Leaving the Tuamotus

We had a perfect day in Hirifa yesterday.  The water was so calm my paddle board around the lagoon doubled as a snorkel.

To top it off, we had an incredible jam session last night on Liward with Steve on guitar and vocals, Ted from Restless on fiddle and sax and me on ukulele and vocals.  None of us had met before but we got together and made amazing music.

Steve and Ted are gracious and talented musicians and even accompanied me on some tunes I wrote. They really turned them into songs.  It was so awesome!

We left Fakarava yesterday morning to head to Tahiti.  I was sad to leave. We have had two amazing months here! 

 As we headed out of the south pass, our friends Kristy and John from Raynad were heading out to dive the pass.

Just as we cleared the pass I thought I saw the blow of a whale. Then I saw it again!  It was a whale. Two minutes later a big humpback breached right behind our boat! Really close and very exciting!

Fish number 2 was caught last night right before dinner. It was a skipjack and he ended up getting thrown back. 

We had a glorious sunset to end a pretty awesome albeit sad day. We will just have to come back!

It is day 2 and we are having an idyllic downwind sail wing on wing with a poled out jib and tri-sail (no boom to deal with). We are clocking 7 knots!

We are sailing 250 miles to Tahiti to meet our friend Annie who is flying in for a visit.

First Mate Kate