Vaka Eiva Singles Sadly there isn't too much to say or show about this day. I spent most of the morning working on the traditional canoe build along with the regular Saturday morning grocery shopping. The singles raced this afternoon, the picture is of the women's race heading out. My only real comment about this one is that I wish I had asked to race. Since it was 'windy' (I thought it was pretty normal for here but a lot of the imports seemed to think it was) many people decided to scratch, so I probably could have gotten a boat [View Full Entry]

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The opening day of the Vaka Eiva was today and one of the things that happens is the canoes are blessed. This is actually pretty much all that happens. I thought it was going to be a usual day building canoes and then attending the ceremony. Nope. At lunch I find out that Mike is supposed to do the blessing. And that I’m to take part. Interesting. My role will be to carry the holy water. So I don’t have to say anything, all I really have to do is stand there, look dashing, and follow them around when they’re baptizing [View Full Entry]

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Krauss goes to Atiu So as I was groggily getting up this morning Dave was mentioning to me that he wouldn’t be back for lunch because he was going to Atiu for a day trip. I mumbled something to the effect of that’s ok because I probably won’t need a ride into town, I’ll be working on my NSF application all day. As he was about to leave, and as I was finally actually getting out of bed, he asked if I might be interested in coming along. All of a sudden I’m awake. I ask him to clarify and [View Full Entry]

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Heat The heat is getting to me. While many of you are entering winter we're entering the summer. It's normally up around the 30's (low 90's F) and there hasn't been much wind recently. Without the wind it's killer. It gets pretty hot in Mass summers, so I've always thought of myself as decent at taking the heat but this is getting to be too much. I can barely sleep at night laying on top of the covers with the fan on me and during the day I sweat doing nothing. If I was a permanent resident here, was self [View Full Entry]

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Oct 28 - Back to Ships Alright journal entry 1, I’ve been on the sips for seven days…. And I’m feeling pretty positive right now. I feel that I’ve learned a lot from my last contract, although I still can’t control the volume of my voice. A couple things right off the bat, got to see my buddy Jay for a couple hours before he disembark, good, I’ve been working out lots and eating crazy amounts of chick, good, also I haven’t been medicating myself with alcohol, also good, but no one on the team wants to hang out, kind of [View Full Entry]

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12 September 2008 - 19 September 2008 Toni Greenhill Blair Newton Sonia Beal [View Full Entry]

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Special for you So this is a special post that I'm not mentioning on my e-mail list and is special only for people who check the blog. But don't get too excited, it's not that special. At least at first it's not that special. You reading this now could lead to something special in the future, but there's a chance it doesn't. I promise I'll do my best to make something special happen but I get busy and sometimes it doesn't happen. So this entry has a no guarantees disclaimer associated with it. So after all that hype and suspense: If [View Full Entry]

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Just Kidding! Ha! That whole thing about going to Tahiti! Just kidding. Actually only sorta just kidding. Here’s what happened. I got up this morning and was scrambling to get gone; as usual I was running late. I got all my stuff packed, did a final check of the house, threw away all the stuff that would go bad in the fridge, locked up the house, and got the hell outta Dodge. When I got to town I stopped by the canoe build to let Mike know of my one week plan, discussed in the previous post. He warned me [View Full Entry]

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When it rains... …It pours. Or so the saying goes. Here’s my dilemma. I head to Tahiti tomorrow and I’m slotted to be there for 3.5 weeks. But Mike Tavioni just started building some traditional boats here in the Cooks. I’ve been trying to get to Tahiti for weeks and when I finally get everything arranged they finally start building boats here. So frustrating, I don’t know what to do. So the current plan, I think, is to only go to Tahiti for a week and then come back to the Cooks. That way I can make some contacts in [View Full Entry]

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Places to stay in the Cooks This post is for the traveler in the Cooks. Basically my dad’s coming in a bit and asked me to look around. So the day before I leave for Tahiti I did a whirlwind tour and checked out 6 places in 90 minutes (keep in mind I spent about 40 of those minutes driving, that’s how quick this was). So, here’s what I found: Pacific Resort: I liked this one. It’s a pretty big one but it didn’t feel super crowded like some of the others. I checked out one of the rooms and [View Full Entry]

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