We headed out the marina before breakfast, not realising it was a very low tide. A channel has been blasted for all the boats to get through an area between two islands. We were on the same route we’ve done before, between the marker buoys when we suddenly heard a grating sound! Luckily we were not going fast, so it was merely a graze of the dagger boards, but disappointing as we had just had them repainted and fixed in NZ. Oh well it could have been worse! We headed up north to an anchorage near where we went with Jane and Mike. We went through the pass that we had tried to anchor in before, and tucked up behind Lelepa island as fairly big winds were predicted overnight. Rala and Aldabra (Nancy the American solo sailor and crew Jeff) joined us there. There was one French boat already there. They must have been surprised to see so many boats turn up, 7 of us in total. Two other catamarans arrived plus Profasea, the South African solo sailor with the professor husband who does not do passages! We last saw her in the Tuamotus Islands.
It was a nice sandy anchorage, but with loads of bommies that had to be avoided. The beach was idyllic, but sadly the island is Tabu, meaning we were prohibited to set foot on the island, there were a couple of locals manning the beach. A boatman did arrive late afternoon and told us we couldn’t even anchor there, as they are trying to preserve the coral, which is understandable. He wanted us to move but we explained the storm was coming and it was getting dark. He said it was fine but that we must leave in the morning, which we were going to do anyway.
We had a bit of a snorkel, it was nice coral but with a strong current. We went and had evening drinks on Aldabra, and discovered that Jeff her crew, shares a birthday with Rowan. So Sunday we will celebrate the birthdays. Our current plan is to head further up North to the island Pentecost to see the Land Diving (Naghol), where they bungee jump off wooden scaffolding, with vines tying their feet together.
We could see the clouds build up, the rain and wind arrived in the night as predicted.
This graph shows the depth of the ground in front of us ……this peak got us!
Rowan happy to be back sailing
Aldabra and Rala sailing up with us
Passing a big landslide
Hat island
Our lovely anchorage with a beach we could not set foot on
Aldabra with a double rainbow over her
Bommies in the water, dark clouds coming
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