Greetings from yacht Ensemble.
Yesterday it was time to finally leave our Pacific paradise of Suwarrow.
The boats Wind Dancer, At Last, Samsara, Eva, Sophie, Southern Cross and Zoe were all travelling with us to Samoa. We celebrated with a farewell BBQ on the island. We'd had an informal get together the night before on Ensemble to help reduce the boat weight by drinking as much from the bilge as possible - so a few of us were suffering sore heads.
I neglected to mention the great help that had been provided by Piligrim. Not only did they recover our anchor, but they also filled the fleet's dive tanks for the repeated dives we did on the hull. This was very fortuitous - as Wind Dancer, Zoe, Eva, Sophie and all had our anchors caught on coral heads and needed diving. By midday, with Karson's help, we had all the boats free and ready to leave.
A couple of squalls had gone through the atoll in the morning - then the wind and the seas had died down. We had to motor sail for most of the day - with a bit on an uncomfortable swell. But by morning the swell had died down and the winds were back onto a northerly - perfect beam reach sailing!
Zoe volunteered to lend us Britt and Shadow to provide an extra set of hands on this leg. That means 3 hour watches - and plenty of sleep - but the girls definately run the ship now!
We are doing hourly inspections of the bilges, and Wind Dancer has organised a radio schedule where we report in at 6am, 12pm, 6pm, and 12am - and is sting within visual range.
The rest of the schedule is much the same as usual. Sunset rendezvous followed by pork marinated in madeira last night for dinner. Fresh ciabata and banana bread. At least we won't starve!
Cheers
Dave & Magali
30May2012 026