We had a fantastic meal ashore with Moana and his wife, as well as Madame Jenny, Benjamin, the mayor Francois and his wife. Freshly caught and BBQed Unicorn fish were delicious as was yet another variation on poisson cru. Helge and Camilla were also there as they had moved ashore from Stellar Polaris as they prepared to return to Norway and the world of work. We were gifted marvellous necklaces as part of an Amanu tradition. Here I am with Camilla and Benjamin. We left back to the boat feeling the incredible warmth of being accepted so readily into the Amanu family. It's a time we shall never forget - one that was very special indeed.

It was with some sadness that we pulled up the anchor next morning. With less wind, getting out of the harbour was much easier and we hit the pass at 6am with a 3 knot favourable current. Very nice, had to keep up the speed to maintain steerage.

Within 15 minutes we had the sails up and were sailing towards Hao and it's fearsome pass. The charts say that the tide can run out at 12knots and we've heard reports of 20! One boat reported it as the scariest they've seen, so we had a little trepidation. However, we arrived and it was an absolute pussy cat. In fact we sailed all the way from Amanu and straight through Hoa's pass, changing from gennaker to genoa as we harden on the wind. Shortly after we dropped the sails and motored as I didn't fancy beating across a coral strewn atoll. I think it wouldn't have been an issue as the French Military have swept a large area to a known depth as they used this base extensively to stage their nuclear tests on nearby Mururoa atoll. However as always in atolls we kept a visual watch and didn't want the extra complication of sails!

We are now tied up to a concrete wharf that the local owner allows sailors to use free of charge as he used to sail with Club Med. What a gent! Our bikes have been found in the depths of our bow locker and I've just cycled down to the boulangerie for daily baguette. This reminds us very much of all our time in France 3 years ago :)

The forecast is for very light winds for the next 10 days so we may be here a while. Fortunately the atoll is quite large so we shall go exploring if we are stuck for too long...