Light winds again

Tuhaa pae Arriving

I am still here but  there is a little breeze springing up so maybe this will be my last >Internet Post with photos till I get to Tahiti. A yacht turned up yesterday, a ketch about "_ feet long with  a french couple and their teenage daughter aboard. Remarkably, I had seen this boat and the crew while Sapphire  was out of the water in Opua. This boat, 3 Oceans, was also out of the water and the dad was  doing extensive upgrades and upkeep  by himself. I  think their budget must have been really stretched because several times I saw them go together into the "wheelchair access" shower in the mens shower block, taking with them a load of washing, and emerging eventually all cleaned up. I think they  came to NZ from New Caledonia. They told me yesterday they left NZ on May 26th, 8 days after me, but then they also were headed by the easterlies but with no where to go, tacked north and south  getting nowhere for several days and hence their trip was 27 days.

I said goodbnye to the hospital staff yesterday, not promising to leave immediately but saying it was possible. I gave Maeva  big hug and some cash and headed for the boat but before I left the shore, two people came from the hospital to say Maeva was very upset and crying, and I gathered I ought to go back - I imagined somehow I had committed a  major social blunder. I wne back after sorting out the boat and seeing there was no wind and no chance of leaving in the next 12 hours, and went back to explain everything to Maeva. She seemed quite cheerful so I stayed at her house one more night.

This Internet connection seems to be about to give up the ghost so I cant upload any more pics, and will sign off before I lose everything. Au revoir.