We motored back to Tahiti and said farewell to Finbar on Friday night. There were no marina berths to be had, so we anchored in amongst the floating shanty town to the south of the airport. Yachts everywhere in all sorts of levels of disrepair, it looked like a graveyard of boats and dreams; adventuring sailors down on their luck who had got this far across the Pacific, only to be trapped by Covid, equipment failure, and/or a lack of funds. On Saturday we headed back to Cooks Bay which had a much better vibe. Then on Sunday, back around to Haapiti to see what the waves were doing. The conditions were a lot easier to deal with than last time we were here. The waves were small but the long weekend party vibe in the water was big. Surfers of all stripes and levels of ability were out. Despite the relatively crowded waves, friendliness was the main emotion on the water. You gotta love French Polynesia. This morning I thought I'd chance the ribs and get out ther...
After having our inter-regional departure refused there was no question of staying longer in the Papeete floating slums... It was time to move, even if to somewhere a little closer. So we decided to show Zac some of beautiful Moorea. We had a cracking sail and experimented with our windward angles in preparation for our upcoming Tuamotus passage. Not great but not completely terrible. She's certainly no performance cruiser/racer. We did a day of boat jobs in Cook's Bay. It's been a long journey but the list is getting pretty small and the last of the mod cons like watermaker, washing machine and deck shower are now functional. Once again we marvelled at the Cooks Bay micro-climate. It's as if it's not part of this island chain at all. And the water was dead still; so after a few rough nights, a good night's sleep was finally had by all. In the morning we sailed to Haapiti once again. Multiple acquaintances do not diminish the unbelievable beauty...
We motored to the outer reef past Tavarua and Cloudbreak, for a final farewell in the grey and stormy conditions. The forecast was for a rough first night, with wind in front of the beam, followed by a few days of reaching in more settled weather. A change of some sort was forecast coming through just as we approached the North Island. This change could have involved some nasty weather; so we thought it would be good to get into the passage a day earlier than the rest of the southbound Fiji cruisers and beat the queue at NZ immigration: there were at least 20 ready to go. As we exited the pass, the south east wind started to kick in. Evenstar began to plunge into the short period swells. Just as things started to get a bit woolly, Rob had a strike on the big reel. I slowed the boat in the rough conditions as he and Paul fought to land a good size skipjack on the pitching aft deck. After a tussle they got it on board and cleaned it up. Night was falling, and the conditions w...
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