Today is Bastille Day. The shore is lined with Polynesians families celebrating the holiday. The sound of children at play is like the sounds of a flock of wild birds; the sweetest sound you will ever hear. The local life does not include much drinking of alcoholic beverages, in fact there are none visible. I think most of the alcohol consumed on the island is by tourists. I miss my grandchildren.
Today it is a little hot for the first time. The thing that makes us a little uncomfortable is almost no wind and no clouds; the sun drives the heat right into you. Like in Hawaii you are only comfortable in the shade not moving with a fan blowing on you while sipping a cold drink where the ice melts fast so drink fast. Today is a work day; we are not really celebrating Bastille Day; we are not French. Everyone is violating the recipe for keeping cool. Deborah spent the morning completely dismantling the salon couch in preparation to run an audio cable that will allow DVD movies to play over the surround sound system instead of the inadequate speakers on the screen itself. John and Ant have taken our trash to shore in search of a trash bin. When they do not return for a couple of hours, Deborah tries to raise Bella Donna mobile on the VHF. It turns out both John and Ant are exploring a dinghy channel through the coral reef that leads to a lagoon paradise that is shared by 3 resorts. They return with unbelievable stories of great snorkeling with large numbers of manna rays and well fed, safe, sharks. Water toys are available for rent. There is an island with a bar on it. We will come back and explore some more with Donna next week.
All work is done. The heat of the day is at its peak. We are not following the recipe for keeping cool; this dictates jumping off the boat into the water. The water feels like ice water; we did not realize how hot we were. Soon the angle of the penetrating sun lowers in the sky as does the temperature. We can get out of the water and shower. Just as we finish our showers Clive arrives with his boat's owner, Mariacristina Rapisardi, and her husband Giovanni to see Bella Donna. The Rapisardis are from Italy where Mariacristina is a very successful international patent lawyer. She is also an accomplished climber. She prefers rock climbing, but her last trip was up the west coast of Greenland in her Oyster 72 to climb icebergs. The first woman to do this, she won this years Tilman Medal for her ascents of Tommelfinger and several other new and difficult climbs of a high technical standard including remote North-East Baffin.
We are invited over to Mariacristina's yacht, Billy Budd, for dinner. The meal was fantastic; a special treat is the chunks of Parmesan cheese Maricristina brought with her from Italy.
God Bless Bella Donna.
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