[password] pilot25041
[position] 17 21.16s 150. 00.5w
[status] Friday ...... and nearly a week since our last blog ..... we got back to Papeete at lunchtime on Sunday and were very fortunate to get a berth in Papeete Marina as it made resupplying and airport change overs a lot easier. Barry & Ruth departed to a hotel for 3 days, Mitch returned home on Tuesday, Allan & Lyn were busy with the boat, getting the empty gas bottle recharged (not easy as it has to go to another island and takes 3 days), visiting customs and sorting final departure paperwork for 14th Aug when we ultimately depart from these shores for our return to NZ voyage.

Ruth caught her flight to the UK late on Wednesday evening and Jan & Ron arrived on the same aircraft, so back up to a crew of five for our next adventures. Jan & Ron brought out new fridge controllers, so we've now resurrected the inside freezer, which has been adjusted to become a fridge, the bottom and top fridges have been swopped over to prevent excessive bending and we'll wait until we can source a fridge expert before doing anything further with the old 'top' fridge, we also completed the servicing of the port engine. We left Papeete yesterday just before lunch and after waiting at the entrance for a large container ship to enter through the narrow 'pass' had a very pleasant sail across to Cook Bay on Moorea. We sailed past a large catamaran 'Hemisphere' in the bay (48m long by 16m wide) wider than Surreal is long, the stairs at the stern wouldn't have looked out of place in a country mansion or palace ..... obviously no envy!

Anyway this morning it was an early start ...... well at 7am we started engines and lifted the anchor as we've 85nm to cover to get to Huahine ...... currently sailing with full main and genoa in 16-18kts breeze and making 7-8kts over the ground. A bit of a swell is making us corkscrew downwind which is not to the liking of the 'new' crew, hopefully some tablets will sort that out! As we left Moorea, the hills looked absolutely fantastic it was the first time we have seen them with a completely clear sky, giving brilliant definition to all the peaks and pointy bits!f

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