Saturday, May 26, 2007 – Today is the last time we will be able to send pictures for a few weeks. Currently, we are in “civilization” where there is an internet café’ (it is a slow and somewhat inconsistent connection, but it is something). Tomorrow we will be heading out to go island hopping. It is extremely unlikely that we will find an internet café on any island between here and Tahiti. So, back to text only updates.

On a similar note, if you email us, please try to keep the message small. Please use plain text instead of HTML (for those of you that use outlook, there is a box in the middle, top of the screen under the toolbar that says HTML. You click on the drop down to change it to plain text). If you are replying to us, please delete the old email entirely. Please don’t send any pictures in your email. Please do not send attachments. And don’t get upset if we don’t respond right away!

To our friends and family, please remember that this website is public and we have a lot of readers that we have never met before. At least 1/3 of the people that post are people we don’t know. So, before you post, just take a moment to think about whether we would want the entire world, especially strangers, to know that particular information. If the answer is “maybe not”, please send an email instead.

So”¦ onto our day. We spent the morning cleaning the boat and some Internet stuff. Five French officials pulled up in a dinghy and boarded us. They asked us the typical questions. They spoke great English and were very nice. Once they were done questioning, Eric gave them a boat tour. We suspect the reason we were singled out may have been because our boat is so unique.

Then we went to land to go grocery shopping to stock up on perishables and Tim Tams. Here is Christi bailing water out of the dinghy. It rains daily here, so we have to bail water daily.

In the evening we went to a traditional Marquesan dinner thrown by the wonderful Ms. Rose Corser. We were surprised when we rode the dinghy in to see so many people around. I guess everyone comes out on Saturday night. On the way to Rose’s restaurant, we stopped in to the catholic cathedral just to sightsee. There was a service going on, so we sat in for a few minutes.

Dinner was good. It was a buffet with: goat in coconut milk (good), chicken with taro leaves (tastes like cooked spinach), three kinds of bananas prepared three different ways (one was really good, one good, one OK), breadfruit (texture like cheese and no taste at all), fermented breadfruit & coconut milk (an acquired taste, like beer), raw fish in coconut milk (yummy), raw fish Chinese style (good), tropical fruit salad (good) and a banana and manioc cake (good). There were some musicians that played traditional music during dinner. After dinner, a dance group came out and performed some traditional dances. The choreography was fabulous and the costumes were neat. It was a real treat to be able to watch them.

Eric and Christi got dance lessons

The cruisers are all fascinated by Kosmos. They all love to ask technical questions. The cruisers talked Eric’s ear off all night. About 1/3 of the group were cruisers, and the other 2/3 were people from NOAA. The NOAA ship pulled in a couple days ago to give the crew some R&R. They are putting out new weather buoys and servicing existing buoys in various parts of the ocean. Christi had a fascinating chat with three of the scientists aboard about their work. Richard actually got to tour the NOAA boat yesterday morning, which he enjoyed.

On the way back to Kosmos, two very large, very drunk teenage boys approached us. We were a little nervous at first, but we withheld our reservations when they got a little closer than we would have preferred. Turns out one of the boys simply wanted to practice his English. His English was actually pretty good once we got used to the drunken slur. He chatted animatedly and swayed a bit. Christi was prepared to help break his fall if he fell over, but fortunately, he didn’t. It was actually very entertaining.

And, once again, another successful dingy ride in the dark. Yes!