July 9 & 10, 2012

July 9 Twenty Bottlenose Dolphin accompanied us out Tahanea's pass. It happens at almost every pass, but it is thrilling every time and we both run to the bow of the boat to hear them breathe and see their blow hole open and close and see every muscle move so gracefully. So far our program, Nobeltec's Tides and Currents, has been right on money in its timing. Another boat followed us across the lagoon but when we got to the pass we put down the anchor and took a nap while the other boat sailed back and forth, back and forth, looking at the pass and waiting for the right moment to go out. We woke up, went out at precisely the right time while the other boat waited. It didn't leave until over an hour after we did which meant they had to buck an incoming current.



July 10 We are headed for Fakarava which has magazins (stores). I am starting to fantasize about vegetables and fruits - blackberries, artichokes and silverbeets, avocados and tomatoes. Deprivation makes us grateful for what we Americans have available to us on a daily basis. Diesel everywhere with pumps and hoses, not, "OK, here's your 200 L (about 50 gal) barrel of diesel. Get the barrel back to us before noon".