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Monday, May 10, 2010

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm sending wishes for a very happy Mother's Day to my favorite mothers and hope you are doing something special to celebrate. This morning John made our usual Sunday pancakes (which we've missed for several weeks in a row for some reason) and now we're running the noisy generator to charge our batteries. I'll clean the carpets and sweep the floor while it's still relatively cool (0700 cabin temp is 82 degrees) and breezy. Then I need to get the sewing machine out from behind the stock of toiletries so that John can sew up a new rain catcher. We had a big black rain cloud pass through just before sunset last night which was bad timing as we had just showered and started an early dinner, and I didn't feel like getting out and wiping everything down to get rid of the salt buildup from the passage. By this morning everything was bone dry as a result of the wind which is blasting across the Pacific.

The anchorage behind the atoll has only a little wind chop (no rocker stopper!), while out behind us white caps are raging in the lagoon. My vision of a tropical island paradise didn't include this much wind (which makes it hard to see down into the clear blue water!), but we're thankful for it since there are no mountains here to shade us from the hot sun early mornings and late afternoons. The wind is forecast to diminish over the next couple of days. If it calms down by this afternoon, we'll take the dinghy three miles through the lagoon to an abandoned village where cistern water might be available for washing clothes.

It's absolutely gorgeous and lives up to all the pictures. We're looking forward to snorkeling some of the coral reef today in spite of the black-tip puppies (which John neglected to mention are all of only 3-4 feet long). We quizzed our neighbors on Visions of Johanna and they assured us they weren't bothered by them when they snorkeled yesterday.

We'll be here for a few more days after which a change in the weather will probably send us to Fakarava for better protection.

Linda

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