Arrived at Fakarava

Hello All,
I know its been a few days since you have heard from me,I have just been busy visiting with my fellow cruisers. We had a good crossing to Fakarava, the wind was a little light but the seas were calm so the boat moved right along. We arrived here at 1300 on the 2nd of May. We caught the pass right at slack water so entry was a breeze. We got to the anchorage and saw the Infinity was here. We haven't seen that boat since Nuku Hiva. Tobias made a few friends on board so after we anchored he jumped in the water and swam over to say hello. That evening we were invited for dinner on a 56 foot trauller that is going around the world. The owner Brian is from the Seattle area and is a real character so we had a nice visit. There were several other boats invited for the BBQ so we got to meet a few more folks. Yesterday we made it into town and looked around. It is the biggest town on the atoll so there are a few stores and a post office. It is a very clean town and the locals are pretty friendly. Last night we were invited for dinner on Infinity, I think the whole anchorage was there and they even had a local band set up on the stern so we got to dance on deck. I don't know if you remember me talking about this boat a while back. It is a 120 foot ketch with a crew of 16 people. Steve and Trish made it in yesterday morning so they were there having a good time as well.
We met 3 guys from Utah yesterday that just started sailing in September. They bought a 36 foot sailboat in Long Beach and worked on it and got it all ready to go and headed out all the way down the Mexican coast then to the Galapagos Islands then to French Polynesia. Not to bad for coming from the desert. We had them over for dinner tonight and had a nice visit. Tobias jumped on the Infinity for a few days, they were headed down to the south pass about 40 miles from here to do some diving. They will return on Saturday.
Delphine and I will just hang out here at the anchorage, I may even get a book read.
Okay, now you know what I have been doing I will tell you how this beautiful day got started. Sometime last night my raft from the wind waves knocked my swim latter off the side of the boat. When I got up this morning I looked and thought,Oh crap, Davey Jones strikes again. I thought it floated so I was looking behind to see if I could see any thing in the water or on the beach a 1/4 mile away.I didn't see a thing so I told Delphine to get ready, we will go to town and get baguettes and look for the latter on the beach. We looked a little from the boat and she said lets go in and i will walk the beach and you can get the baguettes. Okay deal, so i found a little concrete wharf that was by the big dock and we pulled the boat up and out of the water. I went to the store to get the bread, when I returned i saw the raft was missing. I looked around and saw it was tied to the big dock about a 100 yards away. When I got there I saw the outboard under water and the raft was loosing air badly. Who ever moved our raft was careless and holed it some how. I saw the Infinity dingy coming over to pick up Tobias off my boat and flagged them down. We towed my raft back to the boat and I got it out of the water. I spent all day patching the hole and getting all the water out of the outboard and got it to run again. Delphine didn't find the latter on her walk and now she was stranded on the dock. She hitched a ride to the boat with a fellow cruiser. I figured that wharf I landed the boat on must have been private and I am sure they probably didn't even realize they put a hole in it when they moved it. As for the latter, it is still missing. I thought maybe it sunk under the boat so the 3 guys we had over for dinner dove down with there snorkel gear but couldn't find it. Oh well, I guess I will put it on the missing list. I may take my bike to town tomorrow and explore. There are a few roads here so it will be fun to have wheels again.
I will talk to you all soon.


PEACE