Sunday – June 26th – more Fakarava

It’s early morning. I’m sitting in the cockpit typing this as the sun is
slowly rising over palm trees and a quaint Catholic Church off the port
bow. The crew is fast asleep below after a late night dinner and revelry
at at a villager’s house, Pourini, last night. She had lived in the US
for 20 years so communication was much easier than using my broken
French. She was a very interesting lady and we have many lively
conversations. Her cousin Christopher partied with us and rounded out
the number of our group to five. A great time was had by all. I rowed us
crew back to the boat as the outboard motor is not working.

We are departing this morning from this anchorage for the south pass of
the atoll about 30 miles distant. We are looking forward to the
fantastic snorkling and diving there. Crews up and it’s time to up
anchor.

Love
Jim

Hi everyone-

Just a quick note to say sorry for not writing as often as I would like,
but it’s just not so easy when we’re anchored. When we’re on the boat
we’re either sleeping, working, or getting ready to go ashore, it seems.
This place is absolutely charming, as are the people who live here. They
are SO friendly & generous. Some young men gave me a big, beautiful fish
as I was walking down the street yesterday evening. I was looking for
Jim, as we had parted ways earlier. He was not at the dinghy & the fish
was too heavy to carry around, so I put it in the fork of a large tree,
about 8 feet off the ground & continued on to look for Jim. I went to my
new lady friend Pourini’s house & offered her some of the fish & she
invited us all to come for dinner & bring the fish. When Jim & I
returned to the tree, the fish was gone! (BUMMER, as it was such a nice
one, all cleaned & everything). I was thinking ‘dogs’ when I hid it
there, but didn’t really think cats would be able to knock it
down…evidently they did. Anyway, we had a feast of other things from
the boat, plus goodies that Pourini prepared. It was a fun evening. Now,
I can haaaardly wait to finally go snorkeling!!

Much love,
Darla