From the Great Astrolabe Reef Altair headed to back up to Vitti Levu, Port Denarau, to pick up Ken’s brother, Don. He was joining Altair and Safiya to go explore the Yasawa and Mamanuca island groups. We were in search of short hops and remote, undeveloped places.
As the OWR left the Bay of Islands in the Lau Group we were all scattering, going off to many different locations. Altair had to get to Nadi, Port Denarau, on Viti Levu to pick up our new tender. And to get Myron to the airport.
Altair, with Ken, Myron and myself on board, left Tonga on August 28th for a 3 ½ day sail to Fiji. Our destination was the northern part of the eastern most islands of Fiji, the Lau Group. It was a pretty rough passage. Downwind, wing on wing, confused seas.
Altair left Bora Bora on July 29th at around 1330. We were expecting 15-20 knots of wind out of the southeast, perfect. Well, it was more like 20-25, with gusts into the 30’s.
Our buddy Myron Cook arrived in Tahiti soon after Laura and Matt left. He was happy to settle in on Altair and was quickly absorbed by the Oyster group still around the Taina Marina. We were ready to move on, but we had to show Myron Moorea before we left. A Captain named Cook has to see Cook Bay!
Tahiti is our first stop in the Society Islands, which also include Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora-Bora, Maupiti, Maupiha and Motu One. The major Society Islands are steep, picturesque volcanic islands surrounded by coral reefs...
Back when we sat down to organize our paper charts to sail around the world I came across the charts for South Pacific Ocean – Archipel Des Tuamotu and thought, “Who the hell would want to go there?”
We have logged over 10,000 miles on Altair since her commissioning June 2015!
Altair left Santa Cruz in the Galapagos at 1300 on April 16th for our longest off shore passage to date, over 3,000 miles. Two main concerns before we left were provisioning and fuel.
