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Exody - Days 119-121: Slow Start to Suwarrow



Inching her way at 3 knots across this vast blue sea under a cloudless and relatively windless sky Exody's motion is gentle and we have managed to quiet the flogging sails. This afternoon, Monday 11th May, we are thirty hours in to this multi-stage Leg 5, only having covered 130 of the 690 miles to the remote uninhabited Cook Islands atoll of Suwarrow. We were one of eleven boats out of the seventeen strong fleet that actually crossed the start line at Raiatea yesterday with zero wind, all of us immediately starting our engines after the gun !



Five boats opted to head straight to Bora Bora joining three others of the fleet already there to await an improved wind forecast - their anchorage time counting as sailing time in the World ARC position-reckoning for this leg! Three had not yet arrived from Tahiti/Moorea by the time of the start. We joined the remaining five in pressing on and hoping to reach the slightly improved wind a bit further west on Tuesday/Wednesday. So it is a bit of a disaggregated fleet at present!



Saturday 9th had been spent on final provisioning (with the supermarket near enough to bring the trolley to the boat), solid internet time to tie up loose ends and update our blog, skippers briefing and formal clearances at la Cubana bar where we also had pizza lunch, filling up with water and, finally, fitting a replacement water pump to our freshwater system. The last a not untypical eleventh hour problem - I had dismantled the old one the day before and not managed to fix it. The crew did not fancy having to pour from bottles or use footpumps for the next period at sea!



It was a magical evening at sea Sunday 10th May, with clear skies astern over the striking profile of Bora Bora, it's western neighbour Maupiti outlined ahead against the setting sun. The start was at 10.00 and we had the engine off by 14.00 making three or four knots under sail relatively closehauled. By late afternoon Aretha was just ahead, Garlix to the north overtaking, Ayama and Hugur had disappeared over the horizon on full power and newly-joined Clementina had ghosted past us under main alone. Some large dolphins or small whales came inquisitively close but not for long. After nightfall we were soon skirting close past the entrance motus (small islands) with their green and red channel markers showing the way into the Maupiti lagoon.



We maintained modest progress throughout the night, hand steering under sail, until Maupiti, now thirty miles astern, showed herself clearly silhouetted against the colourful dawn sky. We ran the engine for another couple of hours after the 09.00 morning radio net - from now on we will mix and match engine at 6 knots (ideally at night when we most need the electrical charge from the engine) and sailing at 3/4 knots as and when the (generally Force 3 or less)wind permits. Our target is to achieve 100-120 miles per day. We need to conserve our diesel to keep a reserve for the next 540 mile leg to Niue, but we also want to get to Suwarrow with time for a short break!



Our next waypoint, 60 miles away, is Motu One - a tiny atoll that we will skirt, seen only by radar, and maybe village lights, during the night.



Peter (Skipper)


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