Daily Routines and Thoughts--Day 25
05 May 2012 | 180 miles from Hiva Oa
Pete
I just got off the evening Pacific Seafarers net which I report our position and weather conditions. I do this for Sherpa nightly, adding to other vessels transiting the Pacific from Vancouver, Canada to Australia. I am just starting my watch 2000 to 2400 (8-12 PM) and get to see the sunset. My day started with the 0400 -0800 watch and got to see the green flash at sunrise first time, not as great as the double (first normal sunset flash then a wave lifted us and saw it again) I saw that sunset at beginning of trip. I will miss the awesome sunrises and sunsets as we get closer to our land fall. We are starting to feel the islands calling us. We are reading about anchorages and what to do there. We listened in to the Pacific Puddle Jump net and got an ear full of other cruisers activities. We learned the Marquesas Islands are 2.5 hours behind Pacific Standard time (PST) which we have kept as our on board time. This makes us more aware we need to really look out for other boats. We are converging on vessels coming from Central America to Marquesas. We have not seen any other vessels, planes, trains or automobiles for the last 9-10 days, very nice. Converging on the other cruisers will seem like the LA freeway, HAHA well not really we will still be moving. Only visitors are our nightly sea birds. We have been our own island surrounded by water and lots of sky. I don't recognize any constellations, I feel like a stranger in a strange land. We have been very self sufficient: food, entertainment. We are starting to run low on some food stuffs but we just substitute and the sea and boat provides us with the rest: excitement, thrills and beauty. Think you read some adventures/fire drills we just experienced. We sleep but with one eye open to jump to boat needs. We will have to change our lifestyle as we currently live it to land and society based. Hope we can adapt, our on board needs are few. Bring it o
Pete