Life in the City

Another week has come and gone! Time is flying by and we don't sem to be doing much. Our friends got their boat hauled out Wednesday morning and the damage, although ugly is repairable and not excessively expensive. They took us out to dinner as a thank you for following them here and getting their anchor unstuck in Manihi. They chose a restaurant from Lonely Planet, billed as a chic French Bistro serving lunch and dinner. They didn't serve dinner! They did however recommend a nice restaurant just around the corner and we thoroughly enjoyed it. One meal out was enough. Prices are comparable to Europe in just about everything. Eggs are $7.00 a dozen, cereal $6-$7 a box, but bread is cheap. We got a tax free exemption for our diesel so the price is actually less than you are paying in Canada, a small win. We have wandered around the city, experiencing the local market and local transportation. The cheapest ride into town is on "le Truck Bus" A fixed wheelbase truck with seating built onto the truck bed. There are two benches, one on either side, with a roof and simple windows. I'll get some pictures before we leave and post them to the web site. I did manage to get all the pictures from the trip so far to the web site last week. We had to do a few repairs while here. The raw water pump for the motor started leaking so I had to get that rebuilt. Cathy managed to sew out spinnaker back together so we have a light air sail again. This morning, I started the motor to top of the batteries and the oil warning light came on. I changed the changed the oil and filter (most likely cause of the alarm is a blocked filter). That didn't work. I checked the pressure switch, that seemed fine. I finally found the problem, the wire going to the oil level sensor on the oil pan had come loose. I think I've managed to get it sorted out, at least for now. We'll see how long my repair lasts. No big deal, there is no oil leak but when the wire works loose it sets the alarm off, annoying. Cathy also managed to make a bit of cash while here. Our friends that we followed here needed their dodger re-stitched so asked Cathy if she would do and they would pay her rather than [ay the prices here for it. 10 hours of work and we have a few spare dollars. We are planning on going to see some typical Tahitian dancing tonight with he Kiwi couple that leant us their spare antenna tuner for our radio. That's the other thing, we got the new tuner and it's installed and working fine. The price of paradise though is that we by the time all the shipping and hanlding fees were paid, the tuner cost double what it we would have paid if we were in North America. Oh well…..

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com