Tubuai, Raivavae, Les Australes 31 May 2011, 8:00 a.m. Tahiti Time 23S20 149W29
We wrenched ourselves away from our Raivavae paradise a couple days ago, and had a slow start, but then beautiful overnight passage here to Tubuai. Whether it’s one day or 3 weeks of passagemaking, it seems to take about the same amount of time to recuperate – a day and a night. So night before last was our night, and yesterday was our day of replenishing our energy levels (remaining horizontal for 24 hours with eyes mostly closed works well).
The weather continues to favor us, although we are now in an anchorage that is somewhat exposed to North winds, and a front with north winds is predicted in 96 hours. Tubuai has a lagoon and protective reef all around, but it’s very shallow with lots of corral heads, so we won’t be able to run and hide very far on the other side. We expect some rolly nights later in the week. For now, we’re going to go take advantage of the remaining gorgeous weather days to explore. So far it looks like a much more populated place. We were able to buy baguettes at the store, not wait by the side of the road at 5 a.m. for the baker to drive by, like at Raivavae. So I’ll be baking less here than I did there. I’d like baking better if our oven would stay lit – or at least beep an alarm when its flame went out.
Frank just called me away to help move the boat farther from the pass, to what we think may be a calmer spot. There was not a puff of wind, the lagoon was glassy. Depths in our short hop were between 12 and 30 feet, yet from my bow lookout perspective, the bottom appeared to be 3 inches from the surface of the water. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be looking out for when it’s like that, every corral head looks like a sure hit. It was like riding in a glass bottom boat, I could even see the moorish idols, butterflies, and parrot fish darting away from our leviathan shadow. No need to get wet to see them, but later we may need to get wet to stay sane. It is going to be hot. We’re officially in the tropics. We crossed Tropic of Capricorn, roughly latitude 23 degrees 26.8 minutes). I just put swimming on the PE agenda for this afternoon. And I’m happy to be giving the oven a break.
xoxomo