We hauled the anchor aboard this morning at about 7:30am local time and motored out of Pass Tapuhiria at the Western end of Makemo Atoll where we have been for the last three weeks. The weather this morning is best described as normal but calm. Occasional rain squalls are present as always here and cloud cover is approximately 30% with bright sunshine. The seas are very calm and wind is light at 6-7k out of the ESE. We are motor sailing with the genoa out on a course of 233M and making about 7k over ground.

Our destination is Tahanea Atoll which lies about 47nm to the SW. At 8:15am, as I write this, we have about 44nm to go. We expect to reach Tahanea before 4pm, perhaps as early as 3pm. Tahanea has 3 passes into the lagoon on the North side the middle one being the best according to our guide books.

At 9am we raised the mainsail. The wind is up to about 14-16k but it is from the East and we are on a heading of 233M putting the wind about 135 degrees off the bow. We are making only 5.5-6k over ground with the engine in neutral and are hoping for more wind soon. For now we will continue motor sailing to make our destination on time!

At 10am we shut the engine and are sailing nicely in 14-16k wind and making 6.5k over ground. The wind has shifted a bit more to the South giving us a better angle - the wind is about 90 degrees off the bow now.

At 11:30 the wind has diminished to 9-12k and we can make only 5k over ground so we have to motor sail again in order to make the pass at a decent hour. We need to arrive at the pass before the tide changes at 5pm, although we have and can motor against the opposing flow if required. The more pressing issue is angle of light - after 3pm the sun starts to get low and when we get through the pass we have to turn to the West to find our anchorage and that would put the sun in our eyes and cause the light to reflect off the lagoon making it impossible to see the coral reefs. This could have a very negative effect on our ability to avoid hitting one! At noon we are motor sailing in about 10k True wind from the East and making 7k over the ground. We have only 20nm to go to the pass entrance and expect to arrive at precisely 3pm. We are only turning over at 1400rpm so we are not using too much fuel.

At 3pm we entered the lagoon and by 3:30 we were anchored. The distance from the pass to the anchorage was less then a half mile, but it was to the West and the sun was low and in our eyes making it very difficult to see. We proceeded cautiously at 2.5k and felt our way into the anchorage. Though I had intended to anchor in about 25ft by the time we had turned into the wind we had drifted into water only 18ft, but there are no coral heads higher then a few feet off the bottom so I am confident we will be ok here. There is only a small amount of chop and we are very comfortable and well protected from the wind.