On July 10 we motored back over to Taiohae Bay to check on the status of our rigging delivery. We were told it was in Tahiti and would arrive on Saturday or Monday, so we decided to hang out and do town stuff and enjoy the Bastille Day festivities that were going on all weekend. Sunday night was supposed to be the big night, but Fred still wasn't feeling great, so we made dinner on the boat and Jeff and Angie headed up to the big tent afterward. We got there at the tail end of that evening's dancing competitions (the festivities go on throughout the entire month of July). We saw a couples dancing competition and then some young boys doing what we refer to as Nuka Hiva break dancing. They mostly kept their lower bodies really still while doing as much as possible with their arms, while accompanied by some sort of strange euro techno music. I was reminded a bit of the dancing in Napolean Dynamite. It was great. Then there was a big pause which we didn't last through - we've gotten into the Marquesan habit of early to bed early to rise, although it seems lots of Marquesans broke that tradition this night because we could here the bass thumping through the wee hours of the morning.
Also on Monday we recieved a big package from Johnny C, who is forwarding mail to us in addition to helping us locate stateside items we can't get here (thanks John!). We were very excited to get the mail, but it turns out this package was the only one that had been in Tahiti for us and the rigging was still in Australia and it would be at least Friday before it could get to Tahiti, so we stocked up on fresh baguettes and headed for Anaho Bay.
The trip to Anaho bay, on July 16, was very rough, but definitly worth it. There are no roads to this bay, and only a couple houses on shore. The anchorage is great with a nice breeze most of the time, but very calm water. A welcome relief after Taiohae Bay, which is very rolly - so much so that it was affecting our sleep. Also, in Anaho Bay there is snorkeling, which I'm sure it's clear by now that we all enjoy. LUckily we were comfortable here, because Fred wasn't feeling well still when we first arrived, then Jeff and Angie also got his bug and everybody was a bit poorly for awhile. Because of that we didn't explore much here, but we did snorkel some and it was a great recovery spot.
We stayed till the following Monday when we were hoping to hear that our rigging had arrived in Nuka Hiva. No such luck, so we enlisted Tom and Amy's stateside help in tracking the package down (thanks!). Much, much confusion then ensued, but eventually the package was tracked down in Tahiti and we got our guy there to get it on a plane here and we drove from Taiohae Bay in a rental car over to the airport on July 24 to pick it up. It was a crazy drive. We went up and down very steep slopes on a very skinny road. It was easy not to get lost since the directions were "take the one road out of town and keep going straight". It's true, if you do that and manage to stay on the road, and not collide with any of the horses, cows or goats that are in the road, you eventually pull directly into the airport parking lot. We were surprised to see three Air Tahiti planes here, and were delighted to get the rigging into our own hands. It's up on the deck now straightening out some, and we're hoping to get it installed tomorrow.
We also wanted to let you all know that we have pictures to go with all the blog entries, but the internet connection here is way too slow to get them uploaded, so we'll have to add them later.
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