big welcome home celebration in Raratonga!

we lucked out!! on Tuesday August18, a wooden canoe type catamaran sailed home from a Samoa!t he whole town there, and shops even closed up for the celebration.the boat is very basic, all wood and they are using was out to celebrate them coming home!! they were gone a total of 3 weeks and it took them 1 week from Samoa toRaratonga.regular polypropolyne rope for standing rigging! made all of us cruisers think -"wow, if they can do it in that boat , then I guess we are okay with our boats"
it was great to be there for the big welcoming!! thats what we want we we come home. tee hee the crew is all in blue , they had the cheif say some speech in their language and boy the singing!!! absolutely amazing, so all of you practise up, cause singing us in would be so neat.





the drumming was something else too!! love the drumming, Annette, you would love it too!!











this the cook money, cool isn't it. they even have a $3 bill and yep that is what you think it is on the $1 coin!!

still here!!

o


well I've been back here for a week now, and my Vancouver visit seems so long ago. We did the saturday market , bought lots of fresh fruit and veggies and even my islander princess crown!! Even got Marilyn off of Tin soldier to get one! this was Malachi's first visit and Ovive showed up just after lunch so now all three boats are here together again. Sunday was a birthday party for Jared on Tin soldier, all the kids , and let me tell you there were a lot ( 6boats) all had a great time and even went to the Cinema, yes they have one here! the kids saw Indiana Jones The Crystal Skull, $5 NZ dollars each .... so cheap!!!! us adults played a new card game call Tarrot - its a French game and I won!! not bad for just learning. neat game. every hand you end up changing partners but don't neccessarily know who your partner is until the last hand!! very exciting. We are planning to leave around Wednesday. that is when the wind is in our favour. our next stop is Beverage reef. supposed to be good snorkeling there and besides you are anchored out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean how cool is that, but no internet... go figure. then we will be at Nuie, then Tonga. Maya at the market wearing the island princess crown.


here are a few photos from French Polynesia, this is the chart from Tahiti to Bora Bora .
these are my prize students withthe beaded bags they made. Natalie is on the far right and that her mom and sister in law.

and these are the bags , mine is the blue one on the right, that I made for Natalie ( O'Vive)
Malachi Marg and Jenny made 2 as well. thanks Annette for teaching me how to make these, they all love them and we are making more!!

cook islands still

to all that didn't know I was back in Vancouver for my sisters wedding. had a great time , too short though to see everyone. Steve and the kids stayed here in Raratonga and had a blast. they toured around the island on the scooter that Dorothy Marie rented... Steve taking each kid a turn, it took one hour to circle the island. very beautiful here.

my sisters wedding was beautiful and I am so glad I made it..

When I got back here to the cooks i had quite the greeting!! not just my family either ( I was definetly missed and I sure missed them- here is my home!!) It was like Christmas here for all that I brought back stuff for!! Steve then took me for a tour around the island on the scooter, what fun we had. even stopped for a "date" of milkshake and fries!!!
Kyle has finally cut his hair! What do you think?

the parade In Raratonga Cook Islands

this is how all the boats are tied to the dock , its a very small harbour!! and very rocky!







the cruisers had a blast in the parade!!

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