Hi Friends, in Raiatea we moved down to the Carenage (the boat haul-out and fix it place). Dan found the bow roller was worn out, so we had another one made. Cost us 14000 ctf, about $140 less 20%.  We met some other boats Tulanaise and Zeeotter. We had a 5:00 happy hour for three nights in a row,  it lasted till 9:00. We had a good time visiting and ate some finger food.  I got some new recipes too.  The mountains here are high and lush green.  There are some pine trees, but they're on the south side so we didn't see them.

Went snorkelling by the pass.  It was great.  There was a wall that was very deep and then it sloped up.  We saw coral and lots of small fish. There were some natives swimming there,  they are good swimmers. Some were spear fishing so we stayed away from them. Dan saw a big moray eel going in his hole, in and out. I was in front of Dan and two others were in front of me, when I saw a great big Napolean fish.

I had fun learning to dive down under the water with the snorkel. Some people can dive 30-50 feet with the snorkel, otherwise free dive. Some of our friends were getting the bottom of their boat painted. They were from Belgium (To Skouliki Pierrot and Joanna & son Pierre) We met them in Hiva Oa. Tulanaise (Astra and Victor) is from Australia and her husband from California.  They have been coming here for 4 years. They just leave their boat here. They have made friends here and were invited to a celebration of their native friend's daughter.  She just finished nursing school so they were going to slaughter a lamb and have a feast.

Then we went to a Motu to anchor for the night. We snorkelled around the boat and took a dinghy ride around the Motu (island) and hit a few coral heads along the way. We got high centered a couple of times too. But Dan is good, we got off OK.  Thank Heavens!   The water is 81 degrees and the humidity has been 90-98. 

Some of our friends went back to Hawaii and the states - it only took 17 days to reach Hawaii for the first boat. The second one got hit with strong winds, so don't know how long it took him. There are 3 more out there - we are listening to ssb as they cruise along and keeping in touch. Dan is torn is two directions to Hawaii and to Australia (new direction again), but so far on to Australia.