Last night, the wind picked up and by 9pm we had 25+ knots blowing in the anchorage. As we were on the lee side of the lagoon, even though we were fairly well protected by reefs to our East, the anchorage became very uncomfortable and rocky. The swells forming in the lagoon built to 3 feet or so and the boat bounced and jerked violently all night. It rained on and off throughout the night.

In the morning we realized things were not going to improve dramatically in the next few days, and we certainly could not dive given these conditions. We upped anchor at about 9:30am and made our way across the lagoon to one of the motus on the SE corner of the lagoon where calm water was waiting for us. We spoke via VHF with S/V Layla who was anchored at the motus and confirmed the beauty and peacefulness of the lagoon.

When we left the relative protection of our anchorage we immediately began to regret our decision to depart. The waves in the lagoon were steep and were running 4ft and our destination was directly into the wind. Fortunately, it was not raining and the sun allowed us to see the coral patches we had to evade in order to traverse the lagoon safely. We almost turned back twice.

The wind blew the whole way from 18 to 25 knots. We ran the motor at full throttle for a while bashing into the wind. After a half hour of making little progress at 3 knots we let out the staysail and began to tack back and forth upwind. This made a huge difference and soon we were making 5k over ground. It took 3 ½ hours to cover the 9 miles to the anchorage behind the motus on the other side of the lagoon, but by the halfway point the waves had settled down a bit and by the end of the second hour we were making 5.8k and tacking closer and closer to our goal.

We were not disappointed when we arrived. The wind is still howling but the large motu (islet) we are anchored in front of effectively blocks the wind and since the wind has no fetch (distance) to build up waves the lagoon is flat calm. Paradise lost. Paradise found. We plan to stay at this spot till the winds calm down and then head back to our first anchorage (near the pass) to dive for a few days.

One bonus of coming here, our old friends Drew and Vernita from S/V Layla are here! We first met Drew and Vernita two years ago in Seattle, but this is the first time we have shared an anchorage with them! This evening they are coming over for dinner (along with our new good friends Chris and Markus from Pez Vela who, of course, followed us across the lagoon, or did they lead the way) and I am making a Lasagna, though I have no Ricotta just Mozzarella. Hopefully it will not be too bad.