Ya Orana

The day starts with a few green drinking nuts, and if the meat is still in the soft stage, a little snack on that. A couple of mature coconuts are grated and the cream squeezed out, then a big pot of coconut rice is made for lunch which sometimes lasts through to breakfast, sometimes not. The cream also goes into curries and sauces, and is absolutely fantastic in coffee! I don't know what they put in the tins of coconut cream, but this fresh stuff is quite a different animal.

Rangiroa to Haamene on Tahaa was a bit of a slow sail, and for the first time I had a badly timed landfall. We arrived off the pass into Tahaa before midnight and sat 15 miles off waiting for daylight. There is a flash orange sea anchor in the bottom of the sail locker and I thought it might help to hold us in a more comfortable position, so we let it out and waited. It did actually turn us just enough to take the edge off the roll but.. in ten knots of wind, less than a metre sea, drifting at 1kn the sea anchor shredded itself! It clearly says on it "for vessels up to 45'". I haven't read anything good about sea anchors and i can see why. Imagine if you were really in trouble and risking your life to try and deploy this thing which can't even cope with a ten knot breeze.
We arrived at Haamene in rain and thunder but it cleared to reveal a magic spot, very sheltered and great holding. People were very friendly and the vegetation rampant. I caught some great fish at anchor. We wandered in the hills and found all the fruit we could carry. (they don't eat fallen fruit so anything on the ground is ok to take, this was in the bush so not currently cultivated)
It seemed like paradise, so who could blame Marcel for wanting to stay?
He had planned to come through to Fiji, so I had to come up with a new plan. I asked a few people if they wanted to come to Fiji, they all looked rather surprised, can't think why, so I've decided to push on alone. Anne is furious and upset, fair enough, but I'm confident that I can do it. Winds will be light and always behind, the boat is all going well, I'll just take it slowly, not put up more sail than I can get down easily.