What a horrible 24 hours! The wind swung to the north last night and we found ourselves on a lee shore to the reef nearby. Our anchor chain was wrapped around a few bommies so it was jerking up and down and the wind picked up to 24 knots during the night. Neither Neil or I slept much at all, and at 5am in the morning, we discovered that the anchor bow roller had bent badly from the jerking motion. The snubber chafed through on the sharp bent metal and then all our chain (80m) and a lot of rope let loose into the sea. I quickly started the engine and got us moving forward slowly while Neil attempted to pull the chain up but it kept snagging on the bent metal. He tried to hammer the metal a bit straighter but it was impossible to do it on a lurching boat. Lee and Harry from Son of Moondance came over on the dinghy to lend a hand, and assisted Neil with hauling 80m of chain in while I was doing my best to keep the boat into the wind which was difficult in such gusty condit ions. The chain was also wrapped around bommies so that made it extra difficult and all in all it took us about 2 hours to get a free, and what a relief when we were! But then things continued to get difficult. We had poor visibility and uncharted bommies around so one of us steered while the other hung on in the bow of the boat straining to look for bommies in the rain. Two hours later we arrived at the northern pass anchorage in driving rain with lightning all around us. We dropped anchor and thought initially we were on a bommie due to the scraping sound. Neil jumped in the water and had a look and to our relief found that the chain dragging in the coral was making the noise. He attached a fender to the chain near the boat and that lifted it off the rock and a quieter boat. Finally at 11am we were able to have a coffee and a bit of breakfast, while the rain continued filling our water tank with heaps to spare. The rain finally cleared so Neil removed the bow roller and we took it ashore to try hammer it straight. We met a French couple and realised that they were the couple we had seen on the wharf at the village who were being farewelled by the villagers with such affection. It turns out that, as I had guessed, she is a French doctor who had finished her one year contract working on Makemo atoll, and her, her husband and three children were sailing to Nuka Hiva to do a years work there. It was lovely chatting to her and her husband was very helpful, lending us a large hammer and assisting Neil with hammering the bow roller straight. It looked so much better once they had finished and soon Neil had it back on the bow, a bit battered but working well. Son of Moondance had followed us into the anchorage and they all came by for sundowners. A good time was held by all, and we are all looking forward to a very good sleep tonight.