This morning we woke early and made ready for departure. At 10am local, we were ready to go. We raised the hook without difficulty and motored out of the pass at Tahanea with the ebb tide.

The weather is fairly calm with about 10-13k wind. The unusual thing is the wind is from the NNW. This is apparently caused by a high pressure system to the East of us and a low to the SW. Exiting the pass was interesting. We were going with the flow but the pass was full of short, steep standing waves (overfalls) of 3-5ft and it was quite bumpy. Once we left the pass we turned to port and are proceeding on a heading of app. 315M toward the Northern corner of the atoll. Since the wind is basically on the nose we are motoring and making only about 5k against an East flowing current. From there we will turn to port again for a heading of 257M which will give us a nice tack for sailing. Another 15nm on that heading and we will turn to the SW to pass between the Western end of Tahanea and the Eastern side of Faaite. When we pass Faaite we will turn to stbd for a heading of 252M for the remainder of the passage.

Well, how things can change in only a few moments. At about 11:30am our engine sputtered and died from lack of fuel. I think what happened was that the active tank was low and going out the pass and bouncing up and down caused the pickup tube to suck in some air. Of course, we have the only engine in the world which cannot be bled of air while it is hot. We raised the main and genoa and began sailing, but of course, the wind has decided today to come from the NW instead of the East as it normally does in these parts at this time of year. That meant we could not clear the northernmost point of Tahanea and we had to tack out to the North for an hour and a half before we could tack back and clear the point.

Fortunately the wind backed (or is it veered in this hemisphere) to the North again and we sailed in light air along the North coast of the atoll for a few hours before turning to the SW to pass between Tahanea and Faaite as originally planned. At 5pm we tried again and were easily able to bleed the air from the fuel system. We are now charging batteries and sailing with main and spinnaker in 7.5k of wind from the NW on a heading of 215M. We are, alas, making only about 3.5-4k over the ground with the apparent wind about 95 degrees off the bow.

In about 30 minutes we will be far enough South to turn West again and clear the South coast of Faaite. We will then have to strike the spinnaker and motor sail with the genoa to make some time.

At sunset we hauled down the chute, let out the genoa and changed course for Tahiti. At 6pm local time (4am UTC) we are now motor sailing on a course of 248M in 8-10k True wind from the North and making about 6.5k over ground. The sky remains clear and the moon is bright. Once our batteries come up a bit we will shut down the motor and sail as best we can through the night.

It is now 7:30pm and we have just finished eating dinner. The wind remains very light from the NW at 7k True and we are making less then 3k over ground. We have been sailing since 6:30pm and the silence is wonderful. Unfortunately it is hard to deal with moving this slow. On the other hand, it is difficult for the off-watch crew to sleep with the motor running.