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American Spirit II - Day 125; Cleaned Boat Bottom, VE-Day Holiday, Changed Bandage, & TV and DVD Player Problems; Thursday, May 8, 2014



7:08 AM up. No doctor visit today. VE-Day, Victory in Europe Day. BIG French national holiday.

During the 9:00 AM Rally broadcast the British boat Hebe reported that someone had climbed onto their boat around 3:00 AM. After seeing the boat's Captain, the intruder split at a high rate of speed on his skiff or dingy. French Polynesia had been crime free until we got to Bora Bora. Too bad. I'd be curious to know if thefts are occurring in the islands expensive hotels. If they are, and if clientele are being stolen from, then Bora Bora's charm as a vacation destination could be damaged severely.

Breakfast consisted of eggs and chopped up chicken franks. Why chicken franks? Try buying beef franks in French Polynesia. I haven't found any yet. No Ball Park Franks here. Too bad. After breakfast I went to the phone store a short distance away and purchased the necessary cable that connects the TV with the DVD recorder.

For lunch we had a pizza. Ever try to read the instructions on the box on how to cook an item when they're in French. Fortunately, there were pictures which made it not too difficult to determine that you don't cook the pizza in a micro wave oven but in the regular oven. And the time to do so was easily figured out. The pizza was OK, but tasted 'different' because different countries use different ingredients to make their own foods and drinks. What I thought was a Pepperoni Pizza was similar to one, but different. It didn't taste at all like a Pepperoni Pizza back home. Same with Coca Cola. In the US corn syrup is used as the sweetener, but in many other countries of the world, its not used. Sugar is; or something different than corn syrup. And the taste is different; and the cans are usually thinner, so they're easy to puncture and explode in your refrigerator if it gets to cold; and explode in your bilge if it gets to 'bumpy' or hot.

After lunch Joel borrowed an electric HUKA from Follie a Deux. A HUKA is a SCUBA type device that hooks to your boat's batteries and allows you put on a regulator and breath under water while you clean the algae and slime off your boat's bottom. Or you can use a HUKA to SCUBA. The area you're diving just has to be under your boat. When using the HUKA Joel doesn't use a weight belt to keep himself under water. Instead, he prefers to lay horizontal with his body's own buoyancy keeping him 'attached' to the hull. That way no appendages (legs) are hanging below for any hungry sharks to nibble on. While Joel was doing that for an hour and a half, I was sorting and folding laundry and organizing the boat. Organizing the boat means cleaning up, putting things away and finding better ways to store stuff.

It was very hot and sweaty today as there was no wind.

I took a shower, reluctantly, because I didn't want to get my bandage and wound wet. After doing so, I pulled off the bandage, a bit too quickly, and as a result in the process pulled off a one inch by 1/16 inch piece of skin. Talk about strong adhesive! If you think pulling hairs off with tape is tough, try skin. Next time I'll pull the adhesive bandage off much more carefully and slower.

We had blackened chicken cooked on the grill and French fries for dinner. What was interesting about cooking the French fries was, like the pizza for lunch, different than in the US. The instructions directed you to cook the fries in a skillet, not the oven. I did so, but instead of taking the 13-15 minutes the instructions said it would take, it took about 25 minutes. Next time I'll opt for the oven.

Before we could connect the new cables from the TV to the DVD recorder, the aluminum male piece of one of the cables had broken off. Since it couldn't be pulled out, Joel just pushed it in and it fell, so far, harmlessly into the TV set. Didn't short anything out...yet.

Then, in turning on the DVD recorder, I accidentally broke the on/off button. A very flimsy on/off button. I use the term 'fixed' loosely because the on/off switch wasn't reparable. The unit just turns on when we plug it in. Wonder how long that will last? We were able to watch 2 more episodes of The Americans.

359 Days until home.


Brian Fox



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