Well most of the third week of March consisted of sailing wing on wing while still heading west towards the Marquesas, with about 1000 miles to go. For the most part we just didn't have much wind, and what we did have was from dead astern, with an average of 6 to 8 knots . Try going 3000 miles at a speed of maybe 5.5 knots. If you want to practice building up your patience then this would of been a trip for you. The nice thing about this, is it made for calm seas, which is a real plus. And what beautiful sunsets we had.
We celebrated Dave's birthday on the 14th. Eve and I baked a chocolate cake with a few candles and sang happy birthday in English and German. Then there was St Patricks day, another cake with green icing.
The generator broke down several times again. Learned to bypass the relay. Good luck finding one of those on an island.
We have caught a few fish, Maui and Wahoo on fishing line. But we see little flying fish all day long skimming across the water and never catch them. Except for one night, I just got off my watch at midnight and climbed into bed. Just as I am falling asleep, I heard a crash against the overhead hatch. And then something hit my arm in the dark. I jumped up and turned the light on, and here is a 14 inch flying fish, which is big for a flying fish, jumpi ng all over the clean sheets. Now it's bleeding from hitting the window before it dropped on my arm, now it's jumping and flopping around, leaving fish slime, fish blood, and fish scales, before I could get up and find a towel to pick it up and throw it out the side hatch. Then I started thinking , should of kept it, it could of been dinner tomorrow.
So we finally arrive at Hiva Oa on Monday March 26 at 9 pm, with very little fuel. It was still light out, sunset at 9:20pm, most everyone is already here, so we got quite a nice greeting as we motored by the World ARC sailors, they were all waving and blowing horns, even the 3 Aussie guys on Glamorous Galah dingyed out to escort us into the anchorage. We have to set a bow and stern anchor here.
We were just settling down for a nice calm night of sleep, when Steve lifted his head to check the stern anchor, and yells WAVE, just as I open my eyes this wave crashes over the open hatch and I am drenched. It was just a freek wave. So The next morning we find ourselves in a beautiful anchorage with land on three sides, the mountain sides are so green, the cliffs are all green, you see no rocks, just palm trees and very thick greenery.
But there will be no swimming in this anchorage, the water is brown looking and they say there are many sharks here. All though we have not seen any.
The town is a 40 minute walk with a few stores and several markets. The stores remind me of the old 5 & 10 stores that have a little bit of everything but what you might need, But fun to browse.
So Tuesday afternoon there is a birthday celebration for Jochem who owns Chessie sail boat. Everyone is told to meet at the World ARC office to catch a ride with Alex who will drive us to his house up the hill, where the party will take place. Well I have to say up the hill was an under statement. The driveway only took 5 minutes to go up, but if you had your eyes open it took 5 years off your life. They warned me, I admit I am a chicken, they tell everyone to close their eyes the first time up, I kepted my eyes closed going up and going back down, but the guys in the vehicle made enough sounds and groans for me to keep my eyes shut tight.
The party was very enjoyable, the World ARC group are big party people. The house had a nice set up with a large bar , deck, and swimming pool. We had lots of very nice hors d' oeuvre rum punch , 3 huge chocolate cakes. Jochem and Jutta were looking great in their original authentic island costumes as we all sang Happy Birthday to Jochem. Several of us so called adults jumped in the pool with the kids, and for hours Sam, Sara, Catherine and Audrey had us trained to let them walk on our shoulders and try to make pyramids. We had so many laughs, as the kids fell off our shoulders .The pool water was a perfect temperature for night time. At times it rained hard and we all refused to get out of the pool.
Dave and Eve took an all day island tour in a 4 wheel drive, which took them high up in the mountains on narrow dirt roads close to the edge of the sides of the mountains in the rain and fog. They really enjoyed it.
Steve and I visited the Gauguin Museum. Paul Gauguin was a famous French Artist who lived here in the town of Atuona, on Hiva Oa Island.
The Museum had 4 large rooms filled with copies of his art and memorabilia. We found it to be very interesting, and a nice way to spend the afternoon.
So here we are in paradise, but we need to buckle down and go to work on the boat and file our taxes. Our dingy motor is not running right. The boat is filthy and needs scrubbing .
We are out of propane for cooking, and there is none to be bought until we arrive in Tahiti, which is 30 days from now. But we have at least 20 lbs. of bananas on board. We might be able to switch to butane but unable to find the fitting to convert. We were only able to buy 20 gallons of diesel fuel until we get to a bigger island. Our dingy is very low on gas, this island hasn't had a drop of gas to buy for the last 3 weeks.
That's life in paradise.
Kathy, Steve, Dave, Eve