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Its The Final Countdown

We saw land yesterday, which was extremely exciting. Another positive was that the land was exactly where it was supposed to be, which, of course, is a huge relief as it means everything is going according to plan. We are currently passing the next-to-last atoll and then have a small group of atolls to navigate between, namely Hikueru and Marokau, before heading south of Reitoru. This shouldn't be too challenging as the space between Hikueru and its neighbor is 15 nautical miles. But 15nm is only 7nm each side and if we are sailing at 7knts thats only an hour.

During the night, the wind started to shift to the east. This meant we had to either head slightly south to keep the headsail full or drop the main. Since we were planning to go north of Amanu, heading further south wasn't an option. Therefore, we are sailing with just the headsail and still making good time. The sea remains quite choppy, and the sky is squally with patches of blue. Fingers crossed, the blue wins the battle! We have had gusts of over 30knts this morning with rain so its currently 50/50 who is going to win.

With 500 nautical miles to go, we can almost smell the Hinano from here. Unfortunately, I had been hoping to give the boat a wash-down before we reach our destination, but the current conditions prohibit much more than lurching around in the saloon.

This picture of a Navionics chart is particularly interesting for any aspiring navigators out there. It demonstrates the difference in how land is displayed at different zoom levels on digital charts. For reference, the measuring pointers are in exactly the same place. Always zoom in and check your route!

Unless you're on your toes, you can see how incredibly easy it would be to sail straight into the southern part of the reef, thinking you've given it a wide berth. At night, you wouldn't even see it, and in the daytime, I doubt you'd notice much more than a bit of spray unless you were really looking. I've heard someone making a distress call and they gave their lat/long and said they had hit an uncharted reef. Of course this was pretty major news for me but sure enough looking at a paper chart the reef was clearly marked and if they had zoomed in to the digital one they would have seen it. 

This image makes you realize how extremely difficult it must have been for early sailors. Before their voyages, the most senior cartographers would give them a blank parchment and ask them to fill it in along the way. As the old adage goes, "Information is power." When taking an enemy ship, one of the first things the victors would do was to get into the captain's cabin and seize all his charts and logbooks.

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Location: Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia

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