Sept. 6th through 18th

Sept. 6th – New crew arrived today, Brimman

My new crew,Brimman, is from 15 years earlier when we cruised out here
with his family on their 50 foot aluminum boat. He was 5 years old at
the time and is 20 now. A great guy and a great crew.
Brimman arrived two hours late by inter island steam ship. We hitchhiked
back to town and Intention to get him settled aboard. After Brimman got
here we all went to the Gardarmes to get him added to the crew list and
they said don’t bother. So we tried to follow the rules all to no avail.
If I’d have known that I’d stayed in Maupiti and let him take the Mopeti
Express to join us. But our provisioning at the grocery store would not
have been as thorough and extensive especially regarding fresh fruits
and vegetables.

We did have a little mishap today. An unattended 47′ Moorings Catamaran
broke free from its Mooring in front of Bloody Mary’s Restaurant Dock
where we were taking on water. We saw her coming but could not keep her
from T-boning us on the port side just aft of the gate. It did serious
damage to the cap rail teak and badly bent the stainless steel rail. The
side of the solar panels maybe damaged. I’ll find out tomorrow.
I want to commend my crew for doing a great job of saving the big
catamaran from drifting stern first down on some rocks and a coral reef
which would have caused serious damage to her rudders and hulls.

Well It’ been an eventful day and everyone else has crashed so I’ll sign
off for now.
Love
Jim

Sept 8th – Maupiti again

We took a big pot of chicken curry and a pot of rice to a catamaran for
a pot luck with 3 other boats last night. It was a great success and we
all had a wonderful time eating, drinking, and visiting with other
cruisers. Brimman went out snorkeling at the motu across from the Bora
Bora Hotel with a couple from one of the other boats that afternoon
while John and I were at Bloody Mary’s talking on the phone with
Moorings.
This morning we started early and came through the Mautipi Pass easily
around noon with Brimman up in the spreaders watching for coral heads
and shallows. I wanted Brimman to be able to have a unique experience
like Maupiti.

Sept 12th – Continuing Adventures

Brimman hiked to the top of the mountain with some locals and got some
great pictures of an extraordinary panorama of the island. Upon
descending he met another local and was invited out to a motu (island)
to drink beer and eat many helpings of dog. He now claims it is one of
his favorite dishes. While eating dog the mosquitoes got revenge by
eating him.
I’ve been writing lots of emails back and forth to Moorings and Rick at
Bloody Mary’s and the charterer, Ward. So far no response, Moorings says
its insurance doesn’t cover my boat unless the damage is over $25,000,
the charterer says it was Bloody Mary’s mooring that let go, and Rick at
Bloody Mary’s says I don’t charge for the moorings so you take them at
your own risk. So there you have it. How’s that for an adventure? I
guess it’s just the price of being in paradise in French Polynesia. I’m
in their country and I play by their rules.

Sept. 14th – Activities and Trapped in Maupiti

Brimman has been playing lots of chess with the locals and winning most
of the time. They feed him corned beef and breadfruit between games. For
exercise he’d swim to and from the anchored our boat and doing two hour
secessions of Kung Fu some times with an audience of 20 or more.

John and I have been keeping ourselves busy by continuing to help our
friend, Ui, construct a hanging out door bed for his pretty German
neighbor lady, Sylvie who wanted John to stay and be her companion.

We are trapped by high winds and seas the Maupiti Pass and High water
from Antarctica. The locals say it is not a good time to leave. We are
having so much fun and I think maybe they just don’t want to see us
leave.

Sept. 18 – Escape from Maupiti

I been doing most of my emailing to Moorings regarding the accident.
It’s been a very frustrating interaction.
Speaking of frustrating we just escaped from Maupiti after being trapped
for a week by the unacceptable conditions at the island’s only pass in
or out. It’s a wonderful unique experience to go into those little out
of the way islands and I learned a good lesson. You can’t always get
back out when you want. The good news is that we did an over 7 knot
average on the log for the first 24 hours run and just 163.1 NM point to
point on the GPS.

Well that about catches you up
Love
Jim, John, and Brimman