Moorea Day #3…..

Dear F&F,

We were up earlier since it was not so cold overnight. I love to get up
before sunrise. With the deep bay surrounded by high peaks sunrise appears
later & sets earlier. Which gives us a longer dawn & dusk; lovely times of
the day. No beating sun, enough light to still enjoy the scenery & be
perfectly comfortable in shorts & a tank top.

Since my return from California, Scott has taken to making our \”first
breakfast\” which is always eggs. His method is frying in a very hot skillet,
flipped once with a sprinkling of cheese and crushed chilli peppers.
Wonderful. I usually make the tea, cut up fruit & put out our vitamins.
We\’ve been eating at the cockpit table since it is so pleasant to be outside
in the early morning. Second breakfast is oatmeal with flaxseed, some kind
of nuts, dried prunes & apricots.

After the dishes were cleaned up we did our exercises. We started an
exercise routine that includes 5 different abdominal exercises. None of them
more than 10 repetitions but as Scott pointed out, it more or less adds up
to 50 sit ups. Some you move your legs instead of your upper body. Some you
move on a diagonal. The variety keeps it more interesting. Today we also
added push-ups (on the 2nd step, so not completely horizontal), step ups,
lunges, squats & something called mountain climbers. All good for leg
strengthening while requiring a certain amount of core stability. Scott got
all these from a book he bought online called \”The Truth About Six Pack
Abs\”. The title sounds like a gimmick, but it is actually a really smart, no
nonsense diet & exercise program. I am all for it.

After our workout we decided to move anchorages. While motoring we
desalinated water, heated water, did laundry & charged the batteries. We
took a tour into the second deep bay here, called Opunohu. This is where
Jimmy Buffet wrote \”One Particular Harbor\” which of course we had to play.
I\’m sure every single American boat that has ever been here plays that song.
There was a tall ship anchored near the entry. They are always fun to see,
such a striking part of the scenery. Instead of anchoring deep in the bay,
it seems most of the boats anchor to the east, just inside the fringing
reef. We followed suit. There are about 5 of us, all nicely spaced apart. I
caught up on writing while Scott read. After lunch we took the dinghy closer
to the reef & went snorkeling. I love love love to be in the water. Scott
got a bit bored after 20 minutes or so. It wasn\’t the best snorkeling in the
world, but there were plenty of little fish to see. Sadly there has been an
infestation of \”crown of thorn\” starfish that has decimated the coral. There
is practically no coral, just rocks. The marine biologist told us this
blight happens about every 25 years or so. Unlucky for us, it has happened
now. He said there are signs of the coral returning, but I couldn\’t see it.
Maybe when we go diving it will be better. Scott knew Beach House was close
enough for me to swim back, so he went back in the dinghy & let me linger in
the water. There are so many good stretches I can do in the water that are
hard to reproduce on land. Plus a longer submersion helps me keep cooler the
rest of the day.

After showering, we both enjoyed reading. Having all the time in the world
is the greatest part of retirement. Sometimes of course we have a schedule,
but mostly it is of our own making. I am very happy to be off the dock in a
beautiful place, not doing boat projects. We intend to get away for a week
at least once a month. Plus we want to go to Easter Island besides our next
trip to California.

Dinner was steak & sweet potatoes. More writing & reading this evening. We
got all our dive gear out & plan to go by ourselves outside the reef
tomorrow. We could see where the dive boats went today. We called one guy
that we were referred to by the dive master in Manihi, but it is $75 each
which is ridiculous when we use all our own gear. We decided with the
conditions so calm, we need to start being more adventurous & explore on our
own. Its one thing if there is strong current & a reason to go with a dive
guide, but here we should be able to have a good experience on our own

Anchored where we are now is not quite as calm as at Cook\’s bay. I think
that has more to do with the fact that it is Saturday & more people are out
& about zooming around in small boats & tourists on jet skis than anything
else. It is more convenient to the diving to be anchored here. But the past
2 days inside Cook\’s bay were magical.

Cindy & Scott