[password] pilot25041
[position] 154 59.6s 147 57.6w
[status] Friday ..... and we've now departed from Rangiroa and are enroute to Bora Bora approx 250nm & hopefully around 30hrs sailing time away! So since our last blog on Tuesday, Pzazz & Katariana have both arrived in Rangiroa and were parked close by us for their respective crew changes etc! After Tuesday's superb snorkelling we decided on Wednesday to go across the lagoon to the 'blue lagoon' apparently another must see spectacle, after motor sailing across there for 4hrs, the wind and waves were much to rough for us to get ashore and it was certainly not suitable for an overnight anchorage, so we returned to the anchorage outside the Kia Ora Hotel and had a very peaceful night.

Thursday we did a bit of boat maintenance, the topping lift strop had broken during the rough seas the previous day and we then went ashore to see what delights had been delivered from "Dory" the 'island supply boat' that had been alongside the wharf overnight and all day. Some fresh vegetables had appeared but we needed to wait until Friday morning to get more lettuce & tomatoes. Barry, Ruth & Steven then took the water taxi across to the village on the other side of the pass ...... it was far too wet and wild to use the dinghy, there were also regular bouts of heavy rain, which was great for getting the boat clean, we had lunch ashore and visited the ATM to restock our wallets! On the way back we saw 'eagle' rays, flapping their wings in the shallows to stir up the sand and get food, another first for us. All 3 crews then met up and went ashore for sundowners (very expensive!) at the Pensione Josephine, where they have a balcony out over the water at the "pass" where yo
u can watch the dolphins playing in the surf from the incoming/outgoing tides. A very enjoyable couple of hours were had by all.

Which brings us to today, after a quick foray ashore we lifted the anchor at 11.30 and headed off out through the pass as it was high water (slack tide) at 11.50 ........ or so it was supposed to be ........ a 3kt current was still coming through against our progress, but the water was relatively flat. Once outside it was full main and genoa goose winged out with 15kts breeze directly behind, another catamaran Muskoka had left at the same time and are also heading for Bora Bora, initially they were ahead of us, going well with the "reacher" sail out, but as the wind built and we rounded the top corner of the atoll, we hardened up on the wind to aproper beam reach and overtook them ........ its obviously not a race, but currently the AIS shows we are travelling at 1.5kts faster than they are!

The sun is shining, the gribs show 15-20kts for the next 48+hrs from the east, so hopefully we'll have a fast downwind sail to keep the ladies happy with a boat that is stable and not banging away upwind on the waves & swell!

Position 13.00 nzst. DTG 239nm
[speed] 8-9.5kts
[heading] 230T
[weather] 16kts E, 1m swell from the E, 10% cloud cover.

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