[password] pilot25041
[position] 17 29.4s. 149 40.2w
[status] Wednesday 15th August morning ........ & we've just left Papeete Marina and are en route to Suwarrow & Samoa, 50% cloud cover and very little wind, so although we have a full main and genoa set, both engines are purring away to propel us to our destination.

As we said in the last blog, we got into Papeete Marina on Sunday afternoon and have spent the last few days sorting the boat out, doing shopping and laundry etc ready for us to depart today. On Monday we dropped off the gas bottle and found out that today was a Public Holiday so they very kindly arranged for us to collect the refilled bottle yesterday, Allan then went to Customs and the Port Authority to get our clearance sorted and on to the 'duty free' shop to arrange some wine and beer for our onward voyage. Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) we took Lyn & Jan to the airport and once Dirk arrived went to the Immigration Police (IP) to get our final clearance ........ not the easiest experience in the world and because the Port Authority had put on our form that we were leaving this morning, the IP wouldn't let us clear out last night. So back to the boat for the night and then back to the airport at 8am this morning to complete the formalities.

In short, we were back to the boat and casting off our lines at 09.05, so we're currently halfway across the gap between Tahiti & Moorea, and starting to get in to our 3hr watch patterns. Our track will take us the north of Moorea and south of Raiatea, but the gribs show little or no wind for the next few days, so it could be a slow passage to Suwarrow ....... we'll let you know how we progress!

Position 10.00 FP time. DTG 816nm
[speed] 6.1kts
[heading] 282M
[weather] 5knts Variable, 0.5m swell from the N, 50% cloud cover.

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