Wednesday 9.04.2008 9am local time
BBQ on Tramontana Monday night. Tuesday morning it’s much windier – we decide to skip the snorkel and head off after breakfast - destination Fakarava. We goosewing the sails but there’s little wind ; we’re cruising along at 4-4.5 knots SOG and persevere for a few hours before we roll in the headsail and motor sail the last 20 miles, arriving at the village of Rotaava at 4pm. Fishing all the way ,we catch another Marlin – it’s HUGE ,and leaps and thrashes about the sea until it’s off the hook – a huge relief to us all! Once we’re in the atoll we hook (and land!) a big fish that none of us have ever seen before. It’s not in any of our books but when we get a look at Tramontana’s ,it’s identified as a “rosy job fish”, also known a king snapper or a king emperor. It’s about 2 feet long,12lb – a handsome fish with a glowing pale pink body and blue tinted fins. We anchor off the village – there’s 3 other ARC boats ;Southern Princess,Storyteller and Branec. Ian, Stewy and Phil go ashore to do a recky and see if they can find a hostelry. Karen helps Annie to sort out the Garmin hand held. Ronnie has to go up the mast to retrieve the main halyard – he gets a great view, but no-one’s rushing to follow him up! Ronnie has a swim , then we have sundowners and enjoy the peace – it’s harry flatters here.
There’s no restaurants open until tomorrow lunchtime. It’s the Haggagrty’s last night ( which usually spells danger for Karen and Annie!)- sure enough fish dinner turns into a mammouth session, music blaring , dancing and singing – all to bed around 4am…….. not too bright this morning.