You’d think we’d be exhausted from sailing, but you’d be wrong. We’re exhausted today from provisioning. Provisioning is a fancy name for shopping (and I hate shopping). We spent the afternoon shopping for stuff to get us from Point A to Point B for the next month or so. Wow. It starts with a very stormy morning. We spent some time making sure everything was tied down and even then the dinghy decided it wanted to be an airplane. I caught it flying on the halyard it was tied to as I was trying to enjoy my morning cup of coffee. After lashing it down, I returned to my coffee. Such is cruising.

Anyway, the wind finally calmed some right after lunch and we decided to take the opportunity to drop the dinghy in the water, put on the engine and go into town. We’re at Taina, which is south of Papeete and there are a couple of the best stores since Mexico. This is known as the place where you resupply for the “second half” of the trip to New Zealand. So we put the engine on the dinghy and went in. There are two major stores. One is about 200 yards to the right and the other is a quarter mile to the left from where you dinghy in to shore. We decided we’d go to the closer one to the right and get the heavy canned goods kind of stuff and see if we could fulfill our list. We did pretty well, but when we got back to Charisma and unloaded everything, Ann convinced me we should “suck it up” and go back in and finish buying. Sigh! So, back into the dinghy, back into the little marina dock and the ¼ mile hike to the left. Of course each of these hikes no matter how short are much longer coming back with 40 pounds of food that we’re carrying in backpacks and cloth bags. Not my favorite chore. Neither is getting back to the boat with all that crap and having to haul it aboard, then washing it, carrying it below and then stowing it. I know; complain, complain. Ann really does most of the work, but it’s tedious and I’m not fond of it. Maybe she can add her perspective here:

***Ann’s perspective. Suck it up buddy! This is what I spent weeks doing in Mexico with only me to carry all of this AND I was riding the bus to most locations. This was child’s play!*** Ouch! So, other than that, we’re ready to get back to sea for an overnight run to Huahine (pronounced; “wahinee”). 90 miles. We’re hoping the weather will be nicer tomorrow so we can leave and enjoy the trip instead of slam our way there which would have been the case if we left today with the big wind and seas. One nice thing about cruising is you can leave when the weather is good instead of on a schedule!

But in the meantime (i.e. right now!) I’m going to invent a new drink! Today we bought a cheap Baily’s Irish Crème knockoff that I’m going to mix with some nice Anejo Cuban rum. I think in the spirit of the ship, whereby we call our sunset cocktail a “Charisma” we’ll call this nightcap “Charming”.

Bon soir!