After passing Anuta Island yesterday, we hove to in order to push back our expected arrival at Tikopia to coincide with midday so the sun could be overhead for better viewing of coral. We got underway again about 8 pm local time last night, having drifted for seven hours. Despite out minimalist sail plan, we flew through the night propelled by strong trade winds and occasional squalls all the while getting buffeted by large seas. Our timing turned out to be good and we sailed up to our Tikopia approach waypoint at about 10 am local time.
When we first started the engine for our final approach, we found our exhaust was pumping no water. Philip grabbed his wrenches and went below to check the raw water pump belt. The source of the problem is still a mystery but eventually we did get water pumping, lowered the staysail and motor-sailed under mainsail alone directly towards the island as we'd lost our wind to the island's wind-shadow.
Clouds made coral spotting difficult, despite the hour of the day, so our approach and surveying was done very slowly. Coral shelves line the shore where islanders were gathered to fish the reef while the tide was low; no one seemed to pay too much attention to us. One curious fisherman in a dugout outrigger paddled up for a brief chat.
Tomorrow we will launch the dinghy and go to shore and find the chiefs. We had been told there were three but Freddie (our fisherman) assures us there are four. Oh my, now we'll have to come up with four identical gift assemblies...that could be a challenge. For now, we're just tidying up a salt-encrusted Carina while anticipating a long night's sleep in our own bunk. Jake is still swaggering as if at sea but his nose is twitching as he raises his head to explore the island's perfume; he's one happy cat.
At 6/6/2012 and 02:06 UTC (GMT) our position was: 12°17.60'S / 168°49.12'E.
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