Not sure what happened to the weather, but are we ever, here in the Pacific? The stationary front NOAA has been predicting for days either did not exist, or we sailed right through it without noticing... Instead of the 20-25 knots from the east which we were anticipating, it has been blowing about 10 from the east-southeast, varying about 30° to keep us on edge. The drop in wind started last night - with some annoying boom banging and sail flogging - and is still present. We flew the spinnaker during the day, which pushed Irie forward at 4-5 knots. At the same speed we are now slowly closing in on Tahiti. No need to purposefully slow us down anymore; we plan to reach the coast at daybreak before moving on to Taina Marina. And, no need to complain in these mellow and comfortable conditions!
Other than some sail changes, mealtimes and naps, there is not much going on at sea. Oh yeah, we did catch a decent size mahi mahi (dorado) close to sunset, the cleaning up of which took some time. While the moon is getting fuller and the sky is as bright as ever, I can see the first lights of Tahiti. The hustle and bustle of Papeete, French Polynesia's capital, will soon engulf us. Mark and I plan to go crazy in the Carrefour Hypermarket (We haven't seen a big - and affordable - grocery store in 15 months), are looking forward to eating out (which we have done only once this year, right before we left Taiohae in Nuku Hiva) and plan to accomplish a few important and outstanding boat projects. We can't wait! :-)
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