Back to having fun

I haven't written in a while due to being completely preoccupied with ocean passages, amazing sights, great sailing and the odd party. The sail from the Galapagos seems a very long time ago and was generally very light airs mixed with large lightning storms towards the later part which probably had a large part to play with us losing our wind instrument information which we have now fixed with a $3000 new part. We flew into Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas for 12 hours just to take on fuel as we had used a fair amount in the light airs just to make up time. It was a great surprise to find the Oyster 54, Babe with Paul and Trish who were now behind the main fleet due to heading home for a couple of weeks. This encounter helped build beaten moral massively especially as they held off leaving that day and we all headed to the local hotel and had a fantastic steak for dinner, much needed after 16 days at sea and rubbish, chewy steak back in the Galapagos. Nuka Hiva looked amazing but no time to rest we set off for the Tuamotos in convoy with Babe which made very good speed in the lighter sailing airs. On the approach to the largest settlement, Rangiroa, there was a huge squall with no visibility and lots more lightning all around us which is very unnerving with 90ft of carbon fibre mast above you. This brought on the need for Tosh to put on his rubber soled shoes and when clear enough we aimed for the very narrow pass into the lagoon within the atolls. It is such an incredible contrast to go from being in thousands of meters of depth, rough seas and strong winds to the calm, tranquil environment in a lagoon surrounded by coral atolls. Our arrival here was very welcoming as we had caught up with the bulk of the Oyster fleet after such a long time. The hotel ashore of where we anchored was one of the best I have ever seen so we enjoyed a few beers whilst watching small sharks forming bait balls of fish and occasionally sighting a target and darting into the bait for a feed. Unfortunately the restaurant was full but Alan, Will and Jack kindly took us in and fed us on board Sulana. Next morning we sprung up early and had a quick snorkel at the coral 'aquarium' inside the pass to Rangiroa. THERE WERE FISH AND SHARKS ALL OVER THE PLACE! This was all great and very exciting but Tahiti was beckoning so we had to get going. All of the crew had a lot of work and catching up to do around the boat after so many miles at sea and in preparation of Chris and Denise arriving once more although we still had time for an amazing party put on by Oyster which involved a lot of Polynesian dancers and fire jugglers. We now have a new cruising chute delivered from NZ ready to be used in the Tahiti Pearl Regatta. Lovely