[password] pilot25041
[position] 19 02.2s 149 00.4w
[status] Sunday ..... and another day on the high seas in a yacht named Surreal II ....... around 9pm last night we gybed back on to stbd tack as the wind had backed far enough for us to head almost due north and lay a good course to Papeete. After a moonlit night we had a really nice sunrise, however, within an hour it started to cloud over and although Allan had the sunshade out over the helm position during late morning, we now have 100% cloud cover, but fortunately no rain.
We put the 4 trolling lines out early, but still the fish fail to play the game, so all is peaceful and relaxed on board and we've now got mince out of the freezer for spaghetti bolognese for dinner ...... did you know that things take far longer to defrost when the freezer is working properly!!
Allan has been busy studying; Charlie's Charts, the Pacific Pilot and other sources of information in preparation for our arrival, and the current plan is to go straight to Marina Taina; as it is convenient for the airport, the "proper" big Carrefour supermarket is within easy walking distance, we can get spares and help to fix all the bits that need outside assistance and has regular transport links into Papeete itself..... hopefuly they'll have space and we won't need to anchor off like P'zazz earlier in the week!
We currently have less than 80nm to go and should arrive off the reef entrance in the early hours, so we'll hang around outside until proper daylight before we make our entrance
Position 13.00 nzst. DTG 86nm
[speed] 6kts
[heading] 330T
[weather] 16kts SE, 2m swell from the SE, 100% cloud cover.
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