We’re in the trade wind belt, so the wind usually blows from somewhere between Southeast and Northeast. When a Northwesterly comes it’s normally during or at the onset of a depression or trough, but this time it slowly clocked from the Northeast to the Northwest with sunny skies because the trough is rather weak. We’ve used this unusual weather to explore the western side of the atoll.
As I’m writing this blog (with the laptop on the bimini to find a few bars of mobile phone connection) the seldom visited motus ahead of us awake with red-footed boobies roaring, reed warblers singing and terns adding their shrill calls. There’s not many places left where you can listen to this morning choir anymore… Behind me the sunrise paints the sky in a bright orange that fades to a dark purple above me with the last stars twinkling faintly.
Today the wind is expected to turn to the west and we’ll use this breeze to sail trough the bommie-strewn lagoon all the way down to the Southeast corner as there’s a mara’amu (strong Southeasterly) precidicted for tomorrow (and a couple of days).