14:58:09S 147:38:23W 22nd of June 2010
The Adventures of Sunboy the Sailboat
Al Sparkes and Deb Swain
Tue 22 Jun 2010 17:39
Hi guys, it is 7.15am local time on Tuesday and Debsy is tucked up in bed with a nice hot cup of tea and her new book so she is a very happy camper. The kids are asleep and shortly, Debs and I will take the dinghy over to the wharf and walk up to the little shop to pick up our fresh baguettes, yummoh. We had to order them yesterday so make sure we had some this morning so that is always a bit of a treat to get beautiful fresh baguettes cooked in the oh so traditional French style.
We had a good run into the lagoon through the pass with no adverse outflow and no standing waves and I guess we were anchored up by about 10.30am. Our first drop of the anchor caught a small coral bombie so Nikki dived down and freed that up for us and we re-set the anchor into nice clear sand. We are anchored off one of those resorts you see in the travel mags with the little bures built on stilts over the water and I must say the look rather magnificent and very tempting for Debs and I to escape to. There is no one in them at all and there does not seem to be anyone at all in any part of the resort so I dont know whether it is the off season here or just the recession has seen a downturn in business. The Rangiora atoll is about 100 miles around and is the second largest atoll in the world, sorry I dont know which one takes first prize. Free lunch on Sunboy to whoever comes back with the right answer!!
We are anchored in about 12 metres of water and the water is a very warm 30 degrees so swimming has been a pretty popular pastime. Not nearly as popular as the kneeboarding though. We christended the kneeboard the first afternoon and the kids are having a ball on it. They have been very patient in waiting to use it and it has been some time since we bought it in Panama but I think it has been worth the wait.
We thougth we might have been a bit overcautious about coming here and bunkering down from the weather but by yesterday afternoon, the dark clouds started to build and look very ominous. It started to rain late in the afternoon and the wind continued to build and build, in the end, getting too strong to keep the wind generator up so about midnight, Lukey and I took that down.
It ended up blowing a hooley all night and we were just so happy to be tucked up safe and sound in our anchorage rather than being out in the open sea getting bashed. Yesterday morning we heard the catamaran 'Meander' calling on 'Fancy Free' on the radio and we get a tad excited as these are both Aussie boats we had last seen some thousands of miles previously, Meander in Panama and Fancy Free in Galapagos. We talked to them on the VHF and they were hoping to be able to make it through the pass into the anchorage where we were but were quite concerned with the sea state. Lukey and I took, should I say surfed the dinghy a few miles from the anchorage to the pass where they were hoping to come in and checked it out for them and it all looked ok. It was still blowing 30 knots inside the lagoon and there were 2 metre waves that we knew we had to get back over to get back to the boat. We radioed the yachts and gave them the all clear and then headed back to safety on Sunboy, a bit of a slow, hard and wet slog though. The guys anchored up and came over for a cuppa and a catchup and it is just the best feeling to see mates you havent seen for such a long time heading into the anchorage, wow, whats it going to be like when we get home and see you guys!! They had both been at Manihi where we had originally planned to go and left the previous day and nice conditions and then got caught right in the middle of the Tuomoto bomb. Plus 40 knots and plus 4 metre seas meant for a very rough and tumble night and they were very happy to be sitting in our cockpit having teas and coffees. They told us of another catamaran, one we had seen in Nuka Hiva, who had dragged their anchor at Manihi and ended up on the reef, doing considerable damage. We were incredibly happy that we had made the choice to come here and bunker down and felt terribly sorry for the poor guys on the damaged cat.
We went ashore later in the day and found the little shop where we ordered our bread and head a little wander about before we took the kids kneeboarding again, an activity they just cant seem to get enough of. Had a great pasta dinner of chorizo sausage, black olives and tomato with a nice bottle of wine so all was good last night topped off with a movie on the big screen and some chocolate that Debsy had stashed away.
Anyway, time to go and get those baguettes. Not sure if we will leave here tomorrow or the next day but will post a blog somewhere along the way to Tahiti. Catch you soon..............