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American Spirit II - Day 107; Tough Morning at Anchorage, Easter Sunday Services, Lauren and Brian Visit & Chef Stephen Strikes Again; Sunday, April 20, 2014



Up at 3:08 AM. No, that's not a typo. That's what happens when you go to bed too early. I typed three logs that I was behind on and did a bunch of emails.

As the morning sun approached it got cloudy, windy and started to rain. Unlike other cloud meeting mountain situations, the clouds and associated rain and wind were from a 'larger' system. The wind began to howl in the bay, and the boat swung back and forth as the wind swirled down the mountain passes. The wind increased in gusts to over 30, probably some over 40. The anchor chain, instead of lying limp and weighty at the bow, was stretched out to its maximum. Its times like this that your sole thought is, is the anchor going to hold? Since the bottom is mud, we should be OK. We're parked closer than we should to land, with a coral reef 100 yards towards the mouth of the bay behind us with the southern wind. One of my guide books says that when the winds roar down the mountain passes from the south, as what was happening now, the winds can get so high as to be very problematic for boats at anchor in Cook's Bay. In hindsight, we should have anchored in the middle of the bay, not 50 yards from the Bali Hai Hotel. The anchor holds. The only good thing about winds like these is that the wind turbine supplies enough electricity to power the boat that we can delay starting Sthe generator to charge up the batteries.

At 8:15 AM I depart in the dingy to go to Hebe and pick up Jane. For Easter church services. The hotel had advised me that Easter services were 7:00 PM Saturday night and 9:00 AM Sunday morning. I'm concerned with the wind that my electric motor may have more trouble than I'd like motoring into the wind once I pick Jane up. She's ready, and we make it to shore without difficulty.

The catholic church, which was built in 1897, is a 20 minute drive away. That's what I thought. Wrong. By the time we got to the church it was 9:20 AM. And the church grounds were empty. What had happened is that instead of the church services being 7:00 PM Saturday night and 9:00 PM Sunday morning, they were 9:00 PM Saturday night and 7:00 AM Sunday morning. And unlike in the US, there are not multiple services on the same day. One service. Period. We drive around and stop at a Presbyterian church and make the decision to enter. Jane is fluent in French, but she doesn't understand the 'spoken words' inside this church because the service is in Polynesian. The people are dressed in their Sunday best - dresses, bonnets for the ladies and suits for the men. An older crowd, with few children unlike at the catholic services on Good Friday that I went to. The church is either new or in great condition, and 'expensive' looking inside. In much better condition than the 2 other catholic churches I visited 2 days before. And much to my surprise, they offered communion with white, spongy bread wafers shaped the size of a sugar cube, and a miniature 'shot glass' filled with wine. The singing was quite good, with most participating, but there were no hymn books. And though the benches were painted white and nice looking, there was no platform to kneel on like in a catholic church. We were the only white people in attendance. And no, I wasn't wearing a suit. At least Jane was wearing a dress. With flip flops. Me too. Oops. You can only carry so many clothes on a small boat.

After stopping at a magazin (small grocery type store (think 711), we purchased some chicken, yogurt and bread and headed back to the bay. Once there I dropped off my groceries on the boat, then headed back to shore to drop off the Avis car I had rented. It was due back at noon. After filling the car with gas, I dropped it off and then was driven back to the Bali Hai Hotel by the Avis van. But not until I walked across the street to buy some grapefruit and bananas at a market in the ferry station.

Back on the boat around 1:00 PM, we had the already cooked chicken I had procured for lunch. Lauren and Brian, a young couple who have crewed on two different boats, Dash Away and Ko-Ko, stopped by for a visit. They had rented a motor bike, were touring the island and were staying at a house by the ferry dock. They got a room in this house thru a web site called 'couch something.' I forget what the second word is. Its a young person thing I think. That sort of web site. They will tentatively be crewing with us for two months from Bora Bora to Fiji. The boat they were on, Ko-Ko, is being left in Tahiti for a year (?) with the owners going back home, so they lost their home for a while. No boat to sleep on. At 3:00 PM Joel and Stephen went ashore to get some groceries. I washed up the lunch dishes, cut some grapefruit into bite size slices and then refrigerated them. A ton of seeds in the grapefruit. I could swear that the previous grapefruit I'd sliced up did not have seeds. Added 100% to the time needed to cut them up due to all the seeds. I took a nap from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM, and woke up to find Stephen and Joel in the cockpit having a post sunset glass of wine. There is no mention of any sunsets while we're in Moorea because the mountains ringing Cook's Bay obstruct our view of the sunsets. So no green flash reports. Probably not until we're under sail again heading towards Bora Bora.

Dinner consisted of French split pea with carrots, smoked ham and cream in it. Stephen cooked it in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes and then let it age for a few hours. It was delicious. If Marcy (Stephen's wife) is reading this log, she now knows that Stephen can cook. Sorry Stephen.

After dinner from 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM we watched the Easter appropriate movie Ben Hur. Stephen didn't make it to the end, so he'll have to watch the last 20 minutes Monday night.

Before going to bed Joel took a short shower. Why so late? Because in the evening when a wind is blowing and its actually cool on the boat, which most nights is not a given, it's a great time to shower because when you're done you're not going to sweat all night. And the shower cools you off because you're not going to use hot water. Going to bed cool and clean is a plus in the land of sweat. And something that doesn't happen every day.

One more thought on the Tuamotu Archipelago which we visited last week. We stayed on two of these islands, Ahe and Rangiroa, and there were 76 more to potentially visit. One could spend a sailing season, 6 months, visiting many of these islands. Having visited only two, we probably should have gone to one or two more. Certainly Fakarava, reputed to be the best place in the Tuamotu to dive. Can't do that now. Live and learn.

Brian Fox

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