pleasant sail with dolphins and no engines . And nothing broke except the mayonnaise in the saildrive. That's why we have to go sail 80 miles to Hiva Oa to the only boatyard here. Looking forward for messy , dusty
boatyard time with ants and rats...yuaaack . Who said sailing is a piece of cake? We are cruising into sunsets with a drink and a big smile that we are free and don't have to live on land ,with the bills and the jobs and
the madness...no we are lucky....every year or two we have boatyard time yyyeeeepuyaai jeee

Lucky we had a good day with less wind and sunshine to go sail upwind. i thought Hooumi is the most peaceful bay in Nuku Hiva , but it blows a lot Fortunately the swell doesn't get in here . So i have time to do some paperwork for our visa headache without holding on to my table. We stay here for a few days until the swell is a bid less in Taioahe.
Nothing broke, we didn't push Yelo to hard

the captn doesn't like beating against 25 to 30 knots anymore. He gets wet and has to hold on. That's what you get if you want to sail around an island here. Half of it is against the wind , and around the capes it blows like stink. We double reefed so we wouldn't go faster than 5 knots. It still got very salty and i fell sorry for the boat and sorry for myself. But its nice here in Pua. A few friendly souls live here in the middle of nowhere. They are trying to make a living with gardens, horses and wild goats. Palm trees, a small river and a gorgeous beach. I got offered a fish from a fishermen, but I did not know this fish .So i didn't buy it. The
Polynesian fishermen promised he wouldn't sell me a toxic fish...but he also had a goat he wanted to sell .So we exchanged a few Mexican beers for a leg of goat . Goats are not toxic, just tuff sometimes and smelly. I tell
you how it was, once i let it marinate in the fridge.
These places used to be empty, because there was no mobile fone coverage for the yachts. But now with Elons Starlink, we can communicate with the rest of the world ...anytime. Is this gonna give us world peace?
..i doubt it. Sure is convenient. Its still verboten for the locals to buy a Starlink...but they don't look like they miss anything important.!!
We keep on fixing our black mainsail. More and more the stitches fall off. Eaten by the sun, i have no other choice but take it down, shove into the cockpit and re-stitch 2 miles of thread. OOOff thats gonna be long.
The trampoline is dead as well...another 4 day job with blisters .
Soon we have to go back to Taioahe , the main town and visit the health insurance and the office for our residence permit. Strong South Easterly swell is in the forecast . We don't look forward to this very uncomfortable bay....But what the hell : this is the price to pay for living in paradise. Its also 7 miles against the wind, that means : sailing almost twice that distance, if the current and waves are bad.
After all the moaning , i must say ....: id rather be sailing, when i look at the life of the land lubbers.

Around the Cape and 6 miles further north we had a nasty 35 to 40 knots . Off course bumpy wet and fast . And finally at this "Airport bay " its quiet calm and all the trees are bone dry .So i guess it doesn't rain like
Daniels Bay, where we collected 200 liters in jerry cans and filled all tanks last night . No fish and nothing broke...except two zippers on the cockpit chairs . Glad to be out of this Daniels bay . boats are turning 360 and
we had 2 weeks of continuous swell. Yuack

we escaped the roly anchorage of Taioahe to get a little rest from the noise and swell. Also to recuperate from the headaches to renew our visa and sign up for local health insurance. I could write a book about it . It
comes down to the same thing of every poor country: the poor education of almost everybody sitting in an office. They simply don't know the procedures of their own office...
its quiet here but swell gets in anyways. We wait for a few days here . Then we should get an new electric water kettle delivered to us from Tahiti .But then we are off ....sailing south somewhere to be announced

cruise ships tons of catamarans and they are all on Norforeignland and i am not. its uncomfortable here after a month of a quiet anchorage and here it rolls you around in your bed . Oh well , life is tuff