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Nexus - On our way from Bora Bora to Suwarrow, Cook Islands!



After a great day including overcoming the adversity of boarding by the "adams family" from Folly Adieu, and human sharks in the water, the crew of NEXUS prevailed and won the Dingy rowing race in Bora Bora harbor! We had a great time followed by a farewell dinner at the Yacht Club, and set off on our way the following morning at 10am! NEXUS had a slow start as the last boat across the start line as we worked to unwrap our gennaker, but we were soon on our way and enjoyed sailing with the other 13 boats in Group 1 as we head for the tiny atoll of Suwarrow in the Cook Islands. We estimate a four day sail with favorable winds. The fleet has been divided into two groups due to the small size of the harbors we will visit in Suwarrow and Niue on our way to Tonga, so the second group leaves two days later and will follow closely behind us. Nexus is sailing well and our new crew working very well with us, and we're already enjoying settling into passage routines!

On day two of the passage, we skirted by Motu One leaving it to port. It is a low lying atoll West of Bora Bora with a small population and no harbor or entrance in the reef suitable for sailboats or ships. It was intriguing to look at as it was covered in tall trees and palms and clearly visible six miles away. We struggled with the wind direction most of the day today, which was variable and forced us to gybe the gennaker three times. This is no simple task on NEXUS as it involves moving the tack from hull to hull and re-rigging the lines each time, but it allowed us to perfect our teamwork as a crew on sail changes. We finally decided to head more North on one tack for the night and gybe in the morning.

Our hard work was rewarded with three simultaneous strikes on our fishing lines...two broke the lines and escaped with our lures, but we boarded a beautiful 24lb Skipjack Tuna at dusk. He fought like a champion and it was all Brian and Russ could do to reel him in over 30minutes with the boat doing 8-9kts, but we succeeded and had a great dinner of fresh tuna, prepared by Lauren and Brian!
Another great day at sea!

Russ and Laurie on NEXUS 5/12/14 at 15 38S;154 40W

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