05/21/2012
Two days ago we moved to Fatu Hiva. No internet here so still posting positions and short blogs via radio.
Beautiful island with rock spires around the anchorage that are absolutely gorgeous. Explored this small village yesterday and tried hiking to a waterfall but never found it. Today we hired a local to take us in his fishing boat over to the next village and that was a great trip. We went with Phyllis and Don from Solstice. We saw tapas being made and bought a couple for souvenirs. Found out that our boat captain that gave us the ride was a sculptor by trade so went to his home and bought some wood carvings; Phyllis and Don bought a tiki; we bought a wooden bowl.
got to check the weather now, but if it is good we will head at first light back to the north west to Tahuata island.
all is well.
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Comments [2]
05/14/2012
We arrived at Hiva Oa in the Marquesas early morning on Mothers' Day after 23 days and a few hours at sea - yea! We just couldn't escape the rain even in those final days, so while we timed our arrival for daylight hours, the cloud cover was so thick we couldn't see the islands at times. But things cleared up just as we approached the anchorage and so all was well. We hadn't seen any other boats the whole time we were out there, but as we mentioned had been in touch via radio nets. One of our nets was just 5 boats who had left the Galapagos at around the same time. We knew one of the boats and they asked us to join the net. We hadn't met the others, but several are here and so we finally are getting together. In fact we did actually spot one boat, Solstice, just as we were approaching the anchorage - they were about 15 minutes ahead of us. The other boats in the anchorage said they had been getting all that rain here too for the last week and were hoping we brought some sunshine. Well today it has been sunny all day, so far. We never did get the watermaker to work despite numerous emails with techs at Spectra while we were 'out there', so if it rains, it helps to fill the water tanks! Always a bright side. We didn't take many pictures during the crossing, as it looked a lot 'the same'. But we will post a few of the sunsets, sunrises, fish we caught, and rainbows.
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05/12/2012
Happy Birthday to Charlene and Colleen - Virginia's sisters. This wiill be our last night out - only 69 miles to go. Should arrive before noon tomorrow, local time. Marquesas time is kind of odd as it is 9.5 hours earlier than UTC - the only 'half hour' time zone. We will be 2.5 hours earlier than pacific daylight savings time, I believe. Looking forward to a break from the night watches. We expected to be totally exhausted on this trip, but that hasn't happened. We are doing 3 hour watches, starting at 9pm. We each have 6 hours on watch and 6 hours of scheduled sleep. Then we nap as needed during the day. It's worked out great. More news soon as we reach our next landfall in paradise.
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able to hold a pretty steady westerly course. Stepdown Committee meets
Tuesday...wish us luck! Cheers, Willy
05/11/2012
Lots of squalls with rain and some with wind the last several days including all night last night. Yesterday about 3:00pm we got in an area with no wind and we were rocking around so we cheated and turned on the engine - too close to the end to want to dally any longer!
Making good time today. Now we are thinking we might get there midday Sunday may 13.
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05/10/2012
lots of squalls yesterday, along with some rainbows. Made good time as there waere some higher winds in those squalls. Still pretty cloudy out there, looks like more rain this morning, but we are getting there! Only 380 miles to go!
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05/08/2012
Happy Birthday Judy, Dennis' sister! We are getting consistent wind today that enables us to run the spinnaker. We took down the main and hoisted the drifter (another light sail like the spinnaker) between the main and mizzen and we are cranking - making time today at 6-7 knots. Seas lumpy at times, but they got quite a bit calmer last night so hoping for the same tonight. All is well. Hoping to make landfall by Saturday, but still 566 mi. to go, so too soon to tell quite yet - depends on the winds of course.
hope all is well with all of you.
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