When we reached the NW corner of Hiva-Oa the wind pretty suddenly died. With engines we continued and changed course to SSE. MaRe propelled by her 2 en engines easily moved along the new course.

However then the wind came up again and directly on our nose. When using the sails, we would need to go about 30 – 40 deg off course. This didn’t look so attractive. Thus, we kept course using the engines.

When we reached our SW WPT, the wind really got strong. After we let a N sailing boat pass – it turned out it was the SV Tawaki and we exchanged greetings their crew we know – we turned more to SE we had almost 25 KN on the nose. This was the trigger to set sails.

Main sail up with reef 2 because in the Canal du Bordelais the wind can become even stronger. We unfurled the genoa almost fully to the 3. bar mark to compensate for the additional small jib sail I wanted to hoist. Even so we sailed 40 deg up wind we made good speed, sometimes we made almost 8 KN and the course was not too bad.

When I thought about a good point to make the first tack, the wind changed to ESE. With this wind it became better to tack immediately. After having changed to STB tack, the wind changed even a bit more towards S and we got a nice run already deep into the Canal du Bordelais. With only 5 tacks we made it through the narrow straight of the Canal. A bit after the last tack, and sufficient distance to the Cap Teaehoa, we changed course in steps until we were heading almost N to our destination the Baie Tahauku. Sailing became less bumpy and we enjoyed the last miles. Somewhere towards the end of the last leg to our destination bay, I put the small jib down. Then we furled the genoa and finally took the main down.

OBM steered MaRe into the Baie Tahauku where there were not too many boats.

We needed to drop the anchor twice until it got hold on the mud-sand mixture at about 3.5 m water depth and chain length of 25 m. However, hours later I needed to give MaRe another 5 m of chain because in stronger wind from a differently the anchor started slipping very slowly.

After 18 days of sailing, staying in bays, seeing incredible landscapes, meeting wonderful people of other boats and villages, we are back from where we started. A wonderful sail came to its end.