Namani at Sea

Hit some convergence zone/mild front during the second half of last night with lots of rain and gusty winds...everything on deck is nicely freshwater washed now ;-) Were going though repeated sudden wind shifts from SE to NE to SE to NE... this morning when we decided we must be zig-zagging right along some convergence line on our westerly course and eventually jibed out of it to the NW. Conditions are still gusty now but with mostly clear skies and quite nice sailing.

Wind continued to build today (Tuesday) as forecast. By now we have a solid 20kn+ from ESE, making for speedy progress - at least by our modest standards. Made contact with Astarte on the radio this morning. They're close to Niue, expecting to reach the island sometime during this night and planning to enter tomorrow morning. Apparently they had a little POST-Net reunion (the SSB net we had on the Galapagos-Marquesas passage) in Suwarrow with Katydid, Adventure Bound and Wigwam all being anchored there with them. Who knows, we might still catch Robin on Katydid before he leaves.

The wind started to fade this morning (Monday) and even the Parasailor gave up by lunchtime. We indulged in four hours of motorig before the wind started to slowly come back from ESE this afternoon. From the weather charts it looks like we just skirted aorund the northern end of a piece of South Pacific Convergence Zone that had drifted towards French Polynesia. Boats at anchor to the SW off Maupiti reported gusty rain squalls on the radio this morning which we seem to have dodged so far.

.. to Suwarrow. Wind has dropped as expected, as has the sea state. Sailing comfortably along at 4.5kn. Passed Motu One this afternoon 3nm to the north and should now have a clear shot at Suwarrow. All is well aboard, stay tuned...

Left Maupiti at 14:30h local time this afternoon, after some boat work, quick snorkeling excursion. and a look at the pass from the dinghy. Pass turned out to be not a problem. Seas are a bit confused, making for a rolly ride, but wavelength is forecast to increase as the wind lessens tomorrow (Sun). About 660nm to Suwarrow. All is well aboard, stay tuned....

Had a very nice hike up Maupiti's little peak today with Victoria and Aspasia. Re-anchored in the afternoon close to the pass to be able to see the manta rays here tomorrow morning before leaving for Suwarrow. Weather forecast looks pretty good with some strong easterlies for the first 36..48 hrs, then a low move through to the south causing some light and variable up here for about 24 hrs before good wind should set in again. We'll see...

PS: Picture above taken during last minute repairs to our spinnaker pole

A quick hello from Maupiti, our last stop in French Polynesia before heading off for Suwarrow. We arrived here yesterday (Wed) at lunchtime from Bora Bora and found Victoria and Aspasia in the anchorage. Beautiful scenery and a very relaxed atmosphere (essentially no touristic Victoria + Nicky) had fun swinging first from Aspasia's spinaker pole and then doing the same on Victoria (see picture above).

We've put up a new photo album under this link, with pictures from the last month in the Society Islands.

Moved to the NE corner of Bora Bora yesterday afternoon as there was said to be a great snorkeling spot to see some very big manta rays. We went with Samba and E Capoe to see the mantas this morning and they were indeed BIG... very beautiful.

After one night at the Tahaa Coral Garden we moved on with the rest of "the fleet" towards Bora Bora early on Wednesday morning. We've have now been anchored here behind a motu at the SE corner of the island in 3m of crystal clear turquoise water . While Bora Bora seems quite "developed" due to tourism, it's still a stunning sight and location (picture of the anchorage to follow when we have internet again).