23:08.0171 S  134:54.875 W

23/6/08 15:00

The entire crew was strangely subdued all day Sunday.

At 6 AM this morning there was suddenly a very strong squall in the anchorage which gusted over 50 knots and although we had out nearly 80 meters of chain in 20 meters of depth we dragged dramatically.    Fortunately we didn’t crash into any of the other yachts.  We had to re-anchor twice before it would hold.  We put out all our chain, nearly 100 metres.

Mid morning I did the paperwork with the Gendarmerie.

I took my arrival and departure forms to the Post Office to buy two stamps for them to be sent to Papeete and also finally got some local currency.

We had designated today as a swimming day and have come to a little island three miles from the anchorage which is very beautiful, just like in the movies even though the sun didn’t come back after the squall.  The water temperature is 26 degrees.

We will leave Tuesday morning.  The next hop will be to Hoa some 460 miles NW.

Looking at the charts it’s the nearest  safe place we  can guarantee to get into as many of the other atolls don’t necessarily had enough depth for us, or the entrance channel isn’t obvious on our charts, or they were used extensively  for French atomic testing which somehow seems to dull ones desire to go there.  Also it means we can really relax for the next couple of weeks.  It is virtually half the distance between here and Papeete and we will be able to visit 4 or 5 different atolls as we slowly make our way.  Ever the optimist I’m hoping when we get that bit nearer to the equator the sun will come out of hiding.  It is actually raining here in the afternoon anchorage as I write this.

18:00

On the waty back the viz dropped to  2 miles.  We felt our way in. We’ve re-anchored with the tandem system. So far so good.