Sunday, May 6th 8pm
Today was another nondescript day but it's not that we didn't appreciate it. The weather has been so beautiful, the water such a crazy blue and the occasional white tern does circles around us to see what we are. Unlike other areas we've sailed in, none of these birds has tried to land on our boat which is surprising. Many times in the past we've had birds come to rest on our deck, on our BBQ in the stern, etc. The wind returned in the middle of the night last night so we set the sails and turned off the motor. It's more easterly than we need so we can't steer a direct course but tomorrow we'll try to set up the sails wing & wing again with one sail out on each side of the boat to try and steer more direct downwind. I don't particularly like that point of sail but we have to do it if we ever want to get there and we do!
No luck fishing today so I dug out some of our precious remaining hamburger and made another good “shovel it in” favorite- southwestern beef rice skillet with a warm coleslaw recipe Jon's mom gave me. It's a funny thing, hamburger is hard to come by in a lot of places, the locals don't eat it. Meanwhile, its an American favorite. Anytime you go to a tourist restaurant they have hamburgers (I don't know where they get the meat since it isn't in the grocery stores) - thinking that is what we want to eat which we don't! We want to try their local food.
The moon just came up big & orange but there are a few clouds on the horizon blocking it's full view. It sure is nice to have that bright light all night. We did change the clocks today so at least it was dark when Jon went to bed tonight.
In case anyone is wondering, we're planning to head to an anchorage called Hanavave Bay on the island of Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas which is an island group that belongs to French Polynesia. French Polynesia is made up of several island groups including the Tuamotos, Societies (which includes Tahiti), Gambier and the Australs. We won't be visiting the last 2 island groups as there isn't enough time. Once we check in to the  Marquesas, we'll have 30 days to get to Papeete Harbor in Tahiti to do our formal check in and get another 60 day visa. That means we have to visit the Marquesas and the Tuamotos and complete another longish passage of around 700 miles between them and then a couple of other overnight sails amongst the islands all in 30 days! So we'll have to burn the candle at both ends to see all we want to see in that timeframe. The Tuamotos are famous for their scuba diving which we really want to get going on. So far, no scuba yet this trip! We have several great cruising guides to FP that our friends on Slip Away loaned us and so we have plenty of time now to look at them and try to plan things out. But it's hard to do since it won't feel real until we get there. After the 90 days in French Polynesia, we plan to visit the Cook islands, Samoa islands, Tonga and then on to New Zealand if we stick with our current plan.
People were joking on the radio net tonight about how Hanavave Bay is touted to be the most impressive landfall you'll ever make but we were wondering if after 3 weeks at sea, your standards are pretty low! But I know that isn't true, since I've been studying the pictures for years now waiting for this moment. The only problem is that we don't have a clear idea of whether boats are currently getting hassled for stopping since it's not a port of entry. We're trying to get that information but no luck yet with anything definite. So it may be that we end up heading to Hiva Oa  first and then back to Fatu Hiva to see what we missed. It would be 50 miles back to windward. What a stupid thing to have to do! The other thing is that French Polynesia enforces a law that says you can only have 2 liters of alcohol per person on your boat when you check in and they search your boat. Is it some carryover for people flying in on planes? Who knows but there isn't a boat out here that has that little alcohol on board since we're all provisioned for the entire sailing season! And French Polynesia is so expensive that you can't even afford a jar of mayonnaise, let alone a bottle of rum! So people are hiding it, what else are you going to do?  It's nuts.

Monday, May 7th 8pm
Well as of last night it has been one squall after another with high winds in the squalls to make it more fun! We had 2 in the middle of the night and then several today. In one of them in the middle of the night were doing 8.4 kts which doesn't feel good but then a half hour later the sails were slatting. Just as we were eating dinner tonight we got one on each side of us to double the pleasure! So it has therefore been a day of sail changes and frustration. Of course in between the squalls are very light winds so no matter what you've got up it ain't right! And in this part of the Pacific you've always got the ocean swell on top of the waves. I was reading last night that a lot of it comes from the rough seas in the roaring forties. There's no wave break between here and there. So a lot of the time, the seas are bigger than they should be given the wind strength and sometimes the direction of the wind isn't the same as the swell direction making for confused seas. Anyway, the day went fast and we didn't have much down time. We both felt a little sleep deprived since neither of us got our 6 hours of sleep for the night. Overall though, we ordinarily feel pretty good on the sleep we're getting.
We fished, but again, nada. Other boats are having the same luck, including Slick- we're still winning the fishing derby with 6 fish landed & cleaned. So since we didn't get a tuna, I  opened a can of salmon and made this pasta dish we love with salmon, capers, parm & mushrooms and we cut into the last pumpkin from Panama- it is a big squash, kind of like winter squash but more watery, a very common vegetable all over the Caribbean. They're pretty good and as you can see, they keep, even in this hot climate.
Well, here's hoping that tonight will be calmer than last night but that we'll still make good progress. As of this moment, we've got 635 miles to go!