18:41.950 S  174:07.571 W

14/09/09   01:00

Another sunless day. What with one thing and the other the checking out took 3 ½ hours. 

Late afternoon we headed for Hunga, one of the most Western Islands and a logical jumping off point. 

On the approach we saw some fishing boats and put out the line.  Within in a couple of minutes we had a fine fish.  It looked a bit like a Wahoo only less pointy.  It was very good for dinner and a couple of more meals to come.

We entered Hunga through a very narrow pass with  a little more than 3 metres depth and anchored in what is like a reasonable size lake.  The sea outside was very bouncy so the stop gave us a chance to clean the fish, shower and prepare dinner. We saw a humpback cavorting in the distance on the way in and out.

We were approached by a local man in an extraordinary looking canoe.  He had made it 10 years ago from a mango tree.  It took him a month to hollow out the log.  He was on his way back from his “plantation” where he grows all kinds of fruit and vegetables.  He was hoping to arrange to trade his produce for some tined food but as we were leaving shortly  we just gave him a few bits.  He was unhappy not to have anything to give in return.  He had amazing dignity and I wished  we could stay longer to see his village and his “plantation.”  We left with a little daylight remaining  and an hour before low tide.

The wind has dropped from what it was the last few days but the sea is still pretty lumpy.

We’re making 5/6 knots going a bit North of course to keep the wind on the beam and reduce the rolling. Tomorrow we’ll set the Spinnaker but I fear we’ll be using  quite a bit of the  1000 litres of Diesel we took on this morning. It is a very black night.

15/09/09  09:30

Lots of rain in the night.  The wind went from ENE to NE which helps our course. Were doing around 7 knots at the moment under full main and full yankee.  We don’t need the spi yet.   Still 100 % cloud cover.The sea state has dropped so it’s more comfortable.