Well we have arrived safe, sound and happy in the Marquesas Islands after 28 days at sea and are now surrounded by steep, incredibly green hills and about 40 other cruising boats in the ‘big smoke’ of the Marquesas, Taiohae Bay on Nuku Hiva.
A more detailed account of the voyage will follow in a couple of days, but in general things went very well. We had great sailing in the northeast trades, then light winds most of the rest of the time. We motored a fair bit through the ‘doldrums’ but were lucky to experience only quite mild squalls during that time – enough to wash off the salt and to give the sails a little push. The last couple of days before we made landfall saw the wind filled in again, 8-10 knots at first and then more, and we were again speeding along at five and six knots, a great feeling.
We first glimpsed land on May 7 at daybreak, and by that evening we were anchored at Taiohae Bay (pronounced Taa-ee-oh-haa-ay). The next morning we staggered ashore, ate some baguettes and checked in with the gendarmes, and started to diagnose the nature of our engine troubles – about four days from landfall Mr. Perkins started to overheat, all of a sudden, about ½ an hour after startup – he was losing his fresh water coolant at a great rate! After few days Mike had the diagnosis: a good-sized hole in the exhaust manifold, and we now have a new one on order but as you might expect the shipping could take a while…. We hope less than two weeks, but we will see! But we are certainly lucky that it is possible to get one here.
Due to the engine work and all of the socializing and sleeping we’ve been doing since we got here, we have been slow to work on the blog but now progress is underway to stay tuned for a more detailed account of the sail across.
Much love to all our friends and family, we would not be here without you!