0800 Position 17-30S 149-51W. At anchor near the mouth of Oponohu Bay, Moorea
Huahine was apparently responsible for what little confusion there was in the sea early yesterday because the water flattened out as we left the island behind. The wind continued to back and build, and at 10AM we set the jib and killed the engine. Van Diemen was in her element, screaming along at eight knots in the same amount of wind headed right for Moorea.
Much of the Pacific Puddle Jump fleet chose yesterday to make the crossing from Moorea to the leeward islands. We passed at least six sailboats headed in the other direction. At 4PM the wind started to die off and head us, so we fired up the engine and motorsailed for the final hour into Oponohu Bay. Ninety three miles in eleven hours. Not bad.
No fish again today. Truth be told, we took the time to troll a terrific trio of tantalizing tidbits intended to temp the taste of even the most temperamental tuna, but we couldn't get one to take the tackle. It was terrible…
We found a fleet of twenty four boats in the shallow anchorage at the mouth of Oponohu Bay when we arrived. We were hoping to anchor there, but it looked pretty crowded. I was surveying the anchorage with the binoculars when I saw a boat I recognized. It was Puanani, Mark and Blossom Logan's Beneteau 39 from Kaneohe Yacht Club! We powered up to them, yelled greetings, and invited them over for a sunset cocktail.
It was great to catch up with Mark and Blossom. I spent a couple of months buddy boating with them through Fiji and on to New Zealand at the end of last season. They had a challenging trip from New Zealand to Tahiti a month ago, and we got to hear all the details. Mark dinghied over to Van Diemen again this morning so I could show him where all of the best anchorages are in the Leeward Islands and give him a copy of the GPS track from my 2014 cruise there.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment