Lunch at Fare Village, Huahine

I had  plenty of sleep last night though I never seem to stay asleep for more than about two hours. I think that subconsciously when I am sleeping on the boat I am a little more  vigilant than  otherwise so I regulairly wake up even when safely anchoered. Not a bad habit to have gotten into I suppose! I had cornflakes for breakfast – I had been complaining about my diest a few weeks back and in papeete decided to make changes, so I started with weetbix which I really enjoyed and now I  am looking forward to cornflakes with sugar on and UHT milk from NZ which I managed to track down at one of the smallr supermarkets near Marina Taina. I also bought tinned sausages, like hotdog sausages and last night for dinner had some of them along with my own coleslaw from carrot and cabbage that I grated and mixed with mayonnaise. I also had tomatoes and some cold pasta I had cooked earlier and seasoned with heaps of freshly ground pepper, olive oil and pre-grated Parmesan. And red wine – French  - and not as nice as the Australian one I had before – so no wonder I slept well.



Last Night

Looking about this morning, I noticed that anchored off the village a bit further up from where I am , was  Narama, the Brolga 33  being sailed by Stephen and Heidi whom I had met briefly in Marina Taina. so after inflating the dinghy, I went over for a visit. Stephens parents were on board as well – it was Stephens dad who previously owned and raced an EC 31 just like mine 30 years ago in Sydney, so he was interested in Sapphire and I was interested in his opinions about her too. Stephen gave me some excellent tips on using my Pole when going downwind, explaining how he and Heidi set it up and  it worked well. They were planning to sail a similar route back west to what I had been planning, though Stephens parents were only going as far as the next stop which is Raiatea. However last night, looking at my calendar I could see I was running out of time. I told them I had realized I needed to skip straight to Bora Bora from here, and then except for probably pretty brief stops, straight through via Niue and Tonga to Fiji,  because I simply had to be back in Australia in September, which is only six weeks away. This was why I had been frustrated at how long it took to get my sail mended and why I had left Moorea earlier than I really wanted to, and I was becoming anxious about forecasts and further delays, as it would lessen even further what opportunity I had not just to sail to fantastic places but to explore them as well.



Swimming in Moorea



And this is what Stephen told me – he said friends of theirs had left their boat on the hard at a Yachting centre in Raiatea for almost a year, then returned and carried on at their leisure, and as far as he recalled they had been more than pleased with the service there. My plan had been to leave Sapphire in Fiji. He suggested investigating leaving her in Raiatea, the next stop, and continuing on in 2012 with much more time to get to Fiji without pressure and having lots of time for Tonga which he had sailed to before and which he felt would be a pity to not spend plenty of time in.

Amaszing Moorea

I went ashore as Hirama headed down the coast of the island to explore Huahine further, and the more I thought about Stephens suggestion the more it made sense. So tonight I am having a rethink of my immediate plans, and will make what enquiries I can about leaving Sapphire in Raiatea instead of Fiji.