Leaving Toau and on passage to Tahiti (day 1)

Nickanddenisesailing
Sun 16 Jul 2017 02:56
Possition: 16.24.157 S 146.27.584 W speed 4.8knts cog 238 wind 11-15knts from behind, headsail poled out, seas moderate but confused. Squally day.

Hello from a cloudy rainy rolly Pacific Ocean

We are on our way again. We had an early start this morning to catch the right tide to get through the pass at Toau. Lucky we did as it was a rough start for us and even with an incoming tide into the atoll the pass was rough going. We beat into the wind (30+knts) and waves before getting around the corner and having the wind behind us. We have had quite a few squalls come through so its been wet but lucikly the seas and wind have died down and we are now in a much more comfortable 15knts or so of wind.

One big surprise for us this morning - just after we had got through the worst of the weather. Breaching humpback whales!! Amazing!! We did have to steer around them as they were pretty close to the boat - but wow what a sight!!!

We really enjoyed our last few days in Toau, we were a bit lazy if we are really honest. We met some of the guys living in huts on the island and they taught us about harvesting Koprua. This is basically the meat of the brown coconut once its fallen from the tree. They sell it by the bag to Tahiti where it is made into coconut oil. It was nice meeting the guys and seeing how it all works. We also did lots of snorkelling, but the weather wasnt fantasic and the timing of the tide wasnt on our side for snorkelling the pass - the best time would have been during our afternoon siesta time which was difficult to sacfirfice when its cloudy outside haha.

During the snorkelling that we did we saw a large number of crown of thorns star fish which wasnt good news. They are very aggressive, well defended star fish with 10 legs that destroys corals. They are extremely predatory and sucessful animals and can take over and destroy reefs in no time. We did our bit and Nick snorkeled with the machete while I spotted and we managed to kill quite a few. We think it was probabaly one of the main reasons why the coral was not so good on this atol.

We also had a few fun (?) shark days. The fush and chup hunger appeared again and Nick decided to brave the sharks around the boat to spear us a grouper. It was crazy how quickly they got wipped up into a frenzy and in no time at all their dual personalitys had changed from Dr Jekel to Hyde. So calm and scerene sometimes but when food is about they totally change. We managed to get lots of shark action on camera which was fun.

Other than that we relaxed quite a bit and spend some time getting the boat ready for guests (not long now) and for this passage. So we should be in Tahiti the day after tomorrow all being well. I will keep sending a daily update as before.



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