August 30, 2007 - Thursday
Crew Anya
Happy birthday Judy!
We were so busy getting ready to leave in the morning that I almost forgot to wish the birthday girl a happy birthday!! Shame on me…
Well, leaving this place really turned out to be anything but easy. We were all up, awake and packed in time and were sent off by Ann’s neighbors and Ann as we slowly made our way out the bay towards the pass. As soon as we went through the pass the winds hit us with a force of at least 30 knots. We were beating into the wind with sails out and motor on but since we were heading straight into the wind it was a very rocky, wet experience. On top of that, we were not really getting anywhere fast. It would be a horrible trip back to Tahiti with risks of breaking materials on the boat and having a very sick First Mate. After a short ‘discussion’ the Captain and First Mate decided to turn the boat around and head back to Cook’s Bay. It is just not worth taking the risk of breaking anything. Lucky for us: we were just in time to enjoy breakfast with Ann as if nothing happened! Ann could change her flight from today to Saturday so all was well. We are staying today and tomorrow and are sailing back on Saturday. We might take the longer route around the island of Moorea, but that way we will have better weather conditions. For the next couple of days John will keep his eyes and ears open to all weather reports and we will see Saturday morning if we are taking a left, or a right turn as we head out of the pass.
Judy and I went to the internet to check out some things about Easter Island because yesterday we finally got some faxes from the travel agency but the prices we had agreed on had suddenly miraculously changed, which made the total about $500 more that we had agreed upon. Maybe we should not go through an agency – and definitely not this one anymore – and just book our flights ourselves and get a hotel once we get there. It is low season so it is possible. After we had both checked our emails and had gathered all the necessary information we drove to the little shopping center where we did some last minute souvenir shopping (cards mostly). The rest of the day was spent enjoying the pool and our books.