password] Tsar12
[position]16 21.05S 152 73.16W
[weather]Wind S 12-16 knots swell 1m cloudy
[status] after dropping Zuny at the dock and setting off for Mautipi on a beautiful day we managed to sail with the gennaker in 8-10 knots of wind for approx 1/3 of the trip - ie 9nm then the wind dropped and we motored the rest arriving at Mautipi at 3pm to find Sayaou - the Spanish boat so we anchored next to them and caught up. A local who they had met was a OC 1 paddler so we went for a paddle out the pass which is where I had my meeting with the reef last time ! Outside the pass we had some humpback whales surface only 150 m away - an amazing sight especially with that huge tail in the air .
Back to the boat for one of the best sunsets you could wish for.
First thing in the morning we motored up to town and went ashore to do another. Limb of the 380 m mountain- Graham and I who competed in Ironman managed the climb in 35 mins working up a good sweat!
On getting back I downloaded the latest forecast to see that on Friday there would be no wind on our approach to Suwarrow so we made the decision to up anchor and get going st4aightbaway as the wind had gone from flat calm in the morning to 10 knots so we set sail from outside the pass at 1300 hrs.
At first we hoisted the screecher and were trucking along at 8-9 knots when we got a big hit on one of the lures .with the schreacher up it was impossible to slow the boat and even with the drag on max the line was peeling until it broke just before I got spooled - must have been a nick in the line - goodbye to one of my expensive Daniels lures from Papeete .
Lesson - no lures with the schreacher or gennaker in future
- it?s too hard to slow the boat.

We are settled in to 15-18 knot breeze now sailing at 60 awa - tomorrow the wind is due to back to the East which should give us a nice slide-we need to do a good mileage each day to get there before sunset on Thursday so hopefully the forecast will prove correct !

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