Entering Rikitea
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 11 Jun 2013 11:00
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The Very Last Bit – in to
Rikitea
Bear came on at six and no sooner
than he said – It’s two hours to the first
buoy, than I was in bed fully clothed to be ‘ready about’ and
soundo. The point on the far right has the wonderful name – Point Koutu
Rarotemangaroa.
My internal alarm woke me at dead on
eight and I trotted up the steps, excitedly expecting to see sandy beaches, a
few coconut trees, a dug out canoe or two with big, muscular, tattooed men
rowing – hopefully singing and I didn’t mind a grass skirted lady or three
pounding flour outside a long house - well this is supposed to be the South
Pacific. OH NO is that spruce trees, poplar, Norfolk
pine and CHRISTMAS TREES.
Yep, evergreens
everywhere. Nice innit.
I’m getting used to the very green trees, (we would later
be told that the fir trees were imported in the past and grown for logging by
the French), skipper is finding it all very
hysterical, but finally I am soothed with a clump of coconut
trees.
Time for the flag
changing ceremony as the wind gathers teeth once more. Just think, when I
went to lay down I had ten thousand feet of water below the keel, the skipper
goes to hang the French flag and the depth thingy says sixty eight meters, next
second – sixteen. Mmmm. Note to self, get used to shallow water again –
quickly.
A pretty
church on what looks like an uninhabited island to our
right.
Up on our left we see the stunning
Mount Duff.
Lovely houses below.
The fairway
was full of big waves. We followed the buoys
in.
The
anchorage with a dozen boats, some familiar to us from the
Galapagos.
A supply
ship was on the jetty as we began to anchor.
The scale going down shows the entry was quite unique. The path through the coral heads gave four pint eight meters below
us.
My nice rounded dinner-plate-shaped
plot clearly didn’t happen – straight-ish line
mmmmm
Anchor set at eleven o’clock with
fourteen meters of water under us.
Position: 23:06.94 South and
134:58.08 West.
Final 23 hour mileage:
128.
Our Statistics:
Total
Miles:
2957 nautical miles
Total
Time:
554 hours or 23 days and 2 hours
Engine Hours idling and water making:
14 hours and 15 minutes
Engine Hours
Motoring:
68 hours and 35 minutes or 12.27%
Engine Use in
Total:
82 hours and 50 minutes or 14.98%
Diesel Use in
Total:
Nearly 150 litres
Average
Speed:
5.33 knots
Comments:
A great journey with lots of laughs along the way. Much
quicker than anticipated, easy going and good fun.
Would we do it
again:
Just let me cook up some more meals for the freezer, perhaps
less bananas on board........ No problem.
Not
only filthy but the girl has additions, perhaps she is best seen from a
distance.
ALL IN ALL A WONDERFUL
FEELING OF ACHIEVEMENT
YEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA
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