Wednesday August 22, 2007
4:00 P.M.
Position: S15.10 W156.17
Heading: 274 degrees
Avg. Speed: 6.5 knots
Winds from the East North-east at 12-15 nm
Initial miles from Bora Bora to Suvarov: 690
Miles remaining: 390
Here are are in the middle of the ocean once again. We left Bora
Bora just before sunset on Monday the 20th having delayed our
departure approximately one week from our initial anticipated
departure date. On the day we left, we went back into town to do
some final provisioning and went to have lunch in the town’s big
Chinese restaurant. Our favorite gendarme, the strict guy who
checked us out of the country the week before and insisted that
we leave no later than the 14th of August sat at a table right
next to us, just as he did when we ate there last week. Luckily
he must see a lot of middle aged American yachties around here
and didn’t recognize us .
We had delayed our departure because the weather forecast was
not good for last week. First there was too much wind, and then
was no wind for a few days. We waited until Monday because the
forecast looked decent for Monday and Tuesday, and then
excellent for the rest of the week. Our friends on Rishu Maru
will be leaving on Wednesday (today) and will be following us
to Suvarov. Most of the boats we know left Bora Bora about the
same day as everyone was waiting for the right weather to leave.
We have set up a “safety net” with everyone calling in to a
pre-determined SSB channel twice a day. There are about 10
boats participating. It’s a nice system. We have not seen any
boats at sea yet.
Our first several hours at sea were great with moderate winds
and very smooth seas. The winds died down pretty quickly though
and we passed most of Tuesday motoring. The skies were grey
and the seas were extremely flat. It was not bad though, and
the best part of the day was when Mark caught a fish! A nice
fat tuna! It was a lot of work to bring him in and then pretty
disgusting when Mark cleaned and cut him up, but definitely a
very exciting event. We are not sure how big it was – guessing
about 15 pounds or so. Definitely enough for us to be eating
tuna everyday for the remainder of our passage to Suvarov.
Today the winds picked up and we have been sailing since early
morning. It has been a beautiful day with smallish but
increasing swells and a nice steady breeze behind us. We set the
two head-sails, one of which is a pretty red,white and blue
(French colors as well as American), and we are trucking along.
Mark has his fishing poles set again, hoping he can get
another lucky catch – this time maybe we will get a mahi-mahi.
L.