position S22 12.600 E166 20.500

Ocean Rival Journey Log
Adam Power Diana Power
Sat 18 May 2019 09:17


Saturday 18th May

We thought we should escape the safety of the bay and see if we could claim an island in the lagoon for England. The lagoon is not like some- the word evokes lovely sheltered flat water, protected by the reef. Here the wind funnels parallel to the land and reef so the lagoon is just about as rough as the sea outside, just with a shorter chop to make life more uncomforatable. The first island we reached was already claimed by a group in a motor boat so we tried the next but the anchorage looked rough and as I tried to lower the anchor the boat decided to go on strike and  windlass was unresponsive. I respect the boat overuling me so we gave up on islands and punched through the waves back to our bay, adopting the same anchorage that we had 3 days ago.  We could have tried the next bay downwind but mindful of the uphill return trip  and knowing that we could walk ashore here without fences tipped the balance. The trip would have been at least a bit productive if the batteries had charged with engine running but the alternator belt had broken again so we're still light on volts stored. It was a light duty belt that broke- I have found one more heavy duty one in store so hope that will last. Still not sure why the belts are suffering. The anchor fault turned out to be the remote control- I have a spare which is now no longer the spare.
I had a walk just before dusk and found a nice little fishing lure on the beach. I trolled it round the bay behind the dinghy but no takers.



The full moon ro


The full moon rose over the hills demanding to be photographed