19 
noxious fluid were sloshing hack and forth over the deck. Cutress, 
who happened to be nearest, quickly righted that tank, and so saved 
ihuf’ nov^ 
s ome of 
4 ^ 
precious preserving fluid. 
If ever you want a bit of excitement on a small craft at sea, 
just turn loose some six or seven gallons of commercial formalin 
while - your vcoael is rolling in a heavy sea. If you know what full 
strength formalin can do to your skin and the mucuus membranes of 
your respiratory passages you will knov/ what we were up against in 
that formalin-saturated atmosphere. It was no fun getting up the 
*i“ 
4f V d U 
er to flush the formalin overboard with just one small bucget 
on a rope. Every exertion made you breathe deeper and inhale more 
of those atrocious fumes, while a formalin-seawater flood was sloshing 
over your feet. Sure, we had to spell one another on the bucket j 
one can take only so much of those choking vapors 1. 
one of us 
would ever again want to live through another experience such as 
that one. Fortunately, we had still a nuiaber of 1-lb bottles 
of the f'stuff". Never again will I put so many of our <^eggs*^in one 
basket^ or tank, again, - not on a trip such a long way from base. 
Clearing the N.S. point of Moorea at about 6 p.m., we sighted 
Huahine_^^:^%]se---Tie«fe*'''ffl^ 3 »±;»^ ahcLut 10 miles oif tna starboard 
bow. were enterin'g^eavapiti Pass^to that beautiful, 
wonderfully peaceful channel that separates Raiatea from its twin 
Tahaa. By 11 we were leaving Urepiti Pass at the other end, headed 
for Bora Bora. 
The surf piling high against the seaward face of the fringing 
reef of Bora Bora was a stirring sight. Whoosh, crash, and a sheet 
