Wednesday 10^th June - I arrived at position 14:58.04S 147:38.18W

Rangiroa is the second largest Tuamotu and I was attracted to this lovely spot knowing I could get a WiFi access point. It was not long though before it was drinks on this boat dinner on that boat and I did not get much done however I did manage to fit in a lot of fishing.

The next morning when I woke up to try a bit of fishing every one in the anchorage was pretty much out on their deck checking their anchors, several boats had pulled anchor and a few had broken their snubbers. By about 9:00AM a half dozen boats left in search of a better place to stay. I was not going anywhere because I had several boats close to me and with the state of the water there was no way known I could pull up the anchor safely. Besides I could not be bothered and instead I decided to go back down stairs and watch a DVD. Fishing was not going to be any fun while hanging on to my lunging boat. It was not long before a couple of wave broke on my deck, this was worrying because normally even while sailing in a fair breeze Silkys decks stay dry. The stupid weather lasted for the next 3 days which was a little bit of a shame.

I am that sick and tired of losing lures that I have had to start making the suckers, I hope you get a laugh out of the bad boy spin off from my fizzy bubbler. It has not caught a thing yet but I am sure it will.

From the back of Silky I caught plenty of fish, including a Remora which is one of those sucker fish that stick onto sharks, they are very funny looking things with a huge sucker pads on top of their head as you can see from the picture. They are also a real pain because if you are not careful reeling them in they suck to the side of the hull and you are not able to get them off so it is a case of breaking off your rig. I have not eaten one yet but they do look as though they would be nice. I have been cutting them up and using them for bait as they seem to catch you a lot of fish.

After I caught all of the cod I could manage I took to trolling a tiny lure off the back of ‘Simon’, my belovered work house dingy. It was amazing as each time I motored over a large coral bomby in about 8 meters of water I would get a fish, it only took 45 minute to catch 5 fish until one dove down back under a rock before and snapped off my line.

I have also included a picture of the pass which I had to enter through which was proberly the most scariest bit of sailing I have ever done. I arrived to the pass of the ebb tide about one and a half hour after the turn and to top it off I had 20 Knots of wind against the current which made the rushing water stand up like walls. As I entered the pass which I only did because I sore another yacht go in about 20 minutes prior I hung on for life as I spun the helm from full lock to full lock just to keep the boat straight. I came in under a full main sail and a reefed front sail and full engine power. The boat speed through the water hit 8 Knots however I was not going anywhere fast over the ground. Once I committed myself to the pass I was not able to turn around and at times I thought the huge waves were going to come in a swamp the boat. I did manage to make my way over to the right hand side where I was fortunate enough to pick up a back current which aloud me to make some ground. Anyhow I made it in and gave myself another pat on the back. The picture I have included is of a dolphin playing in the rapids. There were about a dozen of them jumping over the rapids while doing summer sults.

Day 321

Destination – Rangiroa 'Tuamotu's'