[password] Tsar12
[position]17 57.5S 149 61.93W
[weather] cloudy some light showers light SE
[status] during the sail from had a solid 20 knot E breeze which during the night increased up to 27 so we had a deep reef so that we didn?t arrive in Papeete before daybreak . What a difference it makes having the wind at a better angle ( still 70 AWA so forward of the beam) - with a moonlit night we were charging along at up to 12 knots despite being deep reefed and arrived just after daybreak taking 8 hours less than the same sail going the other way when we went up ( for 180nm) .
Back to the mooring minefield of Taina and we got a space . Clean up of the boat and we went to the Carrefours supermarket for late morning tea at a cafe and to show Zuny what the supermarket was like - bought a few provisions but am leaving the major stock to Wednesday- the day Wendy , Neil and Maureen arrive.
Took the part for the autohelm into our repair guy he finished putting it together and I installed - hey presto we have a autohelm again for the first time in 6 weeks! Certainly done a lot of handsteering in that time - will be a luxury to be able to use auto again !
Caught up with Mike on Tusi 2 and Mike and Chrissy on Taranoui and we all had happy hour drinks ashore - was good to hear what everyone had been up to.
Have decided to hire a car for Wednesday- Dave?s last day - so we can have a look around plus get him to the airport and pick up the others and to get all the provisions back to the boat from the supermarket. A busy day ahead today packing in as much as we can while we have the car.
Also got the paperwork under way to enable us to get duty free fuel so that we can refuel tomorrow at the marina before leaving for Moorea and the Society Islands .

Note: Sending a brief description of the weather you are experiencing is a great help to David and Patricia (Gulf Harbour Radio) for monitoring the weather.

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