Back in Moorea

After an extended period in Les iles sous le vent (aka the leeward islands) of Raiatea, Bora Bora and Tahaa we are now back in Moorea. We also have a guest onboard and another guest coming next week. We're moving back and forth between Cook's Bay and Opunohu Bay for a change of scenery and access to either Sylesie's patisserie, or the great snorkeling near the northwest corner of the island.

The weather has been much more unsettled this year with longer periods of rain and a steady series of lows passing to the south. Yesterday was flat calm, absolutely glassy, as a huge low to the south pushed back on the trade winds. We took advantage of the conditions to make the long trip by dinghy to the northwest corner of Moorea, across from the Intercontinental Resort, and snorkel with the sting rays and black tip reef sharks.

Then when the area became too crowded with hotel guests on jet skis, tour boats, kayaks and even paddle boats, we swam out towards the reef and enjoyed the tropical fish in the coral. This photo shows a bit of everything with two sharks, a sting ray, and even a remora tucked under the shark in the foreground. All these fish were in about 5'-6' of water as you can tell from the reflections off the surface.

Today that big low has not only pushed back the trades, we have about 15kts of wind out of the west which is fairly unusual. As the low passes the wind will back into the southwest, then the south and finally the south west trades are forecast to return Thursday or Friday.

Our current guest will leave on Saturday as our next guest arrives. Then in about two weeks, Dan (whom we met in the Marquesas) will arrive and a few days later Fay will return to San Francisco. Dan will be my crew for the Hawaii leg of the trip to San Francisco..

2HP of Freedom

Fay's most recent article, entitled "My Two HPs of Freedom", where she extolls the virtues of our 2hp outboard, is in the current issue of Cruising World.

On New Morning we have two Yamaha 2cycle engines, a 15hp and a 2hp. We've both favor the 2hp whenever it can be used since we can put it on and off the dinghy with such ease, it seems to barely use any gas at all and who would want to steal a 2hp outboard? It's amazing how often the 2hp is the right engine. Of course we use the 15hp whenever we have more than the two of us or have a long trip to make in open water. But for going between boats and when the dingy dock is not too far, the 2hp is our outboard of choice!

Updates & another article

I'm very behind on blog entries but promise to catch up soon.

In the meantime I've added a new section on Safety to About New Morning. I also finally wrote the section on Lighting.

And most importantly, Fay's latest article was published this month in Cruising World. We don't have access to the print version and it's not on the web site yet, but emails from several people have complimented her on the piece which was originally titled "My 2hp of Freedom", though we're not sure what final title the editors used. Once it's available online we'll post it here as well.