After 28 days at sea, that exciting and much anticipated moment of sighting land for the first time since the coastline of Mexico disappeared astern came at 11:17 Pacific Daylight Time (or 1817 UTC; or 8:42 am local Marquesas time) on Wednesday, May 9, 2012! Our exact position at the time was 09 32.66' S, 138 28.19'W. So who was the first to say "Land Ho!"? Well, it was Linda - with some coaching! We were both in the cockpit after a boisterous early morning beat to weather (more on that in a minute) when Linda said she was going below to make some fresh coffee. I told her to wait a minute -"There is something you needed to see and say first." We were about 20 miles off Cape Balguerie (Matafenau), the NE tip of Hiva Oa, when I first spotted the dim outline of land beneath a bank of clouds. It took Linda a few minutes to see it too, but when she did she knew just what to say:"Land Ho!" What a moment of exhilaration! The anticipation of making landfall is difficult to describe, even more so the excitement of actually doing so. It was tempting to declare "We made it!" but in reality we had a full day of sailing ahead of us before we could put the anchor down and truly say "We're here!" When we finally rounded Cape Balguerie, we still had another 20 miles to go to reach the Atuona anchorage in Taahuku Bay. But at least we had the majesty and beauty of the south shore of Hiva Oa to mesmerize us as we made our way those last few miles of our first serious offshore passage. It would not be until 6:45pm PDT (4:15 local time) that we had the anchors (bow and stern) down in the crowded anchorage and not until the next day that a true sense of accomplishment began to set in. For the moment, we were just happy not to be preparing for night watches, and thankful that the boat remembered how to do something other than pitch from side to side! Of course, we were also happy and grateful to have completed the 2700+ nautical mile voyage safely, and with no m echanical or other major failures to speak of-a good passage by any measure! And as we settled in to our new surroundings, so did the exhaustion! We were both ready for a good, long sleep-and a night without standing watch!

We were fortunate our last day at sea was the 9th, as we had e-mailed our agent in Tahiti the day before saying we were not sure we would make it in before the 10th unless the winds picked up. For days we had been dealing with easterlies during the day in the 10-12 knot range (sometimes up to an exhilarating 13-14 knots!) that would die off at night to 7-9 knots. That translates into fairly slow going for Bright Angel-maybe an average of 5.5 knots of boat speed during the day, and down to 3.5-4.5 knots of speed at night. The other dilemma we were facing was that the consistent east winds (instead of the SE trades we had hoped for and anticipated) had prevented us from sailing low enough to lay Hiva Oa-we could usually sail between 210M-215M, with the rhumb line bearing 218M, but we were at times as much as 20 miles east of the line. If we steered as low as we could-about 230M-when the wind would occasionally veer ESE, we could knock off a few of those miles, but invariably they came right back when the wind backed to the east again. However, on the night of the 8th a strong SE wind in the 20 knot range set in, and held until late in the day on the 9th, after we had turned down after rounding Cape Balguerie. With that wind we were able to hold a course of 240M, and just before dawn we had closed on the rhumb line. I still anticipated the winds dying down and backing to the east, so I "put a few miles in the bank" by sailing west of the line before coming back up to 218M. But the wind did not back to the east, nor did it die down, and so as we closed to within about 40 miles of Hiva Oa we had to beat to weather for an hour and a half-Mr. Toad's wild ride in those winds and seas-just to make it back those 2-3 miles to the rhumb line! The rhumb line would take us to within 8 miles of the coast at Cape Balguerie, and I did not want to be any closer than that to a lee shore in the 20+ knots of wind we were experiencing, especially not knowing if there was any current to contend with. It was soon after we had made it back to the rhumb line and settled down on a more comfortable beam reach that the beautiful speck of land appeared below the clouds off in the distance. We were almost there!

When we approached the harbor there were quite a few boats anchored outside the breakwater-and pitching wildly in the swell-and we could see the anchorage was very crowded. But a friend of ours, a single hander named Steve Balboni on Desolina (who left La Cruz a few days after we did) had made it in earlier in the day and radioed us that there was a spot open near him, so we proceeded in past the breakwater-only to find "our spot" taken by another late arrival! As we were nosing around in the anchorage trying to find a spot to squeeze in, some other friends of ours from La Cruz radioed us from shore to point out a good spot closer in toward shore and tucked in nicely behind the breakwater, out of the swell. As we dropped our bow anchor there, Steve rowed over in his dinghy and took our stern anchor out for us. Steve came aboard for some snacks and cold cervezas, and to swap some stories about the passage. We were finally "There!" As we started looking around our new environs, it quickly struck us how international the fleet of boats here is: there were French boats on one side and behind us, an Italian boat on the other side, and elsewhere in the anchorage we saw flags from Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium-and that was just what we could see from our boat! Most of these boats had come through the Panama Canal and had been to the Galapagos Islands. (You can almost tell by looking which boats had come through the Canal-their waterlines are all very dirty!) There were two other boats from Seattle that we knew, Panta Rhea and Shanti Ana (the ones who helped guide us to our real spot), and the next day a boat from Bellingham, Slick, dropped anchor behind us.

As soon as we had the anchors down we hailed the local agent on the radio to arrange to go into town the next morning and clear-in to French Polynesia at the local gendarme office. She wanted to pick us up at the dinghy dock at 8:00 am, but we talked her into a 10:30 am pick-up! But as it turned out, it would not be until Friday that we made it in to town, which is just over the hill, but a few miles by road from the anchorage. The reason for the delay was the big red freight ship Taporo from Papaette that had tie up at the concrete quay about 7:00 am Thursday morning. As I was drinking my morning coffee and watching all the activity on the dock-they were off-loading crates and pallets from the ship, forklifts were scuttling back and forth, and locals were arriving in their cars and trucks in droves-Steve and another cruiser, James from Santa Barbara, came by in a dinghy to tell me cruisers could buy a 50 gallon barrel of diesel from the ship, and they asked if I wanted to split a barrel with them. "Absolutely!" We had burned more fuel motoring on the passage than I had anticipated, so we were low enough to be concerned about being able to it make it to all the islands we wanted to visit before arriving in Nuku Hiva, one of the most leeward island in the Marquesas, where fuel is readily available. Our agent had told us not to expect to be able to get fuel in Hiva Oa, but here was a golden opportunity, if only for a small amount! Steve was scheduled to go into town at 8:00 am with the agent to clear-in, but she told him to wait until Friday for that and to get fuel now-the ship would be gone by that evening! Apparently one of two freighters that serve these islands calls here every three or four weeks-what luck for it to be on the first day we were there!

We scrambled to dig out our three jerry jugs for fuel (5 gallons each), threw them into James's dinghy (ours was still lashed down on the foredeck), and I jump in after them. When we got to the quay it was bustling with activity: there was a purser's shack set-up with a long line of people "taking care of the paper work," construction materials were being loaded onto several flatbed trucks, soldiers from the French Army garrison stationed across the bay (tough duty!) were loading crates onto one of their trucks (probably French wine & cheese!), and people (probably from local stores and restaurants) were picking up boxes of frozen meats, sacks of produce, and pallets of soda from the dock. What a scene! There was also a huge hose slung over the rail of the ship, and it was being used to fill barrels of diesel in the back of a pick-up truck. Next to the pick-up on the dock was another barrel lying sideways on a stand, with a hose and spigot that some other cruisers had used to fill their jerry jugs. Steve had talked to them and found out what the procedure was: pay for the fuel at the purser's shack, take the receipt to the guy handling the hose, and he would fill the barrel for us, and then we, in turn, would fill our jugs out of the barrel. Simple - the only problem was, all we had were US dollars, and the purser would only take French Polynesian francs; and for the barrel of fuel, a lot of them-31,600 frc, to be exact (about $375 US, or just over $7 a gallon). I had about $200 in my wallet, and collected another $100 each from Steve and James and caught a ride into town to the bank (and back), where I was able to exchange the $400 US for 34,754 frc - perfect! When we had all filled our jerry jugs (nine of them), a dock worker suggested we set them on a pallet, and he picked up the pallet with his forklift and carried it the 500 yards or so to back to the dinghy dock-and he refused any gratuity for his help!

On Friday, May 11, we clear-in and "officially" began our 90 day stay in French Polynesia. We spent the day exploring the village of Atuona, checking out the various shops, grocery stores (magasins), and town center (mairie), and then took a long walk out of town toward the mountains; it was a beautiful walk, with lots of tropical flowers (the gardenias are everywhere!) and a stream rushing down a lush valley. We were looking for the cemetery with Paul Gaugin's grave, but we were on the wrong road (maybe we'll try again later). Back in town we had lunch and waited out a torrential rain at Snack Make Make (mah' kee mah' kee); the food was good, the Hinano beer was cold, the coconut milk (in the shell) was refreshing, and the bill was steep! Welcome to the islands!

Saturday and Sunday it rained almost non-stop-but for the heat and the palm trees on shore, it was like being in the Pacific Northwest! We did some reading and some boat chores, but mostly just relaxed. We did go into the Mobil station at the end of the quay on Saturday with a jerry jug each, since we had heard we might be able to buy up to 20 liters (5 gallons) of diesel. Cars and trucks start lining up at the station about 8:30 am; it opens about 9:00 am, and the two gals who run the place pump non-stop until the line is gone, and then they shut the station down until the next day (except Sunday). We did manage to get 10 more gallons, but they made us (and another cruiser who was in line) wait until they were sure there was enough for the locals.

Monday was a nice, sunny day with no rain-and the highlight of the day was the arrival of the last of the boats from La Cruz, our friends Drew and Deb (from British Columbia) on Black Dog, a CT41 ketch. Linda had been to town to do some shopping earlier that morning, so we took them a fresh baguette (that when Linda bought was so hot she could hardly handle it!) and cold beer (Black Dog has no refrigeration) to welcome them. We visited a while with Deb, Drew, and Steve, and then made plans to go into town for dinner that evening. That evening we continued sharing stories about our experiences on the passage from Mexico, talked about our past (work) lives a bit, and ended up talking about New Zealand, where we are all heading eventually, and where Drew and Deb have spent time Deb has dual Canadian and New Zealand citizenship, and has many relatives in NZ. Their tales make us anxious to visit there! It was a wonderful evening with friends. The setting was perfect (outdoor patio fringed with palms and tropical flowers overlooking the bay and the mountains beyond); the food was marginal, but the Hinano was crisp and cold, and the bill was steep (but Drew insisted on paying!).

We have been in the Atuona anchorage five full days now, and we are getting anxious to move on. We'll spend today (Tuesday, May 15) getting ready, and then take off bright and early tomorrow morning for the 50 mile sail to Fatu Hiva. Thanks for checking in. We'll post more later on down the line!