Moorea Maintenance

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, one of the biggest French holidays of the year. According to Lonely Planet, when a holiday falls on a Saturday, everything is closed the Friday before. Since (we assumed, at least) everything was closed, the plan for today was to do some boat chores, then go snorkeling.

Conditions were ideal for several chores. It is much easier to change fuel filters when the tanks are full and when you are in a calm anchorage, so Eric changed all the fuel filters aboard. Christi assisted. Continue reading

The 8kw Generator Choice

Time for boating tech talk”¦

When buying the Nordhavn 43 you get to choose the size of diesel powered electric generator. The options are 8 kilowatt (kw) (66 amps at 120v), 9kw (75 amps), 10kw (83 amps), 12kw (100 amps), or even no generator at all. The short answer is we chose the 8kw and are happy with the choice for the way we use the boat, as live aboard cruisers not connected to shore power. The reason takes a bit of explanation. Continue reading

Fakarava to Tahiti

We started the day with another run through the pass during the morning incoming tide. The wind was blowing at 22 knots, so the wind kept blowing us away from the coral wall. We had to get in the dinghy and motor back over to the coal wall a couple of times. Conveniently, we were more sheltered from the wind halfway through the pass where the snorkeling is best, anyway. The rest of the ride was fun. We did it again, this time starting at the sheltered spot instead of all the way at the edge of the ocean. There seemed to be less fish out today than in the previous two. Guess the sharks were hungry last night. Continue reading

Touring Paeua, Manihi

Tuesday June 5, 2007 Manihi: 14-28 S by 146-02 W. First thing this morning some divers came and freed the two trapped sail boats. The third boat also pulled up anchor and left, leaving Kosmos alone in the anchorage. The dive shop is located on the hotel grounds, and Richard caught a ride with the divers back to the hotel. He decided to spend his last couple nights in the lap of luxury. So now it is just the two of us in this super romantic setting. Nice.

This afternoon we went into town. The main town on the island is called Paeua and it is on the south side. While the land consists of a ring around a lagoon, there are breaks in the land that naturally separate one town from another. Here you need a boat to get around the island, and we have seen what look to be public transportation boats. We are guessing Paeua is a couple miles long and about a quarter mile wide. Paeua ends on the west side at the channel entrance and at the east side near where we are anchored, where the land is too low to build on. Continue reading