The GIRI is in the WATER!

What excitement as the travel lift lowered the GIRI into the water! She floats. No leaks!
Next it was getting the engine started. Tom had a time with the old fuel and we've concerns to come. No one is polishing fuel on the island any more and only a coffee plantation sailor may pick up old fuel. We couldn't reach him so are making do.
Leaving the lift bay and the rusty helm skills began returning. Backing up and turning with a full keel to land along side a dock with just enough wind and current to remind me of past encounters of the third kind.
After a night at dock we put on the sails this morning and moved the boat to the fuel dock where we did mediterranean moorage rafted up with Waterhoen. I actually dove into the clear blue warm water with mask and fins to retrieve a moor buoy rope. Tom got out a 2 x 8 board and walked the plank to get back onto our boat from aft.
Alfred and his crew, whose name means "little waves" are returning from the polynesian south about to passage back to NA.
Tom and I have been visitting the first church on the islands set up here by the missionaries including Brigham and Thurston. A nice break from our earlier time in the bilge from hell.