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April 21
After dark last night a series of rain squalls began moving through. At
first they carried little wind, only rain. By 10pm last night we were
experiencing 40+k wind from the East each time a squall came though,
which was about every 20 minutes. Without reefing the main, which I felt
was not necessary since I expected the squalls to pass quickly, we rolled
up the genoa and went downwind whenever the wind got above 20k. By 3am the
last squall had past and we settled in for the rest of the evening (our
last for the passage ) with 14-17k from the ESE.
At dawn we were 40nm out of Hiva Oa and moving at 8+k over ground in
15-20k wind. Skies remain completely overcast and occasional rain showers
are falling. The seas are from the East at 4-6ft.
At 8:30am local (17:30UT) we are now 22nm from Point Teohotepapa, the
Easte rn most point of Hiva Oa. From there we follow the coast West down
to Atuona, the Port of Entry and main village on Hiva Oa. We are making
7-8k over g round in 16-20k wind from the East. We expect to be anchored
in Baie Tahauku (the principal anchorage for Atuona) by 3pm this
afternoon!
LAND HO - At 10am we have spotted the outline of Hiva Oa in the cloud
covered distance. We are now only 17nm from Cape Matafenua - the
Easternmost extremity of Hiva Oa. At 3pm we motored into Tahauku bay and
anchored bow and stern (into the swell) in the company of about 25 other
boats, 2 of which are power boats. We are grateful to be here and thrilled
to have stopped moving! We are going to relax this afternoon, clean up a
bit and have steaks for dinner on the grill. Tomorrow we will check in
with the authorities and find out about getting fuel. There appears to be
a Mobil station on the shore and a large pier next to it but no fuel pumps
evident on the pier. We will see tomorrow.
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