Hello from the Marquesas Islands

Hello from Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

 

We made it!  It took us 23 days of seeing nothing but water but we made it.  We officially left Isla Isabela, Galapagos at 1030 on May 1, 2009 and checked into Atuona, Hiva Oa at 830 May 24^th.  We also crossed three time zones only to find when we got here that these islands decided to give themselves another 30 minutes of time so make that three and a half time zones.

 

Some may think that life would be boring on such a crossing but not for us.  We always seem to pick a way that is always interesting or at least life seems to pick one for us.  This time on Day 2 of the crossing, we were discussing watch schedules around 2 in the afternoon when the autopilot alarm went off and we rushed to take the wheel and find out what went wrong.  Well it failed, pure and simple and we hand steered for the next 22 days!  We set schedules for 3 hours on and 3 hours off for sleep, rest, eating, etc.  Raymarine was no help in solving the problem (as expected) so even as we are now safely in the bay and anchored, Mike has it torn apart again and trying to get it to work again.

 

Other that a sailor's worst nightmare, hmmm, what else could go wrong.  For us it was the solenoid to the propane tank that quit on Day 3; then there was the bat car that shattered in a violet gust spraying the boat with torlon bearings; followed by the spinnaker ripping as it was just coming out of the sock.  For three days we sailed with no mainsail and finally, by moving bat cars, we were able to sail with a triple reefed main.  Then a week later, once again by moving bat cars, we were able to finish the last part of the trip with only a single reefed main.  We replaced the solenoid on Day 4 and only went without hot coffee for one day.  We cut up an old pair of Mike's pants of rip-stop nylon and turned them into mending seams for the spinnaker.  It took about 5 full days to find enough time and especially energy to glue the spinnaker back together but by then the wind was on our beam and we heading the final leg to the islands.

 

Days 20 and 21 we had no wind and chose to motor even though we didn't have enough fuel to motor the whole distance remaining, we figured the wind would eventually fill in and it did.  But by then we were too close to the islands for a day time finish and had to sit 34 miles off Hiva Oa waiting for daylight.  But of course even that was not easy as the wind really piped up and we were sitting across the huge swells being generated by the now 25 knot winds.  Sick of rolling (we catamarans aren't used to this) we started up the motors at 3am and started a very slow trek toward the island.

 

The trip, other than tiring, was really quite nice.  The various sunrises, and sunsets, the squalls dropping rain and wind, the various cloud patterns never let us get bored.  We ran out of eggs, fresh fruits and veggies about Day 10 so we ate out of the numerous canned goods we bought in Panama City for the next 13 days.  We were so occupied with hand steering that energy to fix stuff was limited and there was none available to try our hand at ocean fishing.  When we arrived in Hiva Oa, our friends on the boat Mainly gave us some of the their freshly caught tuna and boy was it good.

 

We've been here a week now and are fully rested and ready to continue on with this adventure.  The island is beautiful and pictures have shown up of this anchorage many times.  It truly is stunning with vertical green cliffs dropping directly into the sea.  The people are nice, not overly friendly.  The prices on everything are pretty darn high.  Diesel is $ 6 a gallon, but baguettes are $ 0.60 as they are subsidized by the French Government.