We arrived in Makemo around 4:00 to find the pass a boiling mess…..overfalls, whirlpools, rapids, the works, arghhhhhhh….WTH…..our best guess was slack was at 3:15 and 45 minutes later it looks like the Malibu rapids….should we wait….well, sunset is @ 5:00 and we need to find the anchorage and there are coral reefs around and we need good light…..ok, MM, here we go….revs up to 1800…..enter the pass, have to go in the middle of the boil….ok, we have steerage but getting slammed all around, wow….only doing 4 kts, revs up to 2000…ok, up to 5 knots….., whoa, a 5-6 kt current…..this is a longer pass so maybe 3-4 minutes later we are through…..revs back to 1500, heart rate down also…..get the anchor down…..out comes the tequila….it is a Jo tradition after a rough entrance, of course, plus it’s Les, Rose, Mark and Sandy’s birthdays on the 5th so many toasts later all is good 🙂 ))))
OK, enough…..3 passes, all timed wrong, all in the 4-6 kt range….the Admiral says we CAN’T keep doing this….so, our mission today in the village is to hopefully find an accurate tide table…..we have 4 right now, 2 tables, one predictor, one formula predictor…..of course, the two tables do not agree and the predictors are obviously wrong too….WTH!!!!!
We left Raroia around 5:30 am and at the pass at 6:00…..we knew we were not going to hit this pass right at slack….maybe 1-2 kts….well, it was 4-5 kts….we did 12.5 kts going out…..actually not so bad, we had steerage as we had to maneuver around some fishing pangas and it is a pretty short pass.
Then the fishing began…..caught a beautiful blue marlin…..it spooled half the line…..jumped 5-8 times…..big jumps, head twisting, fin out…..then voila, he shook the lure out…..perfect, as we would not have kept the fish…..the display was just awesome!!!! Then 10 minutes later, ziiiinnnnnnnnggggggg, spooled 3/4 of the reel on the old reel (one gear)…..ugh…..after a 20 minute fight I see the fish….oh, joy, I think a yellow fin tuna…..so I fight some more…..oh, did I mention it is raining and I had taken my glasses off….Kathy, come quick we got us a keeper, she runs out and says you blind dummy, it’s another skip jack….oh, crap, my arms and hands are burning….ok, let’s get the lure out….crap, the dang fish is so heavy, I can’t lift him out…..ok, do it on the swim transom, oh, crap, after many tries the hook is not coming out…ok, cut the line at the hook but save the lure…..yes, he’s off and swimming away….until the next time my fighting friend!! I was so tired after that no more fishing for a while…..another first for John-Boy 🙁 ((((
Yesterday weather was squally, but hardly any wind and no convection. We think we are in the middle of a convergence trough…..we can see it on the Nadi weather graph we receive via email….where two opposing systems meet….low pressure, lot’s of squalls….We actually had a very, very comfortable ride for the 77 nm passage….winds <10 kts, seas 1-3′ all behind….hardly needed the stabilizers…..well, we think, it’s the law of averages…..finally a sweet ride!!!!
Today we will explore the village and maybe move up the atoll…..the anchorage here is not the best…..you anchor in a small coral field…..so not the best holding and we hope to not get hung on a coral head….5 boats total here now…
Wow….we just found internet…..ManuSPOT….joy!!!!
