Amanu, Friday 8 January 21

Hello from the Star reef in the middle of Amanu atoll!

This place is considered to be the "navel" of the atoll by the local folks. All 130 of them who live in a small village near the pass, which is so narrow the supply ship anchors outside the pass and smaller tenders maneuver in with supplies.  One comes around the 14th.  Fresh eggs!  Cabbage!

Check this spot out on Google Earth - S17deg 48.664' W140deg 46.799' is the small lagoon we're anchored in.  Had to put out a stern anchor as at least one bommie within swinging range is a boat eater.  Beautiful snorkeling here with lots of fish and apparently the camouflage grouper are free of ciguatera - and they taste good!  Might be whacking some with the spear gun this morning, as we've promised dinner to some friends sailing towards us from Makemo, and the freezer needs filling anyway.

I set the "shallow water" alarm yesterday at 6', and it went off.  Set it for 3' and it went off.  With the tides and the swinging around a bit, we continually pass over a huge bommie that we clear by about 2' at low tide.  Anchoring in conditions like these has taken some getting used to - and required a lot of envelope expansion on both my and Isabel's part.

I've gotten rather enthusiastic about kite boarding and have now collected a 7m North Orbit, 10m Airush Lithium Progression and a 12m Airush Union, so have a pretty good quiver for various wind conditions.  There are several other boats here full of kiting enthusiasts so a robust East wind in the coming days portends well for our fun and games.

We all are here in part to isolate ourselves from coronavirus, but also as Amanu is as far East as we can lurk while waiting for a good NE wind to sail the 450 miles to Gambier, where Isabel will get the best pearls French Polynesia produces.

One of the things we don't have here is high bandwidth internet.  The local cell tower broadcasts 2G data only, barely enough to use our banking apps and look at BBC news app. Given recent events in the United States perhaps that's a good thing, as exposure to the constant noise of the 24/7 new cycle might drive us to drink.

Well the big grouper are sly boogers and managed to elude me, but I did get to swim for a bit with a giant manta ray.  Beautiful, docile, just doing its thing while I did mine.  Didn't seem to take much notice of me, about like the whale I got to swim with just after we arrived.  This may be one of the best snorkeling spots ever!

The wind is settling down so rather than abandon this anchorage for the more sheltered kite boarding spot near the NE reef, we think we'll hang another day.  SV Slingshot just showed up and SV Sea Rose just cleared the pass - Brian and Sue are motoring in this direction.  Could be a party here tonight - after all, it is Friday!