We’re just taking it easy today. No adventures or anything. Did a few boat projects, Ann did the laundry (which is actually a huge undertaking), I dove on the anchor (more on that below) and we rowed ashore for a little walk. We’re getting ready to leave tomorrow morning and sail the 20 miles down to Taiohae Bay on the south side of the island. That is the largest town out here and best chance to provision for the next month that we’ll spend in the Tuamotus. We won’t find much in the way of fresh anything there, so whatever we can carry and keep is what we’ll have. Otherwise, it’s pasta, potatoes, well, you get the picture. We also need fuel and it’s the only semi-reliable place in the Marquesas to get it.

About the anchor- several other boats in our little bay had a hard time getting their anchors up. Apparently their chain tangled on rock. One boat needed a diver from one of the other boats. He spent more than ½ an hour under water trying to untangle things. Word has it that as long as you are in 40 feet of water, you’re over sand, but closer in and you get the coral/rock problem. We dropped just in 40 feet, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Everyone else including our friends on Orcinius who are behind us and closer in, have had problems. Orcinius and we have agreed to leave at the same time tomorrow. That way if one has a problem, the other can hang around and help. There’s no-one else except a couple other boats and nothing on shore. Not like you can call the tow truck.

I’m making some curry dinner right now since we were lucky to find a couple eggplants and some onions and string beans! They are the long French kind. I’m sautéing the eggplant, onion, a wild pepper, and tomatoes we found from a local who grew them, in olive oil and coconut milk. Later I’ll add some of Ann’s home-made yogurt, curry powder, then serve over rice. Fried bananas in coconut cream on the side. Unbelievably we’re getting close to out of bananas. The last two days we’ve collected a dozen mangoes though, so soon we’ll have a “mango problem” as they all ripen. I’ll probably be making some mango curry. I think we may have also collected enough limes to get us to Tahiti. There are lots of wild lime trees, so we procured a small backpack full. People tell us we may be able to trade for stuff with the limes when we’re in Tuamotus.

While the curry was simmering, we stopped for evening Charismas. The Australian boat, Samba, that was near us stopped by to share some vegetable news with us. Apparently they hiked around the bay to the west and found a vegetable gardener. So they are going around the anchorage telling everyone. They also had some books to share with us so Pete took our thumb drive and brought back some good books. Unfortunately, both boats suddenly seemed to be closer than normal. Could be a wind change or that one of our anchors had come unhooked from a coral head. We let Pete know that we would be happy to re-anchor if he felt it necessary. Politeness abounds here. Pete said he’d just watch it and call us if he thought it was becoming a problem. As dusk was setting we decided, why wait? So in a half of an hour’s time we pulled up our anchor, moved and re-anchored further out so we all could sleep better. Not bad.