Passage to Huahine…..

Dear F&F,

I was a bit hesitant to depart at night in the rain, but Scott didn\’t think
it would be that bad so we ventured out. The sea was bumpy, a bonine on top
of my usual scopalamine patch helped. We each did two, 3 hour shifts. I made
dinner & did the dishes before starting my 6-9 pm watch. I alternated
sitting & standing outside enjoying the twilight for almost an hour after
sunset. The sky looked like a beautiful landscape painting, with very
dramatic clouds. There was wind & sea spray in my face at the helm so I kept
our \”windshield\” down to stay dry. It only rained a couple of times. The
moon was quite full & provided a lot of welcome light even when covered by a
cloud. I listened to my \”Mellow Mary\” playlist – Mary Chapin Carpinter.
Always good company for traveling.

I was so happy to go lie down, napping a bit until my next shift. During my
second watch, I did 15 minute cat nap watches. I\’d lie down in the salon
then pop up when my watch beeped to make sure we were on course with no
traffic. We saw just a couple of distant ships. Scott encountered one large
sailing cruise ship nearby on his watch, but it was well lit so no worries.
He got us into the passage during his final shift. I slept deeply from 3-6
a.m. & am very happy to be here. There are about 10 boats in 2 anchorage
areas. It is calm, clear skies & gorgeous turquoise water.

We will be napping & recovering today. Probably go to shore later to find
out more about the canoe race. We think it starts on November 2 so we\’ll
have a couple of days to explore here. Then we’ll be following the race to
the other three islands.

We pronounce it Huahine: “who-uh-hee-nay”. But I think the correct Tahitian
way is something like: wah-hee-nay. We soon found out ashore that in
Tahitian it means Island of the Women\’s Vagina. (As viewed from above).
However, since the island has been named this for so long, we weren\’t quite
sure how the ancient Tahitians discerned this from a topographical view?
Mostly it is referred to a \”The island of the Women\”. We hope you all have
a fun Halloween, we look forward to hearing from you.

Cindy & Scott