Underway

If you wondered: a beeswax toilet ring!

We held our breath, motoring out the pass and waving goodbye to Port Phaeton.
Jon still had a few kinks to work out with that overheating packing nut, so we were a little apprehensive.
He had pretty much narrowed the problem down to being left over wax stuck in the packing gland--last week, during repairs, Jon dove under the boat and stuffed the seal with a beeswax toilet ring (don't leave home without one!) in order to stop water from gushing into our boat while he inspected the shaft.
His thinking was, that now, some of this leftover wax was jammed up inside the shaft and preventing the salt water flow that usually cools it.
If he was wrong about this, we could have another major problem on our hands.
There was much finger-crossing, shaft-checking and constant measuring with a heat sensor until he finally got it sorted out.
Luckily, he was right.

Pura Vida cleared the reefs and we headed East, for the first time on our adventure.

Our freshly tuned, realigned and re-jiggered engine purred along, it melted the leftover wax and Jon finally took a breather.
We were Good to Go again--at last!

The tropical sun lowered in the sky (behind us!), and Tahiti sank away into a swirl of clouds, nestling over the jagged, green mountains of her South Coast.
The wind was very light and the seas amazing flat and calm. The water beneath us was blue again.
A welcome change after the muddy brown of Port Phaeton.
The kids fell asleep, in the sea berth, comforted by the familiar motion of being on the open ocean again.
Jon and I sat on deck, marveling at how good it felt to me on our way.
I told him over and over how great a job he had done keeping it all together these past few weeks.
It was a scary time for everyone but mostly for him.

The boat felt great, everything looked as bristol fashion as a working boat can be and we had rigged her for a long, windward passage--the first one in four years!
We took down the big Genoa, hauled out the high-cut Yankee and rigged up the loose footed cutter and set the running backs...
If we have to bash 2700 miles to Hawaii-we are ready.
Everything felt right, again.
Confirming our Irie vibes, a mother humpback and her calf surfaced nearby.
Hunter came on deck to watch them with us.
We could here them singing right through the hull of the boat.
These were the first whales we had seen in French Polynesia, since the False Killer whales that greeted us in the Marquesas--it felt like a good sign.

It was a perfect night, Pura Vida didn't set any records, it was so calm we only averaged about three and a half knots--but after all the stress of the past few weeks, it felt like the perfect way to begin our journey.
This morning, as I write this, it's a warm, clear morning, 10 knots of wind, calm seas and everyone is sound asleep.
Nothing makes me happier.

Jon set our course for Toau but as the wind is right on our nose, we have been shaping our course a bit North.
A look at our charts this morning and I notice two interesting atolls North of Toau....
Hmmmmmm..Maybe that's something to discuss with Captain, over coffee when he wakes up?

Toau -- Anse Amyot

A new adventure, unplanned but ripe with possibility....
we're not in any rush to get anywhere...
and this moment its all Bliss...
Which happens to be exactly what the Costa Rican's are saying
when they tell you life is "Pura Vida", amigo.