Saturday 25 September Yacht race & Full Moon party

It was a fine day for the race from Nieafu to Tapana island so we left early to get a good place in the anchorage. We should have joined in the race because we had a cracking fast sail tacking our way between passes and around islands. With only the headsail and mizzen flying we were touching 8.5 knots tacking and passing others also making their way early. But the saying that pride comes before a fall unfortunately befell us. We were sailing into the anchorage with the wind close to our nose, too close as the wind unexpectedly shifted the wrong way and pulled our headsail to the wrong side. Something had to give. Like a big tear that appeared from the top to one third of the way down the leach (long sloping side of sail). Bugger. As a small consolation we now there is a sailmaker 10 miles away in town. If it had happened on a long passage we'd have had to drop their torn sail and haul up our emergency spare which is an older sail.



There was nothing we could do about our problem today so we joined in the fun, dropping our anchor next to our pals on Dignity and watching the boats stream, or potter, over the finishing line. In the evening the Regatta organisers had set up a full moon party on an uninhabited island. We weren't allowed to take our own dinghies across because of a shallow reef in front of the beach so we left our dinghies on one beach and queued for a small beach landing craft that was ferrying 35 people at a time. The big problem was it was a 45 minute round trip and there were over 200 people waiting for a ride. We were early and our wait was relatively short.

Pirates!

Mike & Ann, Callisto

The full moon party was under trees so a bit difficult for the moonlight to penetrate and in the dark we tripped from the bar to the barbecue for marlin burgers and danced the night away to cheesy disco hits from the 70s and 80s. The party wasn't a great success but the ride back was memorable.

The landing craft had broken down and was replaced by local fishing boats of dubious sea worthiness. It lurched up to the beach and 14 yachties and 1 local man clambered aboard. The local guy was a hefty chap and he'd had a hefty amount of booze. Before he stepped in he was being sick into the sea and all the way back he was lolling over the side dry heaving. Wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been almost down the back of our friend Mike. He jumped up sharply and stood for the rest of the trip. Our laughing at his misfortune was the best bit of the night.