Wednesday, 21st April 2010 TIKEHAU - The Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia, South Pacific
You know something. When you look at all the things going on at home and around the world, its clear that the timing of this trip was just about perfect, but we can not claim responsibility for that wonderful foresight, it just happened that way.
07.00hrs Ronja, Ciao, and some of the other yachts departed for Tahiti. We still had some things to do ashore, and when these were complete, we hauled the anchor and set sail out through the Pass and around the northern end of the Island and headed to "Tikehau" an adjoining atoll to the west.
Wind ............................... 20 knots ESE
Weather..............................Sunny and cloudy, with very heavy showers
Distance to our next place.....45miles
Sea state ...........................Moderate
SOG....................................7.5 knots
We read the emails on route, (the skipper still not feeling great, and the ears still blocked).
We had a great collection, from .......... Leah, Sarah, Brendan Stevenson, Margaret How, Ed Wildgoose, Marrion in Germany, Ann in Sweedan, Michelle in Galway, Arnaud, the french man in Cork who looks after our boat IT.
We had a lovely sail and arrived at the Pass to "Tikehau" around 16.15 hrs. It took us another 1 hour to sail across the lagoon to the Pearl Beach Hotel, where we dropped anchor just as it was getting dark. Scaaaaaary stuff, sailing in the lagoons with none of our electronic charts working, so we have to navigate by sight, this means you have to have plenty of sunlight to see the colors in the water, which will indicate the dept and the coral outcrops. We have hung the rib up on coral reefs plenty of times in the last week, mostly at night time, and luckily, no damage.
18.30hrs Aileen did the dinner, which included hamburgers, sausages, fried potatoes, beans, carrots, and tasted very good.
An early night, all this sunshine has us wrecked. Not to mind the diving.
That's it for today.
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)