Last night I noticed another boat nearby with 2 kids playing. Jonah and I got in the dinghy and buzzed over there for a quick recon. We were invited aboard and Jonah quickly made friends with 2 boys Ben (6) and Jesse (4). What luck! The boat is from Australia and they are on their way home after a 4 year circumnavigation - their boat name is "Bif Roast" which is apparently an Australian affectation meaning "Roast Beef" - they are strange those Aussies <g>. This morning Kate took Jonah over there to introduce herself and she came back alone. Seems they are on their way to the beach nearby and offered to take Jonah with them. Kate feigned indecision and then left him there! Ahhh, peace and quiet.

Yesterday I went to shore to phone FedEx to see about our generator end we have been expecting and lo and behold they reported it had arrived, but was stuck in customs (which is normal). The woman at FedEx already has our documentation (passports, boat document, entry permits, etc.) and will have her agent go over to Customs (at the airport of course) and retrieve it this morning. Hopefully we will go into town this afternoon and pick it up from the FedEx office. One wrinkle is that we still have the gen end we got from Australia (which was 50hz not 60hz as we need). This means we have to bring it with us on the bus to Papeete and then unpack the new one and put the Australian one in the box (the original box it came in was damaged and has been discarded). Then we have to take it to the Post Office to ship it to Australia - no reason to pay FedEx to ship it fast, they are in no rush to receive it back. Did I mention these things weigh about 75lbs?

Once we make it back to the boat we then have to install it. This involves (of course) emptying the port cockpit locker, removing the old generator end (which is no small feat itself) and then finally installing the new one. We have already begun the process and have the cockpit locker empty. I am about to go up and begin removing the old generator end from the genset. Not much fun today, but if all goes well, by nightfall we may have our generator up and running for the first time since April! Though who knows how long that will last.