On the Road Again
16 May 2013
Susan
We enjoyed our final days in Raro - it has to have the best market in the islands. Our highlight was meeting Puapii - the son of Apii and Mehau from Manihiki. He is charming and friendly like his parents. He runs a table at the market selling the pearls from their farm. Each one of us were given a pearl necklace so we have a part of them close to our hearts. It was a perfect way for us to remember them by. We loaded up with fresh produce from the market: pow pows (papaya), pineapple, beans, bananas, spinach, herbs, oranges, breadfruit, starfruit and coconuts. It's cheaper here than in NZ - same goes for the NZ meat that we bought. After the market we headed up the mountain for a great hike with Beth & Norm from Sarah Jean II. We did the cross island hike which had incredible views and the scenery one block inland from the main road was absolutely stunning. Very lush and tropical and not so touristy. It took about four hours to cross the island then we took the bus back around again. We then decided to eat out our last night in Rarotonga. It was kinda like when Doug takes me out at home and we end up at Costco. Can't complain as the take out restaurant 100m from the boat was really quite good.
With five metre seas in the forecast, we decided to get going. The harbour is not that comfortable if there is a swell coming in and we figured we might as well try to ride the big seas that are running North. The swell is from the big low pressure in the Southern Ocean so we hoped the wavelength would be huge making for a comfortable ride. We weren't disappointed making our biggest miles in the first few days (166 miles/day) and with Sarah Jean II nearby, it has us trying to keep up. They have left us now that it's become squally. We have to go out on deck to reef when the rain squall is coming. Usually another one is right behind the first so we don't tend to raise and lower the sails as often as we would if you could manage it all from the comfort of the cockpit. Besides, Doug was busy with a project during all this. We can start by saying, "Just buy a Honda!" We cheaped out and bought the Taiwanese knock off of the Honda genset and it's been good BUT... it's noisy as heck and the pull cord has broke off twice. It's not an easy fix either and in 3m seas, this is not Doug's favourite thing to be doing.
We are two days out of Penrhyn and hoping to make landfall before dark otherwise we will be trying to slow this girl down. Looking forward to sitting at anchor for awhile as I think we are going to have a very tough time enroute Hawaii. The ITCZ is much farther south than it was one year ago and it looks like we are going to have NE winds as soon as we leave. Not sure how the heck we can hit Hawaii, which is due North, when we can only make 50 to 60 degrees off the wind.