Cruising

The definition of Cruising is being able to make boat repairs in exotic ports around the world. I would add that sometimes repairs are made on the high seas. This morning the SSB would not turn on. After multiple tries I removed the fuse (which was OK) and screwed it back in and then everything worked. It is frustrating when things don't work and even more so when you fix them but are not sure how....

The InReach also stopped sending position updates but that was apparently because we let the battery run down and the transmission stopped. When we recharged, we needed to restart the transmission.

We spent two wonderful days in Fatu Hiva hiking and visiting the waterfall. On the way back North we stopped in a nice anchorage on the west side of Tahuata for a few days and worked on the alternator (one of two alternators still not working properly) and fixed the head. We had a nice overnight passage up to Nuku Hiva and spent two nights in Taiohae Bay where we caught up on provisioning (tres expensive), laundry, filled propane tanks and, surprise, did more boat repairs. We hopped west from Taiohae just a few miles to Daniel's Bay, a very beautiful spot with the third highest waterfall in the world but the water was barely a trickle. On the hike back from the waterfall we stopped and had lunch at the house of a very friendly local couple where I practised mon Francais (tres mal). They served us poisson cru (raw fish in coconut milk - awesome), pamplemousse (grapefruit) and fried bananas, along with some other local dishes.

Yesterday (Monday) we raised anchor to head for the Tuomotus. We are currently about 1/3 of the way to Fakarava, our first likely stop among these many atolls.

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