orca on the move to the cook islands

hey there everyone!!
our position is 17* 18'S 153* 10'W speed is 4.8 knts ( motor sailing) compass 237T. we just started the engine as the wind died down, we had good wind last night sailed at 6-7 knots. Dorothy Marie is with us again and we have 2 other boats with us as well, Tin Soldier ( canadian) and SAnd Dancer ( Aussie/British) we have had a great sail all day yesterday!!, beautilful sunset, moon rise and sunrise so far!! we have traveled 94 nm in 20 hrs so we should make our 100 nms for 24 hr .

we had a big pancake breakfast aboard Orca III on Sunday am, Malachi, Dorothy Marie, Tin Soldier, Warm Rain - great time and fantastic pancakes! I love doing those breakfasts. ( hey Spruce Harbour time for a pancake breakfast if you haven't already had one!!) after that we went and out to the reef and swam with the stingrays. the rays here are not as friendly as the ones on Moorea, so we were not as relaxed!!! they sure have long tails!! so instead we came back to the boats and the kids all swam.
Maya learned how to dive ( back dive) and Emma is swimming in the ocean without her life jacket . she also learned how to dive . then the kids had a movie night aboard Tin Soldier and the adults on Orca ( we were supposed to play "oh Helll'0 but our generator puked ( steve's words) its oil , so instead Steve fixed that and Jay ( malachi) helped. its all fixed and working well.

we pulled anchor from Bora Bora Monday July 28 at 9:45 am . the kids and I all went for a swim in the morning before we left!! they are such great swimmers now, Kyle can free dive quite deep! scares me sometimes.

this so far has been a nice passage, hope it keeps up, I know they are calling for more wind and bigger seas, just hope not to much

take care
we caught 2 maui maui fish!!
Dionne

Trivia Question #210

Look closely....... A) what is Steve pulling to flush the urinal? ( remember the Polynesias love their fertillity parts!!) this is in the mens bathroom .......... B) where should this really be? hahah have fun, just in case you don't know if you click on the pictures you can make them bigger...... until next time - Live, LOVE Laugh!! bonus question..... who's line is this? kind of unfair of me as it is one of my family........

Bora Bora - Bloody Marys

Tremblay Troup of Orca III!


this is the famous restaurant in French Polenysia, lots of famous people have been here. Excellent food and drinks, and the whole place looks so cool,
the rock fountain is actually where you wash your hands in the bathroom!
Steve and I with " the Dorothy Marie and Tin Soldier" ate dinner here! what great food!!! we had the striped marlin and boy was it good. mine never tasted that good! instead of a coat check they have a shoe check!! sand floors!

we spent the day swimming, I snorkeled with Glenn, Sally, Marg, and the couple from "Shilling"it is so beautiful here. Dorothy Marie will be crossing with us to the Cooks, just like old times - along with Shilling and this time Tin Soldier. Malachi will follow a few days later and O"vive not until after the 11th of August..... we look forward to catching up together again in the Cooks! We are planning on leaving Monday morning. ( July 28) hope to be there in about 5 days. cross your fingers for a nice passage for us, not to big of waves and just enough wind to have us sail around 5-6 knotts. We have enjoyed out time in FRench Polynesia but look forward to English being the primary language. it has been 7.5 months since we have been in an English speaking country! time to rest the brain!!! from here on down its English ( and various Polynesian dialects)

Tahaa continued

Dave on O'vive took this picture from his mast. we all rafted up on the moorings to let us all have a chance to see the show. this is Casteele and Pax Vibiscum.



this is the dance show we got to see for free!! it was fantastic and the band was great! love those drums! and the singing..... something else . Emma watched with her eyes closed! we had been at the vanilla farm tour and then swimming all afternoon, I think we wore her out!

we went shorkeling in the pass! way to cool, lots and lots of sea urchins and it was beautiful!!

Raiatea and Ile Tahaa

this is the lagoon in Tahaa on the way to the vanilla farm

these islands are in the same atoll, Raitea being the bigger of the two and where we stock up. We lucked out tieing to the dock for free and the grociery store right there! I even bought myself some flowers from the market. Then we left to Tahaa where they have a great dance show on Tuesday nights. we had to raft up boats on the moorings as there where so many of us and a bunch of charter boats booked for the dinner and show. ( we couldn't do the dinner as it was all booked out and cost 6500 franks per person!) . We did the vanilla tour, very interesting. the vanilla bean is actually in the orchid family!


this is the vanilla bean growing on the vine


Maya and Emma smelling the drying beans! Steve checking out the grading of the beans. the small ones are shipped to USA/ Canada and the big ones to Europe. it is quite labour intensive doing the vanilla. takes 3 months to dry in the sun and they roll them up everyday to store them and then lay them out again the next day. they also pick through them every day.




faces carved into the dirt on the way to the vanilla farm..



We played music at the restaurant the first night with the Dorothy Marie and Shilling! even had my first maitai!! 1200 franks for that drink!

Isle of Huahine

Huahine
16* 43.270' S 151* 02.426"W

we arrived here around noon on the 16th . not a bad passage only 16 hrs. not much wind though so we had to motor the last half, but made water along the way. the anchoring by the village sucks! tried 3 times then finally move out by the reef. Malachi and O'Vive also had the same trouble. we are leaving to head down to the south end where its the best. the Dorothy Marie is already there waiting for us to sing and make music some more. the water here is great! everyone did some swimming yesterday and we will be doing more today. unfortuneatly there is no internet at the south end so this is it for a few days. Happy Birthday to my sisters, Dana and DAnny Lou. skype was not working so hot yesterday or today tried to call. hope you have a great day you two!! and Tim you got the trivia answer correct!! Moorea means yellow lizard in Tahitian, never did see one there but saw a lot of ones with a blue stripe down their back.

Laundry day !!
this is my washing machine and my dryer!!
not bad, eh.





this is my mango delivery serice, tee hee actually Dave and Natalie from O'Vive went to town this morning and found the fruit truck, got these mangos for 500 franks ( all ten) that is cheap!! they were selling them for 300 franks each in Papeete.

Moorea Fun!

We went to the shore and did a hike up to the great view of the whole bay, unfortuneatly the weather was cloudy and rainy so we didn't get the best view but it was still good! Steve found a great piece of banboo and plans to make a rain stick out of it!! we also played horseshoes with Dorothy Marie,Malachi,Ovive, and Free Spirit. Glenn off Dorothy Marie was the champ , the boys had a blast , even had the local kids give it a try!
We are leaving around dinner time to head for Huahinie which is about 80 nm and a 12-16 hrs sail. we are leaving at this time so we arrive during the daylight to enter the pass. Our time here on Moorea has been great, buy the way time for Trivia
Question #809 - What does Moorea mean?


here's a few words we have learned in Tahitian
Thank you - Mauruuru ( U sounds like OO)
Tahitian greeting - ia orana
dance - ori
goodbye - parahi oe
Island - motu

Swimming with the stingrays!

this is Natalie with me in the background with the ray hugging me!





here are the pictures of us with the rays! look closely , you will see how they come right up to us and almost hug us.



that,s Kyle in the red and black and white shorts touching the ray

Moorea

ys

We arrived around 10:30 am to Moorea, look at how blue the water is! NO that is not a pool , thats off the side of our boat!!










Steve, and the kids jumped in right away!! had a great time swimming. Malachi, Imagine and few others we know are here, Ovive came about 2 hrs later. then we all went to go swim with the sting rays! yep thats our dingy convoy, 6 dingys in a row!


this is the huts by where we swam with the rays, those pictures to follow as Natalie has a underwater camera and took a bunch, will get those up hopefully tomorrow. the rays come right up to our chest, and brush against you like a cat. they are so so soft!! Kyle had a bad of pieces of fish and the ray took the bag and his hand right in its mouth, lucky no bite , there mouths are so strong they crush shells no problem. great fun!!

after the festivities

we had a great time last night, although I was a little disappointed , cause I thought we were seeing a whole group of dancers at once, instead it was one at a time, but boy they were good, unfortuneatly we could not take pictures during the show. ( although I did see some flashes going off) these dancers you see now were outside doing a demo for another dance coming up . the dance competition was neat , don't know how those girls make their hips go so fast and good!! Had the men also performing and they were fantastic as well. We met up with Ovive and Dorothy Marie before the show and walked over together.. had a blast thats all of us in the group shot , except me of course! The coolest part of the evening was coming home on the "Le Truck" - turns out it was full of only us cruisers!! whats the chance of that? Even had the fellow driving stop and ask where we were going as it was the first time no one got off on the route.... funny!
had Kyle take a picture of me and Steve, not bad , eh?!

We are trying to get out of here, except Steve is still helping a fellow cruiser on Candine. off to Moorea, to catch up with Malachi
ps we are eating a lot of steak ,cause it is so cheap compared to chicken and pork, actually its even cheaper than steak back home , go figure?! ( its New Zealand beef, )

still in Papeete

,
we are still here at the anchorage, waiting for parts for a boat Steve is working on.... we checked out of here for last Friday so we are riding on borrowed time. Tonight is the opening night for the big Tahian Festival - the Polynesian Dance Competition. so I went and got us tickets!! should be fun, will post tomorrow before we leave for Moorea. How do you like Emma's hair cut?! she went real short!! shocked me, I think it looks cute, makes her look all grown up...... now my son, his is getting longer! go figure the daughter get short, the son grows it long! nice sunset, eh? right in the anchorage at Tahiti, that's Moorea in the background, we plan on going swimming with the rays soon as we get there. Malachi has been there for a few days now waiting for us and O"vive will be leaving tomorrow or the next day. They have family fly here from France and we look forward to hanging out with them. The kids took the "Le Truck" to Papeete all by their selves to see Emilie and Alec ( Ovive) apparently Emma was scared the whole way there and back , thinking they would miss the stop, but they did fine! I am looking forward to leaving here, we've been here almost 2 weeks.... thats enough time in the City for me. I like Vancouver as a City a whole lot better. nice to have a big park in the middle ...... miss that.

Canada Day 2008 Tahiti

heres Steve really digging in . look at that Cheese! Orca Canada STyle in the day. lots of boats asked what that was all for... Even heard us singing!



We had a great time with the fellow Canadians _ Malachi and Candine, we had my famous Brie Cheese! and even sang Oh Canada! Don't ya love our decorations, Kyle and Emma and Steve did them and they did a fantastic job.