Baie Athauku

Friday 5/1/13 03:30 09 48.171 S 139 01.857 W http://maps.google.com/?z=7&t=k&q=loc:09 48.171S 139 01.857W Baie Athauku Blog posting by Dennis: I am having a hard time adjusting to the time it gets dark by 6:30 at night and then is light at 5:30 in the morning. I want to go to bed to follow the sun. I just don’t need twelve hours of sleep. Unlike Chile there are lots of Americans and Canadians here. A couple of days ago we were talking to a couple that were from Vancouver area and were crewing on a Shannon 38 pilot house. It was a 1979 and was still in pretty good shape. You know how everyone always said that I was anal about everything, well, all the boaters that make it here seem to be anal too, I fit right in. Barb and I decided that if you are not a little anal you just won’t make it this far. The islands here at truly beautiful. They tend to be so lush and green. The people seem to have a lot of pride in their homes and yards. I am amazed at the number of cars, considering that there is really nowhere to go. Here on Hiva Oa there can’t be more than thirty miles of roads and everyone has Landrovers and I even saw a Hummer. Last night we were walking to the restaurant to have pizza when a woman stopped and offered us a ride. It was an old rusted out Susuki that I climbed into the back of and Barb got the front seat. As we chugged up the mild hill and when around a corner Barbs door flew open, the woman driving did not seem to pay hardly any attention she just pulled over walked around the car and used both hands to lift the door up as she slammed it closed. Any way the two mile walk turned into an adventure all on its own. The pizza was great, the first time we have eaten out in six weeks. We have hired an agent to get our paperwork through customs. It seems like that is the easiest way to get it done and that way we are hoping that we will not have to post a bond. Everyone uses the same woman and you just call her on the VHF radio and she comes down to the harbor and you fill out the paper work. After that we headed to the bank to get some Polynesie Francaises, but it was just after twelve and they were closed until 1:30 so we wondered around town. Almost everything was closed until two in the afternoon, it didn’t matter because we did not have any money anyway. Once the bank opened we exchange our cash and then headed to the bakery and bought some fresh baguette and a couple dozen eggs.