Well, it has been awhile. I will try to pick up the blog writing again. I truly enjoyed reading other peoples blogs and websites when planning this trip, and I feel that I owe all our friends and the cruising community some of my own stories as well. So many people have helped us on the way, both in getting ready mentally and getting Radiance ready. Not a week goes by without one of us bringing up something that somebody taught us, told us or warned us against. We were fortunate, by chance because Radiance was moored there, to live in Crow's Nest Marina. I am sure we would not have made it to the Marquesas if it had not been for our marina neighbors believing with us that a dream could come true. Ralph, Tim and Stefanie, Fred & Lynda, John, Kipp & Patty, Al & Bobbi, Scott and Angela, Scotty and Katy, Ken and Sue, Fuji Tom, Jim, Mike, Dan, Bobby and Jennifer, George and Joan, Ove and many many more....thank you.

So, where were we when our inverter broke? Day 15. Position about 9N 125W heading due South into the ITCZ. It was mid-morning and Malou was down below watching a movie on the laptop, when the laptop suddenly ran out of power and went into hibernation. (This happens all the time either because the inverter cigarette plug has fallen out, or Malou has turned the inverter off, or we forgot to turn it on in the first place.) This time however, the plug was in and the inverter was turned on, except it was not putting out any power. We always thought the weak link would have been the laptop, and have always known that it was a mistake not to have a spare laptop onboard. But it turned out to be a our small 400w inverter that hit the dirt; (actually salt and humidity corroded the small Chinese circuits). We carry spares for just about every main component on Radiance, but had failed to buy an extra $40 inverter. Doh!

So for the last two weeks of our passage Malou never said anything about wanting to watch a movie, not liking a movie, or anything else related to movies. Her, (and our) quality of cruising actually raised to a new higher level.

Our only concern was to get the word out to the world that we were cruising happily along and not in the middle of the 'perfect storm'. As soon as we were through the worst of the ITCZ we hooked the SSB radio back up and called Don Anderson, our amateur weather man. Don was extremely helpful and sent an email to our friend Dan in Winchester Bay, Oregon, asking him to make a blog comment. Don Anderson is an amateur in name only, meaning that he is not paid for his services. There is nothing amateur, however, about his knowledge of marine weather, and especially the marine weather in the Pacific. More often than not Don's forecast is right on, when both NOAA and the US Navy are wrong. Further more, Don's forecast is fairly personalized, for one's current position. In contrast, NOAA's high seas forecast is very general and covers thousands of miles of ocean. If MOST of the area has 15 knots of wind then that is what NOAA forecasts, even though a small portion of this area may have 30 knots. These small details makes a big difference to a two man crew on a 37ft sailboat.

The entire passage from San Blas, Mexico, to Hiva Oa took 29 days and 11 hours from anchor up to anchor down. I have not calculated the exact distance we sailed but it should be close to 3000 nautical miles. Time went by surprisingly fast, and it really did not seem that long of a trip. The route from San Blas to Hiva Oa is really very simple. You sail a little south of southwest for a while, then you turn due south for a few days, and then you sail SSW for about a week, and then you are there. Both Angela and I had the feeling of distinct zones or areas that the passage was split into.

1)HURRICANE ALLEY: SUNNY, A LITTLE CHOPPY, GETTING INTO THE GROOVE. The first area is a large triangle between Cabo San Lucas, Isla Clarion and Clipperton Island. This triangle is known as 'hurricane alley' between May 15th and the end of November, therefore we didn't dilly-dally, but spent as little time as possible in this area.

2)NE TRADES, GOOD SAILING The second area was between Isla Clarion and 12N 130W. This was the NE trade wind area where we made good time. Our objective was to hit the Lat/Long of 12N, 125 W and turn due south into the ITCZ. On the 13th day out we turned south at 12N, 124 59.48W.

3)AMAZING CLOUDS, 12N to 8N, ANGELA'S FAVORITE AREA For a cloud lover, this area was supreme; every type of cloud one could imagine, all at the same time; a different type of cloud in each direction. When the wind was calm, and only a large ground swell was running, the sea was so clear that you can probably see 100 ft down, but the water was 10,000 feet deep so you have no real concept of depth. You were looking into a mystical deep transparent blue.

4)ITCZ, 7N to 4N SULTRY, SMELLY LAUNDRY, Yuck! The fourth area was the ITCZ. Thunder squalls, and torrential rain with 40 knot winds. The weather was so bad one night that we decided to lay hove to. We had not seen any ships for two weeks so we all went to bed for a good nights sleep, while Radiance took care of herself.(for land lubbers: hove to means to oversheet the mainsail which makes the boat lay almost still in the water with her bow slightly into the wind and waves. This little trick is used when you want to "park" the boat at sea if the weather is bad for an example. Even in very rough seas the boat lays quietly like a duck just riding the sea.)

5)SE TRADES The fifth area was from 3N to 5S. This is where the SE trades started to blow, but they were not from the SE but from the S and they were light. We beat 30 degrees into the wind for about 300 miles before getting a little more 'easting' in the wind. (Radiance loves to beat, and was wagging her 'tail' all the way.) When we were at 2N we saw the first ship in almost 3 weeks. Actually, there were two identical ships, laying out buoys, probably doing some kind of research. They did not answer our radio call. I guess they must have been very busy researching.

6)HOME STRETCH, 5 South to 9 South (THE WIND HAD A BONE IN IT'S TEETH) The sixth area was the home stretch from 5S to the Marquesas at 9S. This was supposed to be the easy gentle part of the passage since the SE trades normally blow at only half the strength of the NE trades... Not this time. We had what was called 'enhanced SE trades' generated by a very strong SE pacific high pressure system. This wind had a 'bone in it's teeth'. The last 350 miles of the passage was the roughest of the entire trip. Very squally and gusty wind with a mean sea running. We briefly hove to the last night before landfall, and because we were so close to land we kept the normal watch schedule so one of us was on watch in the cockpit. We hove to partly because we did not want to make landfall at night but also because the weather was just horrible. Our landfall after this long windy and rainy night was not what you would picture a tropical island landfall to be like. It looked more like Seattle, Washington, grey and rainy. We were joking wether the cape to our starboard was Cape Flattery WA or the eastern tip of Hiva Oa. It was funny that we had traveled thousands of miles from 48N to 9S, and the weather, wind and seas were the same. Well, except that is was not 40 F but 80 F, and we were wearing shorts.

The Marquesas are stunningly beautiful in their ruggedness as they rise out of the water, straight up to form jagged peaks a 1000 ft high.

I am not going to try to understand, or comment on, the relationship between these islands and the French. That said, the Marquesians are wonderful people, and they seem to have a fairly easy and plentiful life. The water around here is full of fish, the soil is rich, and the climate is like a greenhouse. The people here are very generous. As a result of that our cockpit is full of all kinds of local fruits.

The sailing weather here is like sailing around all the capes on the US west coast gathered in one place, or like cruising the Faroe Islands, just warmer I would imagine. The wind is gusty and lively, the seas are steep and short. But that is what you get when you place a lot of high mountains in the middle of the SE trades and the equatorial counter current. Neither of the two really like to be pushed around after having traveled undisturbed for 2000 miles.

We are currently at anchor in a bay on the south shore of Nuku Hiva. We are here with about 8 other boats from all over the world. Two of the boats here are sailed by new friends of ours. Ciel and Angela on board s/v Tuscany of San Francisco left from San Diego a few days after we left Mexico. We heard them talk to Don Anderson in the mornings. It was comforting to know that we where not the last boat out there between North America and the South Pacific. Tuscany cast anchor right next to us 3 days after we had arrived on Hiva Oa. We spent some time with them in Hiva Oa, and were very happy to see them again here in Daniel's Bay. The s/v Lasse from Flensborg Germany, with Carola and Ben, and their two kids Nils and Lisa aboard came in from Galapagos 5 days after we had arrived. Lasse and Radiance have more or less followed the same route through these islands, meeting up in almost every anchorage. We really enjoy spending time with our friends on these two boats and getting to know each other.

We will most likely be heading to the Tuamotu atolls very soon. So if you have not lost all faith in us, then we may start our daily passage blog entries again. Boy I may regret having said that.

Some final notes about the trip: Our friends at s/v Momo had given Malou a big bag of small presents she was to open on specific days of the Pacific Ocean passage. Malou loved these 'present days' and cherished the items she unwrapped. She thought every present was special, and she knew that Jana and Lola had given up these toys so she could have them. We also loved these present days, and will definitely return the favor when we see Momo again.

6-years ago when we began planning this trip, I was sure that I would dislike that passages. I looked at them as a necessary job that had to be done in order to cruise Radiance in the various cruising grounds around the world. I am not the most patient guy in the world, and the thought of spending 30 days at sea, moving at the pace of fast walking, to get to the South Pacific did not sound like something that was for me.

Those 30 days were the most amazing and rewarding experience I have ever had. Yes, the first 2 days with very light wind were difficult for me. I calculated, and recalculated, our progress and passage time several times a day. The as the wind picked up and our routines fell into place, and miles just began to glide under the keel, some days 75 and some days 110 miles, I realized that this was not a race to a goal line, but a race to settle myself down and live in the moment and the place. Once I could comprehend that it really did not matter if this passage took 26 or 34 days, then I realized how amazing and rewarding this experience was going to be. Most people will never take the opportunity to make this passage, and most people that do, only get to do it once. I was very aware of that, and enjoyed every minute of it. There will be many more passages, but none like this, my first passage, and the longest passage of them all.

Well besides being a sailor, I am of course also a parent. So I am going to end this blog posting with one of those "you will not believe what my child did the other day" stories. Malou is standing on the foredeck watching an outrigger canoe with four proud, strong and majestic Maquesian men paddling by at full speed training for the big competition in Tahiti next month. As they cross Radiance's bow Malou yells "Hi kids, are you going to shore?". What else would these 'kids' be using a 'dingy' for?

Take care. Steen