It’s colder here – but only glitter cardy cold, as my friend Caroline says, and not proper NZ thermal cold. Her and her partner, Steve, joined us for a week and she’s bought a bit of glamour to the boat. Dean and I even had a shower.
Only a week to go. That’s insane. We want to come home now, but we also want the world to stay changed.
Our fancy new lure that got eaten by a fancy big fish.
A dinghy trip up the river in Baie de Uie that ended up being a highlight. It looked dumb to start with.
Drying our parachute because the sail locker got drenched.
Meet Moose, the caretaker of Ilot Casey in Baie de Prony. Ten years ago his owners closed down the resort on the island. They tried to take him with them but he kept jumping off the boat and swimming back to the island, so they left him there. Moose goes fishing for himself and is fed by visiting yachts. One even rigged up a water catcher for him. He seems okay. Moose had pasta and egg for breakfast, care of Pebbles.
Dean, with the help of Take Two, made my birthday very special.
This included going to Blue River National Park and sleeping in tents in trees! And going on a moonlit kayak tour with H2o Odyssee Tours. Both incredible, amazing things to do. Kind of ironic though – we leave the boat for two days to swing in trees and go on water.
We really have no idea where we go most of the time.
Then it was off to Isle de Pines in the south. Picture perfect.
Complete with old jail, where “the massive exile on Isle of Pines of simple offenders answered two major idea – bame those who tried to overtake the French Government power and endorse the sum of money being spent by the French to build the island…”
The local markets at Vao included a selection of French pastries and things…Dean chose one of each. Best breakfast we’ve ever had.
Joined by Wellington friends, Caroline and Stephen – great cruising guests because they did all the dishes.
One good thing about the French being here is that they build nice things.
The confession booth is a broom cupboard.
A favourite morning thing…feeding baby sharks. They cling to the bottom of your boat and come out when we throw bread in. I’ve stopped doing this now because we’re leaving a trail of celiac sharks.
View from Mato Island in the southern lagoon area. It was very windy and quite a risk to navigate the reef systems (and the first time we’d anchored on a lee shore), but worth the fear.
Adventurers.
Sailing is Not Scary 