The night passed uneventfully. The seas were like glass. We rolled in the genoa as the wind was down to 1-2k from the North and also had to crank in the main hard. By 1am the wind had increased to about 3-4k but it refused to pick a direction and seemed to box around. This caused the main to flap and pop which was a bit annoying. But I was not bothered enough to lower it. As the wind picked up we also noticed the ground swell seemed to increased a bit and is running about 2ft from the SW, though the period is very long and they are hardly noticeable unless you stare hard.

It is now 5am the wind has increased in strength to about 7-9k and seems to be firmly from the NNE. Thus I have unrolled the genoa and we are motor sailing at 6.3-6.8k over ground. We now estimate our arrival at Papeete by 2:30pm local time.

At 7am this morning we hooked the biggest fish of our (brief) fishing careers. It was a Striped Marlin and was between 6 and 7 feet long. It took over 30 minutes and every ounce of strength the captain had to reel it in. Of course, we knew immediately it was a monster by the amount of line it took even though the reel was set to full drag. We released it as soon as we brought it alongside and took some photos of the beast.

It is now 9am and we are 24nm from Point Venus. Tahiti was first sighted at about 6:30am when it was app. 25nm distant, it is about 15 miles away now. We have increased engine speed and are making 7-7.5k over ground and expect now to arrive in Papeete by 1:30pm.

At 12:30pm we are now passing Pt. Venus - so named by Capt. Cook for it was the location where he took sights of the transit of the planet Venus for use by scientists of his day to calculate the circumference of the Earth. We are now only 6nm from Passe de Papeete, the entrance to Papeete harbor.

By 2pm we were securely anchored along the shore at Papeete - bow anchor and lines tied stern to the beach. The process was quite a bit of work and the lines we had prepared were far too short requiring me to bend more lines to the two stern lines I had prepared. Each line needed to be close to 200ft to reach the shore bollards!