Before each passage one of us takes a trip up the mast to check everything is in order, much to our horror, for the first time we found something that wasn't. Mike noticed this atop our port D1 shroud yesterday. The D1 is one of the very strong cables that holds up our mast, the D1 runs from the chainplate on the port side deck to the mast about 1/3 up. It's actually a very common fault though it shouldn't happen on a 3 yr old rig, most sources say the rig should last 10 years. There's no easy way to fix it but get it replaced once we reach Tahiti. For the time being we've braced it as best we can with rope and will take it easy until then. What we're doubly frustrated about is the very expensive repair kit we provided by the local rigger in Las Palmas before crossing the Atlantic for this exact problem contains clips to small to cover the terminal rendering it useless. Our fault for not double checking I guess. We should though consider ourselves lucky for noticing it before it broke completely!

Anyway it looks like we'll head off to Tuamotus Atolls today, should be around a 3.5 day passage and the wind is looking favourable. Our plan is to visit the NW group which are basically inline with Tahtiti. Our first stop will probably be Manihi Atoll, follow by Ahe and the Rangiroa. The Tuamotus Atolls are a collection of exclusively coral atolls covering an area rough the size of western Europe. They are atolls and as such very little of them extends above sea level. The atolls contain vast lagoons protected by fringing coral reefs and are famous for black pearl farming. We're hoping the combination of trade winds and protected lagoons will make for some great kitesurfing (apparently world kite surfing top spot #6).

Most atolls have just one or two passes into their lagoons and these are to be treated with caution as strong currents and turbulence is common. The idea is to arrive at slack tide (when the tides are changing and the currents switches direction) and with good light. For us on Monday that'll be around 1pm, if we miss that it's 1pm on tuesday. We plan to get their early so as not to miss it!