4000+ nautical miles from Antofagasta, Chile to the Marquesas and 37 days at sea. We have landed at Hiva Oa.
Unconsciously we prepare ourselves for a culture shock before we arrive anywhere. This time we find our Spanish jumps out proudly when we open our mouths. And then the blank expression on faces reminds us now it's time to recall our French responses.
We are ecstatic to be here, although dead tired, but too excited and too much pent up energy after so long at sea to take time to rest properly. Checking out facilities, walking a couple miles to town and back, hand washing laundry, cleaning up on board scraping the growth off the hull- all in heat which we haven't experienced since Panama. Very fortunately we have arrived in the rainy season . I have never loved rain so much.
I wasn't sure about arriving in a different country with fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat, so we did our best to finish most things before we arrived. ( of course there is always canned and dried provisions to fall back on if required). There were no stores open on the weekend and as we arrived on Saturday morning, it was amazing to be able to pick up windfall mangoes on our walk to town to take care off our fresh food needs. On our walk, the air had a thick sweet aroma from what I think are the frangipani trees and flowers littered the road from the trees around. Behind the small town of Atuona, the island rises in steep craggy hills covered in tropical jungle like a scene from Jurassic Park.
We used an agent here, Sandra, from "Tahiti Crew" to cover our bond and smooth the process of a long stay visa. She also runs a little hut on the point west of the anchorage which provides internet usage and coffee 6/week from 8:30-10:30am. The bond process and checking in is actually easy enough to do without an agent, but everything about the long stay visa has been expensive and complicated so we decided to make sure it was guaranteed.
On our crossing we broke two of our rules- take the jenniker (the large light sail) down when the winds got over 16 knots and don't leave it up at night. The result was, one night we ripped one of the panels out or our thirty year old jenniker. Luckily that was the last of the very light winds so it didn't make a difference to the rest of our trip. Also, luckily, there is a boat works yard here just above the anchorage which has a new sail loft and had recently hired an experienced sail repairer. It looks like a very good yard to leave your boat as well, if required. Vincent, who owns it is an aircraft maintenance engineer, like Dave so he's got our approval!
The anchorage itself is small and crowded and has a fouled bottom so after we get a few more things lined up, we are looking forward to exploring the other anchorages and islands. We may not have enough wifi strength to post photos but assuming we will, if we ever get internet again, I'll post more pictures later.