06.00hrs up and about again in paradise on earth. The race today is around the island of " Tahaa" inside the lagoon, the wind is light and the starting area is very close to where we were moored for the night.
08.33hrs our start, a port fetch this time ( as all the other starts were down wind) and the course is clockwise around the Island. The channel is wide in most places, about a half mile, but it gets very narrow in some sections, and tacking could be tricky and the distance is approx 17 miles.
Like the other days, we started in the last bunch of boats, so had to crawel our way through the fleet, for us, the two boats we really want to beat are "Ocean Jasper " and " Crazy Horse", our American friends..................... Ocean Jasper had a great start and got clear very quickly, they also flew an assymetric spinniker, something we decided at an early stage not to do. These two boats are " Sundeer 60's ", an American design, and look like two greyhounds.
We were ahead of "Crazy Horse" from the start, the wind sort of followed us around the Island, and only when we reached the eastern side again, did we have a proper beat, we slowly overhauled " Ocean Jasper" and passed them about 2 miles from the finish... job done.. We finished 4th boat, but 8th on corrected time,, we were happy enough with that.
15.00hrs Shortly after the finish, we motored in " A Lady " to the "Hibiscus Restaurant " just around the corner from our designated mooring area. Skipper and Aileen had dinner there 13 years ag , when we chartered a yacht from the "Moorings" in Raiatea. Skipper wanted to meet the owner, and check if he remembered us Irish novices. The owner is still the same guy, ( who also sold us a turtle at the time, who we called Patrick and released him outside the reef and pointed him in the direction of Ireland, mind you, he never arrived). Leo, the french owner took out a visitors book for 1997 & 1998 and suggested to the skipper that he have a look and see if we signed it on our visit there,
Ohhhhhhhhh, look! The 26th October 1997, a full page sketch by the skipper of the chartered yacht, with himself and Aileen peering over the cockpit sides, plus lots of other comments. Ahh, isn't memory lane a wonderful place.... Snorre and Stian were impressed with it all, so we had a beer to celebrate the event. Skipper asked for his money back on the Turtle as he never made it to Ireland, obviously the turtle had damaged navigational equipment, so " I want my money back" anyway, Leo thought that was very funny, so we all had a great laugh. The Irish flag we gave him, is still hanging there.
Off we went, back to the boat, and had a nap before returning to the designated mooring area. The wind increased as forcast, and brought with it, plenty of rain. We were collected at 18.30 hrs and brought ashore for a BBQ and fancy dress night. The food was their best so far, and we had a great night, met John and Anne Tierney from the Cook Islands againand swopped emails and phone numbers. ( just in case we get close to where they live )
However we did get wet on the return journey to the boat, with the wind now over 30 knots, we decided to leave out another 10m of chain before hitting the scratchers,, wrecked , but happy!
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)