Astra Blog: Tikehau, Tuamotus to Papeete, Tahiti 23.07.08 – 24.07.08

At 1040 we motored out through the pass and set a course for Papeete, Tahiti.  The weather forecast had shown that apart from the presence of some very strong squalls, we could expect the already non-existent breeze to die away to absolutely nothing.  As it turned out there was not much wind in the squalls either, just three inches of rain in 15 minutes or so. 

Keen to get some miles out of the way before the wind died we popped the big spinnaker up straight away and initially made reasonable progress.  Unfortunately it was short lived, after just a couple of hours we lost the wind and had to resort to the donkey, which would have been fine except that we did not have enough fuel to motor much more than half the distance.  This meant that the entire crew was kept busy, putting the sails up and down and adjusting them constantly as the fickle breeze came and went, continually changing direction as it did. 

In the afternoon we emptied the four reserve jerry cans into the diesel tanks and began monitoring our fuel consumption closely.  Thankfully we managed to do enough sailing to conserve some fumes for the final push and as night fell we approached the welcoming lights of Tahiti.  At 2100 after receiving permission from Harbour Control we motored through Passe de Papeete and made our way to Quai des Yachts in the centre of town where we moored up near Ino and Maltese Falcon.