Wednesday 5 April – we are going too fast

The wind seems to be hovering around 12 knots and we are doing just over 9 knots of boat speed most of the time with Sporty Spice (Code Zero) up. It is the perfect wind angle for her and the ride is as smooth as anything, it amazes us we are going so fast as it really doesn’t feel like it. Going this fast has blown our calculations for arriving in the Tuamotus atolls. Each atoll has an entry passage into the atoll and the sea rushes in and out through the narrow passage. The current can be up to 8 knots and a breaking wave, so timing is everything, you can only go through at slack tide, so two windows of opportunity a day. We are heading to the atoll called Roroia, and slack time should be around 8-9am, we landed up with an arrival time around 11pm. None of these atoll passages can be done in the dark, the inside of the atolls are full of bommies, coral heads that have to be navigated by sight.

Otherwise it was a very calm day, we managed a bit of a clean up, saw some dolphins briefly and rested up for our last night of shifts. The girls did another very energetic exercise class all under a very dramatic sunset sky. The twilight colours were spectacular, the sun caught a big white cloud that turned it into a burning ball, quite incredible colour, all our iphones could not cope with the intensity of the colour. The full Pink moon rose on one side of the boat with the sun setting the other side, really spectacular.

Just before supper we got the mainsail down, still going too fast we took down Sporty Spice and put Posh Spice (jib) up. This took us down to 3 knots of boat speed and should get us in early morning.

Rowan and Han hanging out in matching orange

Sporty Spice in her element, the wide angle makes her look much smaller than she is

Rowan with our enormous load of pamplemousse above his head!

Extraordinary light from the sunset catching the clouds

My iphone 12 Pro could not cope with the intense colour of the one cloud, same thing happened on Han’s camera

Watching the sun set and the ever changing dramatic colours of the sky

The full moon rose on one side as the sun set the other side

Megan and Han watching the moon rise on the other side of the boat