In the morning, we went to the effort of setting the coloured sail—aka the spinnaker—which stayed up nicely until the first squalls appeared on the horizon around 8:00 pm and ruined the party.

Since then, it’s back to motor sailing: not enough wind between squalls to be useful, and way too much during them to keep things civilised. Classic.

Why the obsession with “fast enough”? Because after some serious research yesterday, we’re aiming to hit the Makemo pass at 07:00 am local time on Monday, April 20th.

But don’t worry—there’s a decent buffer built in. And if we do mess it up, Google’s AI kindly informs us that arriving three hours late will reward us with a 6–7 knot outgoing current. Which is fantastic news, because our engines absolutely cannot handle that. On the bright side, we might see dolphins while being dramatically rejected by the pass.

Silver linings!

Makemo looks amazing in photos, and—luxury of luxuries—it has a small town. With any luck, I’ll finally be able to replace the dishwashing liquid I ran out of through sheer brilliance.

Until then, we’ve still got miles to go. Hopefully more like yesterday near Hao, where we cruised in the atoll’s wave shadow—flat water, barely any motion, and Akuna gliding along at a peaceful 6 knots. Not fast, but honestly, bliss.

Now? Not so much. With squalls everywhere and the engine humming, the boat feels like a rocking chair being aggressively handled by a sugar-fuelled child. Not my children, obviously—they are perfect angels. Clearly someone else’s.

Anyway, soon we’ll kick that imaginary child off the boat—and conquer yet another tiny piece of the South Pacific