Passage from Fanning, Kiribati, to Manihiki, Cook Islands
10 September 2012 | Manihiki
Lolo
We left Fanning on Monday, September 3, and sailed about 860 nautical miles at a bearing of 177 degrees magnetic to arrive in Manihiki today, September 9, in the wee hours of the morning.
We headed out with a double-reefed main and our yankee headsail partially furled on a close reach for a couple of days. A few days into the passage we had perfect trade wind weather with clear blue skies, about 20 knots on the beam, and little puffy white clouds along the horizon. Following this momentary perfection we entered a convergence zone and experienced numerous squalls with heavy rain, poor visibility, and gusts of up to 40 knots. The last couple of days we seemed to get a squall every two hours, lasting about 10 to 20 minutes. Seas were rough. It was a very wet and salty passage.
We weren't sure we'd be able to stop at Manihiki as we cannot get into the lagoon and have to anchor off the reef on the lee side of the atoll. It is a steep drop from the reef to very deep water. We'd heard about some moorings, but we didn't find them this morning. As we were motoring around trying to find a suitable spot to drop the hook, I spotted a man onshore waving his arms, pointing us to the north a bit, and then pointing down as if to indicate we should drop anchor there. We did, in about 35 feet, and promptly drug it off the shelf and into deeper water. After hauling the anchor back up and starting over, it seems to have taken hold (and we had several squalls this morning). We hoisted our Q-flag and put the dinghy together, but we have not heard from clearance officials yet. It is Sunday, so perhaps we will clear in tomorrow. We are anchored right in front of a church, and have seen people coming and going and heard beautiful singing. It looks beautiful, and the weather seems to be improving (?) - can't wait to get to shore tomorrow!
We decided to go on a diet this passage, as we were not very inspired to do much cooking, or much eating. I think the inventory of food we ate would fit into a small box: - 2 packages Annie's mac and cheese - 3 pieces of bacon, pre-cooked and frozen - 1 can Amy's organic minestrone soup (labeled by Piper) - 2 eggs scrambled with rice and quinoa mix (that was my most inspired dinner) - coconuts (moi moto) - bananas (fresh from fanning) - some dried mangos and apricots, granola bars, chocolate-covered almonds and clusters, some werthers originals, and two jolly ranchers (one apple (yum!) and one grape (yuck!)).
After anchoring this morning, we ate bacon and eggs - which was delicious. After our nap, we ate a big pile of banana chocolate chip pancakes. Tonight, we had chicken saute, and cracked open our last bottle of white wine. It's an entre-deux mers we found at Costco in Maui!
We also have some unfinished equator-crossing-business to take care of �... we had said we would pierce our ears (just one each) when we crossed the equator, but it was too rough, so we decided to wait for a more stable platform (I know, it's a little lame to not do it at the moment of the crossing, but it was in the middle of the night and rough, and it proceeded to get rougher, the last thing we needed was the added worry of risking an infection, so I'm glad we waited). Still, I think now's the time to do it �... eek! (Désolée maman, mais au moins je garde l'oreille droite intacte.) Lolo