Friday 3 October – a slow sail to Ninigo Island Atoll

We were up at 3am and anchor straight up, as usual no hanging about with Rowan, we were the first of the three boats to leave. We left through the the closest pass on the western side, we took the narrow gap, I see the other two boats went a little further up to take the main western exit, most probably a sensible thing to do in the dark! I sat up front with the spot light, it never got that shallow and Rowan navigated through no problem. There was absolutely no wind, and the moon sank virtually as we picked up the anchor so it was pitch dark. We motored until daylight when Rowan got the sails up, I went back to bed! The wind was not as strong as forecast but we finally got Pinkz up, averaging about 6 knots of boat speed in 8-10 knots of wind so not bad. It’s always nice to switch off the engines and have a peaceful sail. We got to the eastern pass of Ninigo atoll around 1pm which was great sunlight to navigate a fairly tricky pass. Rowan had good waypoints to follow, so it all went smoothly. Once inside the atoll, I was on bommie alert as there were loads about, and little fishing marker plastic bottles, which we do not want caught around the prop. We finally got into our very scenic bay and were greeted with a canoe laden with pawpaw and coconuts for us. Very sweet couple welcomed us and said we were free to swim and visit everywhere.

The other two boats took longer and motor sailed the whole way, we had just slightly better winds. Luckily we have spare fuel now, as we have plenty to motor the whole way to Biak, but Claudette looks like she may be short so can have some of ours. It wasn’t long before the wifi seekers arrived and once again the internet cafe was buzzing. Rowan giving the usual manners lesson, with please and thank you!

We were all pretty tired from the early start so headed to bed early, a good excuse to send the internet surfers packing!