Still, we're here to live on the boat, but we do get spoiled living here in our little bungalow and we'll miss it. We counted and this is night 19 here! No wonder we're used to the place. It's cheap but not free, so moving is more affordable.

We worked most of the day on stowing gear and supplies so we would be able to live aboard. We were successful and tomorrow night we'll have some space to stay. The fridge is stocked and the stove works. The solar panels are supplying more energy than ever, and the generator works, too. We have a full tank of butane and another about half full. Note, butane and not propane, but propane isn't available here.

Yesterday, we made a big store run, buying food and drink for several weeks. I didn't find the oil that I like to use, but both the engine and the transmission (which uses the same oil, thankfully) have clean oil and are full. We stowed all of that food after the store run. At lunch today, I looked in the snack cabinet and Conni had purchased 3 family-sized bags of Doritos! That woman loves Doritos.

Tasks to yet complete are to replace the aft head and add a lot of vacuum-rated hose, as I've explained. We've got to rebuild the water maker, too. Of course, we've to put on sails or re-reave our main halyard, and none of the masthead instruments have been re-installed. The weather has been so windy and rainy that Conni's not been able to go up the mast. Perhaps tomorrow.

Our helper, Richard, came by this morning and added some epoxy to the bottom of the autopilot drive leg where it touches the hull. Both of us and Richard were concerned about movement since the leg sits on a surface that slants fore-and-aft, as well as side-to-side. The epoxy will be cured by the time we splash in a few days...we hope.

Tonight, we packed the last of our items from the bungalow and made one last run to the boat, just after dark. After Conni put all of the cold stuff from our bungalow kitchen into our boat fridge, we dropped by a local roulotte (food wagon) at which we've had good meals before. They didn't disappoint! We both ordered "steak frites" or steak and french fries. It's a family business and the entire family works from 6:30-8:30 each night. Dad grills and everyone else prepares the other food or serves. They are hugely successful and the place is hopping. They've continued to improve the seating area, which is now cement covered rather than gravel. They've got some outside tables. The food is just as good, with offerings of steak frites, chicken frites, or tuna frites. Since we're chronically dehydrated, we had no difficulties consuming a liter of lemonade! It was a fine idea that Conni had since we had no food in the bungalow and were worn from many long days.

With any luck at all, we'll get splashed on Wednesday or Thursday, at day's end. That allows us to stay in the little launch slip overnight so that we can easily take on water and ensure that all of our systems work as planned. Last year, we had the launch crew turn us around, bow out, so that we could move out of the slip and into the main lagoon while moving forward, and we'll try to get them to do that this time, too. It'll be SO nice not to have to dodge that PoS ferry that's been docked almost blocking the one narrow route through the coral and into the main channel! What a relief for departing, but even more so in entering on our return, since the prevailing wind forces us either into the rusty ferry or into the coral field.

It might be possible that I can get the SSB (marine Ham radio) operating so I can send blogs while we're away from land, but definitely no photos until we have Wifi. We've no specific plans for what we want to do this season since we've been so focused on our installations, but I'm sure that Bora Bora, Huahine, and Taha'a are in the mix. In the first two of those we'll probably have Wifi available at least a few times, but none until then.

Wish us luck.

I'm sorry to lose two real heroes: Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhuru, and Bill Russell, who helped me love the game of basketball. How many Bill Russell/Wilt Chamberlain duels I watched! RIP.