17:46.265 S 177:22.912 E
We had a much better meal at The Duvai last night and were joined by
the manager Darryl who has offered us accommodation in New Zealand a
couple of hundred miles South of Auckland. He regaled us with many
stories largely about hunting exploits and how he made a living
shooting deer from a helicopter and when he was younger hundreds and
hundreds of possums and thousands of scallops. The other guests
were having a kava night which we were fortunately too late to
participate in.
We left at seven this morning. The wind has been forecast to be
Easterly all week and has been defiantly South instead. This morning
it greyed over and went East. Before we knew it we were poled out in
30+ knots of wind and racing Westwards. The wind blew away the clouds
and it became a really good day, also as it wasn’t from the South it
was much warmer than what we’ve had all week. I had planned to stop in
a bay about half way to Denerau but it was too exposed in these
conditions, so we carried on the full 82 miles. As soon as we
entered the pass the wind went North and disappeared so we motored the
last 7 or 8 miles and by 5:30 were moored up on the marina dock. As
we were sorting our ropes out, a dinghy appeared from a catamaran
we’ve seen before demanding to swap some DVDs. He seemed quite
desperate.
At one point this afternoon the boat lurched violently and Demetri’s
MacBook Pro went flying along with his iPhone. The computer has
survived but the studio headphones which were plugged in at the time
will need to be repaired and the iPhone seems to have died. I had a
very expensive camera lens take off as well but it seems to have
survived.
This diary may go quiet for a few days while we sort a few things out.
|
