[password] pilot25041
[position] 17 32.4s 149 34.3w
[status] Sunday 12th Aug early afternoon ...... from Papeete Marina.

So on Wednesday late afternoon as the wind continued its anticlockwise directional change we moved from the anchorage inside the passe to some 400-600m away where we would get better protection from any swell, after a comfortable night we were up early, anchor up, mainsail set and out through the passe by 06.50hrs on Thursday, although we had 10-15kts from NW we had to motor sail to Moorea as the apparent wind was less than 8kts most of the time, however, running down wind meant we didn't experience too much banging and we went through the reef at 19.00 and safely anchored by 20.00hrs, so a fairly quick crossing for the 85+nm.

Friday morning it was decided to take Jan & Ron to see the reef sharks and rays, so we moved out of the bay to an anchorage nearer the rays, although still 1.5nm in the dinghy. The intrepid crew set off upwind to follow the markers through the narrow inner channel, leaving Barry on the boat to do some odd jobs ......... quite some time later Barry looked over the side of the boat to find 4 wet and bedraggled 'intrepid crew' rowing towards him in the dinghy and moving at quite a speed as the wind had certainly piped up! The dinghy painter was throw across the gap and Barry managed to catch it and bring the dinghy alongside ....... they were over 3/4 of the way to the rays & sharks when the outboard suddenly died and no matter what was tried it just cut out above idle ...... so carburettor again removed, again loads of small bits of debris were found in the filter bowl, so everything cleaned again using the solvent and reassembled, outboard now running a lot better, but not a
s good as before, so spark plugs removed and although looking clean and with a good mixture colour, we adjusted the gaps and reassembled. Now we were back in business, so after a spot of lunch the intrepid crew set off again and were not disappointed with the wide array of underwater wildlife they saw. On their return We then went back into the main bay and anchored for the night. The source of the outboard fuel debris will need investigating further at some point!

Saturday morning and a supermarket run was required, so we left our anchorage went out through the reef and back in to Cook Bay, where Allan had also arranged for the 'fridge man' to meet us and look at the faulty fridge. Fridge man arrived just after lunch, did some tests ..... basically said that everything we had previously tried was right, couldn't find anything wrong, suggested we put a small relay in between the supply and the fans to remove excess current through the controller etc etc. Although we briefly fitted the new controller and the fridge was working, we are still not convinced this is the right long term approach and we prefer to keep our new spare controller in reserve in case we get a problem with our 3 working cooling assets. With the gribs showing the wind going from S to E overnight, we made a swift exit from Cook Bay and had a fabulous sail back across to Tahiti, entering through the reef at Passe De Taunoa around 5pm and anchoring not far from Tahiti
Yacht Club.

Sunday morning we left our anchorage and motored against the easterly wind (17+kts) and anchored not far from Venus Point, as we neared the anchorage we could see spouts of water outside the reef .......... these turned out to be a pod of rather large whales, Barry managed to get some video footage of these amazing creatures, the first we have seen on this trip. Once the 'culture' of Venus Point was completed we left and sailed back down wind under just our head sail and went through the main passe into Papeete, where we are again fortunate to have found a berth in the town marina. For the next few days will be prepping to leave for Suwarrow and then on to Samoa.

Lyn & Jan fly home on Tuesday evening and Dirk also arrives, unfortunately Lachlan will no longer be joining us and we wish him a speedy recover from his illness, so Ron is now staying onboard for the next leg.

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