Conni chose well when she declared our departure on 22 August, Monday, and the seas between Huahine and Taha'a had finally died substantially. We motor sailed to Taha'a, entering through the reef at Uturoa on Raiatea. There was a bit of wind so we had sails out, but not enough to travel by sail alone.

Our instruments performed wonderfully! I know that I've written this many times, but having wind speed and direction, boat speed through the water, and a functioning autopilot are magical after a few years of not having them. B&G instruments use those bits of information to display data useful to a sailor, as opposed to someone on a motor yacht: true wind speed and direction, current or tide strength and direction, and more. Our autopilot can use that data to keep us on a fine course to a waypoint of our choosing. A fingertip touch on our chart plotter screen, a few buttons pushed, and we can sit back and let the autopilot steer us, accurately and efficiently, to our destination. Since we're still learning what our new radar can and cannot "see", we leave it on even in clear weather. We can see that tiny skiff buzzing toward us, but can the radar? So far, it's done remarkably well. Many of the very small boats here are aluminum "Carolina Skiffs", surprisingly, and they produce a crisp return. Many personal boats, but few charter boats, have AIS transmitters, so they produce an AIS image on our chart plotter as well as a radar return. We feel that we have "situational awareness" with the new suite of instruments, even in weather that's down on the deck.

By the way, the wrecked sailboat at the Heuripiti Pass entrance (technically, it's Passe PaiPai, but Heuripiti is the big bay that opens to it) was gone, so Dominique from the Carenage fetched it off. It'll be interesting to learn if it's in the yard when we return.

We're still living on one battery, but we're learning what we can and can't expect from it. We can run the fridge all day , 0900 to 1900 or so, on that battery, if it's charged. To supplement the fridge's efforts, we are still buying ice when we can, and we shut down the fridge at night. Getting the fridge started in the morning is becoming more and more problematic. Sometimes we run the generator for an hour before it decides to start. We'll buy new batteries and, for next season, a new fridge. I can't imagine at the wonders of 40-years newer fridge technology!

On Monday after our crossing from Hauhine, we grabbed a mooring back in Apu Bay. It's become our go-to location on Taha'a, after all of these years. An American couple on S/V Winsome dropped by to chat on their way to shore. Jo, the woman, said that she introduced herself to people by taking their trash to shore! We thanked her and gave her our bag. That's some way to get a friend, I'd say. They're on their way to store their boat at the yard next to ours: CNS. She'll leave early, but we promised to take Isaac to dinner some night.

On Tuesday, we motored to Tapuamu, our usual favorite bay. We were very disappointed that it had been so full of boats on our previous visit. This time, it was almost empty, as we usually find it. Boat did continually enter, and grab a mooring, but after a quick visit to Pari Pari Rhum Distillerie, they departed. Crazy! Tour boats from the major resort on the nearby motu visited several times each day and various land tour busses and trucks came and went all day as well. Evidently, it's no longer a secret that this distillery makes great rum!

After our arrival, we splashed the dinghy, since it had been on deck for our passage from Huahine, and motored through a downpour (clever us) to the village of Tapuamu. We knew that they'd just been restocked by Taporo VI, the big red supply vessel, and thought that our chances of buying what we needed were good. Indeed they were! Other than cereal, we got everything, then got gas, ice, and 5-gallons of water at the Total station. It's the only fuel source for about 5 villages, so it's usually busy.

With weather still looking good, we replaced the dinghy on deck, stowed the outboard, and after a nice evening and night, we departed through Passe PaiPai for Bora Bora.

Wednesday morning, We motored and sailed the 25 nm to Bora Bora and found a good mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht Club, our favorite on the island. We had motored through the mooring field a bit and passed a 33-foot Niad, a Swedish brand, with two Brits aboard. They're on their way to a circumnavigation, so they're about half done. With a daughter in Australia, they're departing soon, both to meet her and to establish someplace for typhoon season. What interesting people are out here!

Weather has been disappointing, with more rain and bad weather than we're used to having. Climate change has deeply affected the South Pacific, as you'd guess it would. We're used to some rain and Mara'amus, but we've had few days since splashing that have been uniformly clear. We are prepared for bad weather, of course, but we'd prefer shorts, T-shirts, hats, and sunglasses to foulies. The other issue is that with different weather patterns, weather predictions change often, and it's difficult to plan ahead. We need to return to Raiatea for our boat pull on 6 August, and at this point, predictions are favorable, but just a few days ago, predictions were for a terrible return. Who knows what we'll face on our return.

Today, Thursday, we're on for a trip via dinghy to Viatape, the largest village on Bora Bora. We'd like to rent bicycles for a day and ride out to a great little wood-fired pizza place. We might even rent a car and have a round-island drive. We still need to return to Raiatea for our 6 Sept pull.

For people who wonder why we only have 2-4D batteries, it's easy to respond. We've owned Wings since 2000, sailing her for 10 years in Alaska, and another 12 years as we've been cruising. We've never had any more than two of these big batteries and we've learned to live within their limits. We started with two new flooded batteries, that I hated because of the acid, a new set of AGMs then a new set of Lifeline AGMs that lasted about 7 years. They failed in Fiji when our caretaker neglected to tell us that the AC charger had failed. We bought what we could find, two Chinese-made AGMs, and they've performed well, finally dying 7 years later. Out here in the heat, that's not bad. I'd like to have a third AGM but location, location, location...