August 12, 2012
Because we’re sitting at a nice, quiet bay and it’s relaxing and there’s internet* and it’s very conducive to getting caught up on our blog posts (Haamene Bay on Taha’a Island). Because due the the fast pace of our lives recently we’ve gotten way behind and the guilt outweighed the desire to just read another book. Because we’re missing folks back home and this is our way of connecting. Because we’re moving on soon to Bora Bora and then, after about 10 days at sea, to another island group and we’ll forget what all these pictures are of. That’s why.
*Internet Access: we are in a bay that doesn’t really have internet access but due to our great wifi antenna, we are able to get enough signal to post some pictures. We’re using an antenna we bought from Island Time PC in Florida. It’s a short antenna, mounted directly to an amplifier called a bullet and it boosts our 802.11b wifi signal. With it, we get wifi when others can’t. We bought the entire package from them, ready to go, including antenna, wire, bullet and a nice little 12 volt router. It works perfectly. Their service is great. In addition to having internet access, we have a little wifi hotspot on our boat and our Kindles and iPad can connect to the internet and to each other.
Internet access in French Polynesia has been great. There are about three companies that provide internet access for a price. It runs about $35 US or so for about 10 hours of access. It’s amazing the out of the way places that have one or more of these services. The internet access isn’t screaming fast and Skype calls and the like are laggy and difficult, but hey, look where we are. Even a few years ago, this would not have been possible. -Rich
