We are anchored...in the South Pacific....WOW! It's just starting to sink in this morning as I start updating the blog. Hiva Oa is incredibly beautiful with lush vegetation and the smell of tropical flowers. The terrain is rocky, craggy cliffs....;truly stunning! It was worth every day at sea! We arrived at 1230 local time (2200 UTC) to a very crowded bay. Two other vessels with dinghies helped us get shoe-horned into a spot. There are two boats here that we know, Thin Wolf and Follow Me, Follow You. The rest hail from global locatcions...Sweden, France, Australia, Canada, flags I don't recognize, and USA to name a few. This is truly an international group here! This place is so crowded because it is one of only two places to check into customs, and the Hiva Oa is the first choice so that one can sail downwind to visit the other islands. Customs was closed when we arrived, but we walked to town anyway and discovered a neat and friendly village with chickens running around everywhere .....like pigeons in a city....And yes there was chicken on the menu at a local eatery. Our legs sure were wobbly when we first started to walk on the land...that land sure does rock and roll!!!! We will go back to town this morning to clear customs, and explore Atuona.

Hiva Oa was sighted at dawn this morning by Chuck on his watch. We have about 28 miles to Traitor's Bay, where we will anchor. We should be anchored some time this afternoon. We are very excited!! We made great time in the last 24 hours with 15 knot winds, we traveled 113 miles, course made good in the last 24 hours. Right now we are getting the boat organized for the boarding party of customs/immigration. I think hot showers are on the list this morning as well.

It's beautiful morning, the squalls are behind us and it looks like a sunny day. We are moving right along in these 15 knot winds. With only 130 miles left to making landfall, the morale is high on board. We could possibly be anchored late tomorrow afternoon, or the following morning depending on how the wind treats us today. Regardless, we won't go into the anchorage at night.

We had a night of lightning, thunder, rain, and some wonderful wind. This really helped us along our way. We traveled 100 miles in the last 24 hours and are now 230 miles from Hiva Oa. All is well on board. We had a nice Easter celebration. We turned the boat downwind a bit to make it a bit calmer, and put a canned ham in the oven. We treated it like a real ham complete with whole cloves and mustard sauce. It turned out better than expected. We hope you all also had a wonderful celebration. Our weather continues to be rainy and squally, minus the lightning which is just fine with me. I worry about our electronics...one near strike can wipe out all of our electronics on board, making it impossible to use our radios, computer, and GPS. We have two back-up GPSs plus our handy dandy sextant, so we won't get lost!

We had a large squall last night....sure am glad that I took down the whisker pole and had the main reefed because we went from 0 to 30 knots in less than 30 seconds. We were traveling at 6.6-7.4 knots! We stayed in the squall for about 45 minutes. Other than that, we continue to struggle with light wind. We are running the engine more, but being mindful of our fuel. We are 320 miles from Hiva Oa now, so we are making progress.

Happy Easter, if we continue to have light wind, I'll dig in the locker for a can of ham that we got in Canada for a special occasion. So, we too will have something special for today. We will also eat the last watermellon, and I'll make a dessert...depending on the sea state. I think we will be nicely healed over about the time I put something in the oven!!!

After viewing our latest weather files, it appeared that the wind was blowing just south of latitude 05, so we got all happy and headed straight south. It's like chasing a rainbow, once we get there, it disappears. We found a squall, which really helped, but now the wind is back down to 0-4 knots. This is turning out to be quite the slow passage. But all is well on board. We are staying busy playing card games and reading books.

It's sure been a great trip south so far, with only light winds that continue to plague us. Our heavy boat is making progress, slowly, but surely. We have about 500 miles to go to Hiva Oa. That will indeed be a happy day. We had a squally night last night, either plenty of wind or nothing coming from about 3 different directions. The boat got a good rinse so she is looking happy.

All is well on this fine Wednesday morning. We are traveling slowly but surely again. We traveled 85 miles in the last 24 hours, which is great considering our wind conditions. The full moon at night sure is bright. We can just about read by it. It sure make the night watches easier. At sunset we were visited by the porpoises. They sure are a welcome sight. We continue to see a variety of sea birds throughout the day. We are about 580 miles from landfall.