Hao (How) Goes It

South Pacific Ocean 20 46.9S 136 53.9W
En Route Gambiers to Hao in Tuamotus

We left Rikitea around 11:30 and by 1:00 or so we had a nice 30ish pound 36" long Yelowfin Tuna on the sugar scoop being cleaned and broken down into 8 half loins (each a decent sized dinner). Last night was beautiful and today has been nice though the seas are a little rolly and it is quite hot unless you can get out of the sun and stay in the wind (hard as we are broad reaching which keeps the apparent wind kind of low). We are making about 7 kts in 15 kts of breeze at 140 degrees true wind angle with the reacher out on the pole and a double reefed main behind it (reefing the main helps the reacher get more breeze, keeps it more stable, and doesn't seem to slow us down any).

I continue to work on my french, but it is slow going (language was never my forte and it is hard to avoid speaking spanish to people after 9 months of doing so). Today we caught two small barracudas within seconds of each other, but we were able to clear them off the hooks (we don't really like eating baracudda) and hope to catch a wahoo or something to round out our meal options. I made Poison Crue this morning for dinner (including opening up a coconut and making coconut milk in the blender) leaving just enough tuna from the loin I opened up for a small sushimi & Avacado lunch mmm-mmm-good.

All for now, we should get into Hao fairly early on the 24th and I think they even have wifi there so maybe we can keep updating pictures. If you havne't looked lately, click on the web albums link to the right (======>) and take a look at the beautiful scenery we are sailing through.