OThe blog thing hasn't been happening for a while due to the lack of internet in French Polynesia and me just being slack. The last time I wrote a couple of months back we were sailing to Amanu in the Tuamotos and had an absolutely perfect sail with a nice breeze on the beam and no squalls, it was all time. Arriving in Amanu was a little hairy as I entered the channel a little early after speaking with a fisherman that went in ahead of us, the tide was racing out at 5-6knts and we were flat out hardly making any ground but got in just fine in time for a lunchtime beer in the beautiful turquoise waters just off the main village. No ciguatera in the whole atol and fish were plenty easy pickings with a spear gun but have to be quick with all the little reef sharks hanging around but if you're just taking 1 and get straight out it wasn't a problem.
We hung out in Amanu for 3 weeks, it's a big atol about 15 miles long and we explored a lot of little spots as the winds changed a lot so every few days we would move to get better shelter as a lot of it is very exposed.
It was VERY quiet, we were the only sailboat around and all (256) the locals live in just the one village but some camp a few days and collect coconuts for copra and then head back so it was a good chance for us to get a few boat jobs done in the mornings and then a fish BBQ on the beach in the afternoons, was good times but after 3 weeks we decided we needed more company so headed to the next atol Hao just 15nm away.
Hao is one of the most populated atols but was still very relaxed and you hardly see more than a few people out and about. There was one other French boat there and then our friends we met in Tobago 3 years ago, Augustine and Simone arrived and we had a great few days catching up and having BBQ's..
Then a weather window appeared so we headed back to the Marquases, not too bad a sail but wasn't that great as we were hard on the wind most of the way but we got to Taiohae in 4 days. The old owners of Sunflower arrived soon after on the Aranui cargo/cruise ship so that was really special also catching up with them over a few days. We hung out there for a couple of weeks waiting for a call from my work and then it was time for me to leave and Julie to hold the fort in Taiohae. I've been working for 3 weeks now and have one more to go, hopefully be back onboard the 22nd all going well. We plan to stay in the Marquases for cyclone season and then head to Tahiti maybe April but things change so we will wait and see what progresses 😀
