22July2007, Sunday, Day 16
Raised the anchor at 1626 utc, 0626 local.
The night before, we had set our alarms for 0430, to leave at daybreak. When the alarm went off, it was still too dark to leave. So, we waited. By 0600, we could see the reefs and shallow areas in the early morning light. Everyone took his or her positions and we raised the anchor. We have learned that raising the anchor among coral reefs can be tricky. One often needs to power up and back to get the chain and anchor out from under a coral head. We retraced our incoming track, and had no current to deal with.
We laid a course for Fakarava, fifty miles distant, or an estimated, ten hour sail. Once out of the atoll, the winds were blowing! We enjoyed a 6-7 knot sail on a broad reach. The Captain was in his element.