Le Plan

(How'd ya like that French, eh?)

Well, now we are 3.  Oly left yesterday to make his way to the states for a EMT course he's taking.  It's Jean, Elze and me now.  I miss him, and English.  I got so excited today when I met a couple from England that I just started blabbing within a second of hearing them speak.  But the 3 of us get along fine, albeit without much chatter.

Anyway, our plan is to head to Bora Bora tomorrow morning.  It's about a 40 hour sail.  Jean has family and friends there that he wants to visit.  Then we will go to Raitea (sp?) for a day or two and then on to Tahiti by the 27th.  In Tahiti, I'll be able to pick up my medicine and then we'll do a proper scrub down of the boat.  The owners are arriving on or around the 30th.

I've been in touch with Don from <i>Spirit of Nyami Nyami</i> and they are happy to re-adopt me.  They made it safely to the Marquesas, which gives me a renewed confidence in the crew and vessel.  And, I miss the easy camaraderie with them.  We are still sorting out if they will be coming to Tahiti around the 30th or if I need to go and meet up with them.  I'm hoping the former as flights here are super expensive.

Actually, EVERYthing is super expensive.  I'm talking unbelievably so.  1 normal size bottle of local beer and 1 hour of internet is $5.60 US. 

I went for a scuba dive today.  It was ok, though not spectacular.  Saw a couple of medium size silver-tip reef sharks, a huge swarm of jack fish that you see pictures of all spiraled up, a small moray and a small lion fish.  But the rest of the day was spent getting diesel.  Ay vey.  We had to make 2 trips with our 4 5gal jerry jugs to get 40 gallons.  Each trip involves dinghying to the beach, heaving it up on shore, treking out to the road, hitchhiking to the other end of the island where the Shell is, hitchhiking back, dinghy back in water, back to boat, emptying each jug one at a time into the tanks.  Btw, hitchhiking with 3 people = not easy.  It took all afternoon and it was blistering hot.

I'm looking forward to being back on Nyami - it'll be crowded and WAY less comfortable than Bubas, but it'll be nice to have friends again, hang out with other boats and be social.  The next 10 days are going to be pretty quiet for me.