INERTIA
One of the hardest parts of heading off on a passage is inertia. This is especially true when there is nothing wrong with the anchorage you are in already. Why beat me, and the boat up, battling the sea just to drop anchor somewhere else? But that is my human’s for you. Always believing there has to be something else interesting to see, to do or to learn just around the corner.
The skies cleared, the sun came out to shine and the forecast looked good to go, so there were no more excuses. Time to leave.
DOWN THE WEST COAST OF TAHITI
The island of Tahiti is much more beautiful from sea. From this perspective you can see the countless waterfalls that cascade down from her lush mountain peaks into deep valleys below. Sailing so close to the coast to get around the island, we did encounter some wind shadows, wind acceleration funnels and an adverse current around one point that made things choppy. But otherwise a pleasant start to our journey.
All those white sandy beaches I could be running on. But no, off to sea they are dragging me again.
Tahiti is a big long island, and we did not get an early start (noon), so we were able to sit out on deck and watch the last of the sun’s colours wash from her peaks just as we were clearing the last of her shores.
OUT INTO THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Once we cleared the island the humans decided to set a straight course for the Gambier Islands. They figured, as long as the winds let them, they would make the shortest bee line. We had a pleasant sail on the beam through the night. Woken at first light by a following pod of pilot whales. The wind and waves have built up a bit, and moved forward now, but making good progress without pushing the boat to hard or getting too salty.
Hopefully we continue to get fair winds for the transit.
TAHITI TO GAMBIER ISLANDS about 890 nm
You can not sail a straight line between these two areas as there are a few small atolls in the way.
STATISTICS FOR DAY 1 (although they got off to a lazy start)
Distance traveled (as the crow flies): 116 nm
Distance left to travel (as the crow flies): 774 nm
Number of fish caught: Zero so far. This is despite sailing through a massive ‘bird fest’ surface feeding.
You are getting this blog by the miracle of radio waves, so you will have to wait for the pictures to be added later ‘when’ we get some internet again.
END.
