Landfall! Radar picked up the peaks of Ua-Huka at 23 NM a few minutes ago. We have a total of 52NM until Tango's anchor is on the bottom of Taiohae Bay, Nuku-Hiva.

The crew will be boat bound until we clear customs and they only receive in-coming boats before 1130 on weekdays. We'll be anchoring around 1330 so we will have to wait until Wednesday to get all the paperwork done. We have several things to keep us busy, like, not rocking and rolling, no engine noise, no sail tending, etc. We also have several important projects that we could start on. Some must be done before I'll leave harbor. The important ones are:

Mend the mainsail and move those durn jackline cleats that catch the sail and tear it. Threadlock the sail car screws, again. This is a repeat but we had the sail off in MX. Reattach the boom vang to the mast. This could be a multiple day job, but only if I con't have the appropriate bolt aboard. Change fuel filters. The vacuum pressures have doubled since we last ran the engine for a long time. Crud in the MX fuel... Inspect the hull zincs and probably replace them. The MX piers were very electrically HOT and this quickly wiped the zincs. Also need to scour the bottom of any growth. Adjust, lubricate, check this and that including the Hydrovane autopilot, the Hydrogenerator mount systaem, Tango's basic steering gear (wire rope, chain in the binnacle, etc.

That's about it; Wow - we made it, well almost. We'll let everyone know we are safely anchored. Hummm a full nights sleep... what will I do with that?

John