When I looked at the weather forecast at around 0600 it looked as if we can use the Big Blue all day long until sunset. But there’s always a but.

At 0800 we had breakfast in the cockpit and watch a pod of dolphins, about 30 animals swimming from one side of the bay to the other and back. Sometimes they jumped. Thus it seems they try to get and keep fishes in the bay.

At 0905, OBM lifted the hook and Ruslana steered out of the bay. I was sitting in the cockpit sipping my alcohol free morning cocktail. Gosh it’s wonderful to sail with 2 ladies doing all what needs to be done…

We pretty early went on the course to the next WPT almost 300 NM SSW of Tahuata. The up to 600 m high mountains have a strong lee effect. So we had even winds coming from more western than eastern direction.

By the time the wind became more stable I got already the impression that we will get more wind then forecasted. When we were clear of Cap Tehopeotekeho, we finally got the real wind: solid 4 Bft towards 5 Bft. Thus, the Big Blue was out of discussions. I decided for reef 1 and the genoa fully out. With these sails, we area running in average SOG of 5.4 KN
This shows, we currently have a strong current against us because the average speed through water is 6.2. The wind also varies in speed because sometimes we sail with 7 + KN.

It’s not MaRe’s top speed but a day distance of 130 NM can still be the result. Let’s see.

Now I have to work on my dough for a fresh bread later the afternoon.