Wild Honey is now just 3500 miles from Bundaberg - reading the below l wonder if they will actually return...

Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 6:20 PM
Subject: Tahiti and Moorea


> As I write this, we are anchored in the famous Cook's bay on the island of
> Moorea, 15 or so miles from Papeete, Tahiti. This afternoon we watched the
> Polynesian dancers wriggle and gyrate to the drums at the festival ashore
> to celebrate Bastille Day, 14 July.
>
> Sundowners on the aft deck this evening were celebrated in about as
> spectacular an environment as we could ever have imagined under the
> soaring cliffs, mountains and volcanic spires surrounding this magnificent
> anchorage. Dave is now in the process of preparing his "speciality" dish,
> risotto, which we will have with thick steaks imported from New Zealand
> spiced with herbs Provencal. Life's really not all that bad at the moment.
>
> Anyway, back to reality. The trip through the Tuamoto atolls and lagoons
> was wonderful. Ahe was a small protected lagoon with a quite primitive and
> basic village but the water was crystal clear and the Polynesian
> inhabitants were friendly and helpful. On the other hand, the next lagoon
> we visited, Rangiroa, was more sophistocated but no less enjoyable with
> fresh French bread in the mornings and the ability to visit the excellent
> facilities of a resort ashore for drinks and dinner.
>
> The 200 mile overnight sail from Rangiroa to Papeete was a brisk beam
> reach in relatively flat water so we arrived in Papeete fresh and ready to
> enjoy reaching one of our major milestones. Having Emailed the marina in
> Papeete to book a berth 2 weeks in advance and being told that they were
> over booked and not accepting any more bookings, I was a little
> apprehensive of our chances to find a secure mooring for the boat whilst
> we return to Australia for 2 weeks on 17 July for our little holiday.
> Consequently, we decided that we should park the boat at the fuel dock and
> I should go to the marina office and prostrate myself before the marina
> manager begging profusely in schoolboy french to be allowed to stay there
> for a couple of weeks. Anyway, Phillipe the manager was aloof and
> unresponsive to my earnest entreaties until he found that I wanted to stay
> in his precious marina for a total of three weeks and greed got the better
> of him at that point when it was discovered that, in fact there was plenty
> of room in the marina, and you just had to beg and grovel in the
> appropriate way to be allowed to win a berth, albeit at a considerable
> cost.
>
> Tomorrow, it's back to Papeete to do our laundry, fix the masthead VHF
> aerial which we think was knocked off by one of the many booby birds which
> play chicken with our masthead gear as we sail along, and generally start
> to clean the boat up after nearly 11,000 miles since Marmaris Turkey, for
> the final 3500 miles still to go to Bundaberg . Fortunately, the boat is
> in good shape, despite the fact that we have been pushing it along at a
> fair pace all the way. The only real issue we have with maintenance is the
> sails and in particular, the mainsail which usually needs some attention
> after each long passage. Consequently, Vaughan Prentice at North Sails in
> Brisbane is going to have a bit of a chuckle at the amateur repairs and
> all of the twine which we have sewn into the sail to hold it together when
> I take it to him to put back together at the end of the trip.
>
> It's only a couple of days now till Dave and I return to Oz for our little
> sabbatical and Glenn leaves us for good so we are greatly looking forward
> to seeing our loved ones again after, in my case, four months away. Glenn
> has been a wonderful crewmember, not only for his competent, can do
> attitude in all circumstances but also for his totally unflappable nature,
> despite the occasional reasonably stressful situations which inevitably
> happen on a boat at sea, from time to time.
>ild Honey is now just 3500 miles from Bundaberg - reading the below l wonder if they will actually return...