17:11S 148:45W

 

Our heading right now has pointing directly at Opua in the Bay of Islands (NZ) – it’s only 2265 nautical miles and roughly 15 overnight sails away.  Hmm...for now we’re content to head straight for Tahiti which is less than eight hours away!

 

We had a pretty good overnight sail although conditions got a bit lumpy in the night.  The wind was steady at between 15-18knots but with a 1m beam swell it got a bit uncomfortable.  The wind lightened at sunrise but came back just as we were preparing to put the spinnaker up.  Phew...always a relief when we don’t have to do battle with the coloured sail.  Just as I wrote that I was called up on deck – “we’ll put the spinnaker up after all”.  So we’re now under spinnaker and have to say, only three swear words were uttered in the process – a record!

 

Single overnight sails are what we dread the most – we’d far rather be on a longer passage to get into a rhythm.  I find it almost impossible to sleep on overnighters although the skipper drops off like a baby the minute his head hits the pillow.  I took melatonin (a natural relaxant) and magnesium last night but still sleep eluded me.  Usually when I haven’t slept I struggle to stay awake on watch but it was easy last night being such a lovely night with lots of stars around and a stunning moon from about 3am, with Venus beside it.  It was light just after 5am so I made apple and ginger muffins to accompany our morning coffee. Coffee is a ritual on Bandit and, with early starts these days due to it being light so early, we’ve moved it from 11am to 10.30.   The skipper makes an oustanding cup using our stovetop Italian espresso machine and milk frother.   Friends Balvenie have what we call their “diesel espresso machine”.  They have a proper espresso maker on board but have to run the diesel powered generator to run it.   When we see the generator running we know it’s latte time on Balvenie – but they’re a bit far away to drop in on now.....they’re still in the Caribbean.

 

We’re racing along towards Port Venus on the north west corner of Tahiti.  Our arrival time will be well after dark and it’s a safe anchorage for a night arrival. It’s where Captain Cook observed the transit of Venus, hence the name.

 

Tomorrow we’ll head on around to Papeete and civilisation – haircuts, shops, supermarkets (a Carrefour no less) and internet.  Hooray!