0800 Position 17-53W 154-41S. Underway headed for Rarotonga
After breakfast we moved the boat to the anchorage off of Vaitape. Doc and Piers went shopping and Rob and I went to visit Bruce and Ramine Seaman, family friends who have a home in Vaitape. The Seamans were off island during our first visit to Bora Bora and it was great to see them as well as their granddaughter Poerani who is visiting from Tahiti.
They also had great local knowledge on the availability of a doctor for Renee, and Ramine was able to make an immediate appointment for her. It turns out Renee is on the mend as we suspected, and the doctor gave us the OK to go to sea.
Van Diemen sailed out of Bora Bora's lagoon at 1PM with the intended destination of Maupiti, twenty five miles to the west, but we decided against going there once we saw the sea state outside the lagoon. Maupiti has one of the most dangerous passes in the Pacific, and many boats have been lost trying to use it during rough weather. When the surf is high and the tide is ebbing the current can flow at up to nine knots out the channel. The surf was up and the tide would be ebbing until after 4PM, not good conditions, so we set our next waypoint at Rarotonga, 540 miles to the southwest.
Last night was the roughest of the trip so far with winds well over twenty five knots in the squalls and very confused seas. The wind was shifting up to forty degrees in the pouring rain and pitch black night. Not pleasant sailing, but we are still here this morning soldiering on. We now have a triple reefed mainsail and have had as many as two reefs in the jib. We've made good time though averaging more than ten knots since departing Bora.
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