Friday, 14th May 2010 ( presently in Bora Bora )
Up, bright and early again, but , we had a lot of rain over night again. After a light breakfast, we raised anchor and set off for the race area. Today's race is from Bora Bora to Tahaa, a distance of 22 miles.
08.30hrs our start, and our group were last off again, so we had all these slower boats to pass before getting clear air.
The weather was beautiful as usual, but the wind was light, so we sailed NW out the Pass and kept going, while everyone else gybed and went south towards our next destination, but in the long run, it paid big benefits and when we gybed, we had clear air and sailed past the whole fleet very quickly. When we cleared the SW corner of the reef, we were looking good and trucking along nicely, the wind was now on the noseand we were obviously going to have to tack often, the wind was shifty, like 30degree shifts in as many seconds.
12.00hrs we were well clear of the fleet, only a few boats ahead of us. We had the Jim, the staysail and main all flying
and the boat felt and looked great, the wind was building as we went further south, and reached 19 knots by the time
we got to " Tahaa". As we motored up the Lagoon to our designated Mooring area, it was like picking our way through a Coconut graveyard. There were more Coconuts in the water than " blackheads" on a PIG'S bottom.
We dropped anchor by a Motu on the eastern side of the " Tahaa " lagoon, and "Fats" put on the dinner before going for his nap. Dinner tonight is the Beef Bourginoun he made a few days ago and kept safe and sound in the deep freeze since. First, we had to clean up diesel from a leak caused by the guys that cleaned the diesel tanks, they did not replace the cover properly.... It seems that no one can fix a problem these days, without causing another, often more serious. Bahhhhhhh!
After dinner we motored into the Motu, where the prize giving was taking place, there we met lots of other competitors, including this guy called " John Tierney" from the cook Islands, his grandfather was a cooper in Midleton Distilleries many moons ago. Skipper mentioned that the son of friends from West Cork called Rory Quirke had a restaurant in the Cook Islands, and we were hoping to call there on our trip. Well guess what? ( what a small world ) it turns out that John Tierneys daughter is married to Rory Quirke, isn't that just incredible........................ well blow me down.
Well we had a bit of bonding to do and after a lot of scoops, we, as in Skipper, Fats, Snorre & Stian, returned to the boat and dropped off Vilde and Lars to RONJA on route.
A Great day in all, plus an email from " Siun" who we last met in Rodney Bay, they are stuck in Panama, having been struck by lightning...Ohhhhh how unlucky.
That's it for now,
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)