Papillon in the Pacific

  Ia Orana! This week has been one of mixed emotions: the frustrations of attempting to sell a boat, the limitations of what you can and can’t do whilst trying to make it happen and the realisation that our time here is coming to an end. We fluctuate between wanting the sale successfully completed and willing it to fail spectacularly!     Sunset at the mooring   Moments before the green flash! Our emotions seem to mirror the highs and lows of living in French Polynesia.   It is certainly not the easiest place to start the cruising life, but it is probably one of the most beautiful and welcoming. Thursday was a case in point.   Our water maker had failed again.   It had been fine since the new impeller and then for no good reason suddenly refused to start the flushing cycle.   We decided to try an alternative power source.   The only one we knew of that would fit a UK adaptor plug was back at the marina.   Like so...

  Ia Orana! Its midwinter in French Polynesia.   Darkness comes by 6pm and dawn not for another 12 hours; the Southern Cross is high   in the sky at dusk and the nights are cooler.      Papillon for sale   Giant clam at the reef I had forgotten just how cold.   In fact, I’m sure it wasn’t this cold last year.   Skipper tells me it’s all about solar angles and reminds me that our solar capacity has dropped by more than a third since February.   As proof of this he checks the solar angles, and we are both surprised to learn that the Society Islands had an equivalent angle to Reykjavik yesterday!   Approximately 50 o in both places! Hard to believe I know but the numbers don’t lie.     In early February the angle was 90 o  so solar heat is certainly a factor but perhaps not the whole story.   The typical pattern of easterly Tradewinds that normally bed in around midwinter has been replace...