Bula visitors! The passage over the top of Viti Levu was much as expected. The easterly winds continued to blow pretty strongly, but this made for an easy passage westwards on flat calm water within the reef. We stopped overnight in a sheltered anchorage, surrounded by shallow reef & mangroves near Vatia, then continued around …
Our passage back from Tahanea to Moorea was a good one. Apart from some heavy rain showers when we passed north of Tahiti, we had a dry, calm and following wind trip. We even got to use our symmetrical spinnaker for the first time which went really well. 12 knots of wind behind us and …
Our first night’s passage out of the Gambier Islands on the way to Tahanea provided a real treat – a blood moon eclipse! And a very fine spectacle it was too as the night was cloudless & we were able to watch the whole eclipse right through to the finale, when the lunar surface became …
We waited a couple more days in Ha’apiti then moved around to Cooks Bay in preparation for departure East. It looked like a window of very light N/NW winds would give us a chance to get away at least to Tikehau on the NW end of the Tuamotus. So, firstly, the last minute stock up …