This morning we set sail again and this time our course on the chartplotter is set to Tahiti (620 nm as the Tropic Bird flies). We started out with wind still from the East, so for the first time on this trip East we’re tacking up and down which is quite frustrating. During the first 5 hours we sailed 31 nm to the NE, but only 20 of them were actually towards the destination. Now we’re on the tack SE and get pushed even further away from the course line, but the wind should shift more to the north soon, so our course should automatically get better.
We enjoyed both our stops in the Cooks, but the fees for stopping there are quite pricy. The check-in in Palmerston was cheaper than in other ports of the Cooks (80 Euros for the clearance, the mooring theoretically cost 10 dollars per day, but cruisers who donate mooring equipment stay for free), but the harbour fees in the bouncy harbour of Rarotonga (where you have to climb over truck tyres up the wall, no water, no electricity) are rather crazy with 1.70 Euros/metre/day (150 Euros for a week for us) and additionally each person must pay a departure fee of 47 Euros.
