May 14

Today we were busy bees. Jordan and Jonah went to fill our gasoline jugs which we use for our outboard. They apparently had lots of fun and even found a pirate ship - actually just a big black ketch. They came back and picked me up to go to town. We went to the bank for cash. Then we had an exhausting hot walk to the Hardware store. It is behind the town in the hills - we got there just as they were closing so we hurried and I hardly got to poke around. Jonah was a trooper but we promised we would hitch back. We waved the first thing down which happened to be the school bus (empty). The school bus was a truck with a wooden frame on the back with wood benches. Jonah loved it and the guy drove us all the way to the pier. We had to rinse our sea anchor which got all moldy. I walked to the snack cart and bought a chicken and rice lunch for Jonah. He refused it but Jordan ate it commenting the whole time that it was not chicken and was very fatty at that (Jordan thinks it was goat).

When we got back to the boat - we were all exhausted. I made lunch and put Jonah to bed and napped also! I think I had a touch of heat exhaustion. When you don't have a car even the most mundane tasks become difficult not to mention the heat. For example I need to buy a lot of UHT Milk (ultra high temperature pasteurized milk - it doesn't need refrigeration until opened) and I need to set aside a morning, then do I bring Jonah which will slow me down and if I take the dingy Jordan will be stuck on board etc. etc - You get the idea.

Tomorrow Jordan is ferrying diesel fuel back and forth in jerry jugs. The fuel dock has a lot of surge and seems to dangerous for a yacht - its really for big commercial ships. He will have to make 3 trips to get 50 gallons which is what we need. Our generator parts came today but it still didn't work after we installed them. Jordan is going to have Raoul come over tomorrow to try to diagnose the problem.

The weekend was lovely. We had Raoul and Claire for dinner. Jonah and Victor watched videos which are amazing to Victor as they don't have a TV on board. We had a play date on land Sunday although Jonah was a bit grumpy and I got attacked by no-seeums (small biting bugs you can barely see). I am trying to take every opportunity to let him socialize as I don't think we will see a lot of kids in the Tuamotus. Jonah has been doing well at school - we made some big strides in writing letters. He had been avoiding letters with lots of curves but he mastered B and G and can now write his last name in addition to his first name.