Wind Wind and More Wind

We actually got off the boat on Saturday for a couple of hours. We took the dinghy the mile or so to the village of Fare, the main village on Huahine and checked in with the local Gendarmes, walked around, bought some fresh food, and generally just stretched our legs. Nice little village, huge supermarket and lots of tourist style shops along the waterfront. The only downside to the trip ashore happened when we were walking back to the dinghy. I felt these two big drops on my head and just then Cathy said, whew, that bird just missed us, no it didn't. I got hit right on the head with lovely fresh birdshit. Luckily there was a public washroom right there so I managed to rinse it out of my hair before it dried. I honestly can't remember the last time that happened. When we got back to the boat, we decided to pull up anchor and motor south inside the reef to a large landlocked bay called Port Bourayne. We pushed wind a tide for an hour and a half and came into this beautiful bay. There were 7 other boats at anchor but well spread out. We ended up anchoring in about 25 meters of water so lots of chain out. Then it really started to blow and it's been doing it ever since. Basically the last 4 days have been windy and wet as opposed to the previous two days that were just wet and windy. Overcast with rain, and too much wind to put the rain catcher out.
Huahine is actually two islands and the bridge that connects Huahine and Huahine-Iti (little Huahine) is at the bottom of the Port Bourayne. Under the bridge and you are in Maroe Bay, where we first went and didn't anchor. Sunday we took the dinghy and went over to the small village in Maroe Bay. There is a beautiful new dinghy landing and little artisan/restaurant right there. There was a bunch of kids swimming off the dock when we arrived. They motioned us in, took the lines, held on to the dinghy while we got out so we didn't fall into the sea (their words and reasoning anyways) and said they would look after the dinghy while we walked around. They were great. They took great fun in running off the dock and flipping or jumping in the water. We walked around for awhile until the rain came (again), got soaked and headed back to the boat. We did manage to do a little snorkelling on the reef near where we are anchored but it's mostly dead and not much to see. Other than that, we have been on the boat pretty much. Did a few little jobs like whipping rope ends (naughty naughty rope!), changed a fuel filter, exciting stuff. I started carving with the yellow cedar I got from Bob on North Broughton Island last year. I decided to start easy and am carving a small Inukshuk. I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along, and so far, no blood!!
I think we'll head back towards the village either today or tomorrow. Cats Paw IV arrived here on Sunday and we talked about renting a car with them for a day to tour the island. We'll see what the prices are like but splitting the cost should make it OK. The weather is SUPPOSED to get better but so far this morning I see grey skies and rain clouds. We are in the midst of a squash zone between a High and Low pressure system that just doesn't seem to want to move. Ah well, it can't be sunshine and blue skies all the time (but I'm not sure why not?)

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