Return to French Polynesia

By the time I boarded number two of the four flights needed to get back to Dosia I was beginning to wonder if that strange aura of bad-travel luck from last year was back. Trouble with governments, no engine for months, a boatyard theft, it seemed someone was reaching out to thwart my crossing of the Pacific. Considering I’m technically only about half the way across the Pacific I guess I shouldn’t assume that cloud has been lifted. After a cancelled flight, an aborted landing, a two-hour delay, a broken jetway, a lost laptop, and 26 hours of traveling I finally climbed back aboard Dosia in the CNI Boatyard on the island of Raiatea in French Polynesia. It really didn’t seem as though I’d been gone all that long which I guess I hadn’t been compared to the 19 months I stored the boat in Ecuador. I guess neither is a place you assume major change will occur during your absence so everything was just as I remembered it. During a break-in over the holidays, thieves helped themselves to most of my DVD collection, a brand new laptop, a hardrive, some binoculars, a VHF, liquor, tools, misc crap, a card wallet with all my scuba certifications, social security card, and business contacts, and a CD booklet containing every bit of communication and navigation software and all my photo and video editing software. Kinda put a damper on the whole reunion thing. Other than that, she seemed fine. The damage those little *^%&%’s did was minimal and the people here at CNI handled some of the repairs free of charge. My goal was to get out of the yard as quickly as possible and I suceeded. Got here yesterday morning, cleaned like crazy, repaired a few leaks, and unpacked. Today I got up early, polished and cleaned the outside, and checked over the entire engine. And now I sit. Anchored out in front of the boatyard on Raiatea, looking out at the reef and Bora Bora beyond. I’m happy to be out of the yard. It was 93 degrees in the shade today and the wind wasn’t making it through. Plus I think Dosia has seen enough time in boatyards the last two years and now she gets 8 months of nonstop action on the way to New Zealand