Position      13:11:440 S 144:27:040W     Squabbling Squalls      Saturday 11th April  2020 South  Pacific time      local 02:00

Mojo blog 21

Friday morning was uneventful, wind still with us pushing us along , however just after lunch the temperature dropped only a couple of degrees which could be a squall incoming, on this occasion it was to late and passed us by with no increase in wind speed, in fact it became the game of the afternoon as we were just out of position for them to give us a drenching and change of sail plan.

The wind is abating, and we will probably have to go through the night with the engine running having completed over 350 miles of the journey.
A lot of planning went on today as we approach the islands and a clear route through agreed upon with the skipper , there are 3 established route s and we will take the middle one as it is the one most frequently used, passing by the atoll of Rangiroa one of the most beautiful anchorages in the world , but not for us,  all boats are now instructed to go straight to Tahiti with no stop offs and heavy fines included.

Email came back from Peter who is the skipper on Ta, and he gave some good information for passing the airstrip on the way inside the reef.

The day did not finish as it had started when I decided to get 1 hours good sleep in my bunk alarm set sails reduced and motor on all was good until my head hit the pillow and it moved not a good sign , I raced back topside to find the biggest squall had come from nowhere and the wind was showing 25 knots , luckily I had left 2 reefs set up and quickly slammed both in to reduce the sail area and slow the boat which was now racing along at 9 knots. The first 2 reefs didn’t slow Mojo down so another 2 reefs went in and slowly the boat levelled and reduced speed, back to normality and cat napping on deck is the order of the next few hours and that’s sailing, just when you thought all was under control.

 

No ships no planes just a cloudy sky full of mischief