Well, our “race” with SV Sea Rose, SV Mat Lau III and SV Moggy yielded pretty spectacular results. Sea Rose was handicapped by the loss of the halyard for their primary headsail so they had to hank on their storm staysail and make the best of things. Mat Lau III, a Lagoon 50’ did sail the entire trip, but Moggy ended up motor sailing most of the time. Apparently they need a tougher headsail that is good for close hauled conditions. In any case we arrived at Fakarava within an hour of the others so Isabel and I were pretty darn pleased with good ole JollyDogs.
The wind was blowing a bit from the Northeast so after finding an anchor spot near Sea Rose in the NE corner near the village, we collected up Brian and Sue and gave them a walking tour of the town, complete with visits to all the shopping venues and a refreshing cold potable at Fakarava Yacht Services. The supply ship MV Cobia III was busily unloading when we first went ashore but the supplies hadn’t hit the shelves yet, so our time was well spent. Locals were crowded around the freight dock waiting for their own private shipments. Before it was all said and done, we had scored a bunch of fresh veggies and a little high-speed internet before retiring to our boats, then joining Brian and Sue on Sea Rose for a safe arrival adult beverage. We were impressed at the size of their headsail which they had bagged up in a hurry when the halyard failed. I’m still not quite sure how they managed to get it from the foredeck to the cockpit without a crane.
Christmas Eve found us sucking up as much bandwidth as possible at Fakarava Yacht Services before making another major provisioning run, then taxiing JollyDogs to the fuel dock to top up diesel and gasoline. Even though Isabel had declared “provisioning complete” she still managed to purchase and stow a couple more bags of yummies in the freezer and a bunch of good chocolate to hide in the bilge. Once fueled we joined the other boats down by the North pass anchorage where we enjoyed a “beer and bob” to declare the end of another great day. Plans for the Christmas day party on Moggy were in full swing, but we warned everyone that if the forecast looked like we better blast off for Amanu that’s what we’d be doing. Honestly, we didn’t know for sure ourselves until the evening weather update, but upon review we set an alarm for 0430 and made preparations to depart.
By 0530 Christmas morning we were exiting the North pass and had made a radio call to Moggy explaining our decision and offering our regrets but out here one has to seize the moment. Favorable weather to sail East has been rare as frog’s hair lately! After rounding the Northeast corner of Fakarava and coming to our Southeasterly heading we were soon blasting along with full main and screecher. That lasted about 10 hours then the wind began to die off and we’ve been motor sailing since then. Fortunately, we prepared ourselves for this eventuality so extra jerry jugs of diesel were filled and stowed. The wind is down to 3 knots so even JollyDogs can’t get us there without a little help from our diesel friends. Motor sailing single engine at 2400 rpm, what I like to call our “economy cruise speed” we’re getting a bit of help from the main and are seeing anywhere from 6 – 7 knots speed over ground.
Our pals on SV Ari-B entered the pass at Amanu this morning then emailed us some good navigation waypoints after they anchored – apparently the Navionics electronic chart is off by about 30 meters in that area, so we’ll appear to be sailing over land when we plot our course. Glad we don’t have to consider entering in the dark, as there don’t seem to be any lit range markers, and that pass is a narrow bugger.
At current speed we should arrive tomorrow morning around 0700, then we’ll plan our late Christmas celebration with friends there. Amanu or bust!
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