AVAURA HARBOR, RAROTONGA
We made it into port around 4 pm Saturday afternoon. The wind stayed at a boisterous 25+ knots all day, so we were much relieved to pull into protected waters. We made amazing time, averaging 7 knots over the whole passage, which is our all time fastest. The discomfort of going fast makes it a toss up as to the best kind of passage to have. Pete prefers slow and comfy.
The cold front is still expected to hit on Sunday, but the harbor master is not concerned about safety, so hopefully we'll have a nice day, if a bumpy one. We are tied up to a wharf in the main town alongside Dolphins, Omazey, Calliope and another boat that we haven't met. We met Calliope in La Paz at Christmas and again in the Marquesas. The tying up procedure challenges a skipper's boat handling ability. We came in, dropped the anchor in the middle of the very small harbor, turned around stern to the wharf, handed our stern line to Rob in his dinghy, backed up to the sea wall where Jonathan took the line and tied it to a very large bollard. Then we pulled ourselves in and ran a second stern line. Then Pete dove down in the middle of the harbor to tie another bow line to an underwater concrete block. We're 20 feet off the wall, so we'll use the dinghy to get over to a ladder on the wall. It's not as easy as being right at a dock, but it keeps unwanted visitors off and we won't bang our stern into the wall if the wind comes from the north tomorrow.
I've got a chicken in the pressure cooker and I'm off to the shower for the first time in 4 days. Amazingly the boat stayed pretty cleaned up on the trip, I think because it was too uncomfortable to get anything out. I'm looking forward to a quiet nights sleep and some exploring tomorrow.
Thanks for your prayers, as always, He has kept us safe.
Kellie
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