We set sail from Aitutaki on 14/6/17 with a wonderful farewell from Mi'i and Richard, who had been so kind to Emily and Julien. They brought us gifts of fruit from their garden in a superb bag woven from palm leaf, and a most elegant hat for Emily in pale green also woven from palm and decorated with lovely red hibiscus flowers. Richard had been in the Ministry of Agriculture in Kenya as well as many other parts of the world, and Mark and I enjoyed our chat with him.
We had refilled the boat's tanks from our diesel cans and were lucky to get help from Aquila who took me to his gas station to refill 260 litres and then delivered me back to the dock. People are so kind!
Now after three windy says of sailing in big 4 metre waves we are approaching Beveridge Reef which has been recommended for a stopover en route to Niue. However it's not an atoll but a semi submerged ring of coral, reputed to have an entrance to a lagoon with great snorkelling. However with the cold wind from the South and vigorous weather and big seas I am reserving judgement till we get there. The challenge has been to time arrival to be in good daylight. Above 7 knots we would arrive on Day 3 or we'd need to go slower at 5 knots and arrive on Day 4. So far it's been a mix of 5 to 10 knots and I think we should be there mid afternoon on Day 3 in 10 hours time.
We are back into our watch regime with Emily and Julien taking one together. The quality of cooking has been amazing. Last night it was too wet to eat in the cockpit so we had the rare pleasure of sitting round the saloon table. It felt very civilised even though the boat was surging along at maximum speed in big waves and it was hard to keep the food on the plate!
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