April 9 Sat
We are now only 61 miles from Fakarava Atoll which is about 10 hours away. That should get us there about 2:30pm if nothing else changes. Ha Ha fat chance of that. We have been motoring all night because the winds have been very low. The high tide to allow us to safely enter the Atoll in slack water is at 5:19pm, so we have a bit of leeway. It is better to get there a bit earlier than too late and have to wait another 6 hours.
Talking about nothing changes, the wind picked up a little to 10-12 Kts which would help us along and reduce the engine power to still get us there on time. Jeremy and I put up the sails at the time his watch started. Immediately the wind drops back to 8 kts and we have to use the same engine power to keep the same speed. This is quite normal, it is something like if you want to ensure you get no rain, then carry an umbrella. Sailing is the same, in marginal winds with your sails down the wind will pick up. The moment you put up the sails, the wind will drop away. Good thing is that sometimes you get it right.
One good thing about having to motor all night is that the batteries are fully charged, and the water maker has just about filled both tanks. So we should be OK for a while now because there is no water available for yachts on the Atolls.
We are all looking forward to some clear water in the Atolls. The water in the last few bays of the Marquesas were much better than in Hiva Oa, but still not clear because most of the bays have a stream running into them and after rain the water quickly turns brown from the runoff.
We are travelling tonight in the company of Into the Blue who yesterday had the halyard fail on their parasail. It ended up in the water but they managed to retrieve it without damage to the sail which is very good news. The challenge now for them is to remove and replace the broken halyard from inside the mast and work out why it failed. The failure about a meter from the end of the halyard indicates some chaffing occurring inside the mast. This should not occur.
Tomorrow when we get to Fakarava I will lend him the inspection tool I have. It has a small Video monitor with a meter long fiber optic cable with a light at the end of it that allows you to see inside places that are almost impossible to inspect without a tool like this. Thank you Andria for getting this tool for me. It has been used several time on Zoom already. I am sure the rest of the fleet will appreciate it as well because when word gets out that I have one of these I am sure I will get requests from others to borrow it.
Loaning my tools and expertise in fixing things has been well paid in goodies such as, bottles of wine, bars of Chocolate, yippee.Next posting will hopefully be from Fakarava in the Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia.
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