Today we awoke early as usual with Jonah shouting and carrying on at 6am. Kate put a video on for him and we went back to sleep till 7:30. After we charged batteries for an hour and put on the sail cover, dropped the dink in the water and generally cleaned up a bit we rowed into town. We deposited our garbage and proceeded to the Gendarmerie (police station).

Boats are required to check in with the local Gendarme at each island they visit. Unlike in Mexico there is no fee associated with this. We simply filled out a form with the boat name, last and next port and crew list with passport numbers and we were on our way. In fact, the officer gave us a ride down the road about 1km to the grocery store where we picked up a few odds and ends. We got some of the excellent "local" pineapple juice (grown and bottled on Moorea in the Society Islands), some tomatoes and pears (they had no other fruit or veggies for sale at this store) some spaghetti sauce (Barilla, imported from Italy at about $5US a pint) some peanut oil (essential for wok cooking and hard to find generally) and some cookies for Jonah. We also got a couple of cold sodas and stopped at another store to get 2 French breads. There is a bakery but we were too heavily laden by the time we hot through at the store so we will stop there tomorrow.

It is so beautiful here it is hard to describe. The island is capped with spires and jagged peaks, huge boulders and other rock formations. But everything is covered in a thick green carpet. Palm trees are everywhere loaded with coconuts and white puffy clouds float by lazily. Not even close. Its really amazing. As on Hiva-Oa and Tahuata the locals always smile when they pass and greet everyone with a friendly Bon jour.

Whoops, just noticed the boat rolling a bit more then it went up top to see our stern had moved about 50 degrees - the stern anchor had come loose. We re-set it and all is well now - we are back in position, pointing into the incoming swells and riding comfortably again!