Monday, August 25, 2014

Back to Tahiti

We are in Tahiti and the trip back was surprisingly good considering it's usually upwind.  We (Courage) picked our weather, motored in the calm, and then actually sailed about half of the way home.  We got a lot done on the boat today, putting things away, cleaning up, setting up the bedrooms, getting things we've pulled out back into the bilges, etc.  Courage also set up 3 swings for the kids on the deck, so they played happily most of the day.  Valiant is in a baby swing, but he clears the lifelines on either side.  We made the port forepeak into a cushioned kids’ play area instead of a storage area.  All storage stuff went into bilges or under the cockpit deck.  It's much nicer to have usable floor space and different living spaces for a change of scenery or quiet time or whatever.  We're a little spoiled that way, but loving it and appreciating it!

Since we haven't really finished the interior, so the walls are rough, the paint isn't finished, you can see the imperfections, I'm decorating the walls with stickers and things to make it more "personal" or "homey" much to my husband's dismay.  They don't add much weight and I like them.  The women who come to the boat usually love them and how it feels like a home, not just a plastic boat.  The men usually don't comment.

A little motorboat pulled up next to us and grabbed a mooring buoy (or we assume it was, although it is red and most of the moorings in this anchorage are white).  They took some pictures of the kids swinging, had some drinks, and went to lie out on their deck.  I went down to work, when I came back up, they were well behind us, still with the red buoy tied to their front.  I watched for a while, but it's such a small boat that they were up on deck, they couldn't all go inside to do things if they wanted to, so I figured they knew they were on the move.  So, I went back down and did more work. When I came back up, they were gone.  Now I'm not so surprised that the little motorboat got bored and left, but where's that red buoy that was here that they tied up to?  I can't see it anywhere.  I looked down current where they had been dragging, no signs of them or the buoy in the anchorage.  I guess that shall remain a mystery.  Just a reminder, if you didn't set it down, you have no idea what's holding you.

I also got some fresh foods that we haven't had in a long time.  The kids were so excited.  Grapes were on sale, so we got some.  Then we splurged and spent $7 (actually close to $8 with the conversion, ouch) on 450 kg of strawberries.  They were sooo goood.  We had them for lunch dipped in chocolate syrup.  The kids loved them!  We got a good price on mangoes from the Marquesas (and bananas, but those have been a staple for us).  Also, the tangerines weren't a great price, but not terrible, I think $4.60/kg, so we got some.  Haven't had a lot of citrus other than limes, so we love those too.  And pineapples are surprisingly hard to come by for some reason.  Only in Tahiti, haven't seen them on any other island, although they grow them in Moorea, I can't figure out where or how to buy any.  We got a bundle of them here and they are sooo sweet.  Very nice!  Thinking of getting some extra and trying to can them.  They rarely had cans of pineapples in Panama, so I have only 1 can left that I've been holding onto, but we love it with teriyaki chicken and on our BBQ chicken pizzas, as well as plain for a treat, etc.  So, if we could have more, we'd love it.

We haven't watched Finding Nemo since we've been on the boat I think.  Valiant LOVED it.  He was talking about it much of the movie - shark, fish, turtle, boat, etc.  It was right up his alley!

Looking forward to two teens on the boat in a couple of days!  We'll have an almost complete volleyball team wherever we go!  Then it's easy, get maybe one or two more boats to play, but if they are lazy, we can still get out there!  We also pulled our paddleboards up from being stored below the cockpit floor.  They were too inaccessible and never getting used.  I tied them down on the deck and hope that we use them much more often now!

We wore ourselves out today, but got a lot done.  Looking forward to a few more productive days of getting boat projects done, provisioning for the next weeks, picking up the kids, and showing them the Society Islands!  We'll have a big party on the 27th for Welcome Home Cassidy, Welcome Wolfie, and Happy Birthday Innocence!!

Good night for now,
Shannon