We spent four nights in the Baie De Avea, which is a lovely anchorage surrounded by a white-sand beach. Unfortunately, we had really blustery conditions, in excess of 30 knot winds and lots of rain, so we stayed on the boat for most of the time. When the weather did break, we managed a walk in the village and some kayaking. This inclement weather gave us some time to do more boat projects and handle some business items, such as renewing boat insurance, banking, etc., etc.
During this time we learned that congratulations are in order for two of the kids….Danny got promoted to Sub-Foreman with a truck and a crew of his own. Tara got promoted to Customer Service Supervisor as a result of the many long hours and hard work she has been putting in over the past months.
After leaving the Baie De Avea, we motor sailed two hours back to the main centre of Huahine, where we went out for our first dinner out. We actually prefer to stay on the boat to eat, but it is a treat now and again to have someone else do the cooking and dishes. We met up with two couples from the States, who were also enjoying Happy Hour with us as we waited for the storm to pass.
(Photo of some of our dive partners courtesy of Phillippe Vergez)
Yesterday we went for another awesome dive with Annie. We went 100 feet deep and were greeted by a whole school of Eagle Rays, including their “queen” who was massive and danced effortlessly in the water. We also were surrounded at one point by about 5 gray sharks, who fortunately weren’t too curious about us. We did have a Trigger Fish (the kind with two very sharp, almost buck teeth). They feed on the coral so you can imagine how strong their bite is. Anyway, our instructor kept feeding it some bread, and once she stopped the fish decided to check me out. It came right for me and smacked up into my Goggles. Cheeky little bugger. Our instructor just LOVES to dive and wants to maximize our bottom time, so since I was the rookie out of the four of us, I ran out of air first, so had to use her secondary regulator during the ascent. We were down for an hour though, so I still felt good about my air consumption.
Afterwards when we went in to provision for the next leg of our trip, our new American friends invited us onboard their boat for a dinner of fresh Mahi Mahi later that night. One of them, John, is an anesthesiologist just like our good friend Alistair in Silver Star, although they are not remotely similar. I baked a cake to take for dinner (okay it was out of a box, but I baked it nonetheless – I sure missed my old crewmate Shelby who used to bake with me during the crossing last year). The cake didn’t turn out very well. (alright Danny, no surprise I know). Peter called it the “gimbled cake”. Nonetheless we took it anyway and brought along a can of whipped cream. Since they had been sailing for two weeks, they were thrilled with the concept of a chocolate cake (since that’s what it really was) and sure enough everyone had two helpings. That’s the other joy about cruising, even my cooking doesn’t seem so bad, ha,ha.
We have just spent the day motor-sailing 20 miles over to the next island of Raitea. We look forward to circumnavigating this island which is completely surrounded by the reef, so it is like lake sailing.
Until next Friday…..remember the old adage “To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'
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