From the Captain's Consort

Dad is snoring in my bunk so I guess I'll make this short.  Had a windy night last night and dad and were squashed up in the main bunk so neither of us slept that well.  After breakfast we motored out to the lagoon and dad rowed us out halfway to the reef to an area with a lot of coral and boulders which is where all the sea life pretty much hangs out.

Snorkelled around for about 45 minutes until I got a faceful of seawater and couldn't see because my eyes were burning too much.  I swam back to the boat and by playing porpoise I was able to pull myself partway up the ladder but needed a boost to get on the boat stairs.  Dad spent the afternoon building wooden boat stairs to hang below the last step on the back of the boat so I can get myself in hopefully.  If so, that will be great.  I don't stay out as long as I'd like because I'm always afraid I'll be too tired to haul myself up onto the boat.  It happened when I was 28, it could happen again.

Saw lots of neat stuff including a fish whose colours changed with it's position in the ocean and a pair of clams in a boulder one of which was turquoise and the other purple/blue.  So amazing!  After the swim I was too tired to go to shore to shop and the wind came up and dad got worried so we went back into the bay.

Later in the afternoon we rowed to shore against the wind, had our coffee and ice cream and got meat and carrots for dinner and another 750 ml jar of Nutella (the fourth since I got here and I barely eat the stuff but dad keeps getting it for me!)  What a goof.

Had a good chat with Gerry this evening and got a contact with a ham in Long Beach California who was surprised to be talking to Moorea on his little wire antenna.

Listened to drumming while I made dinner.  I think the locals had a show going for the tourists at the Bali Hai Club.  A little sorry I won't see it but not enough to make the effort to get out and go.

Finished my book while dad fiddled with emails so I can't find any of mine in the program anymore.  Glad I've emailed myself copies of stuff on gmail.  Music is blasting across the water.  I'm going to settle down to Eureka again.

Take care.

I'll be home in a week.  Hard to believe.

Love you lots,
Mom
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At 12/07/2011 10:04 PM (utc) our position was 17°30.21'S 149°49.34'W