12:49S 142:34W

 

The skipper seems to have an obsession with time.  I’ve mentioned previously that on our Pacific crossing he insisted on turning the clocks back – when my preference was to simply to do it when we arrived.  Of course, the skipper won. The Tuamoto Islands are on the same time as Tahiti which is half an hour behind the Marquesas.  You guessed it – our clocks have already gone back.  There was little discussion this time around.  The skipper announced he was changing the time on the ipad so he could get the tide times right in the Tuamoto (essential as you can’t enter the lagoons at any time other than slack water) - next I knew all the clocks in the boat had been turned back and come 5.30pm it was completely dark.    The upside for me is that it was broad daylight at 5.30am this morning making my 2am to 8am watch fly by – half of it in daylight.

 

The wind completely died on us at 4pm yesterday.  We had to think hard to remember when we had last had to motor and decided it was back in Haiti and Jamaica. Ever since we’ve had wind – often too much.  Neither of us likes motoring.  It’s noisy, the boat gets hot and it goes against the grain, but with a tide deadline to meet and absolutely not a breath of wind we had no option.  At first light this morning we got out the spinnaker which always causes frustration – it’s not easy to get it up with just two of us on board.  We managed without any swearing and little effort – maybe we are getting better!  Bandit is now trickling along at 4knots in  7 knots of wind. Slow....but better than motoring.