07/22/2012
We have had a fantastic time in the Marquises, We haven't visited all of the Islands but we have managed to see Fatu Hiva, Niku Hiva, Hiva Oa, we are heading off to Oa Poa today. We celebrated Bastille Day in Niku Hiva it was a great day, watching the dancing (male and female) the Haka the male dance is one of the best I've ever seen. We also hired a car on Niku Hiva, its quite expensive but we managed to share the costs with our friends on Samsara. We drove around the whole island, not realising that most of it would be off road, It was quite hairy and rugged but very exciting , the island has such a dramatic coastline.
The islands are all kept beautifully we haven't seen one spot of rubbish on the ground and everyone sweeps there grass , this place is like the garden of eden, fresh fruit is in abundance and the local fish dish is amazing its raw fish soaked in coconut milk and lime.
We spent a few days in Daniels bay which has been our favourite spot its an anchorage on Niku Hiva only a few miles from the main village, unfortunately there isn't a good place to land your dinghy and we did surf into the river a couple of times and managed to fill the dinghy up with water, you can walk up to a beautiful waterfall which is the 3rd tallest waterfall in the world ! We organized to have lunch at a locals house on the way back which was a fantastic experience even though we can't speak french, we spent most of the afternoon eating fried bananas, possion cru (which is the local fish dish), fresh chicken and rice and fruit from the garden.
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07/21/2012
Bastille Day Celebrations
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Arriving in Fatu Hiva , This is one of the most beautiful anchorages in the world it was breathtaking !
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Its great to be back in human contact ! We finally have internet !
The reason for not updating the blog so much on passage is that the trip was pretty uneventful , If we wanted a fish we just put our fishing line out and caught something mainly Tuna or Mahi Mahi. The wind was gentle to start for the first 6 days and after that it picked up and we were sailing along at 6 - 7 knots. We were doing 3 hour watches each through the night usually starting from 8pm depending on who was tired went to bed first. We didn't see many ships at all a few fishing vessels in international waters but other than that it was just james and I and the big deep blue sea for 20 days. It was strange how little wildlife we saw, no dolphins, no whales or sharks just the fish that we caught and a few birds.
We decided to go to Fatu Hiva first and spend a week just chilling out and getting the boat cleaned as the hull was so dirty with algae and barnacles its taken a few james to get the outside of the boat back to normal and me still doing the hand washing... Fatu Hiva was amazing we spent my birthday there and Nakesa sailed over to join us for a few days. We walked to the most amazing waterfall it was breathtaking ! Now we are in Hiva Oa and are checked in an legal we are spending a few days getting water and fuel but will be staying in the marquises until Bastille Day which is on the 14th of July !
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06/25/2012, Fatu Hiva
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to let you all know that we made it safe into port in to Fatu Hiva after 19 days at sea !! No real problems a little bit of crappy weather, We caught lots fish and didn't kill each other !! So looking forward to a great night sleep without being woken in the middle of the night !!
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06/12/2012, In the middle of the Pacific Ocean
Hi to everyone who is reading, we left port 7 days ago from Isabella Island in the Galapagos and are 908.76 nautical miles into our 3000 mile journey to the Marquises. Our longest passage since the Atlantic and we are doing it all on our own !
we had a great time in Isabella and managed to stay for 1 week on the Island, we had a very chilled time, swimming with the penguins, sea lions, marine iguana's and the sea turtles it was amazaing. If i was ever to go back to the Galapagos this would be my Island of choice. Dirt roads, not many cars or tourists, only around 2,000 people live there. we met a lovely swedish and ecuadorian couple who took us up the mountains with a lady called Sarah (who is the land owner) to collect fruit, Unfortunately i didn't wear the appropriate footwear or clothing (flip flops and shorts) and the bugs loved me that day. But we did get alot of oranges, passionfruit, sugar bananas, plantain, grapefruit, lemons and limes. I have been squeezing fresh juice since we left ..
we found out that you can check in at Isabella which we didn't know and met an agent there called JC , so if your ever going to go Galapagos by boat please make sure you contact JC (we have his details if anyone is interested) There are alot rules and regulations about the Galapagos and it is well worth doing your research before you arrive, Unfortunately we didn't but learnt lessons afterwards.
So smooth sailing so far, for the last 30 hours we have been flying our cruising chute and have averaged around 6 + knots so far and are making good progress.. VVe have been cruising alongside Samsara for the last 6 days and have been within a 5 mile radius the whole time which has been fantastic chatting every day on the radio,having our fishing competition and we even had an afternoon photo session with them getting some great pictures of there boat and hopefully they have the same for us ! But i am sad now because we can't see them anymore , Please come back :( x
we have worked out that if we keep on going like we are we should arrive in another 12 days time, but are in no hurry, we are enjoying each day, the lovely weather, calm seas and beautiful nights with a bright moon and so many stars you can't imagine x
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We took a walk up to the Charles Darwin Centre on Santa Cruz to see Lonesome George, who isn't so Lonesome anymore he has two ladies with him at the moment and they are trying to get him to mate as he is the last of his kind left ? He doesn't look like he wants a bar of them, he was on one side of the pen and they were on the other. We didn't actually get to see his face, we are going to go back early in the morning when it is cooler to see him again hopefully moving, We did manage to get a few pictures of his mates ! You can't believe how huge they are and move very slow....
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05/15/2012, North Seymour Island, Galapagos
Yesterday we took a day trip to North Seymour Island to see the Frigate Birds, The Blue Footed Boobies and the Iguana's, You can't believe how close you can get to these animals, they aren't bothered at all ! We also went to a lovely beach in the afternoon and saw Flamingo's in the wild which i have never seen before.
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05/11/2012, Academy Bay
We had a fantastic sail to Galapagos, it only ended up taking 7 days at sea, We had the wind in our favor and managed to save most of our fuel, well i think we only went through half a tank. We arrived late in the evening and our friends from Morning Glory and Nakesa came out in there dinghies to show us a better spot to anchor, It is so rolly in Academy Bay and its open to the sea so not very nice. We had loads of birds following us the whole way to Galapagos a Red Footed Boobie landed on our boat it was so funny watching it try and balance on the bow ! We also have now crossed the Equator which is exciting it was 10am in the morning but still had to have a tot of rum to Neptune, We are now in the South Pacific !! Wohoooo !!
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Las Perlas Islands
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