Bonjour from the Tuomotus

comment-ca va? We made landfall again, in an amazing atoll exactly 3 days 10 hours from anchor to anchor. We did need to motor sail on the final day to arrive in the daylight. As we were heading in to the pass, we were greeted and escorted by about 10 very large bottle-nosed dolphins. They danced in our bow wake and even managed to splash Shelby. Quite the welcome to the Tuomotus.

We came in at pretty close to slack tide, but still had 4 knots of current going against us, amidst standing waves of about 2 feet. Very impressive entry and even prettier than we would have thought. After a swim in the crystal blue water, we had a celebratory gin and tonic, an early dinner and an early night. Odd to walk on the boat without it being heeled over and we all slept like a baby in this very serene anchorage.

Today is Sunday and after a few clean up chores we headed over to shore at 8:00a.m. and Peter & I went to the local church service while Shelby and Doug meandered the one and only street. The service was excellent, as everyone puts on their Sunday best and greets each and every person. Why I enjoy going is to see the locals all together and experience their culture. I definitely have been to church more often during these past few cruising years than I ever have in my entire life. It's so interesting to see the different traditions and to feel a part of the islands.

We are having a bit of an issue with our watermaker, so Peter is holed up in our work room to try to fix it. I managed to get in two loads of laundry before it went kaput. Doug and Shelby have gone off on a dinghy/snorkel trip while we do some work around here - including this blog update (tough life I know!).

We will spend the week here exploring a few atolls and then we have one final crossing (only 2 nights) to Tahiti where we will plan to arrive on Sunday, August 9th. I will do the next update on my regular Friday routine, which is Friday, August 6th if I'm able to get a connection. No luck today with the internet, so it all depends on whether we can hook up through the ham radio.

Anyway, we are safe and happy with another memorable crossing under our belt.

Have a great week. Aurevoir.

Until next time.......take time to smell the roses.