Guilty as charged

When I was struggling to make it to the Austral Isles last month one of my good friends wrote saying she felt almost guilty to be living in a nice safe house and sleeping in a dry bed when I was having such a tough time of it, sodden bed and all. So I suppose now its my turn to feel a bit guilty, as I am on a tropical island, lazing about reading, snacking, diving off the boat to cool down and going shopping and doing pretty much whatever I please while lots of you guys are having to go to work and endure winter cold and rain. Tonight I sat in the cockpit as the sun disappeared behind Moorea and watched the golden clouds on the horizon become increasingly and intensely orange and the sky behind merging into pale green blue and black. I ate fresh French bread with huge slices of soft and mellow Brie, and started drinking the one bottle of wine I brought with me, a quite decent Merlot. And then, remembering my IPOD Mini for the first time in many months I switched it on and listened to one of my all time favorite albums, St Dominic's Preview by Van Morrison, This album was first released in 1972 and Ive been listening to it ever since. It was a pretty lovely evening and there are going to be a few more Like it I expect. I'll try to feel a little bit guilty....

However it hasn't been all play today - my fresh water pump has been making weird noises of late, and the water flow has been weak so this morning, early , I decided to investigate and so undid all the hoses and what-have -you, and sucked and blew through them to see if they were blocked.. Eventually it seemed the water filter was clogged up so I took it on the bus into town and eventually, quite remarkably, found the exact same model in an out of the way marine supplies shop. I also returned to the Tourist Bureau to ask about visiting the Paul Gauguin museum and was almost laughed out of the building! There are no regular buses and its 60km from town - the guy in the bureau suggested I read about him on the internet! Ive decided my best option is to Hire a Car for a day it would seem so I will investigate that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have installed the new Filter and all is good, except that the boat is a shambles inside as Ive emptied out all the lockers and storage places so they can dry out, and their contents are piled up all over the place inside. I guess I'll put them all back tomorrow….or whenever…:

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