Arrived in Tahiti 15 september [the owner] Michael from australia had arranged a marina berth, so we could get the repairs to the water pump etc.
Tahiti has a condition of arrival that if you don't have a european passport you will have to place a bond of your airfare back to your country of your passport, on arrival. I arrived at the office on monday and encountered a very nasty offical who wanted me to get the bonds for me jetty and shelly immediately. [martin being from britian was exempt.]
Told me where to go and get bonds, require which required me to open a bank account, an extra expense, and to return the next morning with bonds paid, so he would process our arrival papers.
I arrived the next morning planning to asking for a bit more time, and there was a very friendly guy there who listened to me, I told him that we want to leave asap and we had only called in to get provisions and repairs done.
He said come back friday and I will check you in and out on friday and you wont need to bother with the bonds.
I did that, and guess what, on friday, the nasty guy was on duty and did he lose it, he went for the throat...but finally checked me in and out...after I was turned to jelly.
Tahiti has changed from my last visit 18 years ago, there was now very little interest in opposing the french presence, the presence of fast food, yes macca's there, and obesity was sadly affecting the young.
20 years ago they were testing the bomb and the military were every where.
The Tahitians were very upset with the french and hated what was happening to their islands, and a lot of the young women were coming from the outer islands in search of money from the young military frenchmen on r and r in Papatee, who ended up lost with nowhere to go.
 Their custom now, is not as strong as it was.  Shelly went surfing every day and met a fellow Tahitian surfer who worked for the water board keeping an eye on the water purity  in all of Polynesia.  He was lovely and on the weekend sat in the cockpit when not surfing, singing and playing guitar, creating a lovely atmosphere.
I got the marina general handyman to help with repairs, at lots of $ per hour, He had to redesign the pump fitting, then I got him to replace the water pump on the main engine, I was concerned that the loss of the generator meant that I was totaly dependant on the main motor for charging and keeping all the systems working. He also had to put some stitches in the genoa.
Meanwhile the crew cleaned the boat, the top sides had grown weed almost to the deck, from being washed with the ocean for 4 weeks. The provisions were put on board, and evenings were spent at happy hour at the dinghy bar.
 The cost of living here is not affordable unless you work here.  One beer in happy hour $8 aus, also this was when the market had crashed and so did the australian dollar.
The day we were to leave the money didn't come thru the credit card for the marina bill, so we stayed another day. [I ended up paying out of my mastercard the final amount. Not happy...]
On this last day it was decided to seek medical advice about an ulcer I had, for a couple of weeks on the lower leg that wouldn't go away.
Shelly went with me and we ended up in the hospital, The dr ordered it to be dressed with a space age bandage, told to leave it on for 5 days, and to see a doctor again.  I also got some antibiotics and cream for the wound, after the bandage came off and some antiseptic. This came to over $100, but well worth it. It cleaned up and healed in 2 weeks, its a very good cream called Fucidine 2%...and had the crew using it on all their wounds with great success.
 We had planned to sail direct to Niue but this was to been seen to, so Rarotonga, was next stop 6 days away.
On the Tuesday we filled the diesel tanks duty free, and sailed into the sunset for the Cook islands 663 nm away.

HERE IS MORE FROM JETTIE  ;-after mooring to the bouy at the Balboa Yacht Club .....

As instructed, we called for a water taxi on channel 06. "Balboa Yacht Harbor (repeat), water taxi to Cintana". We sat on the outside deck and watched the launch head the other way 3 times. Finally we waved a passing launch over. We soon discovered there was also a boat named "Santana" moored on the other side, so the Spanish speaking harbor workers couldn't understand why there was no one there when they arrived. Soon we worked it out and they understood when we went heavy on the "Ciiiintana. We are the boat with the "Tres Damas" (three women) so when one of us would call the response would be " Yes madam, We'll be right there"..
 
The Balboa Yacht Harbor Club is located just at the start of the long jetty that leads to the fuel and water taxi floating dock.   I met some local "Zoners", including Maribel (who teaches English to tourism call center employees) and Kalia, both were very energetic, animated, friendly and proud of their shared heritage as Zone kids and welcomed me to sit, chat and dance to the local D.J. music at the club. I had a blast and learned yet another side of the diverse culture of this area! Thanks Ladies!
 
At the Club we also met Martin Peters who has been on a 7 month back packing world tour and was presently on a boat with a man who is in ill health, and seemingly has a death wish. His boat is damp and smelly below and he was planning to sail the South Pacific with Martin who had met him on a crew finder's website and had never sailed before.

We all instantly liked Martin and (long story short) he's now part of our crew. First, he's smart, funny and personable second, we couldn't in good conscience let him make that trip with the other yachtie.
So we three are now four. Martin sleeps in the main cabin and I don't know how he's managed to pack around so much electronic equipment... laptop, ipod, big external hard drive, two cameras, cd's, and a huge assortment of associated gear. It's amazing the amount of stuff he's managed to pack in a backpack, it's like watching a magician pulling rabbit after rabbit out of a top hat!  
 
Balboa is the town directly beside the canal on the Pacific side. Panama City has a huge skyline in the distance. We did a lot of shopping in Balboa and the surrounding area but never did go into the city. There was so much to see nearby. The area adjoining the yacht harbor is a huge well-kept park. Loads of monuments to the canal and it's history are everywhere. I took some long walks in the park which is full of mango trees. I picked up several plastic bags full and blended them which gave us several freezer bags of frozen juice for rum and mango drinks! 

Martin and I had a good laugh as we hoisted Shell's Knickers up the flag line. There on one side of the boat was the Panamanian flag floating in the breeze and on the other side of the boat were Shell's bra and undies waving proudly to all. Took her several hours to notice... PRICELESS!
We finally found a dinghy to replace our stolen one but no motor so it looks like rowing is in the cards.
 
On July 30, we slipped our mooring and set sail for Galapagos.  We discovered right away that we would need to drop well below the projected course to try for the "southerlys",  and the current  was be against us most of the way   to Galapagos. Tacking back and forth in rough seas, and head winds, we  had to tack southwest toward Ecuador for a while to try to make way.  We enjoyed  Mango/Rum drinks when we crossed the equator!

 I read and recommend Jack London's "The Cruise of the Snark",  I’m also absorbing Dennis Conner's "Learn to Sail" book and I'm still looking over Shell's shoulder trying to learn navigation. Yep, my old nemesis is back... MATH (shudder)!  But I'm determined to learn!  We've also had plenty of time to watch loads of movies, many of which Martin pulled out of his ample collection. I've also spent most of my nights on watch staring at the tiny glowing organisms that light up our wake and gazing into the endless universe of stars that fill the night sky. In fact for a couple of nights we were treated to a meteor shower where I easily counted 26 in a 2 hour watch. Beautiful! I've also gotten plenty of sleep on this leg. Since Martin's joined us we now have 2 hour watches with six hours between of free time.
 
Of course no story of mine would be complete without relating the usual hilarious showering episode. I went for a salt water shower on the foredeck using the anchor washdown hose, which is a about a 4 ft. piece of garden hose with a spray nozzle used to wash the anchor chain and clean the anchor as it's winched up. Nice forceful spray, right? I had finally finished a one handed strip while holding on to the rolled up staysail, stuffed my clothes and towel under the upside dinghy, yelled for Ginny to turn on the hose pump and ... nothing. There I stood, naked, on a bouncing, rolling boat and finally a small trickle came out. I was barely even getting wet,  Luckily, I had brought a tinsy bit of fresh rain water with me in a bucket to rinse a bit of the salt water off  (which was barely enough to wet my sponge) and sat bare-assed on the deck squeezing every last drop out! Drying off wasn't a problem. I didn't even even need a towel. However, kneeling on the wooden deck and getting dressed while bouncing around was a real balancing act! Oh the fun never ends!!
 
And lest I forget... at one point, as we were watching a movie, I dashed out to check for ships and spotted several dolphins playing on the starboard side of the boat. I yelled down and everyone  ran up to the foredeck where we discovered we were in the middle of a huge pod of dolphins. There had to be a hundred or more, playing and jumping all around the boat and as far as we could see. Loads of beautiful dolphins! I took many pics and Martin filmed the whole scene which lasted about 15 minutes. It was fabulous. We were all hooting and hollering and the dolphins were jumping and "sky-hopping" and breaking the surface in ranks of a dozen or more. One white faced one was a particular show off, leaping several feet into the air many times as he charged through the waves ahead of us. Unbelievable experience for us! Perfect timing. They were everywhere around us. Riding our wake and leading the boat. I was astounded at the sheer number of them. Even the younger ones got into the act. What a gift!!
 
So, ten days later we sight land. Sailing past it's craggy, desolate, brown, tip, just before dark, we were escorted along the edge of Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos by huge terodactyl looking birds swooping overhead,  they were extra large frigate birds.  We pulled into Wreck Bay where we anchored for the night amidst local fishing and tour boats.

We play barked with the sea lions for a while, Martin and I decided it was like the male sirens of the sea, calling out ... Sheell, Sheell, calling Shell to come join them for play. I enjoyed a good night's sleep without rolling back and forth and holding on trying to stay in my bunk.  It was eerily quiet and still.  Took me a while to get to sleep. We couldn't check in at Wreck Bay or we wouldn't be able to move to Isla Santa Cruz's Academy Bay where we hope to have our generator and fridge motors repaired we lost our fridge and freezer a couple of days ago and have been eating lots of veggies before they defrost and go bad.
 
The Galapagos Islands are a territory of Ecuador and they are understandably very protective of this UNESCO World Heritage Listed "Jewel of the South Pacific". The Galapagos Islands are known the world over for their tame and unique wildlife, sea lions, birds and iguanas, living amidst a barren volcanic scenery. Made famous by Charles Darwin who visited the archipelago with the ship "Beagle" in 1835, today the islands are a national park. The islands are volcanic. Some of the volcano's are still active. The highest peak is the volcano Wolf, some 1707 meters above sea level. The vegetation is sparse but supports an incredible array of wildlife.
 
5 august   We've made the 30 mile sail to Santa Cruz, Academy Bay and we've just anchored. We're hoping to claim an "emergency stop" of 72 hours for our repairs. Hopefully we'll also be able to reprovision with water, fuel, and fresh produce before our month long sail to Tahiti.   I'm hoping to visit the Darwin Research Station where giant tortoises are being bred to revive the stocks for all the islands. I'd like to take a guided tour of the islands.

Martin, Shell Ginny and I grabbed a water taxi to shore. This is a very popular tourist area so the town is pretty large and caters to tourist needs.  We  had a great time chatting with the locals in the bars and enjoying Ecuadorian brewed pilsner beer which is the only beer available on the island.  Got great info from a local (Moab) who has offered to take us fishing this week.
 
This morning the mechanic declared our fridge motor to be "at the end of it's life" so we'll try to replace it before we leave. Luckily, last night when Ginny went ashore to check us in she found out we could stay for 20 days if we wanted. So that won't be a problem. 
 
Blue Skies and Fair Winds,
 
Jettie