Raiatea & Tahaa

We left our very comfortable anchorage in Moorea, sailing overnight to Raiatea & Tahaa, which are two islands that share the same protective reef. The sail was about average, with good winds but lumpy seas. We arrived to the SE pass of Raiatea and entered the lagoon having a beautiful sail through the lagoon with only our Genoa out. The lagoon is very deep with about 100 feet in between the reef and the islands. Rae made a great breakfast and we drifted along looking at several quaint villages nestled along side ruins of what was once the cultural center of Polynesia.

We are scheduled to haul out Nikita on Monday to apply new anti fouling, which is desperately needed. So we will hang around these islands for a week or so before moving onto Bora Bora.

A near disaster - I was running back and forth bringing some additional toys to the beach when someone swam out from a boat across the anchorage in front of me. I quickly decreased speed, not really close to the swimmer.... but the outboard engine flew off the transom. I had not tightened down engine clamps. In a somewhat surreal event I caught the engine in mid air, stopped the engine and secured the engine with out issue. We are in 100 foot water here so retrieving the engine would have been very difficult and ultimately not much would have been salvageable.

Jake has lost both his front teeth, he looks very different.

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