Well the wind velocity, gust factor and direction relative to the reef and sand banks made for kiting conditions “not conducive” to Isabel’s learning and beyond my own envelope with our 10 meter Lithium kite, so Thursday 2 July we pulled the plug around 1030. Up came the anchor, out rolled the twin headsail simbo rig and we had a lovely, albeit quick sail down to the anchorage by the South pass. About the time we arrived it blew up a good squall so we used light motor thrust to hold position until the little storm subsided then identified a good place to drop the hook. Lots of bommies there so it’s almost luck to get the anchor into sand, but we pulled it off. The wind blew around 20+ all afternoon and most of the evening and it was from the East so there was big chop running through the anchorage. Still I slept like a baby last night.
This was the opportunity to SCUBA dive the big annual grouper spawning event along with the amplified “wall of sharks”. A French cruiser named Phillipe arranged for a group of us to go with Top Dive boat, NITROX and all gear included for only 5000 CFP, about $46. Smokin’ deal, and it included divemaster Dimitri who led us along the preferred route to see hundreds of sharks and more grouper than I’ve ever even imagined. Worth the price of admission!
Isabel wasn’t up for it – needs some recurrency training – and after I returned to JollyDogs mid-day she proposed we consider launching for Tahiti to exploit the most favorable weather conditions. Why not? We hustled to ready the boat and by 1300 the anchor was up and we were motoring towards the pass. Near the end of an incoming tide and with the wind moving in the same direction, the exit through the rather narrow pass was uneventful and soon we had the simbo rig set and the wind dead astern. Fifteen knots of wind got us around 7 – 7.5 knots SOG and with the seas dead astern there was nothing for me to do but go take a nap while Isabel deployed our favorite fishing lure (Carla from SV Ari-B made it for us). Round about 1600 we noticed the bungee was active, and soon I was pulling in a 1 meter long mahi mahi while Isabel readied the “bringing aboard and killing gear”. Soon I had that sucker gaffed and was hacking away at the gills so the fish would bleed out. Mahi mahi put up a pretty lively fight, boys even worse than the girls. Turned out this one was a girl, big enough after filleting to make about 8 meals for the 2 of us. That’s some seriously tasty protein!
The weatherman promised livelier conditions that we’re currently experiencing, but we’re still averaging 5 knots. If we can keep this up we should make landfall in Tahiti Sunday afternoon. It’s nearly 0200 now and about time to wake Isabel up for her watch. I’m the PolyMagNet controller tomorrow so after my morning show if it’s still this light we’ll be switching to a full main sail and schreecher, then bearing off a bit to make some speed. The geometry works out so that it’s still faster than sailing the rhumb line.
Isabel will have season 3 of Game of Thrones to keep her alert tonight. I ploughed through several episodes of House MD myself, as well as several of the brownies she baked while I was diving. The sugar buzz is starting to wear off – about time to crash.
It’s the 4th of July here but the only fireworks we’ll enjoy will be catching another fish or 3. Fingers crossed we fill the freezer with high quality protein before we arrive Tahiti. I’ll take a yellow fin tuna and another couple mahi mahi, if you please. Nice compliment to the dog tooth tuna and sail fish we’ve already got in the freezer.
No comments:
Post a Comment