FAKARAVA.. (STORM)

Tonight  May 12th 09....We're anchored in Fakarava's main village "Pakutara"  a very clean, pretty little village, filled with happy, smiling faces.... It basically consists of  1x fresh veg  shop, 1x mini market, 2x dive centers ( re- fill's my scuba tank's at $10 a tank)  1x post office with internet -(hence this final blog... before heading-out tomorrow) 1 x small airport & 5 pearl shop's catering for the occasional French/ Italian tourist that arrives at the airport every wednesday with it's one flight a week.. Fakarava is EXPENSIVE, everything imported except pearl's.... a cool can of beers is $5, one tiny fresh Coz lettuce is $10...

UPDATE:  Over the last 48 hours ....A massive cold front, passed through the Tuamotu atolls generating 2 days of intense squall's &... dare i say it... a tropical-ish storm, literally 1000 gallons of freshwater falling in 5 min's.. (which was great, as APPLE (yacht) is all new & shiny again after the cloud burst showering all the salt water away)   with  "lightning"...  LIGHTNING!!  so we finally faced lightning......  isolated in the ocean with a massive metal mast penetrating the sky,  Ummm doesn't  really sound like a good idea...??? sitting a under a massive metal pole on the salt water.....humm?  

NOTE... There's 2 real theories  about lightning & sailing boat's....  The first is... "try not to attract it", ignore it & take your chances, 

The second is... Attract it & control it...  

So I've adopted the second... thus have attach heavy gauge lightning conductors to the stern shroud's, which are attached to an additional 30 feet of  stainless steel cable which plunges straight into the ocean (in the event of a storm) the theory is... catch the strike at the top of the mast, guide it down (by giving it a very seductive electrical passage) to the stern, then send over the side into the ocean (where it ultimately  wants to go)...... this is all theory of course... but yachts do get struck & they normal sustain some minor electrical damage, i.e. navigating, auto helm.. but very very rarely anything more.. 

Anyways... the electrical storm passed over my elaborate attractive structure, without even a second glance.. (apparently a sailing boat under-way is less likely to get hit than one at anchor.. due to the friction in the air  dissipating any static..)

So today... the storm's just a distant memory.. although around 6 other yachts turned up during the night  to take refuge from the storm.. as other yachts used it as a spring board out of the atoll with the strong winds... see everyone got a different opinion...

We're now basking back in the sun, having a dinner party aboard tonight for our new found friends, the winds changed & is coming from the south.... So perhaps those yachts who left in the middle of the storm did know better... So we'll probably have to motor into the new south winds tomorrow...   into our next unknown adventure..  

Final sobering Note... "Emily Pearl" the 36 ft Islander being sailed by our new found friend "Billy Landers" a very nice, extremely generous & very experienced yachtsman... who was missing as per our earlier blog..

"Emily Pearl's"  wreck was found 08 degree's 56.20S  140 degrees 13.55W  7 mile from Nuku Hiva with a big hole in her side, at 15m beneath sea level.. no sign of Billy to date.... no life raft found to date...... search is underway..

M&V