At just after 0700, when Shigeo came out of his cabin, we changed the main sail from reef 2 into reef 1. The maneuver was just done when the wind increased.

I trimmed the sails for a broad reach course when the wind became unstable. It weakend and changed frequently directions over a range of +- 30 deg around 90 deg STB.

When we started discussing the weather forecast, an “amagumo” (Japanese for a rain cloud and the word sounds nice to me.) came from STB pretty quickly, dumped part of its “nimbus-content”, also called “rain” on us. The amagumo was friendly because it brought wind and I saw my favorite sea surface. However, with all the merits an amagumo has, it leaves a “Kartoffelacker” sea behind it with no wind. Sails flap. MaRe is bounced around by the waves. Not pleasant.

However, a short while later we got a nice wind and MaRe was running to her delight. Peaks of just above 8 KN STW.

Later on the wind went down to the forward speed of 8 – 12 KN TWS. Occasionally it went up again to 18 – 19 KN, which gives an excellent speed. Nevertheless, we soon understood that we have you spent a night out side the lagoon on the eastern side of Penrhyn Island. I also informed the officials of Penrhyn Island about our updated arrival situation.

I’m also lucky because I got from SY Barbarella the coordinates of their anchor spot about 3 weeks ago.

Current ETA is about 2100 – 2200 at this location. Wind is forecasted to 10 KN or below. The moon is still bright. Thus, it should be possible to drop the hook in the lee of the atoll where Ralf & Nora did it resently and have a good night’s sleep.

Let’s see what comes up next!