… was my thought when I saw yesterday morning a manta just beside MaRe.

However, seeing it the second time I recognized, that what I saw was the white belly of normal manta. This means it was just performing playful loops under water and it reached the surface the white belly was too be seen.

I saw it about 5 – 10 times in the immediate vicinity of MaRe then it disappeared again in depth of the water in the bay. It was a mara manta with a wing span of about 120 – 150 cm.

I found back to my fitness training routine in the morning.

After an hour of studying French with an online course, I go on the foredeck for my fitness training. The app runs in a tablet and to hear it better, I use a bluetooth speaker, which my OBM gave me once as a present. The temperature is perfect. It’s warm but not hot and there is always a gentle breeze. The program, including a warm up and cool down, takes about 30 min. In steps I’ll increase it to 45 min. That’s enough.

After the training I sit for a few minutes on the foredeck for meditation. It’s very nice to feel the sun and wind on the skin. It’s so comfortable that I always want to sit longer.

Yesterday, while still sitting für meditation, a few raindrops fell and when I took my things to go into the cockpit, one of the very short rainforest rain showers started. Rain is needed on these islands here to keep the lush green.

Thereafter, shower, breakfast and back to IT work, crew search, and daily “food routine”. The IT work will be done in 2 – 3 days more, then boat jobs take over.

It was a rainy today. Rain started already last night. Whenever I opened the hatch to get fresh air into my cabin from above me, it soon started to rain and I had to close it again.

Thus, my morning first thing fitness training felt into the (rain) water but I used the time for my French lessons.

During the day rain and no rain periods took turns. Luckily during a no-rain period I could get my laundry out, the wind dried it, and I got it in again.

I wrote as the title “It’s a rainy day” but I could have called the day a “hoppla day” as well. The SE trade wind changed since a day to two ago slowly from E to SE direction. With about 5 – 6 Bft of wind outside of the bay, waves built up and a lot of swell started rolling into the Tahauku Bay. Some of the waves reach a height of meter. With the wind changing permanently or direction, the waves are often perpendicular to the wind direction. Then even MaRe rocks. Thus, a kind of a *hoppala day”.

With my IT work I could make a check mark at 3 of 5 topics today. This feels good. Two more to go.

About 2 weeks ago, I discovered that with some food container, weevils came on board again. They bite themselves through thin plastics packing and get carried on board already inside of food. (I could get rid of them very quickly.) That time, our friends of SY Anixi showed us their food containers. Weevil and other bugs safe. They use 5 l water container. I liked the idea and got such containers myself. Two are filled already with wheat grain, weevil’s favorites. The containers have a good size and I can store quite a few of them in the bilges. Also in the shelves on STB they fit pretty well. At the end I estimate I will fill 15 – 20 of these containers with food. No chance for weevils & Cie to bit through these containers’s thick walls.

I also could install during the last days a newer version of the the PredictWind Offshore App. I’m disappointed because I can’t see any improvements.
Fortunately I know s few tricks, thus I can download the data I need. However, I discovered already a while ago an alternative GRIP file download possibility with a much smaller date volume for the same sea area and other parameters. Saves me time compared to the PredictWind Offshore App.

And today was bread baking day. Thus, for dinner I had lentil stew and freshly baked bread. I love this taste.

So far about the last days on board of MaRe.

This morning, when I got up and looked outside, I felt immediately good. It was a sunny morning. The boats in the bay appeared in a light, which made them looking lighter than normally. The walls of the caldera, covered with lush green, and here and there a house, also looked easy and light. I sat in the cockpit and enjoyed it.

After a while I went to my PC to check for new mails. My working day started. Because of the focus on my work, I forgot my breakfast. I always have my breakfast but today I forgot it. When, at about 1400, my stomach started a rebellion I gave him a warm meal.

Then a round of French studies, a few Signal chats and back to work. Today, I finally could complete a spreadsheet template, necessary for administrative work. Another spreadsheet is still occupying my mind. But I will also get this work done.

The evening, it’s already past 1700, has a peaceful atmosphere in the Tahauku Bay. The sky reflects on the sea light blue and little waves are to be seen because of the shadow sides, which make a nice contrast to thev dominant light blue.

I mentioned already that I’m doing a lot of IT work these days. This is triggered and enforced on me by a tax scheme change in Japan. Thus, there are some modifications needed in the CRM I introduced in 2018 – 2021 to OBM’s company in Tokyo. Additionally, there are also some tricky modifications in spreadsheets with data from the CRM needed. This is already quite some work. On top of this, there are a few bugs in the new version of the CRM, which was introduced as s green bananas. These bugs require a lot of email communication and tests, Thus, during the last about 2 weeks, this is my main work and it will continue a bit more.

Beside this work, there are the daily boat jobs. Special boat jobs are on hold for the moment.

Nice moments got rare but still they exist. When I’m looking at the landscape around the Atahuku Bay and see the light changing with the clouds on the steep volcanic slopes, I just enjoy these short moments.

I also intensified reviving of my French. It’s fun to recognize that I can understand and speak always a little bit more. It’s like in my teenager days when I hitched hiked in France and could practice my French with the people who gave me lift. I also hitch bike here whenever I need to go to Atoana and back and enjoy talking to the people who give me a lift. Sometimes I’m thinking that it’s a pity that the distance to the villages is only 2 1/2 km and not 100 – 200 km like in the old days in France.

So far about the things occupying my days.

Yesterday morning after breakfast, I wanted to go on land with long list of to-dos.

But, there’s always a BUT.

When I started the outboard motor it didn’t run smoothly and stopped pretty quickly. With all tricks it didn’t run as it is supposed to do.

I opened the motor and checked fuel after the filter. There was plenty coming out. Thus I concluded the culprit is the carburetor or more precisely dirty fuel. Although I’m using an original Tohatsu fuel filter, I observed over a long period that there is still enough dirt getting into the carburetor.

Cleaning the carburetor on the tender was too dangerous. The swell was around half a meter. Thus, I needed to get the outboard motor into MaRe’s cockpit. Easy to say so but the swell hampers this work as well.

For attaching/detaching the motor to/from the tender, I have a motor bridle. This, I hook into to line to move pull the tender up the davits, which gives me kind of a crane. I removed enough slack in the line that the motor will not be in the water when removed from the tender. When the motor hang on the hook still partially in the water I rushed on MaRe and lifted the motor high enough out of the water. Next, I needed to get it on the lower part of stern about 1 1/2 m horizontally from the hanging position. There is one moment where I have to hold the 25 kg motor in one hand and lower the line with the other hand while the line is around a cleat. And this all on a boat in a swell of around half a meter. In such moments I’m additionally happy I have a cat. With enough slack in the line I unhooked the motor, still standing on the lowest part of the stern with the motor only in my hand and MaRe swinging in the swell. I got the motor up the stairs and attached it to it’s holder in the cockpit.

First, I had to clean some sand, which got under the motor cover when a few weeks ago a surf rolled over the tender at the beach. Detergent and water was the best. Then this was done.

As I have to clean the carburetor about every 3 month, I got routine. Opening the carburetor I found again plenty of very small particles on the carburetor’s bottom part, which passed the filter but clogged the fuel flow in the carburetor. I cleaned all little “canals” in the carburetor as well. After assembling all again I did some maintenance greasing as well. As expected the motor started well and kept running. I had to stop it after a few seconds because there was cooling water. After letting the motor cool down again the second test was successful again. A third test again was successful.

Then I needed to get motor back on the tender. For that I needed to adjust the position of the tender on the water twice to have it low enough to unhook it when it’s over the tender and high enough to not get it washed by a wave.

Finally it was attached to the tender again. Now, the final long motor test. The motor works again as I’m used too.

Looking at my watch I saw it was too late to go on land and do all the errands I wanted to do.

I decided to do a few boat jobs, one of them, this week’s cleaning of the cockpit, and do the errands next day.

Thus, I have to get up now, and do what I wanted to do yesterday.

Yesterday I was all day long busy with baking.

The result
2 breads
24 chocolate chips cookies
24 scones

All of these baked goods are made from freshly ground whole grain wheat. Thanks to Salzburger Grain Mills for one of your wonderful product I have on board.

Baking all these things on one day saves a lot of gas.

With this freshly baked bread, I’ll enjoy my upcoming breakfast with a French brie cheese and junks of a shaddock and few other things going well with freaky baked bread.

…Sécurité General de France!

I just got my tooth fixed at the dental clinic in Atuona. It’s free for me and the cost is covered by the Sécurité General de France.

Health care in general is covered here in French Polynesia by the Sécurité General de France. A great service of which I got the impression already in the Gambiers nobody is misusing it.

When I think about the misused healthcare system in Germany, I’m happy to be here although I pay my health insurance in Germany.

No I’ll go back to MaRe where IT and boat work is waiting for me.

Since OBM left, i am doing IT work and boat jobs.

Yesterday I went on land to look for a dentist and got an appointment for today. Then I did some food shopping. A mango concentrate I bought turned out to have more sugar than taste. Such is life.

In a hardware store I got a very solidly built press for silicon / marine adhesive. I was quite surprised that it is made by the German company Fischer. I expect to get only something made cheaply and with low quality inn China.

When I hitched back, a lady gave me a lift beyond her own destination. I was lucky and happy.

This morning OBM departed from MaRe to fly back to Tokyo.

I’m alone with a lot of IT work for OBM’s company… So I don’t have time to cry!