There were surfers on each side of the pass! Lesson: stay very close to center channel.

Surf's up!

Landfall Huahine near daybreak

Position: 16 degrees, 42 minutes south; 151 degrees, 02 minutes west

Since I have slept a total of about 2 hours in the last 24, this will be short tonight and a fuller accounting will be had tomorrow.

In summary: -We left Tahiti yesterday (7/11/12) in the afternoon around 1500 for the 90 mile trip to Huahine -What looked like “no wind” turned into 20-25 knots and 10+ foot waves all night with squalls (hence the fact that I’ve been up so long) -We got to Huahine at daybreak per our plan and sailed up the west side for the more protected anchorage inside the reef. -When we were a mile from entering the reef, we turned on the engine during a squall and…it overheated. There was no way we could enter a channel through the reef with an overheating engine. -First thing; shut off the engine. Second swear a little since we were now engineless in the middle of the south pacific a mile off a nasty reef with ten foot waves breaking on it. (Fortunately we decided to come into the leeward side of the island, but more on that decision tomorrow) -Second thing; heave to so we wouldn’t go anywhere very fast while troubleshooting the engine. -Third; start the troubleshooting process. Here’re the symptoms, you can figure the problem and we’ll reveal tomorrow when I’ve had more sleep and can write more coherently. The winner will get (Ann, what will the winner get? —Our love and admiration for their brilliance with their own one-year supply of booby guano as we had a booby visitor during the repairs.) Engine ran fine for five hours yesterday. Shut it off around 2000 when we found the wind after clearing Moorea. Sailed all night and started it during the squall this morning. Left in idle, around 1000 rpm for a few minutes during the squall, then once I removed my rain gear I noticed it sounded funny. Listened more carefully and noted no water coming out of the exhaust (as is normal for a marine diesel). Looked at the water temp gauge and noticed it was rising. Shut the engine immediately just before the temp reached the “red”. Early troubleshooting: raw water filter was clean. Hint: the troubleshooting and subsequent fix took 2 ½ hours. -Fourth; we sat hove to for two hours in 25 knot gusts and waves while fixing the engine. While hove to without any sails, just turning into the wind and locking the wheel, we only drifted 2 ½ miles in a little over 2 hours even in the high winds. I’ll reveal that we fixed the problem and motored up through the reef on the west side of the island (with fingers and toes crossed the whole way) and anchored in a nice spot over coral and sand. The anchor (I hope) is buried in sand. At least it felt solid. It’s been gusting to 25 knots and we’re only about 100 yards from the reef so we really hope it’s solid. I’ve set the anchor alarm to 120 feet of drift. The gusts stretch the chain almost 70 feet when they come through so I don’t want to set it too tightly. We have 200 feet of chain out in 40 feet of water. -Fifth; had a beer. Very cold. Refrigeration is good even though it takes a lot of solar power. -Sixth; several other boats invited us to dinner on Buena Vista tonight, so we didn’t have to cook and really enjoyed spending time with Don and Deb from Buena Vista and Mike and Barb from Astarte. Back in Charisma, ready to collapse into bed for some sleep very happy in the knowledge that we were able to fix another mechanical problem while underway. Many minor miracles in the complete story. Stay tuned.