En Route to Raratonga, Cook Islands
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 11 Jun 2010 02:59
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20:14.192S 158:04.410W
It's been a long time since I've written a blog
on a passage, the last time we had more than one night at sea was when we left
Nuka Hiva (Marquesas) for Manihi (Tuamotus), it seems like such a long time ago.
Time is flying by! We've now left French Polynesia, Bora Bora was our last port
of call and we left on Tuesday evening for a 540 mile sail to Raratonga in the
Cook Islands. I say 'sail' but we've had to motor most of the way which has been
quite annoying, although it was expected. The weather forecast predicted no wind
at all but we managed to sail the whole of the first night and we have motor
sailed since, turning the engine off occasionally when the wind picks up for
brief moments. The silence is very welcome! One bonus of having little wind are
the sea conditions, they are pretty much flat and very gentle. So not only has
Amy not been ill but she has also cooked a meal and washed up afterwards, now
that's what I call progress!
The sun has been shining continuously, sometimes
there hasn't even been one cloud in the sky so we've had very starry nights, we
haven't seen many of those recently. Actually I tell a lie, our last night at
Bora Bora was a beautifully clear night, so much so that Paul and myself fell
asleep in the cockpit and Amy in the hammock on the foredeck. We all awoke in
the middle of the night to the familiar sensation of rain drops on our skin
though so we had to move to our conventional beds. We had lots of rain showers
our last few weeks in the Society Islands so we were expecting squalls on this
passage but so far we've been very lucky.
We're on our third day now and are due in to
Raratonga first thing in the morning. We're looking forward to exploring another
part of the world, once we get checked in that is. We've heard from boats up
ahead that the customs search your boat and remove any fresh fruit and
vegetables. They even tried to remove the frozen food from one boat but they
argued the toss and the gentlemen agreed to leave it if they kept it hidden - he
just fancied a bit of beef for his dinner I think! They were also told to clean
the mud from their bike tyre's! So at the moment we're trying to eat all the
food we think they might confiscate. We all discuss daily what we need to stop
eating to prevent us from putting on any more weight, and then we do the exact
opposite! Oh well, we're only here once!
I think it's time for an afternoon game of
scrabble!
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