9:48.19S 139:01.87W
Tahauku Bay

We arrived here on Thursday 8th Oct just before sunset. On the way we caught a large wahoo, approximately 12 kilo or more. A deep water, very tasty fish with big teeth, which will keep us going for more than a week.
Having bottled some of the Mahi-Mahi of our previous catch, we are building up a good stock of lovely fish.
We enjoyed returning to Atuona the "capital" (the size of Alfriston, East Sussex) and had a lovely reunion with Eric, with a fish meal aboard Kahia. We had spent time together here in May and June 2012, now we are picking up, where we left off and looking forward to spending more time together and catching up with each other. Paul is delighted, as Eric speaks such good English, that no translator is needed and conversation flows easily.

Lucky we missed the Tsunami here 3 weeks ago. Unlike where we were in the Tuamotus, with no disturbances, this shallow bay had to be evacuated of all boats for their safety.
For 12 hours the water was boiling, with eddies and waves over a metre, which does not sound much, but had the effect of making the anchorage dangerous. One catamaran came back anchoring too early, thinking it was all over, unaware the Tsunami was far from over, touched the ground, had to cut loose his anchors and was sucked out of the bay, spinning like a top in confused water and luckily escaped being lost on the rocks.

We had a couple of days of Southeast swell coming into the anchorage coupled with about 15 knots of wind on our port side,  straining our kedge, the stern anchor and producing a very uncomfortable pitching and rolling motion.
Glad this is over and we would definitely not consider this anchorage remotely safe to be in during the coming cyclone season, unlike the 10 or so other yachts that are here already, intending to stay.

As we write the conditions are much calmer and we enjoy this beautiful bay with its majestic volcanic peaks clad in lush tropical vegetation and pretty homes peaking out the foliage overlooking the bay.