Pitufa.at

We’ve had a bit too much excitement for our taste during the last 24 hours, but now we’re safely anchored in Papeete, Tahiti. We arrived yesterday at night and had to sail along reefs right into an (to us) unknown anchorage right behind Point Venus at the northwestern corner of Tahiti. Usually we never enter an anchorage at night, but as this one’s very open and easily accessible we decided to sail in. Hearing the breakers on the reef without seeing them in the pitchblack night wasn’t exactly comfy, but we dropped the hook without problems and enjoyed a good night’s sleep after the passage.
Today we had to change the anchorage though, because a shift in the wind was predicted, that would have put us on a leeshore without protection. Right after we had lifted the anchor the wind dropped down to less than 5 knots, leaving us stumbling along with speed around 1 knot… After 3 hours we had finally managed the 2.5 miles and exactly when we entered the channel through the outer reef a squall started. From 5 to 25 knots of wind within a few seconds… Pitufa accelerated, we just made it round the first buoys and dropped the hook. Unfortunatley it turned out that the spot didn’t give enough protection, so we had to sail out the anchor again and drop it a bit further in once again. Adrian (SY Attila), whom we had briefly met in the Gambier, offered assistance and it was very reassuring to have an experienced sailor on board for the tricky manoeuver…
Now we’re happy to be snug in a protected spot and soon we’ll haul Pitufa out for repairs.