Ua-Poa 09 21.521S 140 02.820W

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sat 5 Jun 2010 06:59
Sailed the 66 miles to Ua-Poa overnight to ensure plenty of time to get in or go on if the anchorage was not to our liking. Ua-Poa is about 10 miles long and 7 miles wide and has a spectacularly serrated skyline, the highest peak reaching nearly 4000ft. It has about 2000 people living on it in a number of small villages. Like Hiva Oa, it's all kept up well - all being clean and tidy. The passage up was very frustrating as the wind frequently dropped and we sailed most of the way at between 3 and 5 knots. The swell was a problem in that the rolling it caused resulted in the genoa collapsing and resetting with a considerable bang. We had 2 periods of about 2 hours each where the wind died completely and we motored at low revs, still to conserve fuel, at about 4.6 knots. We left around 6 last night and arrived at 09.00 today - a long time to sail only 66 miles. We are anchored in the harbour behind the breakwater and clear of the supply ship dock. There is only 1 other boat here, so we have the harbour to our selves. A stern anchored is required, in addition to the normal bow anchor, to keep the bows into the swell that still creeps round the end of the breakwater. The view of the island skyline from the anchorage really is spectacular.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com