After 2 months our Summer 2014 South Pacific sail finally came to its end. We tied up safely to the Marina in Apia/Samoa, toured the extremely beautiful island by car, met a lot of super-friendly locals (most of them of very heavy size, but really nice), and caught the plane back to Switzerland.

The highlights of the trip were:
- Distance: 3,000 Nm (5,500km) in 2 months
- Itinerary: Marquises, Tuamotus, Tahiti, Raiatea, Bora Bora (all French Polynesia), Aitutaki (Cook Islands), Niue (Niue), Tongatapu, Ha'Apai, Vava'U, Niuatoputapu (all Tonga), Upolu (Samoa).
- Large crew: 10 people on board half of the time (two times two weeks), we were good friends before boarding and still are good friends!
- Main challenges: damaged mastfoot and frontstay; headwinds; crosswaves; cool weather
- Visited by 100's of sharks and whales
- Busy windsurfing, diving, swimming, reading, cooking, repairing
- The locals are all very friendly and of an astonishing size
- Brazil 2014 didn't exist (traditional dancing and rugby only)
- It is forbidden to do sports on Sundays in Tonga
- Loads of interesting, beautiful islands
- The South Pacific is really, really big; we would need at the very least another 2-3 years to see it all

Next destinations for Libellule: Auckland/New Zealand and Ushuaia/Patagonia.

Next blog entry: Mountaineering trip to Antarctica in January 2015.

See you soon!