Our first atoll! 16 16S, 143 25W 5/10/07 2:15PM (Ginger)

We just spotted our first atoll off the port beam about 9 miles east of our course. We're 30 miles from Makemo and should arrive just in time to get in at slack tide before the sun is down. It's a deep well marked channel so hopefully we picked well for our first landfall in the Tuamotus. We've had absolutely no wind for the last day and a half so we took the opportunity to motor and give our batteries a good charge. We're (almost) all charged up and still no wind so it will be a relief to drop
the hook and shut off the engine.
As it was a relatively calm passage I pulled out Kon-Tiki to read during my off watch. (Thanks for the thoughtful gift Fran and Margie!) While it is a classic book any way, it was absolutely appropriate to read it as we were approaching the Tuamotus in the South Pacific. I consider myself lucky to have had such a fast passage by comparison, their raft averaged only 42.5 miles/day for the 101 day trip from Peru. It was equally great entertainment to read their ocean passage stories as well as their
landfall adventures. Peter, has just finished the book too and we're hoping for a better landing for Marcy than the Kon-Tiki reef landing.
We brought an unexpected passenger from Tahuata. There were some waspy mud dauber insects busily filling holes on our boat with green grubs presumably as food for the wasps they were going to deposit. Peter followed them and found two such projects in our main sleeping cabin and we covered them up. We did notice they were also working in the v-berth but couldn't locate any of their projects. One of the workers evidently stayed on board as well and I found it with the back of my hand the other
night. Just when it seemed we'd left all the malicious bugs behind!

Peter's been productive with bread baking and boat projects today so we enjoyed tomato and avocado sandwiches for lunch with fantastic avocados from Tahuata. We put the fishing line out yesterday at noon, inspired by the Kon-Tiki fishing success, but have had no luck. Of course they were a moving reef so they had fish living under their vessel the whole trip.

It's 102 deg F on deck right now and we're looking forward to that first lagoon swim.