American Spirit II - Day 115; Sailed from Tahiti to Moorea in Bumpy Seas; Monday, April 28, 2014

Paul and David were up at 6:00 AM; followed by me at 6:30 AM.



At 7:40 AM our agent, Laurent, came by the boat to deliver an invoice for his services and the cost for the repairs to our anchor roller. His fee is 10% of such repairs and an hourly rate of %50.00 per hour. He's very good at what he does and worth every penny.



We departed the marina at 9:30 AM and sailed under jib only, and a reefed jib at that, the 10 miles to Moorea. Along the way we encountered winds up to 28 knots and seas of 3 to 5 feet. 'Bad' weather is coming. Too bad. We averaged between 6 and 7.3 knots. One of the galley cabinets wasn't properly locked so its contents went flying out and all over the floor. Paul's Kindle also went flying, but because he had just bought a rubber cover, it wasn't destroyed.



We arrived back at Cook's Bay on the north coast of Moorea at 12:50 PM. As we entered the bay a 184 foot sailboat was anchored near its entrance. Probably cost $50+ million dollars? We anchored in 60 feet of water. Deeper than we like, but with a good mud bottom, we're comfortable about not dragging anchor. Good holding in the bay. Three other rally boats were already here: Celebrate, Alpheratz and Kathea. Follie a Deux arrived 45 minutes later from Tahiti.



Once anchored we heard Vivo on the radio saying they were getting winds up to 30-35 knots north of Moorea; and waves up to 8 or 10 feet. Not good. Trillium, another rally boat, was exiting the bay as we were coming in, and after advising them of the weather forecast, and their talking with Nexus, they turned around and re-anchored for the night. Nexus headed north from the bay next to us. Being a 60 foot catamaran, they can handle bigger seas and winds better than a small boat like ours. That and they are participating in the Pearl Regatta which starts Wednesday.



Instead of lunch we snacked. Dinner at 5:00 PM consisted of blackened steak cooked on the grill by Chef Joel, baked potatoes and strawberry's with sugar and whipped cream for dessert. Joel and I had a glass of wine.



We took down the canvas connecting the dodger and bimini so we could see the stars more clearly. The sky was mostly cloudless, but very windy. We were on the leading edge of a high pressure front; with the forecast for the next 4 to 5 days equally bad.



Brian Fox