Update 18/05/09

Position 15 degrees 24S, 143 degrees 05W - day 3.
Distance from Tahoie Bay Nuka Hiva Marquesas-420 nm
Distance to Makemo Atoll Tuomoto Archipeligo-68nm.
Distance is last 24 hours - 132 miles.
All is well; the wind has been better than we thought - we had to motor a bit yesterday, but romping along now. Very squally and thunderstorms on the horizon every afternoon, so we steer around them.
Should be at the pass into the lagoon tomorrow early am. You can only enter the pass at slack tide so we think we have it worked out OK. If you try and enter when the tide is coming out it pushes you out and you can't motor against the 8 knot current. If trying to enter as tide coming in current picks you up and pushes you in, and you may not be able to steer where you need to go, just being pushed around like a floating cork. so timing is everything. The reason for all this is the vast quantities of water from a huge ocean being squeezed through a small gap in the coral reef. That's basically what the atolls are, they have no middle, just a fringe of coral and a lagoon of water in the centre. Anyway they used to call this group the "Dangerous Archipeligo", prior to GPS, as the atolls are so flat you can't see them until too late sometimes, and without a GPS it must have been extremely nerve wrecki ng. So hats off to all the old salts who used to navigate with sextants....yes you Larry Duke!!!