Further Adventures May 6 2006

Hi everyone.Well, we've been back almost a month, and the boat is still not quite ready.Down to little stuff now and we expect to depart for the Cook Islands(Rarotonga) mid week. We did take a little shake down cruise over toHuahine and then later to Tahaa, and have been generally having a good timein between work on the boat and waiting for the yard to finish up. The newengines are great, but Voyage informed me there is a problem with the newclutches failing prematurely. No problems--touch wood--so far.For those of you who didn't see us on our three month soiree around theworld, we are happy to report that we had a great time, but it finally woreus down, and we're glad to be back on the boat. For all of you who offeredus your hospitality, a hearty "well done" and thanks a million.We have a new Iridium number as if any of you will call. It's 881631579190.You need to dial your own country code before the number and the chargeswill be placed on your phone. We're planning on "wintering" in NZ this yearand we'll activate our cell phone there on arrival for cheapercommunications. Phone cards seem to be very reasonable and I was actuallyable to call Raiatea for 25 minutes on a $5 card.Anyway, more later from the Cooks and our transit there.Tim, Rose & JoeyP.S. Latest big news is the owner of one of the boats traveling around in the same area as us is Dennis Tito,the rich dude who paid the Russians $25 million to send him into space. For some reason the yard is giving his boat priority treatment.