The weather continued to be pretty grim throughout yesterday morning. Howling winds and rain were typical with brief periods of calm in between. All plans for a morning stroll were abandoned in favour of sitting in reading and playing games.
In the afternoon the skies turned blue and it felt like we were in a different world. We went ashore and strolled over the saddle to the south along a very pretty paved road with occasional houses and some exceptional gardens. Most of the route was surrounded by lush vegetation. At the south end the bay opened onto a vista with Raiatea in the background. In the distance we could see the hill above Uturoa we hiked up a few days ago.
We had the option of continuing around and meeting up with the hike we started and aborted the previous day but as we hadn’t brought water or provisions we decided to turn around and head back. This turned out to be a fortunate decision as the weather again turned as we reached the boat. The afternoon ended up gray, windy and wet again.
Overnight it has been much the same. We woke up this morning to find we had left one of the hatches ajar and water had got in. Fortunately nothing was damaged.
I’m getting quite keen on moving on but don’t want to move in 30 knot winds. If things calm down we will shift over to the west side of the island some near to Passe Paipai. On the lee of the island the waters may be calm enough to snorkel on the outside of the reef which we have yet to do. From there it is a 23nm hop over to Bora Bora which we should do soon.
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