Mia becomes skipper for the day
13 August 2011 | Nuka HIva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
Catherine
13 August 2011
And a great job she did too! In the morning, she looked at the charts to work out how far she had to go, the course and how long she thought it would take us. Then she decided what time we should leave to arrive before sunset. We then made a list of everything we needed to do before we could leave (check hatches are shut, bring up stern anchor, stow dinghy etc etc) and she delegated the jobs. Once she deemed we were ready, she turned the engines on, got Lochy to bring up the anchor, and drove us out of the bay, decided when it was a good time to turn into wind for us to get the sails up. We had the most glorious sails of our trip so far, with 15-20 knots of wind, and the journey took us exactly the time Mia had reckoned on, even getting us in half an hour early because she left half an hour before schedule, we were so ship shape and ready! Arriving in Nuka Hiva at 3pm, Mia drove us into the bay and chose where to put down the anchor and then turned our engines off. A fantastic job. She was then so exhausted from all the concentrating that all she wanted to do was take to her bed to watch a film on her I pod – I know the feeling. The boys went ashore to find the inn to which our spare propellor is being sent. Unfortunately, tomorrow's Sunday and Monday is a religious holiday, so we'll have to wait until Tuesday to go to the Post Office to see if it has arrived! But, it's pretty beautiful here so we're happy to wait.