Amy, an SA friend of mine crewing s/v Free Spirit, and I set out to hike across Fatu Hiva. This is a 15k hike that took us all day, about eight hours. The weather was perfect, a slight cloud cover with occasional refreshing rain showers.

There are two villages on Fatu Hiva that I know about. Hanveve, next to our anchorage, and Omoa, our destination. We arrived before sunset when the afternoon light begins to change. It was exquisite. We collected bananas, guavas, mangoes, and a few mystery fruits to ask the locals about.

Over on the other side of the island things weren't going so well. The short version of it all is that the police were called to look for us because we took a few more hours than expected. We were just being picked up by the vice-mayor when our dinner party was scheduled on the other side of the island(all day walk, 20 minutes dinghy ride). We made it home safe, though a couple hours behind schedule. Lobster, mahi and tuna sashimi, BBQ chicken, coconut shrimp rice, and a local banana casaba paste were served to us with comments in French about how everyone was glad we were ok.

We're leaving this morning to sail to another island. I'd tell you which one but my dad's not talking to me.

Cheers to a new anchorage Cass

Amy took this picture of me rinsing my hands off in an afternoon shower. The dirty state of the seat of my pants is due to falling out of a banana tree.