This morning we did laundry aboard and charged batteries. Then Jonah had school and I relaxed in the cockpit reading a book. After that, we got in the dinghy and motored around to Taipi Vai the next bay over. It took about an hour and was a wet ride at times. When we got into the bay we saw only one boat at anchor. Landing was easy as there was only a gentle surf. The sand here is black volcanic not like a white coral beach. We walked down a dirt road about a half mile or more and crossed a bridge over a river and we were in the village. The vegetation was lush with trees dripping breadfruit, mangos and bananas and something we saw on Ua Pou called "Noonie" which is used to brew some kind of medicinal herb drink (which apparently tastes awful).

In the town we saw the big town center/meeting house and Church, several small houses and many horses. We saw a group of men playing Petanque, the French version of Bacci. We found a small store but it was not open then we walked on and found a small "snack" (as in Snack Bar which in French Polynesia can apparently be anything from a small shack with benches to a nice restaurant with a printed menu. This one was a shack and had few things. We got some cold sodas and Kate got a piece of tapioca cake, which Jonah would not touch, and I got a banana ice cream cone which Jonah would not touch. That's when the screaming started. Jonah wailed how he wanted a different flavor but there were no other flavors. We had to practically drag him out of there kicking and screaming. Some days...

When we got back to the beach we found four other boats had anchored there. One was Etak whom we had met briefly in Atuona so we stopped to chat a bit. When we finally got back around to Hooumi we were pleased to see no one else had yet discovered our private little bay, though it was more calm here then in Taipivai.