About midday yesterday we lost the largest mahi mahi we've hooked to date --- I would estimate it was easily 50 lbs. We were in reasonable winds and mishandled the landing so that it got off at the boat before we could gaff it. Oh well!

A few minutes later, in amongst the squalls, we suddenly noticed a water spout. These look just like tornadoes, with a long spinning snaking tube rising hundreds of feet into the clouds, and where it touches the water, a cloud of spray. It was moving quite fast and come within 100 meters of us---needless to say, we were very happy that it missed us.

We were close to the reef by 9 pm, so we hove to for the night, then at 5 am this morning, started around the reef for the entrance. It is really strange to see nothing by a surf line. Unfortunately, it was blowing 20-35 knots and raining, so it made it more of a challenge to enter but it was no problem in the end. We motored across the lagoon and are now anchored on the eastern side near the wreck of a fishing boat on the reef. Contrails is a few hours behind us, and there are three other boats already here---Pedojia, Bagheera, and Brick House. We hear that our friends on Tender Spirit had to bypass the reef as they have engine trouble.

The visibility is amazing. Tane and Tomas are in the water for the first time as I write this, exclaiming about just how far they can see. The rain has stopped for the moment, but it's still blowing quite hard.