Well, it seems we arrived at Tikehau on November 18th, so even though we had a great time we were itchin’ to get moving when the winds finally favored a trek East. First stop, Fakarava via the North pass to grab fuel and groceries, cash and some internet access. Celebrate Christmas with friends, and if the weather window holds push on towards Amanu, about as far East as we can go in the Tuamotus. From Ananu it’s nearly straight North to the Marquesas, and about 135 true to the Gambier. Should a cyclone threaten to move towards Amanu, we’d likely sail for the Marquesas but if we get a good weather window we may sail to Gambier just because we haven’t been there yet.
Plus, the best pearls in French Polynesia are produced in Gambier. Mrs. H has a big birthday coming up in April, and has declared that I must pay homage to her special day with some VERY NICE pearls. Who am I to argue?
Anyway, we moved from the East side of Tikehau down to the anchorage just North of the pass yesterday morning. SV Sea Rose with Brian and Sue got there just ahead of us and after getting settled and enduring an enormous squall complete with funnel cloud (those things turn into water spouts here) we elected to gather on Sea Rose to try and determine which rum we liked best. I think T rum from Taha’a was the favorite for sippin’, but at about $45 a liter it’s a little dear for sundowners. That’s where the boutique rum from Tahiti works out nicely – cheaper and better than the Dou Dou that Isabel seems to prefer. Maybe we’ll pick some up next trip through Tahiti – as Russ and Lisa on SV Tumultuous Uproar are fond of saying, “we don’t deny ourselves”.
This morning I popped up like a piece of toast at 0430 to get JollyDogs ready to go, and Isabel popped up to get me ready to go. I function better on coffee at that hour, and between us by 0530 we had the anchor up and were underway, enjoying an easy exit through the pass and motoring about an hour until the wind began to fill in. Next thing we knew we were sailing at almost 8 knots with full main and jib. Later in the day we got whacked by a horrendous squall, naturally just after Isabel decided to have a nap, and by the time we got the reef in the main the ordeal was so we shook it out and got back to sailing. The wind lightened up a bit and we traded the jib for the screecher which added about 1 ½ knots to our speed over ground, making the pretend race with SV Moggy, SV Mat Lau III and Sea Rose a little more competitive. We’re by far the smallest of the 4 catamarans which all departed for Fakarava this morning. Number 4 tries harder, but it’s all about waterline, babee.
A bit before dark as we had just convinced ourselves the ECMWF forecast was more accurate than the GFS, a sudden wind shift forced us to change course and bias to the South side of Kaukura atoll rather than the North side as we had been aiming. That wind has kept up, and so at 2330 with fresh weather forecasts it’s clear that both models blew it, as the wind is about 70 degrees different than forecast. Now after several hours of wind that was completely contrary to both forecast models, it’s begun coming back towards the North, so we may yet lay Fakarava North pass.
We fished hard today, and two very expensive lures and all the line suddenly disappeared and a loud “twang”, as something VERY BIG gobbled our lures up. One more and it’ll be Lions 3, Christians nothing . . . but we sure would love to nail a nice tuna or mahi-mahi before arriving at Fakarava. Maybe after dawn . . .
Sea Rose had a little bad luck today, with their primary head sail halyard parting at the mast head sheave. Brian and Sue managed to gather up and bag the sail, then Brian hanked on a stay sail. Bummer, because they were having a great sail and absolutely walking away from us. Waterline does help, and they’re about 10’ longer than us.
Oh well, maybe our next boat.
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