Found Nemo

We've finally made the trip to Huahine. We drug our feet for days and days, waiting for weather and enjoying the great company at Moorea. A large group of kid boats had come through the Panama Canal this year and we're having so much fun getting to know them. After the kid shortage in Mexico, this new group is really making our trip more fun. Over the weekend Kelly (Wyndeavor) met a family on the beach with two young boys. The were speaking English so a conversation started and a friendship as well. They have lived on Moorea for the last two years. The dad manages the Sheraton and Angela home-schools her two sons. She was so excited to meet English speaking kids that she offered to trade her washing machine and internet for our kids. Now Kelly and I figure we by far got the better end of that deal! We dinghied to the beach near her house and spent the whole day doing laundry, sending e-mail and playing. I haven't been in a house since November! The kids had a lot of fun on the trampoline and in the toy room. It was such a treat. Angela and the boys came to the beach each afternoon thereafter and played and met some of the other cruising families. Everyday we would say that we'd probably leave that night, and the next day we'd still be there.

Finally four boats made the plan to leave on Wednesday evening. Huahine is 85 miles away, so to do a 15 hour trip in the daylight is impossible. Everyone leaves just before dusk and arrives in the morning. As the afternoon progressed, the weather got worse. A huge monster of a squall materialized in our path and the weather forecast was for 20+ knots dead astern. Wyndeavor and Wetnose left first and when they cleared the pass and entered the open sea, their masts swung back and forth like metronomes. Pete hates sailing dead downwind in swell. So Ocean Breezes and Imagine opted out of the trip at the very last minute. Every day for 3 days, I had packed up everything and prepared to leave. This time we had even put both dinghies and outboards away, stowed all gear and gave the kids seasick medicine. I had to bite my tongue and trust Pete's judgment to stay another day. Angela was quite surprised to see us at the beach the next day. Chris from Ocean Breezes and I joked about when we were leaving. "I left last weekend. How about you?" "We left last night, this is just my holographic Moorea self," said Chris. I think it would great to have two cruising selves so you can sight see while supervising the kids on the beach. Wyndeavor did have an uncomfortable and rough night. They got up to 30 knots from behind and large seas from the beam. That amounts to a boat rolling from side to side all night and some very upset tummies.

We enjoyed a nice birthday party on the beach Thursday afternoon for Lara on Mahi Mahi. She turned 12 and the international crowd at her party sang her Happy Birthday in..........

*****We interrupt this e-mail to watch a pod of 6 pairs of mother/baby spinner dolphins jumping off our bow. We're just motoring across the Huahine lagoon on our way to a better anchorage. Pete jumped in and watched them underwater. The mothers can do 360's in the air, the babies are trying but they do more of a belly flop. Too cute.***** now back to our regularly scheduled posting...

.....English, Norwegian, Gaelic, Dutch and German. The French tourists on the beach looked at us like we were crazy. We are, that's the fun of it.

Our trip to Huahine was boisterous, but not as bad as the night before. We had no wind for the first 5 hours and then 18-20 on the starboard quarter. Not quite a dead downwind run, but close. We did roll back and forth, which made sleeping hard and made Pete rather queasy. The small village here has groceries, internet and souvenirs if you are willing to pay the prices. On Friday, we bought a minimum of fresh produce, ate burgers, which were actually reasonable and moved the boat to what we hoped would be better holding across the channel. The wind was really howling and the current was strong, so we spent a fairly restless night listening to the anchor chain grinding away on coral as we got pushed and blown in slow circles. After sailing all night Thursday, we could have used a bit more sleep. The good thing there were the clown fish, though. The kids yelled, "Mom, I found Nemo," over and over again.

Now, it's Saturday morning and we're moving again to the next bay in hopes of better holding and a trip to a botanical garden. Most importantly, there is a beach and several kid boats, so we go where the fun is.

Hope everyone is having a good summer, keep writing, we'll check e-mail somewhere down the line. Kellie