Uonukuhihifo

Try saying that with a mouthful of biscuit crumbs.

We decided not to stay at the last stop setting sail mid-morning. The wind was up around 20 knots and I decided it would be a good day to give Ben and Helen some sailing practice. Although there was a pass that would make the trip to Uonukuhihifo somewhat simpler I decided to go the long way around the reef forcing us to make more turns and put in a lot of tacks to recover the distance we’d lose against the wind. I more or less told them to work out how they would work together to bring the boat to the anchorage and stood back to keep an eye on things. It was a good exercise as by the end both had noticeably improved on their handling of the boat. With the big and challenging trip to NZ ahead of this we’ll need more of this.

Arriving at Uonukuhihifo we discovered we were the only ones there. This was not to last as Sea Mist had the same intentions – we’re both using the same guide book and hence are choosing more or less the same anchorages. Ben and I went ashore and walked around the island scouting out possible places to go lobstering and somewhere to have a fire in the evening. Uonukuhihifo turned out to be too exposed to the wind for a fire so we went over to Uonukuhahaki and found a good spot and spent some time nearby collecting firewood.

We invited the Sea Mists ashore for company around the fire and around 6pm we lit up spending a pleasant few hours chewing the cud ashore. Ben, Ian and I had agreed to come out at 6:30am on the reef to hunt lobsters. However, when I woke this morning the continued trades have picked up the seas on the outer reef making the prospects of snorkeling there less than inviting.

We’re probably going to head west today to the island of Ha’afeva. Sea Mist have the same plans so we’ll be in lockstep for a while still.