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American Spirit II - Day 81; Fueling Day, Dinner at Follie a Deux & Joel's Hair Length; Tuesday, March 25, 2014



Up at 5:30 AM. Reading. Follie a Deux came by at 8:00 AM and invited us to dinner at their boat tonight at 6:00 PM. Follie is a 39 foot Lagoon catamaran. They also dropped off their HUKA, a battery operated compressor used to SCUBA under the boat. Joel will use it later today to clean our boat bottom.



Rally control held a communication net at 9:00 AM. Not much going on, except that boats talked about their missing laundry items. Our missing laundry item was a beach towel with all the islands in the Caribbean on it. If another boat had gotten it in their laundry by mistake, it would have turned up by now.



Breakfast consisted of eggs for the first time in over a week. Yea! And French bread, of course!



At 9:00 AM I called Peggy, our travel agent; and changed Mike's flight home from Friday, March 28 to Friday, April 4. Same flight, same time, just one week later. Thank you Peggy. Mike will therefore stay with us as we go to Fatu Hiva on Thursday; then to Nuku Hiva, before he flies to Papeete, Tahiti on April 3. Fatu Hiva is 40 to 45 miles south of Hiva Oa; and Nuku Hiva is about 120 miles north of Fatu Hiva, so it'll require an overnight passage to get there. Also, we might have to divert back to Hiva Oa on our way to Nuku Hiva to pick up Rally person Alex. With all the flights booked, there's no way for him to get to Nuku Hiva unless he hitches a ride on one of the Rally boats. Maybe we can have him do the 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM watch while we sleep all night.



At 10:00 AM I went into town to look for some propane, again, and buy a few other items: rubber gloves, 4 stainless steel scrapers for the boat bottom and different types of exotic, French jellies. The jellies I bought were mixed fruit, (strawberry, raspberry, apple and grape); pineapple; orange; and strawberry.



The name of the town and the only town on Hiva Oa, is Atuona, 3 miles from the anchorage. By 12 noon I was back at the boat. Joel was just finishing using the HUKA to scrape and wipe off the algae and growth we had accumulated on the hull during our 20 day passage from the Galapagos Islands to Hiva Oa. None of us had ever heard of a sailboat accumulating such algae and growth above the water line and under our transom, while under way. The growth was so much that it slowed our boat speed down one knot the last day or two or our trip. If this problem continues we may have to haul the boat out of the water and put on more or a better paint. Other boats have the same problem, so I don't think its a question of what type of paint we have on our bottom. And are 'paint job' is new; done in December.



From 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM we used the dingy to transport our jerry jugs to the only gas station located on the island and adjacent to the anchorage. Making two trips, we filled up 16 jerry cans worth of diesel, at a cost of 32,000 francs or $400. Because we were issued a fuel permit, the price of the fuel was actually cheap compared to all the other prices we've encountered in French Polynesia. Cheaper than what we paid in Panama and Galapagos.



Lunch consisted of a French pastry filled with meat. Not sure of its name, but very tasty. Bought it at the gas station. Maybe my daughter Angela knows the name of this item as she studied in Paris one summer during college. Any ideas Angie?



At 5:00 PM we headed to shore to use the shower by the dingy dock. Again, better than using the water on our boat because we can't use our water maker in the anchorage - the water quality might be bad in the anchorage, especially if any boats aren't using their holding tanks.



We made it to Folie a Deux by 6:10 PM, to celebrate Brian Ramsey's 16th birthday. Dinner was home-made pizza and cake. Superb! Good job Tracy and Lucy. Thanks to Tim and Tracy Ramsey for hosting the party. Besides them and Brian, the party was attended by sister Lucy, Joel, Mike and myself. During the party it was discussed what 'handles' to give the crew of Follie a Deux. Tim already has the handle of 'Lefty;' and we were thinking of making Brian 'Fisher Man,' since he's one of the best fish catchers in the Rally; and the handle for Lucy was discussed as perhaps being 'Smiley.' Lucy smiles a lot and has a very nice smile. Tracy, I'm not sure what her handle is or should be.



The topic of Joel's hair length came up, and it was unanimously decided (by everyone except Joel) that Joel looked better with short hair versus the long hair he prefers; and that he looks '10 years younger' with the shorter hair. Darlene, what do you think? Joel got his first hair cut in over 3 months a couple of days ago.



Around 9:00 PM we were back at the boat. Lights out at 10:30 PM. The boat rocked, a lot, all night long; and the wind that comes down the valley at the end of the anchorage at night didn't come like it has been the previous three nights. There's also a 'blow hole the other side of the anchorage, so you can hear the thump of the waves and hissing of the water as it shoots skyward. Glad we're not on that side of the anchorage.



Brian Fox


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