day 95
Hello it’s Naomi Today we went for a really nice sail all over the lagoon and we counted our lucky stars we didn’t leave yesterday when the cloudy windy weather prevented us from seeing the boogies too clearly. There were plenty, yesterday we could barely see the very obvious bombies out of the water, today you could very clearly see them, turquoise with pink rocks and whitewater splashing around them ,but also ! Other extremely sneaky ones that looked high enough to smash into but low enough to barely see, just an emerald green smudge in the water. I’m very glad to have plenty of folks on the boat to do Bombie watch.
Jamie, fun sailing at the moment with no propellor, no windlass and no instruments (wind angle, depth, wind speed etc) so it’s old school sailing using the feel of the boat and the little windex arrow at the top of the mast. Lucky our folks have done it all before so it’s maximum confidence and just let it rip and away we go. Very cool, we are the edgy scallywags and rascals of tahanea. We circled a beautiful little island today full of birds. A nice sunny day today after a couple days of cloud was welcome. Moved to the anchorage next to the passes tomorrow it’s off to fakarava , the big smoke.
Q here Lovely sail today , first time I remember sailing down wind. Soooo mellow and lovely. I remembered this thing a couple days ago, called swimming! All this time noodling around with flippers, pulling on ropes, walking awkwardly on coral, and all the time in between sitting on my butt somewhere on the boat. It only took about a month of slow atrophy for me to remember this simple form of exercise that only requires a large body of water( which it just so happens to be conveniently located in well, every direction). Small triumphs, so good…..
Ia orana, Megan here. Well manu motu remains undisturbed by yours truly or anyone else. Which I suppose is for the best. We did circle around it while hundreds of birds did also. The sight of a legion of frigates in the sky was quite something to behold. And then to peer through the binoculars and see birds peppered within every crevice, every bush. Frigates, terns, every available booby: masked, brown, and red footed. The smell must be truly overpowering.
I have also discovered an activity that trumps bailing for condensing the sailing essence - standing on the bow, leaning into the wind and the horizon like a guiding maidenhead (in our case typically looking for bombies but this is not necessary). You are striding first into the unknown; you are feeling the waves beneath your feet; you are occasionally being slapped in the face by the water (not this time fortunately) - you are really sailing now. I wonder what feeling we will find to complete my top three feeling sailory moments.
Bluebird out!